Stuff happens

Well, we went from Easter to a clergy retreat and from that to one of those major computer crashes that eat up tons of your time trying to fix. Hours and hours spent trying to defrag the drive and get work done through a poorly functioning machine. I hate that! So I eventually used the recovery utility to reinstall windows. And while I did not have to reload every program several won't reload properly now, especially Quickbooks Pro. And to top it all off I lost all my contacts, ones gathered from nearly fifteen years of business. And my back ups would not load because the windows reload behaved like a new machine. Crap!!!! I finally got most of them back through an obscure CF card from my old palmtop that I used 8 months ago. Back up and running, almost. Well, at least its a post.

Run over and raised to life

About 7 years ago, shortly after we moved into our home here we were praying about getting a dog. On a family walk in the neighborhood we passed a little black Pomeranian in the front yard of a home. Our kids could not resist going up to pet him. It turned out that the owner had several dogs and gave us this little Dog, Gizmo. Gizmo has been a wonderful family pet. He is no bigger than a cat and as quiet as one too, and he is fun and affectionate. My daughter loves him.

Wednesday afternoon was busy. We have a habit of letting him out the door to relieve himself, which he usually does along the fence in our yard. We usually keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't go in the street. He is an inside dog. But it was busy. Within a few minutes my Son in the Lord, Carl walked in stating that Gizmo had just been run over by an SUV.

I found Gizmo in the street virtually dead. His body was frozen in that arched position that you find most dead animals in at the side of the road. He was not really breathing, his body was strangely firm, his eyes were unfocused and simply twitching to the right. I took him to the back yard, to a spot where I could pray without distraction and where faith could be at work. I prayed over him, commanding the life of God to enter him and emphatically calling on God to heal this beloved family friend. Then my 16 year old Son Mattias came and joined with me in prayer. At first there were no signs of life, then after just a few minutes of praying he blinked his eyes and looked over at me. I continued to pray for healing and he then licked the blood from his mouth. I then commanded him to get up and walk, and......he squirmed around and began to pull himself up, but his hips and rear legs were not cooperating. I calmed him and made him lay still. We continued to pray and I had my son get a towel so we could lift him and get him into the car to take him to the animal hospital. Gizmo tried to get up again. As we took him up from that spot in the towel to the car my son said, "I think the Lord has told me that he will only need a cast on his front leg". And so my wife and I drove him to the animal hospital. As we drove we could see that he was responsive and alert. By the time we reached the hospital he sat up on his own on the floor. We took him in and they examined him. After x-rays and a full check up they said that he was in surprisingly good shape and just had a broken front leg. He had a plate put in yesterday and he will be home today.

Now, when we came home we were processing this event. "Was he really that near death? Could he have just been suffering from shock?" These are the questions you tend to ask yourself in the face of events that defy explanation. So we asked Carl. Carl explained that Gizmo walked across the street to Him when he saw him so he actually saw Gizmo get run over; first by the front wheel, which flipped up in the air landing him on his back to be then run over completely by the rear tire. Gizmo was run over by both tires and crushed under the weight of a 37oo lb vehicle. And I can say that the dog was virtually dead when I picked him up and first laid him on the front lawn and assessed him. God miraculously restored this animal to life who should have been dead.

This even has, of course now begun to encourage and challenge the people who saw it. We are challenged to expand our faith, to believe God for the impossible, to trust him for our needs. And I, I am simply praising God and giving Him glory!

Maintaining the Protest

Several months ago I made a decision to remain in my communion. For a long time I had been on a trajectory towards the historic churches but always found myself stopping just short because of a few issues that I could not comfortably get around. At one time I considered converting to the Roman Church. But I took issue with the fact that married clergy are virtually never permitted to preach on Sunday or administer the sacraments on a principal service. Married clergy appear to be second rate clergy of whom the church is embarrassed. I could not overcome this hurdle. My other issues really centered around the validity of experience. I could not bring myself to confess that those Protestant Christians with whom I have been saved, baptized in the Spirit and taught the deep things of Christ were less authentically or less validly The Church. What I know is that Jesus is no less present with godly, spirit filled Evangelicals though they do not keep the historic shape of the liturgy, though they deny Christ's real presence, though they bow to the spirit of the age at times. This doesn't mean I think they are "complete". I do not believe that. I beleive they are poorer for lack of these things and that the absence of a rich sacramental life, a healthy liturgy, and the discontinuity with the spirituality of the church of the first five centuries - particularly that of the Desert Fathers, of necessity leads to little errors (and some big ones). But amazingly Jesus is still present, working in the midst of it. And I know that Jesus is often more present among these brothers and sisters, that their zeal is greater and their commitment to Christ is deeper, than most of the members of the many Roman and Orthodox churches that surround me here in the North East.

