The Union's Perfection

To continue from last week: 

"It was as if the framers said we want "a church," we just want it to get its authority from somewhere other than a crown, or a senate, or a congress, or a president.  We want a citizen's church and even better, citizens' churches!  

Disestablishment and free exercise together are the germ of the American Experiment. The framers gave the world a gift.  I think we are still unwrapping it."

Part of how I am unwrapping this gift is to struggle with many different ways in which religious leaders exercise their freedoms of speech, of assembly and of petition.

I have been a member of the Poor People's Campaign for nearly four years.  The Rev. William Barber is the principal of this movement and some of you will remember his address at the Democratic Convention that nominated Hillary Clinton. The heart of our democracy needs defibrillation!

Many scoffed and some questioned the appropriateness of his inclusion in the agenda of that 2016 partisan event.   And I have heard from more than one such critic that it's hard to hear his address and not be stirred.  Many have admitted and without cynicism I among them, that the weakest part of his address was his call to support Hillary.   I'm pretty sure that was part of how his being on stage was negotiated.

I'm also among those who understand his call -- read, petition -- as larger than a political convention.  That's where all citizens' churches are at their best.  No matter our stripes -- Christian, Buddhist, Islamic, Sikh, or no religion at all -- when:

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. . ."

It is a calling larger than our differences be they ethnic, denominational, political, economic, etc!  It is exactly the calling our first amendment intends for "citizens' churches" to sound.

How ironic that one of the greatest tests of our "American religions" is not found in any scripture. The Preamble of our Constitution as it sets forth the intent of government forces us and all churches to consider, deeply, how we are engaged in that effort to form a more perfect union.

In this era of perpetual campaigning it is nearly impossible for a "petition of the government" to be viewed as a non-partisan effort. But no matter our stripes -- political or denominational -- it is surely proper for "clergy" to petition our government and to join the civic -- sadly, not always civil -- discourse that our framers intended for all of its citizens to join.  And we join not to silence any voice especially those of other faiths or those who have no faith.  We, with them, join so that all speech is free, so that all assemblies are safe, and so that our government hears the petitions of all.

We are still unpacking this gift.  TBTG, we may never finish.

The Citizens' Church

It has been obvious to many of you that there is more to my previous occasions of writing about colonial history and the intersection of church and state.  The history has been interesting and I always enjoy the ironies, especially those that accompany my story of becoming an Episcopalian and a priest to boot. 

The story behind these histories is that of the necessity and effect of the First Amendment.  Unlicensed preachers being jailed, pulpits used to pronounce rebellion, towns providing for all denominations to worship, churches purchasing and remodeling courthouses for worship each expose a piece of that dynamic peculiar to colonial and post colonial life in our country.

Here's what was written in 1787:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

It's worth remembering that the same authority that jailed those Baptist preachers was exactly what the first clause of the amendment removes.  Until the War for Independence the Church of England, more specifically the Bishop of London was responsible for religious life in the lower colonies.  The C of E was established in Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia.  Taxes paid for clergy to serve as rectors and vicars.   

Once the war was over there was no more C of E in the states.  An already strained system that could not provide adequate clergy leadership before the war was now decimated by the loss of loyalists priests who returned home or translated to other British holdings like Canada.  But the hope of the church to foster a civic -- not always civil -- attention to and practice of moral judgement and behavior was not lost. 

The second clause of the amendment reorders the authority of the church to its constituent members by protecting their right to choose to which religion they as citizens will adhere.  The free of "free exercise" is that of each citizen.  Religion is not free, churches aren't free, we are free. 

From that first freedom, augmented by those of speech, of the press, of assembly, and of petition the church's authority is reordered, not removed.  Ours is no longer a state church with bishops retiring to the House of Lords but a citizen's church now capable of moral leadership in a new nation. 

It was as if the framers said we want "a church," we just want it to get its authority from somewhere other than a crown, or a senate, or a congress, or a president.  We want a citizen's church and even better citizens' churches! 

Disestablishment and free exercise together are the germ of the American Experiment. The framers gave the world a gift.  I think we are still unwrapping it.

