From House of Bishops in Taiwan—22 September 2014

With Typhoon Fung-Wong heading our way, we nevertheless managed to fit in the traveling that was planned for the weekend. On Saturday it was more of a pure sight-seeing opportunity. I chose to go to the beachhead in the northernmost tip of the island where there is a series of rare geological phenomena. The crowds were so heavy I was reminded of the New York marathon. These rock formations are very popular among tourists from main land China and they were present in large numbers. We also visited an old fort from the seventeenth century in Tamsui which also served as the headquarters for the British Consulate in the late nineteenth century. The Spaniards built the original structure which was, after a short time, taken over by the Dutch. The Spanish, the Dutch, the English and the Japanese have all played colonialist roles in Taiwan. I was also told the Portuguese were in the south at one point.

Strenuous walking in temperatures which we later learned reached 103 degrees, and in considerable humidity, followed by the now-customary hospitality of the Taiwanese Episcopalians who provided us with a ten-course luncheon, put paid to any thought of additional wandering in the famous night market of Taipei. I put my head down for a nap in the late afternoon and woke up the next morning! The next day being Sunday, I chose to return to the Advent Church at St. John’s University to share in the worship there. A strong breeze was kicking up as we enjoyed another lunch, this time a more modest outdoor picnic, and by the time we reached the hotel, the front end of what was now downgraded to a tropical storm was coming in. It passed over us within fifteen hours.

Apart from the obvious language difference, worship at Advent Church could have been at St John’s Ames, with students making up the bulk of the choir and the liturgy being a straight Mandarin translation for the American Prayer Book Eucharistic Prayer B. Suddenly, however, during the singing of the acclamation, the deep sounds of indigenous music came through. This was followed by a beautiful rendering of the Lord’s Prayer to a Chinese melody. It felt to me like the bottom fell away from the liturgy and we were transcended. I have had similar experiences when children or young people in Africa have been singing American children’s praise songs, and then move into something more authentic to their culture and spirits. The Church in Taiwan is still young in many ways. I look forward to their on-going exploration of liturgical indigenization.

Today, Monday, we rounded out our own exploring of the Anglican experience in Asia as we heard from the Primates of Japan, Korea and the Philippines. The challenge of militarization was a common theme in Japan and Korea. For the people of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai which literally means the Japanese Holy Catholic Church or the Anglican Church in Japan, it has been the need to seek forgiveness and repentance for the years prior and around World War II in which the Japanese dominated the peoples of Korea, the Philippines and China. The Anglican Church has led the way in this confession, adding its sense of sorrow for not resisting the militarization of its nation in those years. In 1996 the Synod made an official “statement of war responsibility.” It now seeks to do joint mission work with the Church in Korea, as well as be sensitive to serve the marginalized in society, in contrast to those who were marginalized by the Japanese authorities.

For the Church in Korea, they live every day conscious of the impact of being a divided people. More than ten million people are affected by the division of their own family members caught in the isolation of North Korea. This conflict and the tension it causes are seen as a great stumbling block to the Church’s desire to follow Jesus’ call to reconciliation and peace. In seeking to be peacemakers, the church is often treated as traitors or as unpatriotic. And yet, the Archbishop was firm that Christ’s reconciliation is the core message of the Church around the globe. Our challenge is dealing with those who laugh at the strategy of reconciliation, and call our efforts unfeasible. He asked us, “How do we return to the heart of Jesus of 2000 years ago?” and he invited the Church to unite its power of wisdom as a church for prophetic witness to the world in its incessant violence and constant adversity with one another. He reminded us that we are chosen by God to be such witnesses and servants of reconciliation and forgiveness.   

The story of The Episcopal Church of the Philippines is one of breaking from dependence on mission grants from the General Convention to choose self-reliance even when they did not have to. In 2004 they decided to stop receiving the subsidy from The Episcopal Church and some asked what would they do if they could not make ends meet? The Primate said, “If we die early, then resurrection will come earlier.” Their greatest challenge as a Church is serving among a people who make up the fourth-poorest nation in Asia behind Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. The economic gains of recent years benefit a very small portion of the people, and one-quarter of the population remain in poverty. Climate change, too, badly affects people in the 7000 islands that make up the country. The Church has begun to develop a partnership with their brothers and sisters in Myanmar. The church’s witness for the poor was testified to in a story of one village where the Episcopal Church came to provide clean water. The village had no churched people, nor was this a Christian attempt to make any converts, but simply a desire to provide a clean water system.  However, after the villagers saw what The Episcopal Church had done for them, they asked if they themselves could not become Episcopalians.

