Andrew Gerns has posted the first in what he promises will be a series of essays on “What do moderates stand for?” Since I was the one nudged him to write something up, I’m happy to be pointing to his words.
I’ve copied two of his central paragraphs here:
“An image popped up recently on the HoB/D list which I like. It has shown up in other circles, too. And that is the idea of surfing, of riding the wave. I’d like to take the image to one of sailing and not of surfing, but the point is the same. (Surfing is cool, but sooner or later the wave crashes) One response to rough seas is to let the current and wind push one about. I think this is the criticism many level at moderates and those who live in the center. I see the challenge as understand both wind and current so that one can move fast enough to not be pushed about, but to use the dynamics of wind and current to help one get to one’s destination.
I am drawn to the work of many in the emerging church who take a big tent view of the church, and want to draw from the best of the several strands and traditions of the Church. There is a growing understanding that catholicity of the church is not static but is a comprehensive whole, that all of us together reflect the biggness and the oneness of God much better than any one of us. This ‘generous orthodoxy’ describes to me an attempt by younger Christians who take for granted technology we find novel, and the way of making relationships these technologies imply that many find disconcerting, to understand the center as a comprehensive whole.”
Andrew also discusses the way that we often focus on the extremes of any given phenomenon (where I mean extreme in a literal, non-perjorative sense) and miss the truth that the energy of a system is found in the transition from peak to valley. It’s a lovely metaphor that I intend to play with for a while…
Read the rest here: Between Charisma and Order: The Holy Spirit
(Via Andrew Plus.)
Hmmm. I always get nervous when I see this phrase “want to draw from the best of the several”. I’m most familar with it from martial arts studios located in strip malls. What it most often means is “I’ve dabbled for a couple years in this and that and think I can put a pretty good aerobic workout together and sell purple ‘uniforms’ with the odd Chinese character on them.” In other words, it tends to mean that the person is not steeped in and has not mastered *any* tradition and therefore claims to pull from all traditions.
As a result, my biggest suspecious of the whole emerging/emergent thing is that they’re dabbling in things that they don’t understand.
There are deep traditions that need to be lived in to be assimilated and the Anglican Way is one of them. It takes time to learn it because there is depth, authenticity, and–yes–power in it. This is why I’m a “moderate”–because I’m passionate about protecting and passing that on.