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Delighting in the New, Learning from the Old
Pastoral Theology: Christian Theology that considers religious truths in relation to spiritual needs.
Ecumenical Theology: A type of theology that initiates and examines the consensus of the official and ecumenical dialogues, or as a kind of comparative theology that draws on various Christian traditions and points out their commonalities and differences.
Perhaps the most ecumenically referenced theologian of the modern age, C.S. Lewis once stated,
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“A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not a form of escapism or wishful thinking,
but one of the things a Christian is meant to do.”
This last summer, my family and I had the life-changing experience of “escaping” to England. Our trip was not only heavenly but made us all “look forward to the eternal world” much more than we even have before. The trip elevated our thoughts, invigorated our spirits and inspired us to take even greater action in our lives to love and serve others. I beg of you to allow me just a small moment to connect with you today in an ardent attempt to share the feelings and inspiration that occurred to me there and my dream and vision of what it could mean to our service and shared ministries going forward.
First, we visited the relatively NEW Preston Temple and were so impressed by the beauty of its grounds and gardens and the veritable campus of faith that it is. It shares its grounds with the England MTC and a large, beautiful and unique chapel. As we attended church there, I couldn’t help but think just how wonderful it is to have the blessings of the NEWly restored (in terms of English History) priesthood and prophetic keys and temple blessings etc. The feeling overwhelmed me as I looked at my little family and thought just how lucky we were to be able to access these relatively NEW gifts now available all around the world. However, immediately after, we continued on our journey and visited a number of amazing OLD cathedrals and abbeys, including York Minster and Westminster.
As a Chaplain, I could not help but be astonishingly reminded just how many generations those OLD churches have survived and just how many people had been ministered to within their ancient walls. Westminster Abbey was “re-built” by Edward the Confessor between 1042 and 1052 AD. “RE-BUILT”; that means it was already OLD in 1042 AD! Just imagine. Some believe that Church’s origins go as far back as the early 8th century. If so, that means that Christian ministry has been taking place on that site for at least 1300 years!! That is more than FIFTY entire generations! Just consider for a moment what those generations have seen: countless conflicts, famines and pandemics as well as millions of milestones, services and ceremonies; millions upon millions of births, deaths, catastrophes, wars and celebrations. Those churches had lived it all over and over and over again. They seemed to me, as the “more beautiful with age” people that we all know and look up to; those on whose countenances, though worn, we can see the very wisdom of time.
And yet, the most inspiring part, for me, was not even those sacred stone structures or the generations of recorded and cultural history that they represent. To my own sincere surprise, what was the most personally moving for me was simply walking the common streets of Oxford and eating a simple meal at “The Eagle and Child” Tavern where Lewis and Tolkien and their friends met and ate and wrote and encouraged one another. Those connections and friendships and ideas and discussions and celebrations that have SO influenced our modern culture and inspired so many throughout the world today.
While there, it suddenly occurred to me with great force at a profound level that those friends, and even C.S. Lewis himself, were nothing more but certainly nothing less than the generational products of all the years and the lives and the heritage that is the Church of England’s today. Their deep and beautiful tradition of pastoral theology which has made, and still makes today, their ministry style so meaningful to the generations of English citizenry AND to millions of others around the world today in ALL kinds of different Christian factions. For example, C.S. Lewis is not only among the most quoted of theologians in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but he is also among the most quoted of theologians in many other Christian faiths as well. As a theologian, his influence is almost unequalled throughout Christendom. And yet, he was never a pastor. He was never a priest. He was never a clergyman of any kind in fact. And still, he has GREATLY influenced for good the pastoral traditions of his faith and many others. How did he do it? I don’t pretend to know but maybe, just maybe, hidden within the pages of his classic children’s books, “The Chronicles of Narnia” we may find a hint.
Consider the kind of thinking required to write such a wonderful series of children’s books. It is the kind of thinking that could inspire and produce such a collection of fantasy children’s book about “the continual looking forward to the eternal world”; a world wherein even the most ordinary children are no mere children but rather immortal Kings and Queens and everything from the trees to the animals all have a meaning and a purpose. Narnia proved Lewis’ undeniable gift for and practice of imagining a better world and looking for symbolism and meaningful story within it. There can be no question, C.S. Lewis was constantly delighting in the new world to come as he was also continually learning from the old world of medieval thought and symbolism just as I had been doing while delighting in the awesome new light of everything that our new temples represent but then looking for and to the wisdom of the aged ministries of great faiths throughout the entire world.
