This year marks the 150th Year Anniversary of St. James Episcopal Church in Mansfield, PA. During the year the parish will have a multitude of events each with the tagline, “150 Years, 150 Pathways to God” Also during this year, I will attempt to write 150 short blogs about the pathways to God; not an exclusive list by any means - some obvious, some subtle, all valid and accessible. Why? Because it is the work of the church. It is, in fact, the only work of the church: To provide all people with pathways to the Divine.
My how the church has changed in 150 years! My imagination cannot conceive of the first worship service held at St. James, Mansfield in 1868. A little history: The original building burned and was rebuilt. Later, the shingle siding was replaced with aluminum. The original parish hall and offices was torn down in the 1960’s and a new parish hall constructed which remains in use. The rectory has housed many a priest and their families and was renovated a few years ago into offices downstairs and a two bedroom apartment upstairs. Most recently, the bell tower was renovated. St. James’ physical plant, consisting of three buildings and lovely grounds, is in excellent shape and the busy parish is debt free and growing.
St. James is an Episcopal congregation and part of the Diocese of Central PA and the National Episcopal Church as well as the worldwide Anglican Communion. There are some 70 million Anglicans and has a roughly 500 year history steeped in liturgical tradition, ceremony, sacraments and rites. It is heavily influenced by Benedictine/monastic spirituality. It is unapologetically a religious institution.
The role of all religious institutions is to inform, nurture and support the spiritual life of those who come to it. Religion itself can be a pathway filled with many paths, but it is never the destination. People who belong to churches have not “arrived” any more then anyone else. Nor does membership say anything about one's relationship to their inner spiritual being.The fact is, we are all continually on the way, growing and expanding into new ways of being. Every pathway to the Divine helps us move a little further on our journey, providing new insights and new experiences and new things to wonder about.
But at the end of the day, everything rests on Spirituality; the realization of self as a Spiritual Being having a human experience.
My very first class in seminary was on Spirituality. I remember it more clearly than any other class because I disliked it so much. It made no sense to me. I was far more interested in Church History, Homiletics, Liturgy and learning Greek. I struggled with the papers in which I had to express and define my own spirituality. The reading assignments I could not understand; Greek was easier. Nor did I do the meditation that was required because I considered it to be unnecessary and not really my cup of tea. I made a C- in Spirituality which naturally, I took very personally. My upset drove me a Spiritual Director but I still did not recognize that I was missing anything - I simply wanted to be the best priest I could be. I excelled at all the other subjects and loved every minute of my studies. After ordination I spent the next decade doing the business of ministry: Preached and taught, fulfilled the sacramental role of the priest, performed pastoral duties, married, buried and baptized people, oversaw a major building project and many annual budgets, organized and delegated groups, classes and responsibilities, led mission trips and projects, navigated my way through conflict and family systems all without much thought about Spirituality - though I used the word a lot - I even did a book study or two about it. And then the well began to dry up. Nothing I did seemed to help. I took classes on preaching and focused on theology. I studied harder and harder and all the while I struggled with my inner crisis and considered that I was losing my faith entirely. It wasn't until I began to do an independent study on Native American Spirituality apart from the religious structure I had been in my entire life that my own spirituality began to be awaken. Over the last several years I have done a lot more exploring and have been mining the work of the mystics. Deeper and deeper we go. Fifteen years after that getting a C- in Spirituality I now believe it was the most important class I had. What I did not know then is that I had been so shaped by a lifetime of religious and denominational formation, to which I was very seriously devoted, that I did not even know Spirituality was missing.
But the culture outside the church does know its missing.
There is a worldwide spiritual awakening occurring at this time and religious institutions around the world are being abandoned at a startling rate. The church in this time and place is being called to awaken as well and return to the purpose for which is was created - to provide pathways to God. It was the work of Jesus; he showed us the way. He showed us how to be religious without selling out our Spirituality. There is much within religious life to care and nurture the spirit beings that we are and that will be the focus of my blogs. But a major overhaul is coming whether we like it or want it - it is well underway.
In the overhaul to come we will be letting go of a lot, far more then we could ever imagine. But the gain, is, and will be, far greater then we could ever imagine.
There is much to explore - 150 Pathways to God - come and see.
But at the end of the day, everything rests on Spirituality; the realization of self as a Spiritual Being having a human experience.
My very first class in seminary was on Spirituality. I remember it more clearly than any other class because I disliked it so much. It made no sense to me. I was far more interested in Church History, Homiletics, Liturgy and learning Greek. I struggled with the papers in which I had to express and define my own spirituality. The reading assignments I could not understand; Greek was easier. Nor did I do the meditation that was required because I considered it to be unnecessary and not really my cup of tea. I made a C- in Spirituality which naturally, I took very personally. My upset drove me a Spiritual Director but I still did not recognize that I was missing anything - I simply wanted to be the best priest I could be. I excelled at all the other subjects and loved every minute of my studies. After ordination I spent the next decade doing the business of ministry: Preached and taught, fulfilled the sacramental role of the priest, performed pastoral duties, married, buried and baptized people, oversaw a major building project and many annual budgets, organized and delegated groups, classes and responsibilities, led mission trips and projects, navigated my way through conflict and family systems all without much thought about Spirituality - though I used the word a lot - I even did a book study or two about it. And then the well began to dry up. Nothing I did seemed to help. I took classes on preaching and focused on theology. I studied harder and harder and all the while I struggled with my inner crisis and considered that I was losing my faith entirely. It wasn't until I began to do an independent study on Native American Spirituality apart from the religious structure I had been in my entire life that my own spirituality began to be awaken. Over the last several years I have done a lot more exploring and have been mining the work of the mystics. Deeper and deeper we go. Fifteen years after that getting a C- in Spirituality I now believe it was the most important class I had. What I did not know then is that I had been so shaped by a lifetime of religious and denominational formation, to which I was very seriously devoted, that I did not even know Spirituality was missing.
But the culture outside the church does know its missing.
There is a worldwide spiritual awakening occurring at this time and religious institutions around the world are being abandoned at a startling rate. The church in this time and place is being called to awaken as well and return to the purpose for which is was created - to provide pathways to God. It was the work of Jesus; he showed us the way. He showed us how to be religious without selling out our Spirituality. There is much within religious life to care and nurture the spirit beings that we are and that will be the focus of my blogs. But a major overhaul is coming whether we like it or want it - it is well underway.
In the overhaul to come we will be letting go of a lot, far more then we could ever imagine. But the gain, is, and will be, far greater then we could ever imagine.
There is much to explore - 150 Pathways to God - come and see.
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