wfn.org | Bishops reflect on ministry through lens of mission

[ENS@ecunet.org]

2001-65

Bishops reflect on ministry through lens of mission

by Ed Stannard and Jan Nunley
estannard@episcopalchurch.org
jnunley@episcopalchurch.org

     (Episcopal Life/ENS) The House of Bishops' spring meeting was a time to 
focus on mission and to grow closer to each other through intimate, sometimes 
challenging conversation.

     That was the picture painted by about 15 of the bishops on March 14 at the 
close of the six-day, retreat-style meeting, held at Kanuga Conference Center in 
North Carolina. It immediately followed the meeting of the Anglican Communion's 
primates, held at the same location. Two of the primates, as well as Archbishop 
of Canterbury George L. Carey, took part in the meeting.

     The 140 bishops who attended issued a pastoral letter, to be read in all 
congregations April 1, in which they said they had "become mindful of how God has 
been leading us into deeper communion as your bishops and into a renewed 
awareness of our call to mission."

     The bishops said they felt a deeper unity than ever before, but added that 
"our unity does not mean we are in agreement about all of the difficult and 
complex questions before us. It means we have claimed our oneness in Christ." 

     The letter also alluded to the Primates' Meeting and its letter 
(http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens/2001-58.html). "The Primates have also called 
upon us to provide pastoral care for all in our communion, as we grow in Christ's 
wisdom. We mean to respond faithfully to that call," the pastoral letter said.

     Among those addressing the bishops was Ronald Heifetz, author of Leadership 
Without Easy Answers, who also attended the bishops' spring 2000 meeting. The 
bishops said in their letter that Heifetz "challenged us to help create an 
environment in our dioceses open to a variety of convictions so that faithful 
ministry and creative interaction can be sustained within a richness of diverse 
perspectives." They also were joined by two new chaplains, the Rev. Michael 
Battle of Duke University, Durham, N.C., and the Rev. Mark McIntosh of Loyola 
University, Chicago.

     "We reflected on not just mission in an external sense...but what does 
mission mean in an interior sense," said Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold.

Carey's challenge

     During a question-and-answer session with the bishops, Carey was asked about 
the primates' intentions in their pastoral letter, which spoke of providing 
pastoral care to those dealing with changes in the church. Ironically, "it is the 
conservative dioceses that are in our base that's being eroded" by breakaway 
clergy and congregations joining the newly-formed Anglican Mission in America 
(AMiA), not liberal dioceses, said Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh.

     Carey quoted theologian Nicholas Sagovsky: "Implicit in the notion of 
politics is the recognition of conflict as integral in the life of community."

     "It's not the presence of conflict that's unhealthy for communal life, but 
the premature suppression of conflict in the interest of an inauthentic unity," 
he commented. "The church is not immune from this. On the contrary, where 
Christians have a proper depth of conviction, it is inevitable that those 
convictions will clash."

     "This week in the Primates' Meeting we faced up to that conflict and the 
dilemma of our brothers and sisters in other parts of the communion," Carey went 
on. Referring to the particular situation concerning changing sexual mores in the 
United States, he said, "From the viewpoint of a number of the Primates, it does 
look as if ECUSA is out of step with the rest of the Communion on sexual ethics, 
and this point was caught, in the phrase, as I remember it put, 'the new sexual 
ethics' of the United States. 

     "Part of the conflict and the pain we have to bear is to bring that out into 
the open. To face it, not run away from it, not recoil from the pain of 
leadership--and the pain of leadership means you can't please everybody," Carey 
told the bishops. "What the primates' letter is actually saying is--it is not 
saying the debate is over. What it is saying, actually, is 'the debate is 
beginning, but in a new form'."

     It was clear from what Carey said that he has not altered his position on 
the AMiA, whose bishops, Charles Murphy and John Rodgers, were consecrated by 
primates from Rwanda and Southeast Asia. "I am opposed to AMiA, but find room for 
AAC [American Anglican Council], because at least AAC is within the Body," he 
said.

