Dear People of Christ Church,
This week the bishops of the Anglican Communion began their work in earnest together, with Bible study, worship, conversation, and prayer. The bishops have invited us to participate with them as they march on behalf of the Millenium Development Goals (more on them a post you can read from June of 2006, at www.ecrier.blogspot.com. The bishops (of whom 880 were invited, and 670 are in attendance) will march physically through the streets of London—we are invited to march “virtually,” by voicing our support for legislation to alleviate global poverty. For more on how to participate, visit http://www.e4gr.org/virtualmarch.html.
Our bishops Tom, Bud, and Gayle have been writing home to us. I was especially moved by Bishop Gayle’s reflection, which arrived Tuesday and which I pass on to you here.
She writes,
It is the second full day of the Lambeth Conference following our initial retreat. And amidst the worship, greetings, laughter, conversation and gatherings we began the day in our Bible study groups discussing fear.
Fear is powerful. It motivates withdrawal and angry encounters. It is the building material for walls of separation and it distorts reality. Fear causes us to react with panic or retreat to defensive positions.
We examined fear in the context of the account of Jesus walking on the troubled waters of the Sea of Galilee found in the Gospel of John, chapter 6, verses 14-21. When the disciples saw him, they were terrified, and Jesus said, “It is I; do not be afraid.”
There has been much anxiety in the worldwide Anglican Communion leading to this conference. At times the worry of division and the outcries of strident voices have brought some of our brothers and sisters to a place of fear about the continuation of our communion with each other. And yet even now Jesus comes to us in our troubled state and says, “do not be afraid,” for ourselves as individuals and as a fellowship in Christ.
Jesus is very present here. He is discovered in our common ground of mission articulated in Isaiah 61:1-4, which Jesus restated in Luke 4: 18-21. He is discovered in our open and honest sharing. He is present as we break bread with each other.
In my Bible study, several of us admitted to having fears about engaging one another here. Our diversity of theological interpretations and cultural differences are blessing and difficulty. But when we began listening to how and what we fear, together as a group, we discovered, first, that we are more alike than we thought, and second, in fear we were focusing on ourselves. Fear obscures our vision and perception, making us unable to clearly see Jesus among us and in each of us. (Fear is the basis of the exclusion of Gene Robinson from Lambeth.) In fear we focus on the troubled waters tossing us about and are not able to see Jesus who comes to us and seeks us.
Yesterday, Bud and I, along with a group of other bishops, walked with Gene across a nearby green to join an outdoor celebration of the Eucharist. There was reason for us to be afraid in going to this service: aggressive media, protesters and threats of violence towards Gene. Yet through the troubling distractions we walked on toward and in the presence of Christ. This afternoon when the management of the Lambeth Conference denied Gene access to our scheduled gathering of American bishops, it was fear that motivated that decision, over our several requests and objections. Fear again troubled the waters of fellowship, obscuring Jesus.
Every hour I meet people I do not know and who are very different from me, who have fears and are traveling with me on this sea called Lambeth. And in most circumstances, we have helped each other to see it is Jesus who is coming towards us, calling us out of our fears. We must not be so focused on the troubles that we cannot recognize Jesus. We must not be afraid. It is in and with Jesus that each and every one of us can continue together in our journey in life and faith. ---- +Gayle Elizabeth Harris
You can find links to more news about Lambeth (and see a video about what, exactly, they’re doing there) and see more about what our bishops are doing at http://www.diomass.org
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
The Millenium Development Goals (from 6/22/06)
Note: This post was written during the Episcopal Church's General Convention, in the summer of 2006.
There has been much talk in the media this week about “schism” and separation in the Anglican Communion. On Tuesday, we heard that Archbishop Rowan Williams is calling for the establishment of something called an “Anglican Covenant” system whereby churches who have taken positions that challenge the understandings of the wider church on sexuality might be “churches in association” of the Anglican communion rather than “Constituent churches.” Such a system will take years to discuss and implement. For now, we are, if a bit uneasily, still all together. One of the interesting challenges that has come up in the last few years has been to define exactly what it is that the Anglican Communion is and does—no small matter. Stay tuned, and don’t believe everything you see on TV!
In other Convention news, the Millennium Development Goals were officially adopted as part of our ministry strategy for the Episcopal Church. The Millennium Development Goals propose that we in the “developed world” (a problematic, but useful, designation) have the power to abolish extreme poverty. Which is defined as living on one dollar a day or less. If we all donate just 0.7% of our budgets and income (that’s all of us—me and you and the government and Bill Gates), this is actually possibly in the next ten years. You may have heard of the goals from rock star Bono’s work on the ONE Campaign:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
2. Achieve universal primary education.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women.
4. Reduce child mortality.
5. Improve maternal health.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
7. Ensure environmental sustainability.
8. Create a global partnership for development with targets for aid, trade and debt relief.
It is the stranger to whom we are always called, always reaching further and further out, always struggling to embody Christ’s love for all God’s creation. As Matthew 25 says, as we do it to the least of these, we do it to Christ—imagine Jesus Christ dying of malaria, or as a little girl whose parents cannot afford to send her to school, or as an orphan whose parents have died of AIDS. It is that work that the MDG’s seek to promote.
