Dean's Letter

May 2006
From The Very Reverend David Bird, Ph.D., Dean and Rector

Christian Unity

From May 8-11, 2006, the National Workshop on Christian Unity will take place in San Jose. This is a tremendous annual national event in which the various churches and denominations work conscientiously toward bringing about the unity which Christ demanded of us.

Trinity will be a major participant in this event as will be St. Joseph’s Basilica. There will be a joint service for all churches at St. Joseph’s on the opening Monday evening and, then, on the Tuesday a joint Lutheran-Episcopalian Eucharist. Normally this year the service would have been held at a local Lutheran Church but Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Willow Glen has invited us to be the hosts because of our central location and proximity to the Fairmont Hotel, where most of the guests will be staying.

The annual joint Lutheran-Episcopalian service is always seen as a very significant part of the conference and I do hope many members of Trinity will be able to be present at 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday.

In addition, we will be making meeting rooms available to various participants from other denominations and providing our Great Hall for three dinners or receptions. This truly is an event when we can assume our calling as a downtown cathedral.

Speakers abound at these conferences and full details of the event can be found on the internet at www.nwcu.org.

It is a particular challenge to prepare for the workshop this year when the Episcopal Church itself is in the midst of controversy over the selection of suitable candidates for the office of bishop. The conference begins on May 8 and two days before, on May 6, the Diocese of California will elect a person to become their new bishop. Among these candidates are non-celibate homosexual candidates. The election of such a person would very likely lead to forthright comment and possibly action by some members of the Episcopal Church and also of the Anglican Communion at large. So this could be a watershed meeting of the national workshop.

On an international note, an Irish rector concelebrated over Easter in a service with Roman Catholic clergy—an action explicitly forbidden by the Roman Catholic Church’s official discipline. This, too, could well raise the temperature of our national workshop meeting.

Both the election and the concelebration raise a very significant question for Christians: when do we abide by the official stands of our churches and when should we conscientiously break the rules?

I tend to follow a variety of guidelines in making such a decision. First, if we wish to break with the official teaching of the church we must first be convinced that this is what Christ would have us do. A Christian stand is not about personal convenience, but about following Christ.

Secondly, it should be done firmly but charitably, clearly stating the reasons for such a stand. For example, it is still prayer book teaching that only baptized Christians should receive at our altars. That position has been challenged by many Episcopal churches in recent years. One major reason is we have come increasingly to see the Eucharist not only as a re-enactment of Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples, but also a representation of the open table which he normally kept at his meals. Jesus kept an open table in his lifetime, we argue, and it should be open still.

Thirdly, when we make a stand, it should come from our core convictions. We should be more like Martin Luther (“Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise.”) than religious dilettantes saying something like, “Oh, this might be fun. Let’s try it.”

Fourthly, we should first have tried to convince others of the legitimacy of our stand. We are enjoined by Christ to work for unity. Much work for unity requires that we listen to and take seriously the voices and concerns of Christians who disagree with us. Christians are not called to be like-minded bigots but people who are able to reflect and change for Christ’s sake.

Fifthly, we must continue to hold in prayer those with whom we disagree, always seeking to end up back at the Lord’s table with them. The Anglican Communion grew out of a deliberate attempt to hold Catholics and Protestants together in one church. It was an inestimable vision and it is something we conscientiously still bring to the table in ecumenical discussions.

I could add many more principles to consider in making a stand for change in the Church. The five listed above are enough to show that confrontation should not be adopted easily, should be thoroughly thought through, and exercised with charity. Christian confrontation should always see as its final goal the bringing and holding together of each and every one of us as servants of Christ.

Christians are baptized into Christ and share at least some form of communion through that fact. Our task is to further than communion in every way we can.

— David

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