The Project at hand

A large portion of my sabbatical is going to be dedicated to a study project.  It’s not intended, at least by me, to be anything grand or academic.  More the chance for me to dig into something that interests me, has a tangential relationship to my ministry and will help me on the journey that I’ve been on for sometime now.

The official topic “title” (because I needed to give it some kind of relatively brief handle) is “Personal Piety in an Episcopal Context in the 21st Century”.  Sounds quite grand doesn’t it?  The topic came to me through my work with the the young people of the diocese.  I realized that while most of the youth I see have been in church most of thier lives they don’t have a particularly deep understanding of why we do what we do.  As I thought about it I realized that an awful lot of ADULTS appear to be in the same boat.

Then came the pivotal moment.  Back towards the beginning of my ministry I led a retreat where we looked at prayer.  Working from the catechism (which begins on page 845 of your Book of Common Prayer) I asked about the kinds of prayer that are “recognized” by our denomination.  Blank stares.  INCLUDING FROM ADULTS AND CLERGY. (The answer is – adoration, praise, thanksgiving, penitence, oblation, intercession and petition. Page 856).  I don’t say that in condemnation of anyone, especially my ordained brothers and sisters, but to point out the gap that I see in the practice of faith for an awful lot of people.

Time for a clarifying statement (get used to them you’ll be seeing a lot of them.  I’m always attempting to clarify things) – I am absolutely NOT putting myself up as any kind of paragon or example of an outstanding personal piety.  If you want to use me as a bad example that would be fine.  My personal piety has been pretty pitiful (alliteration – another bad habit you’ll have to endure).  That’s also part of what brought me to this subject for the sabbatical.  Here I am answering what I think is a call to youth ministry, teaching my younger brothers and sisters about the walk in faith while I stumble along rather badly myself.  So my hope is to learn things that I will then apply immediately in my own life.

The thought process for all of this extended over years finally crystallized with Lay CREDO #9 last spring when the subject of both my personal faith life and a sabbatical were thrust into my view.

As Episcopalians (Anglicans) we are a people of communal worship.  That’s big bunches of us all together in prayer.  That common prayer is a very large part of what defines us.  But we don’t spend our whole lives in church.  Most of our lives are in other places.  How do we keep that connection in those times and places.  Can we deepen our faith experience away from the corporate worship environment?  While there are certainly folks who have wonderful personal faith lives and piety (you may notice that I keep noodling around with these phrases which are astoundingly unclear.  I’m aware that I’m using “church jargon” which is very unhelpful to the un-initiated.  I promise I’ll be dealing with this subject in the very near future.  For the time being just hang on and roll with me)  My experience when the subject of personal prayer comes up is that folks get a “There’s some good stuff up in the front of the BCP.  Take a look at that”.  And that’s pretty much it.  My fear is that if:

• You lack any background in “church”
• You lack any great understanding of the hows and whys of what we do
• You’re at all intimidated by any or all of this stuff

You probably never get started.  It’s just too intimidating.  Questions never get answered.  Do I HAVE to do this?  Do I have to do ALL of this?  Is this the ONLY stuff I can do?  If this stuff doesn’t really grab me, doesn’t engage me, am I just out of luck?  Who would I ask and will they think I’m stupid?  Am I the only person who doesn’t understand?

So my goal in this time is to try and create a launching pad for people.  To come up with a brief look at the hows and whys.  To look at a wide variety of ways to do things that will improve our personal experience of faith.  At the end to create some kind of resource that can help folks explore the options and find a way or ways that lead them to a more profound place.  Not a definitive “final” statement but a broad and useful beginning statement.

Still to come – my break down of the title concepts and what I’m doing to begin personally.