Fr Ben Garren
“We tend to forget the significance of our religious rituals, for we participate in them in a group, and no one tells us why we do what we do. Years ago, a person’s religion signified his way of life. Today, all too often our stated religion is a ‘name only’ philosophy.”
--Draja Mickaharic, Spiritual Cleansing
Siblings in Christ—
Today we remember Jackson Kemper, the first Missionary Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Kemper was a strong advocate for the Anglo-Catholic Movement when such was a subversive and counter cultural reality within our church. He also supported Indigenous Americans to incorporate Christianity into their existing way of life by ensuring scripture and liturgy were translated into indigenous languages and ordaining our first indigenous American clergy person, Enmegahbowh, to the diaconate. What I believe Kemper understood is that the practice of ritual is important for us to make our faith a lived and embodied experience. It is vital for us to mark certain time as sacred, and this can be done well with a brass thurible billowing frankincense, a bundle of smoldering sage, or many other rituals. What ritual we use to mark time as sacred is important only to the extent that it allows us to connect with ourselves, our communities, and our heritage such that we can bring all these things into life with God.
On this feast of Jackson Kemper we should take a moment to consider how well our lives of faith are integrated by practice and ritual. Are we connecting our bodies, our minds, our hearts, and our souls as we go about our lives of faith? Maybe there is a ritual we always do in church, beloved or annoying, that remains confusing as to why we do it… this is a good day to research its history. Maybe there is a theological belief that doesn’t seem to fit into any liturgy or prayer practice… today is a good day to find that liturgy or create that prayer practice. Maybe what could be most useful today is just taking a moment to look at the daily, weekly, and monthly rituals in one’s life and name how they are connected to one’s personal philosophy.
Today reminds me of a prayer I was taught in my youth: Go before us, O Lord, we beseech you, in all our doings; inspire us by your grace; and sustain us with your continual help, such that every prayer and work of ours may begin with you and bring us closer to you. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. To pay tribute to the life of Jackson Kemper what we can be about today, and every day, is asking what rituals, small and large, can we incorporate into our regular lives so that this prayer is one that becomes truer and truer each day.
Fr Ben Garren