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Episcopal News Service

Presentation to General Convention
The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold
July 29, 2003

My dear brothers and sisters: we have long anticipated this moment, this
privileged time during which we will seek, as best we can - knowing we
are fallible and finite human beings - to discern God's desire for this
curious yet wonderful household we call the Episcopal Church.  We come
from various dioceses, and congregations within those dioceses - each
with their own particular culture and point of view.  And we need one
another. We need the gift of one another's perspective, one another's
way of articulating the Gospel and seeking to be faithful, because
Christ is present among us all, and each of us holds within the love of
God's calling to us, some aspect of God's truth that is seeking to be
enlarged in communion with others. What a solemn and hopeful moment this
is: full of possibility.

The first General Convention I attended was in this very city in 1976. I
was a new deputy from the Diocese of Pennsylvania. Quite frankly, it was
a profoundly disorienting experience. I had never been with so many
Episcopalians in one place possessed of so many points of view.
Furthermore, I was made a sergeant-at-arms and told that my function was
to discipline unruly members of the assembly. One evening the members of
the Pennsylvania deputation presented me with a football helmet and a
toilet plunger, thinking that these particular items might be useful in
some way as I performed my duties.

More seriously, I remember a deputy from the Diocese of Dallas: Ralph
Spence, Sr. who had come, by his own admission, to vote against the
adoption of the new Prayer Book. You can imagine my surprise when, in
the course of the Convention, he stood up as a member of the Prayer Book
and Liturgy Committee and urged us to adopt the very book he had come to
defeat.  This was for me a cautionary tale. Many of us arrive at General
Convention with fully formed opinions and a clear sense of what we think
ought to happen. And yet, as we listen to one another, as our rough
edges are knocked off by one another, as we participate in various
debates, and committee meetings and random conversations, something
larger than our own perspective overtakes us. Possibly it is the larger
vision of the Spirit. And our attitude and perspectives, and indeed our
firmly held notions of what should happen, are enlarged.

After Mr. Spence had delivered his speech he added that he didn't know
what he was going to tell his wife about this change of heart when he
got home. John Coburn, the then president of the House of Deputies,
leaned into the microphone and, in his wonderfully wry and gentle way,
said: "Do give our regards to Mrs. Spence," at which point the deputies
burst into laughter, including Mr. Spence. I have heard since from John
Coburn that Mrs. Spence loved that story.

So this is just one example of how important it is for us to hold
ourselves open to what God may be up to. Perhaps the most important
thing we can do is to lay down some of our certitude in favor of the
ever-unfolding truth of God, which comes to us from the Spirit of truth,
who is always guiding us more deeply into the mystery of Christ and
God's strange and unpredictable ways.

Let us not overlook the fact that the life of this Convention is rooted
and grounded in daily encounter with the risen Christ in word and
sacrament. And let us also be mindful of the fact that we are being
upheld in prayer by brothers and sisters who are across this land, and
in other parts of our Communion, and very likely also by many saints in
heaven and on earth.

As we come together we bring with us a number of emotions.  We bring
with us hope and possibility, and also anxiety. What some among us see
as the discovery of God's larger purposes, others see as threats to the
integrity of the Gospel.  It is therefore extremely important, no matter
what our point of view may be, that we receive one another and the
perspectives we bring with profound respect, recognizing that each of
us, whether we like it or not, through baptism is a much loved member
and limb of Christ's risen body.  None of us - to echo the words of St.
Paul - can say to another "I have no need of you."  This is perhaps the
greatest challenge before us, and perhaps our greatest opportunity to
receive the unimaginable gifts of God's love for us through each other.

The focus of this Convention is engaging God's mission.  And what is
God's mission? Our Prayer Book makes it quite clear that the mission of
the church, which is, of course, God's mission, is to restore all people
to unity with God and each other in Christ.  This work of reconciliation
embraces all things and involves us personally, as congregations,
dioceses, a national church and a worldwide Communion, and also focuses
us on the world.  The Son of God came among us not to save the church
but the world. Therefore reconciliation, the mission of the church,
God's work, is global in scope and embraces the whole creation.  Here I
am put in mind of Jesus' words in the Gospel of John: and I when I am
lifted up from the earth will draw all to myself.

