Writing a summer blog post in July in Wellington New Zealand presents an additional challenge because it is the middle of winter. Living in the middle of middle earth that means day time temperatures between 50° and 60°, a lot of rain and in Wellington a lot of wind. According to Maps of the World this is windiest city in the world. As the rain blows horizontally past the window I believe that, and my memories of Austin’s heat wave of 2011(90 days in excess of 100°) become positively nostalgic.
As I prepared for Trinity Sunday this year I was reading Kathryn Tanner, The three therefore co-inhere, they are in one another, in virtue of this same essence or substance reappearing in them in different modes of existence… They are like three distinct appearances of the same thing from different angles, … (JESUS, HUMANITY AND THE TRINITY, A Brief Systematic Theology, Kathryn Tanner)
Studying at Seminary of the Southwest opened my eyes to the value of not being the same. SSW expanded my perception of us – the body of Christ. Down here we worry about all the same things you worry about. As I try and navigate through all the contentious issues that confront the church here, I draw on that expanded understanding of us that y’all taught me. We are not the same but our unity is not dependant on our uniformity, rather it is enriched by our difference. I don’t think I would know that as well if it wasn’t for the time spent with my mates at Southwest. “We who are many are one body…”
As a Eucharistic community doesn’t the idea of being in one another, in virtue of this same essence or substance reappearing in them in different modes of existence apply to us’all? (there has to be us’all if there is y’all) Being us is an unavoidable destination if you start listening to the words of the fraction (in my prayer book) “We who are many are one body…”, or Paul in Romans 12, or John 17: 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me (see! co-inherence).
At a family, parish, diocese, province, church, neighborhood, city, state, nation, whatever aggregation of humanity we identify ourselves in, aren’t we distinct appearances of the same thing from different angles?
Have a great summer!
Stephen King received a Master of Arts in Religion from Seminary of the Southwest in 2012. Now living in New Zealand, Stephen currently serves as the Archdeacon for Mission for the Diocese of Wellington and as the Vicar of St. Barnabas Anglican Church.
