You know, I’m struck by how one person seems to think that because the Episcopal Church behaves in a particular manner now, it has always done so.
It reminds of an eye opening experience I had in my twenties. I had grown up with big band music, and I associated it with elevators, because that’s where I had always heard it. It was slow, sweet and bland. Then a friend invited me to a party. She had hired a real live jazz band for the party. I heard “Sing! Sing! Sing!” for the first time played the way Benny Goodman played it back in the day.
Likewise, just because the Episcopal Church doesn’t do evangelism today, does not mean that that was always true. We used to be pretty good at it. In the not too recent past we were the fastest growing church in America (look it up!). We grew faster than the Mormons. The Episcopal Church had kudzu like vitality. That changed in the space of a few years.
And now the Episcopal Church is sedentary. But what we need is the Holy Spirit to play some jazz back into our souls. Some may say it’s too late, the old girl’s already in a walker and her feet can’t find the rhythm anymore. But I say, what the heck, let’s crank up the volume on the hearing aid and let ‘er rip.
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