The Buddhiscopal Church?

From the Institute on Religion and Democracy today:

Washington, DC—An Episcopal priest who has received a Buddhist lay ordination has been nominated for the position of bishop in the Diocese of Northern Michigan. The Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester, who has served in the diocese since 2001, will be the only nominee for the vacant position.
 
Forrester currently serves as rector of St. Paul’s, Marquette, and is the diocese’s ministry development coordinator. The bishop’s election is scheduled for a special convention to be held February 21 in Escanaba, MI. If elected, Forrester wouldstill have to obtain consents from a majority of dioceses in the Episcopal Church, in what is usually viewed as a rubber-stamp procedure.
 
Forrester is not the first Episcopal clergyman to hold dual faiths. In 2004, Pennsylvania priest Bill Melnyk was revealed to be a druid; while in 2007 Seattle priest Ann Holmes Redding declared that she was simultaneously an Episcopalian and a Muslim. Both Melnyk and Redding were eventually inhibited from priestly duties. Forrester’s background was recently brought to light by the Anglican web site Stand Firm in Faith.

The diocese of Northern Michigan must be desperate. Or maybe the cold and snow has gotten to them. They do get snow in the Upper Peninsula from about Labor Day to Memorial Day (not really), and it's measured not by inches or feet but by stories ("Yep, we got nearly two stories last night." How 'bout you, eh?") Brain freeze, maybe?

Comments

[Isaac]

Very sad, but the sad fact is that the ECUSA has long had no requirement that their clergy-- or laity for that matter-- hold to the Nicene Creed or any tenet of Christian Orthodoxy.

[Fr. J]

Actually, the Church requires both clergy and laity to hold to the Nicene Creed. There's just no enforcement, which in some ways is even worse.

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>Actually, the Church requires both clergy and laity to hold to the Nicene Creed.<<<

With or without?

[Ethan C.]

>>With or without?<<

I'd guess it's with, but it might well be "whichever." After all, it's not as though anyone much cares about that sort of thing anymore. The Millennium Development Goals are so much more important than actually understanding the nature of God, don't you think? :)

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>The Millennium Development Goals are so much more important than actually understanding the nature of God, don't you think? :)<<<

But which is a greater mystery,one wonders?

[graceshaker]

isnt this just more evidence that the church has lost her identity?

[Geoff]

Ah, there ain't nothing like a large dose of good old-fashioned syncretism -- something that seems to be very common in the contemporary ECUSA. And there are few things so offensive to the biblical God as the attempt to mix the true faith with false religion (just read the Old Testament Prophets). Practically-speaking, the ECUSA abandoned the authority of Holy Scripture and the truth of Christ as the one and only way to salvation (Jn. 14:6; Acts 4:12) a long time ago. As a former Episcopalian who was raised in that communion, I believe the time is way overdue for the faithful remnant within the ECUSA to "come out and be separate" (2 Cor. 6:17), for "Ichabod" ("the glory has departed") is written all over her bright-red church doors. However, I have been encouraged to read of the many conservatives within that body (including leaders such as Bishop Duncan) who are leading the exodus out of that spiritual Babylon.

[The young fogey]

Utterly predictable. What would be interesting is learning what Japanese, Tibetans, Vietnamese, Thais and other real Buddhists think of this mainline Protestant game, stealing and changing their religion, turning it into a fashion accessory to impress other wealthy whites. The old colonialists are now the SWPL. (I know that, unlike Islam, Buddhism is not necessarily a religion but in Tibet, Vietnam and Thailand it definitely is.)

As long as the creeds are still in the books and the books are otherwise written as they are, the Episcopalians remain for now a Christian church.

But yes, like the United Church of Christ (descended from the folk who quit the Anglicans because they're weren't righteous and Calvinist enough) and Quakers, both Christian, many of the members are really unitarians.

[Stuart Koehl]

Again, one has to ask why modern Western Christians feel drawn to syncretistic adoption of Asiatic mystical practices, given the existence of authentic and utterly orthodox Christian mysticism in both the Eastern and Western Traditions of the Church? Or is it precisely the orthodoxy of Christian mysticism that repels them?

