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<\/a>My friend and colleague, Kevin Martin<\/a>, achieves \u201cOnion<\/em>-esque\u201d success at his blogspot with a satire that raises a serious question.\u00a0 What happens when we transplant liturgical acts and sacraments from sacred space to the public domain?<\/p>\nBaptismal Font Goes on the Move<\/strong><\/p>\n
Even though heavily endowed, Grace Memorial Episcopal Church in Kelso, Ohio, a town just outside of Columbus is facing hard times.\u00a0\u00a0The Rector, an Assisting Priest, and a Deacon have only three remaining Church members.\u00a0\u00a0That is when the Reverend Alice Fairweather and her staff got an idea on how to reach out to others.\u00a0\u00a0At the beginning of Lent In 2012, the staff took to the streets of Kelso to offer ashes to anyone who wished them.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThis January, as we prepared for the Sunday that remembers the baptism of Jesus, we realized we should do the same only this time with the baptismal font,\u201d said the Rector Fairweather.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWe removed the silver bowl lining from the stone font, blessed the water and headed downtown to our main intersection.\u00a0\u00a0We wanted to offer baptism to anyone who wanted it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The staff faced an immediate crisis because the temperature was so cold the water started to freeze.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThat is when we headed to the Tri-Cities Mall,\u201d said Art Dunning, the Deacon of the congregation.\u00a0\u00a0The group moved to the fountain inside the Mall\u2019s rotunda and set up a sign declaring \u201cFree Baptism for Anyone.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The group\u00a0\u00a0drew a crowd, but at first folks were reluctant to step forward.\u00a0\u00a0Finally Jimmy Dietsel, \u201dMoonshine\u201d to his friends, a 17 year old son of lapsed Roman Catholics stepped forward and asked to be baptized if he could do it while standing on his skate board.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cAt first I thought it was some kind of joke,\u201d laughed the heavily tattooed Dietsel, \u201cbut they even blessed the skateboard.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0According to Jimmy, the experience was \u201ccool.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the end of the day, nine people had stepped up and received baptism.\u00a0\u00a0Unusually, Margo Schwartz, a member of Beth-el Temple in Kelso, accepted the invitation.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI felt bad for the folks, all dressed up in their special clothes and all and no one coming forward,\u201d Schwartz declared.\u00a0\u00a0So I asked myself, \u201cWhat would Moses do? And I went right up to the fond.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rev. Fairweather poured the water over Margo with the words \u201cMay the Holy One fill you with new life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was sweet,\u201d said Margo, \u201cbut then Sparky started barking.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Sparky is Margo\u2019s purse size Chihuahua.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cSo I asked if Sparky could be baptized too.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWhy not,\u201d said Fairweather. \u201cSparky is one of God\u2019s creation.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Sparky seemed to enjoy it all and after a few shakes of the head, ducked back inside Margo\u2019s purse. Deacon Dunning explained that \u201cWe are a very welcoming and inclusive community and baptizing Sparky seemed like the right thing to do at that time.\u00a0\u00a0After all, many churches do animal blessings and there really isn\u2019t much difference if you think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the aftermath of the mobile baptism, there has been some controversy.\u00a0\u00a0The Rev. Harold Glummer, long time pastor of First Lutheran in Kelso said, \u201cI think the whole thing was ridiculous.\u00a0\u00a0Maybe Grace Church should change its name to Cheap Grace Church.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0This was a reference to an obscure 20th<\/sup>\u00a0Century theologian.\u00a0\u00a0The Rev. Fairweather however was undaunted.\u00a0\u00a0In a later written statement she said, \u201cThere are and always have been reactionary people in the religious community that resist change.\u00a0\u00a0In the Episcopal Church, we had those who disliked our 79 Prayer Book, then women\u2019s ordination, then same sex blessing.\u00a0\u00a0We can\u2019t let such people stop us from doing what is right.\u201d\u00a0\u201cBesides\u201d, Fairweather added, \u201cJohn the Baptist, and Jesus and his disciples didn\u2019t sit around in churches and wait for people to come to them.\u00a0\u00a0They went out in the world and baptized anyone who wanted it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some people questioned the appropriate use of Tri-Cities Mall, a secular retail center, as venue for the event.\u00a0\u00a0When asked, Joe Marshall, the Mall\u2019s manager said, \u201cAt first we weren\u2019t sure what to do, but then Rev. Fairweather pointed out that this was a spiritual act and not a religious one, so we let it go on.\u00a0\u00a0It really drew a crowd after a while and it seemed good for business.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Mr. Marshall did not say whether such events would be encouraged for the future.<\/p>\n
