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Docta Ignorantia XLIX St. Elsewhere Brothers, Sisters, Little Friends and Wee Bairns around St. Elsewhere, An Open Letter of Greeting and Well Wishes from The Rev. David R. Graham and Family: Some of you are aware that we were among the first to raise red flags at St. Thomas Episcopal Church back in 1991. Some of you are aware that we were mostly sidelined at St. Thomas Episcopal Church beginning shortly after we raised the red flags. And some of you are aware that we are now happily contributing at St. Thomas Episcopal Church as a family in numerous ways as befits our abilities. We feel that inasmuch as our sojourn is to some extent archetypal, a word of explanation is appropriate and may allay fears and strengthen hopes such as we know, from experience, you are bearing. I am a theologian. I hold ordination in the United Church of Christ, a scion of the Church of England, and I am pleased to participate in the Episcopal Church as a lay person. This satisfies my personal and professional sense of calling. I earn a living as I was trained to do: as a worker priest, and in my personal case as a bus driver. As a theologian, my first responsibility, after the welfare of Mary and the children, is the education of all people and especially of all children. In carrying out this responsibility, I come and go where I wish, I say and do as I feel I should and I have no respect for persons or their status. That is the unique prerogative and responsibility of every theologian. Every theologian is an employee in the Office of the Inspector General. When the Grahams raised warning flags at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in 1991, we were responding to a theological situation, not a personal one. I would like you to grasp and deeply ponder the significance of that statement. As I said repeatedly in private, through the years 1991 to 1994, the issue at St. Thomas was always theological, never personal. No one of us is all good or all bad. All of us are a mixture. Therefore, no one can point the finger of blame at any person because all are equally blameless and blame-worth all at the same time. The only place a finger of blame can ever point with complete accuracy is right back at itself. We all know this to be the truth. What, therefore, was the theological issue the Grahams warned about in 1991 and consistently up until the Fall of 1994? This is the important question. The issue was the intent of an individual near the bottom of the chain of command of the office staff to direct, through intermediaries, the spiritual and the temporal affairs not only of St. Thomas Parish but of the whole church. Our theological tradition maintains a technical term for this intent and a total intolerance of its presence. This intent is as improper and therefore as dangerous as anything possibly can be. It is not unusual incidentally across the history of the Church, but it is unusual in the experience of local congregations. And for that reason, understandably, rarely is experience built up locally for coping with this intent when it occurs. Just as a doctor is required in cases where a body lacks means within itself sufficient to seclude and neutralize a pathogen, so also, a theologian is required in cases where the church, the Body of Christ, lacks means within itself sufficient to seclude and neutralize improper intent, which is by definition pathogenic. In 1991 I took on the responsibility of treating the issue at St. Thomas Episcopal Church. No one at St. Thomas asked me to do this. Nor did I need to be asked. It is part of my duty as a theologian to take on such a responsibility if I determine that it can be discharged successfully. I did and it was. The duty of a theologian is beyond the ken of lay persons and independent of their control. This is a hard reality for some lay persons to accept. Nonetheless, it is not affected by acceptance one way or another. It is a hard reality for some clergy to accept. But, again, whether clergy accept the reality or not does not affect the reality itself. The duty of a theologian, if it exists, will be carried through regardless of any consideration other than itself. That is the nature of theology which distinguishes it from all other occupations given to man for his edification. Every theologian is an employee in the Office of the Inspector General. I ask that you reflect very carefully on what is being said here. Fundamental policy is being enunciated, policy laid down in the foundations of the world itself, policy abridged and forgotten but not lost or sullied, policy that lays the road straight forward for the welfare of the three orders of the church -- laity, clergy and monastics -- and therefore of the whole world. Actions were taken to correct the issue at St. Thomas Episcopal Church. These met with stiff resistance from the middle level of the office staff and I was branded a loose canon, arrogant, stupid, perverse, a liar, a renegade, unfit and a number of other appellations with which some of you are familiar. The staff who reacted to my actions in this manner were out of their depth, as are many lay people in technical theological matters. Their reaction compounded the issue and made the necessary treatment far more invasive and pervasive than it would have been had they been knowledgeable. The issue was never the Rector of St. Thomas. A subsidiary mistake was that the Rector of St. Thomas failed to move appropriately on staff insubordination, and the Rector paid dearly and