[Sally Thomas]

Well, as my mother is wont to say in defense of such people, "They find answers that suit them."

Bingo.

[Michael]

Stuart,

I'd say people are drawn to mystical eastern philosophies and religion because Christian mysticism is, on the whole, not exactly in the forefront of public theology. I consider myself fairly mystical in my approach to worship, personally, but the traditional forms of Christian mysticism are rarely, if ever, presented to the church at large. People don't pursue what they don't know exists. Buddhism, on the other hand, is trendy and very public.

TYF,

Buddhism's traditional claim to not be a religion is bunk. Of course Buddhism is a religion; it's just inherently syncretistic.

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>I'd say people are drawn to mystical eastern philosophies and religion because Christian mysticism is, on the whole, not exactly in the forefront of public theology. <<<

A shame really, especially when you see that "The Way of the Pilgrim", with its exaltation of the Jesus Prayer, is a perennial Christian best seller.

>>>Buddhism's traditional claim to not be a religion is bunk. Of course Buddhism is a religion; it's just inherently syncretistic.<<<

Actually, one Christian theologian (name escapes me right now), in a moment of politically correct truth saying, described Buddhism as "spiritual masturbation".

[Nick]

One of the things that frustrated early historians of Japan is that the Buddhist monks evidently fought over pretty much nothing. In the West monks generally had at least a basic education for the time and believed that their founder/local bishop had a keener idea of Truth than that dolt over there. In Japan they tended to be ex-Generals leading bands of brutish thugs and wouldn't understand dogma if it slapped them.

If I remember correctly at one point Oda Nobunaga (one of Japan's three unifiers) sent an emissary to a group of monks who proceeded to cut off his head and play a bit of whatever passed for a "kick the ball" game at the time before sending it back. Of course they're all about peace and love.

[Michael]

To be fair, the unification of Japan was basically top-down imperialism and Nobunaga was a heavily egocentric warlord (and one skilled enough to slowly annex surrounding territories and expand his own power). Indeed, even with the work of Nobunaga and Toyotomi, the rivalry within the samurai class resulted in the Battle of Sekigahara that saw power fall to Tokugawa, thus establishing the shogunate and exiling the emperor until the Meiji era.

Japanese monks, for their part, were largely members of clans or local priests connected with feudal lords. As such, their "religion", as it were, was co-opted into their political service. Monks weren't too terribly different from the idealized version of crusading knights--political adjuncts of a religious order fully capable of battle and oftentimes having such an express purpose to be warrior monks. Nobunaga did destroy an entire monastic complex at Mt. Hiei, effectively destroying cultural art works while simultaneously killing the monks. I wouldn't be too welcoming to an emissary of that sort, either.

[Matthias]

"Actually, one Christian theologian (name escapes me right now)...". Oh yes, I know who you mean. Whatever his name was, he changed it a few years back. I believe he has managed a fairly successful career in the church in spite of being prone to some overly candid remarks like this at times.

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>Japanese monks, for their part, were largely members of clans or local priests connected with feudal lords. As such, their "religion", as it were, was co-opted into their political service.<<<

In Japan, Buddhism, particularly the Zen variety, was mainly a preoccupation of the Samurai class, for who its stoic philosophy and development of individual spiritual perfection dovetailed perfectly with the warrior code (e.g., "For the Samurai, death should be as light as a feather"). Politics, indeed, "religion" had practically no role in Japanese Zen. It was an accessory to both.

