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Moving the frontiers

Thursday, 7 March 2013

I am still reeling from the recent Faith in Conflict (FiC) conference at Coventry Cathedral. The event had been a dream of mine for years, ever since the Church of Scotland hosted a gathering on the same theme, which a friend attended. The reality was far greater than the anticipation.
The conference aimed to look at what causes conflict in the church, and whether it is necessarily destructive. More than 200 delegates from Christian churches across England discussed fresh ways to view conflict, and different options for intervention.
By nature I am a conflict avoider; I like to keep my head down and get on with the job. So I have always felt that church disagreement was at best a distraction, and often worse.
That is true up to a point, but mainly because we disagree so unhealthily. In a series of brilliant talks over the three-day conference, Sam Wells and Jo Bailey-Wells set conflict in a completely new light. Conflict, they argued, is something that springs from our being created different. The problem is that we then respond to difference with aggression and fear. When that happens in the church, it is utterly repellent to people who are not Christians. Sam and Jo showed how, in the grace of God, conflict can be transformed. (You can listen to and read their talks here.)
So that was really good; thoughtful talks, brilliantly delivered. But the cream on the cake was seeing it all in action. For example, the Reverend Tory Baucum and Bishop Shannon Johnston – the Episcopal Church Bishop of Virginia – were interviewed together about their experience of being in the most profound dispute over enormously important issues. The disputes led to years of legal action, yet they found a way to meet and talk together – and pray together. There was no compromise: Tory was forthright in his disagreement with Bishop Shannon and gave no ground, nor vice versa. But there was a clear love for each other which spoke powerfully. It was transformed conflict.
The second example was from Jo herself, and her experience of the Anglican House of Studies at Duke. It’s in her talk, and to me it was as powerful as the dialogue. It said that our differences are both great and important: but the greater call is to a world that does not know Christ. And while we strive and struggle, rightly, for holiness and correct conduct in the church, we must do so in a way which shows that His love, spread through us, is a reality.
The journey of transforming conflict is a long and hard one (by the way that is how I understand reconciliation in the church: not agreement, but conflict transformed from being destructive). It is also always a necessary one – and essential if our preaching of the good news of Jesus is to have any credibility. It does not mean compromise – that was clear in what we heard at Coventry – but it does mean allowing the Spirit of God to warm our hearts towards those whom we too easily classify as to be hated.
© Justin Welby 2013

Coventry Conference - A View from England

 

Today I received this post from a friend who attended some of the conference at Coventry.  I thought it would encourage you, dear reader.   http://salvationssongs.blogspot.com/

Coventry in Retrospect - A Personal Reflection

 

On Sunday during the Rector's Forum Q/A, I summarized what was most significant about this conference for Truro, for Anglicanism and for me personally.

1) Truro's public stand for the irreplaceable function of marriage in the economy of grace (the Bible "begins and ends with a wedding in a garden") and as a basic building block of society (it is a "load bearing wall"), has been vindicated and globally acknowledged by the platform given us by the new Archbishop of Canterbury.  The most important parts of the conference were not the plenary sessions but the workshops and various side conversations that occurred throughout the conference.  Our public witness and the active participation of five lay leaders, sparked many such conversations.  For example, several Church of England Bishops pulled me aside to discuss the merits of ACNA's recognition by the C of E as well as questions on how to manage their own conflicts around the issue of human sexuality (which is really a conflict about anthropology).  A winsome orthodox witness of North American Anglicanism has been memorialized.

2) The reason we were invited to have such a role at Coventry is because +Justin Welby, the then new Bishop of Durham had already heard our story last May at HTB and was deeply affected by Truro's marriage of doctrinal and relational orthodoxy.  He wanted the Church of England to witness what he witnessed.  I am humbled that he is holding our example up as a model for his archiepiscopacy.  The doctrinal conflict - neither in Virginia nor the Communion - has been resolved but our ability to relate to each other without enmity while still in conflict is the kind of model ++Welby promotes as a pathway toward reconciliation. This hard won space is not an end in itself, but creates a place where the doctrinal and relational wounds of the Church can be healed.   I am grateful that Archbishop Welby holds up Truro's relation to  the Episcopal diocese of Virginia as a model for the rest of the Anglican Communion.

3) We have taken a number of risks the past several years.  We have paid a high price (none more than Elizabeth and my daughters).  We walked into a cataract of litigious rage and have watched the Holy Spirit transform it into an environment of affection and respect - even for former adversaries.  We have seen 20 years of long-term, entrenched, systemic decline gradually turn into a steady stream of pre-Christian seekers coming to faith in Jesus.  And, without intending to, we have have pioneered a model for engagement with an increasingly secularized American society that is already becoming a model for other orthodox Christians who want to see "all sorts and conditions" of people loved and redeemed by Jesus Christ in the fellowship of their churches. What is that model?  Quite simply, it is the rediscovery of Trinitarian love in the love of husband and wife, and that God heals, restores and upholds Creation through it.  Salvation is a nuptial reality and marriage is its archetypal sign, and the wellspring of its vitality.  Though we remain vociferously committed to God's "No" against all sexual deviance, we put our emphasis on God's "Yes."  We think this is a pastorally wise and missionally prudent course to pursue.

