The Practicing Progressive

Issue 12
February 26, 2007

This past Sunday, I had the privilege of being on the front lines of one more tactical offensive in the growing movement many are calling: The New Reformation. Although to be entirely truthful I wasn’t actually on the front line. It was more like seven pews back.

Worshipping at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena this California winter has brought an added and unforeseen benefit to my initial intention of simply avoiding the snow and cold of Colorado for the first time in 25 years. All Saints may be familiar to some of you via their recent encounter with the Internal Revenue Service. Seems there are some in the IRS who take offense at the “political nature” of the preaching at All Saints and have initiated governmental action to remove the congregation’s tax-exempt status. All of this is being done by agents with straight faces even as they allow far larger congregations to engage in all kinds of political activities including sermons designating who one should vote for and publications threatening excommunication if one doesn’t. The difference, of course, is that All Saints leans left in their activities while the bigger, richer, more powerful churches lean way to the right, right toward the White House.

All of us have watched as cherished liberties and constitutional mandates have eroded these past six years. This assault in Pasadena is simply one more example of the kind of tyranny taking place these days. Nevertheless, All Saints continues its compassionate ways whether the government likes it or not which leads me back to Sunday’s front line action.

But it wasn’t governmental sanctions All Saints was battling Sunday. These were ecclesiastical. You may have read of the recent confab in Tanzania of the primates of the Anglican Communion which resulted in an edict issued to the Episcopal Church in America to “fast” from ordaining gays and lesbians or officiating at same-sex blessing ceremonies during the forty days of Lent. A reasonable request one might concede…as long as one is not gay or lesbian. In that case, the call for fasting is nothing more than the perpetuation of policies that have kept our homosexual brothers and sisters from full participation in congregational life.

In his sermon on Sunday, Ed Bacon, rector of All Saints, reminded us that we must never fast from justice, never abstain from seeking the compassionate way of Christ. He then announced that the All Saints congregation would continue to include all people, without exceptions, in the life of the parish. There will be no cessation in the church’s commitment to inclusive ministry, Bacon proclaimed, and the congregation rose up from their pews and applauded as one.

It was a moving moment to be sure but more than that, it was one more clear declaration that the New Reformation is continuing to capture the hearts and minds of more and more Christians who find the compassion-centered teachings of Jesus far more compelling than the too often restrictive regulations of the institutional church.

Although it is in its infancy, the New Reformation is beginning to grow and the evidence can be found in similar acts of compassion coming out of congregations and individual Christians all around the world. If my correspondence is any indication, and I certainly believe it is, adherents to the New Reformation are making themselves heard both within and without most denominations. A plethora of blogs and websites are being created in cyberspace to provide forums for this emerging movement. Here are just a few: www.radicalfaith.org., www.tcpc.org., www.pcnbritain.org.uk., www.progressivechristiansuniting.org. and, my personal favorite, www.reconstructingchristianity.blogspot.org. There are literally hundreds of others and more forming every day and they are indicative of something new and exciting making its way into the life of the church…whether the church is ready or not.

On Sunday, the Christians that surrounded me at All Saints Church made it very clear that they were more than ready. Onward!