The Rt. Rev. Sydney Atwater, Episcopal Bishop of Central Ohio, was asked his take on all this.\u00a0\u00a0In a statement released by his diocesan office, Bishop Atwater, who was attending a House of Bishop\u2019s meeting in the South of France dealing with \u201cGod\u2019s Mission and Global Hunger, was quoted as saying, \u201cI commend the leadership of Grace Memorial for their creative action and I have called for a taskforce of key Diocesan leadership to study ways that this action of inclusiveness could be extended to other congregations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although none of the nine people receiving baptism (nor Sparky) indicated any interest in attending services at Grace Memorial, all felt that the baptism was a good thing to do.\u00a0\u00a0Bishop Atwater also noted that, \u201cNine new baptized persons in one day was the largest number of baptism at one service in the Diocese since 1988.\u00a0\u00a0In addition, the baptized membership of Grace increased over 300% in one day.\u00a0\u00a0Now that is a story of a real miracle and is exactly the kind of mission activity that The Episcopal Church needs to rebuild our membership at a time when so many are disillusioned with the Church\u2019s seemingly irrelevance to society,\u201d Bishop Atwater\u2019s concluded.<\/p>\n
When I first read Kevin\u2019s post, I confess that it took me a while to realize that it was a satire.\u00a0 I\u2019ve become so accustomed to the gimmickry of modern church life that it struck me as the predictable next step in our flailing efforts to connect with the world.\u00a0 Of course that is also the story\u2019s genius. \u00a0Kevin pushes the boundary between the plausible and the implausible and he just hard enough to help us weigh where we are going and what we have already done in taking Lenten ashes to the street.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So, why not take ashes, the baptismal font, and the Eucharist to the street?<\/p>\n
One<\/em>, our failure to draw people into the life of the church has nothing to do with the way that we worship.\u00a0 What keeps The Episcopal Church from connecting with the world is self-satisfied classism; ice cold, clubby parishes; and an absence of deep, spiritually engaging preaching.\u00a0 Those are the problems that we need to tackle.<\/p>\n
Two, taking the liturgy to the street without the context of a baptized, worshipping community, renders the liturgical acts meaningless, if not bizarre.\u00a0 Liturgy is not the work of<\/em> the people.\u00a0 It is the work given to <\/em>the people \u2014 by God \u2014 as<\/em> the Body of Christ.\u00a0 From baptism to the funeral rite, the church\u2019s liturgy is meant to initiate people into that Body and nurture them in the life of Christ.\u00a0 Take those acts out of context and they cease to mean what they were meant to mean.\u00a0 As a friend of mine observed, \u201cJust think.\u00a0 The one symbol the church is taking to the street isn\u2019t a symbol of reconciliation or resurrection.\u00a0 It\u2019s the sign of our mortality, \u2018momento mori<\/em>, remember you will die.\u2019\u00a0 What are you supposed to do with that information in the absence of the rest of the message?\u201d<\/p>\n
And then there are the troubling, unintended consequences.\u00a0 Those who favor the practice argue that the Ashes to Go connects the church with the world. I doubt it.\u00a0 To be sure, there will be a person who occasionally says something endearing or appreciative.\u00a0 But when we dispense ashes or sacraments like a flyer or candy from a pez dispenser we aren\u2019t saying, \u201cPaying attention to God can change your life.\u201d\u00a0 Instead we are saying, \u201cYou don\u2019t need to stop, or slow down.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need to give your spiritual life focused attention, and the shape of the redeemed life has nothing to do with the Body of Christ.\u00a0 Carry on, go to work.\u00a0 What we are handing out here is just a little something to send you on your way, which makes us feel just a little more relevant. \u00a0We\u2019ll see you at the mall.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which, of course, is where America already lives and worships.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My friend and colleague, Kevin Martin, achieves \u201cOnion-esque\u201d success at his blogspot with a satire that raises a serious question.\u00a0 What happens when we transplant liturgical acts and sacraments from sacred space to the public domain? Baptismal Font Goes on the Move Even though heavily endowed, Grace Memorial Episcopal Church in Kelso, Ohio, a town […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":240,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,131,101,16,78,17,115,69],"tags":[166,167,169,168],"class_list":["post-1352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-god","category-lent","category-spiritual-direction","category-spiritual-disciplines-2","category-spiritual-perspectives","category-the-episcopal-church","category-worship","tag-ash-wednesday","tag-ashes-to-go","tag-kevin-martin","tag-liturgy"],"yoast_head":"\n
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Schmidt, Jr. is inaugural holder of the Rueben P. Job Chair in Spiritual Formation and a Senior Scholar at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL. He is also Vice Rector at Good Shepherd, Brentwood, TN; an Episcopal Priest; spiritual director; retreat facilitator; conference leader; and writer. He is the author of numerous published articles and reviews, as well as several books: A Still Small Voice: Women, Ordination and the Church (Syracuse University Press, 1998), The Changing Face of God (Morehouse, 2000), When Suffering Persists (Morehouse, 2001), in Italian translation: Sofferenza, All ricerca di una riposta (Torino: Claudiana, 2004), What God Wants for Your Life \ufeff(Harper, 2005), Conversations with Scripture: Revelation (Morehouse, 2005), \ufeffConversations with Scripture: Luke \ufeff(Morehouse, 2009), and The Dave Test (Abingdon, 2013). He and his wife, Natalie (who is also an Episcopal priest), live in Arrington, TN. 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