Episcopal Press and News
'Living Water' Conference Enlarges Vision of Ministry
Episcopal News Service. January 29, 1987 [87023]
HENDERSONVILE, N.C. (DPS, Jan.29) -- 86 leaders of Ministry programs from across the U.S. agreed that most Episcopalians have too small a vision of their responsibility as ministers. The occasion was an exploration conference on Total Ministry held at the Kanuga Camp and Conference Center here Jan. 23-25.
Titled "Conversations At the Well," it was the seventh conference sponsored by the Total Ministry Task Force of the Office for Ministry and Development of the Episcopal Church, and only an airport-closing blizzard which prevented it from being the best attended in ten years.
Conferees quickly disposed of the prevailing concept that training for the Ministry of the Laity relates only to community outreach. "Everything a person does, in all circumstances and places, has potential for being God's ministry in the world," they agreed. Someone said, "I was a nurse for 25 years, working with terminally ill patients. Someone should have told me God was there for me. I would have had more strength if I knew it was my ministry there."
Coordinator of the conference and outgoing Task Force chairperson, Jean Haldane of Seattle, reminded participants "the word 'ministry' helped us rediscover the centrality of baptism, and also that Christian life is a daily thing. We even talk a lot about 'ministry in the world,' though we find it hard to get clear what it means and what to do about it. 'Ministry' has helped us see the Church more as People, less as institution." She added that we need a vision that accommodates our tradition as well as new understandings which take us further in being the Church for our day, and "Hopefully the vision we open up to here may...release in us new energy and zeal to live more fully as ministers or God's servants in our different worlds."
A white woman, a Chicana and a black man, each born into poverty, revealed how individual ministry in the world can be, how helpers along the way reveal themselves, how God is present in every situation, how essential it is to accept empowerment and respond.
Nancy Blanks told how she progressed from rural poverty, foster mother of 300 children, to Peace Corps director and now to identifying university resources which can help the poor in Third World countries. She believes "the world is where God is. However many strikes you have against you, you have a ministry where you are."
Lydia Lopez, who once fed chickens, now is leader and organizer of UNO, the Los Angeles Chicano community, and is also a consultant on youth gangs and prevention of violence. Her story revealed she found the Church to be a training base for ministry in the world.
John Coleman, born when his mother was 13, says that through his faith power is brought to him by poor people who need help. He now works to help churches in the Diocese of Virginia find ways to help the poor. "We're not called to separate sheep from goats, but to feed Christ's sheep." He says he found God after a 285-day dry drunk when "God tested me in the wilderness." His language and attitude proved loving and colorful. "Mostly we cut ourselves off at the neck, think with our stomachs and don't feel with our belly," he said. "We become slaves of what we hate." His illumination of life stimulated one woman to say she came to a recognition of God acting in desperate places.
Six workshops supplemented sharings by participants about their own experiences and feelings involving ministry to others: "What Kind of Church Can Give You What You Need," led by Celia Hahn; "Me as Patient -- Me as Caregiver" led by Tom Tull; "Learnings About Sending" led by Jim Anderson; "Ministry in the Workplace" led by John Fredenburgh; "Peace and Justice" led by Sister Rachel Hosmer; "Women and Men in Ministry," led by Kathy Scott; "A Diocesan Structure that Liberates" led by Nancy Axell and John Stansbury.
Worship and music, woven into the conversations, were provided by the Rev. David Selzer and Carol Roberts. Chaplains were the Rt. Rev. Edward Chalfant, the Rev. Sandra Wilson and Bernard Haldane; Bill Cody coordinated site operations and Flower Ross -- incoming chair of the Task Force on Total Ministry -- directed the formation of five "role" groups which discussed proceedings from their special viewpoints.
In evaluations, participants reported taking back to their diocese helpful ideas and insights. Many planned to replicate the conference locally, many reported an expanded view of ministry, new appreciation of the value of sharing stories and that networking helped give them new tools for local use. Some said they could see "healing in the struggle" and that they had gained affirmation for what they were doing. New resources and new friends were reported by many, and a number said they would risk letting themselves be led by Christ.