Loading...The rain was falling in sheets, the wind was fierce, the lightening flashed frequently, and the thunder rumbled loud and long. It was clear that there was no way I was going to be able to take my scheduled flight home. The television monitor in the airport was tuned to the Weather Channel which showed a solid wall of storms between where I was and my then home Kansas City. There was much yellow and red on the radar screen, indicating how intensely impressive the storms were. As my fellow travelers and I watched the TV screen, the monitors displaying arrivals and departures all changed in the blink of an eye. Virtually every flight was now delayed or canceled.
Some 100 of us waiting in the area near our gate heard the ticket agent officially declare that our flight was canceled. We were instructed to form a single line at the desk in order to make alternate plans. Surprisingly, the crowd more or less formed such a single line in rather orderly fashion. People’s spirits were reasonably good, as if we all decided to deal with this adversity in as mature a way as possible. The whole group behaved well, except for one.
A woman older than I, smartly dressed, would have no part of our single line. Talking on her cell phone, pulling a wheeled carry-on bag, she made her way to the ticket counter. Paying absolutely no attention to those in line, she stood before the counter, interrupted the agent who was talking with another passenger and said loudly, “I need to get on another flight, now.”
The agent, experienced in dealing with all sorts and conditions of passengers, smiled kindly and replied, “Ma’am, I am currently helping this passenger. If you would kindly get in line, I will help you after I have helped those in front of you.” She then resumed helping the first person in line.
The smartly dressed woman was unfazed and more determined. Though I was well away from the counter, I heard the disgruntled passenger, in a louder voice still, say, “Excuse me, but I need to change my flight NOW.” And before the agent could speak two words in response, the woman added, “Do you know who I am?”
Now that is one of those phrases that is like fingernails on a chalkboard. The ticket agent’s expression changed almost imperceptibly, but there was a slight enough change of countenance to signal that the gloves were now coming off. The ticket agent stated matter-of-factly that there were fifty or sixty people in line ahead of her and that someone would help her once everyone else had been helped.
The would-be-passenger closed her cell phone, put both hands on the counter and stated that this was unacceptable and a said second time, “Do you know who I am?”
Without missing a beat, the ticket agent took the intercom microphone in hand. We then heard this announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention. I need your assistance. There is a lady at the ticket desk who does not know who she is? Can anyone help her?”
“Do you know who I am?” The Church indeed knows who Jesus is! The Church in the Diocese of Kentucky knows who Jesus is and is serving the world in his name! Our faithful, effective proclamation of the Gospel flows from shared, deep experiences of the Lord, Our Savior, the Christ!
My Sisters and Brothers, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is a joy to be gathered with you in Convention, as we take counsel together for the mission and ministry of the Gospel in this diocese.
The business we shall undertake shortly, the priorities found in the budget, and the many reports submitted from congregations, committees, and commissions all combine to tell some of the story of our diocese in the past year, currently, and looking to the future. There is much to celebrate, much for which to be grateful to Almighty God, and challenges and opportunities that will inform decisions in the near future. I commend the various reports to you because they are rich in information.
Yet, as thorough as the written material is, the countless stories of grace, the various ways that the life of Jesus Christ and his saving work is shared, is best encountered in each other. As I have said each year at convention: when I visit each congregation I am inspired to hear how faithful and creative we are in taking whatever resources God has given us and using them to build Christ’s reign in hearts and lives. Joy is found in the midst of certain journeys that require us to rethink and reshape the structures that form our response to God’s mission. Even the most stable of congregations is always changing and adapting under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
We all know the various jokes that sound something like this:
What are the seven last words of the Church?
We’ve never done it that way before.
Well, from my vantage point that punch line does not ring as true these days. Increasingly we are retooling and rightsizing in order to be more effective evangelists and heralds of the Good News of God in Christ. We are learning again that as we center ourselves more deeply in the Holy Scriptures and in the grace of the Holy Eucharist, we become more creative and more effective servants of Christ responding to God’s mission.
Our convention theme of re-imagining mission here and now requires us to be clear about mission. At times we speak of mission as something I or we do, but the scriptures and testimony of the saints throughout the ages tells us that all mission is at God’s initiative, and we either join in or get pushed out of the way.