Yet, after making decision mentioned at the start, I felt a rebelliousness in my soul, a wildness. And I have been thinking a lot about this. Because the fact is that while I continue to carry these issues I am in Protest. And these other bodies that fail to embrace their brothers of the Reformation in the essentials of the faith as represented in the primary apostolic witness of scripture, that fail to really embrace the power of the Holy Spirit for the common life (making it decidedly less common), that deny the scriptures when it clearly indicates that an overseer be married (just not to more than one wife), I am put in a position of Protest. I can humbly submit to these things and lay it all down. But I find that my full participation in the Kingdom of God where I am is what makes me valid and I long for the day when the churches unite on the essentials. In heaven we will not say "I am of Rome, I am of the East, I am of Calvin or Luther." We will all confess together, we are of Christ Jesus!

Cultural Enablers?

Does the church at times and in places act as a cultural enabler? When the church embraces the values and illnesses of the culture is it not enabling those illnesses to perpetuate? When we fold those values into the church that run counter to the historic faith are we not enabling?

What is problematic is that these values are so pervasive and deceptive that few can discern just where the illness is located. Just as those who are in co-dependent relationships cannot see their own contribution to the dysfunctional relationship, I wonder if we can really see our participation in the cultural dysfunction. How can we tell if we are complicit or not? While we are in the relationship we cannot see it. somehow we have to step outside of it. How can we do this?

We can only step outside of this dysfunctional cultural relationship by removing ourselves from it. I am not advocating a retreat from society. The withdrawal I propose is to the place of prayerful contemplation. We have to withdraw to a place of contemplation informed by voices not our own. And by "not our own" I include our own culture. We must be informed by voices from other times, the voices of men who have gone before us. We need to retreat with the voices of the Early Church fathers, the, monks, saints and Christians who are "outside" the culture of our time. And we must let them shed light on what we believe. Perhaps we need to develop a certain skepticism towards our own culture and our own voice, a posture of humility that invites the correction of other ages and greater souls.

As persons we can only grow when we begin to believe that we don't have all the answers and that others need to speak into our lives. As the Church, perhaps we need to do the same. Maybe then we can extricate ourselves from repeating dysfunctional patterns in the church. Maybe we can get a better idea of healthy spirituality from outside our own context, maybe from the desert among ascetics who cut themselves off from the love of the world. Maybe we can get a better idea of authentic worship from outside our own highly individualized and customized society. From a time when people understood that the strength of one is found in the health of the whole. Maybe we can get a better idea of social justice from another time so that we don't advocate justice for moral confusion. Perhaps then we would see clearly to discern between those who are truly suffering from injustice and those who have brought suffering on themselves because they have abandoned God's commands. Maybe we would get a better idea of doctrine, not from the spirit of novelty or disaffection, but from humble submission to the mundane, the established, from tradition. maybe our departure should not be from what has been handed down, but from what has been reinterpreted, revalued, and rejected. Maybe then we can see our way a bit more clearly to emulate the city of God than the city of men.

New Pascha House web page

I have created a new WordPress blog site/web presence for Pascha House. It is called Pascha House Update and will function as a news portal for Pascha House as well as a basic web site. It will also include a donation button so that people can donate via the web with a click of the mouse. Please visit the site, just click on the image above.

One of my hopes is that Pascha House will serve CEC parishes by providing a treatment program that is consistent with the vision of the CEC. I cannot think of many (if any) recovery programs that are fully Charismatic - bringing all the power of the spiritual gifts together for inner healing, together with a richly sacramental spiritual life, and an evangelical emphasis on personal faith and the Word of God. It is my hope that CEC churches and others will be able to send young men who need healing and discipleship. Please check it out.

