3. Warfare: Just and Unjust Wars

Main Point: Episcopalians reiterate a post-World War I doctrine on just war.

My Thoughts: If only someone had told me about this Resolution. During the recent Iraq War, the message I was getting from the episcopate was "War is too evil a thing to be fought." Unfortunately, I was recalling the 39 Articles : a traditional Anglican doctrinal statement that says that if the state tells you to go to war, it is lawful for you to fight. Maybe, I should reconsider conscientious objection.

4. Mission Strategy: Campus Ministry Allocation It sounds so simple, but I cannot emphasize enough the importance of campus ministry now that I have derived so much benefit from it and seen its fruits elsewhere. Episcopalians tend to leave the church in college. Part of this story is that parish churches tend to treat adolescents like children when it comes to participation in parish affairs. Of course, the civil law of most states forbids teenagers from serving on vestries (the governing bodies of parishes), but teenagers are fully competent to take leadership roles in service projects, liturgical matters, and some aspects of governance. Unfortunately, many parishes try to extend Sunday School as far as possible. Worst of all, teenagers possess deep doubts and skepticism about many of the treasures of civilization. Overt efforts at religious indoctrination during adolescence often is the very root of unbelief. Once Episcopal adolescents reach college, they no longer are subject to the government of faithful parents. If there is no campus ministry on their campus, they have every right to feel alone. First, outside their campuses, they often find parishes who have no idea of their gifts or their need to be treated as adults in ecclesiastical polity. On their campuses, they are between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, they are receptive to forms of Christianity that share many but not all of their values and less of Episcopal adiaphora (that is, matters of religion that are neither necessary nor a hindrance to godly living. On the other hand, they find themselves in a marketplace of ideas that could be very illuminating or destructive for their faith. Campus ministries in a perfect world can resolve all these problems. They provide opportunity for leadership and service within a familliar context of faith and worship. Existing within the confines of the academy, campus ministries also provide a nexus for utilizing the intellectual life to the benefit of the religious one. As recently as the 1960s, the University of Pennsylvania denied its Episcopal heritage and claimed to be perpetually non-sectarian, but it also stressed how much it wanted its students to be shaped by the religious backgrounds they brought to the University so that they would be more faithful when they left than when they came. Such should be the goal of campus ministry.

(To be continued...)
ESA(20030730.1)