The affirmation of this work—from ALL sides of the political spectrum—is a sign that whatever divides us in political or social sentiment, the Gospel always invites us to seek and serve Christ in all people. We may be in various structures of communion with our fellow Anglicans, but it is only the work we do for God’s people that ultimately has the power to unite us.
There has been much talk in the media this week about “schism” and separation in the Anglican Communion. On Tuesday, we heard that Archbishop Rowan Williams is calling for the establishment of something called an “Anglican Covenant” system whereby churches who have taken positions that challenge the understandings of the wider church on sexuality might be “churches in association” of the Anglican communion rather than “Constituent churches.” Such a system will take years to discuss and implement. For now, we are, if a bit uneasily, still all together. One of the interesting challenges that has come up in the last few years has been to define exactly what it is that the Anglican Communion is and does—no small matter. Stay tuned, and don’t believe everything you see on TV!
In other Convention news, the Millennium Development Goals were officially adopted as part of our ministry strategy for the Episcopal Church. The Millennium Development Goals propose that we in the “developed world” (a problematic, but useful, designation) have the power to abolish extreme poverty. Which is defined as living on one dollar a day or less. If we all donate just 0.7% of our budgets and income (that’s all of us—me and you and the government and Bill Gates), this is actually possibly in the next ten years. You may have heard of the goals from rock star Bono’s work on the ONE Campaign:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
2. Achieve universal primary education.
3. Promote gender equality and empower women.
4. Reduce child mortality.
5. Improve maternal health.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
7. Ensure environmental sustainability.
8. Create a global partnership for development with targets for aid, trade and debt relief.
It is the stranger to whom we are always called, always reaching further and further out, always struggling to embody Christ’s love for all God’s creation. As Matthew 25 says, as we do it to the least of these, we do it to Christ—imagine Jesus Christ dying of malaria, or as a little girl whose parents cannot afford to send her to school, or as an orphan whose parents have died of AIDS. It is that work that the MDG’s seek to promote.
The affirmation of this work—from ALL sides of the political spectrum—is a sign that whatever divides us in political or social sentiment, the Gospel always invites us to seek and serve Christ in all people. We may be in various structures of communion with our fellow Anglicans, but it is only the work we do for God’s people that ultimately has the power to unite us.
Monday, July 21, 2008
July 16: Celebration
Dear People of Christ Church,
This week, my family and I are spending the week at the Barbara C Harris Camp, our diocesan summer camp (named for Barbara Harris, a bishop in our diocese and the first female bishop in the Anglican Communion) . Noah and I are chaplains, and Isaiah is along for the ride (literally, since I’ve been carrying him around in a little front pack for much of the time). We work on worship--preaching and celebrating the Eucharist—and with the kids’ Bible study and activities. Yesterday I went along with a group of 11 and 12 year olds to beginner horseback riding lessons—church camp is not about church EVERY second, after all. And Isaiah loves the attention from the “big” kids. So we are having a good week.
Last Sunday, we had a great time with Cameron’s baptism and the blessing of our new sprinkler and flowers. We recited parts of a song from St Francis of Assisi, the Canticle of the Sun. We prayed in memory of those who died this year, in thanksgiving for those who gave to fund it, and to the glory of God. Our sexton, Gary, came and gave us a demonstration of the sprinklers, too. Special thanks go to him and to Marcia Luce, who spearheaded the project and was still putting finishing touches on the flowers over the weekend. And thanks to all the team of “Mighty Gardeners” who will continue to weed and maintain all summer! You can see pictures of the event on our website, www.christchurchwaltham.org.
On the other side of the ocean, the bishops of the Anglican Communion begin meeting today for the Lambeth Conference, which takes place in England every ten years. I hope you’ll keep the bishops in your prayers this week. Pray for Archbishop Rowan Williams, who presides over the conference and is, I believe, doing his best to keep us all together. The fact that no one (myself included) seems entirely happy with his decisions tells me that he must be doing a good job. Please also pray for Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. He was not invited to the conference itself, but has still traveled to England to meet people and try to have some kind of dialogue. Bishop Robinson just wants to be a bishop—not the “gay bishop,” not a troublemaker, just a pastor to his people. At one event, he took questions and said that he wished everyone could come visit him in his diocese where, he said, “90 percent of the time” he is performing diocesan tasks and can often be found “in a church basement with a macaroni salad.”
