[Dialogue] {Spam?} Spong 11/14/07 In New Zealand

[KroegerD at aol.com]

November 14, 2007  
Lecturing in Central Otago, New  Zealand  

Most of my readers will not have heard of Central Otago. Otago is the name of 
 a Southern Province in New Zealand stretching roughly from Dunedin on the  
southeast coast to Queenstown in the west. South from Dunedin the next land 
mass  confronted would be Antarctica. Central Otago is marked by two magnificent  
glacial lakes: Lake Wanaka and Lake Wakatipu, which stretch out for miles  
beneath snow capped peaks in what is arguably the most beautiful part of the  
world. Not surprisingly, there is a place named "Paradise" and another named the 
 "Garden of Eden." No snakes inhabit this Garden, however, for snakes are 
unknown  in all of New Zealand. Nestled in this area are small towns like 
Alexandra,  Clyde, Cromwell and Wanaka. One thirty bed hospital serves the entire 
region and  draws the population into a sense of oneness. The people who live 
here feel far  removed from the world's power centers. They are primarily of 
European  extraction with a heavy influence from England and Scotland. Reflecting 
that  Scottish heritage one hears references to a "wee breeze" or a "wee 
river."  
Three unusual women live in this region and it is about them that I write  
this week. Some time ago, they discovered in each other a discomfort about  
organized religion. Since Christianity is the only significant religious form in  
this part of their country, their discomfort was expressed in Christian terms. 
 It was not anything associated with a conflict over some particular church  
issue, but was attached to a general sense of religion's increasing 
irrelevance  to their lives. One of these women, Joy Ramsay, a tall, attractive and 
creative  woman, under fifty years of age, was a single mom with two sons, one in 
high  school, the other at a university. Her training was in education and she 
had  served as a teacher and tutor. Her hobby, late developing, but still 
passionate,  was her motorbike. She had always been an active member of her 
Presbyterian  Church and on one occasion had served as its lay preacher and 
administrator when  it was without a resident pastor. It was her attempt each week to 
find meaning  in the Bible lesson assigned for their Sunday worship that 
fuelled her growing  religious dis-ease.  
'The second woman was Nola Gollop, a grandmother, married to a retired  
private school head. Her training had been in accounting work, but her natural  
ability had brought her into areas of public health. Possessing a small and  
energetic frame, she was a well known hiker who knew all of the "tramping  
trails," as New Zealander's call them, in this immediate area and she walked  these 
trails almost daily, sometimes alone, sometimes with her husband Rory.  While 
both Nola and Rory had once been active in this same Presbyterian Church,  both 
had now dropped out, also unable to embrace intellectually things like  
virgin births, resuscitated bodies and someone's ability to feed 5,000 people  with 
five loaves of bread. If being "faithful" meant having to believe in these  
things literally then faithfulness had little appeal.  
The third woman, Liz Duggan, was a widow and a grandmother. An Anglican, she  
gave this threesome an ecumenical look. She was very active in her church,  
having been appointed by her bishop to be the Archdeacon of her diocese of  
Dunedin. In that un-paid capacity she travelled constantly, visiting churches  
and clergy, serving as a trouble shooter and offering support when needed to  
struggling congregations. Her role forced her to deal frequently with issues  
that in her mind could not matter much to God, but which seemed to consume those 
 who called themselves Christian. Her professional background was that of a  
dental assistant, but in her retirement she had begun to give leadership to 
many  enterprises based on her own innate ability. As active as she was in her 
church  life, she too felt an increasing dislocation between the things her 
church  thought were essential elements of its belief system and the ever 
enlarging  world of her experience. As insightful as these three women were, no one 
would  have seen them as anything more than typical citizens of their small 
community.  
Looking for something more from their religious life, however, these three  
women became members of the "Sea of Faith", an organization founded by 
Cambridge  theologian Don Cupitt and greatly encouraged in New Zealand by Lloyd 
Geering, a  retired theologian, famous for having been put on trial for heresy by 
the  Presbyterian Church in 1967. He was exonerated, but the trial raised to 
public  consciousness a variety of issues included in what Christians tended to 
call  "orthodoxy." Many people now began to realize that they too were 
uncomfortable  with these issues. Lloyd Geering became their voice and through his 
lecturing  and writing career he articulated a radical version of Christianity. 
