Why Progressive Christians Need to Pray

This blog post is the second in a series of three posts inspired by the most popular post from the archive of 99Brattle, “Do Progressive Christians Pray?” by Chris Glaser, published two years ago. The first installment was by Margaret Bullitt-Jonas ’88 and the third installment will be released next week.

By Dr. Kwok Pui Lan

Prayer, meditation, and contemplation are pathways to God. During these moments, we are less obsessed with ourselves and the world around us, as we dwell in the loving kindness of the one who creates us and calls us into being.

Progressive Christians have to learn to pray, so that we will not lose heart. The world’s suffering is immense and our human effort doesn’t seem to make a dent. Prayer is a discipline, through which we learn to cultivate our hearts and minds to believe in the impossible, to hold out for hope, and to listen to the voice from the whirlwind.

Over the years I have taught generations of students about the spiritual life. They have taught me about the vulnerability of the spirit, the weakness of the flesh, the restlessness of the soul, and the bottom pit of despair. From them I learn the importance of prayer, the solace of God’s healing, and the companionship we need to walk the spiritual path together.

Prayer is more than “asking God for something.” Prayer opens up a vista. The German mystic Mechthild of Magdeburg wrote, “It draws God who is great into a heart which is small.” Many spiritual teachers, past and present, have taught me how to pray and I would like to share some of the best advice I have received and invite readers to share theirs.

Prayer transforms us, not God. Chris Glaser has taught progressive Christians to pray and written a practical guide to prayer. He points out that the Desert Fathers and Mothers believed that prayer is about our transformation, not God’s. “When we pray for someone who is ill or in prison or mistreated, I do not believe God “fixes” these things, but that we become better caregivers, liberators, and advocates,” he writes.    

Jesus teaches about prayer beyond words. Franciscan priest and best-selling author Richard Rohr was the Kellogg Lecturer at the Episcopal Divinity School some years ago. I was so mesmerized by his lectures that I bought two of his books afterward. In Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, he says that Jesus has taught us to pray with words—the Lord’s Prayer. But many of us forget that Jesus also taught prayer beyond words: “praying in secret” (Matt. 6:5-6), “not babbling on as the pagans do” (Matt. 6:7), and the “predawn, lonely prayer of Jesus (Mark 1:35). These are pointers toward what we would call contemplation today.

Prayer for serenity. Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer is well-known: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.” While progressive Christians want to transform the world, Niebuhr’s Christian realism reminds us to accept with humility that there are things we can’t possibly change. Serenity comes when we know that it is ultimately not up to us, but God. In his original version of the prayer, Niebuhr included the Zen-like advice, “Living one day at a time. Enjoyment one moment at a time.”

Ecstasy in prayer. No one has described their prayerful and spiritual life in more ecstatic and joyful language than the mystics. Too often we think of prayer in terms of meekness of the soul and restrained emotions. But the mystics open a window to a spiritual life full of passion and buoyed with love. Mechthild of Magdeburg prayed, “Lord, you are my lover, my longing, my flowing stream, my sun, and I am your reflection.” Catherine of Siena prayed to the Holy Spirit, “come into my heart; draw it to Thee by Thy power, O my God, and grant me charity with filial fear. Preserve me, O ineffable Love, from every evil thought; warm me, inflame me with Thy dear love.”

Prayer as blessing. The Irish philosopher and poet John O’Donohue draws on Celtic spiritual tradition and blends elegant, poetic language with spiritual insights. One of his many books has the loving title, To Bless the Space Between Us. He observes, “A blessing evokes a privileged intimacy. . . A blessing is not a sentiment or a question; it is a gracious invocation where the human heart pleads with the divine heart.” In one of the blessings, he invokes:

            May we discover

            Beneath our fear

Embers of anger

To kindle justice.

The universe responds. Alice Walker grew up in Georgia attending church with her family. Later, she became interested in Native American spirituality and Buddhist meditation. In The Same River Twice, she talks about honoring the difficult and records a trying moment in her professional life and separation from her lover. Toward the end of the book, she says we may pray to God and the divine with many names. For her, the intention is not to have God answer prayers, but to beseech the universe to respond.

Kwok Pui Lan is the William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality at the Episcopal Divinity School and her most recent book  Occupy Religion: Theology of the Multitude is published by Rowman and Littlefield.

EDS Faculty Visit Wilson Chapel

(l to r) EDS faculty members Suzanne Ehly,
Kwok Pui Lan, President of Andover Newton
Theological School Nick Carter, EDS professor
Lawrence Wills, EDS Board Member and former
chair Brett Donham, and professor Stephen Burns.

