My dear sisters and brothers in Christ, it is my great joy to welcome you to the 183rd Annual Council of the Diocese of Mississippi. I am delighted that you have made this pilgrimage to the Bethlehem of Rock and Roll, and trust that in our time together we can remember Tupelo’s native son’s admonition, “Don’t Be Cruel”, but rather, but rather be filled with “Hunka, Hunka Burning Love.”
I want to thank the people of All Saints’, Tupelo, for hosting this year’s Diocesan Council. It is part of their year-long celebration of the 140th anniversary of the founding of All Saints. Many, many hours have gone into preparing for us. In particular, special thanks to the All Saints' co-chairs on this event, David Sparks, Vicki Vance & Frank Anger, and the Rev. Paul Stephens, rector of All Saint’s. Thanks to Rev. Tom Slawson and Mike Flannes who do our worship coordination now over the past several years, and Diocesan Staff who after Christmas have a single focus to move towards Council. A special thanks to Council Coordinator Kathryn McCormick.
One defining memory of our last visit to Tupelo was the ice rink beneath the floor that chilled our feet if not our souls. Sisters and brothers, there is no ice rink beneath us tonight. What chill you may feel on your feet this night, as a result of a recent football game, is Hell freezing over! As you know, I am often criticized for not wearing that special hat peculiar to the vocation of a bishop. One that suggests both the anointing by the spirit and the image from Isaiah of the suffering servant. Not to worry my friends, I have brought that special hat to council. That special hat, the sign of the crown of thorns I have worn for 43 years!
To accommodate these so very clearly divinely inspired events of the past couple of weeks, I have made the decision to move our closing eucharist on Sunday up an hour so as to accommodate those who have six hours or more to drive before they can get to a television set. Thus, David Knight, I expect to see all of us back here on Sunday at 9 a.m. (removes hat)
As I begin my reflections on our common life together, I start with words of deep gratitude and appreciation for the sabbatical leave that was given to me during this past year. The additional work and responsibilities given to the diocesan staff in my absence, the openness by congregations to receive substitute bishops for visitations and confirmations and the financial support built into the diocesan budget over the past 10 years were the means by which you provided this sabbatical. As you know some of my sabbatical plans were changed due to family illness, but the gift of that time to be fully present with my mother and father is something I will forever treasure. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
When I began my sabbatical in April, there were eighteen vacancies — or rather 18 congregations without a full-time priest or being served by a priest. When I returned there were only three such vacancies. It appears that through the extraordinary efforts of our deployment officer, Canon David Johnson, some things are done better without the bishop!
The arrival of so many new clergy, all of whom will be introduced tomorrow morning, will change in some ways the personality of the Church in Mississippi. Already the median age of clergy has dropped considerably! And there will be other changes as the various gifts and perspectives of this new leadership is shared throughout this diocese. It is, indeed, an exciting time.
It is also exciting and energizing to notice what is happening in so many local venues. Despite the financial obstacles that are very real and our internal disagreements that have often consumed us, by my count over the last three or four years, 22 churches in this diocese have either launched, completed or are seriously considering capital campaigns – most of those campaigns have been or will be, for the expansion of their facilities – such progress at the local level surely is one sign of the vitality of the church in this diocese. I will be taking you through a “Virtual Magical Mystery Tour” tomorrow to celebrate these signs of vibrancy and health.
In the last 18 months alone, we have dedicated and blessed 4 new churches – St. Peter’s by the Sea, & St. Mark’s, Gulfport; St. Patrick’s, Long Beach, St. Columb’s, Ridgeland, along with major expansion of facilities at St. James, Jackson, & St. John’s Ocean Springs. In the next few months, I will be dedicating new facilities at Trinity Church, Pass Christian, Christ Church, Bay St. Louis and Nativity, Greenwood. And in the last year, though I haven’t done the calculation, certainly from my impression, confirmations have risen significantly in many places.
