A Message from The Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church
Dear People of God in The Episcopal Church,
Early this morning, we learned that President Trump has been elected to another term as president of the United States. I pray that he will govern wisely and justly.
Regardless of our political allegiances, we must remember that God has called us in The Episcopal Church to seek and serve Christ in all persons. No matter the party in power, we are one church, and we will continue to fulfill our baptismal covenant by proclaiming in word and example the Good News of God in Christ, striving for justice and peace among all people, and protecting the dignity of every human being.
We commit to working with the new administration to advance policies that follow the teachings of Jesus by supporting the most vulnerable among us. Through Episcopal Migration Ministries, we abide by God’s command to welcome the stranger, and since 1988, we have resettled more than 100,000 refugees through a bipartisan program with a strong record of success. We urge President Trump and members of Congress to exercise compassion toward the immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees we serve and to know that, at every turn, we will stand for the dignity and human rights of all of God’s people.
We are Christians who support the dignity, safety, and equality of women and LGBTQ+ people as an expression of our faith. I pray that President Trump and his administration will do the same.
In the coming months, I ask us all to be agents of peace and reconciliation in our communities, both in person and online. As people of faith, we can work and pray for peace and unity among God’s people whether we are joyful, hurting, or afraid. Especially now, when we know of efforts by domestic terrorists and foreign adversaries to undermine our trust in institutions and in one another, we can combat the misinformation and fear by which the Enemy seeks to divide us from one another.
I give thanks for all the ministries in dioceses and congregations across the church that are tangible expressions of our belief in a God of compassion and mercy. In every season, this is the work that God has set before us.
A Message to Grace Church from Bishop Alan, Clergy in Charge:
In his book, “In the Name of Jesus”, Henri Nouwen addresses the topic of Christian leadership. He wraps the concept around with two comparative Scripture passages – Matthew 4, and Jesus’ confrontation with Satan in the wilderness, and John’s Gospel, chapter 21, where Jesus “recommissions” Peter after his heartbreaking denial. Nowen frames the three temptations of Christ as those of seeking to be relevant, spectacular and in power. Jesus refuses to embrace the relevancy of turning stone into bread and thus provide for his hunger, or to jump off the top of the temple expecting God to catch him, or to give away his soul to the devil in exchange for limitless but temporal power. We know that Jesus responded to each challenge with the words – thus says the Lord, and counters one use of Scripture with another.
Nowen contrasts the three temptations of Jesus with Jesus’s own invitation to Peter to a new relationship in John 21, where three times He asks Peter if he loves Him. Nowen says that we counter temptation to be relevant with the spiritual practice of contemplation. We answer the dazzle of being spectacular or doing flashy things for God with confession or admitting our vulnerability; and we reject the offer of being in power, of idolization, with theological reflection, or the submission of our lives centered upon the Creator.
In each situation, we are asked to build our lives upon a foundation of the inner life, and thus face the temptations of life with a deepening dependency on all that God has wired us to know. In a different context, Howard Thurman, writing in Jesus and the Disinherited, asks how Jesus found the capacity to survive within the oppression of being an occupied people without resorting to violent reactivity, or passive isolation. He proclaimed, says Thurman, the Kingdom within, and that Kingdom was marked by the gift of divine love, and thus it stands strong in the face of the onslaught of fear, deception and hate which are always the tools of “occupying forces”.
There is no more suitable time for a decision to explore the gift within, which we are told is God’s love for us, than when we face the turbulence and uncertainty, and yes, grief and joy, of a General Election. We remind one another as followers of Christ, first and foremost, where true joys abide, and we let our hearts tell us where our true treasures are to be found. And we are invited to ask God’s Spirit to move us beyond our temporary joys and sorrows to a place of wisdom and satisfaction which mirrors the changelessness of God. This is not another form of passivity. It centers on the life-giving, liberating, loving God, and so we conjure up within us the character of God, of compassion and justice and sufficiency. It transforms us, renews us, refocuses us. Its our gift, God’s gift, to the world around us.
