Way back in January 2016, in my heady Anglican years, I co-authored this ‘tract’ – a tongue-in-cheek manifesto of sorts, with my friend Matthew Cook – with some edits and support from Meagan C. and Jess Z-C, of course.
Within a few weeks, it had jumped to over 13,000 views and numerous comments and emails – making it (likely) the most viral thing I’ve ever written. You can still read those at the original site.
I suppose I’ve changed a fair bit in those almost 10 years, but I think I can stand in essential agreement (that’s a United Church joke, folks) with almost all of what we said here, even if the Gen-X and 2016 cultural references are a bit dated or occasionally reactive.
I’m actually how amazed of how it translates into my current work and home in the United Church.
Tract 91 ::: A Manifesto
We are a generation of Anglican Christians.
We have surveyed the wreckage that is the spiritual landscape of North America, and despite numerous urges to get in touch with ourselves we have chosen to go to church. In fact we long to be recognized as the Church.
We have been to the raves (or ‘parties’ as they were later called). As Gen Xers or Millennials we have grieved Kurt Cobain & Amy Winehouse. We owned an Optimus Prime, a Cabbage Patch Kid, or Pokémon Cards. We had an Atari 2600, Nintendo, PlayStation 1 – 2 – 3.
We, seeing the poverty of our times, want little or nothing to do with the times. We wish genuine escape that is not escapism. We know too much about isms. We desire to experience genuine eternity and transcendence, and, having glimpsed these in the liturgies of the Church, we cringe at attempts to make them accessible to us, or imbue this beauty with pyrotechnics, or even more screen-time.
We are grateful to the generation of our forebears for its righteous rebellion against their forebears; for drawing the circle wide, for fighting against the tides that encouraged bigotry, hatred and fear. We know that there is more of this work ahead. We are also grateful for the call to care for God’s creation. We get that God isn’t a bearded white male in the sky. We love the call to love the ‘other’ and live with open hands and hearts. Yes, we get inclusivity and pluralism – but we also want to continue to learn and grow into who we are in Christ Jesus.
We long to be washed and rooted in the Scriptures, the Sacraments, the historic Creeds and the ancient ways of shaping and submitting to the leaders of the church. We are not afraid of duty, or obligation – but we are weary of placation. We are weary of movements that attempt to stand for all things but end up representing the banality of the times. We do not want a safe, lukewarm faith.
We hold that the practice of the Daily Office, and a fully incarnated faith lived in community, can offer a level of spiritual depth that we, who wheedled away hours on Super Mario Brothers, are in sore need of.
We have sat through sermons unexplaining the existence of miracles, angels, demons, the Incarnation, the Resurrection. We have watched the Holy mysteries of our faith lay waste by the logic of the times as the Church seeks to become “relevant.” We ask: “If the times are unholy why should we be relevant to them?”
We have a sense that N.T. Wright trumps Marcus Borg.
We want nothing to do with post-theism.
We went through our angry activist, new age, and/or liberal phases – and took some good from them. These can be fine correctives to the sins of the tradition – but they are not the whole of the Tradition. We’re over them as fundamentalisms. We have tried just about everything and are now willing to give Jesus a chance.
We are tired of committees, visions & website mission statements that are not lived out. We do not want to be asked about how to make the Church relevant, up to date, or accessible. We have enough companies vying for our attention. We wish for good, sustaining, sustainable work and we wish to be told why it’s meaningful – and see it lived.
We have asked to collaborate or participate, but have often been told to wait. In frustration, many of us have left. Those of us still clinging wish for the Church to preach and live with the authority and power that Jesus Christ gave it. We believe it can do this without repeating the genocidal legacy of residential schools, and other historical sins of which our Church rightly repents. We believe this to be possible through the grace that comes of following the Servant King.
We’ve watched the petty schisms (left and right), polarizations (left and right), institutional politicking (left and right) and postulating pundits and bloggers (left and right) and have been tempted to run to Buddhism or take Sunday morning hikes. Many of our friends have. But we’re still here. We believe that to love Christ is to love His Church in all its breadth and brokenness – and we are going nowhere.
We believe that the Church is wealthy: in history and theology –We desire to share in this wealth and share this wealth with others and creatively build upon / re-imagine / re-enliven the stored faithfulness of the past generations – not to deconstruct it.
We are postmodern natives. We can deconstruct standing on our heads; we have grown gluttonous in the unpacking of assumptions to the point where we hardly believe in anything at all. This has made for an environment of extreme cynicism, reflected in that fact that most of our favourite TV characters are sociopaths. It’s scary.
We are counter-culturists; revelling in the unpopularity of the creeds, doctrines, scriptures, dogmas, solid liturgies and traditions; if for no other reason than for something to bump against in the darkness. By removing, watering down or downplaying these, we feel that we are left with little except the Transformers movies or Marvel Universe and the vast expanse of the internet with which to reference our lives. It’s no wonder that so many of our friends head to technology or sports or yoga instead of the Church for ‘transcendence’.
We who remain in the Church believe that the imitation will never do. We’ve lived in an age of virtual reality, instant social media, readily accessible pornography and unending, unfiltered information. We have the answers at our fingertips. We have and know more wiki-knowledge than ever before, but less holy wisdom. Having drunk of too many Coca Cola’s we are not filled, we long to experience the real thing, to come into the real presence of the Lord and experience the justice, peace and joy of the Holy Spirit.
We are in need of good and holy mentors. Even more so we are in desperate need of Saints. We would like to know this is still an ideal of the Church, to form and house Saints who love the Lord.
And how do we get there? Sainthood that is – how do we become saints?
Is this a question the Church still asks? We need to know.
Sincerely, in Christ.
The ‘Lost’ Generations
(Matthew Cook and Rob Shearer, 2016)