Address to the 130th Convention of the Diocese of
Bethlehem
The Rt. Rev. Paul V. Marshall, VIII Bishop of Bethlehem
October 19, 2001
St. Stephen's Pro-Cathedral, Wilkes-Barre
PRAY FOR OUR PRESIDENT, ARMED FORCES, ENEMIES
On September 11, more than six thousand lives were brutally taken in New York,
Washington, and our own Commonwealth. Congress has now been forced to a partial
shutdown by the deployment of weapons of mass destruction. There is terrible
grief in this country and there is growing instability, precisely the aims
of a war of terror, a war against civilians.
Government's first job is to protect its citizenry. To the extent
that I can understand these things, our government has exhausted
diplomatic remedies in seeking justice for the murderers of September
11, and has undertaken military action to eliminate the threats of
an enemy who has shown the ability to destabilize life wherever it
chooses.
Only the truly insane are for war; only the thoroughly mad are happy
when it comes; it isn't even true anymore that war necessarily boosts
the economy. War will do nothing to improve the plight of Christians
living in Islamic lands, as we are already seeing.
Even though nobody is for war, speaking for myself, I believe that
the President has acted conscientiously and judiciously in an imperfect
world to protect our citizens from further mass slaughter such as
that at Ground Zero. I know that some of you believe that his decision
was premature. There are some of you who believe that war is always
the wrong answer. I believe that in this diocese we all respect those
whose consciences lead them to different positions, and do not need
to dwell on that point. I hope that we all can nonetheless hold our
leaders, the members of the armed forces, and our self-declared enemies
in our prayers, as we struggle to preserve our lives from further
attack.
Let us pray for each of them in turn.
For the President of the United States and all in Civil Authority
(BCP, p. 820, #19) -- O lord our Governor, whose glory is in all
the world: We commend this nation to your merciful care, that, being
guided by your Providence, we may dwell secure in your peace. Grant
to the President of the United States, the Governor of this Commonwealth,
and to all in authority, wisdom and strength to know and to do your
will. Fill them with the love of truth and righteousness, and make
them ever mindful of their calling to serve this people in your fear;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with your and
the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.
For those in the Armed Forces of our Country (BCP, p. 823, #25)
-- Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all
the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend
them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their
trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which
best them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever
they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
For our Enemies (BCP, p. 816, #6) -- O God, the Father of all, whose
Son commanded us to love our enemies: Lead them and us from prejudice
to truth; deliver them and us from hatred, cruelty, and revenge;
and in your good time enable us all to stand reconciled before you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
HOW I KNOW I'M NOT A PACIFIST
I need to come clean with you about my own views on the reluctant use of force,
because in this regard I have had a moment of truth. Nothing fancy enough
for Hemingway, but real enough for me.
About ten years ago a drug-crazed man climbed to the third floor
of our otherwise carefully secured house in New Haven and broke in
through a tiny bathroom window I had never imagined would need bars.
He did this in the middle of the night. Hearing footsteps above,
I of course got up to see which of the kids had gone upstairs to
use the computer. When confronted, the stranger ran through the house
and threatened our lives.
My children were in terror for his threat was real; he was armed
and locked in. While Diana called the police I had to use my bulk
if not my might to subdue him, disarm him, and then hold him at gunpoint
while we waited and waited for the police. I spent every second praying
that I would not have to shoot him. I also know for a moral certainty
that if I had to, to protect myself or my family, I would, center
mass.
I am not particularly proud of that story, and it took me quite
a while to get over the encounter, but it is how I know that I am
not a pacifist, and how I know that I would not let my family die
if I could help it. I can add that because the criminal was stopped
he was put into drug treatment, which is a nice outcome, but wasn't
on my mind at the time.
Now that is a simple story, and not too much should be made of it,
except to say that while I do not prefer violent solutions I believe
that the duty to preserve life starts with the duty to preserve life
under unjust attack. I also know that when there is a threat I will
do what I have to do to protect my own. In other arenas and other
ways I will do and have done what I must to do protect the churches
and people under my care.
RECONCILIATION... WHEN THE TERROR STOPS
The leadership of the Episcopal Church cannot bring itself, although the Archbishop
of Canterbury has, to support the actions of the US and UK in responding
to those who are making war on us. Nonetheless, that leadership has done
us the very valuable service of reminding us that even in the present situation,
our goal is God's goal, the reconciliation of all people to God and to each
other. I add that this cannot happen until the terror stops. In any area
of life, including the parish, you don't negotiate with active terrorists.
WHAT CHRISTIANS DO IN THE MEANTIME
So we meet this year under unusual circumstances, circumstances that have us
all stressed. But I remind you as I recently reminded our ordinands, that
Christians have come together to praise God and make eucharist in catacombs,
in foxholes, in slavery, in prison, and in every condition imaginable. That
is what we do, and who we are: we are those who celebrate the Christ who
overcame death, the one who rose because he was faithful to his calling.
