Pastor's 2007 Easter Letter

Dear Members and Friends,

With Holy Week starting right on April 1st (Palm Sunday) this year, our next and always eagerly-awaited Chancel Window may not arrive much before Easter, and so we incorporate the present Letter into this March issue (And, a reminder: that the colorful Easter Offering envelopes will be available at the Church, or you can mail one in directly for inclusion in the Easter Sunday total).
     One observes that every major religious and comparable tradition has some central events which are truly at its core. Often they are occasions relatively less seen by the general public, and it's only those who are really present for them-the true adherents-who are closest to what that tradition is all about. One thinks of the central Mormon rites conducted only in its relatively few Temples (members only), or the Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah tickets-needed services at the synagogue, or the Muslims-only activities at Mecca, or the traditional Japanese shrines which do not admit foreigners. You have to be on the inside really to "get it".
     For Christians, Holy Week services are like that (though, of course, everyone is welcome). The Passion observances which are Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday (and Easter Eve!) are at the very heart of the Faith, offering a depth of understanding and connection that Palm Sunday ("Hosanna!")-and-Easter Sunday ("Alleluia!") alone don't (and aren't meant to) convey.
     Each year, the Christian Church presents the opportunity and issues the invitation. Unlike when many of us were growing up, when Sunday was Sunday and certain patterns were ingrained and assumed, in twenty-first century North America, the choices are endless, the time demands are pressing, and anything goes. As Jesus told His hearers during Holy Week, "This will be a time for you to bear testimony. Settle it therefore in your minds…" (Luke 21:13ff.). Christians have to decide up front to keep the Lord's Day (Sunday), and the central Days of the Church Year; otherwise, there's so much else to do.
     Experience suggests that the present Lenten season gives the perfect time-buffer for each of us to settle our minds now for Holy Week coming. (The schedule is listed in this issue with the Lessons.) The world over, believers will gather, and some will find (as someone here said to me a few Good Fridays ago) that they "get it" in a new way. The opportunity and the invitation stand, and our prayer is that you and yours may fulfill them with us.
     A blessed Holy Week and Easter.
     See you in Church.—W.S.A.

DURING LENT

The Forty Days of Lent is the traditional time of preparation for those planning to be baptized and/or to join the Church on Easter Morning (April 8 this year). Membership Applications are downstairs on the Literature Table, and the Pastor is happy to answer any questions. It is also a good time, therefore, to start inviting to worship any folks you know who may be looking for a church home (be it new or renewed). Let us know how we can help support those invitations.
     During Lent: We offer a special seasonal weekly Wednesday Vespers 6 p.m. gathering & discussion. Plan now to join us (and those among up preparing for Baptism and/or Membership). We read and discuss each week a section of the "Christian Faith for Our Time" booklets, available downstairs on the Literature Table. Written by Malden, Mass., Pastor Emeritus the Rev. Mr. Duke T. Gray to celebrate the Universalist Bicentennial in 1993, it's about Christianity in general (excellent for one yet learning about the Faith), and also Universalism in particular (recommended for folks of various background who are newer to the Church). Each of the seven sections is about a page-and-a-half.
     Available on the downstairs Literature Table (and at the rear of the Sanctuary following worship): the 2007 Partners in Prayer Lenten booklets, with a reflection & prayer for each day in the Season, starting with Ash Wednesday 2007 (21 February).

The Pastor's Study
No.134 (November 2006) — W.S.A.

