This Gifted Moment

J. Philip Newell

“We are witnessing the seismic collapse of Western Christianity,” Philip Newell said recently at a conference in Denver. “What new birthing are be being invited to?” Rev. Dr. J. Philip Newell, a leading scholar of Celtic spirituality, was the Warden of Iona Abbey and is a Church of Scotland minister.

Newell estimates that his own church, the Church of Scotland, will be extinct in 25 years or less. This wave of decline has already swept through Canada and is rapidly taking root in the United States. I’ve had numerous conversations with pastors who are finding it increasingly difficult to pay the bills and keep the church lights on.

Along side this decline, we are experiencing a gifted moment, a moment of grace. From every human discipline there is a growing understanding of the essential interrelatedness of the whole of life. What we do to a part, we do to the whole. Our well-being flows from connection, not separation. Our posture needs to be one of presence, not ideology.

The prayer book used by Denver Peace, A New Zealand Prayer Book, phrases it like this:

Let us be aware of the source of being that is common to us all and to all living beings. Realizing that we are all nourished from the same source of life, may we so live that others be not deprived of air, food, water, shelter, or the chance to live.

How will Christians serve this moment? Will we take a humble place as part of the essential interrelatedness of the whole of life or will we react in fear with ever stronger ossified forms of fundamentalism.

Newell specifically mentioned some things that will not serve this moment.

Separating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons from the source of being common to us all will no longer serve this moment. The refusal to recognize that we all have a sexual orientation by protecting one sexual orientation will not serve this emerging consciousness. It will only speed along the collapse of the church.

Separating our faith from other faiths that share the source of being common to us all will no longer serve this moment. The refusal to recognize that we can learn from other faiths to strengthen and clarify our own tradition will only speed along the collapse of the church.

Separating ourselves from nature, our bodies and our sexuality will no longer serve this moment.

Tall steeples, spectator worship and hierarchical church structures will no longer serve this moment where people want to look deep within for the ground of being common to us all and then open up transformed to love their neighbor.

We are in an era that is about the holiness of wholeness, not the holiness of separation.

Will the church serve this gifted moment, this moment of grace?