We pray that we may be faithful to ours.
ARCHDEACON CLUETT BACK FROM SABBATICAL
We also welcome the Archdeacon back from sabbatical. He has set a high standard
for sabbatical invisibility that I will do my humble best to emulate. I will
be telling you more about his new responsibilities when I discuss mutual
accountability a bit later.
NEW CANON TO THE ORDINARY
I also want to recognize someone who has labored faithfully on all our behalf
for years. I have revived the office of Canon to the Ordinary, last held
by Robert Rowley, the person who is the bishop's confidant and who oversees
the work of ordination and deployment, and asked Canon Jane Teter to assume
that role. I did not know it at the time, but this is a job once held by
her late husband, so she may also be called Hereditary Canon to the Ordinary.
I am grateful to her for assuming these duties in addition to her work in
congregational development.
HEALTH INSURANCE
The cost of health insurance is eating away parish and diocesan budgets. Last
winter, after receiving notice of a particularly egregious increase from
our carrier, I appointed a committee, including professionals from the fields
of health, law, and business to examine the deteriorating situation. Last
night Diocesan Council adopted their plan, and your rectors and wardens will
receive details shortly.
The plan provides for the Diocese to mostly get out of the insurance
business, which links rates to experience, and we are an aging bunch.
The plan calls for Council to assist parishes in getting coverage
with rates based on local community cost rather than group experience.
The transition each parish makes will differ in time, and Council
will be there to assist you and to keep standards for employee coverage
uniform. I am indebted to the committee and also to the Church of
the Mediator, which blazed something of a trail for us all.
AN INCOME-BASED BUDGET
As promised last convention, Council is presenting a budget based on income
rather than expense. In listening to comments made at pre-convention meetings,
the Council is presenting a revised budget, still based on income, but with
the official acceptance rate reduced from 10.5% to 5%, to lessen the shock
to those wonderful parishes who strive to cooperate fully with what we ask
of ourselves as a community.
Mr. Dick Guyer and Mrs. Maggie Watkins will have more to say about
this at the hearings this afternoon and again tomorrow when Dick
presents the budget. I have asked the president of the Standing Committee
to chair that session, as he is a professor economics and can also
do fractions. I do think that the important thing to remember here
is that the plan arose out of a desire to eliminate windfalls to
parishes temporarily without rectors, windfalls that put an undue
burden on other parishes.
THE DIOCESE IS THE CONVENTION
This is the place to remind ourselves that in the American church the diocese
is the convention. You can have a diocese temporarily without a bishop, but
not without a convention. Neither the bishop nor the Council can impose anything
on this body, and we thus have a duty to discuss fully what is proposed to
us, and make the best decision we can for our life together.
MUTUAL ACCOUNTABILITY
I mentioned before my concern for mutual accountability. This is a necessity
because in the Episcopal Church our life is common, and we have responsibilities
and duties to each other beyond parish boundaries, whether or not we would
choose to. A number of events and situations have brought this sharply into
focus for me. The most startling is that in each of the two last years parishes
of this diocese have been in the papers because they have suffered felony-level
theft by employees. On the other hand, one of our churches that had not had
an audit in some years discovered a sizeable pot of money they didn't know
they had. Still others have discovered serious building defects that had
been let go too long, and so on.
In a church organized on congregational lines, all this would be
tough luck for them, not our problem. Our church is organized on
the notion that, as St. Paul says, we are part of each other; nobody
gets to say to the rest, "I don't need you."
We do need each other, and we are bound to each other. During the
next year I am going to ask the chancellor, the parliamentarian,
and others learned in law, theology, and business to present us with
some canons directed to enhance our mutual accountability, our consciousness
of responsibility to the whole church, which is this Diocese.
Let me share some of the areas on my mind.
1 Care of the Clergy. We have adopted standards about spiritual
direction, continuing education, and refresher leave for clergy.
I have been somewhat discouraged by the low level of compliance with
these standards which exist for the welfare of our clergy and the
people they serve.
2 Care of sick and shut-in. As I travel and talk with people it
is clear that not all sick and shut-in people receive what I would
consider adequate pastoral and sacramental care. I have encountered
shut-ins who have never met their rectors. With the availability
of lay Eucharistic ministers and training for lay pastoral visitors,
not even our smallest parishes should see those among them who are
sick or kept from church barred from receiving the church's care.
I will be asking our clergy to work with me in developing standards
and methods of implementation. Some parishes have experimented with
a number of systems that work quite well and deserve to be shared.