The Town's Chapel

The building that was home to Beale Memorial Baptist Church was Essex County's second courthouse.  The Baptists purchased it from the county which had already occupied a newer structure.  A tower, bell and steeple were added to the front and remain to this day although the congregation has moved away to a new lot and buildings a mile north on the "the Tidewater Trail."

When those earliest Baptist preachers were jailed and tried for the offense of preaching without license the person who brought charges against them was the rector of the parish, then known as South Farnham Parish, Upper Piscataway and Lower Piscataway. 

From the history of St. John's Parish Church:

2. With roots in a church of the 1660s, known as Piscataway, the established colonial (Anglican) church presence in South Farnham Parish/Essex County (1683) comprised two sites, Upper and Lower Piscataway. At the time of the Revolution, the rector, Rev. Alexander Cruden, a Scotsman true to his oath of loyalty to the Crown, returned to England in 1776, leaving the parish “without benefit of clergy.” In 1785, with the organization of the successor Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, the parish sent two delegates as its representatives. In 1791, Andrew Syme, tutor to the Brockenbroughs, a local family, was persuaded to be ordained; he served as rector for two years, followed by a hiatus of twenty years or more, climaxing in 1802 with the seizure by Virginia of glebes and other church properties of the former established church. Revival seems to date from the coming from Maryland of the dynamic leader, Richard Channing Moore, as second bishop of Virginia. In 1817, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Henley deeded a lot on the edge of Tappahannock to be used as an interdenominational house of worship, to be known as Tappahannock Chapel (referred to variously over the years as the Town Chapel, the Free Chapel, etc.). Grantees of the deed were the Protestant Episcopal Church and Episcopalians were given the lead role and use, but not to the exclusion of other denominations: it was to be open also, in order, to “Baptist, Methodist & then to the Presbyterians” in that order. 

The "Town Chapel" was built and until St. John's had their own structure, begun in 1849 Episcopalians shared a worship space with "Baptist, Methodist & then to the Presbyterians” in that order." 

By 1967 just about every denomination had a place of worship, including the Seventh Day Adventists who staffed the only hospital in the county.

St. John's Episcopal Church was the place of my first experience of prayer book worship.  A community wide inter-racial youth group formed under the leadership of Father Daniel Montague gathered there to plan activities including highway trash clean-ups, fund raising for Project Hope, performing a version of Jesus Christ Superstar and most importantly defusing the tensions that rose out of and made desegregation of the schools so difficult.

We were idealistic and hopeful and determined at the very least to "get along."  We did more than that and our reunions are evidence.  But our conversations are tinged with sadness that so much still remains to be done.

Baptists jailed by Anglicans, Episcopalians and Baptists using the same interdenominational chapel, Episcopalians hosting a Baptist's preacher's son at Evening Prayer.  What next?

The Baptists' Arrest

It was March 13, 1774 when John Waller of nearby Spotsylvania County was arrested along with John Shackleford, Robert Ware and Ivison Lewis for preaching without license and jailed in Essex County. The very building where their pleas were heard became the nave of what was Centennial Baptist Church in 1875, later to be renamed in memory of long-time pastor Frank Brown Beale.

Beale Memorial Baptist Church was my father's last full-time pastorate from 1967 to 1978.  The county seat, Tappahannock was the town where I attended high school.

That snippet of history is meant to trigger more a sense of irony than anything else.  The town and parish in which I was first and most positively exposed to Episcopal ways had once imprisoned men who were my father's predecessors.  Indeed the person who brought charges against these men was the rector of what became St. John's parish!

I'm still grateful for how my life has turned; not simply away from Baptist ways but into a larger frame that honors even the irony and reaches back to include the stories of those early struggles for freedom of conscience and expression that gave us our Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights. 

I'm writing this month about those moments where church and state are the principle "actors," maybe call them elements or props for that drama of personal freedom, moral anchoring and consensual authority.  These elements are at play again.

