Authority is fictive. Obedience is real.
Authority is always conferred upon the one exercising it by those who choose to obey it. A monarch with only rebellious subjects, or with no subjects at all, possesses no real authority, but only a title. Reality, after all, is composed of relationships, not substances. A conductor without an orchestra may still fancy himself a conductor, but will make no music. What, after all, is music when it is not being played? Authority is granted reality by those who obey it.
Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
Another encore from a few years ago: Symphonic Poem #2 — Two of them were walking.
Think Ralph Vaughn Williams meets the Klezmatics... and enjoy, as Jesus vanishes from their sight.
Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
MP3 File
An "encore" from a few years back. A musical meditation on the Stations of the Cross. Themes of the Passion hymns are woven together with impressions of the mockery of the crowds, as the Servant King makes the perfect offering of himself for the salvation of the world. Drawing its musical inspiration from fractured versions of traditional Paschal hymnody, but culminating in a hopeful realization of O Traurigkeit:
O Jesus blest, my help and rest
with tears I pray thee, hear me;
now, and even unto death,
dearest Lord, be near me.
—Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
performed by the Garritan Orchestra and the East West Symphonic Choir
MP3 File
The Canadian Anglican Bishops have affirmed the standing tradition on the question of receiving communion prior to baptism. I am not particularly surprised by this affirmation. I continue to find the logic of the traditional sequence to be persuasive, in spite of the emotional appeal of the contrary position. I am much more supportive of the efforts to link baptism with eucharistic participation -- a movement not aided by our current BCP's awkward placement of the Peace so as to interrupt the flow directly into the Prayers of the People — participation in which is historically as much a sign of incorporation in the body of the faithful as the rest of the Eucharist. (This was anciently the turning point at which the catechumens were dismissed from the mysteries.)
I've rehearsed elsewhere how we have come to this pickle, in terms of up-playing the Eucharist precisely in a time when a larger number of un-baptized persons are likely to be in attendance in churches; downplaying such liturgies as Morning Prayer at which all are clearly welcome; and emphasizing formation for baptism and making it more intentional than it was in earlier days, when it was simply expected that the baby would be done. With all of these changes, like the Red Queen we need to hasten if only to stay in the same place! If that is what we want, of course... But if we are going to change, let us look at the big picture, and not tinker.
Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
People who desire that all would do as they do find it hard to understand that there are people who do not wish so to impose their wills on others. They imagine that those they would control must have the same desire to control them. They live in a world of categorical imperatives run amok, a world impoverished by reflected intolerance of difference. It is a world in which all things are required rather than some being allowed, an inorganic and artificial world of uniformity and not of lively unity-in-diversity.
Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
I've had several thoughts in reaction to Archbishop Okoh's latest rant.
If procreation is the cornerstone of society, then celibacy is as much of a threat to the world as same-sex marriage.
Such scant attention to the place that celibacy plays in the teaching of Jesus and Paul, and in the history of the church and the world — and his failure to connect with the even more important imagery of adoption that runs through the Scripture, including
the foster-fatherhood of Joseph for the Holy Child himself! — offers little to commend in Okoh's understanding. Monasticism preserved much of the world's wisdom during times when the fertility- and inheritance-driven royal families of Europe were laying waste to it. Saying that the
biological family is the cornerstone of civilization is simply a
falsehood. A better case can be made for monasticism.
It also strikes me that Okoh has misplaced accusations of selfishness and hedonism which he attributes to gay and lesbian persons. Many gay and lesbian Christian couples spend more time and wealth on the church, or on raising children not their own biological offspring, instead of raising their own flesh and blood. Which is more "selfish" in the long run?
Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
h/t to the Episcopal Café
The Church Times of London has produced a very good and helpful (imho) document discussing the relative merits and weaknesses of the Anglican Covenant. It offers many sides of the debate, from thoughtful people across the spectrum, or at least the visible wavelengths.
(It is a fairly slow download, so be patient. I had trouble reaching it in Firefox and so bowed the knee to Gates and switched to Internet Explorer just for this.)
The last section is an "annotated" Covenant that looks vaguely Talmudic, which appeals to me!
Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
When addressing controverted subjects, we are called to
look back on the Scriptural text for guidance in dealing with things about which those texts are themselves silent. The issue is not, "What
would they have said?" on a topic about which they did not speak; but
rather, "What do we say based on what those texts say about other
things, using natural reason and knowledge gained since their writing to
interpret old texts for new principles."
