Back to the Future: "Retraditioning" in the Church Today by Martin B. Copenhaver

8/14/2019 Back to the Future: "Retraditioning" in the Church Today by Martin B. Copenhaver

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are instructions about what to wear to the service,

and what one might say to comort the bereaved.

Then, out o curiosity, I turned to the page that

deals with the traditions o my denomination. Un-

der the heading o uneral practices there is this

question: Are there mourning customs to which a

riend who is not a member o the United Church o

Christ should be sensitive? And this is the answer:

No. Local, ethnic, and cultural customs are more

relevant than any particular religious tradition o

the church.2 That statement, although not entirely

accurate, was just true enough to make me wince.

And it did not just apply to uneral practices,

either. To be sure, our congregations had traditions

related to worship and church lie, but those tradi-

tions were mostly malleable to local custom, the

preerences o the congregation, and the proclivi-

ties o the minister. Wider church traditions could

be, and oten were, ignored. So, teen years ago,

when I arrived at the congregation I currently serve,

a member asked, Are we going to do Lent again this

year? as i that central liturgical season were justanother programmatic choice.

Retraditioning Strategy: Fixed or Fluid?

Today that is beginning to change. In some respects,

the change is dramatic. It is a movement toward

what Diana Butler Bass has described as retradi-

tioning, through which a congregation adopts, or

reclaims, practices and understandings that have

been part o the wider Christian tradition, but, or

some reason, have been abandoned or diminished

in importance. The deliberate reclaiming o Chris-

tian traditions looks now to be a central element ocongregational identity and renewal in the twenty-

The husband had been a member o our United

Church o Christ congregation, and his wie was

Jewish. The service was to take place in our church.

I was particularly eager to learn more about Jew-

ish customs around death and mourning so that I

could design a service that incorporated elements o

both traditions, where appropriate. So, in addition

to consulting with the amily, I also reerred to a

wonderul book, How to Be a Perfect Stranger, which

describes various religious traditions and how one

can participate in them as a guest.1

The uneral section o the book on Jewish prac-

tices is thick and explicit, refecting a rich tradition.

The book describes the shiva period in which the

amily sits in mourning or seven days ater the u-

neral and receives guests. It outlines quite explicitly

what guests should say and not say (it is customary

to sit quietly or talk to other callers, and wait to be

spoken to by the principal mourners). Then there is

the explanation o the mourners kaddish, the prayer

o praise that mourners repeat or eleven months

ollowing the uneral, as well as what is to be doneon the yahrzeit, the anniversary o the death. There

A ew years ago I was asked to ofciate at a uneral or a young couple who had

died in an auto accident.

Back to the Future:

Retraditioning in the Church Today

by Martin B. Copenhaver

A generation ago, the pulpit was obvi-ously central, both literally and fgurative-ly. Communion was celebrated, at most,once a month, and the elements werebrought to worshipers in the pews. It

was worship rom the neck up, a largelycerebral engagement with the divine.Today much o that has changed.


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orebears would recognize at least, not our Con-

gregational orebears. At this service, each week we

have: symbols and colors that immediately situate

the worship within the fow o the liturgical year (no

one has to ask i we are doing Lent this year); a

renewal o baptismal vows, including aspersion oworshippers with water rom the baptismal ont;

worshippers o all ages who gather around the table

to receive communion; members o the congrega-

tion who line up to light prayer candles; those who

stay to walk the labyrinth that is embedded in the

foor. There is a sermon, o course, but it is set

within dynamic liturgical practices in which all o

the senses are engaged.

One might characterize this development as

appropriating traditions rom other parts o the

church, particularly those with a richer liturgical tra-

dition than is evident in many Reormed churches.And, in ways, that might be an accurate description.

But it is also true that we are learning how to claim

wider church traditions as our own. In this sense,

our tradition reaches back beore the Congrega-

tional church in colonial New England, back beore

even the Protestant Reormation. Yet we consider

this to be fuid retraditioning in action: these li-

turgical practices are not merely adopted, they are

also adapted to our time and circumstance. It is

also an example o what Becky Garrison (in this

Refections) calls an ancient-uture aith, whichsearches the storehouse o Christian tradition or

spiritual treasures, while seeking to interpret these

traditions aithully into new contexts.

The movement toward retraditioning can be seen

as well in the increased emphasis on distinctive

spiritual practices, as championed in the work o

theologian Dorothy Bass and the Lilly Endowments

Vice President or Religion, Craig Dykstra, and a

growing literature on the subject. The ocus on spiri-

tual practices seems ubiquitous in church lie these

days, so it should be no surprise that it is refected in

these pages as well. Lillian Daniel makes a compel-

ling case or recovering the practice o testimony,

and Peter Marty is determined to rescue the practice

o hospitality rom conusion with mere riendli-

ness. Even Kimberly Knights description o a church

rst century. Within a wider culture that breathlessly

pursues the next new thing, congregations are expe-

riencing new vitality in old spiritual practices.

Bass is careul to distinguish between two orms

o retraditioning that lead in quite dierent direc-

tions, one she terms xed and the other fuid.She writes, In its xed orms, retraditioning trans-

lates into religious undamentalism, sectarian iso-

lationism, or resistance to all orms o change.3

Fluid retraditioning is something very dierent, as

she explains:

In its more fuid orms o rejuvenation,adaptation, and invention, retradition-ing implies reaching back to the past,identiying practices that were an impor-tant part o that past, and bringing themto the present where they can reshape

contemporary lie. In this mode, congre-gations will tend toward refexivity (will-ingness to change through engagementwith tradition and an equal willingnessto change the tradition through engage-ment), refection (thoughtulness aboutpractice and belie), and risk-taking.4

This fuid orm o retraditioning is a source o

vitality in so-called emergent churches, in an in-

creasing number o mainline congregations, and is

evident in the congregation I serve.

