Untold Stories

By Robin G. Jordan

Over the past ten years and earlier in the late 1970s one story after another of Episcopalians that chose to leave the Episcopal Church and in recent years Anglicans the Anglican Church of Canada have appeared in the media—in newspapers and magazines, on radio and TV, and on the Internet. Some stories are told over and again. For one reason or another a particular priest and his congregation attract media attention. The priest himself may call a press conference or invite the local TV station to interview him. He may be Internet savvy and have his own web log. He may be practiced in the art of keeping himself and his congregation in the public eye, knowing he and his congregation may benefit from the continued public sympathy and support that such exposure may engender. The priest may enjoy something akin to celebrity status within the local community and outside it.

Other stories do not receive this kind of media coverage and are not as widely known. Many stories go untold, especially those of lay persons who left the Anglican Church of Canada or the Episcopal Church and joined a non-Anglican church or stopped going to church altogether. The latter may have dropped out because they were not able to find another church home or because they have become completely disenchanted with Christianity and organized religion.

The stories that draw the most attention are the success stories—the priest who takes his congregation out of the Episcopal Church, loses the church property, but lands on his feet. Generous benefactors provide him and his congregation with a new building and other help. Americans love a success story and the media knows it. The congregation that leaves the Episcopal Church, buys a building that it cannot afford, and loses the building is likely to attract less attention.

Conservative Anglican bloggers who support the Anglican Church in North America are also more likely to post the success stories. To tell the stories of the congregations that left these churches and that are struggling or the new church plants that failed would discourage the timid and slow the exodus from the Anglican Church of Canada and the Episcopal Church. But a substantial number of congregations that leave these churches do struggle and many new church plants do fail.

What role does God’s grace play in the success stories? Are we to assume that the clergy and congregations in these stories the beneficiaries of God’s grace while the clergy and congregations in the struggling congregations or the failed church plants are not? How should clergy and congregations to whom God has been generous respond to his generosity? Has God been generous to them so that they can be generous to other clergy and congregations? Has he been generous to them to set an example for them to emulate? Have they been blessed so they can bless others?

The implications are that clergy and congregations that have benefited from the publicity that they have received need to do all within their power to publicize the plight of other clergy and congregations that they may in turn receive a generous outpouring of public sympathy and support. They need to be telling the stories of these clergy and congregations. They need to show their generosity to the same clergy and congregations in other ways. God has been generous to them but with a purpose. It is not that they merit or deserve God’s love and goodwill any more than these clergy and congregations. Then grace would not be grace.

God is not parsimonious in his grace. The measure of kindness and mercy He extends to us is rich and full. We should not be stingy in our generosity to others. Jesus not only taught his disciples to be generous in their benevolence, gentleness, friendliness and consideration but also in their forgiveness. The Parable of the Good Samaritan is a parable of generosity as well as of love. The one who was truly generous in that parable was the Samaritan traveler and the one to whom he was generous was a Jew, a people who hated and despised Samaritans. God’s love is a generous love and so should be our own. “Love your enemies,” our Lord taught his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount, “bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matthew 5: 44-45 NKJV)

I have found this generous love lacking on the Internet among those who profess themselves to be followers of Christ. The use of ridicule is not uncommon, as is the use of scorn. Some purported Christians pepper their comments with unkind words and cannot conclude them without a parting dig or two. They do not conceal their contempt for those who displease them. If they treat their fellow Christians in this manner, how do they treat non-Christians? What is worse is that those around them do not take them to task for their unchristian attitudes and behavior but show no concern or applaud them. The anonymity of the Internet may in part account for why they do not keep a closer watch on their tongue but the seeming indifference or approbation of those around them is harder to explain. It suggests that they have come to accept such attitudes and behavior as the norm even for a Christian. This does not reflect well on the Christian community.

Yet strangely enough their attitudes and behavior highlight God’s grace. For God shows his love and goodwill to the congregations of which they are clergy or members. He does not withhold his mercy and kindness due to them. This does not mean that God himself condones their attitudes and behavior but “makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” One is reminded of what God said to the prophet Jonah. “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left--and much livestock?" (Jonah 4:10-11 NKJV)

The people of Nineveh sadly, while they repented upon hearing Jonah’s call to repentance, and God spared them as Jonah feared that he would, did not keep up their repentance and returned to their wicked ways. God eventually destroyed Nineveh. We can abuse God’s generosity and it eventually will have negative consequences for us. If God is generous to us and we fail in turn to be generous to others, we will reap what we have sown.

God has been generous to me in numerous ways. With this in mind and recognizing that there are so many untold stories, I am inviting anyone who has such a story or knows such a story to submit that story to me and I will publish it on Anglicans Ablaze. The story should be limited to 2000 words or less and should be submitted to exploringananglicanprayerbookatgmaildotcom, accompanied by any photos. I do reserve the right to edit the content of all submissions and to not publish stories that I deem inappropriate for publication on the Internet. Whether these stories become a regular feature on Anglicans Ablaze will depend upon the response to this invitation.

Among the stories that also go unheard are those of Episcopalians and Anglicans who, while they do not countenance the rampart liberalism and immorality in these churches, have chosen to remain in one of them and bear witness to the orthodox faith and practice. There are also the stories of those who are concerned about what is happening in these churches but for one reason or another cannot leave. I am willing to publish their stories too. I am also willing to publish the stories of those who have never been a part of the Anglican Church of Canada or the Episcopal Church but who are—or were—a part of the Reformed Episcopal Church or one of the Anglican bodies in the Continuum.