One has  only to look at one of his book titles, Christianity Without God, to 
realize  that Geering had moved the goal posts of religious discussion in this 
country.  These women found in this Sea of Faith group a place where their 
ideas were  honoured, not rejected.  
Next they became part of a "House Church," meeting once a month to read books 
 that would never have been introduced in their churches. Here they heard the 
 names of Robert Funk, Marcus Borg, Karen Armstrong and yes, John Shelby 
Spong.  Doorways into what Christianity might be were opened and these women 
eagerly  walked through them.  
When I was formally invited to return to Australia to keynote the 2007  
"Common Dreams" conference in Sydney, my publisher, Harper/Collins, decided to  use 
that opportunity to launch the Australian edition of my newest book, Jesus  
for the Non-Religious and to organize a media tour to introduce that book in  
Australia. Eventually that tour would result in 30 lectures, over 50 media  
events and would take me to seven of Australia's major cities. When that  
developed my agent in New Zealand, Elizabeth Robinson, decided to explore  whether or 
not there was interest in New Zealand for piggy backing on the  Australian 
publicity to organize a similar lecture tour of New Zealand. Sending  out 
letters of inquiry to churches and universities across New Zealand she  announced my 
possible availability and waited to see what responses might  result. 
Sufficient interest came back to make that tour a reality and I  ultimately gave 14 
lectures and did 20 media events in that country. Those  external details, 
however, do not tell the full drama of the story. One of these  letters sent to 
churches was opened, not by a priest or pastor, but by Joy  Ramsey in her 
capacity as the lay head of her Presbyterian Church. Since few  authors on book 
tours go to small towns, none of the clergy in Central Otago  bothered to respond. 
That was, however, not the response of this questioning lay  woman who had 
actually read several of my books. Here was a letter indicating  that if there 
were proper interest this author might actually come to her  community of 4500 
people. She immediately contacted Nola Gollop and Liz Duggan  and together, 
they said: "Why Not"! Let's go for it". They secured a date on  Elizabeth 
Robinson's calendar and began to plan for this event to occur in late  September, in 
the lovely town of Alexandra. They decided the lecture should be  held in a 
non-church setting so that those who were not comfortable in church,  but who 
were spiritually inquisitive, might be more willing to attend. The venue  was 
set at the Alexandra Community Hall. They invited the local clergy, but made  
no attempt to involve them in planning lest the event be hijacked by 
traditional  religion. They advertised the event, sold tickets, planned refreshments,  
answered questions and hoped that their initiative would meet with community  
approval and wide participation. Each of the three felt that their reputations  
were on the line. This was a bold venture in this rural, small town world.  
Christine and I flew from Auckland to Queenstown, the most popular vacation  
spot on New Zealand's South Island. We were met by Nola Gollop and Joy Ramsay. 
 Their first question was: "How shall we address you?" I responded 
immediately  with: "How about Your Holiness," to which my wife, barely refraining from  
kicking me, let them know that I was not serious. So they called me 'Jack' and 
 with that, a spectacular three days began. They arranged for us to stay in a 
 magnificent B and B on a vineyard that produces a spectacular Pinot Noir, 
owned  by Suzanne and John Grant and they scheduled three hikes for us in the 
immediate  area. In addition to this I was invited to go to the local hospital 
to call on  an 85 year old man, named Scott, who was not well enough to attend 
the lecture,  but who told me "I have read all of your books." I was deeply 
touched by his  enthusiasm and by that of the six members of his family who 
gathered with me  around his bed for a mini-seminar.  
