Councils & Conventions: The Purpose of National Church Gatherings

July 7, 2022 By Frederick Schmidt

As he was leaving for the Episcopal Church’s General Convention one of our bishops posted the thoughts of a bishop attending the Convention more than a century ago: In the coming Convention, questions of policy will be discussed, and strong conviction may express itself in strong terms. Superficial lookers-on may talk about our factions. The secular newspapers are not unlikely to regard the debates and votes as recording the triumph of one side over another. They mistakenly regard the Church... Read more

America Needs the Test Pattern

June 30, 2022 By Frederick Schmidt

Looking back, it is hard to believe that America ever had a test pattern. It was “a test card created by RCA of Harrison, New Jersey, for calibration of the RCA TK-1 monoscope. It features a drawing of a Native American wearing a headdress and numerous graphic elements designed to test different aspects of broadcast display. The card was introduced in 1939 and over the course of the black-and-white television broadcasting era was widely adopted by television stations across North America.” I am quoting here because I only understand in general terms... Read more

Written on Our Innards and Our Hearts

June 26, 2022 By Frederick Schmidt

…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23) When I was teaching in Dallas, I used to take seminarians for a week-long experience at a Benedictine monastery in Shawnee, Oklahoma. For almost all... Read more

The Church, the Future, and the Vow of Stability

June 23, 2022 By Frederick Schmidt

In March, the Pew Foundation reported on trends in church attendance: …attendance at in-person services – which grew steadily from July 2020 through September 2021 – has plateaued, as has the share of adults watching religious services online or on TV. In July 2020, roughly four months after COVID-19 upended life in America, 13% of U.S. adults reported having attended religious services in person during the previous month. That figure rose to 17% in March 2021 and then to 26% in September... Read more

Theology and the Church

June 13, 2022 By Frederick Schmidt

Rowan Williams argues that there are three approaches to theology: the “celebratory,” the “communicative,” and the “critical.”[i] The “celebratory” is the “attempt to draw out and display connections of thought and image so as to exhibit the fullest possible range of significance in the language used. It is typically the language of hymnody and preaching,” but it can also be found in the work of Dante and Langland, Byzantine iconography, and some of “the more intelligent modern choruses.”[ii] Williams... Read more

Does theology really matter?

June 8, 2022 By Frederick Schmidt

Recently my own denomination has been roiled by debate over whether we should extend Communion (or the Eucharist) to the unbaptized. There has been a surprising amount of energy around the issue, and people have weighed in on both sides of the argument. Inevitably, there have been those who have appealed to the state of the world as a justification for setting aside the church’s theology, which restricts the Eucharist to those who are baptized. Others have made the... Read more

Pentecost in the Twenty-First Century

June 6, 2022 By Frederick Schmidt

Sadao Watanabe (1913-1996) When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them... Read more

An Atheist Responds to Open Communion

June 2, 2022 By Frederick Schmidt

I am not an atheist, but as the debate in my own denomination begins to heat up around the issue of “open communion”, I have wondered what an atheist or agnostic would make of it. Here is how I imagine that someone with some knowledge about the debate, but without connection or affection for the church’s message might respond. Dear Mainline Protestants: I can’t help but notice you are debating what you call “open communion”. I’ve watched you make... Read more

Evil and the Witness to Divine Love

May 29, 2022 By Frederick Schmidt

“Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:25-26) The message of Scripture and the message of John’s Gospel – in particular – is that God loves us more than we love ourselves that that we... Read more

The Dogma & Vocation of the Church

May 27, 2022 By Frederick Schmidt

“…he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father” There is a school of thought that argues the church is unnecessarily obsessed with dogma. Christianity is a way of life, not a body of beliefs – so the argument goes. And, for that reason, there are those who think that the Nicene Creed should be cut from our liturgy. Emphasize the experience, set aside the unnecessary, distracting theology. There are countless problems with this kind... Read more