As we come together, it is important that we ask ourselves this
question: what is our particular charism as Anglican Christians at this
moment in history?  We might begin by looking at how we find ourselves
right now. In other words, what sort of church is gathering?  Looking at
these questions might give some indication of the shape, and spirit and
potential fruit of these next ten days.  I have been the Presiding
Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church for nearly six years now, and
I want to tell you briefly something of what I have learned about who we
are together as limbs and members of Christ's risen body.

Everywhere I go I have seen what I like to call graced confidence: the
people of our church are focused on mission. Amazing things are
happening in the name of Christ all around our church. And, more and
more we are reaching out to share our tradition, the truth as in Jesus,
the story of how God is acting in our lives. The 20/20 movement serves
us well in naming the mission energies all around the church, and in so
doing I believe greater energies are being released and we are further
empowered to reach out to a world crying out for repair.  Episcopalians
are actively engaged in matters of public policy and social justice. We
are committed to overcoming the sin of racism within ourselves, within
our church, and within our society.  We have also been on the forefront
of work on debt relief, on HIV/AIDS, environmental stewardship, ethical
decision making around matters of life and death, and peace making in
many of the troubled places around our world. Simply taking note of the
matters that will be before us over these next ten days gives us an
incredible indication of the breadth, and the depth, of our concerns as
a church.

And of course, not everyone has the same passions.  That is the wonder
of it; we each have our own unique call and particular gifts, and during
this time we can inform and inspire one another for the engaging of
God's project.

It is also my sense that we want to do more. I am very gratified and
inspired by the stewardship of our dioceses and congregations in support
of the mission opportunities that surround them.  I might say here that,
at the same time, I am concerned that there is no national effort at
fund raising to enhance the work of dioceses and congregations.
Further, we make very little effort to cultivate the large gifts that
are never received at local levels.  It is my sense that a national
church has a particular responsibility for this kind of endeavor.

By the time I leave office in 2006, I believe we must be able better to
support the mission we share by having in place an ongoing, long term,
development effort functioning at the national level. This kind of
effort needs to be part of the consciousness of the church, last into
the future, and help provide for the future.

In this triennium, the Executive Council determined the wisdom of
beginning to look at a plan or process for mission funding.  I will ask
the new Executive Council to enter a discussion about how we might best
explore the establishment of an ongoing national development effort we
now lack.  As well, I am personally going to test whether there are
donors who stand ready to support the national mission of our church.

We receive an important part of our identity by being members of the
worldwide Anglican Communion.  I have traveled to other parts of the
Communion and have come to know our Anglican partners in their own
contexts with all the overwhelming issues of life and death with which
they live day by day.  This has made me value evermore the fact that we
are not a church unto ourselves but part of a worldwide fellowship
called to bear one another's burdens and, in the words of St. Paul, so
fulfill the law the Christ.  With this in mind we are particularly
blessed by the presence of our guests from various parts of our
Communion who are here with us at this Convention.  A very warm welcome
to you all.

Professor David Ford of Cambridge University has provided theological
reflections for the past several meetings of the primates of the
Anglican Communion. During one of our gatherings he said that we are in
the process of becoming a communion.  I see more and more that communion
is not a human construction but a gift from God which involves not only
our relationships to one another on earth, but our being drawn by the
Holy Spirit into the eternal life of communion which belongs to the Holy
Trinity. We are discovering in fits and starts what it means to live in
communion, and our communion is always impaired, because of our limited
understanding of God's ways and because of our human sinfulness.
However, we have been baptized into one body and maintaining communion
is therefore a sacred obligation.  In practicing the communion Christ
has prepared for us, we are opened ever anew to receive the endless
mercy and holiness of the Trinity.  I say this knowing very well indeed
that living in communion is not always easy and requires of us all a
deep desire to understand the different ways in which we seek to be
faithful to the Gospel.  Declarations of being "in" or "out" of
communion may assuage our own fears, or our angers, but they do not
reflect the gospel.  They do not show our broken and needy world that at
the heart of the gospel there is a reconciling love that seeks to
embrace our passionately held opinions and transcend them all.	Christ,
writes St. Paul, died for all, so that those who live might live no
longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.

