Anglicans & Speaking in Tongues?

 

                                                      Archbishop Justin Welby

O for a thousand tongues to sing

my great Redeemer's praise,

the glories of my God and King,

the triumphs of God's grace.

How do you pray? I was going to ask if you pray, but I sense that all of us pray, in some form. Those who aren't theists, or perhaps feel that they are "spiritual rather than religious" will generally concede their sense of wonder or a feeling that they are a part of something greater than themselves in certain settings. It might be in the beauty of the natural world, or a great church or mosque.

Prayer can be "wordy," extemporaneous or crafted on the page. It can be "wordless," meditative or contemplative, a gentle sitting or walking in the silence. 

There is also the ecstatic prayer which we read about in the New Testament a number of times, including on the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem. We do read that passage from Acts 2 yearly in liturgical churches, but we tend to be suspicious of  the phenomenon of "speaking in tongues" in mainline churches. We may associate "tongues"with charismatic and pentecostal Christians in the present day and consider it to be both aberrant and uncontrolled. Mainliners/old-liners love to point out that the apostle Paul cautioned the church members in Corinth to be circumspect about how speaking in tongues was included in their worship, but he does also say: " I thank God that I speak in tongues, more than all of you..." I Corinthians 14:18. 

I was mildly surprised to read the other day that the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, head of the world-wide Anglican communion, speaks in tongues on a daily basis as part of his prayer life. There is the old joke that Anglicans are "God's frozen people," deeply committed to order in worship. The venerable Book of Common Prayer includes a written, formal prayer for just about every circumstance, which I deeply admire. Welby spoke about this regular experience of his prayer life in a BBC interview, and the accompanying article offers this: 

Tongues, understood by believers to be a divine language, involves sounds with no easily understood meaning. The Most Rev Justin Welby, who is the leader of the Anglican Church, also says he expects to hear messages and prophecies from God through others.The Archbishop said it wasn't something to make a "song and dance about", saying using tongues was seldom an "ecstatic" experience for him.

The "no song and dance please, I'm Anglican" comment seems true to form, but I appreciate Welby's willingness to share this prayer experience, knowing that it might be misinterpreted. The wonderful mystery of prayer is diverse, and shouldn't be confined to one way of expression. I've heard "prayers" in United Churches which never mention God, or Jesus, and seem to be earnest memos from the clergyperson on his or her latest cause rather than invitations to commune with the divine. Why would I consider this superior to speaking in tongues? 

In my seminary days we lived with a couple, dear friends, who were tongue-speaking pray-ers, yet this was never our experience. We simply respected this aspect of their devotional life, and surely mutual respect and openness is vital to understanding in the pluralistic world in which we live. 

Here's the question: did the apostle Paul actually begin 1 Corinthians with "If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of Anglicans..."?

                                                                The Day of Pentecost