On Discipline

The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity

KEEP, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy Church with thy perpetual mercy; and, because the frailty of man without thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Discipleship is a key principle, often referred to in our Christian journey. When we say discipleship, however, what precisely do we mean? What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ? The word disciple has the same root as the word discipline, which has a meaning of accepting a teaching, practising a teaching or being taught. In the Christian then, a disciple of Christ is one who submits themselves to Christ’s teachings in order to practice them.

This idea of submission is difficult for many people. It goes against the grain of modern liberalism, which tells us that freedom is the ultimate virtue. The freedom to make up our own mind and do what we want. Discipleship then becomes difficult because we do not want to submit to Christ, but rather to pick and choose the examples of him we will follow. This occurs either by outright ignoring anything which might be difficult or which might challenge us to change our ways, or by trying to justify our actions through creative eisegesis (the reading in of our own interpretation to the Bible).

GK Chesterton once wrote that, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried.” This is the reality that confronts many Christians who are unwilling to make the changes necessary in their lives to be faithful disciples of Christ.

After freedom, Western society promotes comfort and ease as values. Convenience takes the place of quality and effort. Applied to Christianity, our convenience takes the place of Truth when we refuse to submit. Christianity does not, however, promise ease. It promises Truth. To substitute anything else for it is to remove the essence of Christianity.

Being a disciple of Christ requires discipline. It requires the intentional turning away from that which separates us from Christ’s teachings. It requires an honest desire to live in God’s will and not our own. It requires a willingness to do things we might find uncomfortable. Christ calls us to share the gospel with others; in a society in which it is impolite to speak of religion and politics, it can be challenging to break those norms to speak to others of our faith. Social values Jesus calls us to are radically different than norms of society.

What’s more, if we are truly submit to Christ, it means understanding what Christ asks of us. Sometimes when someone misapplies scripture in order to support their own viewpoint, it is not intentional malice or even cognitive dissonance, but merely a reflection of their poor understanding of Holy Scripture.

Discipline itself is the only solution for anyone who seeks to become a true disciple. Discipline of prayer, of Scripture reading, of contemplation and self-examination and other edifying practices that seek to turn us from our old selves and towards Christ. The use of spiritual disciplines has a history that dates to the Old Testament. The imposition of ashes was a practice used to display repentance towards God, and at times would be engaged in corporately as entire communities sought to turn themselves towards God after a period of rebellion and turning from him. To modern Christians, spiritual disciplines remain integral the practice of discipleship.

The reading of Holy Scripture is one of the most important tools at our command to understand God’s will. In reading it, we come to know God better. It is a recording of God’s interaction with humanity, and of Christ’s life and earthly teachings. By familiarizing ourselves with God’s word, it becomes possible to avoid falling into error through ignorance. While no amount of reading of Scripture can fully prevent us from falling into interpretive error, it does make it far less likely to misinterpret or apply a particular verse when we would know that such an interpretation would place that verse in opposition to other parts of Scripture.

Scripture reading is God’s written testament to us. It is one of his primary tools for communicating himself to us. It is also the most impersonal. It is through prayer that we are able to come to God and learn of him most personally and fully. Where the Bible speaks in broad terms of God’s relationship with Israel, or Christ’s teachings to the Jews and the early disciples, through prayer we can come to know God’s particular will for us.

Prayer comes in many forms, but so far as disciplines that aid us in becoming disciples of Christ, practices such as lectio divina, which uses Scripture as a tool to uncover God’s particular will for us today, and the daily examen of St Ignatius of Loyala, which provides a model of reflection upon our day to help us identify areas where we need God’s support and where we ought to thank God for his blessings.

These prayer disciplines, if used regularly, help us to come into a rhythm of conversation with God in which we explore how we are currently living our lives and how we ought to be living our lives. For the daily examen, knowledge of Scripture is important as it can be difficult to understand where we ought to pray if we know nothing of God’s nature. If we do not know how to identify sin, we do not know how to pray to God for strength to overcome our sinful urges and desires. We do not know what blessings we ought to pray for, what opportunities we ought to pursue with God’s help or the things God calls us to do if we aren’t familiar with Scripture.

