Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church
Lake Worth, FL

The Eve of the Fourth Sunday in Lent [March 5, 2005]

Canon Richard T. Nolan

A Brief Reflection on “Live As Children of Light……” 

On Tuesday night Bob and I attended the first meeting of a yet-to-be-named interfaith association for Palm Beach County. The gathering was hosted by Compass of West Palm Beach, although an emerging interfaith effort will be an independent grouping. About thirty individuals from Buddhist, Christian, and other faith and good-will associations began a sorting out process. Other than ourselves and the representatives from Old Catholic and Unitarian Churches as well as the Society of Friends (the Quakers), we were the only ones from what is usually referred to as “mainline” religious bodies.

Two major items were discussed: first, how existing gay and gay-friendly houses of worship and other groups might provide a regional prophetic voice, that is, a public counterbalance to the mean-spirited, uninformed, militant, religious right; and, second, how cooperation on matters of service to the needy might be carried out jointly as faith-in-action. Additionally, the question of how to reach out to gay people battered by various religions was incorporated.

We were assured that Compass will display information about each participating group and provide meeting space, media contacts, and space on the GayPalmBeaches.com website. A staff member commented further that Compass is willing to act as a support system to help facilitate greater cooperation and organization among the gay affirming faith, spiritual, and good-will communities.

Of course, this does not mean that the “chemistry” is such that participating individuals are all going to be good friends or even want to socialize. Nonetheless, some common concerns and goals are sufficient to enhance a witness of Light to the entire County. No one there represented what the New Testament refers to as people who live in darkness, those symbolically represented by the blind man in tonight’s Gospel. Although there are undoubtedly significant differences among the individuals and associations represented, no one gave any indication of living unkindly. I suspect that future voting among members will determine the mission statement, priorities, and strategies of this fledgling association.

The demise of this organization will occur, if individuals cannot agree to differ, if everyone insists that their own agendas must be the top priority, if solid information takes a back seat to uninformed opinion, or if members expect the association to be one, big, happy family instead of a community of collaborators. The organization will be doomed, if maliciousness, corruption, laziness, or backbiting infect the group. If participants allow themselves to become so blinded, an insidious darkness will set in.

After the meeting, it occurred to me that, regrettably, many regions of the Anglican Communion now live in darkness. How tragic that a federation of global Christian assemblies symbolically gathered under the Archbishop of Canterbury’s symbolic leadership is on the verge of breaking up within three or so years! An unwillingness to agree to differ, a rejection of solid information, maliciousness, corruption, and backbiting infect a large segment of this worldwide fellowship. The Light of Christ has become clouded over. (I must add that, fortunately, it has little to do with how we worship and share fellowship in this place.)

However, even within a single parish community, darkness can overcome the Light of Christ. Gloom can set in for a variety of reasons already mentioned, and a worshipping community of collaborators can either implode or just plod along. The same destructive dynamics can diminish the quality of any parish’s life.

Whether the new interfaith association, whether the global Anglican Communion, whether Saint Andrew’s Parish – each would do well by taking to heart St. Paul’s words again and again: “Live as children of light – for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness ….”