3. Church accounting and financial controls need to be as thorough
as possible, and audits need to happen regularly. Again, a number
of our churches have developed thorough and effective models that
are not unnecessarily complicated, and these should be shared. Every
parish has received a copy of the latest national church business
manual. Please be sure that your parish officials have access to
this important resource. Similarly, to avoid even apparent conflict
of interest, I ask clergy not to serve as executors or trustees for
parishioners unless absolutely necessary, and, if they must, not
to accept a fee.
4. In a relatively small number of our parishes only a few people
know the true financial status of the congregation; in a few parishes
even the entire vestry is not aware of the size or availability of
assets. Besides the questionable legality of situations like this,
there is a much more important theological question.
We have in the last fifty years repeatedly emphasized the full participation
of all the baptized in the life of the church. Having lay people
participate in the leadership of the liturgy is a fine thing. However,
full participation means having access to information and the decision-making
process, access to the power that comes with knowledge. It is about
power. Decision-makers need to teach by example what power looks
like when exercised in community -- I hope we can look at standards
for just such community of information. When I hear people say that
if the congregation knew how much money the church has, they would
not give, then I see room for growth both in stewardship and in mission.
There are some wonderful exceptions, I hasten to add, where both
present stewardship and endowment from the past work in partnership
for effective ministry.
5. Our ancestors left us many fine church buildings. A lovely coffee-table
book could be produced on the church buildings of the diocese, from
the ancient simplicity of St. Matthew's, Stevensville, to the only
truly modern building we have, St. Stephen's in Whitehall. Current
disputes in the larger church have reminded us that parishes hold
their property in trust for the diocese. In the context I am addressing,
this is not about ownership. It is about responsibility. We need
to look after our property so that a preventable disaster does not
place a burden on the resources of the whole diocese through rebuilding
costs or legal liability. This involves a plan of regular building
inspection and also what your insurance company calls risk management,
a vigilant attitude toward potential causes of injury to the person
or property of others.
There is more, but I think you get the picture. We are responsible
to our parishioners, our neighbors, and to each other. It is negative
evangelism to read that this church has been robbed or that church
porch has collapsed on a pair of itinerant Mormon missionaries.
THE ARCHDEACON'S VISITS TO PARISHES
So enter the Archdeacon and Maggie Watkins. We are returning to a more traditionally
Anglican model of archdeacon's visits. The plan is for an annual visit to
each parish on weekdays or Saturdays. These will be visits with parish leadership
to look together at the state of the facilities, the manner in which financial
records are kept, and any maintenance that must be planned for with outside
assistance. The canons assume that the bishop can check the financial records
while confirming people, and that may have been true once, but it isn't now.
So we will have a more relaxed and I hope more helpful way of carrying out
our responsibilities to you in regard to this kind of oversight.
THE BISHOP'S VISITS
While the archdeacon is going to visit each parish on weekdays each year, I
will double up Sunday visits and make it to each parish every year on Sundays,
one in the morning, one in the afternoon.
ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS AND AUDITS
Maggie Watkins continues to be ready to assist parishes in setting up accounting
systems that are simple and meet all known church and legal requirements.
For those parishes that truly cannot afford independent auditing firms, she
is prepared to work with an internal audit committee in learning how to do
an audit at home. Either way, we must be more faithful about the existing
canons requiring audits.
PUBLIC EDUCATION IN PENNSYLVANIA
As you know from my previous convention addresses, I have been concerned for
the state of public education in Pennsylvania, a concern that began in two
of our cities, but has grown as I have learned about education in rural areas.
By the great kindness of the board of the Talbot Hall Fund, we have all received
the gift of a missioner for children and child advocacy. She will be speaking
to us tomorrow about two ways we can be taking action for the all the children
of the Commonwealth. As I said to you at our last convention, if education
is the great leveler in this country, the access to the dream, it must be
equally available to all.
OUR DIOCESAN YOUTH PROGRAM
Our diocesan Youth program has been growing beyond expectations. In five years,
attendance at Bishop's Youth Day has grown from a handful to over two hundred,
and a number of other programs have to turn applicants away until we can
schedule other events. We will this summer host the national church's youth
Happening leadership training conference, right here in Wilkes-Barre. I am
heartened by the continued presence of young people at this convention and
by the radically increased number of our youth who are praying about and
discussing vocations to ordained ministry. In the next month or so we will
be significantly expanding the Youth Advisory Committee and connecting it
more directly to the work of Diocesan Council, as it becomes an ever larger
part of our common enterprise.
OUR DREAM OF FIELDS
You have heard from Mrs. Spillman and Canon Muller about what I have presumed
to call our Dream of Fields, the vision for a center for camping, conference,
and retreat. An independent market study commissioned by Council says that
this is doable if we are hardheaded about our planning. I am beginning to
taste the excitement of a vision, now several years old, beginning to take
shape. When next we meet in convention, there should be a plan for you to
consider.
