Blessings for 2015!

Dear Friends,

As we stand together on the brink of the year, we give thanks for the year past, for both the good we have received and the difficult we have survived. And we look forward together to the blessing and the possibilities that live within the year we are about to live.

Let us join hands and hearts and enter 2015 with shared hope.

Blessings and thanks,
John Mc Ginty+

Dean, Mercer School
Canon for Formation

Jesus, Saint Stephen, and Us

December 26, 2014
Saint Stephen's Day

Dear Friends,

How was your Christmas Day? I hope you had time for worship with your church community, and the opportunity to gather with family and friends to share a meal and fellowship as well.

Today the blessed invitation and good work continue.  As Meister Eckhart said: unless Christ is born in me it matters little whether he was born in a stable or in a palace.

That 'being born in us' is the work of God's grace in us, of our openness to what God wills to do in and through us today and every day.  Saint Stephen, the first martyr, whose faith and sacrifice we celebrate this 26th of December, invites us to follow.  These two days following one another, the birth of the savior and the death of his disciple, remind us powerfully that to be enitrely alive is to be willing to offer our lives entirely, to pour ourselves out in love as God does in Jesus Christ.

This is the continuing invitation and good work.  And today is the day.

John McGinty+
Dean, Mercer School of Theology
Canon for Formation
Diocese of Long Island

Something's Coming . . .

December 5, 2014

Dear Friends,

Already we find ourselves approaching the end of the first of the four weeks of Advent. Among many other ways this season may be quite legitimately described, it is a season of expectation.  Not that we pretend that the Christ has not already and long since been born into this world and offered into our lives!  Rather that we expect his coming again, and that we are called all our days to renew our sense of his presence and activity in our living and in our world.  And so, yes, there is "something coming" as the West Side Story lyrics proclaim:

Could be! 
Who knows? 
There's something due any day; 
I will know right away, 
Soon as it shows. 
It may come cannonballing down through the sky, 
Gleam in its eye, 
Bright as a rose! 

See and hear it here: http://youtu.be/Rux2CkLWvcQ

But more appropriately, in this case the something coming exceeds any words we can provide of description.  Only God's own Word can adequately proclaim the coming of God's own Word incarnate.  The something coming is, of course, Someone.  And that Someone speaks a Word that renews creation.

This Sunday, Mark's Gospel introduces to the season the figure of John the Baptist who, in his person and dress and activity and word is a shouting proclamation that "something's coming."  See the extraordinary poetic presentation of John, The Man Who Was A Lamp, by John Shea on our Facebook page, Conversations at Mercer.

Advent peace,
John McGinty+

Thanksgiving Day + 1

Thanksgiving Day + 1, 2014
November 28

Dear Friends,

I identify this day above as :"Thanksgiving +1" not only because of leftovers and the continuation of shopping that began last evening.  More importantly I use that nomenclature for this day because this is Day 1 of our common work in bringing closer a day for which all will be able to give thanks: a lasting day in which racial justice is real in more than words.  Or to put it another way, a day in which what we are committed to as a nation is genuine among us: equal justice for all.

Blessings this Thanksgiving Day +1,
John+

The Very Rev. Canon John McGinty
Canon for Formation
Diocese of Long Island

Mercer Programming Survey - Will you take a moment?

Sunday

November 16, 2014

Dear Friends,

At our diocese's just-completed positive and empowering Convention, we enjoyed the hundreds of visits you made to the Mercer School of Theology table.

We are working hard to offer support to the great work in Christian formation, ministry, and mission that you are doing in the parishes of the Diocese of Long Island.  Within those parishes, as Bishop Provenzano reminded us in his address, our churches are present as centers of worship and mission.  As our Convention speaker Father Michael Battle beautifully reminded us, our churches are places where community, compassion, and change can thrive.

To help us know at Mercer how we can effectively support you, will you take 5 minutes to complete an online survey we have prepared?

I mean it when I say that your opinion counts.  There is no better way for us to chart a positive and helpful course in making a school of theology count for something in 2014 and beyond than to ask you who are - have you thought of yourself in this way? - living theology everyday on the streets and in the pews by carrying out what you believe in your words and in your deeds.

So please take a moment now to click on the phrase Mercer Survey below and help us continue to build and improve, to carry Mercer School's own mission into the future:

Mercer Survey

Gratefully,

John+

The Very Rev. Canon John P. McGinty

Dean, Mercer School of Theology

  

Convention 148 Long Island

November 13-15, 2014

Dear Friends,

Friday and Saturday of this week the Diocese of Long Island's 138 congregations will gather at Convention with our Bishop. There we will review our life together and together plan for the immediate and long-term future.  There we will be reminded of what it means to be the church in this place and time. There we will encourage one another in believing, in hoping, and in loving.