The Right Reverend Tom Breidenthal, Bishop of Southern Ohio, writes:
“Mission is something God does, and we are invited or perhaps sucked up into it.
“Mission befalls us, and we either give ourselves over to it or are tossed along uselessly within its flow.
“We can, of course, talk about what mission looks like, and how to be more effective instruments of God’s agenda. If I were to summarize the whole scope of that agenda, as it is revealed in the story of Israel and in the work of Jesus Christ, I would say, with Paul, that God’s mission is the ministry of reconciliation. ‘God reconciled himself to us through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation’ (2 Cor 5:18). On this view, formation as it relates to mission would mean becoming people who have the character of reconcilers, and gaining the skills to carry that ministry out.
“But here again we need to be careful. When Paul talks about the ministry of reconciliation, he is referring specifically to THE reconciliation, that Jesus has brought about between Almighty God and sinful humankind.
“If we translated the Greek literally, we would say we have been given the ministry of the reconciliation. So mission is not primarily about us being reconcilers. We must take in the good news that we have been reconciled to God before we can help others enter more deeply into that reconciliation. We can only do mission if it has been borne in upon us that we are loved whether we deserve it or not, freed by grace for grace.
“God’s mission grabs us first, and we only start serving that mission because we are no longer our own, and find ourselves hurled forward into a new relationship with the neighbor, with whom we want to share the reconciliation that has claimed us.
“Most stories of conversion display some version of this pattern: It hit me that God loved me, and I was immediately on fire to share that love with others. On the one hand, the logic of grace demands that we love others as graciously as God has loved us. On the other, being loved by God can so free us that we are full of desire to do good to others. Thankfulness and good will toward God yield good will toward the neighbor.
“Mission is what we are always thrown into when we least expect it, if it is something God co-opts us for or drafts us into, simply because to be loved by God is to be gathered up by him into his purposes.
“To approach mission as something that happens to us because God has claimed us as God’s own, means to enter the domain of baptism. Baptism is the outward and visible sign of our reconciliation with God in Christ. We practice infant baptism because we believe that this reconciliation is entirely at God’s initiative, so that, even if we are baptized as adults, we understand our decision to be something God has made possible by choosing us beforehand. Baptism is about utter grace.
Bishop Tom continues:
“Mission must be understood as arising out of this moment of grace. So getting clear about baptism will help us get clear about mission, and how we might be formed in relation to it.
“In the New Testament baptism isn’t only about being washed from sin (that’s the grace part); it’s also about new birth, being born again. When Jesus tells Nicodemus he must be born from above or born again, Nicodemus goes with the “again” aspect of the pun and asks whether he must crawl into his mother’s womb and emerge a second time (John 3:1-4). But his unspiritual interpretation of Jesus’ claim actually brings home the force of Jesus’ metaphor for resurrection life. To be reconciled with God is to be expelled out of a place of apparent safety into a world of exposure. Baptism is expulsion -- expulsion out of anything that shields us from our connection with God or our connection with the neighbor.
“There is a deep link between baptism as expulsion and how salvation works in the Bible. The children of Israel are expelled from slavery in Egypt into the wilderness, where they are forged into a people dedicated to God’s purposes. Viewed negatively, the wilderness is a place of danger and potential failure. Viewed positively, it is the place where a new way of relating to God and to the neighbor can be explored. It is there in the wilderness that we must rely on God and our neighbor, for we cannot survive there alone.”
(Quoted and adapted from a paper presented by The Right Rev. Tom Breidenthal, at the September 2013 meeting of the House of Bishops)
Wilderness is the place where a new way of relating to God and to our neighbors can be explored, because as the Holy Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness after his baptism, (“drove” can also be translated “expelled”) so the Holy Spirit drives us regularly into wilderness. Having been expelled from notions of safety and separation from God and neighbor in baptism, we pass through the wilderness, and are propelled into God’s mission.
This is our mission in the Diocese of Kentucky. At our last convention we talked about the priority of building up the reign of Christ, and used the scriptural image of casting our nets at Jesus’ direction in deeper water. The survival of the Episcopal Church is not what baptism calls us to. Cooperating with God’s mission in The Reconciliation wrought by the death and resurrection of Jesus, is our vocation. Yet as we live and serve faithfully, the growing reign of Christ Jesus is clearly expressed in our congregational communities in various ways. A variety of gifts and expressions, but all grounded in The Reconciliation.