It takes discipline to engage in these practices regularly. It also takes practice. Abbot John Chapman of Downside once reflected that we ought to, “pray as best [we] can and not as [we] can’t.” As we take this discipline what we cannot pray becomes less and less, and the discipline of prayer becomes the simple practice of prayer. The discipline of conversation becomes the privilege of conversation. St Ignatius of Loyala wrote that, “it is not hard to obey when we love the one whom we obey.” It is through prayer and the building of our relationship with God that we come to love him.

Discipleship is not easy. It requires intentional discipline. It requires devotion. It requires submission. It requires a willingness to engage in radical change that moves us beyond secular norms of politics and society. In the act of giving up ourselves, however, we become who we are meant to be in Christ.

While we may be called to endure much in our lives, and while taking on such disciplines and being willing to give up who we were can be daunting, it is the assurance of joy that comes from abiding in God’s will that proves Christ’s words: “for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” (St Mt 11. 30).

On Catechesis

The Sunday after Ascension Day

O GOD the King of Glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven: We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

Reorienting the skopos of the Church towards a culture of invitation and discipleship is one key in bucking the cultural trends that have contributed to the demographic decline. Last week focused largely on the issue of invitation, while this week delves into the second challenge that primarily involves discipleship by addressing the theology gap and catechesis.

One of the aspects of modernism described was a reinterpretation of Scripture in light of modern understanding. St Anselm of Canterbury once famously stated, “I believe in order that I may understand.” What he meant was that faith must precede intellectual understanding, or more precisely spiritual experience must first occur before it can be comprehended by the intellect. In attempts to create a culture of attraction it is entirely possible to create a reverse of that in which understanding precedes and informs faith.

Just look at Canada today. On all the issues of major theological controversy affecting the Anglican Church of Canada in the last 50 years, the move to change doctrine has ultimately been based on a desire to “catch up” to the beliefs of secular society. Whether it be calls for the ordination of women rooted in secular arguments of gender equality, or similar calls for the ongoing move to permit same-sex marriage in the Church. In these arguments, implicit in them is the idea that if the Church does not conform its doctrines to the beliefs of secular society, the Church will be rejected. Given how the Church has thus far, and seems to be in the case of same-sex marriage, moving with the tide of secular culture, it seems to suggest that Canada is the holiest state on the planet, beating the Church to God's punch.

When this trap of simply accepting secular wisdom is followed in an effort to attract the unchurched, it leads to hollow theology. Hollow theology is a theology which has no real substance to it. It relies on proclamations of what God is like or what God wants with limited support from Scripture. To use a contemporary example, when someone argues in favour of same-sex marriage in the Church solely from the perspective that Christ instructs us to love one another in the gospel, there is no substance to it, because it relies on one or two verses about love being interpreted as superseding and contradicting other parts of Scripture.

More accurately this type of theology causes a problem I call a theology gap. When our theology is generated in some way that is not explained consistently through the words of Holy Scripture, the Church Fathers and the Anglican formularies or when we simply lack the ability to explain our theology using that basis, there is a theology gap.

This reflects poor theological education and training both among clergy and laity alike. When someone asks a question and the answer is some variation on, “because I said so,” there is a theology gap. This affects modernists and theological liberals as provided in the example, but can also affect traditionalists in the second way. If a priest is unable to answer a theological question and resorts to saying something like, “that's the way it's always been,” or, “that's just how it is,” they have fallen into a theology gap as well. Whatever the cause of it, a theology gap will encourage or confirm scepticism towards Christianity and the church.

When there is a theology gap, we should not be surprised that it turns away seekers. When your theology lacks substance, it lacks God, and God is ultimately what keeps the faithful in Church. Similarly, if your theology only speaks to the wisdom of the world, what is the point of being in the church? Divorced from God, the church is merely an extremely inefficient charity organization, and inauthentic if it pays lip service to God whom it ignores when God's word conflicts with society. If society has already got it right, what is the point of church? God's grace transforms and sanctifies us, but if we enter into a church only to be told we've got it all right to begin with, what is the point of God's grace?

