wfn.org | Opening remarks to the House of Bis

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August 6, 1997
Episcopal News Service
Jim Solheim, Director
212-922-5385
ens@ecunet.org

97-1919
Opening remarks to the House of Bishops at General Convention
The Most Rev. Edmond L. Browning
July 16, 1997

     Good morning. This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice
and be glad in it. I think our 72nd General Convention is well begun
with that splendid service. I am grateful, as I know you are as well, to
Archbishop Eames for his message to us. I have enormous respect for
Robin and look forward to introducing him to the House so we can hear
from him and greet him in these next days.
     And now, we begin, together. Let us remember that we walk in
the sight of the Lord and we talk in the hearing of the Lord. 
     When the Executive Council and I report to the General
Convention on Friday, I am going to say what a privilege it has been to
serve as the 24th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. It has been
that indeed. Now, as we begin this session, I would like to share a few
other things with you, my sister and brother bishops, who have been so
very important to my life and ministry. They are personal reflections, but
I share them in trust that they might resonate with you, 
     When I was elected in Anaheim in September of 1985 I had only
the sketchiest ideas of what would happen next. I had no idea what my
soul, and heart, and mind, to say nothing of this aging body, would
experience. I had no idea what it would mean to Patti and our children.
However, there is something I did know then that I am almost
embarrassed to tell you. In some way, that can only have been God~s
grace abounding, after the election, I knew that I had been called to the
Office of Presiding Bishop. I certainly didn't know it before that. My
ego needs had been satisfied by being nominated. I will share with you
that I voted for someone else and I expected that he would be my
Presiding Bishop.
     Well, that was not to be. I was elected and in the next very brief
time after that election I understood that I had been called to this Office.
Perhaps that sounds arrogant. It was actually an experience of
mortification. And, my knowledge of being so called says little about me
and a great deal about vocation. I have come to know that as we carry
out our ministries~some times with great joy and sometimes with a
sense of slogging through the trenches~in either instance, the belief that
we are cooperating with the divine plan, rather than simply fulfilling our
own ego desires, is essential. 
     There is another side to that coin. And this is a cautionary word.
Believing that you are cooperating with the divine plan can give you a
sense of hubris. It can make you too attentive to the seductive suggestion
that you have the answer, only you. There is a real danger that you can
become quite puffed up and presumptuous. There are few things more
detrimental to our own behavior than believing that we are the faithful
remnant. It is a danger to believe that the fate of the world, or the
church, or our dioceses, hangs on us. When we believe this we can
wander about the landscape getting ourselves, and others, into a great
deal of mischief. When we believe this we fall into the danger of
pandering to the worst instincts and unconscious fears of those we should
instead embolden and challenge.
     So, there is the tension. You need to feel clear about your call.
You need to be able to get up in the morning and believe in yourself and
the worth of your efforts in the world, that your plans and your prospects
are worth something. At the same time, you need to avoid taking on the
mantle of the last, best hope. 
     What are we to do then? What does this tension have to teach us,
when we look at it in the light of scripture, when we look at it in the
light of the message of Jesus? I have one answer. Community.
Community is the answer. It is in community that we get the strength and
the energy and the affirmation to believe in ourselves and press on, even
in times of difficulty. Community. It is also in community that our
inflations are deflated, our pomposities are held in check, our grand
visions of our selves as saviours are corrected. Community. 
     And, my sisters and brothers, that is what we give to each other
in this House, in this church, in this ministry. Community. 
     Community is not simply sweetness and light, and goes far
beyond cordial relationships and good manners, though these are the least
we might expect from one another. Community means rubbing up
against, being honed by, being changed by not only those for whom we
have a natural affinity, but also by those for whom our feelings are less
than comfortable. Those with whom we disagree. Those to whom we
bear some oh-so-righteous anger. They are the ones we need. They are
the ones God particularly has sent to us. They are our gifts, difficult
gifts, our angels.
     Well, I think each of us in this House has some particular angels.
Pray God we will be attentive to them. I pray that we will respect and
live in and learn from our community, this blessed community. 
     I love this House. I love this community. I believe that each of
you individually is a gift from God, together you, we, have the potential
to live in such a way that our life, our actions, our response to God~s
call, is a witness to the church and to the world.
     I would like us to sit in silence for just a moment. Let us each
offer to God this personal tension: the need we each have to believe in
ourselves and love ourselves, and our need to know that God is still
working on us. Let us ask God to bind us in community such that our
love for one another makes us into our best selves, the bishops God
wants us to become.
     I am enormously thankful for the chance to take this walk with
each of you, as individuals, and with all of you, collectively. It has been
a privilege to serve you, and the church, and I will continue to thank
God for this privilege as I exercise my ministry through these next
months.