|
 Journal Number One - Autumn 1994
Editorial"We must bear the pain of expansion," declared Father Benson, the founder of the Society of St. John the Evangelist. "We are stretched on the glorious being of the Holy Ghost." Catholicity involves the pain of expansion and being stretched because it is a continual encounter with the catholicity, the expansiveness and fullness of God. As such, catholicity is utterly opposed to all that is narrow or sectarian. Catholicity requires continual growth and discovery and also a suspension of certitude in favor of living the questions which confront us in the sure confidence that the Spirit of Truth, who is the continuing witness of the risen Christ, will lead us into a deeper realization of God's own fullness. In this regard, tradition, rather than being fixed and given for all time, is the cumulative and ever unfolding experience of being stretched, refashioned and transformed and thereby rendered catholic: that is, able to receive and reflect the fullness and wholeness of God. God's own fullness is made manifest in Jesus Christ "for in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." (Col. 2:9). Catholicity, therefore, involves knowing Christ and "having the mind of Christ." Catholicity separated from the person of Christ is an idol, a distraction, a lie. Catholicity calls for awareness: awareness of Christ present in the movements and motions of the Holy Spirit at work in the world, in the church and in the depths of our own hearts. Awareness requires being "intensely present with the intense consciousness with which God is present" (Fr. Benson). Awareness also involves prayer which the poet Stephen Mitchell describes as "a quality of attention", making it possible for us to discern and receive the "gift" of God's work, which is an expression of God's fullness, however it may come upon us. The time has come for Catholic Christians in the Anglican tradition to recover a catholicity which is able to bear the pain of expansion with grace and joy; a catholicity which engages the mind and the heart; a catholicity grounded in prayer and sacrament and expressed in disciplined action; a catholicity which, while deeply rooted in the past, is courageously open to the future under the guidance of the Spirit of Truth. We invite you to join us in this enterprise, keeping in mind that we have no desire to become another party or faction in an already divided household. There are no vows or loyalty oaths beyond the ones we already share; namely, our baptismal and ordination promises. +Frank T. Griswold Bishop of Chicago
Affirming Catholicism is an educational charity involved in various initiatives: publications, seminars, shared worship, retreats, pilgrimages, conferences. Most dioceses have their own local groups to undertake similar projects themselves. Address: St Giles Church, No. 4 The Postern, Wood Street, Barbican, London EC2Y 8BJ. Telephone enquiries to+44 [0]171-638 1980; fax: +44 [0]171-638 1997. Registered Charity No. 1007291
|