While it is true that our Church faces some serious challenges, parishes across the globe are staying faithful to their ministries and trying to seek and serve Christ in the people around them. It might seem odd to bless things like a boiler (as we did last year) or a sprinkler system like we did on Sunday. I think, though, that we have to take all the opportunities we can to celebrate what we have and what we are doing together. Tragedy makes room for itself—it squeezes in and derails our predictable wants. But we have to pay more attention to those times for celebration. They can too easily dart by us before we realize.
So Gene Robinson eats his pasta salad, and we bless our flowers, and the kids at camp sing to Jesus with guitars and drums and hand motions, and the church moves forward.
Thanks be to God.
This week, my family and I are spending the week at the Barbara C Harris Camp, our diocesan summer camp (named for Barbara Harris, a bishop in our diocese and the first female bishop in the Anglican Communion) . Noah and I are chaplains, and Isaiah is along for the ride (literally, since I’ve been carrying him around in a little front pack for much of the time). We work on worship--preaching and celebrating the Eucharist—and with the kids’ Bible study and activities. Yesterday I went along with a group of 11 and 12 year olds to beginner horseback riding lessons—church camp is not about church EVERY second, after all. And Isaiah loves the attention from the “big” kids. So we are having a good week.
Last Sunday, we had a great time with Cameron’s baptism and the blessing of our new sprinkler and flowers. We recited parts of a song from St Francis of Assisi, the Canticle of the Sun. We prayed in memory of those who died this year, in thanksgiving for those who gave to fund it, and to the glory of God. Our sexton, Gary, came and gave us a demonstration of the sprinklers, too. Special thanks go to him and to Marcia Luce, who spearheaded the project and was still putting finishing touches on the flowers over the weekend. And thanks to all the team of “Mighty Gardeners” who will continue to weed and maintain all summer! You can see pictures of the event on our website, www.christchurchwaltham.org.
On the other side of the ocean, the bishops of the Anglican Communion begin meeting today for the Lambeth Conference, which takes place in England every ten years. I hope you’ll keep the bishops in your prayers this week. Pray for Archbishop Rowan Williams, who presides over the conference and is, I believe, doing his best to keep us all together. The fact that no one (myself included) seems entirely happy with his decisions tells me that he must be doing a good job. Please also pray for Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. He was not invited to the conference itself, but has still traveled to England to meet people and try to have some kind of dialogue. Bishop Robinson just wants to be a bishop—not the “gay bishop,” not a troublemaker, just a pastor to his people. At one event, he took questions and said that he wished everyone could come visit him in his diocese where, he said, “90 percent of the time” he is performing diocesan tasks and can often be found “in a church basement with a macaroni salad.”
While it is true that our Church faces some serious challenges, parishes across the globe are staying faithful to their ministries and trying to seek and serve Christ in the people around them. It might seem odd to bless things like a boiler (as we did last year) or a sprinkler system like we did on Sunday. I think, though, that we have to take all the opportunities we can to celebrate what we have and what we are doing together. Tragedy makes room for itself—it squeezes in and derails our predictable wants. But we have to pay more attention to those times for celebration. They can too easily dart by us before we realize.
So Gene Robinson eats his pasta salad, and we bless our flowers, and the kids at camp sing to Jesus with guitars and drums and hand motions, and the church moves forward.
Thanks be to God.
July 8: Nothing can separate us from the love of God
Dear People of Christ Church,
In the Daily Office this morning, we had one of my favorite passages from Romans:
If God is for us, who is against us?. . . For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8: 31, 38-39)
As I read it, though, it seemed so abstract—beautiful, but abstract. I do not, on a daily basis, tend to think about angels and rulers (occasional angry thoughts about the present administration notwithstanding)—but I do get wrapped up in the task at hand, at wondering how it will all get done, the phone calls completed and the bills paid, and that one annoying person who gets under my skin is still bothering me, and wondering why Isaiah finds it so amusing to empty out the salt shaker on the rug. And also wondering if I am a bad mother for allowing him to do so, being grateful that at least he is not trying to eat the computer mouse or climb off the porch, and is also being quiet.
So I thought about a more everyday version of it, with apologies to St Paul.
If God is for us, who is against us?. . . For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor stress, nor dirty dishes, nor humid weather, nor senseless tragedy, nor traditionalist bishops, nor poverty, nor wealth, nor grouchy children, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God.
What would be on your list? What are those ordinary sins and mundane problems that distract you from the love of God? What would it be like to live every moment with a complete awareness of how God’s love encircles you at every turn, how God’s forgiveness follows you, as Psalm 139 says, “presses upon you behind and before?” How can you give those things that worry you to God, to entrust to God’s care those things that sidetrack you from that love?