So, this is some of my sense of who we are and who we are called to be
as we engage God's mission and open ourselves to further ways of
articulating the good news of God in Christ.

At this particular moment, it might be also be instructive to remember
that we are inheritors of a theological tradition born out of conflict.
The 16th century was a difficult time in which opposing theological
points of view warred with one another. On the one hand there were the
values of the Catholic tradition, and on the other the passions of
zealous reformers. Each group was sure that the truth was theirs.
However, in the context of common prayer, and a joint yielding to the
yoke of Christ mediated by word and sacrament, these opposing  points of
view found the place of their reconciliation, and gave birth to the
Anglican tradition.  This was not because either won over the other, but
because God graced them to step beyond their positions and recognize one
another as brothers and sisters in the breaking of the bread. The genius
of Anglicanism was to contain divergent and passionately held points of
view. This capacity to contain difference within a context of common
prayer is who we as Anglicans are called to be.  And this is the charism
we bring to this present moment.

These Anglican sensibilities are particularly needed in a world
dominated by notions of winning or losing, yes or no, either/or.
Unfortunately we are not immune to the ways of the world, and the
thinking that so dominates our culture spills over into our community of
faith.	 And yet, I deeply believe that having the mind of Christ means
we are able to see reality not as either/or but as both/and.  Both/and
thinking is reflected in Christian orthodoxy at its best.  Here I think
of the classical doctrine of the nature of Christ established in the
fifth century when heresies which held that Christ was either human or
divine were overruled by a church council that chose the route of
both/and, declaring Christ to be both fully human and fully divine.
The logic of the heretics was overruled by the paradox of orthodoxy.

Of course, practically speaking: we will say yes or no on many matters
over these next days. Some of them have the potential to be very
divisive. Predictably, the topic of homosexuality has received the most
media attention prior to our coming together, and has also been a focus
of some of our internal life. I am very aware that there is a great deal
of energy on the part of those with various views of the question.
Some perceive this as an absolutely decisive moment, and the time for
resolving all of the pertinent issues about homosexuality in the life of
the church. Here I think it is important that we remind ourselves that
the church is always, in some sense, becoming the church, and is
continuing to grow toward maturity in Christ.  Therefore, anything we do
or decide is partial and incomplete, though we hope and pray that it
reflects something of the truth into which the Holy Spirit is always
seeking to guide us.  My prayer is that this Convention will be part of
a continuing process of discovery and growth.

I note here that the Theology Committee of the House of Bishops produced
a report called The Gift of Sexuality: A Theological Perspective. The
report was offered to the church by the bishops for study and
reflection.  It does not seek to provide an answer to the question of
homosexuality in the life of the church.  Rather, it seeks to describe
how the church behaves as the church in the face of deeply held contrary
points of view, both of which perceive themselves as reflecting the mind
of Christ.

It is my own conviction that different points of view can be held in
tension within the church without issues of sexuality becoming church
dividing. Others may disagree but this is my firmly held point of view.
This is also the view of the House of Bishops Theology Committee and of
the International Anglican Conversation on Human Sexuality that I
convened following the Lambeth Conference of 1998 at the request of the
Archbishop of Canterbury.  This international group included twelve
bishops and primates who represented a broad range of views and met over
a three-year period.  Their conclusion was that if matters of
homosexuality were to divide the Communion, it would be, to quote from
the report, "the ultimate sexualization of the Church, making sexuality
more powerful, or more claiming of our attention, than God."