On Tuesday 12 September 2006, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the Science Faculty of the University of Regensburg, Germany, where he had once been a Professor of Theology. This important lecture has been much reported and (even violently) reacted to and, I'm afraid, much less understood or even read. But some of us have both read it and discussed it. In the present case, we did so at a Rhode Island State Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission meeting, at our Wednesday morning Clergy Lectionary Group, and at a Unitarian Universalist Christian Clergy gathering. It is an important regular activity of those in our centuries-old New England tradition of the Learned Ministry (for which our oldest colleges were founded), and it's wonderful to have colleagues who take this tradition seriously.
     We have probably all heard by now about the Pope's quoting of Fourteenth Century Byzantine Emperor Manuel II's negative comment on Mohammed's legacy ("his command to spread by sword the faith he preached") as part of the latter's dialogue with a learned Persian (i.e., from what's now Iran). By this quotation, Benedict raised the question of the incompatibility with reason and with the nature of God of "spreading the faith through violence," and the question of holy war itself. That earlier historic exchange, not incidentally, came amidst the 1394-1402 siege of Christian Constantinople by Muslims who would later rename the city "Istanbul" (in what's now Turkey). By citing a statement which Benedict criticized as having "a startling brusqueness," he raised an issue which was very much present then—just as it is now.
     And, in doing this (and emphasizing it was a quote and not his personal expression), Benedict made clear that the content of the faith traditions involved—characterized at the time as the three "rules of life": the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Qur'an—can and must be discussed, and that the secularism and science-ism of the modern and "post-Christian" West is critically inadequate to the very real conflicts and challenges we face today. This is in contrast to a modern tendency we've often seen: that of enclosing a world religion such as Islam in a hermetically-sealed bubble and saying we just need to be nice and get along with it. One is reminded of a recent critique of such interfaith dialogue as the "mutual affirmation of meaningless pronouncements." Quite rightly, I think, the Pope is saying that there is an issue with theologically-condoned violence, about which Christians, Jews, and Muslims do teach differently, and which they must grapple with, and which they must discuss. And he declared that the "genuine dialogue of cultures and religions so urgently needed today" is "endangered by this aversion to the questions" of "the programme with which a theology grounded in Biblical faith enters into the debates of our time." One has only to read the actual lecture, and then the mainstream reporting about it, to see how distorted and uncomprehending that reporting is. It's become abundantly clear that media outlets such as the New York Times are clueless about such questions, perhaps with a willful and categorical hostility.
     But the People of God are not.
     It is also important to remember two points about the context of the lecture. First, that Benedict was speaking to the Science faculty, urging a "broadening our concept of reason", and showing that, in determining Truth, the Greek tradition of inquiry (read "reason") is compatible with the Biblical Faith of the Church. Second, that this Pope, a native German, is very concerned that the traditional European homeland of the Christian Church must not be ceded to secularism on one hand or to growing unassimilated Muslim populations on the other. Remember that his choice of name when he was elected Pope was Benedict, the patron saint of Europe.
     There are plenty of other issues addressed in this important lecture—including such as how a worldly [Greek] philosophy may have come to dominate and perhaps corrupt the Faith (as the Protestant Reformers once said); and how Nineteenth Century liberal theology's emphasis on morality over theology may have lead to the relativism and religious privatization of our own time. Those issues, too, are worth grappling with and discussing. It is just these kinds of discussions which the Church alone can undertake- and not as the obscure and irrelevant academicism much lampooned by secularists and anti-intellectuals—but, rather, precisely on behalf of a world which badly needs just such inquiry, discussion, and witness.
     It is something the People of God have always known & have always done.And it is a reminder of what a grace it is to be in the Body of Christ in such times.

P.S. I have extra copies of the Pope's lecture; tell me if you'd like one.

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The Pastor's Study
No.135 (December 2006) — W.S.A.

