by Edward L. Lee, Jr.
On June 4 Episcopalians on Baptismal Mission (EBM) and the church at large said a prayerful and grateful good-bye to a dear friend, colleague, and collaborator in the furthering of God’s mission and Christ’s ministry in the world. Peyton Craighill was in his 89th year of baptismal life and living when he died. He was a priest, a missionary, a teacher, a China scholar, and in his later professional years a relentless advocate for the recognition and affirmation of the daily ministries of every baptized person in the church. He was unequivocal: Mission and ministry are grounded in baptism, not ordination.
Long before “ministry in daily life” or “total ministry” or “servant leadership” or “baptismal ministry” became common parlance in the discussions and descriptions of the church’s mission and ministry, Peyton was quietly and carefully articulating their meaning as the church began shifting into what he called “a new paradigm for the practice of mission and ministry that the church is experiencing today.”
In 2003 he outlined this shift in a one-page document that he used to help church members understand how essential they were in God’s mission by virtue of their baptism. In his own words here are some of Peyton’s succinct and cogent explanations:
“Baptismal ministry – ministry based primarily on baptism and living the baptismal covenant, and not on ordination.“Ministry in daily life – daily life recognized as the primary arena for ministry, with parish activities as the context for the support of those ministries.“Total ministry – ministry organized on the principle of the communal sharing of all members in the church’s ministry rather then based on a top-down, clergy dominated model.“Servant leadership – communal structures of power and authority based on mutual sharing and servanthood in place of authoritarian patterns of clerical control.“Evangelism – practiced in a new spirit, not of manipulative imposition, but of sharing and loving service.“Incarnational spirituality – practiced not as an escape from the world into a private relationship with Jesus but as a spirituality experienced as corporate as well as personal, in all secular as well as sacred contexts.”And one on “secular theology” I especially appreciated: “Theology focused on God’s presence in the whole of creation rather than primarily on the church; Christ, not as a judgmental Lord or as a private companion, but as an abiding presence in all the world’s activities; the Spirit at work implicity in all the affairs of the world as well as explicitly in contexts in which God is recognized and named.”
Peyton Craighill’s voice is now stilled but his legacy, along with his many other skills and accomplishments, is the articulation and advocacy of ministry in daily life rooted in our baptisms. The church is the beneficiary of that legacy. Thank you good friend.
Living God's Mission 