Engaging All the Senses

Wellesley Congregational Church (UCC) in Wellesley,

MA., is perched on a slight rise on the square o this

leay New England town, as i presiding over the

whole village. And, indeed, it is the oldest institu-

tion in Wellesley, actually older than the municipality

itsel. The steeple o the church, the highest point in

town, can seem to pierce the clouds. We worship in

a space that is characterized by the clear windows

and stark, dignied lines o a New England Meeting

House. A generation ago, the pulpit was obviously

central, both literally and guratively. It act, preach-

ing was so central that all other elements o worshipcould seem like little more than the opening acts

that warm up the crowd or the main event. Except

when the choir processed or the congregation stood

or a hymn, no one seemed to move. Communion

was celebrated, at most, once a month (in those

days, anything more requent might have been dis-

missed as too Catholic), and the elements were

brought to worshippers in the pews. It was worship

rom the neck up, a largely cerebral engagement

with the divine.

Today much o that has changed. Our astest

growing worship service is not something that our

Preaching and worship-planning havereadjusted themselves around the Bible.Today sermons are not as likely to wan-der out o earshot o the Biblical text.


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she observed that Southern storytelling began to

fourish only ater deeat in the Civil War. When a

community o people is no longer in charge, when

the sources o identity are vanishing, the community

turns to its texts and stories as the wellsprings o

lie. Surely this is part o what we are observing inour churches today.

One o the reasons that Jewish uneral traditions

could be described in such minute detail in that

book, while the traditions o the United Church o

Christ could be described briefy in an almost o-

hand manner, relates to the cultural place o the two

traditions. Jews, living in exile and in diasporas, have

clearly dened traditions, in part at least, because

the expressions o their aith are not supported by

the culture at large. Jews never could assume that

a child growing up in this country will learn to be a

good Jew simply by growing up as an American. I a

child is to become a aithul Jew, it was only by being

intentionally brought up in the tradition. By con-

trast, at least during the era o Christendom, when

the secular and religious institutions seemed to be

shoring up dierent ends o the same civic project,

distinctive expressions o a specically Christian

tradition did not seem as necessary.

The movement toward retraditioning is one in-

dication that all o that is changing and ast. For

those o us who have ound retraditioning to be

a source o great vitality or our churches, this isgood news indeed. Sren Kierkegaard compared the

moribund church o his own time to a amily that

had inherited a grand mansion, but chose to live in

a mere tent in the ront yard. To me, the movement

toward retraditioning eels an awul lot like moving

back into the mansion.

The Rev. Martin B. Copenhaver 80 M.Div. served churches inPhoenix, AZ, Burlington, VT, and Westport, CT, before becom-ing senior pastor o Wellesley (MA) Congregational Churchin 1994. His fve books include To Begin at the Beginning:

An Introduction to the Christian Faith (Pilgrim Press, 1994,2002) andWords or the Journey: Letters to Our TeenagersAbout Lie and Faith, with Anthony B. Robinson (PilgrimPress, 2003). His latest is This Odd and Wondrous Calling:The Public and Private Lives o Two Ministers, co-writtenwith Lillian Daniel (Eerdmans, 2009).

Notes

1 How to Be a Perect Stranger, edited by Arthur

J. Magida & Stuart M. Matlins (Skylight Paths

Publishing, 1999).

2 Ibid, p. 411.

3 Diana Butler Bass, The Practicing Congregation:

Imagining a New Old Church (Alban Institute, 2004),

p. 50.

4 Bass, p. 50.

that meets in cyberspace shows commitment to the

spiritual practice o living in community. Though

some o us might want to protest that a meeting o

avatars is not quite the same as a meeting o feshly

creatures, it is concern or community that drives

many o the innovations Knight describes.

Repositioning the Bible

The preaching we hear today also refects this move-

ment toward retraditioning. A ew years ago, on

the sixtieth anniversary o the journal Pulpit Digest,

I was invited to refect on the changes in preach-

ing that have taken place during that dramatic time

span. In preparation, I read many back issues rom

each decade. Amid the points o continuity, and

the occasional addish excursion, I noticed one

epochal change. Until about twenty-ve years ago,

the sermons were largely topical, and generouslysprinkled with quotes rom virtually every human

endeavor. The preacher might cite the words o a

poet, the ndings o a sociologist, the research o a

scientist, and the observations o a contemporaryjournalist to support the sermons point. Reerences

to Scripture oten were made as i they were little

more than a summary o all that had gone beore.

The gospel was treated as the capstone o human

experience. A curmudgeonly riend once summa-

rized this musty style o mainline preaching: You

hear what the psychologist says, what the historian

says, what The New York Times editorial writer says,

and then the sermon concludes with, And perhaps

Jesus said it best

Since the 1980s, preaching and worship-plan-

ning have readjusted themselves around the Bible.Today sermons, oten based on the lectionary texts

o the day, are not as likely to wander out o earshot

o the Biblical text, and scriptural imagery tends to

ripple through the liturgies as well.

This development might sound surprising at a

time when our culture seems no longer to be evenvestigially Christian. Yet Old Testament scholar Wal-

ter Brueggemann has observed that it was during

times o exile that Israel became a textual commu-

nity. Living as strangers in a strange land, Israels

very identity as a people was threatened, so theyread and listened to stories to remind them o who

they were and where their true home was. The novel-

ist Flannery OConnor made a similar point when

Within a wider culture that breathlesslypursues the next new thing, congrega-tions are experiencing new vitality in oldspiritual practices.

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Back to the Future: "Retraditioning" in the Church Today by Martin B. Copenhaver