In this world of trends and countertrends, there's a modest boomlet among Christian Churches for all things Advent. As the People of God start to reclaim this distinctive and important Season (the four Sundays before 12/25), we start to realize its richness and utility. There's some wonderful music, lore, & observances which come with this first Season in the Church Year.
     For example, there's the lighting of the (4) Advent candles, and the unique liturgical color (blue, in part for Mary), and the Lessons in which Jesus is now surprisingly absent (with the rest of the cast, from John the Baptist to Joseph, Mary, and Elizabeth, taking center stage), and the distinctive prophetic voices we hear from the Old Testament (particularly Isaiah). And, there's the mild surprise of realizing that a "Christmas" wreath is actually an Advent symbol. And so on. As the late Duke Ellington might have put it, It's absolute Advent, baby.
     The more recent hymnals reflect the trend, including as they do up to a dozen or more Advent hymns and carols. (Our hymnal, from 1937, has three—not even one a week!—though there are others scattered elsewhere throughout.) But, probably the best-known and most popular of the bunch is "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" (our No. 100). And therein lies some more Advent lore.
     "Oh?" you ask? Well, yes, exactly.
     By about the Twelfth Century, the Western Church had developed some special prayer/responses for the final seven full days in Advent (that is, December 17th - 23rd), ones resonant with the Season's Messianic accents of a Promise of God redeemed in the Flesh, and of its First (and Second!) Coming. They took the form of antiphons (a pairing of a versicle and response, like the familiar "The Lord be with you; / "And with thy spirit"), which were likely sung each evening (particularly in monasteries) before and after chanting the Vesper Canticle (the Magnificat—the Song of Mary, Luke 1:46ff.)
     They were in the [Latin] vocative voice-a form of address and petition (such as "O Lord"; "O Absalom"; "O fair rose"; etc.)—and they were based on several Old Testament figures for and prophecies of the Messiah. Briefly, they are: "O Wisdom", Is. 11:12; "O Adonai [Lord] & Leader", Ex. 3, 19; "O Root of Jesse", Is. 11:10; "O Key of David", Is. 22:22; "O Morning Star & Dayspring", Num. 24:17; "O King & Desire of nations", Jer. 10:7; "O Emmanuel [God with us]", Is. 7:14.
     Each Antiphon asks God thus addressed to "Come and …." save us, free us, and so on, using Old Testament language. Looked at as a group, as well as heard and pondered one at a time, we have a deeper picture of the ways God is, was, and will be with and for His people. It's a perfect added layer to this Royal and Messianic Season: absolute Advent indeed. In 1851 the Anglican classical and liturgical scholar, the Rev. Dr. John Mason Neale, fashioned these seven "O Antiphons" into the verses of the Advent hymn we know so well. Until recently, most hymnals would only have three or four of them, starting with "O Come, Emmanuel." (Ours has numbers 7, 1, & 6.)
     After a meeting here last month when, unprompted, the Diaconate asked for a renewed focus on our Advent Worship as a Season with its own integrity (and not a premature amalgam of something else), I began reading about the seven "O"s, and the tradition which connects with our well-sung hymn. During the Season, we'll start and finish each Sunday service with these ancient and striking Advent distinctives.
     Hey, we gotta. It's, like, a trend, baby.
     See you in Church during Advent, and beyond.

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The Pastor's Study
No.133 (July 2006) — W.S.A.

It dawned again during our Wednesday Vespers of Pentecost Week how these under-appreciated Days, those just before all the unnamed Sundays that take us into November, really have a sense of culmination of all that has gone before, completing the Advent-Christmas-Easter-Ascension cycle and giving a sense in their wake of how the People of God are equipped for the living of our days.
The occasions in question are Pentecost (the giving of the promised-Holy Spirit to the Church, thus launching the Church), Trinity Sunday (the only Church Day devoted to a doctrine - which should tell us something), and Corpus Christi - the Thursday after Trinity (which gives thanks for the Institution of the Lord's Supper, in a calendar parallel to the pre-Easter Maundy Thursday).
     The progression suddenly clicked: the Holy Spirit enables the Christian vocations without which the early Jesus-people would just have been sitting around telling "remember-when" stories; the Trinity points to the Name and nature of God revealed to us, and into which we are baptized—a God who is a Communion of Persons—in a relationship to each other - and to us, created in God's image; Corpus Christi commemorates the Holy Communion of the Lord's Supper ("the Body of Christ") as the central rite, Presence and nurture for the People of God on their way through life.
     It's pretty neat, and it puts a nice cap on the Church Year as it shifts to "Ordinary Time" and its earthy color of green, even as all our schedules head in their various ways to summertime…Not bad at all. You just never know what'll hit when the chance to sing Vespers comes around.

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The Pastor's Study
No.132 (April 2006) — W.S.A.

When was the last time you heard read the conclusion of the final chapter of Saint Mark's Gospel (16:9-20)?
     Odds are, it was a very long while ago. You see, verses 9 through 20, added (as scholars agree) well after Mark finally wrote down his Gospel account (the earliest, about A.D. 70), aren't in the ecumenically-compiled Revised Common Lectionary which we, and most mainline churches in North America, use each Lord's Day to select the Old Testament, the Psalm (which responds to the OT), & the Epistle & Gospel Lessons read at morning worship. Most scholars think the original verses after the 16:1-8 passage that we do hear were lost. It's curious that one of the few Resurrection accounts we have available- indeed, an account officially and actually in the New Testament—is never (in the RCL) read by Christians in front of each other in the public worship of Christ's Church.
     It may be that the Lost Ending (if indeed Mark actually wrote one) points to the things which the first generation of Christians (who were there in A.D. 33) assumed that everybody in the Church knew and didn't need to have spelled out (kind of like Rhode Island's highway signs). But, eventually, by the time of the second or third generation of believers (who weren't there then), the Church realized that they could no longer rely on just common assumptions and oral tradition to pass on the Good News- and that it was necessary to write it all down, for the sake of the generations to come. Verses 9-20 show signs of compilation from some of the same sources used by the other three Gospel writers (and by Saint Paul in I Corinthians 15). The Church would soon put such writings into the official (canonical) form we call the books (Gospels, Epistles, etc.) of the new "Covenant"—or "the New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (KJV)—which the Church added to the ("Old Testament") Scriptures retained and (still) mutually acknowledged by their fellow first-century Jews.
     It has always been important to state where we (i.e., the Church) can find this kind of trustworthy authority on such major tenets of the Faith as Christ's Resurrection, or God's revelation to, & salvation of, humanity- as we do together each Sunday in the first Article of the Winchester Profession-- and it is one of the more reassuring parts of received Church tradition from the time of the Apostles and Evangelists that we can do so.
     …Oh—and we did read Mark's 16:9-20 Resurrection account during Easter Week, at Wednesday Vespers. If you missed it, well, let's just report that it was a real corker.
     The Lord is risen indeed! A joyous Eastertide to all.