This is not about any new revelation. As one important story from
rabbinic history shows: Revelation is now closed, but interpretation is
open -- even a voice from heaven, even from God, cannot contravene the findings of the
living interpretative community because, "It [i.e., the Law] is not in
heaven" -- that is, God has given the Scripture to the people of God and
it is up to us to wrestle with it.
People may well disagree about the outcomes of the wrestling match. And the question, "What Would Jesus Do?" is not entirely out of place, but
has to be asked by positing Jesus not of his time, but as he is with us
in our time -- as I believe he is, in his church, through his Spirit,
which is now engaged in addressing challenges he did not address in
those earlier days. There is no new revelation, but there is always new
understanding.
Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
Friday the 25th of March will be the 100th anniversary of one of the
most terrible and tragic events in New York history, the deadly fire at
the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Most of those who perished in the fire,
or leaped to their deaths rather than burn, were young immigrant women
making a paltry wage in conditions best described as poor; 146 died in
the flames and smoke, or on the pavement below. Witnesses at the time
were helpless to do anything more than listen to the distant screams and
the dull, repeated thuds of the falling bodies as they struck the
street. It is a horror that led to changed laws governing safety, and
spurred the growth of the labor movement.
In the midst of the tragedies of today, it is good to remember those of
the past. In the face of injustices and inequalities, and the
exploitation of workers in substandard circumstances at home and abroad,
it is even better to do something positive, and to be well-informed
about those who make the goods we purchase, who grow the food we eat,
who care for us and those we love.
Let us do justice, love mercy, walk with God in our sisters and
brothers, for as we do to the least of them we do to the greatest of
all.
Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
The Kheel Center at Cornell University has a superb online exhibit and resources about the tragedy.
C S Lewis once observed that those who have been most effective in this world are those whose hearts were set on the next. There is a destinationalism, an unrealized eschatology, at the heart of our yearning for God, to whom our earthly quest Godward is always and must be asymptotic. God forbid we should put our craft in the place of God. (As Lewis also reminds us, God has forbidden it!)
Anglicanism as it has been at its most effective in this world will never appeal to those who want an object rather than a process, who want final answers instead of follow-up questions, arrival instead of journey, the bonds rather than the affection. As with the Christian faith itself, our particular take in Anglicanism is a Way. Efforts to fix it in static forms rob it of its vitality, its life.
Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
Episcopal Church and the Visual Arts has opened a Lenten gallery "Word and Example" and one of my "rapid icons" (a technique I use in teaching iconography as a means to seeing what is to express what might be) forms what might be called "the last Word."
The icon is called, "The widow waits for justice." She is the widow who persists in knocking at the judge's door, and will not give up until her righteous claims are recognized and met.
The model for this icon is the African-American actor Ruth Attaway. I had the pleasure of working with her many years ago when I designed the lighting and took the company and production photographs for the Theatre Off Park production of Harlem poet Owen Dodson's The Confession Stone — a powerful retelling of the story of Christ through the lens of the African-American culture and tradition. Ruth, whom some may recall from her role as housekeeper to Chance (Peter Sellers) in Being There, played Mary Magdalene at the age of 86, still keeping witness, still waiting to join her Lord and God. Her fierce characterization struck me as so suitable as the subject of this icon, written late last year. Ruth died some years back, in a fire in her apartment building in Harlem. She too has joined her Lord and God, and if she waits for justice, it is the justice we all await, tempered with the mercy of God.
Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
Mark Vernon's Guardian column has a great catchline at the head, and while the article as a whole doesn't quite live up to the pugnacity and poignancy of the slug, it is well worth reading. The catchline or slug is,
Why do we have such an unbalanced attitude to doubt, demanding certainty where there is none, and pretending to doubt what everyone knows?This got me thinking about the level of certainty with which some approach the question of same-sex marriage: they are completely sure it is ruled out by Scripture, in spite of the fact that the evidence is indirect and circumstantial (that is, the Scripture does not rule out SSM in so many words, unlike, for instance Sifra on Aharei Mot in the Jewish tradition); and yet they take a very chary attitude towards the evidence of the experience of those who live in or witness the evident virtues of such longstanding relationships, and dismiss it as if living "experience" were somehow less reliable than their just-possible interpretation of ancient documents, venerable though that interpretation may be.
“a clear-sighted companion.... If you are passionate about the vitality of today’s church, I encourage you to accompany him on his mystagogical excursion into the liturgical landscape. You will rediscover a familiar place rife with fresh provisions planted by the God who longs to feed our deepest hungers and hopes.” —Jay Koyle, chair, Faith, Worship and Ministry of The Anglican Church of Canada
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