Who are we religious? How do we fit into the fabric and the structure of the Church? We often think of ourselves in terms of the hierarchy. Are we lay or are we clerical, or somewhere halfway between the two? Or we may answer by placing ourselves over against the hierarchy, as the prophetic individuals shaking our fists at ‘the institutional Church.’ But that is the wrong sort of map. I think that it is rather as if one were to look for the Rockies on a map that gave [only] the boundaries of the states of America. Are they in Colorado or are they in Wyoming? Why cannot we see the mountains?
—
Timothy Radcliffe, OP, in the address “Religious Vocations: Leaving Behind the Usual Signs of Identity,” published in Sing a New Song: The Christian Hope
I am quite taken by this idea of looking for religious on the wrong sort of map. The Episcopal Church is finding a similar struggle — and not just because 80% of our membership has no idea that we have religious in the Anglican Communion. Who are religious? Where do we fit in? Or do we belong at the margins? Despite our vow of obedience, is it the role of religious to be the civilly disobedient, the holy troublemakers, the court jesters of the Church?
(via undercovernun)
