wfn.org | Episcopalians: Barbara Harris urges seminary graduates to be part of the 'remnant of God'

[dmack@episcopalchurch.org]

May 28, 2002

2002-135

Episcopalians: Barbara Harris urges seminary graduates to be 
part of the 'remnant of God'

by Dick Snyder

(ENS) Bishop Barbara Harris of Massachusetts, the first woman to 
be elected a bishop in the worldwide Anglican Communion, urged 
graduates from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific to look 
the future and to become part of the "remnant of God" who will 
"be vessels of God's love, instruments of reconciliation and 
channels of God's grace."

Citing Isaiah, she noted that remnant of God "will be more 
likely on the fringe of the established religions and its 
institutions. In the true prophetic tradition, the remnant will 
be a willing, suffering servant symbolizing not only the 
suffering of humanity, but itself suffering for the sake of 
others."

She added, "The comfortable pew, the safe religion, the 
tradition-bound faith have never been at the cutting edge of 
history, or of spiritual renewal," she added.

Harris suggested that more encouragement be placed on the 
role of futurists, on "those who would search out what the 
future would hold for the people of God" as contrasted to those 
"whose primary desire is for a return to some imagined glory 
days of the past."

Rooted in the future

The bishop told the graduates that "Christian scripture and 
the faith in which it is rooted are about the future, not about 
the past," adding that "biblical promises are more important 
than biblical history." She suggested that growing in faith "is 
predicated on the necessity of change--not change for change's 
sake, which often is whimsical, meaningless and sometimes 
counter-productive," but "an inspired, Holy Spirit-directed 
change in order to create new life and a new future. We either 
control change, or we are controlled by it," she said.

Harris told the graduates that they should be involved in 
renewal in both society and the church, calling it a "central 
question for those about to enter ministry vocation," explaining 
that the church as an institution "now seems more concerned with 
internal peace, internal housekeeping and internal order than 
with trying to reconcile the world of humankind to each other 
and to God."

There may be some institutional churches that have an 
"absence of turmoil but I would suggest they also are marked by 
an increasing retreat from the world's problems and a deafness 
to the ceaseless cries of the poor and the oppressed." Harris 
said that the graduates, however, can "look to the future with 
hope" and "embrace Christ and his Gospel in all their fullness. 
It means embracing and articulating an idealism which carries us 
into a future yet unborn, with hope, and at the same time a 
cynicism born of the memory of past and present failures of our 
dreams." She added, "We've come this far by faith, and we trust 
our God for the next step of the journey." And being part of the 
remnant means committing "to the words of that old spiritual, I 
will go; I shall go, to see what the end will be.'"

Hope and strength

The remnant of God, she concluded, "lives and looks and 
speaks to the future in the minds of those who understand the 
struggle in the hearts of those who have dedicated their lives 
in the hopes of the people for whom it is waged, and in the 
strength of those who will carry it out. Pray to be in that 
number."

Harris was consecrated 13 years ago and has served as 
suffragan bishop of Massachusetts. She has announced that she 
will retire later this year.

She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity from the 
seminary. Honorary degrees were also presented to Ann Stuart 
Lucas of Pacific Palisades, California, an educational 
benefactor; and the Rev. David W. Perry, who recently retired as 
deputy for ecumenical relations for the Episcopal Church.  Perry 
was active in negotiations with the Evangelical Lutheran Church 
in America that led to adoption of Called to Common Mission, the 
full communion agreement between the Episcopal and Lutheran 
Churches.

The May 24 commencement was the 108th at the seminary and 29 
students received their Master of Divinity degree, three Master 
of Arts degrees, three Doctor of Ministry degrees, and four 
Doctor of Philosophy degrees. The Master of Arts and Doctor of 
Philosophy degrees are conferred by the Graduate Theological 
Union in association with CDSP, both located at Berkeley.

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--Dick Snyder is a freelance journalist who is a student at 
CDSP.