There is also good news about other aspects of our common ministry. Last summer, All Saints’ School in Vicksburg entered into a formal relationship with AmeriCorps, a federally funded volunteer training program for public service. And that partnership has stabilized our mounting deficit at All Saints’ and the dedicated and energetic young people who now inhabit that campus keep before us that dream of Bishop Bratton that All Saints’ be a place to educate and train young people for ministry in the world. Special thanks again to Granville Tate, our Chancellor, Canon McCormick and the Rev. John Jenkins for extraordinary efforts in bringing us to this point.
I am also pleased with the creative direction that the ministry at Gray Center has taken over the last year. You will be hearing much more about this tomorrow, but new initiatives such as a Camp Bratton-Green marketing campaign, the Alumni Association, an expanded Bishop’s B-B-Q, an extraordinary New Year’s Eve extravaganza, and efforts to make the facility more accessible to small groups and families are evidence of this new direction. The budget situation at Gray Center is always challenging, but our Executive Director Bill Horne, and the Board of Managers, especially the Finance Chair, Wallace Pope, have made enormous progress in the past year in putting us on firmer financial footing.
The Center for Formation and Mission which has offered program at Gray Center for several years now will continue to offer programming, though we are in something of a transition, since one of the casualties of our financial crisis was the staff position for the director of CfFM. The Rev. Jennifer Deaton is the chair for our Center for Formation and Mission Programs Board. And the Board and I are working on a new model to provide that programming for Christian formation. Stay tuned!
Over the past year we have begun and deepened relationships with our overseas partners. Bishop Ezekiel Diing was with us, you recall, at last year’s Council to formally launch our relationship with the Diocese of Twic East in Southern Sudan. Now frankly, this has not been an easy year for that diocese, and shortly after Bishop Diing went home, violence erupted once again, apparently supported by the government as an effort to destabilize the South prior to independence referendums in the coming year. At the invitation of the Sudanese Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul, I will be traveling to Sudan in May to share our solidarity with the church and the people of Southern Sudan and seek ways that we can more fully develop this relationship. Tomorrow you will be hearing from one of our young Sudanese immigrants who is part of the Sudanese ministry at St. Andrew’s Cathedral.
This year we also took the next step in our relationship with the Bishop Masereka Christian Foundation in western Uganda, as a team from this diocese traveled there last spring. They will be reporting to you tomorrow.
We have also opened a relationship with the Diocese of the Virgin Islands. After observing one of our Diocesan Youth events, Bishop Ambrose Gumbs of the Virgin Islands has invited this diocese in as a consultant to their youth ministry. We have accepted his invitation and a team from this diocese will be training both adults and young people in the Virgin Islands in this special, though often challenging, ministry. John Dreyfus is our coordinator for this new initiative.
Our relationship with Panama continued as I was the keynoter and preacher at a week-long event in Panama last winter and Bishop Murray traveled to Mississippi to lead our ECW fall retreat. And our three decades old Honduras Medical Mission returns to this politically battered country to care for the “least of these,” though, as of 24 hours ago, our recent cargo of medicines shipped to be there by next week has run into difficulties and has been embargoed in Miami. Sisters and brothers, pray for the captive to be set free.
In the midst of these old, and new and emerging relationships comes the horror of the aftermath of Haiti’s earthquake. We have been advised by Episcopal Relief and Development that the most helpful and appropriate response to that tragedy at this point in time is financial contributions. I hope, and know many of you already have raised lots of money to send to ERD. Work teams are being organized for some time in the future. You will be hearing more about that tomorrow, as well.