Such a church is not authentic and will not build disciples. In order to avoid this, theology must be authentic and done well. Theology done well in the Anglican tradition looks first to Holy Scripture, the interpretation and practice of the Church fathers and the writings of the Anglican formularies, which is to say the Book of Common Prayer, 39 Articles of Religion and the Ordinal. Using this process, any question on Anglican theology can be explored and explained. Bearing that in mind can address the first problem of doing theology poorly.

In order to address the second aspect of the theology gap, the solution is proper catechesis. The Book of Acts contains a famous passage in which Philip meets an Ethiopian who is reading the Book of Isaiah. Philip asks him if he understands what he has been reading, to which he answers, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” (Acts 8. 31). The practice of catechesis—instruction through word of mouth—is one referenced several times in the Scriptures. The authors recognized that the further removed from the context in which the Scriptures were written, the more difficult they would become to understand.

It is essential that all Christians have understanding of fundamental concepts. The Alpha course does a great job of introducing some of the fundamentals in a format which seeks to stoke the curiosity of the participants and allow them to further refine their questions in order to be able to come to the answers. This is great for some basic issues such as who Christ is, the nature of the Holy Spirit, and some similar basic issues. It does not address more complex issues, such as the nature of the sacraments, the doctrines of the church, the theology of suffering or other more complex issues. For that, a proper course of catechism is needed.

There is a short catechism in the Book of Common Prayer which addresses some of these issues, but the catechism is more meant as a final profession of faith at confirmation, rather than purely as an instructional tool. That said, the Prayer Book Society of Canada is developing something called 622. Named after the page on which the Book of Common Prayer's service for young people commences, it is designed as a 42 week exploration of issues in Christianity, aimed at teenagers. The Anglican Church of North America has also released their own catechism which provides, in question and answer format, 345 theological questions and answers along with Scriptural references, and is a good starting point for encouraging the exploration of faith in the Anglican tradition.

More than ever, seekers need Christian education resources that can orient them towards the God who deeply desires that they come to know him.

It may seem simple to say, but connecting people with God is the only way to address decline in the Church.

On Decline and Renewal

The Fourth Sunday after Easter

O ALMIGHTY God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men: Grant unto thy people, that they may love the thing which thou commandest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so, among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed, where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Anglicanism in the West is in decline. Where growth exists, it is often from immigrants coming from the global south where Anglicanism is still growing. Everyone has an opinion on what the cause of decline is and what the solution is. Ultimately, demographic decline can be summed up quite simply: the Church is failing to build up new disciples of Christ. Simple! The solution is simple, too: revival! Both simple, both true. How to achieve that, though, beyond simply prayer and miraculous intervention?

In 2010, a demographic report was released that showed an in-depth look into the trends that everyone had been witnessing in Canada for decades. The report showed a gradual but steady decline in membership, which was even starker when looking at attendance, since the mid-1960s. In the immediate post-War years there was an increase in membership, however much of that can be tied to immigration which was a significant demographic factor throughout Canada in the post-War world. Europe had been shattered by the Second World War. In the 1940s and 1950s, the United Kingdom itself was suffering heavily with rationing continuing for several years after the end of the war. Many war brides, who had met their husbands in the service during the war, returned to Canada with them. They started families and as their baby boomer children were born and baptised, they caused an increase in overall membership of the Anglican Church of Canada for the twenty years or so following the war.

When comparing the overall membership numbers to Sunday school enrolment, it’s easy to see the correlation. Growth in the 1950s and 1960s corresponds to young children being brought to church by their parents. As the membership growth trend plateaus and the trend enters into decline you see a decline in new enrolments in Sunday school, which corresponds to the overall demographic trends in Canada at the time. There was a post-War population boom that flattened out and declined by the late 1960s and beyond.