Wherever you are, your prayers for our gathering are highly valued.  Thank you.

We will be tweeting highlights and reflections from the Convention @MercerTheology.

As always, can access an up-to-date listing of Mercer fall theological/spirituality events today at:
tinyurl.com/MercerFall14


Blessings,
John McGinty+

The Very Rev. Canon John P. McGinty
Dean
Canon for Formation 

Francis, Some Bishops, and Yves Congar: there's noise in the house next door

November 10, 2014

Dear Friends,

Reports about the US Roman Catholic Bishops response to the initiatives and spirit of Pope Francis feel a bit like looking into someone else's house when and where you shouldn't.  And yet, the more conservative of the US RC bishops seem to be quite open in expressing their reticence and concern about the papal trajectory.

I hear in the background of these two voices - the one belonging to Francis and the other to some bishops - two approaches to Christian teaching and to church/society relations that are expressed in every generation.

Those bishops in the opposition, if one dare say such a thing, sound primarily concerned about staying the course. keeping things steady, affirming what has been said and done in past days (including the recent past).  A primary concern is doctrinal purity, what is truth, and the putting that forward with energy, whatever be the current pitch of society and culture.  There is a real caution here, not to say a fear of change.

Pope Francis gives voice, it seems, principally to another perspective.  Without sacrificing anything of the past, his attention is fixed on the current moment and state of affairs and toward the future.  God has placed him, I suspect he would say, in this position and ministry at this particular moment in church and world history. there to lead according to the deepest instincts of faith.  Here there is openness to saying and doing things in admittedly new ways, in order to express the faith effectively in a radically changed (and changing) context.  Here I see also, and this is the key, a trust in the presence and action of God here and now and among present leaders, not only in the past and in the persons of past leadership.

In the introduction to his work on The Meaning of Tradition, the 20th Roman Catholic ecclesiologist Yves Congar, a Dominican priest, wrote the following: 

Paul Claudel compared tradition with a man walking. In order to move forward he must push off from the ground, with one foot raised and the other on the ground; if he kept both feet on the ground or lifted both in the air, he would be unable to advance. If tradition is a continuity that goes beyond conservatism, it is also a movement and a progress that goes beyond mere continuity, but only on condition that, going beyond conservation for its own sake, it includes and preserves the positive values gained, to allow a progress that is not simply a repetition of the past. Tradition is memory, and memory enriches experience. If we remembered nothing it would be impossible to advance; the same would be true if we were bound to a slavish imitation of the past. True tradition is not servility but fidelity.

Yves Congar was silenced by the Vatican in the period prior to the calling of the second Vatican Council.  During the Council he emerged as a theological expert of great weight and influence.  In this movement, the same struggle ongoing now between pope and (some) bishops is seen.  

The Meaning of Tradition, incldentally, is still well worth a read by any Christian interested in the interplay of present, past, and future in the life of the Christian community.  It was re-published in 2005 and actually chosen this year 2014 as an Amazon Editors' Favorite Book of the Year.  You can read Congar's entire introduction to the book here -http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features/congar_introtradition_dec04.asp

That's what I see going on in the house next door.

      
As always, can access an up-to-date listing of Mercer fall theological/spirituality events today at:
tinyurl.com/MercerFall14


Blessings,
John McGinty+

The Very Rev. Canon John P. McGinty
Dean
Canon for Formation

Review and Recommendation: Rowan Williams' "Being Christian"

November 3, 2014

Review and Recommendation: 
Being Christian: Baptism, Bible, Eucharist, Prayer, by Rowan Williams   

In Being Christian: Baptism, Bible, Eucharist, Prayer (Eerdmanns, 2014) former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has done again one of the things he does best.  In a slim volume of just over eighty pages that could be read through a Sunday afternoon, he has re-presented in fresh and accessible language the basic theology of four of the fundamental realities of, precisely, ‘being Christian.’   The content is rich while the language is such that it can be heard, understood, and appreciated by both the professor of theology and her aged grandmother.  What Rowan Williams does is remind us in plain words that yet ring with authenticity of what we know, of what we need to know, and of what we perhaps more often than imagined need to be reminded.   

These words were first strung together as part of a series of Holy Week lectures open to the public at Canterbury Cathedral.  That lineage does them no harm at all.  Williams’ seemingly native ability to speak of deep things in a simple tongue, respecting both the varied backgrounds/expectations of his hearers and readers and the importance of his topic is displayed here to the benefit of all.   

