One Year On...

In the walkabouts a year and a half ago, I joked that I only went through the search process in order to get shrimp and grits. And, to be honest, this year, I have had some incredible food. 
 
A week ago marked the end of my first year as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Upper South Carolina. As you may imagine, it has been a year of discovery, grace, and A LOT of travel. 
 
The past year has blessed me with many funny stories, revealing moments, and simple revelations. 
 
There is much to make a new bishop proud. Congregations around the Diocese have poured tremendous time, money, and resources into their local schools and outreach ministries through the pandemic. You have continued supporting education and mission work over the last few years in ways that have impressed and moved me on visitations.
 
Your generosity in the work of missions is just one bit of evidence of both our deeper purpose as a Diocese and our identity in Christ. 
 
Our purpose is to bring the Good News of God in Christ to Upper South Carolina. As we heard from Professor Walter Edgars at our one-hundredth anniversary Convention this past November, we separated from the lower Diocese just for this purpose. There was a longing to bring the Gospel into the upper parts of the state. 
 
We typically call this work evangelism, but most of us need a broader definition of what that word means.
 
What does it mean to bring the Good News of God in Christ? 
 
In Christ, we have been given the power to become the children of God (John 1:12). But first, we have to be reborn spirituality and begin again (John 3). Then we can return to our original purpose in creation, to bring the image of God into the world as the body of Christ filled with the Spirit, living our lives as God's embodied will in our lives. As we live this truth, our hearts will overflow with living water (John 12) that can quench the thirst of a parched world. 
 
How is this possible for us who are born into this world, are bound by old sins, are burdened with habits of selfishness and hatred, and are conditioned by the world around us to live for ourselves, our tribe, and our own narrow interests? We must be set free from sin by God's self-offering in Christ on the cross, and we must learn to live according to his way as revealed in Scripture and as guided by the Holy Spirit.
 
We are entering into the very life of God. We are abiding in him as we abide in Christ (John 14-16). 
 
Therefore, our purpose is to abide in Christ and to bring that life in God to the world. This is the essence of evangelism. My translation of that, as I have shared all year, goes:
 
 "Every human being is created to be a child of God. That is your true identity waiting for you in Christ. My job is just to love you 'til you know. To do that, I must be transformed and open to God's will and intention."
 
So evangelism is the purpose of the Church. We are to be a bringer of Good News through our life, words, and actions. We bring Good News when we live lives that reflect the order, grace, kindness, and forgiveness of God. This can only be done with discipline and love. 
 
We bring Good News in our words when we talk about other human beings with the respect and honor as the children of God, proclaim the truth of God's Reign and love, and teach those under our care how to live in this new reality. 
 
We bring the Good News in our actions through charity, missions, and by living lives of justice and peace, lives incompatible with sin, selfishness, and alienation. Our work of caring for the world is our original purpose in the creation. This includes caring for the earth, the poor and vulnerable, and those in need of God. 
 
Our missions are meant to extend the reach of God's grace beyond our immediate sphere. Our resources can be a boon to others working for God's Reign around the world, such as our work with education and outreach locally and in Ecuador and Haiti. 
 
All of our work must be grounded in lives of justice and peace. We must embody the grace of our God every day in how we treat others, what causes and purposes we support, and perhaps most importantly, how we treat those closest to us. 
 
But what are we as a Diocese to be doing right now? What is our mission today? 
 
This is what I have been asking myself as I have journeyed around South Carolina this year. It is a difficult question in that it asks what we should be focusing on as a whole community, while many parts of that community are in vastly different circumstances. 
 
The initial unifying theme last year was "coming out of Covid." My first calls and visits were centered around questions about "the new normal." Remember that only a year ago, we bought a thousand masks for the Consecration. And some of our communities are still recovering today. Some of us are still wearing masks. 
 
And while some communities recover, others have moved fully into the next phase of life. A number of churches are being surprised by sudden jumps in attendance on Sundays after dismal attendance for the last few years. 
 
At the diocesan office, our focus this year is on Congregations, Clergy, and Communications. 
 
We are working with the Commissions, particularly the Commission for Congregations, on supporting the growth and flourishing of communities in transition and missions still finding their feet after the last few years. 
 
Congregational support from the Diocese includes a plan to rebate some money to the congregations in thanksgiving for their faithful financial support during an extraordinary time, making resources available for ministry through Martin Darby and the Bishop's Grants for Growth, which are available now. We are also working steadfastly to hire a new canon position to support our congregations further, as I write.
 
We are working to recruit, promote, and support clergy, knowing that they are our first-line responders, catechists, and coaches within congregations. 
 
Our Diocesan Day of Discernment is coming up on March 25, 2023, at Trinity Cathedral, which will begin the annual cycle of discerning individual calls to serve the Church through lay and ordained ministry.
 
And finally, communications are a real focus in the coming year, as we seek to unify the Diocese through our common Lord, common faith, and common baptism. 
 
As a Diocese, we have a rich history of missions and unity, formation, and worship. I am deeply grateful for the work we have done together over the past year, and I am proud to carry the crozier of a Diocese with such a legacy. Let us pray together for a common vision for the years ahead. 
 
I am glad to be your bishop for reasons much richer than the shrimp and grits sprinkled with fresh chives and bacon. I have been blessed by the warm welcomes and reaffirming reports of ministries and congregations renewed in our time. I am deeply looking forward to the years ahead as I happily walk with you along the Way. 
 
May God continue to lead us into the Resurrection.

I will see you along the Way,

+Daniel

Click here to download the Bishop Richards' 2023 visitation schedule.
Click here to download the 2022 - 2023 Diocesan Cycle of Prayer. 

Events around the Diocese