On Sunday, we will be together in worship welcoming into the Christian family a new young person, Louis Lawrence Monten. We will make promises with him to renounce Satan and all his works, and to turn to Christ as Savior and Lord; and we will add our commitment to spiritual practices and worshipful togetherness, to a life of accountability before the challenges of evil around and within us, to living a life proclaiming God in our actions and words; and in lifting up every human being’s dignity, as we work for justice and peace, seeing Christ in everyone we serve. It’s quite a way of life we offer to Louis. And we pray God’s Spirit to mark his life for Jesus and put his seal of approval upon him. We encourage him to a life of contemplation, confession and reflection as the ultimate foundation for the transformation we pray his loving life will bring.
And with Louis, we all manage to embrace our own baptism as if for the very first time. If not now, when? Thank you Louis for being the little child that leads us.
A Message to Grace Church from Sarah Christopher, Associate Pastor:
I have a dear friend from high school named Matt who is a community organizer. We have known each other almost 40 years now, went a high school dance together, stayed friends all this time. When I took Frannie out to look at colleges last April, we stayed with Matt and his wife Emily in Connecticut.
In the weeks and months before this election, Matt and many others have been engaged in something called Deep Canvassing. He shared an article with me that captured his experience beautifully. The training for this work consisted of everyone sharing stories of people they loved. You read that right! This is the work of the heart, not the mind…the work of connection, not facts and argument. In the Episcopal Church of St. George and St. Barnabas just west of Philadelphia, canvassers gathered to listen to Dave Fleischer, the founder of Deep Canvassing, speak. “The heart of this,” he said, “is to listen. Leave space. Be vulnerable.” Canvassers walked through neighborhoods, met folks, and asked, “Can you tell me about someone you love? Someone with whom you have that bond of care?” Conversations ensued, connections were made. Often, there was a discussion of values and voting after that. “They won’t remember what you tell them,” Fleischer had said before they went into the neighborhood. “They’ll remember you were kind, and they’ll remember what they talked to you about – the person they love. It will remind them of their values, and why they’re voting.”
At the end of hours of canvassing, the author shares that he had “begun this process anxious about democracy, and I ended up feeling grateful to be practicing it, and far more connected to my fellow citizens…I’ve since filled many days doing as Fleischer recommended. Showing vulnerability, Listening to others.
In fact, it made me long for excuses to do this not only in elections, and not with so pressing an agenda. Talking to fellow citizens across differences because we really want to know each other, and want to be comfortable across this country we share. Wouldn’t that be something?”
It would, indeed. Last Sunday, In Mark’s Gospel, we heard Jesus tell everyone listening to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Yes. And. In John’s Gospel, right before he dies, at the last meal he shares with his friends…he ups the ante and tells them to “love one another as I have loved you.”
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” said the voice of Love at the start of Jesus’ ministry, “Listen to him.” Love one another as I have loved you. How did Jesus love? Here are a few examples:
- compassionate healing (blind Bartimaeus)
- focused presence (woman with a 12 year hemorrhage)
- kindness and the “first best thought” (Zacchaeus, anyone?)
- tender and humble service (washing his friends’ feet)
- deep listening (woman at the well)
- feeding the hungry (loaves and fishes)
- respecting and dignifying women (Simon’s mother in law, woman crippled for 18 years)
- respecting and seeing children (let them come to me, he said)
- defending and honoring the poor (the widow with the two coins to share)
- forgiving friends and enemies alike (from the cross!)
- profoundly transformative willingness to speak truth to power and not be afraid (everything he said and did that challenged the order of the day and led to the cross)
Connect. Listen. Show Up. Attend. Feed. Heal. Honor. Protect. Defend. Respect. Forgive. Serve. Speak. Transform. Challenge. Love love love each other.
“Love one another as I have loved you.” Let it be so.
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