It is customary for the time at the spring House of Bishops to be an opportunity for retreat. The pattern has been early morning meditations, generally of a very personal, though ministry-related, nature from colleagues. Then we follow up with a time for prayerful reflection until gathering again for table sharing. The afternoons are set up for engaging speakers and various topics in-depth around the gathering’s theme. This year’s schedule was not so kind and hence this comprehensive report.
This March the theme has been “Curiosity, Compassion, and Courage.” The concept of being curious was linked with a call to openness—to being curious about your neighbor or the stranger in an affirming and attentive way. “Seeing the blessing of difference,” as was stated in one of the meditations. Compassion flows from such curious engagements and at times, the courage to walk with someone very different from ourselves may be demanded of us; hence the connection within the theme. We opened up our plenary sessions by giving an afternoon and evening to exploring racism. We saw the film Traces of the Trade which I hope we will bring to Iowa soon as we refresh our own inquiry into racism and especially for those of us who often “don’t know what we don’t know.” The meditations dealt with race and culture which also included reflections on Ferguson and its broader implications by Wayne Smith of the Diocese of Missouri; economics and class as particularly viewed through the lens of Native peoples; and the impact of growing up in an interfaith environment. Often, this powerful testimony is allowed to take us into our own silence before God until we are ready to share even in our intimate small groups at tables. But this year, with the shadow of General Convention over us, we quickly moved from reflection to brief sharing to upcoming GC topics.
“TREC, sex and elect” is how one of my table colleagues defined what will consume us at General Convention in Salt Lake City this summer. We certainly spent a whole afternoon on the report from the Task Force on Marriage, and again on The Reimagining of the Episcopal Church (TREC) Blue Book report. “Elect” (of the new Presiding Bishop at General Convention) was more of a constant buzz than a specific subject matter, as it will be until finalists are revealed in May and we gather for the Q&A at General Convention itself. The broader spectrum of things that we will handle at General Convention was the subject matter of the various groupings of bishops who gathered on the penultimate evening according to their specific interests.
It was disappointing, but not a surprise, that the issues raised by the Standing Commission on Social Justice and Public Policy (on which I have served for six years) did not make the scheduling “big time,” though our issues were there around the edges. We squeezed economics and class into the shortest day—Sunday—when, ironically, a number of us (myself included) were heading out to the golf course for what, for some of us, is our annual game of golf. I will never break 50 (over par that is) on that kind of frequency.
We hope however that the question of wealth disparity, food security, developing relational-based approaches to social justice and poverty alleviation (including Just Faith) and budgetary priority spending are all things that will get good attention in Salt Lake City. The Bishops United Against Gun Violence, of which I am a member along with more than sixty others, are planning to take their initiative for safer and more sensible gun laws to the streets on June 28th, and planning for that moved forward this week. Incidentally, my own spare time was taken up in seeking to respond to raised concerns about the passing through the Iowa legislature of a new omnibus gun law that is a step back from safer or more sensible gun legislation. I was grateful to have a partner on this with Bishop Trimble of the Iowa United Methodist Church as we sent a letter to every Iowa senator while they can still amend the bill.
For this General Convention I am a member of the legislative committee receiving resolutions about our Church’s policy on Peace and International Affairs. Invariably this focuses on the Palestine-Israel situation and will also involve questions of our Church’s position with regard to “robotic and Cyber warfare.” There are calls for a stated position on gender violence across the globe, and we expect resolutions on global aspects of human trafficking as well as terrorism. These are particularly important to our relationships with our companion diocese, and I especially think of the Diocese of Swaziland where gender equality and resistance against gender violence is one of their major strategic goals as a Church in mission.
We were invited to name three things that we see in the possibilities for Church reimagining from the report being considered at General Convention. My three were: collaboration, neighborhood, and adaptation. We are being called to work together in following Jesus into our neighborhood and to be willing to adapt ourselves to meet the needs we find there as we seek to offer God’s good news.
Our time together was greatly helped by an introductory session led by The Rev. Dr. Eric Law of The Kaleidescope Institute who brought his teaching on “Grace Margin” and “Cycle of Blessing” or “Holy Currencies” to us. I believe that Eric is an inspired prophetic mission facilitator for our time. He just makes sense as he explains how we are invited by God into cycles of blessing. It sounds like jargon, but it works when you see living examples.
For example, Eric described six currencies that we all have at our disposal—mediums of exchange which carry value such as gracious leadership, time and place, money, wellness, truth, and relationship. In Ferguson, he noted that gracious leadership, truth, wellness, and relationship were lacking. However, The Salvation Army brought its currency of time and place (its camp site) and money into the situation and invited law enforcement and community young adults to come together for a week. In other words, through the gracious leadership of The Salvation Army, and the gracious leadership of those willing to come to the camp, they developed relationships out of which could come truth-telling and wellness. The immediate end product was to have youth and police walk down the street together. This was an alternative reimagining, and it is an example of the Church in mission in Ferguson.
We cannot tell what following Jesus into the neighborhood and “carrying light” will mean for us. And yet it is encouraging to hear even while at Kanuga of the kinds of open conversations you are having around the Chapter meetings and the plans for the 2016 diocesan budget. You are endeavoring to write your own Indaba questions when what is presented might not capture your imagination. You are also writing your own future with God. And that is a great gift. The Holy Spirit is at work among us and in us and I am excited about what your engagement in God’s mission, even at this conversation and early networking level, will produce. As we speak to one another, there is a keen listening going on for the Voice beyond our voices. I suppose that, too, is a good way to describe our constant hope for any House of Bishops meeting.
Below are links to daily accounts of the House of Bishops meetings from The Episcopal Church Public Affairs Office.