By Dr. Kwok Pui Lan

Last Friday when the temperature dropped to the teens, Professors Stephen Burns, Suzanne Ehly, Kwok Pui Lan, and Lawrence Wills of the Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) braved the cold and visited the award-winning Wilson Chapel at Andover Newton Theological School (ANTS) in Newton, Massachusetts.

Mr. Brett Donham, the former Chair of EDS’s Board of Trustees and the architect who designed the Chapel, accompanied them on the visit. The visit was prompted by Mr. Donham’s lecture on “Does Form Follow Function: The Design of Sacred Space” delivered at EDS in December, as well as growing interest among the EDS community to think more innovatively about the use of chapel space for worship.

Wilson Chapel attracted the faculty because it is intended to be a house of worship for multiple faiths: the predominantly Protestant ANTS community, a Jewish prayer group, and a Sufi group.

EDS has received a major grant from the Luce Foundation to support curricular revision, faculty development, and online continuing educational programs on religious pluralism. During the last academic year, a trip was organized to visit the RamakrishnaVedanta Society of Boston to learn about Hindu worship and religious life.

ANTS is the oldest seminary to offer graduate studies in the country. Its old chapel was not handicap accessible and can no longer serve the growing needs of the community. The school decided to build a brand new chapel on a former parking lot for multireligous services and multi-purposes. Mr. Donham met with the school community twice and listened carefully to them before finalizing his design.

The Wilson Chapel, built in 2007, has an open and transparent design, with no fixed iconic images, so that it can accommodate the needs of multiple religious communities. It was built by stones quarried in Brazil, with square windows that allow much light to shine through. Inside the Chapel, the stones were from Jerusalem.

For Professor Lawrence Wills, the building reminds him of the Pantheon in Rome, a temple consecrated to all gods. He said, “The indentations in the Pantheon ceiling achieve a windows effect as the shadows change over the course of the day, and it creates a truly awesome presence of divinity that I find captured also in the actual windows of the Wilson Chapel.”

President Nick Carter of ANTS warmly welcomed the EDS visitors and told the group that the school has seen a 300 percent increase in the use of the chapel since moving into the new space. The whole school community gather for worship on Wednesdays and throughout the week, denominational worship services, morning prayers, and complines are held. Since the chairs are moveable, a group can use the whole space or a section of it, depending on the size of the group.

The space is very good for dancing, President Carter added, and this is especially important for the Sufi group.

One of the favorite design features of worshipping space at Wilson Chapel is that of the circle, which reminds us of the theme “the church in the round” we have experimented with in the worship services during the January term at EDS.

Another favorite design aspect is in the form of a semi-circle facing south. The south side of Chapel has no stones, with only square glass windows, which signifies being open to the people and churches in the Global South, where Christianity sees its future. During festive activities, colorful banners will be hung to celebrate the richness and diversity that the community embodies.

There is also a meeting room for group reflection and a prayer room downstairs. The little prayer room has an intimate design, with icons from different traditions stored in the cabinet for people to choose to use.

At the end of visit, I shared with the group that I have been interested in the design of sacred space for a long time, because my church in Hong Kong was built in Chinese architectural style. The Holy Trinity Church in Hong Kong is one of the three churches in Hong Kong built in the Chinese style. Inside the church, Christian and Chinese religious symbols decorate the space. In addition to the symbols of the vine and fish and loaves, there are the symbols of thunder and clouds, found in traditional Chinese buildings. The candlestick holders on the two sides of the lectern are made of wood shaped like the Chinese bamboo tree.

It was not until much later that I recognized how the hybridity of Christian and Chinese symbolism and religiosity of my church has shaped my spirituality and my understanding of the Anglican tradition in an expansive way.

The faculty plan to expose our students to the creative use of sacred spaces in our area. Mr. Donham is renovating St. Paul’s Cathedral in downtown Boston. Several hundred Muslims use spaces of the Cathedral for their Friday prayers each week. The Wellesley Multifaith Center, housed in the first level of the Chapel building at Wellesley College, provides multifaith sacred and meeting spaces for prayer and study, and facilities are made available for Muslim members to wash themselves before prayers.

Supported by the Luce grant, we will continue to visit worshipping spaces of other religious traditions to learn about their spirituality and community life. As the United States is going to be religiously more diverse, such exposures will be invaluable in the formation of religious leaders for the future.

Kwok Pui Lan is the William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality at the Episcopal Divinity School and her most recent book Occupy Religion: Theology of the Multitude is published by Rowman and Littlefield.