At this time in our diocesan life we have a lot of transition going on, especially in parishes in Louisville in terms of ordained leadership, in my work as bishop and that of my staff colleagues, and in several ministries we share, most notably All Saints Center in Leitchfield.
Concerning parishes in transition, I’ve been told by other bishops that such seasons happen in every diocese at least once in a bishop’s tenure. (To each of those bishops I nodded my head “yes” and continued to breathe into a paper sack.) But as each congregation gives thanks for what has been shared in the past, they take stock and focus on what new aspect of God’s mission they are being sucked up into.
One of those congregations is here, Christ Church Cathedral. At present, the presence of a congregation in these buildings is not completely certain as litigation to settle a debt has been filed.
The building on the other side of Diocesan House, the Howard Hardy House, was sold at auction in May to help satisfy a debt owed to the investors in that project, and guaranteed by the Cathedral. While the proceeds of that sale went some distance toward paying down the debt, the investors claim that another $865,000 is still owed. The Cathedral Chapter does not agree that that is the amount owed. Two weeks ago the investors filed suit. Accordingly, the Cathedral Chapter has retained legal counsel to represent the Chapter and help negotiate a settlement with the investors. There is little money available for the Cathedral to pay this debt, and as you know, according to our polity, the Cathedral alone is responsible for the debt, despite the fact that the Bishop Diocesan is president of the Chapter. Our attorney continues to educate the lenders that the Bishop cannot pull money from any diocesan source or from a magic hat or mitre to pay this debt.
There is a worst-case scenario that includes the investors taking possession of all of this property to keep for their use or to sell “at the courthouse steps” as the saying goes. That would mean that this worship space and Diocesan House would no longer belong to the Cathedral congregation. I for one would hate for that to happen, but it is possible, because the Cathedral has nowhere near the money to pay off the alleged $865,000 debt. I ask your prayers for the Chapter, Wardens, Dean-in-the-Interim, me, and our attorney.
Now let me immediately remind us of the truth Sunday school teachers and lay and ordained leaders say repeatedly: the Church is not the building. The Church is the People of God. So while the presence of a congregation in this particular space is not completely certain, the cathedral congregation’s participation in God’s mission is sure and certain and the outcome of litigation will never change that! We trust in God and will use the gifts God has given as the process continues. Once the litigation is concluded the Diocese will be informed. (Here let me remind you that, with due respect, the secular media does not always understand or our polity or terminology, so if a diocesan story is different than a local media report, know that ours will be the one to follow.)
As you know transition also came to the Bishop’s Office this summer. These transitions, funded through the budget approved at last year’s convention, will help the Bishop’s Office support you and your congregation’s response to God’s mission. In July Vicky Kaeser was hired to assist with financial matters. She has visited 4 congregations to help with annual audit issues, assisted with our annual diocesan audit, and has and will continue to support Becky Meyer in numerous ways and share her workload.
On August 1, Erendira Jimenez-Pike was hired as Episcopal campus minister at the University of Louisville. Her charge is two fold: to work with our interfaith partners at the University of Louisville in ministering to all, and creating an Episcopal core community through worship, study, and service. A member of Church of the Advent, Erendira also has an deep interest in Hispanic ministry, and is helping us form clear understandings about what such ministry may look like as well as what approaches must not be used. This convention will be asked to give her seat and voice in our business session.
On September 1, The Rev. Canon Joan Smith began vacation leading to her retirement on October 1. Canon Smith served both Bishop Gulick and me with distinction. A wise soul indeed, the very definition of a non-anxious presence, who supported all of you as well as me. On a personal note, Canon Joan’s skills assisted me greatly in my rookie season and well as in year two and three. As a last gift to us all, Joan helped create a gracious and good leave-taking, which is not always easy to accomplish. She is still a priest of this diocese, and was honored by Trustees and Council with the Diocesan Cross in late August. For now, she is enjoying doing little church related!
