Update from Dar es Salaam and the Gospel of Mary
posted February 20th, 2007 at 5:55 pm by Betty
In our contemporary Magdalene community, we think ourselves back to the earliest days of Mary Magdalene’s preaching and teaching — to the days when communities recorded various traditions about Mary Magdalene and Jesus. One such recording is found in the Gospel of Mary (Magdalene), written probably during the first half of the second century by a community living in either Syria, Asia Minor, or Egypt.
The Gospel of Mary begins in the middle of a resurrection dialogue with Jesus and four disciples, Peter, Andrew, Levi, and Mary Magdalene. All is well and good while Jesus is communicating openly with the disciples but after delivering his revelatory message, he vanishes, leaving the work of the ministry to the disciples. The disciples fall into grief and tears, wondering what their next actions should be, until Mary Magdalene stands up, greets them, and says,
“Do not weep and be distressed nor let your hearts be irresolute. For his grace will be with you all and shelter you.
Rather we should praise his greatness, for he has prepared us and made us Human Beings.”
I couldn’t help thinking of what Mary’s words might mean to us today as I solemnly read the latest update from Dar es Salaam. The articles I call your attention to can be found on-line at the Episcopal News Service, “Primates Meeting Communique” and “Primates endorse pastoral council, primatial vicar in closing communique,” and on the front page of the New York Times “Anglicans Rebuke U.S. Branch on Blessing Same-Sex Unions.”
In our contemporary Magdalene community we think ourselves back to the earliest days before there was a church organization and institution. We think our way back to those days when in Magdalene communities the people spoke boldly and openly with charisms and gifts of the Spirit - with parrhesia, to use the original Greek term. To speak with parresia, means to speak with “boldness,” “courage,” “confidence,” “joyfulness,” and “fearlessness.”
May we continue to so speak.
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February 21st, 2007 at 9:21 am
I read this and wonder if the Anglican church really wants to lose the American church. How much longer can westerners accept the “do not tell” policy of the past. While I am not a member of any church at this point the idea of open communion is something that as a former Roman Catholic, I have always found to be paramount to my idea of church.
The notion that the Espicopal communion can turn back on its self is ridiculous and would seriously damage the whole communion. But that doesn’t mean that the Espiscopal church can turn its back on its gay members or on its path of openness.
It seems to me that the Anglicans are damaging themselves. I have read all of the links and documents and find them to be legalistic mumbo jumbo. Once the door was opened to listening to the voices of the gay community and their lived experience of their identity then no one has the right to say to them, your experience of God and humanity is not truthful. For what they are saying is, “You are not truly human.” I guess this is the last gasp of acknowledging the soulfullness of all of us regardless of race, nationality, gender, or gender preferance.
It seems to me this latest edict rather negates all of the good points toward building a just and humane world that we read on Monday. If the church says some are not welcome to the table for full particpation then how can we sit quietly by and say “Okay father, what ever you say in the name of peace and goodwill and communion we’ll wait another 400 years for the evoluntionary process to take place.” Whose gifts will we lose?
February 21st, 2007 at 10:28 am
When I first read the New York Times article about the Anglican rebuke, I was inexpressably sad and inexplicably surprised. I shouldn’t have been suprised, but I was. I’ve given this a great deal of thought over the last few days. Would it be so bad, really, if the more forward-thinking American Episcopal churches were to become a separate entity from the Anglican Communion? It wouldn’t be the first time in history, after all — the Anglican Church itself being a prime example. Whether or not the history of the split between King Henry VIII and the Catholic church was accurate as I was taught it to be, a consequence of that split was Henry divorcing at least one of his wives. For centuries, divorce carried such a stigma, if not being a downright unpardonable sin. Divorce, for the most part, no longer carries that stigma. What other demonized actions might come to be understood in a different way if we think more like the early Magdalene communities? If we concentrate on the gifts of the Spirit that each of us possess rather than on external trappings?
I hope and pray that others in positions of power and authority will have the courage to speak boldly and with confidence the truths of inclusiveness.
Bridgitt
February 21st, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Dear Jere and Bridgitt,
I couldn’t help, with your encouragement, continue to read on in the Gospel of Mary.
After Mary has given her consoling words to the disciples about remaining resolute, the Gospel says she “turned their hearts to the Good and they began to debate the words of the Savior.”
I wonder what that debate sounded like?
Presumably the “words of the Savior” that they are debating are his revelatory words found in the first part of what is left of the Gospel. I quote below:
“‘Peace be with you!’ he said
‘Acquire my peace within yourselves!
Be on your guard so that no one deceives you by saying, ‘Look over here!’ or ‘Look over there!’
For the child of true humanity exists within you.
Follow it. Those who search for it will find it.
These remarkable words are at the heart of the Magdalene Community - it is a call to come home to our shared humanity and divinty — to find the peace within ourselves no matter our circumstanes.
The community that wrote these words had obviously found a freeing message in these words of the Savior. The message of the Human One had brought strength, courage and peace in their struggle for freedom as true human beings.
A spiritual path inward to our shared humanity and divintiy, as taught by a master, can set us free, if not in circumstance, at least from within. And that is very good news.
Many blessings of the peace within,
Betty
February 21st, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Betty,
It never ceases to amaze me how much beauty and power and truth there is in the relatively tiny snippet we have of the Gospel of Mary! There is ALWAYS something relevant to the topic at hand. I think it’s because at the very heart is that the peace and the Child of True Humanity is within ourselves.
Bridgitt