Happy birthday, Jack

On this day, the 16th of June, in the year 1931, in Charlotte, NC, Jack Spong was born. 

 

His father, an alcoholic, died when Jack was but 12 years old. He and his brother were raised by his mother in a working-class neighborhood in the segregated South. 

 

Jack speaks warmly and gratefully of the priest in his Episcopal church, Robert Crandall. I love the story Jack tells of his childhood when he would get up before dawn - and before breakfast - to deliver newspapers on his bike to make a little money for the family. He would then rush over to church to assist with daily mass. 

 

One morning, all that activity on an empty stomach caught up with him and he "clean passed out" right there in the middle of the service. His priest took him out for breakfast which soon became their routine when Jack was scheduled to assist at daily mass. In the midst of those early morning conversations his priest became for him a role model, a surrogate father, and the inspiration for his own vocation. 

 

Jack completed his bachelor's degree at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in three years and became the first in his family to be a college graduate. He went on to Virginia Theological Seminary where he earned his M.Div and was ordained in 1955 at the age of 24. 

 

Jack served churches in Durham, NC, Tarboro, in east NC, as well as churches in Lynchburg and Richmond, VA. Jack always found himself on the front lines of the work of justice, first as pastor of a church in a small tobacco town in east NC only a few years after schools were desegregated. 

 

Ordained bishop of Newark in 1976, Jack immersed himself in the ongoing struggles against racism in the church and in the world, as well as being an ardent supporter of the ordination of women in The Episcopal Church, and a leader in the movement for full inclusion of LGBTQ people in all aspects of the church and the world, including ordained leadership in the church. 

 

But, it was his deep commitment, as a liberal, progressive Christian, to call for a fundamental rethinking of Christian belief away from theism and traditional doctrines that made him controversial and a target of hate and violence. 

 

In each and every one of the 25 books he has written, he stretches traditional theological thinking, challenging assumptions and insisting that we pay attention to the words of Jesus in John's Gospel, "I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear." (Jn. 16:12). 

 

Taking Jesus at his word, Jack sought to articulate the ways the story of God's love for the people of God continues to be revealed in "the word of God in scripture, in the word of God among us, and in the word of God within us" (Iona community). 

 

My favorite Jack Spong quote, of many: "The church will die of boredom long before it dies of controversy."

 

Called a "maverick" and a "nightmare to conservative Anglicans," as well as a "heretic" by none other than Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Jack Spong was also a wonderful pastor to his priests. When my father died, Jack called me from New Zealand where he had been invited to lecture. 

 

He knew of the tensions in my family and, concerned that they would surface during a time of intense grief, he offered to come home early to escort me and my beloved Ms. Conroy to my father's funeral. My heart was so filled with gratitude and love, I could not contain my tears. I told him how much I loved him and that he would be the first person I saw when I returned from my father's funeral. And, he was. 

 

Jack Spong retired as bishop of Newark in 2000. When I last spoke with him on his birthday in 2021, he was living in retirement with his beloved Christine Mary Spong in Richmond, VA. He had recovered remarkably well from the stroke he suffered while in Michigan in 2016. His mind was clear and sharp and his sense of humor had never been more delightful. 

 

He told me that he and Christine attended St. Paul's where he was once rector and proudly pointed out that the present rector is a married gay man. Jack also told me with obvious joy in his voice that he saw his children and grandchildren "four or five times a week."

 

Jack died peacefully in his sleep on September 12, 2021, in Richmond, VA

 

On the occasion of the 91st anniversary of his birth, please join me in celebrating this man who is a gift of and to the church. 

 

You may not like him, you may, in fact, hate him, but you can not deny that the church in general and The Episcopal Church, in particular, may have decreased in numbers but has matured in spirituality and expanded in theological generosity. It certainly has not died of the controversy which Jack engaged with courage and authenticity. 

 

Happy birthday in heaven, Jack.