On the night of the lecture 120 people showed up, exceeding these ladies'  
fondest dreams. Some had driven as much as three hours to attend. I have never  
addressed a more responsive audience. They were eager to hear and their  
questions afterwards were both intelligent and open. No one seemed defensive for  
God or appeared to think that religion was under attack. The experience was  
rather that of truth being explored and faith being expanded. At least ten  
clergy were present. I had the chance to have dinner with two of these clergy  
later and they were both very impressive people. I also met people at this  
lecture who were the salt of the earth: a carpenter, a counsellor, an engineer,  
several farmers and sheepherders. I even met one openly transgender person whom  
I later discovered was on the vestry of a local Anglican Church, and I heard  
that the Anglican Bishop of Dunedin had just ordained a gay man to the  
priesthood because, as he said, "it is right." My stereotype of what happens in  
small towns was significantly challenged. I left Central Otago inspired and  
confident that Christianity can in fact be rescued from the Church and that  
Jesus can be freed from religion. I was newly convinced that if the clergy would  
dare to be courageous and to proclaim what all of them know about the human  
origins of the Bible and the historical development of theology, they would  
discover that there is among the religiously disenfranchised of the world a  
yearning to learn, a willingness to engage new ideas and a desire to seek the  
truth of God, come whence it may, cost what it will.  
I suspect that there are literally millions of Joy Ramsays, Nola Gollops and  
Liz Duggans in the Christian church, feeling betrayed by their clergy and  
hanging on to their faith by the skin of their teeth, eager to know that there  
is more to Christianity than they have been allowed to know. These three women 
 are to me the faces of Central Otago and represent my unseen audience all 
over  the world. Because of them I am now more hopeful for my faith and more 
alive as  a human being. That is why I wanted to introduce them to you my readers 
this  week.  
John Shelby Spong.  
Question and Answer
With John  Shelby Spong 
Bill, from southern New Jersey, writes:  
I have shared your thoughts with many people, and the most frequent response  
I hear is: "If I could find a church whose pastor spoke like Bishop Spong, I  
wouldn't miss a Sunday." Are there any churches in South Jersey that share 
your  vision of what a church could be?  
Dear Bill,  
I wish I were knowledgeable about South Jersey churches, but other than  
possessing some anecdotal evidence, I am not.  
One of my favorite clergy, The Rev. Dr. Jill McNish, who has her PhD from  
Union Seminary in New York City, recently accepted a call to South Jersey  
(Swedesboro). She was an attorney prior to going to seminary and is one of the  
brightest people I know. However, South Jersey is very large and Swedesboro may  
or may not be a possibility for you.  
Another option would be to send an e-mail to the Rev. Fred Plummer  
(fplummer at tcpc.org) who heads up the Center for Progressive Christianity, with  whom 
churches can register by meeting eight criteria of openness (one of which  is 
theological). Ask Fred for a list of the South Jersey churches (of all  
denominations) that are on his list. Those readers of this column from elsewhere  in 
the country who have the same question may also avail themselves of this  
service with a simple e-mail. The same is true for churches that might want to  
identify themselves with the Center of Progressive Christianity. They would like  
to know where the congregations are to which they can refer requests like 
yours.   
Beyond those bits of advice you have to hunt for such a church one by one.  
Every denomination has some churches that live in the 21st century and engage 
it  meaningfully and some that do not. As a whole denomination, I find the 
United  Church of Christ ahead of most other parts of Christianity. I am excited 
by many  things that I see on the cutting edge of the United Methodist Church. 
I have  also been deeply touched by Unity Churches, a Church that now calls 
itself  "Centers for Spiritual Living" (but which once was known as the Church 
of  Religious Science) and by the intellectual freedom that I find in the  
Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship. Indeed a UU Church in Washington's Crossing,  
New Jersey, is another example of a vital South Jersey congregation. For those  
attracted to more sacramental expressions of Christianity, I have discovered  
that the level of openness and engagement such congregations display depends  
totally on the pastor. These clergy are not always appreciated by their  
respective hierarchies, but in my mind they are the heroes of Christianity who  
will be responsible for making it possible for Christianity to live in the 21st  
century and beyond. I admire them greatly. You would too if you knew who they 
 are and where their churches are located.  
I hope this helps.  
John Shelby Spong 



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