wfn.org | Archbishop of Canterbury and wife Eileen take vacation

[ENS@ecunet.org]

For more information contact:
James Solheim
Director
Episcopal News Service
jsolheim@dfms.org
212/922-5385
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens

2000-124

Archbishop of Canterbury and wife Eileen take some time off--in 
Chicago

by David Skidmore

     (Anglican Advance/ENS) Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey 
has taken a liking to Chicago. For the second year in a row, Dr. 
Carey and his wife Eileen chose the Second City as their vacation 
getaway from the demanding schedule and constant scrutiny 
associated with the archbishop's role as spiritual leader of the 
Anglican Communion.

     Unlike their first experience of the Chicago--a five-day 
official visit in May 1996--the Careys arrived with little 
fanfare and a simple agenda: recreation and relaxation. Hosted by 
the Near North Side parish of St. Chrysostom's--their hosts 
during their 1999 Chicago holiday--the Careys spent their 12 days 
in Chicago, August 1-12, doing what most tourists do: shopping, 
visiting the museums and galleries, and sampling the restaurant 
scene. 

     Though leisure was the focus, Carey did make three public 
appearances: toasting the Queen Mother on her 100th birthday at a 
reception hosted by the British Consulate August 4 at Chicago's 
Navy Pier, preaching at the Sunday Eucharist at St. Chrysostom's 
August 6, and presenting the inaugural Gilchrist Lecture in 
Mission at St. Chrysostom's August 8. Sandwiched in were a dinner 
with William Persell, bishop of the Diocese of Chicago, and his 
wife Nancy, and a lunch with diocesan staff.

     The respite came on the heels of an international 
evangelical conference in Amsterdam, organized by Billy Graham, 
who couldn't attend because of illness. Carey spoke on the 
importance of witnessing to the singular truth of Christ. "There 
must be no flinching from the 'scandal of particularity' that in 
this man, at a certain point in history, God spoke his final 
word," he said.

Grace empowers mission

     Echoes of that address also sounded in Carey's sermon on 
August 6 at St. Chrysostom's. Joined by Bishop Persell, who 
presided at the Eucharist, Carey began by noting his discomfort 
about preaching on the Feast of the Transfiguration. Not for any 
theological reason, he said, but because it coincided with the 
dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

     Ten years ago on a visit to Japan, he and his wife met 
Bishop Joseph Noriaki Lida, bishop of Kyushu, the diocese that 
includes Nagasaki. The day the bomb exploded over Nagasaki, said 
Carey, Joseph, who was 16 at the time, was visiting his uncle who 
lived just a mile from the epicenter. Spared by an errand to a 
hillside garbage dump, Joseph recalled a searing white light and 
being flung to the ground by the bomb's shockwave. When he made 
his way back to the house site the building and his uncle were 
gone.

     Asked by Carey how he could endure such suffering and not 
reject God, Joseph replied that the explosion had made him a man 
of peace. "I blamed no one for that bomb. It made me realize that 
war was a terrible thing and that Christ offered a better way."

Moments of grace

     For Joseph that day was a moment of transfiguration, a 
moment of being open to God's grace, said Carey, and one that 
Joseph built on through his ministry in the church. We should all 
expect moments of grace in our lives, moments which may not be as 
intense as Joseph's but just as real, he said. These moments of 
transfiguration--a birth of a child, a spectacular sunset or the 
Sunday Eucharist--are meant as springboards for mission, said 
Carey, and not as private reveries such as Peter, James and John 
attempted on seeing Christ transfigured on the mountain.

     "They wanted to immortalize the moment, frame it, protect 
it, savor it, and keep it to themselves," said Carey. "That's the 
problem with all great experiences. If kept to themselves they 
freeze experience rather than liberate it."

     Carey noted that poet William Blake contrasted the cistern 
with the fountain, and warned to "expect poison from the standing 
water." The church today, said Carey, "is full of cisterns." Our 
great moments of conversion as youth wilt and fade as we slog 
into middle age. "The water settles and those wonderful 
experiences are not put to use," he said. "And possibly, those 
experiences become anti-experiences which ward off new ideas or 
thwart new possibilities."

Authentic Christianity doesn't stop at the church door

     Complacency and insularity were also targeted by Carey in 
the Gilchrist lecture on mission. Named for the Rev. Charles 
Gilchrist, former director of the diocesan agency Cathedral 
Shelter, who died in June 1999, the lecture highlighted the 
recent founding of the Rev. Charles Gilchrist Fund for Outreach 
and Mission.  Peter Wilmott, a parishioner of St. Chrysostom and 
longtime friend and former classmate of Gilchrist, donated 
$100,000 to the parish to launch the fund, the income from which 
will be used for creative outreach and mission projects 
throughout the Anglican Communion. 

     Carey noted the fund was an appropriate memorial to 
Gilchrist given his passion for urging the church toward 
community activism. "For him a faith that did not engage with 
life's problems was counterfeit, and church life that began and 
ended at the church door was simply playing at being church," he 
said.

     Using music as a metaphor for faith expression, Carey 
observed that Christians in first world countries have trouble 
keying in to the music of other parts of the world. One reason 
may be that first world Christians are oppressed by their 
abundance and ease of life, he said, which presents a challenge 
to the church's mission. "What is the message of the church to 
those who are strong, to those without apparent need?" he asked. 
The answer, he said, has to be more than an invitation to Sunday 
services.

     "Authentic Christianity surely includes church-going, but it 
is far richer than this. It is a way of life," said Carey. 
"Authentic Christianity is the joyful adventure of entering into 
the mission of God. It is the risk-filled challenge to take up 
our cross and follow Christ. It is a liturgy that still fills the 
hearts of many with song and celebration."

Witness for justice

     In response to these pressing needs, Carey has established 
an emergency relief fund for situations "where resources are 
needed now;" founded an Anglican Investment Agency with the 
assistance of philanthropists Sir John Templeton and John Beck; 
arranged support for orphans of deceased bishops; and encouraged 
companion relationships between rich and poor dioceses

     The Episcopal Church is also making a major contribution 
through its Episcopal Relief and Development Fund (the former 
Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief), he said.

     But it is not enough to simply bankroll relief and recovery. 
The church, said Carey, must also be a witness for justice.

     "The mission of the church includes raising its voice when 
errors are made, when evil things are done in the name of 
humanity or prosperity or progress. She must equally speak up for 
others when the rich harmonies of life seem to deny others a 
voice," he said. That can prove difficult in America or other 
developed countries where prosperity and a cultural hegemony can 
seal citizens from knowing or caring about the rest of the world.

     "Sometimes we price we pay for success is that we ignore 
those who do not succeed," said Carey. "It is vital, therefore, 
that the church--both in this land and in other wealthy 
countries--hear the cries of the poor and seek to stand with 
them."

     Like the wealthy young man in the gospel parable, we are 
often reluctant to relinquish our comfort and security for the 
difficult and dangerous road of discipleship, he said. The 
challenge is in arriving at a balance of maintenance and mission. 

     "We realize that part of maintenance is presence, and that 
presence is part of mission. But we must guard constantly against 
complacency, and self-preservation, and we must be prepared to 
sacrifice the old and the comfortable in order to advance the 
Gospel."

--David Skidmore is communications director for the Diocese of 
Chicago and editor of Anglican Advance.