Fr. Matt

Inner Court vs. Outer Court Worship

I have been thinking a lot about worship these days. Actually the relationship between worship, holiness and genuine spirituality. Of course many people are talking about worship these days. We talk about worship in spirit and truth and of worshiping with all our hearts. And many people are talking about the idolatry of modern worship. We have made an idol out of pursuing the emotional experience of worship, the high. And like many I have been questioning the authenticity of it. This is not a new insight, and as I said, many others have commented on it. Modern praise and worship is all too often emotive rather than authentically spiritual. And I think we confuse the two. Emotional worship is not necessarily spiritual at all. In fact, I think it is endemic of modern Evangelical/Charismatic spirituality. It is a spirituality rooted in the "passive" part of the human person. This is Orthodox language for that part of the human person wherein the passions originate and are active. We can have healthy passions of course. We can have healthy emotional love and rapture for God too. So we can't disqualify this sort of worship out of hand. But perhaps it is more an "outer court" worship than many would like to think. This may sound surprising to many since they feel that it is precisely the emotive aspect of worship that makes it an inner court sort of thing. But the problem is that it often seems shallow. Modern Evangelical worship, with all its intimacy and emotive force eventually feels shallow. Why is this? I think it returns to this aspect of the passive part of the human person. Evangelical Spirituality is notoriously Word centered and it is active (read the bible and do something). What it is not is introspectively spiritual. What do I mean by this? The Desert Fathers were deeply aware of what sort of things fuel the passive part of the person. They were introspectively aware of how their thoughts and activities promote or inhibit their responsiveness to God. In fact they were often seeking a passionless state, that is; a state in which their passions and so the vices - lust, avarice, greed, sloth, gluttony, et al. - were extinguished so that they could be filled with the Holy Spirit and caught up in pure contemplation and enravishment by God. However we are often not paying attention to our inner state. When we eat too much, or watch too much TV, or if we are too busy and anxious, or when we are fostering anger and fear these things have a direct, powerful but subtle effect on our spiritual state. We have not been watchmen over our souls, we have not been in possession of our spirits, and so our capacity to apprehend God is polluted. If we are gluttonous and lazy it is like water on the fire of our zeal and we cannot pray. If we are angry and fearful it is like a fire that consumes all the fuel and leaves nothing but ash-our spirits are burned over. If we are busy and anxious our spirit is divided and confused and so also we cannot pray or focus our energies on God. This of course presumes holiness - not simply the absence of serious sin but an inner watchfulness for that which leads to the thoughts that fire the passions that lead to sin. If this then is the state of the souls of most how can they worship in spirit and truth? All they have to give is an instantaneous emotive response engendered by emotive music. True worship starts in the Holy of Holies, the heart, the nous (see Gk.-noeo). And if the noetic powers are clear and strong worship is strong and vibrant and inexhaustible. It does not rely on emotive powers but has clear and unfettered access to God from within.
This is inner court worship. Worship that originates in and is in close proximity to the Holy of Holies. Outer court worship originates in and is in close proximity to the marketplace and the bustle of the streets - these are the passions and the affairs of the world.
We can start in the outer court, but in time we must proceed to the Holy of Holies. We must cleanse the temple of our hearts (the seat of the will and intellect) through repentance and inner watchfulness. This is the austere path of the spiritual athlete.
Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.

The Spirit of Holiness, 2 Epiphany

A meditation on John 1:29-34, 2nd Sunday of Epiphany

It is the lamb of God, slain before the foundation of the world, who baptizes with the Spirit. Why is it that no one else can baptize with the Spirit? Our sins must be removed before we can receive the Spirit. Why is it that there can be no authentic baptism of the Spirit without the forgiveness of sins? Because the Spirit of God is the Spirit of holiness. We must be sanctified before we can receive this Spirit. This is the distinguishing mark of the impartation of the Holy Spirit. Not ecstatic utterances or prophecies, not fainting and laughing, but holiness and love. Where these things are increasing the Spirit of God is present. Where these things are not present there is a lying Spirit.

I, from time to time, watch religious programing on TV. The Word network or GodTV often provide insights, not so much into the Word, as into modern Western worship. This worship so often appears false to me. It appears misdirected. Not always, but often. And I have been trying to place my finger on it because it is so subtle. But I think what it is is a profound lack of holiness among God's people. I have been convicted of this myself. We cannot worship God in spirit and truth if there is no Holiness. What is so often missing in church as we know it is authentic Christian spiritual formation of the sort that leads to a more genuinely spiritual worship. We too often confuse emotive worship with what is truly of the Spirit. We often forget that most religions provide mystical and spiritual experiences. This is common to man because he is a spiritual being. What we often lack is worship that is of the Spirit of God, that Holy Spirit that is resplendent, that caused Moses' face to shine. I am not against modern worship music. I use it myself. I just wonder how much flesh is in the mixture.

Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.
Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.
Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.

Charismatic Enough!

I wonder, as people and especially as Clergy - Are we Charismatic enough? Are we charismatic enough to recognize a Pharisaical spirit when it is there? Can we hear it when men speak and see it in their actions? Have we cultivated the gift of discernment? Can we discern between a broken man with faith and a successful man who is proud? When we pray do we really hear that still small voice? Or perhaps we are so much in the flesh that we cannot tell the difference between the Spirit of the Lord and our own desire. Is our optimism based upon really hearing the voice of the Lord, sound judgment and wisdom or is it magical thinking covering over the fear of failure? Are we Charismatic enough? Are we Charismatic enough to hear the Spirit of Holiness calling us to repent and seek a deeper, truly Christian life? Are we Charismatic enough to step out of the boat and risk our skin? Or do we play it safe while we make bold pronouncements? Do we cast out demons and heal the sick, really heal them? Are we really binding up the broken? or just passing them off to someone else because they take so much time and energy? Are we Charismatic enough? Are people being saved? Have they consecrated their lives to Christ and been born from above? Are they being delivered from sin and addiction and restored to life? Are they going out and telling others where to find life? Are you charismatic enough to give a word of knowledge in a time of need, a word that breaks the yoke? Are people being made whole? Are you Charismatic enough? When you pray for people do they weep because you have disclosed the secrets of the heart and spoken Gods word to the soul? When you pray alone when was the last time you really felt the presence of God? Did His peace come over you as you entered his rest? Did you get divine understanding for souls, ministry and life? Did you come away with a truly heavenly perspective?

I love Orthodox Spirituality. I love the Liturgy and Chant. There is something Holy about those things. They disclose something of God from a different perspective. But in all my years I have found that it is the Spirit that gives life, a personal encounter with God and with His Spirit that is life transforming. It is by the Spirit that we participate in the divine nature. These other things help keep us from error, but they are no substitute.

Prayers for Nathan

On January 1st I received a phone call from a parishioner. His 20 year old step son had swallowed 150 aspirin. Fortunately he was taken to the hospital early enough to have his stomach pumped. He is alive and well all things considered. He is being held in the psych unit for observation since this was a serious suicide attempt. He is not a believer at all and has shown some contempt for the church. Please pray for this young man that he will have a true conversion experience. I will be visiting him again by mid week.

Merton on Dogma

This statement from Thomas Merton says it beautifully. I just came across it again and thought it germaine to the current train of thought:

"The notion of dogma terrifies men who do not understand the Church. They cannot conceive that a religious doctrine may be clothed in a clear, definitive and authoritarian statement without at once becoming static, rigid, and inert and losing all its vitality. In their frantic anxiety to escape from any such conception they take refuge in a system of beliefs that is vague and fluid, a system in which truths pass like mists and waver and vary like shadows. They make then their own personal selection of ghosts, in this pale, indefinite twilight of the mind. They take good care never to bring these abstractions out into the full brightness of sun for fear of a full view of their insubstantiality."

New Seeds of Contemplation, p. 146

I beleive in equilibrium,, that opposing forces are necessary for a healthy system. There needs to be clearly expressed and elucidated doctrine while also maintaining the vitality of the Living Spirit in the economy of the church. The former without the latter does in fact become nearly inert. The latter without the former becomes magic.

Redesign and retool

I am now at the end of the construction project I have been managing for the last one and one half years (has it been that long?) and am getting ready to refocus on ministry. This isn't to say that ministry was not the focus during that time, but that I did not have the time to invest in it that I wanted to. This was providential though and God blessed us in many ways. The last few months in particular allowed me only enough time to focus on work and maintain our church services and Pascha House had to be put on the back burner. This too was providential.