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The Pastor's Study
No.131 (February 2006) — W.S.A.

The Epiphany-and-after Gospel lessons (from Mark) which saw us through January and move towards the Transfiguration (26 February this year) and thence into Lent, contain a series of similar, yet distinct, accounts of Jesus moving around Galilee, preaching, healing diseases, and casting out demons. Our midweek Bible Study gatherings have afforded many insights as to how we think - and have thought - about such things as illness and uncleanness (or darkness) of spirit.
     For example, in a modern age where we have seemingly fixed diseases such as smallpox, illness may be something temporarily broken which can be repaired. In other words, we expect that medical science can make things perfect (as with manufacturer's warrantee) whether it be broken legs or clogged aortas. Sometimes Jesus spoke of someone being "made whole" again.
     Or, illness may be an adversary which has to be confronted. We commonly speak of people "battling" cancer. In one of Luke's accounts (Ch. 4) of what Mark (Ch. 1) also reports, Jesus stands over the sick person and rebukes the disease.
     In other cases, perhaps with more low-level or chronic maladies, our weariness and stress may have as much to do with that January cold as may the condition of our nasal passages. Jesus sometimes took the person by the hand (a sign of blessing, as in the laying on of hands) and lifted him up. We remember musician Tommy Dorsey's 1932 hymn "Precious Lord, take my hand," which picks up on that passage.
     Some diseases can result from the choices we make, reminding us of the view that some conditions are our fault—compounding physical discomfort with a feeling of guilt. Jesus sometimes offers forgiveness with healing, and a word to go and "sin no more."
     Less common today, but of long lineage, is looking at illness as a time of divine edification (as, for example, our local 17th century forbearers did), or perhaps as "Fatherly correction" as in the Visitation of the Sick prayers in our 1865 prayerbook. One does hear of Christians whose confinement does bear fruits of the spirit. I've seen how the enforced rest of a hospital stay can sometimes lead to reflection on one's values and lifestyle. (If there's one thing one has at such times, it's plenty - perhaps too much - of time to think.)
     All this contrasts with Jesus' powerful confrontation with unclean spirits. In such cases, it is not pretty. Folks with such darkness in them disrupt worship (as in Mark 1:23-26), hone right in on the presence of Christ (which they can't ignore), and, interestingly, feel threatened by that Power and confess that Jesus is the Holy One of God (with a clarity few other disciples in the Bible manage). As Mark says in another case (1:34), Jesus forbad such to speak (there was no need for what our modern culture calls "dialogue")—"because they knew him." We have seen instances where folks beset by negativity and darkness of soul instinctively attack or are hostile to signs of life, joy, and healthy behavior. John 3:19 says "men loved darkness rather than light" - a dynamic I think most of us have encountered somewhere along the way.
     At the center of all these variations in the human condition—and their resolution—is, of course Jesus Christ, who is the Light of the world. Without telling us exactly what Jesus was preaching, Mark shows us how healing and overcoming demons result from the presence of Christ. This is an accessible here-and-now part of the Christian life, and a fitting conclusion to an Epiphany Season whose themes are various manifestations of who Christ is, for all people.
And so, thus focused, we move toward Lent and its spiritual opportunities as we participate in and celebrate the passion—and victory—of the One who overcame everything in and around us that would separate us from God. For, as Jesus also said (Jn.10:10): "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

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The Pastor's Study
No.130 (November 2005) — W.S.A.