     "AMiA is schismatic, and that is why I cannot recognize the orders of those 
bishops, because it has taken the conflict out," explained Carey. "It is actually 
saying that there is no hope, and we, surely, approaching Easter-we are people, 
most of all, who ought to believe in the possibility of new starts, fresh 
starts."

Impressions of Carey

     In an interview after the meeting, Griswold said that Carey, who was present 
for the first two days, "challenged us as a church to be mindful that what we do 
has ramifications in other places." "And what others do has an effect on us" as 
well, added Bishop Wendell Gibbs of the Diocese of Michigan.

     "I heard a strong challenge to remain in communion, not to run away," said 
Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the newest member of the House of Bishops, who 
was consecrated bishop of the Diocese of Nevada on February 24.

     Both primates invited by Griswold to attend the meeting said they came away 
with a positive impression of the Episcopal Church, in contrast to the impression 
they'd had from the Internet.

Archbishop James Simon Ayong of the Church of Papua New Guinea said his 
participation "gives me a clear picture of the unity that exists" in the 
Episcopal Church. Before he arrived, Ayong said, "My picture of ECUSA, the 
Anglican church in the U.S., is of a group that is packing up and leaving the 
rest of the family." Now, he said, he could see that "the Episcopal Church in the 
U.S. is just the same as any Anglican church across the communion." As for 
ECUSA's differences with other provinces on human sexuality issues, he said, they 
are "a matter of pastoral care within ECUSA."

     As he spoke to the gathered American bishops, Archbishop Bernard Amos 
Malango of the Church of Central Africa said, he called on them to stand and 
greet one another with the words, "I love you, because in your face I see Jesus."

     Malango said he was "enriched spiritually" by the House of Bishops meeting 
and impressed that the American bishops "don't just talk business." In fact, he 
said he would like to bring the retreat-style model to his own bishops, along 
with the idea of including spouses at meetings. The Episcopal bishops' spouses 
held their own meeting at Camp Allen in Texas.

"Do it through mission"

     Bishop James Kelsey of the Diocese of Northern Michigan linked the focus on 
mission to the General Convention resolution to double church membership by 2020. 
"I think it was helpful to reflect on that...an affirmation that growth for 
growth's sake is not where it's at." Instead, he said, we "do it through 
mission."

     The bishops divided into six groups, focusing on different areas of mission: 
mission to Episcopalians, to estranged Episcopalians, to lapsed Christians, to 
those of other faiths, to those of no faith, and mission in the context of social 
justice. One of the case studies forced the bishops to confront the question: 
"What is the truth we're hiding from in the battles we choose to fight?"

     Bishop Geralyn Wolf of the Diocese of Rhode Island was in the group 
discussing those who feel estranged from the church. "We came to no conclusions," 
she said, "but we honored the fact that there are people who are there, some with 
us, some not, but they're part of us."

     Bishop Suffragan Robert Hibbs of the Diocese of Northwest Texas talked about 
embracing "the other in the other's own reality. It's my sense that every side of 
our divisions is well served to make that transitus." He said he hoped each side 
can "hang on to each other long enough to do it."

     Bishop Duncan Gray III of the Diocese of Mississippi said the discussions 
helped him feel support in the "serious listening" he is undertaking with 
disaffected members of his diocese.

     Though several bishops said they created no strategic plans during the 
retreat, Bishop David Bane of the Diocese of Southern Virginia said the bishops 
did not avoid the serious issues. "This house is not dodging anything, but we're 
taking them on in a more theological way," he said.

Lifted spirits

     The bishops also had their light-hearted moments. Bishop Suffragan Barbara 
Harris of the Diocese of Massachusetts led them in song from the piano one 
evening, including reminiscences about her family. "It came so out of her soul to 
teach us how to sing," said Wolf. "We were seeing a legend here."

     Wolf and Bishop Suffragan Catherine Roskam of the Diocese of New York also 
said the bishops have formed their own choir and plan to cut a CD at their fall meeting. 
Sales of the disk will benefit Episcopal Relief and Development. 

--Ed Stannard is senior news editor for Episcopal Life. The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy 
director of the Episcopal Church's Office of News and Information.