Church in the Round

By Dr. Kwok Pui Lan

This blog post is excerpted from a sermon preached at St. John's Memorial Chapel on December 6, 2012. For the full text of the sermon visit Dr. Kwok Pui Lan’s blog.  


St. John’s Memorial Chapel at the Episcopal Divinity School was built in the nineteenth century. I asked historian David Sigenthaler what chapel and worship was like when he was a student at the school in the 1950s. At that time the altar was set against the east wall, the faculty sat up in the chancel, and the students sat in the pews facing each other. Each would have an assigned seat and chapel during that time was compulsory. The design of sacred space mirrored the hierarchical setup of the community. In the 1960s when Christopher Durasingh and Ed Rodman were students, the pews were removed and replaced with chairs.

In 1992 when I joined the school, the altar was brought forward to the crossing and the ambo was placed on the west side near the entrance. The students sat facing each other.

To honor Brett Donham who renovated St. Paul’s at Brookline after the fire in 1976 and our presider Rev. Jeffrey Mello, the rector of St. Paul’s, we have created a worshipping space modeling after St. Paul’s in which the congregation and the choir sit surrounding the altar. Donham talked about the rationale of why he designed the church in such a way:

“The traditional forms of church buildings, with everyone facing in the same direction and with the ‘expert’; the intermediary or interpreter, on a raised stage addressing an audience is the antithesis of gathering in community.”

Today many churches are recovering the early roots of Christianity. Donham continues, “In these places people gather in community to offer praise and thanksgiving, to reflect on scripture, to share stories about Jesus Christ and his impact on their lives, to share a commemorative meal, and through this to come into communion with Christ, and with one another. These are communal activities, with many players, several centers of action and movement, and require the ability to see one another and feel as a gathered body.”



The church in the round exists not for itself but for others. One of the hallmarks of the church in the round, as theologian Letty Russell has described in her book with the same title is hospitality to those on the margins. Macrina demonstrated her hospitality by feeding the hungry, providing for the needy, and taking care of young women. The two aspects of gathering for worship and sending out to service are inseparable.



Sometimes we are disheartened because we find the church more like the form of a triangle, in which power is concentrated at the top, instead of in the round. The church design and liturgy reinforce the separation between the clergy and the laity. Worship is often separated from ordinary life and from a sense of mission. It fails to give the sustenance that we need or meet the deepest longing we have for God.

In the season of Advent, a time of anticipation and expectation, let us renew our hope and work for a church in the round. One of my students Lucretia Mann brought to my attention an Orthodox theologian John Zizioulas, who has said that church is not an institution, but a way of being, that is deeply bound to the being of human, the being of the world, and the being of God.*


We can each bring something new to rejuvenate and enliven our community and way of being. We do not need to abolish the old church in order to create something new. We can redesign and reoccupy sacred space within traditional buildings so that we can experiment with different ways of being with God. In this semester, we have seen several creative expressions of using sacred space, particularly in the Eucharist led by Stephen Burns and Christopher Duraisingh. In the course of doing so, we experienced new centers and movements as people of God.

The church in the round is also a process and not a perfect circle. Sometimes we move two steps forward and one step back. All we are asked to do is to transform the triangle or the rectangular form in our chapel to make it rounder each day to the glory of God. Amen.

* John D. Zizioulas, Being as Communion (Crestwood, NY:  St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1985), 15.

Kwok Pui Lan is the William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality at the Episcopal Divinity School and her book Occupy Religion: Theology of the Multitude (with Joerg Rieger) is published by Rowman and Littlefield.

The Anglican Covenant? Now What

By Kwok Pui Lan

The Church of England and the Episcopal Church of the United States have decided not to adopt the present form of the Anglican Covenant. Many wonder what will be the future of the Anglican Communion.

 

Kwok Pui Lan at Canterbury Cathedral

The Windsor Report of 2004 first proposed the idea of a pan-Anglican covenant to set out common doctrine of the Anglican Church, relationships in the Communion, and ways to resolve conflicts among member churches. Archbishop Rowan Williams assigned a Covenant Design Group and a final version was released in December 2009 for adoption of constituent provinces.

Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, which has a clear hierarchal structure, the Anglican Communion is a family of 38 provinces, with dispersed authority across the Communion. The Archbishop of Canterbury enjoys a primacy of honor (primus inter pares), but has no legal jurisdiction over other parts of the Communion. The resolutions of the Lambeth Conference (the meeting of Anglican bishops every ten years) are not binding, but are seen as advisory for the autonomous member churches.

Such a structure can no longer hold the Communion together when it is increasingly multilingual, multicultural, and postcolonial. The issues of ordination of women priests and bishops and homosexuality have threatened the unity of the church and the bonds of affection.