University of Virginia Professor Robert Louis Wilkens, in his most helpful article, "The Church's Way of Speaking" (First Things, No. 155), tells the story of how Saint Augustine, when preparing for his baptism, was told by his mentor, Saint Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan (whose day is December 7th, right after Saint Nicholas), to read the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah is, of course, the Old Testament writer who is our steady companion in the seasonal Lessons each Advent and Christmas. Augustine, who had been a teacher of rhetoric, and was formed by such classical writers as Virgil and Plotinus, found Isaiah perplexing from the get-go, and for a time had to lay it aside until he "had more practice in the Lord's style of language."
     It is a wonderful reminder, particularly at this time of year, of how distinct is the Church's way of speaking about (and to) the world. The People of God well know the often subtle challenges involved in keeping the Seasons of Preparation and Incarnation, when the culture around us claims to be doing so as well - but is often not doing so at all, particularly as regards the birth of Jesus Christ and the Word becoming Flesh and dwelling among us. It is one reason why the task of the Christian Church is specifically not to blend in, go along, and in the shallow sense be "relevant." It has rather its own Word to speak.
     As Professor Wilken further adds: "The 'faith' is not simply a set of doctrinal propositions, creedal affirmations, and moral codes. It is a world of discourse that comes to us in language of a particular sort. . . .Language defines who we are; it molds how a people think, how they see the world, how they respond to persons and events, even how they feel. . . .If we forget how to speak our language, we lose something of ourselves."
     Thus are the People of God who are the Body of Christ renewed and deepened by hearing and repeating the Lessons, prayers, Professions, and music which distinguish our regular weekly and daily worship—never more so than in the familiar and beloved passages and carols of Advent and Christmastide. There is something unique and life-giving about singing this music and in unison professing this Faith with other Christians. It is far more than the absentminded repetition of the same old stuff which Christian worship is caricatured by some to be. Professor Wilken quotes the Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz: "What is pronounced strengthens itself. What is not pronounced tends to non-existence."
     This is one reason why Christianity is most emphatically not an implicit faith, where we can assume "it's all there," in the woodwork of inherited habits, without bothering to talk about it much. Examples abound of how those who forgot their history and tradition are condemned to delete it. One realizes in life that the things which supposedly go without saying can usually stand repeating once in awhile. Thus does the Church and its people strengthen itself.
     And thus does the Church and its people gain their practice in the Lord's style of language, most particularly for us in the Word of God to humanity which is God With Us ("Emmanuel"): Jesus Christ.
     A blessed procession of these Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany Seasons to all. See you in Church.

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The Pastor's Study
No.125 (May 2004) — W.S.A.

Ascensiontide is important. The Church in general has always known this about the ten days beginning with Ascension Day (the Thursday which concludes forty-day Eastertide). These bring us to the Fiftieth Day after Easter Day, Pentecost. This year Ascension is Thursday, May 20th.
     But, among most Protestants over the past three centuries or so, this time to celebrate and ponder the significance of the Risen Lord's Ascension into Heaven, to the Right Hand of the Father (whence He first came before taking on human form)—has received less attention than one would otherwise have expected.
     Nineteenth century Universalists were thus ahead of their time in renewing Ascension observance, particularly in the prayerbooks which our very congregation (perhaps more than any other) had such a significant role in producing for the national denomination. They (and we) emphasize the importance of the humanity which we share with the Divine Jesus being taken up into Heaven, into what St. John the Divine describes in the Revelation lesson we heard recently (21:1-6) as "the new Jerusalem." Both are reflected in the windows and carvings in our Sanctuary. Indeed, the Ascension itself is the central window over the Altar.
     One particularly sees this in the prayers, which Universalists harvested from the Ecumenical and especially English-speaking Great Tradition of the Church in the West. For example, in our first Book of Prayer (1865), the Collect for Ascension Day is:

Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy best-beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell in thy glorious presence, world without end. Amen.

Our forbears did a bit more than just harvest the Tradition. Note the words I've italicized. They added that entire phrase to the traditional collect, to make clear the Gospel assurance of all people being united, at last, to God through Jesus Christ.
     And, just in case any of the faithful didn't get in to worship that Thursday, note the italicized words in their collect for that (Ascensiontide) Sunday:

O God, the King of glory, who hast exalted thy Son Jesus Christ with great triumph into thy kingdom in heaven; we beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thy Holy Spirit to comfort us; and exalt us into the same place whither he has gone before, even into thy own blessed and glorious presence, there to dwell in fulness of joy forever and ever. Amen.