I could not help but wonder to myself as I wandered those streets and stood in those Chapels something which I have wondered many times to myself over the years as I have read the writings of so many great theologians: “what is the state of our shared ecumenical pastoral theology in my faith today?” and “Will future generations of the earth look to my faith and its theological contributions and pastoral ministrations as a source of inspiration and comfort and guidance during their mortal journeys here?”
As a mental health care Chaplain over the past six years, I have gained a personal witness of one concept more deeply than any other: Where we focus our thoughts leads to what we feel and that which we feel determines our attitudes and behaviors. If we want to feel or act better than we currently do, we MUST master the vital habit of meaningfully elevated, beautiful thought. And so, as I recommitted myself to this practice amid the pleasantries and histories of England, I now feel STRONGLY impressed to invite you all to come along with me on this journey of thought and exploration of story and meaning and ministry. From the starting student to the most seasoned and experienced among us. I call upon all of you, all of us, to meet together, so to speak, regularly in the common setting of everyday street life to befriend one another, to encourage and inspire one another and to collectively create a new habit of “continually looking forward to a better world” in order to create that world in this one.
If Zion is our ultimate goal, then we MUST improve our connective pastoral language, theological tradition and ecumenical ministry or we will never produce the feelings of love and habitual behaviors of charity within our own culture, and the cultures we minister to, sufficient to truly bring Zion into existence in this world. Which group of individuals could possibly be better suited for this task than those who minister professionally and pastorally in the world’s most vulnerable places? We are within earthly and spiritual prisons, hospitals, militaries, mental health and government organizations. We are now even beginning into the corporate world. I delight to no end in our new professional pastoral tradition because it enables us to reach people where they are. But in order to truly do so, we must not only share a physical space with people but also share a spiritual one. We must learn from those who have come before us and those who work along-side us from other faith traditions as well as our own.
And so, to that end and in such an effort, I am pleased to announce a new effort initiated by the Military Relations and Chaplain Services Division. We have created a new forum space/website (TheEagleAndChild.org) wherein we upload and publish one of your submitted articles each month. We will call this new place, “The Eagle and Child”, based upon the spiritual significance and theology of that ancient Christian symbol as well as the real, common, place of gathering for everyday people that it is. PLEASE submit your best and most meaningful moments and profound perspectives, your insights and introspections, and the most sacred spiritual symbolism you can muster in your soul and put it into a paper (no longer than 5 pages) on pastoral theology or ministry or ecumenical theology. We NEED each other and we will all become better ministers in the Lords vast and immense work here on earth and in eternity by uniting in friendship, support and love.
We invite you to commune with us in this new place and share the best of yourself without fear in writing and submitting as many articles as you feel inspired to submit as often as you feel inclined to do so. In this new virtual space, we will also be able to comment and discuss and continue a daily, weekly or monthly conversation regarding the inspiring principles we read therein and relate to in our personal ministries. I have asked Chaplain Dr. Timothy Farrant (PhD in Theology from Oxford University and former missionary and prison chaplain who grew up in Bristol, England) to write the first paper and give a good example of a pastoral theology essay for us all to follow as far as formatting and content and voice etc. His first example paper is already posted on the new website. Feel free to comment on it! He has promised that he will engage and discuss with folks who engage with him on the forum. Please follow his format but bring your own creative content, exploratory thought and inspiring insights!
I love and admire you all more than I am capable of expressing for the work that you have chosen to do. I know that as we all come together in love and without judgement or fear or reservation of any kind, that our thoughts will elevate our feelings and thereby our attitudes and actions and even increase our ability to receive revelation from the One whose work this is. Thank you for giving me your time to share this meaningful moment in my life. I hope and pray we may all soon share more meaningful moments more often together and by so doing bring about a better world and a better faith, and I sayin the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Submit your papers anytime to: submissions@EagleAndChild.org and we will notify you when your paper will be published and allotted time for comment and discussion. Thank you to ALL who minister as Chaplains, Military Relations Missionaries, Group Leaders and Senior Service Missionaries! Your efforts inspire us!