On the ecumenical front there have been several significant developments. Last March 3, feast day of John and Charles Wesley, Bishop Hope Morgan Ward of the United Methodist Church and I signed a Covenant of Common Mission in an extraordinary celebration at Galloway United Methodist Church and St. Andrew’s Cathedral. At that time we committed ourselves to a variety of initiatives that would deepen the relationship between our two churches consistent with this Interim Eucharistic Sharing agreement approved by both national bodies. Bishop Ward and I will travel to Mediator, Meridian, this March 3 for a similar celebration with the people of Mediator and Haven’s Chapel United Methodist Church. And this joint celebration will become an annual event spread around this diocese. I know in addition, many local congregations have taken the initiative to seek out common vehicles for ministry with their Methodist sisters and brothers. I am so, so grateful for your efforts.
Our ecumenical ministry of advocacy, Congregations for Children, is maturing and has become a wonderful way for us to work closely with Roman Catholic and United Methodist Congregations and colleagues to address the needs of our state’s children, the least and most vulnerable in our midst. The social ministry with the Lutheran Episcopal Services of Mississippi and our partner the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America continues to expand.
In one additional ecumenical development, one that was highlighted in the Mississippi Episcopalian, we have launched a new Lutheran-Episcopal congregation out in the country between Perkinston and Wiggins. It is hard to find it on a map, but it is there. I will be presenting the Executive Committee a petition from members of this congregation to establish it as a mission station of the diocese. Upon approval we will formally establish this congregation, currently under the liturgical leadership of the Rev. John David Simpson, an ELCA pastor, as the “Lutheran Episcopal Mission of the Annunciation.”
Finally, as I reflect back over this past year, I note with great sadness the death of Mrs. Catherine Johns, administrative secretary to three bishops and a friend to so many. We miss her so very much.
The theme of this year’s Council is “The Challenge of Mission.” As I have suggested in these pre-Council gatherings around the diocese this theme evokes both the obstacles we face in being faithful to the mission given to us by Jesus himself: that mission of “Love God, love neighbor and go into all the world baptizing and teaching.” And it also should suggest God’s claim on our lives when we begin to fully grasp the implications of that cross on our foreheads.
First, an obstacle or two need to be noted. We are in the midst of financially challenging times. I have spoken at the pre-Council gatherings about the various ways these challenges are affecting the diocesan ministries. However, I have also said to you that “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” We have been forced in this crises to ask ourselves what is essential and foundational about our diocesan ministries.
That conversation has begun at several levels and will continue through the coming year. We have engaged a consultant, Mr. Reb Scarborough, to assist us in having a diocesan-wide conversation about our priorities in Mission. The next step in that conversation is a computer based survey that will be available throughout the diocese shortly after Council adjourns. Details will be forthcoming.
We will also be training a new generation of stewardship consultants from within our own people in the diocese using the best resources from throughout our church. This will be, I believe, a shot in the arm for our increasingly flabby theology of stewardship that is, in part, responsible for our current challenges. In addition, this new budget, for all its cuts, has invested $20,000 for the beginning of a new initiative around planned giving. Have you remembered the church and its ministry in your will? Kathy and I have. I trust that you will be hearing much more about this in the near future.
Another obstacle to God’s mission is the fact that we are increasingly aware of the ineffectiveness of some of our traditional models for congregational ministry. Simply opening our doors to a spiritually hungry world is no longer enough. Clergy can no longer be simply chaplains to a stable flock and lay ministry is no longer an option for those simply with extra time on their hands, but a claim of God on our lives by virtue of our baptism. What are we to make of the recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life that identified 16% of Christians as “unaffiliated”, and of those expressing an affiliation 7% said they worship primarily in “home” churches. And that figure, sisters and brothers, is growing rapidly.
We are struggling with new models, but in our new initiatives through St. Alexis in Jackson, a house church in Hernando, the new Delta Missioners or a mission station in Perkinston, we are trying new things. I believe that an old war horse of this diocese, the Cursillo movement, with a rule of life and small prayer and accountability groups have much to offer in this time. I also want to note the vibrancy of so many other churches in the diocese – those that, at least on the surface, look rather traditional – and that does suggest that some of us have, indeed discovered something that needs to be shared with others. We are beginning to look at various ways to share “best practices” with one another. There is a new young adults’ initiative in the works. Stay tuned! In addition, a major new initiative for congregational development requiring a significant investment of time and money over two years will be hosted at Gray Center this summer. Sponsored by six dioceses from around the southeast and coordinated by our own Canon David Johnson, this will be a major intervention into the life of interested and willing congregations. And finally in this matter, The Rev. Kevin Martin, nationally recognized authority on evangelism and church growth, will lead this year’s Clergy Conference. We not sit still in trying simply to wait for the world to come to us.