At the end of March, I had the chance to meet with Archbishop Williams (right) at Lambeth Palace with a group of Anglican women theologians. Shortly before our meeting, we heard that a majority of the dioceses of the Church of England would not accept the Anglican Covenant. The Archbishop told us that he was disappointed with the outcome and expressed regret that during his tenure he was not able to bring the Communion closer together.

The Episcopal Church participated in the discussion of the Anglican Covenant in good faith. It has responded to the several drafts with thoughtfulness and care. Several theologians and church leaders have produced The Genius of Anglicanism to educate the public about the different facets of the Covenant. Professor Fredrica Harris Thompsett, Mary Wolfe Professor of Historical Theology and faculty emerita of the Episcopal Divinity School, is one of the contributors. She has been newly elected to the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church at the General Convention last July.

The Anglican Covenant is problematic because its ecclesiology (doctrine of the church) is backward looking and outdated. First, it reinforces a top-down understanding of the church, in which authority is concentrated at the top. The Covenant asks the church to “proclaim a pattern of theological and moral reasoning” based on Scripture and the catholic and apostolic faith. It places the primary responsibility of biblical interpretation in the hands of bishops and synods, although the study of lay and ordained should be taken into account. Instead of welcoming the plurality of interpretation, the Covenant is cautious about diversity in interpretation.

Second, the Covenant does not have an adequate theology of the laity. The Covenant mentions the word “laity” only twice. The Covenant mentions baptism as one of the two sacraments, but does not speak about the baptismal ministry that all believers are called to do. The bishops are set apart, as if they only need to talk with each other, and they are not part of the laos (the whole people of God).

Third, the Covenant disregards the church reform movements and liberative impulses across the churches in the second half of the twentieth century. People who have been marginalized—women, the youth, the poor, racial and ethnic minorities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people—are demanding their voices to be heard. The basic church communities in Latin America offer a model of church that is anti-clerical, egalitarian, and participatory.

The Covenant has been rejected by several provinces. Now what?

The Chinese word “crisis” implies both danger and opportunity. For me, this provides an excellent opportunity for the church to enter into a process that Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff has called Ecclesiogenesis—the birth of a new church. Instead of trying to find expedient measures and set up bureaucratic structures to solve the crisis at hand, we can begin a process of imagining a Communion that is truly global and multicultural, respecting differences and staying in conversations even when it becomes difficult.

Many Anglicans would like to see the birth of a new church focusing on the Missio Dei (mission of God) and not on policing people’s sexuality. We would like to see a church that welcomes the gifts and talents of all the baptized, and not reinforcing a hierarchy. Let the conversations on the new shape of the Anglican Church begin!

Kwok Pui Lan is the William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality at the Episcopal Divinity School and her book Occupy Religion: Theology of the Multitude is forthcoming from Rowman and Littlefield.

Jewish-Christian Dialogue

By Kwok Pui Lan

Some 200 people gathered from July 1-4 in Manchester, United Kingdom, for a conference organized by the International Council of Christians and Jews. The theme of the conference was “New Neighbors, New Opportunities: The Challenges of Multiculturalism and Social Responsibility.”

Dr. Kwok Pui Lan and Baroness Rabbi Julia Neuberger

The conference was co-sponsored by the Council of Christians and Jews in the United Kingdom. William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, was one of the founders of the British Council, together with Chief Rabbi, Dr. H. J. Hertz. The Council first started in 1942 during the dark days of the Nazi era. It was born of the cooperation between Christians and Jews in caring for the victims of Nazi persecution who had found refuge in Britain.

Today there are about 270,000 Jews living in Britain, and the majority of them live in London. Manchester is a city with a very vibrant Jewish community, with 48 Jewish congregations and more than 400 different Jewish communal organizations.

I was invited to deliver a plenary address on “Jewish-Christian Dialogue in the Non-Western World.” The respondent to my address was Baroness Rabbi Julia Neuberger of the West London Synagogue. She is a member of the House of the Lords and laughed when I told her that I have never met a rabbi who is also a baroness!

In additional to the plenaries, there were workshops on the themes multiculturalism past and present; Israel, Islam, and interfaith relations; social responsibility; international interfaith developments; and the dialogic interface.

The majority of the participants came from Europe, but there were also people from Australia, Canada, Israel, the United States, the Philippines, and Uruguay. The International Council of Christians and Jews has chapters in 38 countries worldwide. In North America, there is the Council of Centers onJewish-Christian Relations, which is an association of centers and institutes in the United States and Canada devoted to enhancing mutual understanding between Jews and Christians. It publishes an electronic journal Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations.