Each speaker thanked us for coming to Asia. They told us that we could not underestimate the impact and honoring that such a visit means for all of them and for so many bishops to come and be with their sister and our own diocese in Taiwan.          

The day was rounded out as we began preparations for two of the important topics that will be part of our own General Convention—a report from the Task Force on Study of Marriage, and from the Task Force on Reimagining the Church. Lest we be tempted to compare with what we had heard from our Asian colleagues, I note that these are both challenges of significance in our own mission and context. This is especially so if we are willing to have a more serious reckoning and deeper teaching on marriage, on the one hand, and, on the other, an important comprehensive view of what it takes to create a structure that enhances mission rather than hinders it. This becomes a conversation of relevance at every level of Church life whether we start at the macro level of the Church-wide body, or at the parish and diocesan levels. How does it all fit the reality of our being called, sealed and sent in the Name of Jesus Christ to be the mission of God? This was a suitable end to a day which began with the appropriate celebration of the feast of St Matthew.

 

House of Bishops in Taiwan, Day 3—20 September 2014

Listening to the accounts of mission and challenges in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Pakistan, it became a struggle to affirm the points in our own culture where the Church was a true counterpoint to our society. In contrast to churches surrounded by traditional Eastern religions and superstitions (Taiwan), or having the looming strength of communist rule on its doorstep (Hong Kong), or living with Islamic neighbors who are themselves caught between moderate and radical tendencies (Pakistan), we became very aware of how we blend into society. It was hard to state initially where we allow the Gospel to make us distinct and how we have impact that makes a difference. In some ways, ours is a more subtle task. I found myself thinking, and sharing with my table group, about our Chapter conversations across the Diocese on hope and in particular the way we had been led to consider the question of dystopia and its many manifestations in literature and film. All, in some way, carry a message of hope connected with self-sacrifice, with which the Gospel of Jesus Christ connects. I thought, too, of the beginning efforts to develop Gospel confidence in our young adults not only as leaders but also as recruiters for and interpreters of the Gospel to a society they are much closer to than I feel that I am.

The Diocese of Taiwan started in 1954 as Episcopalians among the US Armed forces personnel on the island sought to practice their faith tradition. The Bishop of Hawaii came to help organize the Diocese with General Convention’s blessing from 1953, and by 1961 the Missionary District of Taiwan was formed. Four years later James C. L. Wong was made its first Chinese Bishop. Dying before his project of building Advent Church in the campus of St John’s University, he was actually buried under the altar and the Church was constructed around him. Bishop Lai is the fifth Bishop of Taiwan.

Bishop Lai, like so many, is a first-generation Christian. Some families see this as a betrayal and Christians are actually disowned. This makes fellowship and the sense of being a distinct community important to the churches. Often it is the witness of Christian marriage and burial ceremonies that open the way for family members to look afresh at the God in whom their Christian member believes. It is important for the Taiwanese Christians to stress the distinctiveness of the God revealed in Jesus Christ, and the hope He brings and contrast this with the traditional ancestor worship. It means that Christians often fear for their parents who pass on. Their focus on the ministry of kindergartens is another way of creating a teaching bridge with the parents of the children. Every two months, the Diocese holds exams for its members based on the lectionary texts of daily prayer for that two-month period! One large challenge is to resist the notion that every religion is the same and simply has a moral goal—kindness or peace. “We know the God in whom we believe,” is their response, and God has been distinctly revealed in Jesus Christ.

As we talked about our own way of distinctive impact, I learned of the practice requested by Bishop of Arizona Kirk Smith on his clergy to take one day a month a devote it to chaplain duty in any aspect of society except a hospital. In modeling his request, he has begun a monthly chaplain duty at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. These stories are how we get our apostolic imaginations expanded!

