wfn.org | Burning Issues conference in Virginia explores issue of authority

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Burning Issues conference in Virginia explores issue of authority

by Nancy Jenkins 

     (ENS) This year's Burning Issues Conference, held in Richmond, Virginia, on 
November 5, examined how God's authority is revealed to humanity in the twenty-first 
century.

     Entitled "By What Authority?" the conference featured Presiding Bishop Frank T. 
Griswold. Addressing an audience of over 300 at St. Stephen's Church, Griswold's main 
message was that authority is only discovered in communion with others - including 
those who represent differing points of view. 

     Discerning God's authority requires people "to give up some of the places where we 
are secure and stuck" in their personal points of view, Griswold said, and to listen 
with open hearts to those whose opinions differ from their own. Discernment, he added, 
requires Christians to ask "as I enter into the process of seeking to know the mind of 
Christ, how available am I to the others who are taking part in this search with me?" 

     Beyond communion, Griswold examined how God's followers should exercise the 
authority that has been given to them in baptism. "Jesus's authority was characterized 
by compassion," he said, and that members of today's Church should follow that example. 
He added that each person's authority to continue God's work of reconciliation and 
unity should not be viewed as power but rather as "the capacity to enrich, increase, 
build-up and bring forth life." 

Truth unfolding

     Griswold also addressed the age-old question of how the nearly 2000 year-old 
authority of Christ is revealed in today's world.  He used Christ's own words to his 
disciples: "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." 

     Griswold interprets this to mean that "the Spirit further unfolds the truth as in 
Jesus over time in the life of the Church...in such a way that there is an ongoing 
process of discovery. Authority is therefore not absolutely fixed and fully-revealed."  
He suggested that this provides Christians with a means to reconcile the old with the 
new.

     Finally, the presiding bishop said that true authority is characterized by service 
to others. "When I look at the divisions in the Church all claiming the authority of 
Christ, sometimes violently attacking one another … I am obliged to ask …'where is the 

authentic Christ?' Then I ask 'where is compassion most deeply and sacrificially being 
lived. Where are the fruits of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness …most 
in evidence?' Because I suspect that where such fruit is found, Christ himself is 
present in the Spirit as author of life imparting genuine authority."

     The Burning Issues Conference featured three other nationally recognized 
theologians addressing the issue of authority: James Adams from the Center for 
Progressive Christianity, Philip Turner, retired dean of the Berkeley Divinity School 
at Yale, and Elizabeth Achtemeier, retired professor of Union Theological Seminary in 
Richmond. 

--Nancy Jenkins is communications officer for the Diocese of Virginia.