This was the first time that I participated in Jewish-Christian dialogue in Europe, although I have worked with Jewish colleagues at the American Academy of Religion and other feminist organizations. I learned much about the diversity of the Jewish communities in various countries. The Jews first came to Manchester in 1780 to look for economic opportunities, since Manchester was a center of the industrial revolution. Other had arrived to escape the Nazi persecution.

I sat next to a Jewish leader from Munich at a dinner, who told me that there are about 100,000 Jews in Germany, who have come mostly from Russia after the German Jews were wiped out. I did not know that there are as many as 55,000 Jews in Uruguay, and only about 1,000 in Finland.

Although the focus of the Council is on Jewish and Christian dialogue, many felt that it is important to expand the dialogue to include Muslims, given the changing demographic in many European countries. Several years ago, the International Abrahamic Forum was formed to foster such conversations. Although Muslims are a tiny minority at the conference, it is hoped that their participation will increase in the future.

Given the European composition of the conference, the shadow of the Holocaust loomed very large. Yet Clive Lawton, co-founder of Limmud, which promotes Jewish learning in many parts of the world, said that we should not just look back to the past, but also look toward the future to see what the Jews can contribute to the 21st century.

One of the most sensitive issues, as expected, concerned the State of Israel and the plights of the Palestinians. I attended a workshop on “Karios Palestine,” a document issued by Palestinian Christians concerning the military occupation of their land. I was struck by the openness of the conversation and learned from seasoned participants who have worked for justice and peace in the Middle East for a long time.

A highlight of the conference was a gala dinner at the Knight’s Lounge at the famed Manchester United Football Club to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Council of Christians and Jews in the United Kingdom. One could also take a tour of the Club by paying 10 pounds. As a football fan, I regretted that I had to leave early and miss the fun of visiting the Football Club, yet I still enjoyed the conference very much.

Kwok Pui Lan is the William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality at the Episcopal Divinity School and her most recent book is Globalization, Gender, and Peacebuilding: The Future of Interfaith Dialogue. 

Dispatch from China: Seminary Life

By Catherine Owens

EDS Travel Seminar at East China Theological Seminary

It’s Friday, May 25, and we are having lunch in the cafeteria with the students at Nanjing Union Theological Seminary. This is not an orchestrated banquet. The table has mismatched jars of what seem to be the three basic condiments in this part of China—a red oil-based chili sauce, soy sauce, and strong dark vinegar. Many of the students bring their own dishes, often made of metal, which they wash themselves, and all the students at my table had brought small metal boxes containing wet wash cloths that they use to clean their hands before and after eating rather than napkins. Even in fancy restaurants you always get a packet containing a wet wipe for your hands as well as a napkin. As visitors we were brought compartmented tin trays containing the same food the students were eating: rice, a tofu/vegetable mix, a bowl of broth, stir fried greens, and some chicken (I think we probably got more chicken than they did). I thought it was very good for school food.

The students hadn’t been warned we were coming, and I felt a bit sorry for the students at the table that Susan Taylor and I joined. We had been told that all the students spoke English, and apparently some were quite fluent, but the man and two women at our table didn’t speak much (although certainly more than my Mandarin!) We struggled to communicate even a little. If Pui Lan hadn’t joined us and translated it would have become very awkward very quickly.

            

A little bit of background, China offers three levels of theological education. Nanjing Union is the national seminary. It offers Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Five regional seminaries, like the East China Theological Seminary we visited on Tuesday, offer certificates and are closer to a specialized liberal arts college education than what we think of as higher theological education. Then there are provincial seminaries and bible schools (we won’t have a chance to visit one of those). The students at our table had received their certificates from regional seminaries and are spending two years at Nanjing to get their Bachelor’s degrees. They will go back to their home areas and work as evangelists for several years before ordination even becomes a possibility. (Evangelism is huge in China, and worth a whole blog on its own!) 

            

In some ways we have much in common. One woman had a small child and was struggling with the same issues of career and motherhood that many of us do. They have to pay for their meals over and above tuition, which is 5,000 yuans (US$800), and had meal cards just like we do (I wish I had brought mine so we could compare). We study many of the same subjects, although I think they emphasize Bible studies more than we do. They told us that New Testament studies are much more popular than Hebrew Scripture—the latter is not considered to be as relevant or interesting. We even read some of the same texts. The students at Gale Yee’s table were studying the book of Judges and actually had her book Judges and Method in front of them. They were delighted to meet her! During our tour of the library I went straight to the section on the Gospel of Mark and I told the students at our table I found the same texts there that Larry Wills assigned in his class. The Nanjing library isn’t bad, with fairly large Chinese language and foreign language collections, although the English language books at least are of very uneven quality. The regional East China Seminary’s modern collection in any language is quite small, although they have an interesting collection of older books that were rescued from destruction in the Cultural Revolution.

