Read Fr. Shawn's Inaugural Article for "The Intersection Journal" from the Telos Collective

Many of you may already be familiar with The Telos Collective. The Telos Collective is an organization founded by our Bishop Todd Hunter, which is committed to raising up church leaders who care deeply about being formed into peaceful, non-anxious leaders on a kingdom path toward engaging modern culture. One of their many initiatives is The Telos Lab, which our church has partnered with to help us discern how we can be even more effective in discipleship and mission. Fr. Shawn and Dcn. Ryan are both closely involved with the work of Telos, and Dcn. Ryan serves on their staff.

Recently, Telos launched a new publication, The Intersection Journal, and Fr. Shawn was invited to write the inaugural article. In his article “The Insurrection and Inauguration of Kingdoms: Reflecting on the State’s Colonial Vision With Saint Óscar Romero,” Fr. Shawn takes up the question: 

What does Jesus of Nazareth’s announcement of the Kingdom mean for the Church’s role in the public political space? 

A pressing question in light of our current environment, as we wrestle with whether and to what extent the Church should be involved with “political” issues. In examining this question, Fr. Shawn reflects back on the history of Saint Óscar Romero, the El Salvadorian archbishop who actively resisted the state’s colonization of the Church, and was eventually martyred for it in 1980. Fr. Shawn writes:

The Church does not run the errands of the state; it is not captive to its order, nor does it prop up the state’s desired status quo. Unlike the state, the Church is constituted as the Body of Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit to herald the Kingdom of God….The Church doesn’t need to make Jesus king in the White House, because his death, resurrection and ascension have already secured him as Lord of the cosmos. 

Conversely, however, Fr. Shawn observes:

[T]he Church is not relegated to a private prayer closet, the task of merely saving souls. The Church should not be kept out of the public and political because the reign of God is concerned with the real world. The Church exists, then, to herald with Christ the good news to the human poor, incarcerated, blind, and oppressed (Luke 4:18). The Church is the sign that the Father is setting things right through his Son and by his Spirit. Therefore, the Church is supremely and inherently political (not partisan) because it exists in human history addressing all of human society, and the Church is profoundly public because it concerns all of creation.

So what does this mean for our local parishes, practically speaking? He writes:

In our local parishes, our preaching, fellowship and reconciliation signify to others that God is concerned with our neighborhood. When we consider the formative forces and allegiances tugging at us, we can more clearly see the importance of surrendering ourselves to the narrative of Scripture, the work of the liturgy, the allegiance confessed in our creeds, our diet of the Eucharist, and our openness to God in prayer.

We encourage you to read Fr. Shawn’s article in its entirety, which you can find here.