I guess I never really went back to St. Albans, but it has that Tolkien feel to it, so what if I am trying for a sweeping epic feel to this blog. I am not embarrassed because I realized that although he is a saint Rowan Williams does have the voice of Saruman. The below picture is before Saruman fell so he is still good.



Alright enough with the Hobbit/Wizard images, I need to be blogging about my time here in England.








So, I went on the great pilgrimage to St. Albans celebrating the life and death of this Saint last Saturday which ended up moving me greatly. What a wonderful place it was much better than the St. Albans where I was the youth director yet it had some similar controversy. After the procession with the massive floats, second only to the massive number of priests congregating together to concelebrate with the Archbishop of Canterbury, and watch what happens. Yes this Cathedral on the left is where Jeffrey John was made Dean after he was asked to step down from his appointment as Bishop of Reading by the Archbishop of Canterbury. So, I watched them all process to the Cathedral together. I watched them turning around many times to see if they had come to blows. Alas, again just like the Consecration no one said anything during the procession. In a country that has more Paparazzi than North America, you would expect them to say or do something, just something that could get us a picture or something to tell the kids, but alas no, they just walked together and spoke and smiled at one another hoping that this would just be one more procession to a shrine.
And then it happened, just when we thought that it would be a hot afternoon without any controversy, Achitophel spoke: That is him on the right next to Jeffrey John he is the Bishop of St. Albans, Christopher Herbert. Now I have just gone from Tolkien metaphor to 2 Samuel or John Dryden analogies but follow me here. Bishop Herbert gave an impassioned speech about the state of the communion and how it is MEAN. He stated that we have focused on exclusivity to the detriment of human beings. Now of course this is just after the election of a female Primate, and because I seem to believe that the world revolves around me, I thought he was talking about America but no, he was speaking about his beloved CofE. Of course I had to be told this by the ever astute Frs'. Philip Chester, Peter Hanaway, and Richard Jenkins so that I might come out of my American cocoon and breath the free air of the real world. After realizing what had happened it made me sad because I love Fr. Rowan Williams, I would go wherever he sends me, and I would follow him into a volcano. He has embodied the only hope for the Anglican in his marriage. That is Liberals and Catholics living together.

After Lunch we ran back to hear Fr. Rowan's response to the Bishop's Sermon. In two hours, he had crafted and memorize a wonderful response that spanned Christian History from Alban to the present, and gave a trajectory to the future. He never once used a cliche or catch phrase like Exclusive, Inclusive, or Pluralism, that have all become meaningless words thanks to our churches present political nightmare. He made a call to live for the future of the church, which is at once glorious, as we sat in one of the oldest and majestic cathedrals in England, and gruesome considering the violence which birthed that building.

So, what of HOME, because I did not go back to Seattle but rather to Oxford. HOME is a fresh expression of church in Oxford near St. Clement's. I spent two days there enjoying the river, football, Ali G, and the simple worship of Evening Prayer on Sunday evening. I found HOME a bit more Evangelical than MOOT or COTA, that is not to disgrace them, rather it was refreshing. They kept a discussion going during a service for an hour which was on the storms in our lives, and how we can continue to have faith in the midst of them. We then had a curry (they were surprised by my choice of a vindaloo). We then hung out and watched football and Ali G on Monday, as well as move about through Oxford where I saw Christ Church Cathedral, and bought a couple of books on Ethics from Blackwells. HOME was restful and reminded me of much that I have missed since moving away from my Evangelical Heritage. Even though they are not an evangelical institution HOME has kept what was good from the Evangelical church where it seems that I have not. It was convicting, and I am glad that I it happened. I wish I could have spent more time with them. They are a wonderful hybrid that seems to have a lot of respect for the city of Oxford.

So I am left with questions again. How do I qualify my language, so as not to use words that leave people in their apathetic assumptions? How do I embody an unassumptive (if that is even a word) or a conscious life? I realize that by becoming conscious of my struggles with Evangelicalism I picked up other assumptions of a more Liberal Catholic Emerging Church/Fresh Expression variety. How do I get to a point where I might transcend these labels, and focus on a life lived with God and others? I guess I really don't know, except through accepting my humiliation, and following the lives of the saints as opposed to following the lives of those who manage well.

Your Brother in Christ,
Travis K Smith