God is Dead--NOT!

I've been reading some commentaries in advance of Ruth Gledhill's column in The Times about the drop in attendance at services in the Church of England. Such concerns abound in some places here in the United States as well.

One could wring one's hands and fret that the number of people in the pews is dropping. But one really should consider what Gledhill discovered at St. Mary's in SW London and her co-author in the column, Lucy Broadbent, is finding at St. James in Los Angeles: liturgical churches that are full, both literally and figuratively. And it's not because they are a "happy clappy" church with a Praise Band and Bono. The formula is as simple as the basics of liturgy and making the church open, welcoming, and alive.

Canon Giles Fraser, vicar of St. Mary's in London bases his approach on a book by Dr. Jeffrey John, Dean of St. Alban's... and a man forced to resign as the Bishop of Reading because he is a gay man.

"It is caring for people, preaching good sermons, making sure to be organised." says Fraser. "There is a huge children’s programme with Sunday school teachers trained in what is called Godly Play. A lot of churches in that area are not evangelical but they are full.”

Lucy Broadbent found much the same at St. James in Los Angeles, a church with a congregation that just can't seem to get enough of the "good news" as delivered through the Episcopal liturgy.

"I asked our rector, the Rev Paul Kowalewski, why his church was always full. “We are part of a community,” he says. “In a big city like Los Angeles, people are looking for a community. We give them the welcome they are looking for.”

Part of a community means taking part in the community, and recognizing the needs and wants of the congregation. There are dinner clubs for moms, so they can have a night off and night out. There are aerobics classes, boy scout meetings, and a soup kitchen serving the homeless. As Broadbent tells it, it's hard not to spend time at St. James.

Such enthusiasm, I believe, exists at St. John's as well, it's just untapped. But if you sit in my Education for Ministry class on a Monday night, many of the same ideals expressed in Gledhill and Broadbent's column are being discussed. In fact, any accusations that God is dead would probably garner at least five or six opinions to counter that argument that would likely spill into a theological reflection on how God is not only NOT dead, but has shown that death is conquered by life.

So what ails the church? In my opinion, it's the insistence on those in charge that they are the gatekeepers of God, and anything that doesn't resemble them must be "not of God." The trouble with that thinking is that it negates an important part of the Trinity--the Holy Spirit-- who keeps moving and shifting and pushing us toward the edges that challenge our comfort zone. Once we stop struggling against the Holy Spirit, and open ourselves to embracing ALL of creation, it's like the title of a Dr. Seuss book, "Oh, the Places You Will Go". Trust it!!