We have heard people on both sides of a number of contentious questions
say that their particular view is in accordance with Scripture, whereas
the opposing view is not.  There is no such thing as a neutral reading
of Scripture.  While we all accept the authority of Scripture, we
interpret various passages in different ways.  It is extremely
dishonoring of the faith of another to dismiss them as not taking the
Bible seriously. Let us be clear that we can all agree that, in the
words of the ordination oath, "we believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old
and New Testaments to be the Word of God and to contain all things
necessary to salvation."

In addition, I think it is terribly important that we keep our
perspective large and focused on God's mission for the whole church.  It
is easy for one or two issues so to dominate the horizon that other
aspects of what it means to be the people of God, living the rigors of
the Gospel, are overshadowed or lost.  Whenever we find our hearts and
minds profoundly dominated by some thought, it is often helpful to pause
and test the spirits, as St. John recommends.  In this age of instant
communication, and superficial analysis that sometimes accompanies it,
the possibility of the whole landscape being taken over by what most
tugs at emotions is even greater.  It is up to us all to make sure that
this does not happen.  Be aware: we have that choice. We have that
freedom.  And I believe we have that responsibility.

As I said at the outset, we have been provided with a solemn and hopeful
moment, full of possibility.  Paul describes the church in Corinth as
"God's field," a field ripe with potentiality and the possibility of
fruitfulness.  In a profound sense this General Convention is God's
field in which God not only sows but seeks to produce a rich harvest.

I want to say a word here about the ministry I exercise as your
Presiding Bishop and Primate, and particularly as your Chief Pastor.
Mine is a ministry of encouragement in which I call us all, including
myself, to step beyond our deeply held perspectives and fears and to
risk a genuine encounter with Christ in the other, in the full force of
their otherness and contrary perspectives.

I also see myself as being a minister of connection and communion. I
believe we are called to bring all voices together in one conversation,
acknowledging the fact that truth is discovered in communion, in
community, and none of us possesses the fullness of Christ's truth. We
need one another to enlarge, and in some instances challenge, one
another's more limited and often self-serving notions of the truth.

I have my own points of view, to be sure, and some have been
disappointed that I have not expressed them more forthrightly. I,
however, have felt that I am called to be the servant of the community
as it struggles to discern evermore deeply the truth as it is in Christ.
Though I pray that I might be given the mind of Christ, I am profoundly
aware that, along with the apostle Paul, now I see in a mirror dimly.
Now I know only in part. That in the face of this unknowing I must cling
to the fact that faith, hope and love abide, these three, and the
greatest of these is love.  My deepest desire is to be in some small way
a minister of the divine agape which can overrule all our disagreements,
all our sinfulness, and make us one in the profound charity which is the
inner life of God the holy Trinity.

During these past months a prayer has crossed my path from several
sources, which made me feel that the prayer was meant to become my own.
It is the prayer of Philaret, a Russian bishop of Moscow in the 19th
Century, and I pray it now with you at the beginning of this Convention.

Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace.
Help me in all things to rely on your holy will.
In every hour of the day reveal your will to me.
Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of
soul, and with firm conviction that your will governs everything.
In all my deeds and words guide my thoughts and feelings.
In unforeseen events let me not forget that all are sent by you.
Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without embittering and embarrassing
others.
Give me the strength to bear the fatigue of the coming day with all that
it shall bring.
Direct my will.  Teach me to pray. Pray yourself in me.

May God indeed guide us in the days ahead, and may we be given the grace
to act firmly and wisely without embittering and embarrassing others.
And in every hour of the day, and in every decision we are called to
make, may God in Christ through the agency of the Holy Spirit reveal
God's deepest desire and give us the courage and strength to live it for
the sake of the world. May we also emerge from our time together
strengthened in our own faith, renewed by the power of God's reconciling
love, and changed in ways that at this point can hardly be imagined.
May God's love ever more deeply convert us. May Christ ever more fully
engage us in the ongoing work of reconciliation. And may God the Holy
Spirit ever more completely pray within us the joyful unity of Christ's
risen life.

Thank you.