Baptism. 
The identity of the baptized person is revealed here, not surprisingly, as related directly to the identity of Jesus Christ.  The baptized person lives in the ‘neighborhood’ of Christ, and this means immersed in the brokenness of the human world.  There the baptized shares Christ’s roles as priest, prophet, and king.  Filled with the Spirit, unafraid even of one’s own sin, the baptized are effectively called to vital solidarity with one another and with the world.  Rowan Williams’ language opens up what might otherwise be taken for granted of this sacramental moment many experienced before they could speak: “Perhaps baptism really ought to have some health warnings attached to it: ‘If you take this step, if you go into these depths, it will be transfiguring, exhilarating, life-giving and very, very dangerous.’”  

Bible. 
Here God speaks and here we are constituted essentially as a listening people.  What we hear is what we need to hear for our salvation.  What we hear we understand in its fullness in the light of Jesus Christ.  What we hear reveals to us who we ourselves are and who God calls us to be.  The author deals masterfully with the question of the historicity of Scripture, of the place of tradition, and of what it means to hold these texts in common with others.  “The whole thing is a gift, a challenge, an invitation into a new world, seeing yourself afresh and more truthfully” in the light of God’s Word.  

Eucharist. 
In the sacrament, revealing the sacramentality of everything, Jesus affirms his desire to be with us.  In the Eucharist God’s hospitality to us is revealed, and we in turn are invited ourselves to live hospitably, repenting of our wrongdoing, admitting our hunger and opening to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.  Williams’ wonderful essay on the Eucharist here is worth the reading for a myriad of reasons, and his definition of thanksgiving, provided seemingly in passing, is alone worth the price of admission.  

Prayer. 
“Growing in prayer . . . is growing in Christian humanity.”  Rowan Williams invites Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and John Cassian to offer us insight into this growth.  Within their own proper emphases, all concur that praying is allowing Jesus to pray in us, to address the Father in the Spirit.  Prayer calls us to justice, and to make it real, we must commit to stay with it, to go on praying.    

Each chapter ends with questions suitable for discussion, and there are helpful resources for further reading provided at the conclusion of the book.   

For parish adult education groups, for those seeking to understand Christianity, for those whose practice of the Christian life has weakened over time, for ministers of Gospel and Sacrament seeking refreshment for their own hearts and minds: all of these can benefit by spending an afternoon with Rowan Williams’ Being Christian.   

Grade: 4.5 out of 5.     
      
As always, can access an up-to-date listing of Mercer fall theological/spirituality events today at:
tinyurl.com/MercerFall14

Blessings,
John McGinty+

The Very Rev. Canon John P. McGinty
Dean
Canon for Formation

Holiness: then, now, always

November 1, 2014

Dear Friends,

Today is All Saints Day.  For me this is the day that proclaims and celebrates the wonderful partnerships - amazing in their diversity - that can and do exist between human potential and divine faithfulness.

All the saints who have gone before us, publicly celebrated and privately loved, lived out the invitation to holiness in the midst of times and a human world as violent and messy and confusing as the one we know and attempt to navigate day-by-day.

The good news there is fairly obvious: it is possible to become a saint here and now.  Even here,  Even now.

Today we celebrate the men and women who have lived saintly lives.  Part of the celebration is to do the same ourselves.

As always, can access an up-to-date listing of Mercer fall theological/spirituality events today at:
tinyurl.com/MercerFall14

Blessings,
John McGinty+

Dean
Canon for Formation 
Diocese of Long Island

The Future Mercer School: what should it look like and where should it be?

October 27-29, 2014

Dear Friends,

The Mercer Board of Trustees willl meet Wednesday evening, October 29 for the second time in 2 months.  This meeting will feature in its entirety an open discussion about how best to fulfill Mercer School of Theology's mission for the present and future.

Experience over the last decade has shown decreasing interest on the part of laity, and a following trend by clergy, to come to Mercer at Garden City repeatedly to take part in an ongoing course.  This appears to hold true even when we know that the subject matter is of interest to many.

How do we address this effectively?  I think we need to consider:

(1) more Mercer events off-site in other locations in the diocese, as we began to do last year;
and:

(2) more resources, including taped lectures, podcasts and textual resources placed on the internet, and thus available to anyone, anywhere at any time,
and:

(3) more one-day substantial, well-planned and well-executed gatherings on a given topic or ministry in the church.

I look forward to hearing what our Board will advise on Wednesday evening.  

Do you have ideas?  You can comment here at Open Gates. Or tweet us @MercerTheology #MercerFuture.  Your ideas are valued.

As always, can access an up-to-date listing of Mercer fall theological/spirituality events today at:
tinyurl.com/MercerFall14

Blessings,
John McGinty+

Dean
Canon for Formation 
The Very Rev. Canon John P. McGinty
Dean
Canon for Formation

Love or Fear: both are in us, but which will we choose?

October 24-26, 2014

Dear Friends,

This Sunday's Gospel reading from Matthew, during which Jesus' continuing feuds with his adversaries includes his powerful affirmation of the place of love at the center of life, is a challenge to us in perhaps more ways than we would like to consider. 