They were making it still clearer that, since the Son ascended to the Father -- therefore, we're going too. We are all to be restored, as our Profession states, as "the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness." Our proper preface for Ascension Day Communion (p.42) says as much, adding "thither we might also ascend…" Ascension is indeed important.
     It has been a blessing to have this tradition as a place from which to observe the gradual but tangible reclamation of this Day during the past twenty years or so among other mainline Protestants. Perhaps we here may be forgiven for thinking (since 1865): "we were hoping you'd notice."
     A joyous Ascensiontide to all.

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The Pastor's Study
No.123 (January & February 2004) — W.S.A.

The Epiphany Season, stretching from the Day itself (January 6) through Presentation Day (February 2, the 40th day after Christmas Day), traditionally has three accents which serve as signs:

• the Star from the East guiding the Magi to the Manger at Bethlehem manifesting Christ to the Gentiles;
• the Holy Spirit descending like a dove on Jesus when he's baptized by John in the Jordan River manifesting Christ to John's followers; and
• Jesus' first public miracle, turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana of Galilee manifesting Christ to His newly-called disciples.

All three are reflected in the Epiphanytide lessons assigned for these Sundays, particularly in Year C, our current cycle.
But it is the latter which probably gets the least attention, perhaps because it is only in John's Gospel (2:1-11), and we hear it only every third year improbably, in Year C, where the Gospel lessons otherwise follow Luke. And yet it may be of the most daily consequence to most Christians, because it is traditionally cited (right after the "Dearly beloved") as one of the warrants which enable a Christian marriage.
     Recall what the "Solemnization of Matrimony" service says, dating in English from the 16th centry Book of Common Prayer, and quoted here in the slightly modified form in our Universalist Book of Prayer:

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in thesight of God, and in the face of this company, to join together this Man and this Woman in holy matrimony; which is an honorable estate, instituted of God, adorned and sanctioned by Christ's presence at the marriage of Cana of Galilee, and set forth and commended in the
Christian Scripture as innocent and honorable to all who engage in it not unadvisedly or lightly, but reverently, discreetly, and soberly, with purity of heart, and in the fear of God."

In this very succinct and graceful prose, it is shown why marriage is a specifically authorized thing for Christians to engage in and for the Church to bless. After all, marriage is not limited to Christians, and had been going on long before Jesus' time. The Church needed to (and did) say how it understood this, and in the process put its own context (and modifications) on what we'd now call Christian Marriage. What we see in centuries-old texts such as that just quoted is a distillation of much theological writing and work: Not a word is wasted, and yet it is a complete statement. (This is notably true for the vows as well as couples determined to "write their own" soon discover.)
     Holy matrimony is:

1) "an honorable estate," because it is.

2) "instituted of God" [see Adam & Eve in Genesis 2:23-24, noting the organic nature of man and woman to it].

Thus far we have an ordinance or institution from the Creation, for all of the humanity which was made in God's image [Gen. 1:26], cited in the Old Testament, but hardly particular to Christians nor, at that point, to Jews, either.
Then come two specifically Christian authorities: Marriage is:

3) adorned and sanctioned by Christ's presence at the marriage of Cana at Galilee" [John 2:1-11] there's our Epiphany accent and

4) "set forth and commended in the Christian scriptures as innocent and honorable…".

Jesus approvingly quotes Genesis 2, for example [Mt. 19:4-6; Mk. 10:6-8], as does Saint Paul [Eph. 5:31]. Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles, also commends the institution as honorable [Heb. 13:4], and uses the Genesis 2 figure to illustrate the Church as being the Bride of Christ [Eph. 5:32]. Saint John the Divine also witnesses to this latter figure, describing the marriage feast of conquering and triumphant Lamb [Rev. 19:1-9].
     Marriage was not instituted by Christ (as were, for example, Baptism and Holy Communion) but sanctioned (as something instituted of God, for male and female, from the beginning) and adorned (Jesus, er, did bring the wine). Christians therefore affirm this estate as part of what God has provided for their earthly lives, while recognizing it as not being only provided, on those Divine conditions, for the Church alone (as we would say about Baptism and Holy Communion), but rather as a gift and ordering for all humanity.
     When these warrants drop out of an understanding of marriage, the anchoring of the Body of Christ in the Scripture and Tradition of the Church becomes impoverished, and the People of God find themselves less well-equipped than they might otherwise be for the challenges of the modern age. It is a helpful opportunity in this Epiphanytide, as we hear and reflect on that first public miracle (and third Manifestation) at Cana, to renew ourselves in all that the Lord has given to His people in this world for the living of our days, and for the ordering of humanity's wider life together.