            

Like us, these students have regular chapel worship. At East China regional they have morning prayer every day and at Nanjing they have morning prayer Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and evening prayer every day. In both the students sit in assigned areas with their classes, and I got the sense that chapel worship is mandatory.

            

All of the students at the regional seminaries are young, and most at the national seminary are as well. We learned that only last year did Nanjing remove the age limit of 30 for admission to the Bachelor’s program and 35 for the Masters. Some students at the regional seminary commute—the seminary has a special part time program that offers a reduced level of education but does not require full time residence. All of the students at Nanjing are residents in one of two dormitories, one for men and one for women. Undergraduates live four to a room. Graduates get to live only (only!) three to a room. Despite the heat in Nanjing, only the building for the visiting foreign faculty is air-conditioned.

            

The students at both levels of seminary don’t have field education placements like we do, instead, in the summer they go back and work at their own church. With the exception of some of the graduates of Nanjing who will become teachers, all will work in churches. The regional seminary graduates tend to go back either to their own church or to a church close to their own church. Nanjing Union holds a kind of job fair in which representatives of churches all over China can come and meet students to try to recruit them. Every graduate of both knows they will have a job. They don’t have any kind of chaplaincies or other career paths. There is such a lack of trained leaders that the churches need all of them. One of the young women at our table, who comes from a rural part of central China, told us that there are so few ordained ministers that many rural churches only have communion once a year.

            

Perhaps most striking to me, though, is the fact that all of these students are sent from their home church. You can’t simply apply, as I did. The institutional church controls access. I believe with all my heart that higher theological education should be available to everyone. I also recognize that the openness of institutions like EDS to people like me is a relatively new development in a country where Christianity has been developing for over 300 years, and that this incarnation of Christianity in China is quite new—only a bit more than 30 years in the making. Maybe someday this seminary environment too will be more open.

Catherine Owens is a student in the MDiv program at EDS.

Dispatch from China: Our First Sunday Worship Service

By Dr. Gale A. Yee

The EDS China group attended the 10am service of the Shanghai Community Church on Sunday, May 20. I was wondering why the church was already filled when we arrived at 9:30. Pui Lan explained that there were other rooms with closed-circuit televisions, and that these people came early to get a seat where the action was. There are three services each Sunday and each one is packed. What a difference from our own services in the US! Our group sat in a section with earphones for simultaneous translation. The hymns were in both Chinese and English and I was very happy that I was able to sing along.

The sermon was delivered by Rev. Zhang Ai-Li, a graduate of Nanjing Seminary. As a former Roman Catholic used to ten-minute sermons, I wondered what I would feel like after a 45-minute sermon, but I was quite engaged. I might have lost something in the translation, but here it goes: Rev. Zhang spoke about the meaning of the Ascension and why it was important for our faith. Jesus teaches the apostles for forty days about the kingdom of God. Forty is a special number in the Jewish tradition; it was their time of wandering in the wilderness where they were tested. Jesus too was tested by the devil for forty days. Jesus thus provides a new explanation for the number forty. We may suffer and be tested, but we still have hope in the resurrected Jesus.

Like all good sermons, Rev. Zhang had three points on why Jesus ascended to heaven. First, according to John 14:28, Jesus tells the apostles that he must ascend in order to return to the Father. And when this happens, the apostles will believe.

Second, according to John 14:2, Jesus tells us that in his Father's house there are many mansions and that he ascends to heaven to prepare a place for us. We learned that theologians have speculated on where heaven was. According to one view, there are three levels above us. The first level is the sky. The second is outer space, and heaven is located beyond outer space. Heaven is the place where those who are resurrected go. Because Jesus ascended, he becomes for us a resurrected model of what we too will eventually experience after we die. Heaven is very much a part of our faith. We do not have to fear death, because we have this hope that God has given us.

Third, according to John 14:16, Jesus ascended to heaven in order to send us the Holy Spirit, our Helper. Jesus could not remain with the apostles in a human body, but through the Holy Spirit Jesus still lives among us.

If Jesus is in heaven, what is he doing up there, Rev. Zhang asks? According to Hebrews 8:1, Jesus is our heavenly High Priest who, like the Israelite priests of the temple on the Day of Atonement, prays for our sins. Also, like the earthly priests who light the lamps of the temple, so does Jesus light our lamps when we feel weak. He will add oil to our lamps to give us power so that our lights can shine.

