Episcopal Press and News
Executive Council learns of mission, ministry in Rio Grande, Province VII
Episcopal News Service. June 15, 2008 [061508-01]
Neva Rae Fox, Program Officer for Public Affairs, Mary Frances Schjonberg
The Diocese of the Rio Grande is turning what one member called a "potential disaster" into a "potentially healthy situation."
That was the message members of the Episcopal Church's Executive Council heard during a dinner gathering June 14 with representatives of the diocese and Province VII. The dinner closed the second day of Council's three-day meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the seat of the Rio Grande diocese.
Members of the Diocese of the Rio Grande described for the Council the work of healing and reconciliation that they have been doing since September 2007 when diocesan Bishop Jeffrey Steenson announced that he was leaving the Episcopal Church to become a Roman Catholic. (The Rt. Rev. William C. Frey, retired bishop of the Diocese of Colorado, is serving Rio Grande as assisting bishop.)
The Rev. Canon Dr. Colin Kelly, president of the Standing Committee, said that "what was potentially a disastrous situation has become a potentially healthy situation."
In addition, the Rev. Michael McEwen, interim provincial coordinator, told the dinner that all of Province VII is "a place of real vitality" where nearly 265,000 Episcopalians in more than 780 congregations are engaged in "positive ministries in the midst of great need."
On the morning of June 15 half of the Council worshipped with the members of the Cathedral Church of St. John where Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preached. The other half of Council worshipped with the congregation of St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church where the Rev. Brian Taylor celebrated his 25th anniversary as rector. House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson preached at that service.
"When the church is doing its work, the sheep and the shepherds begin to smile," Jefferts Schori said in her sermon.
She shared details of her recent visits to the Philippines and Taiwan where many are downtrodden and conditions are alarming.
"What about right here?" she asked the overflowing crowd at the cathedral. "Are there any depressed and beaten-down sheep in Albuquerque?"
Jefferts Schori thanked them for their work with their local food pantries. "The shepherds of the food pantry are feeding the flock, but the hungry sheep are also feeding the feeders, with spiritual fruit," she said.
She concluded with a challenge: "Come back here next week and tell the person in the pew next to you where you've helped the sheep to smile."
Jefferts Schori's sermon is available here.
Following the service, the Very Rev. Mark Goodman, dean and rector of St John's Cathedral, conducted a question-and-answer session in which Jefferts Schori addressed topics such as the upcoming Lambeth Conference, adult Christian education, the prayer book and Enriching Our Worship, Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and diversity in the church.
Anderson said the day's Gospel, Matthew 10:5-10, can seemingly be a scenario for "Mission Impossible."
"Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to: cast out demons, cleanse lepers, cure the sick," she summarized.
"This morning's gospel story is a teaching on discipleship, yes, but it is also a story about leadership -- Jesus' kind of leadership," Anderson said.
She said Jesus calls people in leadership who "aren't the usual suspects."
"Jesus calls ordinary, often marginalized, people: women, tax collectors, simple fishermen, Samaritans, servants, craftsmen -- we know the ones he calls," Anderson said. "In fact, we know them so well that we sometimes forget that they were the outcasts and the marginalized. They have become our heroes. We forget that they were marginalized, because Jesus calls them and gives them his authority. In calling them he widens the circle of authority, he widens the circle of leadership; he creates a circle of redemption."
She praised the St. Michael and All Angels congregation for what she called its "courage and faith" in widening its congregational circle to fully include gay and lesbian Christians, despite strong pressure from the diocesan investment board, which subsequently withheld a promised a $350,000 low-cost loan for the congregation's new building. She said the congregation showed "the kind of leadership that will not be compromised."
Anderson's sermon is available here.
During Eucharist, Anderson led Taylor and the congregation in giving thanks for their life together and in recommitting to their pastoral relationship. "May the Lord who has given you the will to do these things, give you also the grace and resources to perform them," Anderson prayed at the end of the rite of recommitment.
Rio Grande regroups, begins healing
The diocese, which consists of approximately 14,800 Episcopalians in 58 congregations in New Mexico and the Big Bend area of west Texas, has had "various aspects of difficulties" with each of the three bishops who served the diocese in the past 22 years, Kelly told the Council. "That has left its mark upon us."
Now the diocese has decided to work together "to find out what will be healthy for us," Kelly said. That part of the search process began recently with a discernment and healing retreat for the elected leadership of the diocese.
Diana Butler, a Rio Grande General Convention deputy and the chair of the healing and reconciliation process known as New Life, said the retreat was a "profound experience."
"We entered into honest, open, transparent conversations," she said. "We talked about real issues."
"I don't think there is anyone who is naïve about the difference among us or the challenges in front of us," she said, adding that "we are filled with a hope and there is a new spirit that we really will achieve our goals of health."
Kelly told the Council that, despite what he called geographical and theological difference, there is a "unity of mutual respect and ministry" in the diocese.
Among the growing new ministries in the diocese is an effort, described by the Very Rev. J. Mark Goodman, the cathedral's dean, to reinvigorate relationships between the Navajoland Area Mission and the surrounding dioceses. "It is vitally important that we not let these folks think they are abandoned," he said.
Vital ministries in Province VII "Our dioceses are alive and strong," McEwen said of the Province VII members.
He outlined the provinces many ministry networks, as well as its new initiatives involving an Armed Forces ministry, parish healthcare ministry and ministry to the elderly.
McEwen, a retired Army chaplain, described his admitted "passion" for the province's Armed Forces ministry. Noting a lack of Episcopal Church chaplains at U.S. military installations, McEwen described a pilot program in the Diocese of Oklahoma that has developed models for providing a sacramental presence for Episcopalian members of the armed services and their families.
An effort to educate parishes and the general public about combat-stress disorders is also part of the ministry. Nearly "every parish has people coming home with combat stress disorders," McEwen said. He pointed Episcopalians to the resources available here from the Office of the Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies.
ENS will provide coverage of Council's final plenary session later on June 15.
Coverage of the July 13 sessions is available here.
Coverage of the June 14 sessions is available here.
The Executive Council carries out the programs and policies adopted by the General Convention, according to Canon I.4 (1)(a). The Council is composed of 38 members, 20 of whom (four bishops, four priests or deacons and 12 lay people) are elected by General Convention and 18 (one clergy and one lay) by provincial synods, plus the Presiding Bishop and the president of the House of Deputies.