On September 1, the Rev. Amy Real Coultas became Canon to the Ordinary. She also assumed the work of Transition Officer as the Rev. Mark Linder said it was time to retire for a third time. Thus, Canon Amy will work with priests discerning a new call, and with congregations who are in transition. Many Sundays she will accompany me on my visitation to assist me in the liturgy, and along with me, engage local parish leadership.
Also on September 1, the Rev. Jason Lewis became Canon for Congregational Vitality. This new position was created in response to the feedback from our congregations to provide local lay and ordained leaders with resources and tools for being more effective participants in God’s mission. Jason has already visited nearly half of our congregations and that rate is both impressive and unsustainable! But your desire to have him talk with your bishop’s committee or vestry, financial stewardship or evangelism committees, is a healthy sign of the strong desire to be engaged in God’s mission.
Funds from the last few diocesan budgets have been used less to meet congregational budget needs and more in providing resources for each congregation to use for proclaiming the Gospel and seeking and serving Christ in all people.
Last year I spoke to convention about the ongoing work of a task force for All Saints Center, our diocesan camp and retreat center. In June that task force provided a final report to Trustees and Council and then ended its work. My thanks to the leadership of Bill Nichol and Canon Joan Smith, and the participation of many of you in the stages of the task force.
Thanks to this task force, a business plan has been implemented at All Saints to address the funds needed for the center, the needs of buildings and property, and adequate staffing.
The first recommendation approved by T&C was the hiring of a Director of Marketing and Business Development. The task force used various resources, including those provided by the Episcopal Camp and Conference Center organization to determine that All Saints in 2012 had an occupancy rate of 7%. That figure includes the number of beds available for a certain number of days annually. We are at 7%. Sustainability is generally placed at 21% or higher. Of the needed increase, we can only expect a third of the increase to come from within the diocese, thus a marketing person needs to attract and sign on additional users. The salary package for this position includes a bonus scale for new business. A number of applications have been received for that position.
A week after the June Trustees and Council meeting, I was notified by Paula and Tim Probus who have overseen operations at All Saints Center that they would be leaving their positions. They served us, our children, and all visitors with generous hospitality and Trustees and Council extended their appreciation through gifts which I was privileged to pass on to them at our October Clergy Day. Many applications have been received for that combined position, and so the All Saints Board is in the process of determining what is the best configuration in the months ahead. Currently All Saints is being overseen on a part time basis by the Rev. Suzanne Barrow, splitting time between St. Andrew’s, Glasgow and All Saints. This is temporary only until early in in the new year.
Bill Nichol, as board president, has given exemplary service to this reality at All Saints. Under his leadership this business plan and new configuration has a real chance of succeeding. And all of us are needed to make this work. From bringing in new business to donating regularly to All Saints, your help is needed. If we cannot reach 21% or better occupancy in the next two to three years, Trustees and Council will face a most agonizing decision. I invite and implore all of you who have a fond place in your heart for All Saints to support it financially. And if you don’t know this wonderful and holy place, come and see. It is your Camp and Retreat Center. With your help, it will survive.
The other message I want us take from this report is that Trustees and Council now has a real handle on the primary issues, and there is a roadmap to be followed. That is great news. We’ve got three years to make this work exceedingly well.
Three other mentions of great news before I close.
- St. Andrew’s, Glasgow is a congregation that has outgrown its current home of two double-wide trailers! In the exhibit hall you can learn more about their exciting project to construct a new worship space with green materials and expand their ministry to the community. Trustees and Council has enthusiastically endorsed this work and you can get in on the ground floor by contributing a financial gift and your prayers.
- Four Sudanese members of Messiah-Trinity congregation in Louisville, including Deacon Daniel Kuol, recently attended a weekend gathering in Kansas City that brought together some representatives of various parishes in the middle of the country that have Sudanese members. This networking was most beneficial, and is expected to grow. Deacon Daniel is one of a few deacons and priests originally form the Sudan ordained in this country in this Church. Our support of his ministry is a priority I believe. At my visitation to Messiah-Trinity in Eastertide, the liturgy blended together two cultures and the Lutheran and Episcopal traditions. Singing Holy Holy Holy in Dinka to drums was fantastic. At my meeting with the parish board comprised of Lutheran and Episcopal members in this joint parish, Sudanese leaders shared their hopes and dreams, including the vision of all members working together as partners. A resounding Amen came from all around that table. Unity in Christ, humility when talking with others, excitement about hearing how God is active in their lives, excitement about a future together, all blessed by the Holy Spirit.