A third challenge to Mission we face is our ongoing disagreements among ourselves about a variety of matters.
Many have rightly noted that the church has lived with conflict throughout its history. That is, indeed, true. What seems to me to be different in our age is first, the speed of communication that provides data without context and makes us assume we know all there is to know when we have barely scratched the surface. Reflection and the wisdom that proceeds from that are in short supply. The second thing that makes conflict difficult in our age is that we all drink, every one of us, from the same cultural cup that seeks to caricature, stereotype and demonize those with whom we disagree. “Homophobic” or “revisionist” are not used as comments about someone’s ideas, but are rather, more often than not, meant to suggest ontological statements about another person’s very being.
May I suggest we return to the earliest Christian creedal statement — the one that came out of the mouths of those first followers of Jesus, two or three centuries before the Apostles and Nicene Creeds. Quite simply, they claimed as their creed, “Jesus is Lord.”
Disagreements have always been a part of the church’s life, but the intensity of our current conflict, the name calling and the drawing of lines in the sand so that there can be only winners and losers, suggests to me that this radical, revolutionary statement, “Jesus is Lord,” is often forgotten. To say “Jesus is Lord” means that everything else that I claim as true — my theology, my deepest beliefs, my world view — must be subordinate and under judgment, or it has become an idol, replacing Jesus as Lord of my life.
All theological positions, all biblical interpretations, all sociological or psychological analyses, all denominations, every political party, all economic systems, every country and nation stand under the ultimate judgment of the one we call Lord. All are imperfect, all are impure, and all are incomplete. All fall short of the Kingdom. All are in need of forgiveness and redemption.
The the value of everything — the value of everyone of us and the value of every system we inhabit — rests ultimately, not on its own merits, but on the grace of the living God — a grace we experience in Jesus, our Savior and Lord. My value is not dependent on my being right. It is finally my value and my salvation is in the hands of the one to whom I wish to offer my life.
Thus, to claim that Jesus is Lord over our lives, and nothing else is, should call us into a posture of profound humility as we seek to be the church together, in the midst of deep disagreements.
This summer, during a break in my sabbatical, because I tend to be masochistic about these things, I traveled to California to participate in General Convention. The front page issues that attracted so much attention were multi-layered and complex in ways that it is hard for a non-participant to understand. I shared with you my thoughts in written form after General Convention and later in a session open to all at St. Andrew’s Cathedral. Through my tenure as bishop, I have tried to be as clear as possible with you about what you can expect of me. Despite that effort to be clear, I know that I’ve been hard to pigeonhole or neatly characterize. That has not been a Machiavellian choice of mine. It rather reflects my own sense of the complexities with the issues we face.
So, to many I have appeared reactionary and out of touch; to others, I seemed to have moved down the slippery slope of revisionism. I have, at one time, or another, disappointed every one of you. I have tried to use as my guide the words that I have shared with you before from Dom Helder Camara, former Roman Catholic Archbishop in Brazil:
He wrote:
“The bishop belongs to all. Let no one be scandalized if I frequent those who are considered unworthy or sinful. Who is not a sinner? Let no one be alarmed if I am seen with compromised and dangerous people, on the left or the right. Let no one bind me to a group. My door, my heart must be open to absolutely everyone.”
Because of my refusal to be bound to any particular group, I have been called wishy-washy, a chameleon, even sometimes to my face. I prefer to call it, being a bishop.
