Diocese of
Western North Carolina
Deputy’s
Blog
One
of my favorite philosopher/theologians is Pogo.
At the half-way point of General Convention, this insight of his seems
profound: “We are surrounded by insurmountable opportunity!” This wonderful amalgamation of people who
have great faith and insight into the way the Holy Spirit is leading us as
Christ’s body known as the Episcopal Church has spurred the following thoughts
in me:
·
We speak English, Spanish, French, Lakota,
Hmong, Chinese, and a number of other languages.
·
We have conservatives, moderates, liberals, High
Church, Low Church, and middle-of-the-road worshipers.
·
Some of us are quite serious about almost
everything, and some of us, while still serious, interject a healthy dose of
humor into our insightful thoughts.
·
A number of people love to go to the microphone
to speak on nearly every issue, and we almost started a pool to wager on how
many times a certain northeastern diocese deputy would rise to speak yet again!
Others of us would prefer not to go
anywhere near the microphones. But, O,
when a deputy rises and makes a wonderfully salient point, it is marvelous in
our ears.
·
Worship this morning had a Native American
theme, and the readings were printed and read in the Lakota language (English
was printed, too). There were Native
American drummers and chanters who offered us a stirring prelude, and a Native
American flautist’s haunting communion song sent chills running up and down my
spine. It’s amazing what God can do through
people who have very little material wealth.
God has given us a great treasure of human resources.
·
I was in the Structure Committee meeting this
morning, which voted to send to the House of Deputies and Bishops a resolution
calling for the restructuring of the Episcopal Church. It was a salient moment. What intrigued me was that it was not a
decision of fear due to our declining numbers, but it was a pronouncement that
we believe the Holy Spirit is leading us into a new time and understanding of
life in the Church. Added to this
leading of the Spirit is a concept known as “Subsidiarity,” which says that
what can be done better on a grass roots level should be done there. It means that our top down understanding of
governance is going through changes. In
reality, many of these organic changes are already underway in movements such
as the Emergent Church and the Missional Church.
·
My concept of the Holy Spirit has been
expanded. For some reason, I had a
notion that the Holy Spirit was like the apparition of Marley to Scrooge, but
at the Eucharist on Saturday, it struck me that Holy Spirit is like the air we
breathe. The Spirit is everywhere, all
around us, within us, moving between us, and lovingly and persistently pushing
us to consider new avenues of joining in God’s mission in the world.
·
As messy as our process is at present, it gives
everyone a voice.
To end with another saying of a
sage, Yogi Berra, “We’re lost, but we’re making good time.” In point of fact, though, the Holy Spirit is
leading us in a new direction that is definitely more missional.