courageously for that negligence. By mid-1994 the Rector acted effectively to correct that mistake and to prevent its recurrence. So that subsidiary mistake has not been a factor at St. Thomas Episcopal Church for over a year. Nor was anything involving the Rector ever the real issue at St. Thomas Episcopal Church. The real issue, as I have said, was the intent of an individual near the bottom of the chain of command of the office staff to direct, through intermediaries, the spiritual and temporal affairs not only of St. Thomas Episcopal Church but of the whole church. We never left St. Thomas Episcopal Church. If the truth were told, neither did we ever come. We neither come nor go anywhere. Through the years of 1991 to the present, the actual issue at St. Thomas Episcopal Church is what this theologian has been treating. Whether you saw me on the campus or not, whether you heard my name or not, whether you thought of me or not, I was very busy on this task and determined to bring it through successfully. Every action I took, big and little, seen and unseen, had that end in view and still does. Try to believe that there can be such a thing as a theologian who is so loyal to their calling and to the church and world that they gladly will spend the better part of their time or their life if necessary on a matter that to many would appear inconsequential or not all. If you imagine that we are strange people coming and going, now here now not, then you are missing the truth. Try to see into the phenomena you are experiencing. The truth is perhaps both more abyssal and more felicitous than you had imagined and hoped could be. The issue at St. Thomas Episcopal Church was secluded and neutralized during 1994. The Rector commenced bold and creative theological venturing impelled and nourished by the spiritual freshets of our theological tradition. He brought to St. Thomas Episcopal Church a major theological intellect, heart and teacher in the person of ---. And then a telling thing happened. Although all problems in fact or in principle were resolved, a campaign was mounted to dismiss the Rector on the grounds that he is the problem at St. Thomas Episcopal Church. This was the move I had been waiting for. In fact, I encouraged its emergence. Why? Because it would bring the real issue, the intent impelling the entire conflict, out into the open. When the patient is well and the family says they are still sick and wants to impose further treatment, most of it dire, the doctor knows that the family intends other than the patient's recovery. My goal, during the years 1992 to 1994 was to get the family's intent out into the open so that not only the local physicians but also the entire hospital staff could see that the family, in this case driven by the intent of an individual near the bottom of the chain of command of the office staff, had no intention of the patient's recovering but in fact was agitating their early demise by means of dire, unnecessary treatment. When the patient was well and the family still argued for treatment -- dismiss the Rector -- the origin of the dis-ease, that intent of an individual, was in public view and could be treated from the treasury of common sense humanity and the church keep in store for just such occasions. The Bishop's investigative committee used that treasury to find against the intent to dismiss the rector. The patient was St. Thomas Episcopal Church herself. The pathogen was an intent originating in an individual near the bottom of the chain of command of the office staff. The issue was always theological, never personal. Now what I want to do for you is interpret the Bishop's committee's finding. What is the background of it? This is something very simple and perhaps for that reason not entirely obvious or easy to understand. So let's look at it. Our theological tradition has a term for describing the teaching function that must occur in society. The term is Magisterium. It's a Latin word that means Teacher or Teaching Authority. By design of reality itself, the teaching authority of human culture resides with the clergy broadly defined. Clergy, school teachers and medical doctors all share responsibility for conducting the Magisterium. They are all "clergy," having intrinsic authority for the preservation and promulgation of spiritual affairs. Humanity is not merely animalistic. Animals are not aware that they are alive. Therefore, neither are they aware that they die. Humans are aware of both living and dying. The spiritual aspect is present in humanity as it is not in animality. The spiritual aspect occasions the need for education and education becomes the distinguishing characteristic and the paramount requirement of humanity. Our society has a very low valuation of humanity. We value things. Great populations of our people insist that humanity is merely animalistic, needing only to be manipulated for this purpose and that, as animals are. Few of our brothers and sisters, especially those not imbued with the Logos Theology of Christian and Masonic/Enlightenment philosophy, have faith in the underlying rationality and beneficence of reality itself, the ground of being. Many of our brothers and sisters fear everyone not of their clan, assume that one can only be happy at another's expense and therefore eagerly conduct any activity they feel conduces to their personal security: ethnic cleansing, genocide, tyranny, suppression, etc. In the United States we are beset by tyrannical minorities. Since all of these factors are at work, the