Yet, God has been moving in our little church in wonderful ways and we have been growing in spite of all of these challenges. During the summer we only had services every other week and on my deck at that! And yet we are brimming with potential. We have a new worship team, the singer and keyboard player are both professionals. In fact Doug, the keyboard player and Michelle were both part of the first church I planted back in 1994. I am playing drums (although it is a little awkward playing in an alb) and the music is great! So now my priestly juices are starting to flow and I thought it was time to redesign the blog. I hope you like it.

Participating in the Divine Nature

2 Peter 1:3-4

3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
NIV

For some months now in my preaching this passage has returned over and over as an underlying theme. It holds within it the secret of the Christian life and its goal. It presents us with the theological premise and the way by which one is truly Christian. And it answers so many of the questions people raise as they seek out the true faith.

The apostle Peter explains that God, through His divine power, has provided his people everything needed for life and godliness. And how are these attained? These things are attained by our participation in the divine nature.

Participation is an interesting word. It suggests the willing cooperation of the person with another active agency. One can be a willing participant in a murder even if one stands by and does nothing to stop it. By merely acquiescing to the actions of others one becomes guilty. Participation requires action of some sort. It requires one to "go along with" the actions of another. With regard to the divine nature we are called to go along with the character and nature of God. Interestingly one does not really go along with dogma or doctrine. We may intellectually agree with it and it may inform our actions, as it should, but it is not an active agency. God is an active "agent" and we are called to participate in His essence. His essence is not contained in doctrinal statements, but they may clarify His essence. His essence and divine nature, by virtue of His being God Almighty surely exceed whatever the church can say about Him. This is the essence of apophatic theology, not that we can say all that God is but perhaps only what He is not.

So, is one a Christian who confesses faith in Christ? Is one a better Christian if one joins a church that claims to be the real church or a truer church than others? What constitutes truly being a Christian and being the Church? Can one make the claim and not participate in the divine nature? Of course! Can one attend the right church, make orthodox statements and still fail to participate in the divine nature? Peter reminds us in the passage that follows this that our participation in the divine nature affects our character. How could it not? Yet perhaps at times I chose not to be a participant, but only an observer of the divine nature? One who acknowledges the divine nature without actually participating in it?! Christ have mercy. Fortunately one can be mentally challenged, unable to read or reason well, and still participate in the divine nature. It does not depend on what we know but upon how deeply we know God and willingly go along with what He does and how he does it. The faith is not kept in doctrines, it is kept in love and Godliness. The church is only truly herself when she, and more specifically those of whom she is made, participate in increasing measure in the divine nature.

Why I can't join the Orthodox Church at this time.

Why I can't join the Orthodox Church at this time.

I cannot leave the CEC for bad men or poor organization, only heresy and the sort of schismatic teaching that, while appearing to be generally good, would truly and ultimately lead to apostasy. This is the sort of teaching that overemphasizes (or omits) some doctrine or aspect of the faith or praxis of the church that would ultimately and seriously inhibit the grace of God in it's adherents. If I were convinced that was the case in the CEC then I would have painful choices to make. But the CEC is correcting itself and God's grace is present in the churches outside the US as much as I can see it. I will give the Spirit time to correct and discipline us. How can I have more patience for one sinner under my care than for a whole church? I watched the rise of St. Paul's in Darien, CT and it's fall. Those who stayed in that church and faithfully served after others left are among the best Christians I know. God chastened them, tested them and God raised them up again. I may yet be forced to go East but until then let me offer these thoughts.

Where does orthodoxy reside? Does it reside in dogma and doctrine alone? The Orthodox churches teach that Orthodoxy is life, it is an oeconomia. Orthodoxy ultimately resides in the administration of the faith, not in the stated dogma of the church. While the CEC may have some issues with regard to the administration of this economy I submit that there is not a church that does not. Are there not other marks of true Orthodoxy? What about the evangelical impulse of the church, the Great Commission? is that not a mark of orthodoxy? And if so, do the Eastern Orthodox churches demonstrate this impulse, fueled by a compassion for the lost and empowered by the Holy Spirit? If they do, where is the evidence? Granted the Eastern Churches have experienced something of a holocaust over the last 100 years or so because of communism, but has it demonstrated this orthodox impulse to seek and save the lost? Have the Orthodox, within their history, as magnificent a witness to this evangelical impulse as the Protestants? or the Romans? who have gone over the whole world preaching the gospel? Why has it been confined chiefly to the slavic peoples? If Orthodox doctrine and the liturgy of Chrysostom saves why are there so few regenerate, divinized Greeks, Romanians, or Russian immigrants? Why are they not transforming their communities? What light shines from there that the whole world has gone after? What in the Orthodox economy is missing that allows this to happen? Are there not as many adulterers, gamblers and greedy men among them as in any other church?

