Bishops writing up a storm Zachary Guiliano August 12, 2015 Commentary, The Episcopal Church Sometimes, just sometimes, the Interwebs surprise us, and the good material out there exceeds our ability to read it. Bishops Matt Gunter of Fond du Lac and Jake Owensby of Western Louisiana have been churning out post after post in the past few weeks, and it seems only right to draw a little attention to it. (As an aside: is this post-GC, post-vacation energy? Or is God renewing the vocation of the writing bishop? Holy Augustine, pray for us!) First, Bishop Gunter started an eleven-part series on July 29 for his blog An Odd Work of Grace. The series flows from his Lenten reading of all four Gospels. It reminds me of a series of similar works created in the Middle Ages. With a little more commentary, it would be like The Crown of Monks, a standard spiritual text read by Benedictine monks (about which I’ll say more in another week or two). Bishop Gunter’s posts are: Advertisement “What Jesus Commanded, Part 1: Repent, Believe, Follow.” “What Jesus Commanded, Part 2: Love and Mercy.” “What Jesus Commanded, Part 3: Trust, Self-Denial, and Humility.” “What Jesus Commanded, Part 4: No Anger, No Judging, but Forgiving.” “What Jesus Commanded, Part 5: Church, Baptism, Eucharist, Prayer & Fasting.“ “What Jesus Commanded, Part 6: Evangelism.” “What Jesus Commanded, Part 7: Sex, Marriage & Family.” “What Jesus Commanded, Part 8: Money & Possessions.” “What Jesus Commanded, Part 9: Peace & Violence.” “What Jesus Commanded, Part 10: From the Human Heart, etc.” “What Jesus Commanded, Part 11: Stay Awake & Endure, Judgment Day.” Bishop Gunter has followed that with another post yesterday on “Martin Luther & Scripture as the swaddling clothes in which Christ lies.” We tip our biretta to you, good bishop, for your flurry of writing. May your horn be exalted like that of a wild ox. Bishop Owensby at Pelican Anglican has been slightly less prolific in the same time period, but his pieces are of a different nature. Among other things, he’s started a series called “Getting your bearings.” He explains: We are entering a new season as the Jesus movement. Social, cultural, political, economic, and technological changes call forth from us a new articulation of the eternal Gospel of God’s unquenchable love in Jesus Christ. To engage this mission, we have to get our bearings. By getting our bearings, I mean in part seeing with clarity the shifting topography of our social, historical context. But more basic still is our need to understand how we as Episcopalians go about the activity of being Church. How do we sort out what is essential and what we can peacefully disagree about? What are Scripture, Tradition, and Reason? What kind of authority do they have? How do we understand the authority of the Bible? How do we read the Bible? What is our moral theology? What is our worship and how does it relate to God’s mission? The posts (so far) are: Getting Our Bearings How Episcopalians Believe Horizons Eight Things to Know about Reading the Bible I’m sure we can expect more in the coming days from Bishops Gunter and Owensby. Or, at least, I hope so. The featured image is Botticelli’s Saint Augustine in His Study (1480). It is in the public domain. Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