Let me try to be clear about a particular matter being addressed by Council this year. Prior to General Convention 2003, I reorganized the ministry of the Task Force on Ministry with Gay and Lesbian persons. I defined its mission and appointed its members. Since its reorganization, I have been in constant conversation with its membership, approving certain initiatives and disallowing others. Nothing that the task force has done has been without my approval. If there is concern about how this task force has operated, I am the one with whom to have this conversation. That’s a conversation best done in my office and not for the floor of Council.
Following this past year’s General Convention, I wrote a letter to the clergy of this diocese. Included in that letter were these words:
Precisely because I have chosen to stand in a particular place in our ongoing debates around sexuality, I have a God-given moral imperative not simply to be sensitive to the theological views of those who disagree, but to reach out proactively to those whose hopes and dreams seem to be thwarted by my actions.
I stand by those comments tonight.
One of the ways that our wider church is attempting to deal with conflict is through a document released recently by the Archbishop of Canterbury, after several years work and revision called “The Anglican Covenant.” The Archbishop has asked each province to design its own process of ratification. The Episcopal Church will undertake a church-wide conversation on the need, value and efficacy of the Covenant leading up to a vote at General Convention in 2012.
This document is unprecedented in our common life and its mere existence does reflect the reality of strains on our Communion. There has been wide-spread acceptance of the parts of the Covenant that are descriptive of the value and responsibilities of our common life. There is, however, considerable debate over the sections that, in general terms, would be called disciplinary.
My plan is to invite conversation about this document within this diocese. That conversation will, more than likely, include a teaching and reflection with the clergy that could be taken back to local congregations. We will also offer a diocesan-wide conversation opportunity at some point.
It is my plan to allow General Convention first to address our Church’s response to the Covenant. If further diocesan action is desired, or required, we will deal with that after 2012.
Despite all the obstacles the challenge of mission, the claim of mission remains. The claim of God on our lives remains. The call, “Follow Me”, remains. The words from 2 Corinthians, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself . . . and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” Those words remain. And the words of challenge from our Lord himself, “you did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit that will last . . .” and “even as you have done it unto the least of them, you have done it to me” — they remain vivid and ever before us.
Over these next two days, I have asked various clergy to reflect on the obstacles they face in their particular context, and I have asked them to share something of what they feel as God’s claim on their particular lives. I just now have talked about the obstacles. Now let me turn to matters that are about my own heart and soul —what I believe is God’s claim on me and my very imperfect and incomplete response.
I have said to you again and again that it’s a little misleading to say the church has a mission. Rather, God’s mission has the church. The people of God — from Abraham, to the people of Israel, to those first disciples to the church at Pentecost — all were called into being for purposes far greater than themselves and more mysterious than they could ever imagine. You and I are both heirs and participants of that claim of God on our lives. “You are not your own,” said Jesus. “You were bought with a price.”
And so I have dusted off some things I said to you years ago about being One Church in Mission — Inviting, Transforming, Reconciling — Being made for the wider world. If you haven’t heard me recently, hang on. I’m coming soon to a church near you.
I have already referenced my role and calling that has claimed me as both the icon and the means of unity in the church both within this diocese and beyond. Suffice it to say at this point that it is a calling that I would not have willingly chosen were I left to my own choices. It is, rather, quite literally a claim on my life that is given voice by Dag Hammarskjöld’s poetry in his spiritual classic, called Markings:
Cry. (he wrote)
Cry but do not complain.
The path chose you
And you
Shall be thankful.
Do I live in that calling perfectly? Of course not! The decisions required are rarely clear and I have made many mistakes. For the obvious ones I ask your forgiveness. For the less obvious ones I ask your prayers. But, sisters and brothers, this claim on my life is real. I trust it is from God.
