Semper Ref 2002

Semper Reformanda and C-67

Confession of 1967 is focus of eighth annual Semper Reformanda Conversation

C-67 could help us shape our confessional faith for the new millennium

by Doug King
[6-14-02]

Gathering at Trinity Episcopal Church, some 30 people spent nearly 3 hours in creative theological thinking before plunging into the hectic pace of the Assembly.

Barbara Kellam-Scott opened with a brief period of worship, focusing on 2 Corinthians 5:20, a few words of which have been chosen as the theme for this year's Assembly. She noted that the chosen words - "ambassadors for Christ" - need to be read in the context of the whole sentence: "So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." When read in context, these words point to God's gracious gift to humanity, and our call is grounded in God's gift of reconciliation, not in our own qualifications or purity.

Kent Winters-Hazelton, newly elected president of the Witherspoon Society, traced the course of the group's recent focus on C-67, beginning with our thinking a couple years ago about the notion of "whole gospel congregations." This idea affirms that "evangelism is justice, and justice is a form of evangelism." A group gathered in Claremont, California, in the fall of 2001 to follow this line further, working with C-67's affirmation that we must do the Word, not just speak it.

This thinking led to a February 2002 conference on C-67 held at the Stony Point Conference Center. One insight from this event was the recognition the "C-67 is a time-bound document," intentionally reflecting on the issues of its own time rather than speaking only in terms of eternal verities. Winters-Hazelton pondered some of the ways the confession might have been quite different if it had been written in the late 1970s, for example, at a time of rising influence of the Religious Right, declining respect for religion among intellectuals, and the growth of religious pluralism.

So, he asked, what does C-67 offer us today? For some answers, he turned to Dr. Douglas Ottati, professor at Union Theological Seminary/PSCE in Atlanta. Ottati addressed three questions.

First, he asked what C-67 says and does. Most important, he said, is that it affirms the complexity and diversity of our faith, reflecting a long tradition in Christian churches of affirming more than any one confessional statement. This pattern, he said, reflects "a humbling awareness that we don't own the whole truth." To say that such confessions are "rules of faith and practice," he added, claims both too much and too little for them: It gives them an absolute authority which many of the statements explicitly deny for themselves, but it ignores their affirmation of the varieties of human knowledge and faith.

Ottati also suggested that C-67 offers us important insight into the dialectic between the gathered and scattered aspects of the church's life. Gathering for worship is vital, as it symbolically points to our true communion with God and with each other. But this gathering is always to be balanced by engagement with the world in mission and service.

Ottati's second point was "what C-67 doesn't say, or doesn't say especially well." The confession did speak to issues such as racism, war, poverty and sexuality. But of course the issues change, and our understandings change, as history moves forward. So today, for example, we need a fuller understanding of sexuality: that embodiment is a vital part of our created human nature, and that there are varieties of sexuality which were not understood a few decades ago.

So also international relations must be viewed now in light of the growing realities of globalization, and we need to reconsider the meaning and value of the nation state.

C-67 addressed religious pluralism with the clear Barthian distinction between faith (a gift received through Christ) and religion (human constructs). In today's world we need "a full and robust theology of religions," and C-67 doesn't provide that.

And where C-67 portrays the natural world as nothing more than the stage for what's really important - us! - we now need a theological framework for relating to the vastness of a universe which stretches far beyond humanity.

Finally, asked Ottati, what are some things that we might say today if we were to go about formulating a confession for the new millennium - a C-02? (However, Byron Bangert pointed out that CO₂ is toxic, so we might need a better name for it.) What themes might reflect our situation today, and speak to it as C-67 spoke to so many people in its time?

He suggested a few themes:

	In Jesus Christ, God the Creator is real, and is revealed. This makes the vital claim that the Power that bears all things is faithful, and God's gracious election of humanity is constant.
	To affirm God as Creator-Redeemer implies that the disclosure of this God does not preclude the possibility of other disclosures and other sources of insight.

And finally, responding to a question that was soon posed to the whole group for more conversation, he considered what single words might we take as themes today, as C-67 was built around the word "reconciliation."

Ottati's candidates for key words:

	Ecumenical - in the original meaning of something that encompasses the whole world, thus including all faiths in unity and cooperation, and reaching beyond the limits of the (human) "inhabited world."
	Inclusive - "a terrific word," said Ottati, and our theology does need to be more inclusive. But that word seems right now to focus on particular issues, and a new confession of faith should not be so limited.
	Capacious was his final and favorite suggestion, meaning "of such a size as to contain all," as (in the example cited by one dictionary) the Ark was capacious enough to include all the varieties of animals during the Flood. "Our theology ought to strive to be capacious," he concluded, "just as Jesus Christ points to and discloses the God of glory and grace who reaches beyond all our limitations."