I have an interpretation of the First Amendment that takes these histories of John Smith, Patrick Henry, and John Waller to heart.  I'm not advocating for theocracy in the USA.  I'm not one of those who wants to claim that this nation was founded on Christian principles.  I'm just as sure my "list" of approved teachers for Biblical Content in Public Schools is missing most of those who have advocated for this dreadful Georgia legislation.  I'm not sure even I should be on my own list!

But I think it matters that our faith has always been mixed into the story of what freedom means and how best to insure that freedom for our citizens, immigrants and (yes, even) "illegals."  Without a doubt other concerns get in mixed in as well.  Things like the color of our skin or our first language or sexual orientation or our economic circumstances.

Freedom isn't easy and it doesn't get easier when the imbalance of power gets added to the math.  How fair or just was it for the Rev. Alexander Cruden to call for the arrest of Waller and his colleagues? The use of power is easy to see but where's the freedom in that?

I'm NOT thinking to call for anyone's arrest nor am I intending to get myself arrested but I am asking for your understanding as I struggle with those elements of church and state.  Right now my struggle has me asking these questions:

How easy is it to hide behind those "personal freedom" parts of our faith?  Think "me and Jesus" or "everybody has a right to their own opinion."

What is the moral anchor of the U.S.A. in this century?  Is it "the economy?"  Is it "the way things used to be?" Is it fundamentalistic protestantism? Is it NIMBY? (Not In My BackYard)

What is more or less consensual about our current practice of governance in this constitutional republic form of democracy?  How does gerrymandering -- no matter who started it -- prevent consent?

Our church is not a courthouse but it is where these elements are at play, again.  Let's pray,

". . . And finally, teach our people to rely on your strength and to accept their responsibilities to their fellow citizens, that they may elect trustworthy leaders and make wise decisions for the well-being of our society; that we may serve you faithfully in our generation and honor your holy Name. For yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Amen. (BCP, 822)

The Captain's Prayer

Tappahannock, the little tidewater Virginia town I lived in through high school was founded in 1682 and before that, the area was visited by Captain John Smith of Jamestown's founding.  Remnants of Pocahontas' nation of indigenous peoples still populate the southern portion of Essex county.  It was great a place to live and learn history.  Especially those histories of our founding events and people.

In 1606 when John Smith and Christopher Newport set sail from England they were authorized by the same King James I who ordered the English translation of the Bible, now known in many parts of the world as the KJV.   Newport was Captain over the three vessels, the Discovery, the Susan Constant and the Godspeed, with Smith having to wait until landfall to take his charge in establishing the first English speaking settlement in the “New World,” Jamestown.  Smith was not a good passenger and was charged with mutiny only to be saved by the royal charter’s taking effect as soon as they were standing on the banks of the Powhatan River. 

Prayers in English were first prayed in the New World in Jamestown. The Rev. Robert Hunt led the settlers in intercession twice a day -- every day -- as they sought God for wisdom, provision, and protection.  In fact, after the declaration that essentially freed Smith from the charge of mutiny the next official act by the English in the New World was a corporate prayer.

They sailed with much support and hope and some anticipation for economic return on their investment but the longer, landed story of Jamestown is not a good example of “getting one’s money’s worth.”  Mosquitos, rats, harsh weather, and bad relations with the “locals” all made what quickly became bad only get worse.  For sure they never stopped praying.

Their ambitions and actions -- the very ones they prayed to God for success -- included the slaughter and subjugation of those members of the Powhatan nations who preceded them to those tidal riverbanks.  A harsh truth.

But that's how this history thing works.  And as time passes we celebrate differently and we focus our observances to remember more than us and our people. The Episcopal Church in its General Convention of 2009 refuted the "doctrine of discovery" and pledged to remember and celebrate our histories differently.  

That's how this prayer thing works, too.  And it works best when it starts with as broad and generous a view as one's petitions allow.  And it demands -- just like our historicizing -- careful correction and refocusing, especially when we blend our national ambitions into our prayers.  

As Independence Day approaches let's keep our view broad and generous as we pray,

Lord God Almighty, you have made all the peoples of the earth for your glory, to serve you in freedom and in peace: Give to the people of our country a zeal for justice and the strength of forbearance, that we may use our liberty in accordance with your gracious will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (For the Nation, BCP, 258)