A Meditation on Patriotism in a Changing World

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 7 August 2014 2 Comments
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Question

I have just read your essay on the need for the Church to move beyond scripture and creed and I am once again inclined to try to articulate something complicated. I've noticed in "church" a raft of authoritarian trouble that springs from the seed of a simple word, "worship."

It dawned on me that you would know quite well the horrors that can grow in an authoritarian church environment so I will not go into the gory details of my experience. The one word "worship" when purposely left abstractly on its own can be a basis for nightmares in the making. The more it is used as a means to direct attention to "authority" for clarification, the scarier it becomes. In this environment, some form of subjugation is almost always the engineered subtext and false authority through "exclusive or expert knowledge" about "how to worship properly" is the goal.

My question is about how you view the word “worship” and if it is a celebration of a relic (as are other ritual remembrances you write about) or if it has a meaning to you that is not apparent to me at this time.

I will never fit into “church” for many reasons, but perhaps lexicon is one of the biggest barriers. I could never swap my view of absolute human equality for words (followed by actions) that connote subjugation and hierarchy. Rejecting the “insiders” lexicon seems to be a (much resented) barrier to acceptance by “church people” in my experience, but the word “worship” has too often been used as the worst use of that language in my view.

Thanks for standing up to imperialistic boneheads and providing enlightening words to those of us for whom “two or three” is the way to go.

 

Answer

Dear Marjorie,

Worship has been used by the hierarchical figures of the church as a weapon to enhance clerical authority. That is why the administration of the sacraments is reserved for the ordained. When people were excommunicated as a discipline by the church, it was to remove them from the sacraments which the church taught were necessary for salvation. When authority is abused, tragedy has occurred.

There is, however, another reason for structuring worship and that is to prevent the church from falling into chaos; to make the worship experience positive not negative. Between those two polarities, Christianity has swung through the centuries. It is interesting to note, however, that Pentecostal Protestant pastors can be as hierarchical and authoritarian as the most distorted Roman Catholic priest, who only knows how to play the game: “Father knows best.” So how do we navigate these waters and produce integrity in worship?

First some definitions. The word “worship” literally means to attribute ultimate worth to someone or something. That is why idolatry is so destructive. Idolatry is attributing ultimate worth to something less than the holy God. If God is the object of our human definition of ultimate worth then one can neither diminish nor devalue another human being, since the Christian affirmation is that all human beings are made in God’ image; the image of ultimate worth. So, anti-Semitism, racism, homophobia, sexism and clerical hierarchism, that is any system where one person builds himself or herself up by tearing someone else down, becomes evil. Clerical figures are not theological monarchs. They are at least, ideally speaking, the servants of the people of God. It is not, therefore, in the theory of order but in practice of order that evil is done.

Second, the word “liturgy” literally means “the work of the people.” The fact of the matter is, however, that in most churches, the people have abdicated their responsibility for worship to the ordained leader. Every church should have a worship committee made up of ordinary church members who deal with worship concerns, worship changes and worship dreams. Few churches, however, do that. Worship gets very emotional. Clergy are sure they know better and they do not want to be hindered in producing “valid” worship. Quite often, lay people make the form of worship not the object of worship, their highest value, resisting changes to the point of withdrawing from the church when changes are adopted. I have seen people leave the church when the mass was put into English from Latin, when the Prayer Book was revised and when the new pastor did something different from the old pastor. I have also known people to leave when the altar was moved from the back wall to a free standing position; when a rood screen was prepared for removal, and even when a handrail was proposed for a church entrance after two elderly people had fallen into the boxwoods!

Liturgy and worship are central to the Christian life. There must always be a balance between form and experimentation, between the values of the past and emerging values of the future, between the knowledge of the ordained and the emotions of the laity.

I happen to love worship in the church I attend, St. Peter’s in Morristown, New Jersey. It seems to keep that balance. I think you would fit right in.

John Shelby Spong

 

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