...just a little more to the left....

Susan Russell's blog 'An Inch at a Time' for today ends with a perfect reflection on the Episcopal Church, which is my spiritual home after about a hundred years of being Baptist.

Baptist years are like dog years, with fleas. You cannot even begin to know the cycle of itch/scratch/itch/scratch without understanding it at dog level. And you cannot begin to understand the cycle of guilt/going down to the altar on the 156th verse of 'Just As I Am'/rededicating your life/guilt/going down to the altar.....without understanding the Baptist's view of the world from an early age, with guilt.

I learned to say 'I'm sorry' as a lightning quick response to everything before the age of 5, and by the age of 15 I was apologizing for everything anybody ELSE did as well. It so beautifully prepared me for the Episcopal Church. 'Turns out it's a built-in feature of every service, from the 8 o'clocker's in the no-music first service on Sunday mornings all the way to compline at 9 o'clock Sunday night. Every service requires confession, and if you do it on your knees it counts twice. Or so I believe.

And the confession is exquisite. It is for ALL deeds, done and undone! Perfect. It would not surprise me to learn that there were no less than 153 recovering Baptists [like so many fish, if you know your Scripture] who comprised the Council of Nicea when they made up all the rules in 400-something ce...

These rules continue unabated to this very day in the catholic versions of the church--the one that was founded on Peter, and the one that was founded on Henry the VIIIth. The Episcopalians were constituted by the latter. The Episcopal Church--in it's new acronymification 'TEC' ... which defies all natural attempts at beginning a sentence 'The TEC' because, of course, THEN you have created a nonsensical 'The The Episcopal Church'....whatever--The Episcopal Church is a more reasonable version of the original Catholic Church because it allows the priests to get married, and even divorced (!) and even married AGAIN (!!) because Henry needed that to sustain HIS earthly ministry. Such as it was. He had a lot of itch to scratch.

But the Episcopal service still blessedly retains the guilt/confession/guilt/confession sequence that gives life it's meaning in rhythmic flow as natural as lub-dup, lub-dup all the way to the altar. It's a beautiful thing. Whatever.

Susan Russell works into this week's sermon-by-blog an explanation of what The Episcopal Church is about and at the same time 'splains the subtext of what TEC is REALLY about which, not surprisingly for a church that has it's roots in the s-word, has to do with the s-word between, you know, people who are the same s-word. Got it?

So, as Rev Susan points out 'The criterion for being part of this community of faith – this communion – is NOT agreement but relationship [bold, mine]. To quote Verna Dozier one more time: “Don’t tell me what you believe … tell me what difference it makes that you believe …”'


...i say, just scratch a little more to the left.....aaaahhhh much better....