Category Archives: Education

A New Way of Thinking About Church: Part 3

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In this continuing series of notes from talks presented at the Refreshing Winds Conference at Canadian Mennonite University by keynote speaker Brian McLaren, we explore Stage 3 of a four-stage framework for understanding the spiritual life.  

McLaren begins this exploration of Stage 3 by examining the disillusionment that can develop as part of the Christian journey.  As pastors, McLaren says, “we preach about good marriages and then get divorced, we believe that if we follow all the books and programs about how to raise our kids, they will grow up to be Christians, if we look to the Bible it will have the answers to all our questions”.  When we realize that the old answers have stopped working, we may begin to feel that we have swung out on the trapeze bar and let go and we are now reaching for the next bar.  We enter this stage with a sense that everything is knowable and everything is doable and everyone has an opinion.

At this stage, people are learning to live with ambiguity, seeing God as a mythic authority that’s been outgrown and yet a mysterious reality being sought.

McLaren points out that when we engage in higher education, every discipline that we could study engages in self criticism which opens the learner to new possibilities – new ways of seeing and understanding things.  But in Christianity, new ways of thinking about faith and, indeed, any kind of self-criticism is seen as heresy and folks engaging in this kind of thinking are generally asked to leave the church.  McLaren recounts a story of a group of Christian missionaries who invited him to come and speak with them.  These missionaries all met together regularly as friends.  They were all questioning their faith and the reasons they were engaging in the work they had chosen to do.  They kept encountering people who were some of the finest people they knew, but didn’t share their faith and it was leading them to a faith crisis.  Behind the facade of simplicity and complexity, these people had slipped into a different zone and hadn’t felt comfortable talking about it.  They had discovered that the old answers had stopped working – they hoped that the answers might start working again.  In the meantime, they met together as a small band of similarly alienated friends.

Stage 3: Perplexity / Surviving

In this stage, the focus is on honesty or dishonesty.  Little or nothing is known or knowable and authorities are seen as the controllers, trying to impose easy answers.  At this stage, people are learning to live with ambiguity, seeing God as a mythic authority that’s been outgrown and yet a mysterious reality being sought.  The strengths of this stage are depth, honesty, sensitivity to suffering, and ironic humour.  The weakness of those in this stage is cynicism and being uncommitted.

there is a difference between having faith in your beliefs about God and having faith in God

McLaren explains that part of the experience of the cross was going all the way through perplexity.  Going into the dark space was the portal for developing a deeper understanding of God.  McLaren says there is a difference between having faith in your beliefs about God and having faith in God.

McLaren tells the story of a person who came to see him for a pastoral visit.  The man explained that he was worried that after the appointment, he wouldn’t be welcome in the church anymore.  The man said he loved coming to church – that he had been an atheist and was now a theist.  But he found that Jesus made no more sense to him now than ever before.  He couldn’t understand why Jesus had to die – how Jesus dying solved the problem of sin – how God killing an innocent person could be fair? – How two wrongs could make a right.  McLaren was able to explain that this was penal substitutionary atonement theory but pointed out that no one had ever asked this question of him before and he really didn’t have an answer.  McLaren took some time and consulted his classical theological sources and did some deep thinking but was unable to come up with an adequate answer.  Finally in a conversation around the swimming pool with his brother-in-law who had no theological training, he simply reminded McLaren that “you’ll never figure that out – Jesus didn’t have the answer to that either”.  At first, this seemed heretical to McLaren but he realized this answer is rooted in scripture.  In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus had raised his questions and doubts to God.  We are often in agony because we have to live with not knowing something.  McLaren says, in the end, it’s all just opinions – the only good people are the ones who are honest enough to admit they don’t know.   McLaren identifies a counter-dependency in this stage – defining myself against those who have the answers.

When (How Long): The practice of aspiration, exasperation and frustration

We need safe places for people to ask the difficult questions.

McLaren believes we need safe places for people to ask the difficult questions.  When doubts arise, we have the option of faking it or, if you are a pastor, of getting fired.  People face these doubts by reading the Bible more, praying more, getting the demons cast out.  But McLaren says that Stage 3 is not a defection from faith, it’s not a mistake or a failure.   Rather, in Stage 3 we encounter an important place in which to deepen our faith and it’s a normal part of faith development.

McLaren quotes from Psalm 13 and pointed out that Steve Bell’s song, entitled, How Long is about holding the question of When before God.  We are calling out to God in the middle of difficulty and engaging in the practice of aspiration, exasperation and frustration.  McLaren points out that with the imagery of Psalm 42, we imagine a pastoral scene of deer drinking from a lovely brook.  In reality, McLaren says, deer don’t belong in the desert – the deer would be desperate, out of place and dying of thirst.  Desire, he says, can never be deepened when it has already been satisfied.  McLaren suggests we hold our pure, unsatisfied desire before God – not giving up – still waiting.

