September 23, 2004
Name
The keynoter at a clergy conference started out, “I am a member of no organized religion. I am an Episcopalian.”
For one reason or another, a lot of folk have stripped the name “Episcopal” off their church signs. It’s supposed to be some sort of message. Maybe it is that they actually want to be a member of an organized religion. Forgiving the redundancy (religion’s a cognate with ligament which is about as organized as a body can be), I’d say, Welcome. Maybe they’ve done a good thing for the wrong reason. We might do well to set aside religion for a while in favor of just being church, and they might as well take it with them.
Episcopal is not such a hot name for a church, anyway. We don’t baptize people as Episcopalians or ordain them as Episcopal whatevers. Our name, of course, suggests that we lay a lot of stock in bishops, supers, tenant farmers (vintners, if you prefer). Maybe even shepherd is a kinder and more hopeful way of looking at it.
A friend and colleague of mine thought so and put it well when he wrote, “The Episcopal Church will do well to make the powerful symbol of the Good Shepherd come alive in the daily ministry of her bishops… repudiating those who take license to dictate some personal agenda… calling and electing only those who would be shepherd, pastor, and conservator of the very doctrine, discipline, and worship that makes it possible for them to hold office.”
I haven’t known of any of those deleters — virtual or real — yet to take any such a notion very seriously.