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July 20, 2022

Notes Along the Way: General Convention and the Grand Experiment

In the last few weeks, the Rev. Garrett Ayers and the Rev. Fergie Horvath were ordained to the diaconate and the priesthood, respectively. They were my first ordinations to preside over as a bishop, and both were beautiful events. Deacon Garrett will eventually be ordained as a priest, so both carry the charisms of the priesthood. Both are also very different as people, yet they have taken vows to live a particular kind of faith life in service to Christ and his Church. 

Each ordination service begins with the presentation of the candidate and an initial examination of intent. Then, each person presented makes this statement:

“In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, I, *N.N*., chosen Bishop/Priest/Deacon of the Church, solemnly declare that I do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation; and I do solemnly engage to conform to the doctrine, discipline, and worship of The Episcopal Church.”

This oath is the same for each order except that as bishop, you add the place in the church where you are called to serve, as in “. . . chosen Bishop of the Church in South Carolina”. Then you sign the oath in view of everyone. As a bishop, I have sworn that oath three times, once for each order in the Episcopal Church. 
 
As a priest, we promised to “take my share in the councils of the church” and, as a bishop, to “share in the governance of the whole church throughout the world.” Vows like this mark our lives.

This month those vows were tested in the particular way of General Convention. This convention was delayed due to COVID and was shortened and trimmed down by half. As a result, much of the committees’ business was done the month before the convention, and many of the resolutions that caused headlines were either tabled for the next convention or did not make it through the committees. 

I say *tested* because convention has often represented, for me at least, where the church is its most institutional and most political. Yet, it is also where we govern our common life. And I have taken vows to do just that along with all the other members of the body. 

The frustrating and beautiful thing about the governance of our Episcopal Church is that it is not left to bishops alone but is done in consultation with all the church’s orders: bishops, deacons, priests, and lay. We all govern together at every level of the church. It might be easier if one person or small group ruled, but we believe that our structure is based in the revelation of Christ and his Body. Therefore, each order has a role within the whole body.

Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, God declares, “I shall be your God, and you shall be my people.” This was the basis of the law that the people of God would reveal God to the world through their lives. Each person’s faithfulness was crucial to the fulfillment of that vision.

In his ministry, Jesus restored common people to the center of the Kingdom of God, a theme he brought forward from the law and the prophets. Christ was calling all God’s people back to their wholeness as a people. We often focus on Jesus’s ministry to the lost, the least, and the outsiders, but Christ was not calling the religious to live as the lost. Instead, his vision was that all of God’s people repent and take their place as citizens of God’s Kingdom.

Though some people are called to play specific roles, like the apostles in the New Testament, every Christian was given the Holy Spirit to be a vessel of God’s presence and to be fully a part of Christ’s body. 
 



Our Church and Our Nation

Our church and our nation began at the same time and in parallel ways, breaking away from England and the English church but also from the class structures that defined both. Our founders of both church and state tried to create systems that reflected a more egalitarian view of governance and citizenry. 

Our institutional structures parallel each other, bicameral houses and legislation, with a president instead of a king for the country and a presiding bishop instead of an archbishop for the church. And like national politics, our church politics can get decidedly messy trying to be “of the people and for the people.”  

The United States was often referred to as a great experiment. To govern not from the authority or power of one or even a few people but rather to have a government that reflected the authority, power, and will of a people was a novel idea at the time. For the nation, this was a reflection of the beliefs in the rights and dignity of every human being, an ideal that we are still striving for.  

For the church, it was based in the belief that Christ called each of us into repentance and citizenship in the Kingdom of God. 

Like all things human, they are imperfect incarnations, but they are experiments in being inclusive and whole while being faithful and distinctive. They are experiments that we are still working out every single day, especially when preparing to vote in the nation or gather in the convention as a denomination.

But these experiments, a favorite word to describe our nation for the first couple of centuries, were begun in a belief that they mirrored a reality revealed in the Bible and the world. And both our church and our nation rely as ever on the faithfulness of each person to their responsibilities, vows, and character. 
We in the church are all called to be Christ’s body in the world and in our nation to be citizens of that “city on a hill.” Part of the blessing of the Episcopal Church’s General Convention is that throughout our governance, we take time to pray and worship together, seeking the Holy Spirit for wisdom and guidance. We turn to the Bible and our reason as we try to be the people of God in our time.

Keep our Episcopal Church in your prayers daily, especially as we work out what we accomplished this past week in Baltimore. Keep our nation as we celebrate our independence and this grand imperfect experiment this month. 

One of my favorite ideas in The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky was that the church holds the world inside itself. Our church holds the nation within it. The church cannot blame the nation without pointing to our faults. We cannot rejoice without celebrating our nation’s goodness. 
 
Pray, lament, and rejoice for these great experiments to reveal God’s character in the church and some of his justice, generosity, and mercy in the nation.  

Pray that as we learn to call everyone to this reality and to answer that call ourselves, we all may be changed to be more like Christ together. 

Pray for those who take vows to serve in even more committed ways to the life of both. Pray for Garrett and Fergie. And I will see you along the Way.


Later this month, there will be more to say about the General Convention and the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury, England.

 

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