No: The practice of refusal

When Job’s friends were spouting piety, Job wouldn’t buy it – it didn’t solve any of his problems.

The struggle in Stage 3, McLaren says, is dying of thirst and only having a tiny glass of water available.  Beyond the practice of when is the practice of no – of recognizing that it is unacceptable, the jig is up, something is wrong.  In Psalm 77 the psalmist refuses to be comforted, is too troubled to speak and wonders if the Lord will ever show his favour again.  In Psalm 88, the psalmist cries out with a soul full of trouble.  McLaren explains that we need to hold that “no” in front of God with an absolute refusal to be satisfied with the status quo.  He points out that Job expressed that he would rather die than go back to Stage 1 and 2.  When Job’s friends were spouting piety, Job wouldn’t buy it – it didn’t solve any of his problems.

Why: The practice of lament

McLaren explains that our expression of “why” is our surrender to not knowing.  He reminds us that at Golgotha, Jesus asked this question, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.  Jesus asks for a drink in his suffering.  McLaren says if you are in this space, there aren’t three easy steps to get out.  People tend to keep their journey through this stage a secret – they know they’ll never fit back into Stage 1 and 2.  But McLaren suggests that we thank God for honest voices– that going into the dark places is the portal to discovering a deeper dimension of God than you have ever known.    Trust in the Lord – do not lean on your own understanding, but in all your ways know God.

The series “A New way of Thinking about Church” is written by Nancy Phillips. This is the third article in the series.
Up next… the fourth stage of spiritual development

Music: Now the Green Blade Rises

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The hymn sung at today’s Easter Service this morning reminds us that because of Christ’s Love there is hope for us all. Alleluia!

Now the Green Blade Rises

by John M. C. Crum

Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many years has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

In the grave they laid Him, Love Whom we had slain,
Thinking that He’d never wake to life again,
Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

Up He sprang at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain;
Up from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

When our hearts are saddened, grieving or in pain,
By Your touch You call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

Words: John M. C. Crum, in the Oxford Book of Carols, 1928. 
Music: Noël Nouvelet, 15th Century French melody;
arranged by Martin F. Shaw (1875-1958).

Did you know?: Lent

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The Colour of Lent

The church often uses colours for seasons. The colour for Lent is purple, which means both sorrow for the things we have done to hurt God and others, and royalty for our sovereign Jesus Christ.

Palm Sunday Service

Join us at the Cathedral, tomorrow morning at 10:30 for Palm Sunday as we celebrate the royal entrance our King, Jesus into Jerusalem!

The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—the King of Israel!’
John 12:12, 13

Did you know?: Lent

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Maundy Thursday

In the past the King or Queen would wash the feet of poor people on Maundy Thursday to remind them of Jesus washing the feet of his friends, the disciples.

This interesting fact has been taken from LiveLent.net.

Buy your tickets for Seder Supper

Join us for Maundy Thursday as we remember the Last Supper by sharing a meal together. Pick up your $10 ticket at the church office or from the priest at any of the Main Street Corridor parishes.

Seder Supper with Holy Eucharist and Foot/Hand-Washing
Thursday, April 21 at 6:00 p.m.
St. Martin-in-the-Fields Anglican Church
160 Smithfield Avenue
map

Did you know?: Lent

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This interesting fact has been taken from LiveLent.net

Mothering Sunday

Simnel cake, made with fruit and spices, is often eaten on Mothering Sunday. Traditionally it was made by children and given to their mother. The cake sometimes comes decorated with 11 marzipan balls, one for each of the disciples. The 12th, Judas, who betrayed Jesus, is not included. Want a recipe? Click the cake!

This is your mother calling…

All the Anglicans in the Diocese of Rupert’s Land are invited to join us for Mothering Sunday at the Cathedral, tomorrow evening at 7:30 p.m. for our Diocesan Mothering Sunday Service and are welcome to join us for our regular service tomorrow morning at 10:30, Sunday, April 3, 2011.


Did you know?: Lent

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Half way today

Today marks the half way point of Lent. Are you still “lenting”? Why do 40 days go by so slow when you fast? Hopefully today’s interesting facts from LiveLent.net can help you answer these questions.

  • ‘Lenting’ means sticking to fasting during Lent.
  • Lent is thought to last for 40 days, although it is actually 46, as the Sundays are not counted.
  • The word ‘Lent’ appears to have its beginnings in Anglo-Saxon, where the word means to lengthen, indicating that days are getting longer and spring is coming.

Now that you really do have more time on your hands, why not join us for Bible Study today?

A is for Anglican: Mothering Sunday

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by Rene Jamieson

Welcome to a new section of the St. John’s web site. This is the place to find answers to your questions about Anglicanism in all its diversity. Send your questions to St. John’s via the Contact Us link.