The mission and challenges of the Churches of Hong Kong and Pakistan display the careful balance that must be exercised. The concept of loving your neighbor takes on a much more sober depth in their circumstances. Listening to The Rev. Peter Koon from Hong Kong, I was reminded of the title “Discretion and Valor,” which was a comprehensive report on the life of the Churches in communist lands during the Soviet era. Those words express well the survival attributes required when “singing the Lord’s song in a foreign land,” as the Psalmist wrote. In that context, however, we heard of an interesting theological model based on the notion of the Garden of Eden as the place where God was abandoned rather than a philosophical question of good and evil was posited. Linking with the concept of Garden in the salvation story at Gethsemane, recognizing connection as the key idea in both Garden scenarios, and making Holy Week the central week of the year of formation to the priesthood, a three-stage model for theological education has been implemented in the Hong Kong Seminary. This includes daily work—academics in the morning, fellowship and prayer over the arch of noonday, and afternoon work of practical formation and field location reflection. “I tell you this because I want you to know how your two Seminarians are being formed,” said the seminary professor, Gareth Jones. Again, this was a broadening comment because the two Seminarians were from the Diocese of Taiwan, and yes, they were “ours” as coming from a Diocese of our Church. It took, however, a momentary stretch of the imagination to get there.

The Primate of Pakistan, Samuel Azariah, invited us to listen only as disciples of Jesus Christ. “Our apostolic role and discipleship should not have geographical or denominational limitations,” he said, “for the purpose of Shalom, hope and reconciliation.”  He called us to move from the self-centeredness which gives rise to economic exploitation, religious piety that can lead to extremism, the environmental crisis, and the exploitation of people’s dignity. He asked us to move to a place where we give thanks when another rejoices, and when one suffers, where we also feel the pain. This was his understanding of the Gospel.

His testimony was from a Church living in a Muslim context, again seeking that balance of discretion and valor. When asked how he managed to love his enemies, he replied that he prefers to talk only about loving his neighbors, which he defined as the recognition, in all humbleness, of the quality of otherness that the neighbors carry in themselves. Increasingly even in our own diocese, he said, we will need to learn how to negotiate with Islam and seminaries should introduce its study to our future clergy and leaders. As disciples, we face trouble but this leads to a greater understanding of God’s faithfulness. “Loving our neighbors is of absolute importance, for it leads to peace and the right of every individual wherever they belong.”  Later he added, “A church without a cross is not a church. You all here have to identify what cross God has for you.”  An example might be seeking to become a person of reconciliation, “even if you get slapped every morning for trying.”

On Monday we will resume the stretching exercise with testimony from the Philippines, Japan and South Korea. In the meantime, we intend to go on organized sight-seeing over the weekend. I hope to take a trip around the island by boat. I say “hope” because a typhoon is heading our way—another new experience, but perhaps one closer to home. On Sunday we are scheduled to scatter around the Diocese for worship at local congregations.

Notes from House of Bishops in Taiwan—19 September 2014

St. John's University

The rhythm of the agenda for this fall House of Bishops is quite different. After a day of ministry site visits, and continued acclimatization to our surroundings, today we stay in the hotel, sit down and begin a series of learnings and conversations with visiting speakers from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Pakistan. We will continue them on Monday as we meet with bishops from Korea, Japan and the Philippines. Each one will deal with the topic of “Theological context and mission challenges.”

Founder of St. John's University

I don’t think I have ever wanted to turn the clock back on my life, but yesterday’s trip to the St John’s University in northern Taipei stirred such a longing. St John’s University was transported from Shanghai after its counterpart was closed in 1952 at the beginning of communist rule. Initially known as St John’s College in Shanghai, founded by one of the most outstanding bishops of our Church—Bishop Joseph Schereschewsky —in 1879, it was reborn in Taipei by the efforts of other Episcopal Bishops, particularly Bishop James Wong in 1965-70—first as an institute for technology, then a college and finally the university (as recently as 2005). It is one of one hundred sixty such institutions of higher learning in the country, which underlines the huge push for education among Taiwan’s population of 23 million. I think it was that eagerness and excitement about the learning experience that registered with me, and made me wish to have encountered such energy for life. 

Advent Church

The students greeted us along the steps as we entered the Advent Church, welcoming us by name from our name tags, and shaking our hands.  A group of them led us in singing and proudly introduced us to their church experience. The chaplain, an Episcopal priest, had been a student at St John’s forty years ago and had prayed before leaving that God would bring him back to serve. As the congregation developed in reaching out to the area, Advent Church became a parish and he is the first rector. He noted that his pastoral care covers members of the parish plus 6,000 students and 240 faculty and staff at the university. He wept as he presented a dream mission center being built around the church building, which still needs assistance to be completed. His tears were about seeing its completion “Now”, as he said, “I am sixty years of age.”

