Fellowship of the Ring and Communion, continued

an interesting similarity? ...

Gandalf the White

Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams

Metaphors of Communion I - Lord of the Rings

What are the working metaphors of communion, of community, that we rely upon...before turning to the Trinity and the Body of Christ, I'd love to explore other metaphors or images of communion...

For those Tolkien fans out there, I find the Fellowship of the Ring an interesting model of communion that relies upon a vast diversity...

(you may see a familiar face among the dwarves and elves..., my apologies to Steven Jackson, and J.R.R.!)

The fellowship is brought together to discern a purpose (a calling/vocation?), and there is a wide diversity among the group. As they gathered at Rivendell tension and seriousness dominated; What would they do with the Ring of Power? From the elves to the dwarves to the humans to Gandalf and the hobbits there was a whole history of conflict and collaboration that could not be denied. This was no campfire meeting, and the gathering did not deny the particularity of any of the members. The dwarf, Gimli, even tried to destroy the ring with his broadaxe - without success. They sat in a circle and it wasn't until a Hobbit (a child?) entered the circle and said that he would take the ring and destroy it that they were moved into action.

As the journey continued, there were times of common mission, there were times of conflict, members of the fellowship perished, and there was a breaking of the fellowship - though, in the end it was restored, as something new and different.

Not an exact analogy or metaphor, but an interesting one to consider when examining the Church and its unity and diversity and common purpose but also its vast disagreements.

Other images & metaphors of communion soon, stay tuned...

Seeing Properly ... Rowan Williams on the Church

In his 2004 essay on "The Christian Priest Today," Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams offers a vision of the church where we can "see properly"...which meshes interestingly with Bonhoeffer's claim that the church is where we can listen and hear properly. You can read his excellent essay here. He claims that many people have:

"a view of the Church that is very seductive and very damaging – and very popular. This is the view that the Church is essentially a lot of people who have something in common called Christian faith and get together to share it with each other and communicate it to other people ‘outside’. It looks a harmless enough view at first, but it is a good way from what the New Testament encourages us to think about the Church – which is that the Church is first of all a kind of space cleared by God through Jesus in which people may become what God made them to be (God’s sons and daughters), and that what we have to do about the Church is not first to organise it as a society but to inhabit it as a climate or a landscape. It is a place where we can see properly – God, God’s creation, ourselves. It is a place or dimension in the universe that is in some way growing towards being the universe itself in restored relation to God. It is a place we are invited to enter, the place occupied by Christ, who is himself the climate and atmosphere of a renewed universe.” Rowan Williams in The Christian Priest Today

So, in this statement we hear that the Church is the “place where we can see properly – God, God’s creation, ourselves. It is a place or dimension in the universe that in some way growing towards being the universe itself in restored relation to God.” Yes, Yes, Yes, I say. This is what the church is called to be, and what the church is, and this is quite an adventure, yes, this “life of a Christian is, indeed, a vast adventure!” However, this statement is a challenge to church structure, practice, and a "personality" that does not lift up the church as the place where we can really “see properly.”

But, I feel we need a reality check here...is the church a place where we can SEE, or LISTEN properly, or is it more about holding onto the status quo, and clinging tightly to old wine in old wineskins? Is this dynamic and changing church the one that we see, or is this picture far far too idealistic?

On a related note... one of my professors at VTS, Dr. Stephen Cook, has an excellent reflection on Amos in which he discovers an interesting dichotomy between "seeking" and "clinging" and you can see it here.

Sanctorum Communio, reflections on Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote his first (of two!) dissertations (at age 21!!!) for his Ph.D on "Santorum Communio," the Sacred Community, the sanctified community. For him, the community, and the communion of Christians was essential for the Christian life. In the collection of his Letters and Papers from Prison, he offers many reflections on community...

From a letter to his parents – 14 June 1943
“I have also been considering again the strange story of the gift of tongues. That the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel, as a result of which people can no longer understand each other, because everyone speaks a different language, should at last be brought to an end and overcome by the language of God, which everyone understands and through which alone people can understand each other again, and that the church should be the place where that happens – these are great momentous thoughts.” (Letters and Papers from Prison, 53)

The first reflection describes communion as the place where we can finally hear and listen to one another ... this truly happens only through the action of God. There is something deeply helpful and also challenging here. True communion may not really be possible without the gift of God's grace ... we work for it, and we approach it, but can we ever really know it?

to his parents – 13 Sept 1943
“It is a strange feeling to be so completely dependent on other people; but at least it teaches one to be grateful, and I hope I shall never forget that. In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich. Its very easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements in comparison with what we owe to others.” (Letters and Papers from Prison, 109)

We don't really like to feel dependent, and Bonhoeffer knew dependence more than most ... living in prison. Dependency reminds us that all we have is gift, and that we must bind ourselves to one another in order to survive. I wonder how we help remind people of their communal lives and the ways in which we all are dependent upon one another.


Here
http://santospopsicles.blogspot.com

Initial Question....

What is communion?

Ok, to get the ball rolling, I am interested in your reflections on the idea of "communion." What is communion? Of course, for those of us in the Anglican Communion (at least for now...), "Communion" is something confusing enough, but I am also very interested in what "communion" would be, for you? What would it "look like" to have communion? What is needed for it? Can humankind even really know it? (or is it so much dependent upon God that we would only see it dimly...)

[the image is of the "Eagle & Child," the pub in Oxford, England where CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien
and others met to discuss their work , we should be so lucky to have their communion!]

Just for some reflection:

Biblical Roots of Communion
Tradition of Communion
Liturgical aspects of Communion
Sacramental aspects of Communion
Images of Communion

As my thesis title is "An Ecclesiology of Communion," I have some ideas on this (as I have drawn from Bonhoeffer, Rowan Williams, James Cone and others, but I wonder what you think?)

Please comment as you are willing and able ...