From the Editor

I had not really planned on including any of my own thoughts in this issue of the paper. With Convention and the incredible amount of "stuff" going on in the life of our church, not to mention my own personal chaos of living out of a suitcase while trying to sell a house, be mother to a 17-year-old, a wife to a priest in Tryon, NC and a caregiver to an incredibly self-centered Pekingese who is now demanding to be fed (Okay, I'm back), I had thought it unnecessary and unrealistic to write a column.

However, I am being compelled. Perhaps it is the work of the Holy Spirit. I hope so, because I take up my subject with much trepidation.

Elsewhere in this paper there are letters to the editor concerning the traditions of the Episcopal Church. The writers have expressed a desire to retain all the beauty and integrity of our wonderful liturgy. I find myself wanting to be counted in their company. Unfortunately, I don't think this is about me.

To me, one of the wonders of this "work of the people," this liturgy which we have inherited and refined over the centuries, is that it allows me to be in the most important story ever told. As we walk the circle of seasons and cycles of the church year, we are retelling and reliving the story of our salvation. Particularly through Lent and Holy Week — through Maundy Thursday, Good Friday — all the way to EASTER, we walk with our Lord the Valley of the Shadow of Death through Gethesemane and the cross and the silence of the tomb right up to His glorious resurrection. Our joy in Easter is made more glorious by our grief on Good Friday. Our liturgy allows us to be on the inside of history.

Its importance and significance is that it points beyond itself to God. We cannot call ourselves Christian if the ritual becomes our focus. It's like the Holy Grail in Charles Williams' wonderful tale War in Heaven. All of the participants are so caught up in the quest for the Grail and in its holiness that they lose sight of a singularly important fact — the Grail is not God. Even when miracles are attributed to the Grail, the Grail is only a cup made significant because of what it points to.

For me, the liturgy of the Episcopal Church is aesthetically pleasing and, more importantly, it is an outward and visible sign of an inward experience of grace. It is sacramental. The liturgy is designed to lead to God. If it no longer leads to God, but only to itself and to selfish whining, then it is idolatry and needs to be cast out.

Being Christian is more than being Episcopalian. I must reach beyond just what I want to whatever God wants. And every time I get put out with those who need to sing different hymns or say the Lord's Prayer in contemporary English (instead of King James' like Jesus first spoke it!) I need to remember what a priest friend of mine always says — "Blame it on Jesus. He invited all of them ("them" meaning "not me") to be part of His church."

Jesus also invited me to be part of His church and He would not want me to be a stumbling block to any of God's children.

Pax vobiscum,
Pam Doty
Editor, The East Tennessee Epsicopalian

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