Of course, you don’t go half way around the world and not bump into lovers of Iowans! One of the university President’s staff fondly remembered Ron and Toni Noah and sent her regards together with a photograph just in case their memories needed to be jogged. Others had studied in Iowa or their daughter met her future husband in Iowa when both came from Taiwan to study at different universities. This is a people proud of their education and creative achievements, and pushing forward to do more. With such a huge nation across the straits who considers you a renegade province rather than a sovereign nation, there is a lot of impetus to build up your future prosperity and global reputation. The Episcopal Church in Taiwan has been, and is, a vital part of that and achieved a remarkable rebirthing of a historic institution. Maybe it was that sense of vigor and purpose that caught my attention and stirred my spirit. Of course, all of this was only in the dreaming stage, when I was of that age. There is no rolling back of time. At that age I went off to fight the good fight of faith and human rights in Romania, and found my wife there as we both came on different study programs from our homes three thousand miles apart.  Expanding apostolic imagination is about being able to pray with the world before you. It is a privilege to have faces and places to put into such offerings.    

From House of Bishops in Taiwan—An early perspective from the Bishop, 18 September 2014

My thoughts are divided this morning as we wake to Referendum day in Scotland. Bishop Nigel is grateful for our prayers. News reports reflect on the experience of countries like Czech lands and Slovakia which was once known by most of us as Czechoslovakia. Taiwan itself was once a Japanese colony, and Japan had hopes of incorporating it during the Second World War, but of course it became a refuge for Chiang Kai-shek after the Civil War which saw the rise of communist rule and the rebirth of a small rural region into a modern state. Yesterday we were honored with the presence of the President of the Republic of China [officially, Taiwan is Republic of China], Ma Ying-jeou, who spoke of his government’s five point goal: to become a nation of reconciliation, peace, education, economic vitality and a preserver and promoter of Chinese culture. He noted how the United States of America, from 1950 through to 1965, had been a great source of economic aid, but from that time Taiwan has aimed to transform itself “from being a recipient of compassion to becoming a giver of compassion.” He claimed that often they are the first responders to other nations when natural disasters strike their area, citing the more recent earthquake in Japan and the typhoon in the Philippines. It gave a helpful perspective of the role of the Taiwan Diocese in such global matters. Citizens of Taiwan have sponsored more than 350,000 children in poverty around the world, which, for their size as a nation, is more than one percent of the population and probably the largest per capita supporter of children in poverty.

Bishop David Lei acknowledged the travel weariness of his guests as he welcomed us. I am writing thirteen hours ahead of you all in Iowa, and so when I come to look for emails at 2pm, I forget that you are now all asleep. Bishop Lei also thanked us for being willing to mark their 60^th anniversary as a Diocese by our presence. Sixty years has special significance in Chinese philosophy of time. It is a particularly important cycle in anyone’s life and in the life of a community. He shared how he had made this same trip to thirty of our meetings as Bishop!

The Grand Hotel

So far we have sought to take in our rather sumptuous surroundings in the Grand Hotel (built, I am told, by Madame Chiang Kai-ahek), prayed together at the opening Eucharist, and checked in with our table companions. (Bishops are in table groups between General Conventions. You receive new companions after every General Convention, stay together for three years, and go through General Convention together. After three years of sharing life and ministry, there builds up a level of trust, which assists decision-making conversation at Convention.)

The Grand Hotel

The theme of this time together is “Expanding our Apostolic Imaginations.” Today we visit various ministry field sites. I am going to the Episcopal-founded St John’s University and to the Advent Church where I will also worship on Sunday. Of course, our wonderful companion dioceses are already expanding our apostolic imaginations, and we can be excused for our wonderings to cast themselves further west and north—to our friends in Diocese of Brechin, the people of Scotland, and the rest of the present United Kingdom.

Sermon on the occasion of the ordination to the priesthood of Fred Steinbach—6 July 2014

Isaiah 6: 1-8; Ephesians 4: 1-7, 11-16; John 10: 11-18

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord—high and lifted up. His train filled the Temple.”

Critical times open up to great opportunities. King Uzziah was one of those few Kings of Judah who received a favorable judgment in Scripture. His death was a profound loss. It put the future of the Kingdom at risk and in the balance. Isaiah’s response was an appropriate one—he was found in the Temple. He offered his nation’s future to the One who had chosen them as the People of God. And God did not fail him.

