Oh, the Beauty of it All!

Last weekend I (and about 1,100 other people!) traveled to Wheaton College for their annual Theology Conference. The theme was “Jesus, Paul and the People of God: A Theological Dialogue with N.T. Wright” (Anglican Bishop of Durham, U.K.).  It brought several of Bishop Wright’s friends, colleagues and former students together to give papers critiquing and responding to some of his larger works, most prominently his 1997 "Jesus and the Victory of God" (or JVG, as they called it!) and then to discuss their critiques with him – all in front of an audience of more clergy and theologians and writers and professors and publishers than I have ever seen under one roof!   N.T. Wright also gave a full lecture after dinner each evening. You can get additional info and watch video of all the sessions or download MP3 recordings on Wheaton’s website: www.wheaton.edu/wetn/lectures-theology10.htm . If you watch nothing else, be sure to catch “Bishop Tom’s” amazingly compact and profound address to Wheaton’s students at chapel on Friday: www.wheaton.edu/wetn/flash-chapel/chap09-10/100416Wright.html Their website says that the demand is very heavy, so your download or streaming video might take a while to load.

I'm still reflecting on the ideas and impressions of the whole weekend, but the impression that stands out the most for me is the beauty of it all -
*  from the very cerebral beauty of the doctrines and theological concepts being discussed,
*  to the transcendent beauty of Jesus,
*  to the complex beauty of Paul and his teachings,
*  to the multifaceted beauty of the body of Christ,
*  to the peaceful beauty of brief liturgy and prayers that started each session,
*  to the almost humorous beauty of great minds wrestling with huge ideas,
*  to the gracious beauty revealed in decades of friendships,
*  to the ineffable beauty of music (the worship music, and especially Jeremy Begbie's profound performance of Liszt’s “Consolation #3” at the Steinway (it brought me to tears) and his composition “Variations on the letters of N.T. Wright’s name in the style of J.S. Bach”),
*  to the physical beauty of Wheaton’s lovely campus nestled in a gorgeous landscape created by our almighty God.

Another bonus of being in Wheaton was that I was able to meet with Rev. William Beasley, the church planting leader for Greenhouse Ministries, the primary group currently working in conjunction with ACNA and AMiA to plant and support new Anglican churches in the upper Midwest. (See the March 3 posting on this blog for more information about William and a link to watch some of his presentations at the Anglican1000 Conference.) Although it probably won’t work for Anglican Church of the Trinity to formally align with Greenhouse Ministries (primarily due to our firm egalitarian stand), William is happy to provide informal assistance. As he says, “we’re all in this together!” Bishop John Guernsey of the Diocese of the Holy Spirit in Woodbridge, VA has now recommended that I contact Rev. George Koch of Resurrection Anglican Church in West Chicago. Apparently George is helping develop an ACNA geographical diocese in our region. He also is a former executive of Oracle, one of the biggest software companies in the world, so these conversations should be fun (I’m a technology project manager myself). I’ve contacted George, and hope to have some more information by our meeting on Saturday.

I also met Rev. Martha Giltinan, a faculty member from Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA ( http://www.tsm.edu/ ) , who was very happy to hear about our little project and who will be delighted to help us with training, resources, etc. So stay tuned for further details on that front!

This Saturday morning we meet again at Aldrich Church (3501 Aldrich Ave. S.) at 9:00 for Morning Prayer and then our planning meeting. Coffee and informal conversation start at 8:30. The primary agenda items for our planning meeting are:
* selection of a primary “Trinitarian” image for our logo – I’ll bring some additional input from team members who have been researching this over the past week+
* an initial report from our Theology Team on topics/statements that will guide how we describe this church on printed materials and the web, how we articulate our commitment to egalitarian service and leadership, how we start to design our worship, etc.
* additional feedback from my conversations with various ACNA leaders
* a venue for our worship services
* the “critical mass” of participants and leaders – are we on target for starting worship on Pentecost?
* various logistical details around budgeting, decision-making, databases, website, incorporation
* other program and ministry updates (lots of leadership opportunities still available!)
* prayer requests