There is more to be learned about this model in the upcoming conference that we helped plan, sponsor and promote : http://www.missioalliance.org/ )



I am so grateful to you Truro for walking in obedience with me.

Your brother in Christ,
Tory+

Truro in Coventry - the Habits of Conflict Resilience

Editor's Note:  These notes are a late contribution of one member of the Truro team.  Full audio of these remarks can be found on the Faith in Conflict website.

During the Wednesday morning plenary session, "The Habits of Conflict Resilience," we had the privilege of hearing Old Testament scholar,  the Rev. Dr. Jo Bailey Wells, reflect about the challenges of traveling the hard road of conflict to a place of hope and God's shalom.

Jo asked us to imagine how it must have been for God's chosen people to find themselves exiled and held captive in Babylon.  A long-awaited message arrives from the prophet Jeremiah, a captive himself  in Jerusalem, with word that the Israelites are "to settle down in Babylon; make yourselves content. You will live and die in that place. So seek the welfare of the Babylonians, pray for them because your welfare is linked inextricably with theirs. "

There were good reasons then, just as there are today...even good religious reasons...for both reconciliation and hatred. She suggested that Scripture offers no final resolutions to this dilemma and that both extremes are real and valid.

So, how do we live well in this tension? Jo proposed three observations:

1. That conflict is normal and it is to be expected.

2. That conflict is not definitive and what happens on earth does not ultimately reshape anything.

3. That there are many protagonists but no umpires. We all have to unlearn our feigned innocence and accept that we are, each of us in our own way, protagonists ourselves.

She ended by suggesting that lament, sacrifice and hope become the process by which we attain highly effective habits for conflict resilience.

Lament describes our fierce conversations with God where "nettles are truly grasped, " and lead us to ask the question of ourselves, "How much are you willing to sacrifice?"  Our sacrifice then becomes a sign of hope as we share in the sacred, prophetic words spoken by both Jeremiah and by Christ himself:  "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

Jo ended the session with the following insight: "This is what a ‘future of hope’ looks like in God's own white-hot imagination: people praying without ceasing for their enemies, appealing to God for the godless, putting all their hope in God's ability to craft shalom, well-being, peace, true prosperity out of our own misery, suffering, and profound spiritual poverty.  Fulfilling the call to Abraham, to share God's blessing with the world - knowing that it is not in limited supply."

Much of the Jeremiah 29 material was inspired by and borrowed from an unpublished sermon by Ellen Davis. For other, published, sermon material of hers, see Getting Involved with God (Cowley: 2001) and Wondrous Depth: Preaching the Old Testament (Westminster/John Knox: 2005).

Truro in Coventry - The Baucum-Johnston Interview

Get the whole story here.

Truro In Coventry - Relational Orthodoxy and An Unexpected Visitor

This evening Tory and Bishop Shannon Johnson jointly addressed the Faith in Conflict conference.  A audio recording of the session should be available on-line tomorrow.

This evening's interview was in an informal style by Bill Marsh, an attorney specializing in conflict mediation in wide variety of settings including commercial, ethnic, religious and political situations.  The best way to charactertize the exchange is that it was one of truth and charity.  Neither Tory nor Bishop Shannon retreated from their views on the issues that led to the split between the departing congregations and Diocese of Virginia but both spoke with respect and affection for the each other.  Tory called this "relational orthodoxy" in which we seek to express the truth while remembering and honoring the imago dei (image of God) that resides in the person to whom we are speaking.

Bill Marsh, Rev. Tory Baucum, Bishop Shannon Johnston

 

We were suprised at the end of the discussion by the appearance of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, the Very Reverend Justin Welby. 

 

 

 

Truro in Coventry - The Expasperating Patience of God

You can listen to the entire talk of the Rev. Sam D. Wells via the link in the previous post. It is highly recommended. A couple comments worth highlighting.

• Rev. Wells retold a classic Cold War joke about a train carrying the three major leaders of the Soviet Union. The train stops for unknown reason. Lenin goes to the engine car to "educate" the engineer into resuming the trip. Nothing happens. Stalin goes to the engine car and shoots the engineer. Nothing happens. Brezhnev pulls down all the shades and just pretends the train is moving.
• In these three responses we see an illustration for how the church responds to conflict: education, force and denial. We try to educate our way out of conflict and nothing happens. We try to coerce and conflict deepens. Many times we simply deny that conflict exists and it goes subterranean to cause even worse problems.
• We have in our minds that conflict is wasteful and that it interferes with the "real" work of the church. But what if conflict and reconciliation IS the work of the church? Our turning away from the conflicts within the life of the church is an effort to impose our agenda on God and hope that he goes along with us.
• We tend to operate with a false premise: that there is only two choices when we find ourself in conflict with other Christians. Either the person we are in conflict with is "incredibly stupid" or they are being unfaithful. If, then, we eliminate stupidity and only engage with the faithful we will never encounter conflict.
• We need to accept that the passion and resurrection of Christ is not a "stepping stone" to something else God is trying to do. The Incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus are not a "device" but something that was written into the DNA of creation to bring reconciliation between God and humanity. There is nothing "behind" the Cross; the Cross is "the thing" itself.

Again, an extraordinary talk and well worth the investment of 45 minutes.