Hopkins: "Theology always follows experience"

BB: What do we face here? Michael Hopkins, former president of Integrity, spells out clearly what "our friends with whom we disagree" believe is the future of the Episcopal Church.

Michael says, "Theology always comes from experience ... we must make it clear—and insist our allies make it clear—that the one thing we will not do is be silenced ... I am convinced that the language of repentance and moratorium being insisted upon by those with power in our Communion and in our Church is intended to do precisely that."

Is this our future? You decide - here's Michael:

The Rev. Michael W. Hopkins
Past President, Integrity
Sunday, June 11, 2006


What We Know

We speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen.

Here we are, a gathering of orthodox Christians celebrating the Feast of the most blessed, glorious and holy Trinity.

The timing of this General Convention, so much earlier than it has been in the past, was a point of some controversy, but one wonders if it was not a piece of the divine humor to help make it be so. It is as if God is saying, “Focus on the mystery of my life before you start mucking around any more in your own.”

For me, one of the important things to remember and hold dear about the notion of the Trinity was that long before it was codified in doctrine, it was testified to in experience. The Trinity, for the early Church, was a way of talking about the experience of God, not a way of defining what that experience should be.

Anything we call Christian Truth has always worked that way. It was first an experience of the People of God, and only afterwards a doctrinal statement.

Those who criticize us for lifting up our experience and asking the Church to discern with us the work of God in it rather than “making the theological case,” are simply mis-remembering how it works and has always worked. Theology always follows experience.

That is precisely what the readings for Trinity Sunday mean to remind us about. It was Isaiah’s awesome experience of God that led him to his “yes” to mission. It was Paul’s experience of God’s “yes” to him that enabled him to speak of God’s “yes” to others. And in the Gospel reading, it is an experience of God, rather than theology about God, into which Jesus is trying to coax Nicodemus.

“How can these things be?” Nicodemus asks. Jesus’ answer is revealing. After a gentle chide, he answers.

We speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen.

Among other things, this is a statement of how Jesus does theology: from experience. It is, I believe, how Integrity, specifically, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons generally, have been making their witness and helping the Church do its theology for the last thirty years and more.

It was thirty years ago in 1976 that Integrity first had a presence at General Convention, a presence that resulted in a promise from the Church of our full inclusion, a promise we are still waiting to be fulfilled. For thirty years—11 Conventions—we have kept coming back and doing two simple things—offering our experience as Christian people to the Church and asking for the promise to be fulfilled.

I, for one, think that we have made so much progress because our system has provided the opportunity for us to speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen. There will be no progress in other parts of our Communion until such testimony is allowed and encouraged. “Silence,” as a slogan from the AIDS crisis so profoundly put, “equals death.” In theological terms, silencing the experience of the people of God equals silencing the Spirit of God, and it is legitimate for one to wonder if this is not the infamous “sin against the Holy Spirit” of which Jesus speaks in another context. It is most certainly blasphemy of the highest order.

I think there are two things here for us to be clear about as we begin this Convention.

The first is simply that we are still called to speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen. That is our job, our mission for the next two weeks, the same as those who have been going before us for these thirty years.

And this means our job is not to convince, or prove, or convert. That is the Holy Spirit’s job in cooperation with those who will listen. Our sticking to this methodology—which I believe is Jesus’ methodology—is why we are standing here today. And, I might add, it is our opponents’ arrogant insistence that they can “prove us wrong” and ought to be able to convince others of their theological and moral rightness that has consistently gotten them into trouble.

The second thing that is clear for us here at this General Convention is that we must make it clear—and insist our allies make it clear—that the one thing we will not do is be silenced. The one thing we will not do is stop offering our experience to the church.

I am convinced that the language of repentance and moratorium being insisted upon by those with power in our Communion and in our Church is intended to do precisely that.

We need to be crystal clear: we desire to be part of this Communion. Most lgbt Episcopalians are Episcopalians because there is such a thing as the Anglican tradition and the Communion which continues it. We are willing to be in continued, hard conversation. We do not wish to impose our will on anyone. But we will not be silenced. And we promise that we will disobey any legislation that attempts to do so and encourage our allies to do so as well.

Some will hear that statement as a radical call to defiance of the rest of the Communion, or even the majority here at Convention. Perhaps it is. But what it is first and foremost saying is that any resolution that comes out of this Convention that does not include our voices is an illegitimate resolution. It is deeply, deeply troubling that there is not a single out lgbt person on the Special Committee that will consider Communion-related legislation. I pray the chairs understand that this reality puts everything they do into question unless they are experienced as being widely consultative in the next few days.

There are ways forward, but they are not ways that silence anyone—conservative or progressive or anything in between. If this Church has a death wish, it will seek in the next two weeks to silence someone, which means it will seek to silence the Holy Spirit. We will not participate in that silencing, pure and simple; we will resist it in the name of Jesus who taught us to speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen.

My sisters and brothers, you work this week in a long tradition of those who speak what they know and testify to what they have seen of the work of God, the companionship of Jesus, and the revelation of the Holy Spirit among lgbt Christians and Episcopalians and Anglicans. Speak the truth. Do not disdain those who will not hear it. Love this Church and testify to your presence in it that must be accounted for. I cannot tell you how it will all turn out. I do not know. But I do know this: come what may, on June 23 I will be speaking about what I know and testifying to what I see just as clearly and consistently as I am now. I trust you will be as well. No one can silence us, as no one can silence the wind that blows where it wills.