[Benighted Savage]

Nick writes:

>>> If I remember correctly at one point Oda Nobunaga (one of Japan's three unifiers) sent an emissary to a group of monks who proceeded to cut off his head and play a bit of whatever passed for a "kick the ball" game at the time before sending it back. Of course they're all about peace and love. <<<

Look up "Ikko Ikki" sometime. Organized buddhists, organized violence. True Pure Land sect. They built fortified temples on major trade routes, a fact that did not please Nobunaga or Tokugawa Ieyasu, who were wont to fight the Ikko Ikki with the help of buddhist "warrior monk" allies of their own. You ever read Brian Victoria's _Zen at War_ and _Zen War Stories_? In part, especially in the second book, he describes the close ties between Japanese buddhism and bushido. Yep, it's all about peace and love

Decapitation of a vanquished enemy and the use of the head as a trophy was standard practice for samurai for many centuries. If anyone has seen Kurosawa's movie _Ran_, please remember the fate of Lady Sue and Lady Kaede. I'm sure that if the Pacific War had lasted longer, or if Japanese Imperial forces had had better luck against our boys in '42 and '43, we would be more familiar with such practicies.

[Ethan C.]

From what I understand, most Japanese Zen Buddhism and at least some forms of Chinese Buddhism were only "religions" in the way that the Greco-Roman schools of philosophy, such as Stoicism, Epicureanism, and Platonism were.

And, at the risk of seeming syncretistic, much like those schools had some insights that were not counter to Christianity--though they were deficient--so *some* of the practices of certain types of Buddhism (and maybe even a little bit of Shintoism and Taoism) are not contrary to Christianity.

I think recognition of this might further the appeal of Christianity to traditionally Buddhist cultures, as a fulfillment and perfection of their traditions, rather than merely an alien Western curiosity.

[Benighted Savage]

>>> In 2004, Pennsylvania priest Bill Melnyk was revealed to be a druid...<<<

Ah, the druids, too! One of the few religions that the Romans could not accommodate. The legionnaire could stomach many vile things, but he couldn't tolerate human sacrifice (at least not by the time of Julius Caesar). Or maybe it was just the tacky things the Druids did with wicker.

What's next from the ECUSA? Traditional Aztec religion?

[Truth Unites... and Divides]

"In 2004, Pennsylvania priest Bill Melnyk was revealed to be a druid;"

Not a good Christian.

"while in 2007 Seattle priest Ann Holmes Redding declared that she was simultaneously an Episcopalian and a Muslim."

Not a good Christian.

[Michael]

Ann Holmes Redding was (maybe is) a visiting professor of the New Testament at a local Jesuit university, and thus her story was fairly well covered. Her ordaining bishop(-ess) actually defrocked her for a probationary period of one year to "reflect on the doctrines of the Christian faith...and...the conflicts in professing both Christianity and Islam." My question is whether or not her collar was returned after that one year, and if it was, had she renounced Islam?

Not that it entirely matters, seeing as it's a woman bishop defrocking a woman priest, which makes everything about the situation pretty laughable and sad at the same time.

[Benighted Savage]

Truth Unites... and Divides writes:

>>>>>> In 2004, Pennsylvania priest Bill Melnyk was revealed to be a druid <<<<<<

>>> Not a good Christian. <<<

Um, not a good druid, either. It would be kinda hard to be one given that no one wrote down their purely oral tradition before the Romans wiped them out. He's a "Renaissance fair" druid.

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>What's next from the ECUSA? Traditional Aztec religion?<<<

I'm in favor of that if it requires the bishops and priests to form their own ring ball teams.

[Stuart Koehl]

>>>He's a "Renaissance fair" druid.<<<

That should be "Renaissance Faire" druid. Though, of course, there were no druids in the Renaissance.

[Benighted Savage]

Stuart Koehl writes:

>>> That should be "Renaissance Faire" druid. Though, of course, there were no druids in the Renaissance. <<<

According to my co-workers, they often see people dressed as Imperial Stormtroopers at the local renaissance fair. Which made me think that such fairs and the sub-culture which surrounds them don't take the historical record too seriously. What surprises me is that we haven't had an ECUSA or COE priest reveal himself to be a jedi knight.

[Sally Thomas]

The Renaissance Faire I went to last fall featured lots of fairies and pirates (of the Caribbean, naturally). I'm sure there were some druids, too, as well as a guy in a duct-tape corset-type thing full of fireworks, which he set off so that kids could shoot him with squirt guns. Man, that Renaissance! Here's how much fun it would have been if there'd never been ANY Christianity!