Isaiah saw the Lord. He sensed his own unworthiness—even perhaps his emptiness or the smallness of his prayers and his religious duty. He was not looking, however, for what came next. “Who shall I send?” the Almighty asked. And I believe Isaiah was shocked at what he heard coming out of his mouth in response: “Here am I, Lord. Send me.”

In this short account are all the intricacies of call—circumstances of change and transition; a heightened sense of the Holy presence of God; a realization that God is addressing the situation; the surprising and rash courage to say “yes.”  And then comes the daunting awareness that says, “What have I gotten myself into?” This seems to linger even as God gives us assurance that our lips are clean and our words and actions of service will come from God.

There is, in fact, no priesthood but one—the reconciling ministry of Jesus Christ. This is something we all participate in—as beneficiaries who are made one with God and one another through the Cross of Christ made effective in baptism. It is also something we all proclaim as ambassadors of God’s new nation and people. We also practice it in our relations one with another. As an ordained priest, your very life invites us to bring this reality to mind in our daily lives and interactions. Your call is to gather us at the altar; to preside at the place of our reconciliation which we all celebrate; to claim God’s forgiveness when we fail at all of this; to strengthen and inspire—give direction and vision—to the mission God asks of us and works through us; and above all to be a consistent presence in all of these things. Recognize that to be present as priest is probably your greatest gift—which is why the traveling is so important in this particular arrangement of yoked parishes; and why, perhaps, it is in this constant showing up that you fulfil the duty of the good shepherd more than in any other way.

Fred, you have come to this holy place in the year that our beloved Susanne died. Like Isaiah you had nowhere else to bring your grief. I know that you said: “Here I am Lord” the moment you stepped foot back in Chariton from Wyoming. That has always been clear and for that we give thanks to God. But now you know God’s call was upon you. It came into focus that dreadful Saturday. And how great is its significance today.

So, here we are. I know that you will not be a hireling—taking the easy way out of difficult struggles, or running at the first sign of danger or resistance to the Gospel you preach or the Spirit life you seek to encourage. God touches your lips; God guides your mission. God is the Good Shepherd to whom you have offered your incarnate being. And so to all of you, I say, if Fred is not to be a hireling, don’t behave as someone who has hired a priest! This priest is no hireling; nor are you hirers even if you do compensate his ministry. Employer/employee is not the arrangement; nor is ministry to be done for anyone. We minister together as one.  

The priest, just like a shepherd, nourishes from God’s word and sacraments. That nourishment is not for us to move at ease from cradle to the grave with the assurance of faith. But it is ordained for us to know how we, as Christ’s Body, equipped with the gifts of the Spirit that are uniquely ours, are all called to develop our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ, ready to share in God’s desire to turn our communities from self-centeredness to lives of self-offering.

Jesus said that He had other sheep that did not belong to this fold—this group of disciples and this people of Israel. But how are we to reach them? He reaches them through the engagement of His Body— the Church—in calling others across the globe and the centuries. In that tradition we are now standing. In fact, we all can see the Lord—present in glorious majesty. Our future seems precarious. But God has not given up on us. Once more God asks, “Who can I send?” This time we are all invited to say, “Here I am Lord; send me.” One of us is a priest—the rest of us include teachers and pastors, and prophets and evangelists, and whatever other creative call God may place upon us. It is how the good news of Jesus has been spread down the ages. Only now it is our turn as we respond to the birth of a new ministry which we witness this day.

                                                                                                                                                                                                      Amen

     

Sermon on the occasion of the ordination to the priesthood of Sheryl Hughes-Empke—29 June 2014

1 Samuel 3:1-14; Ephesians 4: 1-7, 11-16; Matthew 9:35-38                               

One doesn’t have to be a genius to work out why the passage from Samuel has importance for Sherri today. With women priests being such a regular part of our life as Church for almost forty years, we might not understand the confusion that might occur within a person who grew up loving God and knowing that they were called from an early age, and yet also aware that in her tradition the priesthood was open only to men. If one thing typifies Sheryl’s call—at least in its phase that I have been privileged to share—it is the lingering sense of, “can this really be happening?”