Mothering Sunday

April 3, Sunday evening at 7:30

On Sunday, April 3, St. John’s will host the annual Diocesan celebration of Mothering Sunday and Anglicans from around the Diocese will gather at the Cathedral for this ancient rite.

Mothering Sunday is one of the many Christian celebrations that has its roots in paganism (Christmas and Easter fit into this category, too).  In mid-March, the Romans held the Hilaria Festival to honour the mother goddess Cybele. When Christianity became the state religion of  the Roman Empire Hilaria morphed into Laetare Sunday, a day to honour the Virgin Mary. It was called Laetare Sunday because the opening line of the Gregorian chant introit used on that day  is “Laetare Jerusalem” (“Be joyful, Jerusalem”).

In the medieval church the fourth Sunday of Lent is also known as Rose Sunday. It was the practice of medieval popes to send gold roses to the heads of state in the Holy Roman Empire.

The name Mothering Sunday is commonly used throughout the Anglican Communion, and it stems from the practice whereby servants on large estates were allowed to visit their homes (and, presumably, their mothers) on the fourth Sunday of Lent, taking with them gifts of simnel cake. It was also the practice in the English church for people to attend services at their Diocesan Cathedral, the mother church of the diocese.

By the third decade of the 20th century, Mothering Sunday observance had lapsed in most places throughout Europe, but with the advent of World War II and the arrival of Canadian forces stationed in the UK, it was revived. The Canadian soldiers celebrated Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May, and the Church of England thought it would be appropriate to revive Mothering Sunday as a day to honour mothers, along with the practice of forgathering at the Cathedral. While the second Sunday of May continues to be Mother’s Day in North America, in Europe, Mother’s Day is Mothering Sunday. In the Church of England and other parts of the Anglican Communion, Mothering Sunday is the only day in Lent on which a marriage ceremony can take place.

On Mothering Sunday at St. John’s, the Bishop will consecrate the holy oils used in various sacramental rites of the Church.

If you’d like to sample simnel cake, join us at St. John’s on Sunday, April 3rd at 7:30 p.m. for the annual Mothering Sunday service.
We serve simnel cake with coffee and tea at a reception following the service.

And what is simnel cake, you ask?. It’s a flat round cake, made with simple ingredients. If you’d like to sample simnel cake, join us at St. John’s on Sunday, April 3rd at 7:30 p.m. for the annual Mothering Sunday service.  We serve simnel cake with coffee and tea at a reception following the service.

If you want to make a simnel cake, try this recipe, which dates from 1768:

Ingredients: ¼ cup of butter; ½ cup plus 4 teaspoons of sugar; 2 eggs; a pinch of salt; ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract; 1 cup of flour; 1-½  cups of currants; ¼ cup of candied peel; ½ cup of icing sugar; hot water.

Method: Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat each egg into creamed bitter/sugar until thoroughly blended. Add salt, vanilla extract, flour, currants, and candied peel and combine well. Pour batter into greased and floured 8-inch cake pan and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Combine icing sugar with enough hot water to make a thin glaze and pour it over the cake while it is still hot.

To make a larger cake, triple the recipe and bake in a Bundt pan for 1-¼ hours.

A is for Anglican: Anglican History

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by Rene Jamieson

Welcome to a new section of the St. John’s web site. This is the place to find answers to your questions about Anglicanism in all its diversity. Send your questions to St. John’s via the Contact Us link. Because there are no specific questions requiring answers at this point, this first ‘issue’ will provide some background about the history of the Anglican Church.

While the Church of England, the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion, officially dates from 1534 when the English parliament passed the Act of Supremacy, making Henry VIII the Supreme head of the Church in England, the Church in England has existed since Roman times. Apart from the charming (and no doubt fallacious) legend that has Joseph of Arimathea landing at Glastonbury in the year dot, we know that there have definitely been Christians in what is now the UK since the second century CE.

While the Church of England, the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion, officially dates from 1534, the Church in England has existed since Roman times.

The first British martyr, Alban, is variously suggested to have been martyred anywhere between the early years of the third century to sometime in the early years of the fourth century. The prevailing theory among scholars nowadays is that Alban was martyred in 209 during the reign of Emperor Septimus Severus.

The story goes that Alban was a Roman soldier who gave shelter to a Christian priest who was being sought by the authorities. One version of the legend of Alban has the priest spending two days with Alban before his whereabouts became known. In that time, the two men talked about Christianity and the upshot was that Alban renounced his pagan ways and was baptized by his guest. By this time, the priest’s hiding place had been discovered and Alban exchanged clothes with the priest and urged him to flee while he (Alban) held off  the searchers. The priest headed out the back door just as the soldiers burst in through the front door. Seeing Alban dressed in ecclesiastical gear, the soldiers arrested him. He was tried and sentenced to death, steadfastly refusing to abandon his faith. In another version of the story, the soldiers slaughtered Alban on the spot and he became an instant martyr.

