THEOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK

One of the gifts of our Anglican and Episcopal Tradition is that we do not shy away from bringing our whole selves to understanding our faith. This includes bringing the fullness of our analytical toolbox and rational brain to bear on how we understand ourselves, the world, and the God who created us. It is a fundamental principle for Episcopalians that deepening our intellectual understanding of some aspect of our faith can only serve to increase our faith. Reason and intellect are not in contrast to our faith, they enhance it.

The data we can now easily access invites us to deepen our understanding of who we are as a Church and the people of God. It is important for us to start that journey to understanding with a framework that is consistent with the core of our faith. Despair, worry and frustration are not the core principles of our faith. Hope and possibility are. Hope and possibility need to be our frames as we look at the data. It could be tempting to choose hope and possibility because they are more joyful and more fun. But we do not choose them out of some Pollyana desire to ignore the realities in front of us. We choose them as our frames because fundamentally they are the heart of our faith. We are an Easter people. We believe that God is at work in the world bringing new life out of difficult circumstances. In fact, Good Friday and Easter tells us that God does the best work when the future seems bleak to us. We are also people of the Incarnation; we believe that God’s presence is made manifest in the world in unexpected times and unexpected places. So, that means God is present and at work in the here and now. The challenges before us are significant, and they are not insurmountable.

Yes, we are declining in membership and attendance, and that is not all bad news. Think about the context of those numbers. We may wish that the societal pre-eminence of Church were still true, but the data would tell us that it is not. Wider studies of faith in America tell us that increasing numbers of people are not affiliated with any religious tradition. What are the top two reasons for that? Questioning the doctrines and the stance of a tradition on social issues (see https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/08/why-americas-nones-dont-identify-with-a-religion/). This means we have a tremendous opportunity as The Episcopal Church. We are a place where your intellectual curiosity and your questions are welcome. We have core beliefs and doctrines (the Creeds, our Baptismal Covenant, our whole Book of Common Prayer, our Constitution and Canons, for instance)? And we welcome engagement with all of those. We welcome dialogue and questions. We want to help people understand. Of course, at the end of that dialogue some people may decide we are not the Church for them. It is likely that many more would stay because they felt heard, honored, and respected, because they discovered the richness and breadth of who we are and what we believe.

Additionally, our stance on social issues are likely more in line with the values of many of the “nones” than they or we might think. As our Presiding Bishop has so aptly summed up for us, “If it’s not about love, it’s not about God.” That is a core value for us and so many in our neighborhoods. Additionally, we are not a tradition that mandates particular viewpoints for those in the pew. We do not hesitate from speaking on social issues. See the work of our Office of Government Relations, for instance. Or type any hot button social issue into the digital archives of the Acts of General Convention. Our commitments to racial reconciliation, to equality, to addressing poverty and the myriad of factors that prevent people from realizing the fullness of life abundant that God desires for them, are evident. These commitments do not necessarily make headline news. Yet they are there, and hopefully they can inspire us to share the Good News of how The Episcopal Church is living out its call to be followers of Jesus.