A Speech to Fort Worth Via Media

On: March 29, 2004
By: Barbi Click

Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, whose Son prayed that we all might be one: Deliver us from arrogance and prejudice, and give us wisdom and forbearance, that, following your servant Charles Henry Brent, we may be united in one family with all who confess the Name of thy Son Jesus Christ: who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (27 March 1929)

In a letter to those gathered in Atlanta, our Presiding Bishop, Frank Griswold greeted us in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ as we sought to make common ground in the service of God’s mission – “to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” And that truly was our mission. We met to find a common ground, knowing from the beginning that the common ground was indeed in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. And of course we found it immediately.

I have to honestly tell you that I left DFW with some hesitancy…while I did not feel hopeless by any means I definitely felt discouraged about many things and I did not truly see how meeting 600+ miles away from home was going to help anything.

I was so very wrong.

We stand before you tonight, filled with a profound sense of belonging. In Atlanta, gathered together with others much like ourselves, we prayed and praised and talked and cried and celebrated our common ground. We did not discuss issues that were divisive. We did not discuss our differing opinions. We spoke together and planned for those things we felt were important to our well-being as Episcopalians in The Episcopal Church. Namely, we spoke of unity and love that abounds when striving to be one in the body of Christ.

Bishop J. Neil Alexander celebrated the Eucharist with us at our closing mass on Saturday. In his sermon, he spoke of Charles Henry Brent, a missionary bishop of the early nineteen hundreds.

Bishop Brent was well known for two things – his belief that it is our Christian duty to aid all those in need of help and his belief that absenting oneself from the table was one of the worst things that we as Christians can do. He believed that we all must work for the unity of the Church – at all risks…And it is risky here, isn’t it?

Many of us here have been told that if we do not claim the same views, as does our bishop, then we are not Orthodox. Technically speaking, to be un-orthodox is to be heretical. Yet historically, orthodoxy is not a closed, narrow system. As Bishop Alexander states in his new book, This Far by Grace, “at the heart of orthodoxy is the passionate search for truth, ultimately revealed in the sufferings, death, resurrection, and promised second advent of Jesus Christ.” (p 77) This truth is not found by going down a narrow one-way path that pushes people off of it. These pathways are multitudinous; they are as diverse as we ourselves are diverse. These pathways are full of contradictions and tensions. Yet from these diverse pathways, our faith emerges. We are the Orthodox – all of us in this room who are searching for the truth. We are not liberal or conservative. We are not radical or suspicious. The issue is not about being straight or gay – we are people searching for the truth. It is about being One in the Body of Christ. We are not One if any are left behind or pushed away.

In Atlanta, we chose the name for the umbrella group to be Via Media USA. Many protest our use of this name. They conclude that we do not understand the meaning that Richard Hooker attempted to put forth when he coined the phrase. To those who disagree with our meaning, I say, phooey. They need to study their Aristotle, Donne and Hooker and the true tradition of Anglicanism.

Via Media is a Latin phrase that literally means middle way. In Atlanta we debated on using the term centrist in several different instances. That was almost immediately turned down. Centrist is a narrow way straight down the center. That does not describe this group here or Via Media USA. Via Media is a broad way, a middle ground that is foundational. It is the middle way to the truth, which is of utmost importance. It is the middle way to Christ, which is our only goal. The middle way takes in not only those in the center but also those to the right of center and those to the left of center. Extremes cannot exist within that middle way because extremes to either side are full of self-service and that is not the way of Christ.

I have sent most of you a summary of the notes that I took at the Atlanta meeting. Hopefully you can tell from reading those that love, faith and unity were of utmost importance during those 2 ½ days.

A few highlights include from the meeting:

1. We know that the Presiding Bishop and the Executive Council are aware of our angst.
   
   
2. We know that there are others out there who are in very similar situations. However, it should be noted that our diocese was deemed the most in need of prayer and help. These special people are praying for us.
   
   
3. We created a Mission Statement.
   
   
4. We created a Structure, which consists of which consists of a steering committee designed to have elastic bonds that can change and grow as need be. We have a web site and contact person.
   
   
5. We established trust – trust of each other, trust of The Episcopal Church and trust in the power of the Holy Spirit to move us according to the will of God.
   
   
6. And last but certainly not least – We have to pray that we will always bow first to the will of God. We have to pray for this endeavor and for the Episcopal Church. And most importantly, we have to pray for our clergy and our bishop.

A Major question asked to the Executive Council Observers – What options do parishes have when hijacked into the Network? – The answer was that Parishes must join together and take a public stand. We can do that in several ways. We can write a joint letter of protest and send it to the bishop. We can place an ad in the local paper making our thoughts known. Or we can quietly go about documenting any possible abuses of power.

Ultimately, if we want things to change, we have to do something. Just as Bishop Brent reminds us, to preserve the unity of the church, we must take risks.

We walked away knowing some things absolutely for certain – there is room for each of us at the table. There is room for those with whom we agree and with whom we disagree. Where there is love, there is a way to get along. The first thing we must do is to love. The rest will automatically follow.