SHARE THE BREAD
Our two Share the Bread festivals have been important for the life of the diocese
and our mutual encouragement. I think I will have accumulated Leonard Hall
funds sufficient for us to look for another festival in the spring of 2003.
Although we had the joy of celebrating the First Communion for the First
Union Arena last year, we did not quite fill the building, and will look
to the Kingston Armory again, with a large outside tent for exhibits. We
then will be free to have much more food. All day.
THE DIOCESE OF BETHLEHEM AS A SAFE SPACE
Our reputation as a diocese where people are safe just to do the work of the
gospel rather than fight about it is growing, and I am grateful to God that
our Commission on Ministry has agreed to implement a flexibility that will
allow me to work with candidates from other locales who may be a little too
conservative or a little too liberal for their own judicatories to at least
have the opportunity to test their vocations. In addition, a number of our
parishes are being ably served by clergy who have come to this diocese on
purpose, because of what we represent. I mention this because I think we
need to be ever-conscious of our sometimes unstated mission to be a diocese
where those who may hold a very wide variety of opinions never indulge in
the luxury of breaking charity, but I will say more about that in the sermon
tomorrow.
MY LIFE AS YOUR BISHOP
It has been my custom to tell you at the very beginning of these addresses
how I am and what's going on for me as your bishop. I have saved this for
last this time because my comments are a bit different. In the sixteen or
so months since we last met, my life has been very interesting.
Shortly after our last diocesan convention, I attended the General
Convention, and while still numbed from that event, immediately had
my shoulder surgery. The recovery from that was long and painful,
and while taking extra-strength Vicodin I made some bad administrative
decisions. These were brought to my attention by two of our lay people,
and I again learned the importance of using the product. Living by
grace means that when you are wrong you might just be wrong; have
the humility to do what can be done to fix it, and go on with living.
That business of Christ alive in the living of the Church has repeatedly
been the source of a new dimension of faith for me in the last five
years. Seminary professors don't have to believe very much, at least
not on weekdays; in fact, where I last worked such belief was not
encouraged. I now have to rely on the presence and power of God every
day, and must do so unsentimentally, reflexively, and in the best
sense of the word, habitually. With this, something like scales have
fallen from my eyes as I recognize more and more in people I meet,
lay and clergy, not the stereotype Episcopalian of the movies and
TV, but people committed to their faith, committed to making that
faith real in our life together in and for the world. These have
been the most important five years of my life. They have brought
some of the most intense pain I have known, but they have brought
even more joy. Jesus Christ is alive and at work wherever we will
let him in.
While I came here perfectly prepared to teach the content of the
faith, and still think I can, it is living with you that has taught
me so much about the transformative power of God in Christ. I am
more aware of my sinfulness and weakness than at any other time in
my life, and, by God's grace, less worried about them than at any
time in my life. It is to you and your witness of love and commitment
to your many, many ways of living out your Christianity that I owe
that. I don't have to be re-elected, so I say this only because I
mean it.
There is a debt I need to acknowledge to someone who is going to
be embarrassed by this, so I apologize in advance. Because of my
diabetes and other health issues, I am not a reliable driver over
long distances, and have nodded off at some very frightening and
expensive times, and once was very, very nearly killed up in Bradford
county. For four years we tried to get a driver, even had some people
accept the job and then quit after realizing how much is involved.
Some never even showed up. Finally, in June of 2000, primarily to
keep me alive, Diana sacrificed her career and now works for what
would be tip money in her old life, driving me and assisting me with
details and health care advocacy. It is impossible for me to thank
her adequately, but she has served us all in doing this.
To preserve our status as introverts while spending so much time
in the car, we don't always talk, in addition to my doing as much
work as I can while riding, we often listen to talking books - but
different talking books, through earphones. Nobody's perfect. The
only real problem with this is when one of us suddenly laughs out
loud, and the explanations start. (I showed only this paragraph to
Diana, who said, "If you have to have someone's body with you all
the time, it's best not to have their mind there, too.")
But chiefly I am grateful to God for giving me these five years
of real life. I have had a real struggle with the idea that we can
do without each other for the few months of my sabbatical. Then I
remembered that you managed to survive for 126 years without me,
and something called perspective began to settle in.
While I am gone I will take the vacation I skipped this summer and
then get to work on finishing the book I was writing when my life
changed in December of 1995. There are a few other writing projects
as well, and like many of you I have a few books unwrapped but still
unread. I had planned to do a study tour of Egypt, but that seems
unwise, so I will try to learn more about American culture, and visit
the parts of this country of which I am ignorant, particularly the
mountain states.
It remains a privilege to serve you, and at each eucharist at each
of our parishes I am increasingly thankful for the presence of Christ
and of Christ's people in Northeast Pennsylvania.
Thank you for your kind attention.
return to Addresses index page
Please direct any
questions or comments to the webmaster@diobeth.org
