THE ECLECTIC CLERIC - “Portland’s Original Faith Community”

I’ve been thinking an awful lot of late about the complex relationship between innovation and tradition. Between roots and wings. Between memory and hope. It’s a fairly ubiquitous topic in my line of work, with its constant challenge to be out there in the vanguard and on the cutting edge, while still remaining solidly grounded in the values and principles of our liberal religious heritage. The latter connect us to the wisdom of the ages. The former evoke our creative imaginations, that portion of our life-spirit which “maketh all things new,” and that Scripture tells us was created in the image of God.

When properly aligned, tradition provides the stable foundation which allows innovation to flourish. When they become out of alignment, it can sometimes start to feel like that age-old struggle between the irresistible force and the immovable object. Thomas Jefferson once advised: “In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, flow with the current.” I prefer a more pedestrian metaphor. So long as our feet remain planted solidly on the ground, our heads are free to soar as high among the clouds as they wish.

Tradition teaches us not to fear change, because we know that we have faced change in the past, changed, and still endured. The knowledge of who we are and where we have come from can also show us where we need to go, and how best to get there. A heritage of innovation challenges us to live up to the legacy of our ancestors, and to carry forward the spirit of their vision here in our own time, in ways that they might never have imagined. This “living tradition” is what gives our faith community the continuing power to transform people’s lives for the better, while at the same time connecting us all to that long line of people – some living, some dead, some not yet born – who share this journey with us, and whose lives also have been (or will be) transformed by our dynamic, on-going relationship with one another here in this place.

I personally am delighted by the knowledge that the First Parish Church is indeed Portland’s Original Faith Community: gathered in 1674, and still going strong 333 years later. In this holiday season, as we celebrate so many of the traditions of our past, and with the approaching the New Year, and its many associations with fresh starts and new beginnings, let us call to mind once again the familiar words of the 19th century hymn composer William DeWitt Hyde: “Since what we choose is what we are, and what we love we yet shall be, the goal may ever shine afar, the will to reach it makes us free.”