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The Pastor's Study
No.121 (September 2003) — W.S.A.

Two hundred years ago this month (2003), on the 22nd of September, at the still-extant Universalist Church in Winchester (Cheshire County), southwestern New Hampshire, the New England General Convention did something that seemed quite impossible a year before: they made a formal, public, profession of belief. "The Winchester Profession" would become the bedrock statement of Universalist Christianity, one which has been part of our Sunday worship here for decades. It's found on the last page of our Book of Prayer, and in our Order of Service. (The three-Article text is printed below.)
     It wasn't supposed to happen. The first generation of Universalists came from a variety of Christian backgrounds (e.g., Congregational, Baptist, Methodist), united around a witness that in Jesus Christ God gave humanity a Savior for all people (not just for some): Universal Salvation. Their concern for all the corporate and societal implications of this proclamation flew in the face of an increasingly individualist ("is my soul saved?") and therefore moralistic ("Does my life show that I'm saved?") tendency in late-18th century New England religious culture. Yet, despite that sense of "the whole family of mankind" (Article II), these folks were themselves rather difficult to organize. As one observer put it, it was like herding cats. The details of just how universal salvation was effected and understood were far from agreed upon.
     Perhaps because of this, many fledgling cats in the Univeralist Church realized that such a state of affairs wouldn't keep a church community going for long, especially given the doctrinal opposition Universalists often faced. At the 1802 General Convention at the Stafford, Vt., church, they tried and failed (see the summer 1997 Chancel Window for the inscription on the outside that church.) There were many objections, some to particulars and some to the very idea. The result was inevitable: a Committee was appointed (which of course then failed to meet before the 1803 gathering).
     But the Rev. Walter Ferris of Charlotte, Vermont, a Committee Member, did get up a text saying less about the Faith than he'd have preferred, but all that he thought might pass. It did, unanimously, even with provision that it never be amended in the future. It has been added to, but never changed, replaced, nor revoked. Its ballast is with us still.
Two technical, but important, points are in order. First: we need to have our meanings clear. The words often used interchangeably to describe such texts aren't all the same. A creed, for example, (Latin "trust") is a church declaration intended to transmit the Apostolic Faith one in which believers may trust. A confession (Latin "acknowledge") is a declaration of what is believed by a particular group, i.e., of how they understand the same Faith and creed. Articles of Religion (Latin "join") are a basis of union between separated Christians. An affirmation (Latin "fixed") declares what is true (whether one agrees or not!). A profession (Latin "declare publicly") is a public confession by those whose beliefs may be misrepresented or attacked as deviating from the Faith once handed to the Apostles. This latter is what came to us from Winchester not a repudiation of the Apostolic Gospel but a clarification of and claim on it. That's why our prayerbooks and hymnals can (and do) also include ecumenical texts such as the Apostles' Creed.
Second: the standing of such a text tends to be established over time. It is a matter of reception by the people of God as it sinks in and resonates over time. The Nicean Creed, for example, wasn't immediately made part of the Eucharist after the Council adjourned, A.D. 325 (and 381). Neither, for that matter, was the Lord's Prayer.
     So it was with Winchester. The small miracle which was its passage (a grace of the Holy Spirit's presence, perhaps) came to be appreciated in more congregations as its role in bedrock identity became more established. Universalist historian the Rev. Elmo Robinson writes of the power of saying the Profession corporately all though his life, in Sunday school and as an adult in worship. Periodic efforts to revise or replace the Profession made clear its importance and its gracious expression. When what we'd now see as a de-christianizing such attempt was made at the 1935 General Convention in Washington, the new statement could not pass until Winchester (and its 1899 "Five Principles" summary) were reaffirmed.
     It has been a gift of God that we've had this month's opportunity again to realize what we have, and how it has helped anchor us and keep the church centered in Christ's Gospel. As St. Paul exhorts in the Opening Sentences we've used this month from I Timothy 6:12: "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses."

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The Pastor's Study
No.120 (June 2003) — W.S.A.

