Must Read: "Jesus Was an Episcopalian (and you can be one too)"

The Diocese of Michigan's own Rev. Chris Yaw is the author of this engaging, informative and inspiring book on the Episcopal Church, and what it has to offer the 21st century world. Billed as "A Newcomer's Guide to the Episcopal Church," I believe it has much to offer even the most entrenched "cradle" Episcopalian. For one thing, it does not start our story with Henry VIII and his infamous divorce! It begins with a profound vision of how ordinary people are working to make this world more like God's Kingdom, and how our Episcopal ethos is uniquely suited to this kind of work.

Henry VIII does turn up ... more than 100 pages in, after discussion of the current state of religion in American, the value Episcopalians place on using your MIND, the gift of welcome, the celebration of the eucharist, living an ethical life, the Bible ... and wait! There he is ... King Henry VIII, in the chapter on Roots, which really is a quick breeze through Christian history, with the English Reformation as just a bend in that great stream.

This is a wonderful, bright, informative book (Bishop Tutu loved it, too!) that is a good reminder of who we are and Whose we are. It would make a great gift for that family member of yours who doesn't quite get it how you ended up in the "Episcopalian" church. (And thanks, Chris, for reminding us that Episcopalian is a noun, and Episcopal is an adjective!) Or for your co-worker who wonders what you are doing over at that church all week.

But I'll leave you with Chris's vision of how God sees Episcopalians:
--God sees us passionately devoted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
--God sees us willing to fight poverty, disease and injustice.
--God sees us as thinkers.
--God sees us as accepting and open-minded.
--God sees us as reconcilers and forgivers.
--God sees us forming faithful and inclusive communities.
--God sees us as upholders of valuable traditions.
--God sees us devoted to the Eucharist.
--God sees us offering helpful missionary opportunities.
--God sees that we have good news to share.

+ Kit

Church Words -- Orthodox

After several recent discussions that involved the words "orthodox" or "orthodoxy" (used in the sense of "I'm right and you're wrong"), I started wondering a) what people mean when they use this word and b) what the word meant and might still mean.

Orthodoxy is becoming a word of indeterminate meaning, standing for all sorts of things, including fundamental evangelicalism, conservative Catholicism, and the Right Way to Be an Anglican. It seems to mean, as Humpty Dumpty said in "Alice in Wonderland," what the speaker wants it to mean.

So I went to The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology and found this definition: "The word 'orthodoxy' is ambiguous. It can mean 'right worship' (ortho means straight and doxa means praise) or 'right belief.' The Athanasian Creed affirms that, 'We worship one God in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity.' Orthodoxy is not a matter of purely intellectual assent to propositions, it involves giving glory to God. This emphasis on worship shows clearly that right belief, assent or opinion, correct dogma, was not understood in abstraction from practice." (p. 422)

In my mind, orthodoxy comes down to holding the basic tenets of faith ... One God in Trinity of Persons, God as creator of all that is, Christ as fully human and fully divine, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the single redemptive action that reconciles humanity to God, the gift of the Holy Spirit as the ongoing presence, guide and power of God in the world.

That is the God I praise and worship. All the rest, I think, is details, discussion and disputations.

+ Kit

Got a Church Word?

If you have a Church Word that you'd like defined, explored, enhanced, click comments and share your word. We'll give it a shot at definition ...

Church Words -- Eucharist

The Holy Eucharist is the official name of the worship service each Sunday. It is also known as Holy Communion, the Mass, or the Lord's Supper. But we use the ancient term Eucharist.

It comes from a Greek word meaning to "give thanks", and because it is a thanksgiving service, it reminds us over and over again that we can be grateful for God's gift to us of life, and God's gift to us of salvation in Jesus Christ, and God's gift to us of this sacrament so that we can be nourished by Christ, made one with Christ and with each other, and carry that thanksgiving and unity and Christ-identity with us into the world.

The World Council of Churches' document Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry is an ecumenical document that describes very broadly what Christians believe happens in these sacraments. Also the Catechism in the Book of Common Prayer describes our Episcopal understanding of the Eucharist.

Church Words -- Christus Rex

Christus Rex means Christ the King. It is the "church word" for the image of Jesus on our cross at All Saints. Rather than show a suffering and tortured Jesus on the cross, the Christus Rex shows Christ triumphant over sin and death through the crucifixion. Vested in the garments of the priest at the eucharist, the Christus Rex also symbolizes the sacrifice of Christ in the eucharist.

All Saints began in the Chapel of Christ the King, the Episcopal mission to the MSU campus. It met just up Abbot Road in what is now the Sigma Nu house. Although the name changed when the university mission gave birth to our parish church, the image of Christ the King, the Christus Rex, continued over the All Saints altar. And so it remains a reminder to us, not only of Christ's victory on the cross, but also of our church's origins in that first campus ministry.