c. 2003 Religion News Service

(Tom Ehrich is a writer and computer consultant, managing large-scale database implementations. An Episcopal priest, he lives in Durham, N.C.)

(UNDATED) Until a business trip intervened, I planned to attend the Rev. V. Gene Robinson’s consecration as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire next Sunday.

I wanted to voice my Yes to him as priest and pastor and my No to those who would turn this moment into a cosmic battleground for their issues of sexuality. Mainly, I wanted to be there because I think Gene is a good person, was elected for the right reasons _ he is their pastor, not their sexual role model _ and will make an extraordinary bishop.

If we could step back from the shouting, from overwrought citations of Scripture and dire predictions about the end of ecclesial civilization, I think we would see two issues.

The first concerns a “high theory of priesthood.” Nowadays ordained persons are hired, evaluated, rewarded and fired like any other job holder, but the air is still rife with images of “call,” “set apart” and “holiness.”

Jesus recruited everyday folks and called them “friends.” He sent them out to teach and to heal. They were weak and disputatious, but Jesus wasn’t surprised, for he saw them as vessels, as willing recipients of the Holy Spirit, who would help other everyday folks to be receptive and a new fellowship to spread.

The early Church pursued a different vision. They created orders of ministry, established a hierarchy of authority, awarded unique powers to a few, and eventually declared just one to speak with the very voice of God.

The apostle ceased to be servant and fellow pilgrim, and became an “icon of Christ,” a manifestation of holiness, a mystical being whose “call” set him apart from all others, a ruler whose will was absolute. At its best, this system produced capable leaders who were insulated from normal human weaknesses like avarice. At its worst, this system insulated clergy from reality, including their own. Having a surrogate for holiness served to distance the laity from personal accountability.

I think this high theory of priesthood has run its course. For one thing, laity are no longer content to watch the pastor do holy work. More and more clergy resent being served up as a projection screen for a community’s emotional issues. Where wisdom and humility prevail, laity and clergy work in partnership, each having significant roles. No pastor can do the faith work of an entire community. No pastor has all wisdom or authority.

The fight over Bishop-elect Robinson strikes me as an attempt to hold on to this faded high theory of priesthood. The same role-model worries and dire predictions were deployed when women entered ordained ministry. We moved beyond those hand-wringings. Someday we will move beyond the question of how a homosexual man can lead in the name of a Messiah whose own sexuality the church has spent centuries denying.

The second issue beyond the shouting has to do with commandments. To stop him, the religious establishment tried to trap Jesus in a dispute over commandments. They knew that if the Word of God could be portrayed as a delicate house of cards, then they had Jesus in a vise. For if just one card were moved _ ritual hand-washing, for example _ then the whole house would collapse.

The Gospels name that trap for what it was. But in their quest for power, Christian hierarchs reinstituted the house of cards, with an intricate maze of rules, practices and Scriptures. Touch one rule, question one Scripture, ask one new question, change one practice, and the house would crumble.

That approach to authority yielded power to the hierarchy _ who else but the mystically “called” could interpret Word or Sacrament? _ and made church an assertive assembly. But it isn’t what Jesus sought.

This dispute in New Hampshire signals the endgame for two strands of religious history, both of which began in distortion and have served the Christian enterprise poorly. That is a lot to load onto the shoulders of one short guy and one small diocese.

I look forward to the day after, when combatants won’t have Gene to fight over. Maybe we will then address each other directly and rethink this perplexing, invigorating adventure called church.

DEA END EHRICH