That trend explains events surrounding the boom, however it doesn’t tell the whole story of the Anglican Church of Canada. The trend continues towards decline, and outside of the boom in the 1960s, the number of children being baptised, confirmed and attending Sunday school continues to decline while the number of births stabilises in the 1970s and 1980s and even grows somewhat by the mid-90s before declining again into the 21st century. Interestingly, however, bucking the trend of rapid decline are two statistics. The first is the number of communicants at Easter, a figure which has remained relatively stable despite membership decline and the decline in baptisms. The second is the number of identifiable givers; parishioners who make contributions which can be identified in some way, generally by virtue of a numbered envelope.

There are a number of questions raised regarding the demographic results of this survey. First, if there is a high correlation with overall demographic trends in the 1950s and 1960s, what occurs in the 1970s and 1980s that causes the trend in the Anglican Church to split from the Canadian trend? Why, even if overall membership is declining, are the number of communicants at Easter remaining relatively stable? Similarly, what is the cause for the number of identifiable givers remaining stable, and does it suggest the possibility of an impending financial struggle if these identifiable givers are from an age cohort which is about to die? Finally, how does the experience of the Anglican Church of Canada compare with other Christians in Canada, and thus to what degree are these trends reflective of overall trends with respect to Christianity or religion as opposed to something specific to the Anglican Church of Canada?

Many people have attempted to answer these questions, and provide many different, often conflicting, reasons. Based on this demographic report, there can be some broad generalizations taken, the first of which is that the status of religion in Canada has changed generationally. When you look at the trends not just among Anglicanism, but among all religions in Canada, there is a clear shift. In Quebec, for instance, the Quiet Revolution saw the role of the Roman Catholic Church dramatically scaled back in public life. While affiliation with Roman Catholicism remains strong in Quebec according to Statistics Canada, attendance is only a tiny fraction of that, particularly in larger cities, while in some more rural communities, the role of the Church remains much more central. Most Christian churches have observed decline to some degree over the same period. The Roman Catholic Church has not suffered the same, though much of this seems to relate to immigration rates rather than continued births, baptisms and retention of youths into adulthood. Non-Christian religions such as Islam and Hinduism have gone from non-existent to representing several per cent of the population, and notably Islam is a significantly younger religion in terms of adherents. In 2010, the average Muslim was only 28 while the average Anglican was in their mid-forties.

This overall trend suggests a significant decline in the role of religion in Canadian public life, and a broader cultural dissatisfaction with religion as a whole, rather than Christianity in particular, by assimilated Westerners.

For good reason, when examining demographic changes in the church, a significant emphasis is placed on youth, and particularly on Millennials. Millennials is a term that has come to supplant Generation Y to denote the age cohort that follows Generation X. While there are no fixed absolute dates, it generally refers to those born from the mid-1980s to the 2000s, and thus today those who are in their teens and twenties.

They represent a generation that was less likely to have been brought up religiously, though there may have been some cultural attachment to a given church (they were baptised or christened at birth, but attend only for Christmas or Easter, or possibly in some other capacity with their grandparents rather than regularly with their parents).

That taken into account, the largest exposure to Christianity many Millennials receive would therefore be from popular media. Popular media, particularly in Canada where much of our media consumption is American, has two popular depictions of Christianity. First, the hypocritical, fire and brimstone Evangelical Fundamentalist and second the paedophile Roman Catholic priest.

The first challenge in the demographic decline is in overcoming preconceived notions of Church and being inviting towards Millennials.

Even among those who are brought up in faith, there is a greater tendency to leave the Church in the teenage years or adulthood. Pew Research has done a number of polls in the United States which show significantly higher scepticism towards religion in the United States among young people compared to previous generations. Scepticism of this sort can easily overcome poor theology, or even simple questions to which priests or youth leaders are ill-equipped to answer.

The second challenge therefore is overcoming the theology gap. In a society in which we are all bombarded with secularism and marketing half-truths, it requires a solid theology and a clear catechetical strategy to ensure that theology is transmitted to youth.

Contained within these two challenges are countless ways in which the Church and commentators have identified issues and proposed solutions to demographic decline. From the desire to be more modern or trendy, to changing theological demands in order to be responsive to modern sensibilities, to changing Church architecture.

The next few weeks will further explore some of these issues and some possible ways forward.