The Magdalene Mystique - The Path Inward

After reading the communique of the Primates’ meeting in Tanzania, some of us have found ourselves in the wilderness — somewhat baffled and disappointed, set back by “the powers that be.”

Yet, and I think I can speak for our contempoary Magdalene Community, we have pushed through that initial reaction by earnestly seeking and searching for our own response in this case. We haven’t been “merely waiting” for answers to come down from “on high,” but intentional in finding our own way and truth.

It is this inward path of searching and seeking that I want to highlight today.

From the perspective of the Gospel of Mary (Magdalene) Jesus teaches that we are to acquire the peace within ourselves. We are to look within to find our truth. The promise is that when we seek this truth, we will find it. Then we are to follow it!

It is a truth that we discover for ourselves, as we reach into our own spirits filled with grace. It is not to be a truth we’ve picked up from someone else - even someone we admire and think has more knowledge than we do. That kind of thinking is simply an easy way out. In matters of the Spirit, it is to be a truth from our own spirit and grace. This takes struggle, thinking and praying, and process.

In our Magdalene Community, we find the ancient text entitled the Gospel of Mary very relevant today. We continue to be amazed by the relevance of the Gospel of Mary to our time.

It is also the case that this inward path is not to be carried out in isolation from community. So it is important to keep alert to the many voices in the fray. It seems that blogging is just right for hearing many voices. I hope you will leave a comment or two. “House of Deputies president Bonnie Anderson isues statement on Primates’ communique” found on-line Episcopal News Service) is a statement by Bonnie Anderson the president of the House of Deputies, who speaks of the communique as raising serious issues as to whether the House of Bishops can respond in this case. She says “The polity of the Episcopal Church is one of shared decision making among the laity, priests and deacons and bishops.” This raises the question as to whether the “House of Bishops [is] the right body within the Episcopal Church to respond to the Primates’ requests.” As president of the 800 plus member House of Deputies, she assures us that “the voice of the clergy and the laity of the Episcopal Church will be heard as the Church discusses and debates the Primates’ request and that the process will not be pre-empted by the House of Bishops or any other group.”

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has also briefed the Church Center community on the Primates’ Meeting. I refer you to this statment “Presiding Bishop briefs Church Center community on Primates’ Meeting” found on-line at Episcopal News Service. Her statements reveal her thinking as to why she signed the communique in the first place. She also indicates that the House of Bishops “can answer” the request made by the primates though it is an open question as to “whether they have the will to do that.” Few bishops are interested in acting unilaterally, she adds.

In more general terms she continues: “we have been asked to pause in the journey. We are not being asked to go back… Time and history are with this Church.”

And read on when she says “I ache for the pain that this communique is causing to people in our own church who see issues of justice as absolutely central, because I share that view” and then adds that she hungers for a vision of the world where people of different opinions can sit at the same table. This is not either-or thinking but open-ended thinking giving respect for process and struggle. It is clear that the Presiding Bishop sees the Episcopal Church as an instrument for raising awareness so that “reason can become an equal partner in the discussion with scripture and tradition.” I take it this is a filling out of a remark she made on her way back from Tanzania that the “Episcopal Church’s charism [grace or gift] is to encourage the conversation.”

Read the rest of the article; it is well worth your time to see what an open-ended and searching voice sounds like in this case. And re-visit the interviews we earlier posted on this site. gay rightsgay marriagereligionschoriprimatesanglicanchurch See New York Times Article “A Divide, and Maybe A Divorce”