Ekklesia ...

I miss John Shelby Spong, retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, now 86 and retired from much of public life after suffering a stroke during 2016. His final book, "Unbelievable," was published during December and I'm looking forward to that --- when I get around to ordering it.

One of Bishop Spong's better known quotes --- "God is not a Christian, God is not a Jew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist. All of those are human systems which human beings have created to try to help us walk into the mystery of God. I honor my tradition, I walk through my tradition, but I don't think my tradition defines God, I think it only points me to God.”

That's certainly a sentiment I share, at least on my non-atheist days --- and I'm trying to hold onto those on Wednesdays and Saturdays-Sundays these days.

Anyhow, I still subscribe to Spong's "Progressing Spirit" e-mail list, now handled by a variety of other progressive Christians --- and occasionally by bringing forward a post from the past written by the bishop, as was the case this morning. I'm not sure how accurate a prophet the bishop will prove to be, but it remains an interesting projection.

Q: By Peter

Is it possible that the work of God in our time might be to get rid of the Church?

A: By Bishop John Shelby Spong

Dear Peter,

If that is the work of God then it seems to be working since the Church is in a statistical free fall all over the Christian world. People say that this is not true in the Third World but I have never been impressed with that data. The Christianity I meet in the Third World, with notable exceptions in people like Desmond Tutu, Khotsu Mkullu and Njongonkulu Ndungane, is an anti-intellectual fundamentalism that is propped up primarily by fear and superstition. It will not survive since the thought forms of the advanced world will someday inevitably engage those irrational claims.

I do think the Church, as I have known it, is dying. But I also see a new Church being born. I prefer to call that new entity, not the Church but the "Ekklesia," which is a transliterated Greek word that means "Those who are called out." I see the membership of the Church of tomorrow to be those who have been called out of tribal identity, out of prejudice, out of gender definitions of superiority and inferiority and even out of religion. That Ekklesia will also be constituted by people who have been called into a new humanity, beyond the primitive boundaries that now bind the Church inside its prevailing cultural prejudices. I expect this new Church to grow as the old Church dies. I have no further desire to seek to stop the death of yesterday's Church. It fulfilled its purpose quite well, but now its day has passed. A new day is dawning, ushering in a new Christian future. I welcome it.

~ Bishop John Shelby Spong

Published October 15, 2003