Lift every voice and sing, till earth and Heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of liberty; Let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies, Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. Sing a song full of faith that the dark past has taught us, Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, Let us march on till victory is won. Lift Every Voice and Sing[i]
We followed the Red Police Car through the streets of North Philadelphia for several hours. We and other teams did the same thing on another evening or two. We didn’t see anything that needed to be reported on. In 1964 CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) had started the project because we had received regular reports of police brutality. Our hope was that this might be a means to reduce the number of incidents by calling attention to cases we’d witnessed. It only took a few weeks for leaders to realize this wasn’t going to be an effective strategy to address the problem.
The colloquy
Obviously, there is a conversation to be had. It’s a dialogue for the whole society and for the church. And, it’s a discussion many fear. There are so many ways to get it wrong. There’s a spirit of harsh judgment ready to pounce from the left and the right. And, as many in the church think their political views and God’s political views are aligned, there’s a group in every parish ready to be offended.
Sorry, I can’t tell you how to avoid all criticism. I have routinely made some of my bishops unhappy with my writings. In the current climate, no matter how you approach the issues of racism and policing--someone will find fault.
What I can do is suggest a few ideas that have to do with the integrity and identity of the Church and, therefore of the parish priest and lay leaders.
Begin with prayer
Martin Thornton wrote of colloquy as a form of prayer, “a personal conversation between the soul and God.” Colloquy is "intimate, personal, informal conversation” with God. He saw it as “the heart of private prayer” … “the source of personal love which flows throughout the Mystical Body.” Colloquy includes petition, intercession, thanksgiving, and adoration. Bring the issues of racism and policing into your conversation with God.
Thornton also held that colloquy needed grounding in mental prayer. This is settling in with God. It takes many forms—meditation, centering, Lectio Divina, contemplation, spiritual reading, icons—the individual best engaging whichever form fits her temperament.[ii] I like Howard Thurman’s way, “As we listen, floating up through all the jangling echoes of our turbulence, there is a sound of another kind – A deeper note which only the stillness of the heart makes clear. It moves directly to the core of our being.” From “How good it is to center down.” Thornton wanted us to bring that self to colloquy.
Maybe that's a way forward. That how we pray in our faithfulness is how we want to talk with one another. Soul to soul, personal, generous and compassionate. From the core of my being to the core of your being. What's at stake isn't an abstraction--Black Lives Matter, good policing matters, acts of violence against those in the image of God matters.
Use the language and ideas of faith
Clergy can get trapped in an internal message that says they must speak out; they must speak of justice. We dig up quotes from the Hebrew Prophets.
The part we get right is to use the language and ideas of faith and practice rather than that of the political argument. For a moment, set aside the notion that you are a prophet. Begin with common ground. Be their priest and pastor first. See where that takes you, and them.
When Michelle, Presiding Sister of the Order of the Ascension, and I walk together a few times each week we have a ritual. About ten feet from each other we put on a mask, we say hello, and we begin venting. We often have some piece of work to do on our walks. And there is the catching up to do--"how's Sean," "I heard from my niece," "got together at a distance with the neighbors for drinks." But before we get to all that--we solve the problems of Seattle and the nation. We vent. About the President, CHOP, the mayor and City Council. We figure out how policing can be reformed and reimagined. We don't say everything carefully and concerned about disapproval. We are two friends talking. It's a time for free expression and strong emotion.
We move on. We then act in a more considered, contemplated, and pragmatic manner. A letter to the Chief of Police, an email to our Councilwoman, a blog posting, a training session for novices, a talk with a client.
For us the venting seems to help us know our own filters, the lens we fail back upon to understand the world, the bits of implicit bias. Some helpful stuff in all that, also some not so helpful stuff. We move to our own better place; to the wisdom of the church, the paradoxical nature of life, and the need for humility.
You probably have your own pathway. If it's not already part of your approach you might consider engaging for yourself, and with the parish, the way of colloquy.
One aspect of that conversation might be to go to the place where the church has its truest voice and unity. Ground what you say in the central truths of Christian faith.
For example, invite people to consider the mission of God. Just what is God up to? Which, of course, also tells us what the church’s mission is. Which may also say something about bias, separation, the wall of hostility, and violence. We each need to bring our own stories and wisdom to that.
The Catechism of the Book of Common Prayer tells us about the mission of the church (and therefore what the church thinks God is up to)
The mission of the Church is to restore all people to
unity with God and each other in Christ.
Okay, God is restoring us to unity—harmony, concord, reconciliation. That should sound familiar to most in the parish.
In his Principles of Christian Theology, John Macquarrie writes of this unifying process,
..our belief is that the whole process only makes sense in so far as, in the risk and the struggle of creation, that which is advancing into fuller potentialities of being and is overcoming the forces that tend toward dissolution; and that continually a richer and more fully diversified unity is built up. ...The end, we have seen reason to believe, would be a commonwealth of free, responsible beings united in love; and this great end is possible only if finite existents are preserved in some kind of individual identity. Here again, we may emphasize that the highest love is not the drive toward union, but rather letting-be.
Complex wording to be sure. But take a look. Notice that in his description of the unity God brings about there is an understanding that it is “a richer and more fully diversified unity.” And that “the end” (heaven, eternity, the Kingdom) is “a commonwealth of free, responsible beings united in love.” It is Macquarrie’s resolution of the polarity between the individual and society. Between the soul and the Blessed Trinity.
His approach can help us understand, in Christian terms, the idea of the common good.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is useful here,
The common good is “the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfilment more fully and more easily'" … it is “the good of all people and of the whole person… The human person cannot find fulfilment in himself, that is, apart from the fact that he exists "with" others and "for" others"
William Temple saw it this way,
The aim of a Christian social order is the fullest possible development of individual personality in the widest and deepest possible fellowship.
All this offers the church’s understanding of how we might approach a polarity central to human life. The drive to be a self, a fully alive person and the drive to be with others in harmony. We spend our life working out our salvation within that seemed division. If I give myself to a community, a spouse, God—won’t I lose myself? If I maintain my identity and integrity—I’ll be alone and lonely, no family, nation, people to share life with.
One caution. If we are to help all our people enter into this conversation with open hearts, it is necessary to distinguish the church’s idea of “common good” from that offered by various political factions. The church is not saying the common good is utilitarian. This isn’t just about whatever provides the greatest good for the most people.
If this is what God is up to ….
Through your stories and example, within the experience and wisdom of the congregation, by centering down and holy conversation—remember and live in the places of uniqueness and unity.
If God is in the business of bringing each of us individually, each tribe of humanity, to our own integrity and completeness, and at the same time, through love and sacrifice, restoring us to unity with one another and life in the Trinity—then our proper fear is that of awe and adoration rather than dread and panic.
Now let the heavens be joyful, Let earth her song begin, The round world keep high triumph, and all therein, Let all things seen and unseen their notes together blend.
rag+
The Feast of James Weldon Johnson June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938
Red cars
Red cars 2
Red cars 3
Related resources
The Church’s Influence in Society
Down into the mess
Lectio Divina
Caesura: Parish life lacking any sort of contemplative focus
All Saints
[i] Johnson composed the lyrics of "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" to honor Booker T. Washington who was visiting Stanton School. The poem was recited by 500 school children as a tribute to Abraham Lincoln's birthday.
[ii] See Thornton’s Christian Proficiency. Thornton also assumed that our mental prayer and colloquy was most fruitful and true within the context of the church’s Prayer Book Pattern—Eucharist, Office, Personal Devotions. For example, those who daily pray the scriptures and say the church’s prayers in the Daily Office bring more into their centering down and conversation with God; and that “more” offers broadness and depth.