Take a second right now to enjoy God’s all-abiding delight in you.
Amen, Alleluia!
Blessings,
Sara+
In the Daily Office this morning, we had one of my favorite passages from Romans:
If God is for us, who is against us?. . . For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8: 31, 38-39)
As I read it, though, it seemed so abstract—beautiful, but abstract. I do not, on a daily basis, tend to think about angels and rulers (occasional angry thoughts about the present administration notwithstanding)—but I do get wrapped up in the task at hand, at wondering how it will all get done, the phone calls completed and the bills paid, and that one annoying person who gets under my skin is still bothering me, and wondering why Isaiah finds it so amusing to empty out the salt shaker on the rug. And also wondering if I am a bad mother for allowing him to do so, being grateful that at least he is not trying to eat the computer mouse or climb off the porch, and is also being quiet.
So I thought about a more everyday version of it, with apologies to St Paul.
If God is for us, who is against us?. . . For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor stress, nor dirty dishes, nor humid weather, nor senseless tragedy, nor traditionalist bishops, nor poverty, nor wealth, nor grouchy children, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God.
What would be on your list? What are those ordinary sins and mundane problems that distract you from the love of God? What would it be like to live every moment with a complete awareness of how God’s love encircles you at every turn, how God’s forgiveness follows you, as Psalm 139 says, “presses upon you behind and before?” How can you give those things that worry you to God, to entrust to God’s care those things that sidetrack you from that love?
Take a second right now to enjoy God’s all-abiding delight in you.
Amen, Alleluia!
Blessings,
Sara+
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
July 2: The Anglican Future
I wanted to write to give you a little update on what’s been going on in the Anglican Communion. You may have seen in the news a recent conference in Jerusalem, “GAFCON” (Global Anglican Future Conference). In a very strongly worded statement, archbishops from the Global South declared a new locus of power separate from the archbishop of Canterbury. They have agreed on what they claim is a new way forward of walking separately from what they perceive is the heresy of the Church in the US and Canada’s inclusion of gays and lesbians in the life of the church. The meeting comes just a few weeks before the Lambeth Conference, a gathering of all the bishops in the Anglican Communion (well, most of them—more on that later) that happens every ten years. Many of the attendees at the GAFCON conference are boycotting Lambeth this year, however, to show their disapproval for what they see as the Archbishop of Canterbury’s capitulation to western liberalism. Unfortunately Bishop Gene Robinson, (the bishop of New Hampshire, who happens to be gay) has been un-invited to Lambeth, in a nod to the anti-gay elements of the communion who oppose his consecration. At the same time, the irregularly consecrated anti-gay bishops (those who are sent by provinces in Africa to be “missionaries” to American churches who are unhappy with recent developments over sexuality) have also been un-invited, so it is clear that the Archbishop is trying to follow what he perceives as a middle way.
From June 25: The waters flow from God's altar
I had a wonderful time on vacation last week—we were camping on the island of Chincoteague, Virginia, and really enjoyed the time away. I came back to this wonderful prayer in my email in box I’d like to share with you today. It comes from the World Council of Churches Cycle of Prayer, which is for Brazil this week.
I received it from the Latin American and Caribbean Church News listserv, which you can visit at http://www.alcnoticias.org. Click on the “English” tab at the top right.
And the waters will flow from your altar, Lord
and flood the earth.
And we will be like a garden watered,
cared for,
exposed to life.
Oh! let these waters come,
impetuous and pure,
and destroy the powers
and clean the paths
which my people will take,
singing and rejoicing
in an endless celebration,
the Word, Life, Freedom
and the Resurrection!
And the waters will flow from your altar, Lord,
and clean away the debris
and we will have courage to act,
to serve,
to change the world.
And the waters will flow from your altar, Lord,
life will be rekindled,
and we will see the new creation,
act of your love.
From June 16:Henri Nouwen on Hospitality
Our Old Testament reading for this past Sunday came from the book of Genesis. During these days of Pentecost, we have the opportunity to read consecutively from Genesis all summer—through most of August. The lectionary allows us to delve more deeply into these stories of our faith—stories that Jesus himself would have heard taught in the synagogues where he also taught. This past Sunday, we met Abraham and Sarah as they are visited by angels bringing a wonderful promise—that they will have a son, even in their old age. The author of the letter to the Hebrews comments on it: Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. (Heb 13: 2). In my sermon, I was reflecting with you about the importance of hospitality—for us to be both givers and receivers of it. I quoted a passage from the writer Henri Nouwen, which I’d like to share again with you here.
This week, keep your eyes open for those angels you find occasion to entertain, “unaware.” Keep your heart open for times that you become an angel of God to others, as they share the gift of hospitality with you.
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