With Apologies (to the Meek)!

"In a time of change, learners inherit the earth, 

while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped 

to deal with a world that no longer exists." 

-- Eric Hoffer

In 1997, I entered the ordination process in the Episcopal Diocese of Florida. Over time, I learned that "The Process" (as it is nearly universally referred to by both those who are in it and those who are products of it) has one goal -- produce priests (hopefully learned ones!) for the Church. Aspirants, Postulants, Seminarians and Candidates are scrutinized, interviewed, stretched and compressed in a myriad of ways throughout "The Process". All of this is in the name of formation.

In this model, seminaries serve the function of providing academic quality control -- insuring that the persons desirous of Holy Orders are duly educated, so that, upon ordination, congregations can be assured of a modicum of learnedness.

And I'm beginning to wonder...to what end is, "learnedness" -- particularly if the foregone conclusion is that such learnedness is preferable to energy, enthusiasm and a high capacity for adaptability, flexibility and change?

The fact is, the Church (Episcopal and otherwise) is being pressed upon from all sides. But you couldn't tell such a thing by the way most of us "do church"! We crank out the liturgies. We generate sermons faster than rabbits do what rabbits do. We grind out discipleship. And we forget that to be a disciple of Jesus one must be a learner! We get so busy telling people what "they" need or ought to do, we forget to discern what we need to be doing in our own vocations of discipleship.

I continue to ask myself if the Church has become irrelevant.
But maybe it's simply become too learned for its own good.
I continue to believe the meek will inherit the earth.
Perhaps the stance of remaining a learner is simply being meek enough to admit one doesn't know it all.