Much afoot

It is with great interest that we read of Episcopal priest Kevin Thew Forrester, who has been elected bishop of the Diocese of Northern Michigan and describes himself as “walking the path of Christianity and Zen Buddhism together.” He must receive “consent” first from a majority of Episcopal bishops and may encounter obstacles.... He does all kinds of bad things like use liturgical texts not approved by the national Episcopal Church. (it’s funny.... there’s also a national AA authority that has been given the right to approve or disapprove spiritual texts as appropriate reading for people in recovery. Bill Wilson would have turned over in his grave as it’s just the sort of “secular authority” with whom he took umbrage and wrote the AA Traditions to counter....)

According to a statement from the Diocese, Forrester was “drawn into the Christian-Zen Buddhist dialogue through centering prayer and his desire to assist persons in their own transformation in Christ.” He has also voiced unorthodox views, once writing in a diocesan newsletter: "Sin has little, if anything, to do with being bad. It has everything to do, as far as I can tell, with being blind to our own goodness." Yup, looks like centering prayer is doing its heretical thing again....

And then we learn of the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding who, in 2007 in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, Washington, “announced in the diocesan newspaper that she was both an Episcopalian and a Muslim. Redding is a former director of faith development at St. Mark's Cathedral.” Well they got rid of HER lickity split: “Redding was subsequently put on leave from her priestly duties by her ecclesiastical supervisor, the Episcopal Bishop of Rhode Island.”

Here at St. Luke’s in our town, Rev. David Anderson took up centering prayer fairly recently via Cynthia B. and then Richard Rohr and now HE’s starting to say what some will deem pretty darn controversial things from the pulpit. Last week it was, “What Jesus exposes is the tendency of religion to take mystery and turn it into mastery, where you perform some required action, and that “saves” you. Bad religion is always about control. The people who run the churches, temples and mosques of the world (and the hierarchy that controls them) have a big need to control people. It gives me no pleasure to say this, but it’s well known so we might as well name it. Institutional religion mostly dismisses the real message of its founders—Moses or Jesus, Mohammad or Buddha. They brought a message of radical transformation of consciousness that quite literally passes a human from death to life. But institutional religions mostly dismisses these radical messages of freedom and life because, well... you can’t control people and make them good, clean, law-abiding citizens with this kind of message.”

Then, we read in Brian McLaren’s new book (and mind you, he’s a former evangelical....) that “Jews, Christians and Muslims share this ancient way and these ancient practices. The ancient way is the way we must learn by heart, and we will learn it best by hearts that have been softened, if not broken, by suffering.” Further, “If we do not discover in our three religions the ancient way of spiritual practice... then we will contribute to the destruction of the world.” He doesn’t go as far as using terms like “perennial wisdom” or “mystical streams” cause his book's reach is quite broad...but he alludes to them. Brian's good buddy Phyllis Tickle is another heart and mind on fire. Wouldn’t be surprised if they show up on the OOOW radar someday. Heck, Richard Rohr might even drift our way....