God's Word Studied at Annual LARC Conference

Responding to the declaration in the Call to Covenant which states "Unity is a Gospel imperative for churches, not simply an option," 178 members of the Lutheran, Anglican and Roman Catholic faith traditions in Virginia came together for the annual LARC conference in Williamsburg Nov. 12-13.

Bishop Paul S. Loverde and Msgr. R. Roy Cosby, vicar general, were among the representatives from the Arlington Diocese.

Participants celebrated common beliefs and a mutual goal to establish full communion among the three faith traditions. Following the practice of alternating speakers from among the three faiths, this year’s presenter was Rev. Dr. Sean Charles Martin, Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis.

The Catholic priest approached the conference theme "God’s Word – Our Problems" by focusing on how the interpretation of God’s Word impacts both our understanding of the Scriptures and the decisions that flow from those understandings and interpretations.

"There is no substitute for encountering Scripture in its original language," Father Martin said. "To translate is to betray."

He told the audience that since no ancient language is spoken today, the written text can be properly understood only by examining the many layers that have been added by world views versus the initial oral proclamation.

Father Martin noted that a world inundated with information, where people are accustomed to scanning headlines and ingesting sound bites, poses a particular set of challenges.

"The Bible calls us to read, ponder, and consider the complexities of an ancient proclamation but popular religiosity sees religion through its worldview and imposes categories that tend to tame the Gospel," he said.

Tracing the origin of the New Testament, the priest presented the three stages outlined by the Second Vatican Council. He explained that the first stage which began with the life of Jesus and ended with His death and resurrection was identified as the Oral stage and involved the repetition of the stories and sayings of Jesus. Jesus preached to primarily an agrarian society and his parables and teachings were about the stuff of every day life.

"But Scripture is filled with nuances," said Father Martin, and because Jesus understood the search and longing of the people for the real God which was not unlike our search today, His message is timeless.

The second stage, identified as Preachers of Apostolic Generation, continued as an oral event but Jesus was no longer proclaiming the message; the message of Jesus was being proclaimed as seen in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. During the third stage the life and teachings of Jesus were written according to the interpretation of the writers as evidenced in the Gospel of John and the letters of the New Testament.

Father Martin pointed out that contrary to the claims made by scholars of Jesus Seminar, Jesus was a wonder worker and did perform miracles which he says can be substantiated by the fact that feeding the multitude and the healing of the sick appears in John’s Gospel as well as in the synoptic gospels.

Having offered the above as a backdrop, Father Martin told the audience, "Reading Scripture is essential to moral decision making, not as a specific directive, but as a basis for reflection towards the solution of an ethical or moral dilemma.

"Scripture introduces us to a personal relationship with the three persons of God," he continued. "We are invited into that relationship and with that relationship comes obligations which were given to us in the commandments and the beatitudes."

Citing a study which indicated people tend to make moral choices based on relationship rather than principle, he explained that when people have a certain amount of anonymity or seeming invisibility, they do things they would not do around people with whom they have a relationship. Therefore when reminded about our relationship with God by reading Scripture, we will be more inclined to make a decision that is morally in keeping with the heart of God.

In response to the insights offered by Father Martin, the program for Saturday afternoon included a perspective from each faith tradition offered by students from the College of William and Mary followed by a response from the bishop of the same faith tradition. Standing in for Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo, who was attending the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' meeting in Washington was Msgr. Raymond Barton, Episcopal Vicar for Ecumenism in the Diocese of Richmond. Each presentation was followed by small group discussion during which the audience had an opportunity to discuss what they had learned from the other faith traditions.

Many in the audience had been attending the LARC Conference for years. Committed to the work of ecumenism, they ranged in age from Phebe Hoff, 95, from St. Mary Episcopal Church in Richmond, who was recognized for her contribution and commitment to LARC, to the students from William and Mary who signed a covenant of cooperation among the three campus ministry organizations.

Hosts for the conference and prayer services included St. Stephen Lutheran Church, Bruton Parish Church, St. Bede Catholic Church, Episcopal Campus Ministry, the Lutheran Student Association and the Catholic Campus Ministry, all of Williamsburg.

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