I have also been blessed with children. Two of my own and some that have come into my home. Some of you have noticed that I have also been given the capacity to relate to children far easier than grownups. It should be no surprise then that God has been pulling on my soul in recent years to renew our work with children, particularly the most vulnerable ones among us — those whose access to quality education, medical care (and all the other things that our children take for granted) are most limited and whose lives are most invisible. You will hear much, much more about me, probably on the front pages of newspapers, about this claim on my life.
I am delighted that so many creative ministries to children are growing in our churches. A few years ago I challenged every congregation to become invested in a ministry to children outside its congregation. You have responded beautifully. Our ecumenical Congregations for Children advocacy program is maturing. Bishop Ward and Bishop Latino meet regularly to discuss how we might, together, impact the children in this state. Again you can expect me and the other bishops to become more visible and vocal in the years to come.
In 2005, three weeks before Katrina, Tabitha Awur Agany, a Sudanese war orphan, came to live with us as a foster child under the authority of Catholic Charities. Suffice it to say, these two women — Katrina and Tabitha — have changed my life. On other occasions, I have shared my Katrina narrative, but let me speak briefly with you about an expanding world Tabitha has brought to our family and to your church.
Before Tabitha, I could not find Sudan on a map of Africa, even though it is the largest country in Africa. Today I am being drawn to that country in particular, and to Africa in general, in a way that I would never have imagined five years ago. I traveled to Uganda in 2008 at the invitation of the Bishop Masereka Christian Foundation. In May, as I said, I will visit Southern Sudan. In some ways, I can explain this interest within me, but much of it seems a bit mysterious, even strange, to me.
But I will follow where I sense I am being led. Part of what is happening, I think, is a growing discovery of the depth and richness of the Christian faith — a richness of which any particular culture can only be a pale and incomplete representation. But also drawing me into an ever deepening engagement with those beyond our borders is a realization that it is within the midst of the deepest human needs of body and soul in this world that Jesus is known — Jesus crucified, died and alive.
Beginning with this Council I am inviting you to take that journey with me. By the time we gather next for Diocesan Council, I would like for every congregation to have initiated an ongoing relationship with one of our overseas partners. That relationship can be as simple as a line item in the budget for overseas work, or as complicated as sponsoring one of our medical missions. And there is much, much in between.
Tomorrow you will be given brochures with some details and contact persons for our various partnerships. Honduras, Haiti, Panama, Sudan, Uganda, and the Virgin Islands. I invite you to journey with me. You will not be disappointed.
There are so, so many good things happening in this church. Yes, the obstacles we face are very real, yet within and through each obstacle, God calls.
God has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
God has told us to go into all the world.
God has challenged us to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind and freedom to the oppressed.
But you and I know, we are serious enough about what is happening within and without, our model of being the church may look different in the years to come. For many reasons — social and cultural — this old Episcopal Church may not be granted the respect and admiration it once was given by the outside world. In years to come, we may become less of a church of power and prestige. But, you know, if our egos and self-esteem can take it, that may not be all bad.
But the call to faithfulness remains. You see our children and grandchildren will be watching and wondering. They are watching and wondering to see if what we say we believe will be witnessed to in the lives we live.
As a college student one of my heroes, in the church was the then Presiding Bishop, John Hines, and in his last address as Presiding Bishop John Hines said to his church:
What I hope for has little to do with growth in communicant strength, though I would rejoice at a multitude of conversions possessing integrity. [This has] little to do with bigger budgets, (he said) nothing to do with maintaining a respected place with the carriage-trade clientele of our society. I hope (he said) for a witnessing community of unquestioned integrity.
It may — in the future, this Church of ours — be an even smaller Church because of such a witness; less powerful, and less influential — as a secular society gauges power and influence. For the essential question is not, “How shall the Episcopal Church grow?” — but rather, “How can the Episcopal Church be faithful?” For that is the heritage worth sacrificing for — worth passing on to our children and grandchildren. God forbid that they should come to a time and place unashamed of the Gospel — but ashamed of us!
May God grant us, in our age, the strength and courage to be faithful and unashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God bless you all.