One of the issues that particularly comes to mind as Trinity Sunday approaches (6/15/03 this year) is that of gender, but not that of sex.
     As Ricky Ricardo said many times to Lucy: Let me 'splain.
     The first of the two terms is commonly used instead of the second, an error with theological consequences. "Gender", you see, is not about having X- or Y- chromosomes; it's not about being male or female. Gender is a grammatical term having to do with the use, form, and structure of a given language. For example, because the gender of the word for "pen" in French ("le stylo") is masculine doesn't mean the pen is a boy or male. It's the way the grammar works. The same point, of course, applies to English.
     Conversely, "sex" does refer to male and female beings. Although the word has acquired other meanings and usages in a modern culture, it still is the correct term, as seen on census and other forms, for "M" or "F".
     This is helpful (and sometimes crucial) when we consider the Triune Name of God, whether in the original Greek (Mt. 28:19, et al.), or in English. God is revealed to us, and attested to in Scripture, as a communion of persons. We particularly see this in the first chapters both of Genesis and of John. The names of those persons who are the one God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit express (among other aspects) the nature of each and the relationship between and among them. The grammatical conventions of English call for "He" in reference to those persons, just as the names of Father and Son express a particular kind of relationship and (non-temporal) generation.
     These terms do not indicate sex as such. God is neither male or female, and the first person of the Trinity is not to be conflated nor confused with human fathers. This latter can happen when we mistake gender for sex. They aren't the same. It's one reason why the one Sunday the People of God probably should not sring hymns like "This is my Father's world" is on Fathers' Day (this year, also 6/15). It compounds the confusion. Fathers' Day (in which your columnist now takes a renewed interest) is about human fathers, and gives no reason for special emphasis on the Divine Father (who isn't male neither has human children; the Son was the Son before He became flesh). They aren't directly related in that oft-employed way.
     The relatively-rare occurrence of both occasions, scared and secular, coming on the same Sunday give a helpful reminder of the importance of careful language and thought as we ponder the God whose nature is love, who being Himself in relation to persons, naturally seeks to create, and then to redeem and restore, other (human) persons. It's not an accident that this doctrine is central to a proclamation of Universal Salvation. After all, it reminds us of the hope we have for all humanity and even for us poor Dads.

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The Pastor's Study
No.122 (December 2003) — W.S.A.

It has become a commonplace among Christians concerned at the cultural secularization of Christmas that Santa Claus' coming down chimneys is not to be confused with the Second Person of the Trinity becoming Incarnate as Jesus Christ. (There are even calendar-ardent pastors who have been known to express such views). Yet, it is also worthwhile to remember that Old Saint Nick was an actual person, one of the most venerated Saints of the Church, who came to North American attention largely as a Dutch treat.
     Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor, in the Fourth Century, has many traditions and legends associated with him, but virtually no established biographical fact other than his ecclesiastical post. He was said to have brought three bags of gold overnight (not via chimney) as dowry to rescue three children from prostitution. The three balls/bags became the symbol of pawnbrokers. He was also said to have saved some sailors in distress off the Lycian coast near Turkey. A lucrative, perfume-y myrrh-like substance came from Bari, Italy, whence his relics were removed by Italian merchants in 1087. Hence, Saint Nicholas became the patron saint of children, pawnbrokers, sailors, perfumiers, and [best of all] merchants. He was also reputed to have attended the Council of Nicea in 325, where the definitive Ecumenical Creed of the Church's Trinitarian Faith was worked out. Stories and symbols of St. Nicholas often feature the number three.
     His feast day in the Church calendar is December 6, of which we take due note every year on the preceeding [Advent] Sunday, as a reminder to situate our fellow-Christian where he belongs in Christian tradition. So whence the figure and name we know today? That red suit is a caricature of a Bishop's vestments. The many English churches dedicated to St. Nicholas evince the lore available to Clement Moore and his " 'Twas the Night Before" poem. And the Dutch settlers to colonial North America brought with them the European custom of leaving presents for children on St. Nicholas Eve, December 5. (There was a wire story last year in the Providence Journal about that time referencing this continuing practice in France, for example). And what about "Santa"? It's a short leap from St. Nicholas' name in Dutch, Sinta Klaas.
     As for the opening comment, on Christmas Eve, St. Nick would have been in his Cathedral at Myra, with fellow-believers, gathered around the Lord's Altar, proclaiming and giving thanks for the advent and Incarnation of the Word made Flesh, Jesus Christ. This year, as always, about three weeks after St. Nicholas Day, we are all invited into our Sanctuary (at 6 p.m.) to do the same. See you in church.

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