community of man in effect turned topsy-turvy, the genuine Magisterium, the teaching authority of human culture, which is conferred by reality itself on clergy, teachers and medical doctors, is under grave attack and in serious disarray. Nor have clergy, teachers and medical doctors done much to repair the damage. Actually, they have increased it by their own inefficiencies, sloth and vagary. Other leaders of society -- specifically lawyers and business people -- noted the de facto vacuum where there should be a vigorous Magisterium and moved to fill it. This action rather compounded the problem than removed it. Lawyers and business people, as lawyers and business people, are unqualified and indisposed to conduct the Magisterium, to bear the teaching authority of human culture. If they try to do it, they are usurping a function which is not theirs to discharge. We saw this occur recently in the national debate over health care wherein some lawyers and business people tried to bring medical doctors under their control, trying to usurp the Magisterium. Whenever lawyers and business people try to usurp the Magisterium, they have raw power on their side but not moral or spiritual force. And as Napoleon accurately pointed out, the moral is to the material as three is to one. The history of man's religious aspiration is to some extent paintable as the activities of genuine representatives of the Magisterium -- prophets, saints and sages (including lawyers and business people) -- educating the worldly wise and worldly proud as to the precise limits of their puissance and the divine sanction both of their prerogatives and of their tether's length. This is the reality behind the Bishop's investigative committee's finding. They saw that the desire to dismiss the Rector of St. Thomas Episcopal Church was driven by an intent to usurp the Magisterium. With this awareness of the situation -- an accurate awareness, by the way -- the committee was able to find for the proper conduct of church and society and to offer a lesson for the appetites of some lawyers and business people. I can assure you that lawyers and business people, as lawyers and business people, never have and never will gain control of the Magisterium. I don't expect some to stop trying. But I can confidently say that it won't ever happen. It's not in reality for it to. Everything is against the pretense. And I can tell you that every clergy, teacher, medical doctor and right-minded lawyer and business person will gladly see the physical plant of the church and its entire human participation reduced to a perfect rubble before they will ever concede responsibility for the teaching authority of human culture to lawyers and business people as lawyers and business people. I invite you never to doubt or to underestimate that determination. Righteousness (Dharma) supports those who support righteousness (Dharma). If you aim to take over the teaching authority of human culture from clergy, teachers and medical doctors, you have put yourself against everything that actually is and you are going to come to grief more unpleasant than you will ever be willing to bear. You have my word on it. On the other hand, I invite you to do everything you can to encourage clergy, teachers and medical doctors to actually do their jobs. We all know they haven't been, not in any significant numbers or ways. Encourage them. Attend the Rector's Forums at St. Thomas. Ask questions. Make assessments. Write papers. Write e-mails. Do everything you can do to bring the teaching authority of human culture into activity, especially with the children, where we all know the society must place its nurturing emphasis. By default, our children are being turned over to Time-Warner, Disney, Nintendo and Microsoft, whose commitment to the best interests of their customers matches that of any commercial monopoly's: none whatsoever. At St. Thomas Episcopal Church are learned and creative and powerful theologians. This is a resource you cannot afford to be without. The issue that was at St. Thomas Episcopal Church -- a theological issue, not a personal one -- was successfully treated and the patient released back out on station a year ago. That is the objective situation. I urge you to believe me on this because just as I got it going in the first place, so I am best able to tell you when the dis-ease is past and the house well and safe for your roaming about and enjoyment. The house is now and will remain safe for many happy years. That is my assurance to you. Your ancestral home is at St. Thomas Episcopal Church. The whole tenor of the time, the need of the world, is for less faction, not more, a shorter physical front, not a longer, more amiability, not less. Let the tree grow where it was planted. To the extent that you try to organize as a separate congregation, you are following through on the improper intent of an individual who used to be near the bottom of the chain of command of the office staff. I don't think you should be letting that intent set your agenda, which it is now doing. If you persist, in spite of this urging, to carry through that intent, which is to usurp the Magisterium from clergy, teachers and medical doctors, you will meet with circumstances which will baffle and enrage you and eventually drive you to despair because you will be contravening reality itself. Take your place at St. Thomas Episcopal Church soon. Be strong and be happy. That is my wish and my blessing for you.
Adwaitha Hermitage
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