wfn.org | Church's actions could have 'cosmic

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July 16, 1997
Episcopal News Service
Jim Solheim, Director
212-922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

ENSGC-01-07/Speakers

Church's actions could have 'cosmic significance' speaker tells bishops

By Genie Carr

PHILADELPHIA (July 16, 1997) - What the Episcopal Church does at this General Convention will have "cosmic significance for peace and for justice," the executive director of the National Council of Churches told the House of Bishops today. Her theme of peace and justice was echoed by other speakers during the afternoon session.
	
Dr. Joan Brown-Campbell, speaking for the 24 ecumenical visitors introduced to the bishops, said, "What you do here is not for you alone. It affects everyone who stands here on this platform and many who do not."
	
In addition to visitors from the Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Lutheran and Reformed Churches, those on the platform included such visitors as Bishop McKinley Young, ecumenical officer of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; His Beatitude, Metropolitan Theodosius, the Orthodox Church in America's Primate of Washington and Metropolitan of All America and Canada; and two representatives of the Swedenborgian Church.
	
Archbishop Robin Eames, primate of the Church of Ireland, brought "greetings" to the House of Bishops. As he had done earlier in his sermon during the opening Eucharist, Eames spoke of divisions in his own land and around the world.
	
"We've had a period of intense trouble and difficulties in Northern Ireland," he said with some understatement; violence has included bombings and other killings. "Our hopes are often dashed by the lack of political progress." Eames said that both "communities" - Irish Nationalists and the Unionists - fear for their futures.
	
Eames said he has always welcomed support from the bishops and clergy of the United States and noted that several U.S. dioceses have links with dioceses in the Church of Ireland.

Beyond internal issues
Even the mayor of Philadelphia, Edward G. Rendell - whose appearance interrupted the bishop's discussion of the resolution to approve the Concordat of Agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America - reminded the church to go beyond "wrestling with your internal issues" and remember the poor in America.
	
He talked about "two pictures of America." One is that of a booming stock market, widespread prosperity, a Congress talking about how to cut taxes, not how to increase them, and the reported drop in the rate of joblessness.
	
But, Rendell said, there is another picture in America, "of people who have never been able to find that recovery" of the good life that others have found. "Both pictures are accurate," he said, "and the gap between them is only going to grow wider."
	
Thousands of people will get off welfare, he said, but many thousands also will not find jobs to replace welfare support and so will have no monetary resources. Even now, he said, "there are 4 million kids whose parents work for a living" but who cannot afford health coverage.
	
"There is unprecedented wealth in this country, and we ought to shift our focus onto people who haven't benefitted from economic recovery," he said.
	
"This church has always stood for social justice," Rendell told the bishops. "Join us (mayors of U.S. cities) in sounding the wake-up call for this country. We are all God's creatures."
	
Earlier, after Brown-Campbell had spoken, she said to Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning that he was "treasured by the ecumenical and interfaith arena." And, asking for a chance on the platform, Bishop Roger White of the Diocese of Milwaukee proposed a "mind of the house" resolution offering thanksgiving for Browning's "intuitive and strong support"  for reestablishing a relationship with the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
	
As a token of appreciation, he presented Browning with an icon from a monastery in Moscow, an image of St. George, the patron saint of Moscow. Browning responded by thanking White for his critical role in nuturing the dialogue. "This blossoming has just been incredible."

--Genie Carr is a freelance writer from Winston-Salem North Carolina