The current crisis at General Seminary
and
Episcopal Divinity School teaches wrong lesson on conflict
From the latter article, a statement with which I could not agree more:
"...if we wonder why two successive generations of young adults have shunned our churches, we need only look at a conflict like this. Bitter feelings, toxic attitudes, strong accusations, people talking past each other, idolatry of right opinion, and a determination to win — not to serve a “sinful and broken world,” as our Prayer Book puts it, not to grapple with new realities affecting congregations, rather a determination to win."General Seminary, my alma mater in the Episcopal Church, has been shaky for some time; the fissures were becoming visible thirty years ago. Given that it's a shadow of its former self, with most of the buildings having been sold and its original vision as a "monastic-style" community now long evaporated, along with its persistent financial issues, makes me think its days are now concluded. About the only action I would support as an alumnus would be for its closure.
Update: I've had some interesting conversations about this with old friends and classmates over the last two or three days. A lot of thoughtful commentary, of course. When asked about it, though, I have responded in a way that could be mistaken for insouciance or carelessness, but it is neither.
I recognize that in the 2000+ years of Christianity there have been massive challenges and the worst thing we can do is deny the inevitability of change and be afraid of it. The standard of seminary education was changing when I was a divinity student at General and what was offered by the curriculum was barely adequate for a church that was already beginning to alter. There were no courses in small business management, finances, or human resource management. There were courses on pastoral theory, though; all taught by clergy who had never served as rectors of parishes. In other words, a curriculum more useful for budding seminary professors than for parish clergy.
[An aside: When I first started as a doctoral candidate at Princeton Theological Seminary, eleven years after graduating from General, I saw a first-year student reading a volume on business management and realized that Princeton was serious in a way that General wasn't.]
Anyway, this is an overlong preamble. When I look at my seminary and see a dean and board of trustees who think eliminating the daily chapel liturgy is a good idea, and when 80% of the faculty think nothing of leaving their students in the lurch and refusing to worship with those with whom they disagree, then it is a system that is irredeemable.
Let it burn.