Samuel did not look for the call. He had to be redirected several times. What he didn’t know was that his mother had set him up. She had a deal with God and God had come to deliver. That in itself is commendable. She prayed for the capacity of childbirth, and then when the gift was given, she offered her firstborn to God’s service. She trusted that he would be one of many.

So for all of us who dare to yield our lives to God, God eventually—and I stress eventually—takes us up on it. For God is eager to share the mission of Divine Love with us all. So pinch yourself, Sherri, this is really happening. And though the journey has probably been exhausting, it is at the starting line that you have arrived. And the invitation to serve is taking on a different hue, and it is to serve for the sake of God’s holy mission and purpose in a new and unexpected capacity. Now note that a call thwarted can easily become a goal to be gained, and even a privilege to assume—almost an entitlement after all your perseverance. That is the danger of such an extended venture.  But it is a call and it has never been your duty to direct the timing. Now, however, is the time to relax—to let go of all hesitation and release yourself into the arms of the Spirit for that which She has in mind.

One thing is sure—the harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few. We have—like Hannah—prayed to the Lord of the Harvest and you have been called forth. Again, note—it is to the Lord of the Harvest that we have prayed. It is possible to say that God does not see Church as we see it. God sees people, and especially people beyond the pews. Especially, God sees the people who live hard lives—new immigrants, the displaced, people whose special needs often lead them to marginalized existences—sometimes because our common life has to slow down or not run quite so smoothly when words or intellectual capacities require different ways of connecting, or more complex and demanding ways of caring. Needless to say, those of us who do not give time or attention never understand the diminished quality of our own lives in their overstressed, hurried pace. But God sees always the potential harvest of Love if we would only pay attention to everyone.

God walks with us all; God searches for lost sheep; God watches over widows and orphans; God waits until the poor have gleaned the fields before He closes the gate. For God the harvest is always full; and the need for servants is always great because God sees where and how people live and has compassion upon them all. And He expects the Church to do the same. So go and join the Harvest as a priest. Gather others as laborers. It is not a job that awaits you but a call, a calling from God. Learn to look for the whitened fields and give your time and energy to work with those who will support your labors, and not impede them. Go where you are wanted, and where the compelling Love of God drives you.

You are part of a new generation of Divine laborers. Every new ordination that is taking place these days is for the refreshing of the Church in mission. There are no more hand-holding pastorates—except where people have no place to go because they are dying, or in prison, or infirm. This is a new day for the Church. God is in the harvesting business and we are invited, urged to join in. And the challenge is to all of us. I would also add that looking around this room and identifying how we have been drawn together in support of our new priest from our different Christian traditions, that it is a new day for the Church to view itself ecumenically. The Harvest call is to people of every tradition, within one humanity, of every nation.

You, as a priest, Sherri, will participate to a point and in a specific role. But the full force of laboring falls on all of us as we are asked to reconnect with God’s call on our lives as agents of service. Some of us are apostles, pastors, others teachers, enablers of ministry, and prophets even. We are all expected to live a life worthy of the calling upon us. God demands it. The world in which we harvest needs it. So do not be afraid to be Church; and don’t be afraid, Sherri, to participate in the leading of us into that endeavor.

This past week, at Ministries Retreat I took on teaching a class on John’s Gospel. I saw the Gospel in a light I had never quite seen before. It was written at a time when the last apostles were dying off, and the young Church was being cast out of the synagogues that for so long had been its root. In that moment the Gospel reminded the followers of Jesus of His promises—of His presence through the Word and as the Word, of His death as the doorway to becoming ever present in the gift of resurrection and the Spirit who brings life. They were now His active presence in the world, and their mission was that the world might believe through their witness and the love they shared with one another.

I believe that we stand at a similar place in Christian history. That Church grew into a full presence—even imperial in many of its ways forward. We stand on the edge of a time when that great witness is closing. It is time to be renewed in the Gospel, to look with fresh eyes at the purposes of God in Christ Jesus in bringing a Kingdom where love and reconciliation reigns. The Spirit is still active and very present, but leading us to new ways and new identities and new priorities—all for as ancient a purpose as “The Kingdom of God is upon you.”

I am excited by the prospects before you. God has not opened you up over your life to so many different avenues of ministry to call you to limited opportunities, but will make all of that diversity and giftedness make sense. You have waited faithfully; today your call is being fulfilled. May God find you worthy and may God find us all worthy both in support, and in our own rights and calls.

                                                                                                                                                                                                      Amen