In 598, St. Augustine arrived in Kent with a group of Benedictine monks, charged by Pope Gregory I to spread the gospel among the Saxons. The story goes that Gregory had seen Anglo-Saxon slaves for sale in the Roman slave market and was struck by their blond, blue-eyed appearance. He asked who they were and was told that they were Angles, to which he gave the now famous replay, “Non Angli, sed angeli.” (“Not Angles but Angels.”). Augustine’s job was made a little easier because Queen Bertha, wife of  the Saxon king Ethelbert was the daughter of King Charibert of Paris and she was already a Christian. Augustine is generally regarded as the founder of the Christian church in the British Isles.

Until 1534, England was solidly Roman Catholic in its Christian practice, until the reign of Henry VIII. We’ll save that story for another edition of A is for Anglican.

Ash Wednesday

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The information below has been taken from LiveLent.net

Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent. In biblical times, people covered their heads with ashes, or wore sackcloth (a type of rough cloth) as a sign of being sorry for the things they had done wrong.

Traditionally, on Ash Wednesday Christians had a cross shape marked in ashes on their foreheads. This still happens at Ash Wednesday services in some churches. Sometimes the ashes are made by burning Palm Sunday palm crosses from the previous year. Being marked with a cross in ash is a sign of wanting to turn away from wrong things. It is also a reminder that every life ends. As the minister marks each person on the forehead, they say: ‘Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’

Ash Wednesday Activities for Kids:
Saying sorry

Ash Wednesday is a day of penitence (being sorry for wrong things and trying to put them right). Write the word ‘Sorry’ in felt-tip pen on pieces of paper and put them in a bowl of water. As you watch the words dissolve, ask God to forgive you for anything you have done wrong.

After this, you might like to use this prayer:

Dear God,
We are sorry for the wrong things we have done.
We are sorry if we have hurt others.
We ask you to forgive us and help us change.
Amen.

Did you know?: Lent

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The information below has been taken from LiveLent.net

About Lent

Lent is a reminder that Jesus went through suffering to make him stronger and more trusting in Father God. You can read the story in the Bible.

Lent is the Christian season that takes us from the end of winter through to Easter and is linked to the time when Jesus went for 40 days without food in the desert. It is a reminder that Jesus went through suffering to make him stronger and more trusting in Father God.

In the early days of the Church, Lent was a time when new Christians prepared for their baptism on Easter Day by being instructed in the Christian faith and through fasting (not eating food, or eating only one meal a day) and penance (being sorry for wrong things they had done and trying to put them right).

The modern version of Lent encourages us to give things up so that we have more time to concentrate on Jesus.

Special Days

During Lent there are a number of special days for Christians including Ash Wednesday, Mothering Sunday, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

Shrove Tuesday

The beginning of Lent is marked by Shrove Tuesday. This was the day when everyone used up their best and richest food such as eggs and fat, to prepare for 40 days of limited, mini-meals!

Shrove Tuesday has become known as ‘Pancake Day’, because traditionally pancakes used up the good food and made a feast to begin the season with. The word ‘Shrive’ means to confess, so people were encouraged to say sorry to God before the beginning of Lent itself.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday follows the celebrations and feasting of the day before. In the past (and still now in some churches) ash is used to put a cross shaped mark on the forehead of Christians to remind them of Jesus. The ashes used on Ash Wednesday are often form the burnt remains of the Palm Crosses used the year before at Easter.

Mothering Sunday

Mothering Sunday is always on the 4th Sunday during Lent, and is a time when Mothers are remembered, thanked and celebrated.

Palm Sunday

Palm crosses are sometimes given out on Palm Sunday as a reminder of Jesus. They remind people that Jesus died and came alive again. Palm Sunday is the day when Jesus’ ride into Jerusalem on a donkey is remembered, and people grabbed palm leaves off trees to wave at him in welcome.

Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday comes the day before Good Friday. The word ‘Maundy’ is based on the Latin for command, remembering Jesus telling his friends to love one-another. Jesus and his friends met on Maundy Thursday before he died to have a feast celebrating the Passover. Their meal is sometimes called the Last Supper. The Last Supper is remembered in most churches with special services called Holy Communion or Eucharist.

Good Friday

Good Friday is the day when Jesus’ death on the cross is remembered. It is called ‘good’ because, when Jesus died, he paid the price for all the bad things people do – even you and me. So now we can be forgiven and start again.

Easter Day

Easter Day is the Sunday, when Christians celebrate Jesus rising from the dead.

Be a part of these Special Days of Lent!
Join us for the Easter Services at St. John’s