My kids have invented a Star Wars liturgy:

V: The Force be with you.
R: And also with you.

etc.

So when the jedi priests come along . . .

[Benighted Savage]

>>> So when the jedi priests come along . . . <<<

...beware of those jedi mind tricks!

[Judy K. Warner]

At the Maryland Renaissance Faire they sell constumes that I can't figure out, except as the product of someone's fevered fantasies. Horse tails for women. Metal bodices with pointed breasts. Little goat-type horns. I think some of them have the Renaissance mixed up with ancient Greece, and not much idea about ancient Greece.

[Michael]

Renn Fairs are ridiculous. I've been to a few local ones (and come from the same cultural cloth that celebrate Star Wars), and it's little more than a glorified hybrid of a hemp fest and a masquerade.

[Sally Thomas]

Well, yes. All those candle-sellers have to go somewhere.

[Judy K. Warner]

At the Maryland one you have to pick and choose, but I've found some wonderful music and dance and seen a few good dramas. I even got to try playing a virginal once. Also the crafts are good, the food is good, and there's jousting. And I have a fascination with watching the guys hit the board with the big mallet to make the bell ring. (If you have any doubts that women shouldn't be firemen, just watch the women who try this.) The Maryland fair is supposed to be the best one in the country.

[Stuart Koehl]

Both the Maryland and Virginia Renaissance Faires take Henrician England as their prototypes, but I think, technically, that makes it the "Reformation Faire". My own preference would be Yorkist England under Edward IV and Richard III, but if they want Henry VIII, then I think it should be more closely attuned to the times. For instance, we could have a Suppression of the Monasteries event, a mock Pilgrimage of Grace, a reading of the Act of Supremacy, wife beheadings, heretic burnings (both papists and Lutherans, since Henry couldn't make up his mind), and everybody gets their change in debased coinage.

[Stuart Koehl]

By the way, Lancastrian England would not be a good setting for a Ren Faire--way too gloomy, what with the Lollard burnings (I do not think there were any executions for heresy in England before Henry IV), the collapse of the English empire in France under the feeble-minded Henry VI, and the bloody-mindedness of Margaret of Anjou and chaos of the Wars of the Roses. The Tudors, for their part, get credit for governmental reforms that were actually initiated under the Yorkists.

[Sally Thomas]

The Charlotte, NC fair had good-but-pricey crafts and good-but-pricey food. They also had a jousting match crashed by a drunken equestrian Pirate-of-the-Caribbean, and that was entertaining. My favorite stall by far was the Insult Man -- if you stood around long enough, he'd start insulting you in vivid and imaginative ways, to provoke you into buying tomatoes to throw at him. (so what with pirates of the Caribbean and tomatoes, we're definitely post-New-World-Discovery . . . ).

Hm, what about a pre-1066 . . . uh. . . Hoppen? Had to look up an Anglo-Saxon word for "fair," though I suppose you could easily substitute a Danish one. So . . . you could have Saxons and Vikings, pagan kings with Christian queens, Alfred the Great, monks, Vikings sacking monks, bards walking around intoning 4-foot alliterative lines, kenning contests, bury-the-Sutton-Hoo-ship games . . . I'm telling you, this is an era of untapped possibilities.

[Kristor]

I feel rather sad for the people who are into - you know, _into_ - Renaissance Faires. Ditto for the Trekkies and Star Wars folks. In all such endeavors, it seems to me, the people involved are reaching for a way to feel themselves a part of something meaningful. The Ren Faire folks look back on Merrie Olde Engelande as a time when the world still cohered; there was an Order of Things, everyone recognized it, no one quarrelled with it. The historical reality was nothing like so idyllic, of course. But is it not interesting that the fascination with ancient music, historical reenactments, and so forth, started just after 1968, the year we sold our patrimony? That's when paganism began its renascence, too; not in reaction to Christianity, of course, but to liberal, not-quite-theist Christianity.