I was impressed at the way Rev. Zhang used John's gospel to preach on the Ascension text of Acts 1:1-11.  As a scripture scholar, I also wanted to make sure that all my references were correct, and indeed, I discovered that they were all wrong, perhaps because they got lost in translation. I did not have a bible with me, so how did I find the correct texts? There was a Bible in my Shanghai hotel room! A United Bible Society Good News translation! Some things never change!

All in all, we had a wonderful first experience of the Chinese Church.

Dr. Gale A. Yee is Nancy W. King Professor of Biblical Studies at Episcopal Divinity School. 

Dispatch from China: The Study Seminar Leaves for China

By Kwok Pui Lan

After months of anticipation, members of the China Study Seminar of the Episcopal Divinity School gathered at 6 a.m. on Friday at Logan airport in Boston to begin our very long trip to China. The group consists of twelve students, four faculty, and two staff. We have studied the history, culture, and religions of China as well the development of the Christianity in the turbulent years of Chinese modern history in preparation for the trip.

China Study Seminar Begins their Journey

The journey was long and taxing: a six-hour flight from Boston to San Francisco, and then another thirteen-hour flight from San Francisco to Shanghai. But as we proceeded to the gate at San Francisco, excitement was in the air. This was for real. We were flying to China—a dream for many in the seminar.

I had brought along a book to read for the long flight across the Pacific: Culture and Historyin Postrevolutionary China by Arif Dirlik. Turkish by background, Professor Dirlik is one of the most astute observers of modern Chinese history and its relation to the global world. He was for many years a professor at Duke University before accepting the assignment to become a distinguished professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The book was very appropriate for the trip because it consists of lectures he has delivered in the fall of 2010 at the Academy of National Learning (Guoxue yuan) of Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Using China as a case in point, the book discusses the complex relations between tradition and modernity, the role of culture in global capitalism, and the rise of China and its potential impact on global culture. Many scholars have pointed out we have to think beyond a notion modernity defined by Europe and North America and put forth the proposal of “multiple modernities” or “alternative modernities.” This raises the question of how modernity is defined and by whom? But the more important question is how to understand past traditions in China in the process of China’s modernization in the age of global capitalism.

Is there an East Asian way to modernization? What does it mean when the Chinese leaders say they want to pursue economic development with Chinese characteristics? Why is there a revival of interest in Confucianism, and a huge bronze statue of Confucius was placed at Tiananmen Square, albeit briefly? Confucianism was accused of holding China backward and “traditional” by the iconoclasts of the New Culture Movement in the 1920s and by the Maoists during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). Yet what was once considered a cultural impediment is now considered a source of national pride, and a contributive force in the Chinese road to capitalism!

As someone who has studied postcolonialism for some time, I was struck to read Dirlik’s statement: “The Confucian revival since the 1980s is best viewed a manifestation of Eastern Asia of a global postcolonial discourse.” While the cultural past is revived and rehabitated, it has also been reconfigured under global capitalism, as Dirlik points out. Chinese intellectuals have been preoccupied with the complexities of reimaging Chinese culture and history in the global world since China adopted the open-door policy in the late 1970s.

There is no better place to observe the juxtaposition of the “traditional” and the “modern” than Shanghai—the most cosmopolitan city in China. It is also a city with deep ties to Episcopal mission. The famous St. John’s University in the outskirt of the city was established by Bishop Samuel Joseph Schereschewsky, who also translated the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer into the Chinese language.

In Shanghai, we will have the opportunities of worshipping at Shanghai Community Church and meeting with the Rev. Cao Shengjie, former Chairperson of the China Christian Council. Rev. Cao is a proud graduate of St. John’s and has spoken at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church when Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori was elected.

We will also have conversations with scholars in religious studies to understand how religion is understood in a socialist country and the growth of religious studies in the past 30 years. On our last day in Shanghai, we will visit East China Theological Seminary to meet faculty and students and share a meal together.

We are very grateful to our Chinese colleagues for their generosity in hosting us and arranging for such wonderful learning opportunities for us. In April a delegation of theological educators and church representatives from China went to San Francisco, New York, and Toronto to visit seminaries and have dialogue with their American counterparts. I have helped hosting them when they were in New York. I am glad to have the opportunity of leading this seminar with Professor Patrick S. Cheng to visit our Chinese colleagues and to know how they are preparing women and men for ministry in their rapidly changing society.