- In September, St. Peter’s, Pewee Valley experienced nearly tripling their membership as Karen and Karenni Episcopalians joined the congregation there. I made my visitation in the middle of the month, and I had a marvelous experience. Joyful worship, high energy and excitement, plans for the future, and the beginning of a partnership between two cultures that warmed my heart. I blessed 40 or more children, and saw a smile on everyone’s face. In the parish hall I was presented with a marvelous noodle and broth dish that had a spice akin to the heat of lava in it, but enjoyed every drop!
A congregation that includes Anglicans from Burma/Myanmar has much to teach me, and perhaps you as well. That Sunday Eucharist was powerful. I recently offered this to one priest, and with sincerity suggest it to anyone: If you are feeling a bit discouraged, or need a spiritual charge, or are looking for something to ignite a spark, you might want to consider visiting St. Peter’s on a Sunday. It did wonders for me!
Beloved, in each congregation of our diocese, there are stories of cooperating with God’s mission. They are stories to share, for they lift and up-build our hearts and courage and determination. And there are more personal stories to share as well. To live out the Baptismal Covenant, to be expelled out into mission, means to tell our story. And that means to state clearly why we engage in mission: which is because Jesus has redeemed us from sin and death and made us citizens of the heavenly kingdom.
The stories of our spiritual predecessors in this diocese include moving proclamations of Jesus’ death and resurrection from a theological perspective as well as from a personal perspective. As the Church we tell the scriptural story, proclaim the creedal faith, and build on the tradition of those who have gone before. AND, we share our story. Like the first apostles, we are witnesses of these things, of the presence of the risen Christ in our own lives. We need to say more about Jesus, one person at a time. Cooperating in God’s mission means most definitely to tell others about the Good News of Jesus in my own life.
So I conclude this address with a bit of my own testimony.
Early in my life Jesus was presented to me as a cosmic being to fear. At a vacation bible school in a church of a denomination I will not name the Lord was presented in such a way, that one night during that week my mother found me on the front steps at twilight, searching the sky. She asked, “What are you doing?” I replied, “I’m looking for the first bright star, so I can make a wish.” Mom asked, “What would be your wish?” I said, “That Jesus loves me enough so that I don’t go to hell.” My mother excused herself to phone the church’s pastor.
Despite that experience, I nevertheless felt a connection to God that grew, and at age 13, after attending a Presbyterian Church with my grandmother, I told my folks that I wanted to be baptized. I was welcomed as a young person into that church. Given things to do, taught about loving my neighbor, and felt both God’s love and the support of a community, though I didn’t have the words to express that at the time.
My journey has brought me in contact with many who have had an unhelpful experience like mine in vacation bible school years ago. They have been made to feel that they are not worthy or deserving of God’s love, or that they must do something first before God can or will love them. Others may not have the words to express what is in their heart or mind, and they do not know what “church jargon” means.
Recently, wearing normal clothes, I got into a conversation with a person where I asked, “What do you think of Jesus?”
Their reply: “I love Jesus! Forgiving, loving. He roots for the poor, gets upset at injustice. I love Jesus! It’s the Church I don’t like anymore.”
I sat quietly. And uncomfortably. After a while my companion asked, “So what do you do for a living?”
I said, “I’m in sales.”
Beloved, the Mission of God beckons us all. Some teach or preach, some are best at serving, some advocate for mercy and peace, some are the most precious caregivers we can know, others use gifts and skills to glorify God which in turn inspires, and a host of other gifts, a variety Paul says.
At the heart of our proclamation is Jesus, who loves who we are completely and unconditionally, and who loves us so much he asks us journey, to change, to serve, to empty ourselves in every sense of that phrase, so that we can be more authentic servants.
Let us rejoice in our call to participate in God’s mission. Let our common life, centered in the nourishment of the Scriptures and in the nourishment of the grace in Christ’s Body and Blood, expel us from false notions of safety, into the vibrant and extravagant mission of God’s love, life, and salvation. Know who you are: sealed by the Holy Spirit, marked as Christ’s own forever.
I thank for you the privilege of serving with you.
