Looking Out from a Shrinking Church

The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost/July 29, 2012

The Very Reverend E. Clifford Cutler

 "I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power..."

          The scriptures today remind us of our human weakness and God’s strength, our human ailing and God’s holiness, our hunger and God’s provision, our fear and God’s comfort.  This is important to have in mind as we examine our shrinking church whose decline many have laid at the feet of liberalism. 

          Let’s begin with the numbers.  There is no disputing them.  When I graduated from high school in 1967 there were about 3 ½ million members in the Episcopal Church.  Now 45 years later there are less than 2 million, the fewest members since 1935. ^1.  Saint Paul’s had an average attendance of over 450 in 1967 which today is a bit over 200.  In 1971 when I graduated from college and chose to respond to God’s call to ordination, 40% of the clergy under age 40 had seriously considered leaving the ministry.  Nothing changed more dramatically during the 60s than American religion.^2.  This was the church that I was sent to serve.

It has come in for some harsh criticism, much of which was cynical but there were some critiques that deserve our serious consideration; hence this sermon.  The Wall Street Journal in an article entitled, “What Ails the Episcopalians, “referred to the legal wrangling over property, and criticized what it saw as a focus on secular politics.  Two days later, The New York Times ran an op-ed piece that wondered “Can Liberal Christianity Be Saved?”  Here the critique was of a church that changed and changed some more.  Again there was the reference to a downplay of theology in favor of secular politics.  Finally, last week in our local paper a Mt. Airy poet prayed, “Protect me from all religion,” by which she means absolutism in all its forms.  These are honest criticisms about which there is no need to be defensive, but every need for reflection and a considered response.

Liberal Christianity has to do with freedom – the freedom to interpret scripture and to adapt traditions to particular cultural and social settings.  There is much that is helpful in this liberal stance and also there are dangers.  The Times article identified one of these dangers as a church that changes then changes again.  Our modern culture today is equally fluid.  In this situation it is possible for liberal Christianity to become so free in its interpretations and adaptations that it loses it mooring.  When this happens we members feel disoriented and anxious.  A corrective is the Benedictine influence within our Episcopal Church, particularly its insistence on stability.  Our prayer at the end of Lent for instance is that “our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found,” that is in the presence of God.  In addition, our worship includes ancient elements such as the Sanctus that our worship sheet describes as dating back to the 4^th century.  This gives a rootedness for a people whose society and whose church seems to change and then change again.

The 60s represented a huge shock to religion.  The church feared the loss of confidence in institutions and social and moral upheaval.  The evangelical response was to take a strong stand for faith with a zeal that kept their numbers high.  By 1979 when the Episcopal Church’s new prayer book was published, the Moral Majority formed, linking religion and politics.  Ten years later the group disbanded but conservative political partisanship and high church attendance seemed to go hand in hand.  But by the 1990s the evangelical boom that began in the 70s was over.  The important lesson in this is not which secular politics a church chooses but its passionate intensity ^3. (evident in many evangelical churches) for God’s work of mending, unity and reconciliation.  In fact, the politics are a cautionary tale.

Robert Putnam and David Campbell’s book American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us documented a second aftershock from the turbulent 60s, following the first reaction of the Religious Right.  By the 1990s increasing numbers of Americans became troubled by the role of religion in politics.  Young Americans saw religion as judgmental, homophobic, too political and turned away. ^4.  There was little distinction between highly visible conservative religious leaders and religion in general; notwithstanding the reality that there is very little politicking from American pulpits.  Instead, one finds a transcendent quality to Christianity that goes beyond any party.  “Our citizenship is in heaven,” Paul says to the Philippians (3:20).  Yes, there is a call to do God’s will (the wellbeing of all) on earth, but not to reduce God’s will to what is on earth.  Meanwhile the church has lost a generation of young people.

The Wall Street Journal article referred to the legal wrangling over property in the church and the litigation by parishes that have sought to leave the Episcopal Church.  Setting aside the rights of the institution that the courts have regularly upheld, we need to find a way of disagreeing in the church with grace.  Whether it is in a local congregation or on the national scene we are too quick to go on the offensive and square off.  We think we have God on our side.  The fact is that God shows no partiality (Acts 10:34).  Each person is worth our attention, none our disdain.  It is about grace.

In The Chestnut Hill Local, the author like many identifies religion with absolutism.  In an awkward twist to Edmund Burke’s famous quote she writes: “In order for good people to do hideous things, you need religion.”  In other words if you wrap yourself in God you can do anything – protect abusers of children whether in church or university.  This is a difficult and important criticism to listen to.  Mary’s song that we call the Magnificat is a truer statement of faith.  God has showed “strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.  He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.”  Those who presume to be absolute even in the name of religion are put down.

So what is there to learn that might save liberal Christianity or cure what ails the Episcopal Church?  First there can be no change without stability.  We need to be grounded in our worship where the ancient and the contemporary are brought together.  Then we can reach out to bring transformation and change.  Second, it’s not the politics, it’s the passion that gives growth.  What is there to be passionate about?  I am passionate about the way of Jesus in a world where so much is false and unclear.  I am passionate about experiencing community.  I am passionate about praise whose purpose is to create a world unblemished by violence.  I am passionate about the life satisfaction that comes from religion. ^5.  Let’s be full of passionate intensity.  We need to pay attention to our young people.  They are looking for a church that is inclusive, compassionate and not partisan, that honors wonder and mystery.  Our baptisms today remind us that we are to do all in our power to support children in their life in Christ.  We cannot afford to lose another generation.  Fourth, our Episcopal tradition of comprehensiveness means that we are going to be in community with people who think differently than we do.  God’s truth is greater than any one perspective.  We sing, “the love of God is broader than the measure of the mind” (Hymn 470).  When we disagree we do so with grace.  Finally, the Benedictine quality of humility is another gift from our tradition.  We do not impose, we engage.  We do not coerce, we network and learn from one another.  Because we humbly acknowledge our humanness there is no necessity for pretensions and cover-ups.  These lessons are what give me cause for optimism though the way is long and far from certain.  We have reliable gifts that sustain us.  And most of all we have God who day by day strengthens our inner being with power.  So says the Letter to the Ephesians. 

Amen.

1.     Zscheile, Dwight J.; People of the Way: Renewing Episcopal Identity; New York: Morehouse Publishing, 2012; p. xiv.

2.     Putnam, Robert D. and Campbell, David E.; American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us; New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010; p. 94-95.

3.     Ibid., p. 107

4.     Ibid., p. 121, 130-1.

5.     Ibid., p. 491