Change for Good or Ill or Both

Those who know me are probably aware that I don’t necessarily embrace the new with open arms.  Being an Anglican at heart, if not by birth, I appreciate the value of the tradition that has enriched our lives.  The three pillars of Anglicanism are scripture, tradition, and reason. 

There is the joke about change and Anglicans: how many Anglicans does it take to change a lightbulb?  We don’t change, we’re Anglicans.  That joke, perhaps unintentionally, illuminates (pun intended) the problem with this approach.  Perhaps it would be better to say challenge rather than problem.  Sometimes change can be a good thing and sometimes it is even necessary.  If we didn’t have the development of the COVID-19 vaccine we would be in deep do-do to use a technical term. 

 

Change for change sake, on the other hand, can turn its back on much that is valuable.  This is as true in religious matters as it is in secular matters.  Being at our cottage in Prince Edward Island, our religious life is emersed in the liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) as opposed to the updated service book, the Book of Alternative Services (BAS) which is not that new now being introduced to the Canadian Anglican Church in 1985.  I presided at a service on Sunday using the BCP liturgy and was reminded about the strengths and weaknesses of the that liturgy.  As is often the case when the pendulum of change swings, it goes perhaps too far along the arc.  It will be interesting to see where it lands when a new prayer book is brought to life in the future.  In any case, it is the tension that perhaps is inevitable when change rears it (I won’t say ugly) head.  However, sometimes it can be divinely intended tension to borrow a phrase. 

 

I was reminded last week that sometimes change can produce wonderful results.  One of the Daily Meditations of Richard Rohr which arrive in my inbox daily focused on the adaptation or rewriting of the Lord’s Prayer by the New Zealand Anglican Church.  I was introduced to this more than 10 years ago at a Summer Dream Conference of the Haden Institute held in North Carolina.  I was deeply moved when I heard it and have appreciated beauty and spirit filed language ever since then.  Some traditionalists might object with changing the words of a prayer of Jesus but it is good to remember that Jesus did not speak English - the Queen’s or otherwise – and translations always change the original meaning to a greater or lesser extent.  There are also two versions of the Prayer on the bible – one in Matthew and one in Luke - so even the Gospel writers couldn’t get a definitive version. 

 

Rohr’s Daily Meditation noted that the New Zealand version honours and reflects the Maori culture which makes it very appropriate in this time of Truth and Reconciliation in Canada.  Below is the excerpt from Daily Meditation which included the version of the Lord’s Prayer: 

 

We invite you to pray this modern version of the prayer of Jesus from the Anglican Church of New Zealand, which both honors and reflects indigenous Maori culture.

Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples
        of the world!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
        sustain our hope and come on earth.

With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
       now and for ever. Amen.

 

May you be blessed with the Divinely Intended Tension of change on your journey.