This love, echoing from hallowed texts of the Hebrew Scriptures and lovingly affirmed by the Christ, remains always and everywhere radically open: open to God and open to others in the human family.  All others, as I read it, in the human family.

For more than a few of us, fear stands between our hearts and a full-scale no-holds-barred acceptance of this Godly teaching.  And, at first blush oddly enough, this being characterized more by fear than by love seems particularly evident among churches, church members, parishioners in the pews and preachers in the pulpit.  

We act, if not speak, as if there is more to fear than there is to love.  And these actions are limiting.  They lead not to life, but to death.  And what's more, all this is deceit.  The truth, as Old and New Testaments affirm strongly, is that love is the way to life.  And that there is everything before us to love, and nothing ultimately to fear.

These days of fear need us more than ever to be men and women of radical love.  Hear Jesus this weekend.  And answer the call to love of God and neighbor.

As always, can access an up-to-date listing of Mercer fall theological/spirituality events today at:
tinyurl.com/MercerFall14

Blessings,
John McGinty+

Dean
Canon for Formation 
The Very Rev. Canon John P. McGinty
Dean
Canon for Formation

Conversations, Questions, and the Hope for Provisional Answers

October 22, 2014

Dear Friends,

The news since last evening includes good note of new possibility in the standoff at General Theological Seminary.  It appears that the faculty will be going back to the classrooms and that an embracing of the call to reconciliation is in the air.  May it be so.

The contexts within which all this has happened locally are many.  Questions abound in the church as to the shape ministry is to take today and tomorrow in order to be faithful to the Gospel and linked to the real needs of the world around us.  These questions in turn are connected to the continuing open-ended conversation about what constitutes a good theological education in our day.  What do men and women in ministry need to know?  What are the best ways for them to learn that?  What are the ways that encourage them in turn, as servants of God's people, to become loving teachers of what they have come to hold in their hearts as life-giving knowledge?

Yesterday the Board of the Society for the Increase of Ministry held its semi-annual meeting.  All these questions and more informed the open and wide-ranging conversation of this group dedicated to the support of those preparing to serve in ordained ministry.  Final answers were not to be found yesterday.  Faithful commitment to continue to look together for the path to the future, however, was very much present. You can learn more about SIM and support their good work on behalf of excellent church leadership at www.simministry.org.

As always, can access an up-to-date listing of Mercer fall theological/spirituality events today at:
tinyurl.com/MercerFall14


Blessings,
John McGinty+

Dean
Canon for Formation 
The Very Rev. Canon John P. McGinty
Dean
Canon for Formation

Grace, General Theological, and Authority

October 20, 2014

Dear Friends,

It appears that the difficult situation at General Theological Seminary is not approaching resolution.  There is public notice of efforts being made, but a growing sense of progress, reconciliation, a positivie future, has yet to emerge.

Primary players in this drama include the Dean, the faculty, and the Board of the seminary.  An innumerable number of  very interested observers are arranged to either side, and many of them have viewpoints to share as well.

Not to be forgotten in the fray are the students of GTS, many of whom have only just arrived this fall to answer in that place a call from God to service.  They will learn much from these days.  It remains to be seen if what is learned will stand them in good stead in days to come or not.

Torn open here for all to see, whatever be the outcome of the present strife in Chelsea, are the very real questions of how best to prepare men and women for ministry today? And how is the authority carried to address those questions?  And who carries that authority?

In Gospel terms, authority is service.  And it is service undertaken in common.  At General and elsewhere, we seek the grace to recognize the way to that common service.  

That may sound like pious drivel.  On the contrary, I assure you, it is the definite and difficult path forward, now and always.  Let us wish the principal players in the drama every good gift and strength needful to get the job, if not done, underway.

You can access an up-to-date listing of Mercer fall theological/spirituality events today at:
tinyurl.com/MercerFall14

#HardTimesTheology

October 16, 2014


Dear Friends,

It doesn't take a high level of attentiveness these days (unfortunately) to note that the world, which is always in an uproar, seems to be near and far in a greater uproar than usual.

Wars, wars-not-called-wars, deadly viruses, seminary upsets upsetting the church, and much more: it feels like a rough ride right now.

From the perspective of a school of theology, two questions seem immediately worthy of consideration: (1) how does theology matter in the midst of all the above? and (2) what does it look like to trust God in our present situation?

If you have ideas on these questions, tweet us @MercerTheology, #HardTimesTheology.

You can access an up-to-date listing of Mercer fall theological/spirituality events today at:
tinyurl.com/MercerFall14


Blessings,
John McGinty+

Dean
Canon for Formation 
The Very Rev. Canon John P. McGinty
Dean
Canon for Formation