The Episcopal Split: From Both Sides     

Rev. Rick Wright, Assistant Rector of The Falls Church in Falls Church, VA, whose congregation has voted to secede from the Episcopal Church/USA

Rev. John Ohmer, Rector of St. James Episcopal Church in Leesburg, VA, whose congregation has wrestled with many of the same issues, but remains a part of the Episcopal Church

In this conversation, Rev. Rick Wright laid out what he sees as a broadly conceived set of theological issues that led eleven local congregation to secede from the Episcopal Church/USA.  These include: the nature of Christianity as a “revealed” faith, the authority of the Bible, and the role of Jesus Christ as the sole savior of the world.  He agreed that the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson, an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire, was important in this process of theological questioning.  But he said that his congregation was more troubled by what he regards as the inadequate response of the U.S. Episcopal Convention in to the requests of the Anglican Communion in this matter.

Rev. John Ohmer focused on the consecration of a gay bishop, and the election of Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori as the first woman Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, as the key issues precipitating the split.  And although he said there was some “squishy” theology in part of the Episcopal Church, he said that any contention that his church, or most of the Episcopal world, were not orthodox Christians, was simply not true.  It was painting with too broad a brush.

Rev. Wright said that some of the eleven seceding churches had had women clergy, but he acknowledged that the elevation of a woman as presiding bishop was problematic for some.  But he maintained that gay issues and women’s issues were not at the core of the struggle.  

After initial theological wrestling, Revs. Ohmer and Wright discussed the issues stemming from the seceding churches’ association with Nigeria, the interaction of theology and culture, and the issues swirling around who owns the church properties of the eleven churches. 

Both see this struggle as ongoing, with national and international implications. 

The Challenges of Keeping Kosher in Today’s World

Nigel Savage, founder and director of Hazon, a Jewish environmental education organization

Anna Stevenson, “Jews, Food & Contemporary Life” Curriculum Project Manager

Living and eating Kosher is a hard issue for Jews in our society. Kosher literally means “fit:” fit for consumption, fit for a lifestyle rooted in faith, history and family. Today’s environmentalism, for example, heightens our awareness of what we eat and how we make food and life choices. Nigel Savage and Anna Stephenson of Hazon, a Jewish environmental education group in New York, are working to answer some of the contemporary questions about Jewish lifestyle in a new educational workbook for youth and young adults.    

Nigel Savage, who was a participant in our April 2006 Conversation on the Common Good about lifestyle and materialism, is a former banker who found a place for an environmentalist’s insight in the burgeoning Jewish Renewal movement and has earned a place at the table for his efforts – and brought a movable feast with him!

In the interview, Nigel and Anna discuss ways that kosher law is being upended or overridden by the availability of so many different foods and tastes, and by new ethical considerations.  A kosher slaughterhouse, for example, may keep all the rules for meat, but the very sight of it can drive some Jews to a vegetarian ethic.  Soy-based “bacon” may be kosher, but is it OK, with all its preservatives? 

Hazon’s new blog on Jewish food and lifestyle, The Jew and the Carrot, is online at http://www.jcarrot.org.  Thanks to the website that helped us find this piece: http://www.jewschool.com. Both sites are useful and worth checking out.

The Interfaith Movement to Cancel the Debts of Poor Nations in 2007: a Sabbath Year

Alexander D. Baumgarten, a member of the Board of Jubilee USA, the leader of international policy advocacy for the Episcopal Church, and the co-author of God’s Mission in the World: An Ecumenical Study Guide on Global Poverty and the Millennium Development Goals.

Hundreds of faith-based groups are part of a movement to cancel the debts of the poor nations of the earth.  Alexander D. Baumgarten said that many of these debts were accrued in unjust ways, and now the poor of many nations are faced with paying them back, and they have no means to do so.  He noted that the Jubilee campaign in the year 2000 produced some debt cancellations, and that these work.  Many nations, such as Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique, have been able to devote real resources to alleviating poverty, rather than paying off debts.

In 2007, a Sabbath Year, he said that the movement will organize and lobby legislators to provide debt relief to 65+ nations that have still not experienced debt cancellation.