And what about Azuza street? Did God require those Protestants to first be Eastern Orthodox? Cornelius and his household frown from heaven. For if the Spirit had been given to gentiles to the amazement of the Jews, how much more valid is the Spirit poured out upon those who confess simply that Jesus is Lord who are Protestant? Did the Spirit then impel those Pentecostals to seek out the Orthodox church? Or did God do wonders among them, healing the sick and causing the Gospel to be preached to the whole world? And are we not their children? Did the revival of the work of the Spirit among a small band of Protestants 100 years ago not spread to the whole church permeating even the Roman church and reaching the Pope himself? Does this not witness to the Orthodoxy of that grace!? I cannot invalidate the work of the Spirit on so many lives for the sake of ecclesiastical safety. Could I invalidate it, and class the revelation of the grace of God and the impartation of the Holy Spirit as nothing more than an act of prevenient grace until I should obtain the very same thing from the Orthodox church? Was it merely the logos spermaticos (see Justin Martyr) shedding light until I should join the Orthodox church? When then about all of those people I preached to who were converted on the streets of Amsterdam, all the sick I have prayed for who have been healed, all the gifts of discernment in operation that brought right glory to God in healing the souls of the broken? Was all that invalid? Could I, in a dysfunctional church, accomplish in the life of a broken young man through the power of the Spirit what orthodox priests could not accomplish through their right belief? If I have received the imprimatur of the Spirit outside of the reach of Eastern Orthodoxy or Roman Catholicism am I now to deny it? This is the ultimate betrayal. Not to deny ones communion or bishop, but to deny the impartation of the Spirit who sanctifies. How can I go to the East and deny that that deposit of Grace was nothing but a shadow? How can I? when I look over the bridge and see nothing more powerful, nothing more glorious?

Those who seek safety in this age of great unrest will find it not in institutions or dogmas, but in Christ. Those who seek the Kingdom will not find it bound up in statements about the perpetual virginity but in doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with God. Those who seek the catholic and orthodox faith will find it, not merely residing in doctrinal statements and catechisms, but among those whose "participation in the divine life" overflows to their communions, their churches, their friends and neighbors. Because only that church and those people who participate in the Kingdom of God to the fullest degree possible is most Catholic and most Orthodox!

A safe place in dangerous times

These are dangerous and disheartening times for the Church. She is beset by calamity and intrigue, scandal and schism. It seems there is no part of the church that is untouched by these events. In the Protestant world whole denominations are abandoning the gospel for the religion of the age, a religion of tolerance. The Anglican communion is in a full on melt-down. The Roman church, while having weathered the sex abuse scandals well, is losing adherents at an alarming rate in Latin America, Africa and Elsewhere (here). Even the Orthodox quibble over jurisdiction and suffer financial scandal (here and here). And even my own communion has endured heart braking events over the last year. There are Anglicans who are leaving the Anglican Church for Rome and Evangelicals going to Eastern Orthodoxy all looking for a safe place. There are lay persons leaving historic churches to go to Charismatic churches because their churches have not brought them in a meaningful way to Christ. But what does all this mean? And what is there to do? Is there a safe place? Does one expression of the Christian Faith truly represent a safe haven?

It is not the particular church, but the economy administered by its bishops and priests and ministers that lead to safety. It's the oeconomia stupid! When our churches are deficient in any one of the many essential facets of the Christian economy they fail to convey the life of Jesus. If we have the liturgy and sacraments but cannot convey the gospel we are missing a part of the economy, even if we can perfectly describe salvation in theological terms. If we have the most meaningful Charismatic worship but fail to lead souls in conversion (theosis) through the disciplines of historic spirituality we create shallow anemic Christians. When we over emphasize episcopal authority at the expense of the priesthood of all believers we can create an authoritarian machine that runs over the weak. It is in maintaining the equilibrium of all the forces and aspects of the economy of God's household that makes the household healthy. And no one church has consistently done this. As in our own households, when they are in order the family is safe. When the various aspects of running the household are out of order the family suffers.