Kwok Pui Lan is the William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality at the Episcopal Divinity School and her most recent book is Globalization, Gender, and Peacebuilding: The Future of Interfaith Dialogue. 

Climate Change and Christian Faith

By Kwok Pui Lan

Today, the National Religious Coalition on Creation Care is convening a conference on “Scientific, Religious, and Cultural Implications of Global Warming” at Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Washington, DC. 

 Blessing of the Watertown Community Garden
on June 12, 2011.

This climate summit will bring together activists, scholars, scientists, and religious leaders to explore strategies to prevent the impacts of global warming. Renowned climatologist Dr. James Hansen, environmentalist Bill McKibben, Fr. Michael Oleksa of Alaska, and Brigadier General Steven Anderson, US Army (ret.) will be among the speakers.

The Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, MDiv, EDS ’88, has been invited to speak about the Episcopal Church’s response to climate change. She is a long-time environmental activist and was the principal author of the Pastoral Letter, “To Serve Christ in All Creation,” issued by the Episcopal Bishops of New England in 2003. She has been a leader in Religious Witness for the Earth and is priest associate at Grace Church in Amherst, Massachusetts. 

Christian theologians have increasingly paid attention to the challenges of climate change. Sallie McFague, an Episcopalian, is a leading figure in ecological theology. She has published A New Climate for Theology: God, the World, and Global Warming. In his review of the book, John B. Cobb, Jr. said, “[McFague] calls Christians to new feeling, new acting, and new thinking. Perhaps as the threat to our world that she describes so well presses more obviously upon us, the church will begin to listen.”

Anne Primavesi, an Irish theologian, has been in conversations with scientists such as James Lovelock for many years. She has introduced Lovelock’s Gaia Theory to the study of the Bible and theology. In her book Gaia and Climate Change, she challenges Christian communities to change their theological climate. Instead of subscribing to over-powering and imperialistic images of God, Primavesi offers a nonviolent theological model to understand our relations with human beings, with sacred earth, and with God. 

Here at Episcopal Divinity School, I have taught the course “God and Creation” for many years and have introduced students to the works of these theologians who have written poignantly on climate change and environmental issues. My teaching and pedagogy have emphasized putting into practice what we have learned in embodied ways supporting African American cultural critic and theorist bell hooks’s views on education as practice of freedom. 

In conjunction with my courses, I have brought students to an organic farm to learn about the close relation between the soil, water, climate, and plant cycles. After the visit, three people, including myself, started a vegetable garden in our backyards. In the past two summers, I have grown tomatoes, bell peppers, squash, cucumbers, onions, and different herbs. This new practice has deepened my understanding of the symbiotic relationship between human beings and our environment. 

Last fall, I brought students to a community garden in Watertown, Massachusetts, started by the Rev. Louise Forrest, MDiv EDS ’80. The community garden enables children in the housing project to plant vegetables and tend to the garden. It provides fresh produce for several families. Some of the students who visited the garden want to introduce the idea of setting up a community garden at EDS and in their future ministries. 

I am increasingly convinced that we cannot just talk about global warming and other environmental problems without changing how we live and practice our spirituality. In my spirituality of healing class, I introduce healthy eating and healthy living as important spiritual disciplines. I am very impressed by Primavesi’s concept that human beings and the environment are co-evolutionary. Without collective metanoia (repentance) and deep solidarity with the earth, we cannot avert the disasters that global warming will bring. (Last winter was the second warmest winter in Boston since records began in 1872.)

EDS has received a major grant from the Henry Luce Foundation of New York to help the school and faith communities learn about religious pluralism and engage in interreligious dialogue. Throughout the academic year, Professor Christopher Duraisingh has organized a series of interfaith table-talks. He has invited Jewish, Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist practitioners to come to share with us their spiritual paths. The EDS community has also visited the Ramakrishna Vedanta Center in Boston. Swami Tyaganada of the Center has come to speak in the World Religions and the Search for Comminity course. 

Many Asian religious traditions emphasize the close relation between human beings and nature. Conversations with people of other faiths allow the EDS community to learn from and network with other faith communities to address common concerns, such as environmental issues and climate change.

The Sustainability Task Force of the American Academy of Religion has invited me to serve on a panel to talk about creative pedagogies in teaching religion and environmental issues at the annual meeting in November. I will be able to share some of my insights in teaching environmental racism, climate change, and ecological debt with the academic community and share what EDS has done in changing the climate of theology and theological education.

Kwok Pui Lan is the William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality at the Episcopal Divinity School and her most recent book is Globalization, Gender, and Peacebuilding: The Future of Interfaith Dialogue.