I am proud to be an Episcopalian
Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Address to Diocesan Convention
October 17, 2003
[Copyright for the content of this address is retained by Bishop
Paul Marshall. It may not be copied and forwarded in whole or part to other
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What makes being a bishop so easy is that everybody around knows how to do
the job better than I do, even to knowing what personality type I should be,
and most are quite generous in sharing their wisdom. In terms of the challenges
before the Episcopal Church, some have chided me for saying too little about
the late General Convention. Others wish I would not have said and written
as much as I have. Some think I should talk more about sex, others think I
should never mention it. So I wish to offer my defining thought about the present
state of our Church. It is seven words: I am proud to be an Episcopalian.
I am grateful to be a part of a fallible Church which is one of the few in
the Anglican Communion to be organized from Day One as a democratic body, something
that many of our sister churches were being informed of only this week at Lambeth,
and somewhat to their surprise, by some accounts.
I am grateful to be a part of a Church that strives to represent the very best
of the Christian tradition in ways that speak to contemporary hearts. I am
humbled by the gracious fact that the Episcopal Church is so often also a place
of refuge for divorced people, intellectual people, artists, and many others
who are, in fact, no longer welcome at the Lord's Table in other communities.
On those days when everything else is in doubt for me, the one thing that compels
me about the story of Jesus is that he spent his time teaching - and eating
with - outcasts, that he sought them out and was even accused of being their
friend. I am grateful to be a member of a church less and less interested in
its former glory and more and more interested in the poor, the oppressed, and
all the people whom it is easy to discount or despise.
I am grateful to be a member of a church that does not run away from difficult
issues or deceive itself about the complexity of biblical interpretation.
At Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn stands St John's, for many years, in all but name,
called the Church of the Generals: there was a time when advancement in the
U S Army almost required being an Episcopalian. The Cadet Chapel at West Point
looks like an Episcopal Church because, for many years, it was. The Cathedral
Church of St. Peter and Paul in Washington DC is best known by its unofficial
designation, The National Cathedral - Jefferson would turn in his grave.
In an act of singular grace, God has reassigned the Episcopal Church from an
existence as the elite form of mainline Protestantism to a church agonizing
to regain missionary zeal, a church still seeking to recognize the full humanity
of women, a church seeking to listen to every voice raised in witness to the
power of God, even when those voices speak a language other than English or
inhabit disabled bodies or experience affections unlike those of the majority.
Our General Convention last summer said, and put their money with those words,
that the voices to which we must pay particular attention in this triennium
are those of young people. It was lost on nobody that among the very youngest
deputies at General Convention was a member of the Diocese of Bethlehem.
God has given us the serious task of being a community that addresses complex
issues creatively and in faith and hope. We are a church that is always learning
to speak Christ's message and, more difficult, to duplicate Christ's presence
in our world. Please pay attention to the resolutions on evangelism tomorrow:
they are simple and yet their impact is profound.
Newspapers make their money with conflict stories, whether it is about baseball
in Boston and New York or religion. They have emphasized the words and deeds
of the most combative people in our Church much more than they have provided
careful analysis or gotten the big picture of how this church in fact works
or what most of its members think.
Just in time for our gathering today, the special meetings of the bishops that
preside over the fully independent national churches that the Archbishop of
Canterbury recognizes as Anglican met to speak a clarifying word.
You will want to study the documents yourself, but here is what struck me,
especially given all that was said before the meeting. In the first place,
there was no Armageddon, no condemnation, no invasion of this country by foreign
prelates, and most certainly no provision given for an alternative province.
Those who counted on this meeting to provide them separate ecclesiastical establishments
were sent empty away. The primates specifically disavowed the notion that they
are a franchising body or that the Anglican Communion, which only came into
existence over a century after this church was founded, somehow gives the Episcopal
Church a license. The national churches remain just that, and primates emphasized
this fact.
In addition, here is the entire statement of Archbishops Akinola of Nigeria,
Kolini of Rwanda, and Chung of Southeast Asia, the very archbishops who many
were saying were going to dismantle the Episcopal Church and establish an alternative;
again it is their entire statement as it came over the web:
"It is with great gratitude to God and appreciation to the people of the
Anglican Communion and other churches that we greet you in the name of Jesus
Christ.
"As we met this week at Lambeth we experienced the power of the Holy Spirit
moving among us. We are so grateful to God for hearing the prayers and cries
of his praying people to preserve both the truth and the unity of the Anglican
Communion. We urge continued prayer that the whole Anglican Communion may continue
by God's power to witness to the transforming love of Jesus for all people."
All of that noted with relief, there were some things at Lambeth we must take
very seriously. The primates had the realization and conviction of their own
sin: the communion has not taken seriously its 1998 promise to listen carefully
to the voices of gay and lesbian Christians. Few of us can claim to have done
a good job of that. The primates found themselves being educated about American
dioceses where bishops are elected by conventions that are comprised predominantly
of lay people - something very rare in Anglicanism, and almost unheard of in
the other (non-Anglican) churches possessing the historic episcopate. The primates
have not finished taking in the fact that what happens in the USA always has
a strong lay voice, and cannot be dismissed as the act of some odd bishops.
They made it clear that there is vast pain and confusion among some of their
churches over our Minneapolis convention; however, they also spoke for the
first time of attitudes about homosexuality in terms of cultural difference,
a major step forward in the discussion. They very clearly expressed their fear
that, if Canon Robinson is consecrated bishop in November, there will be a "rend
in the fabric of our communion" because some will not recognize him as
a bishop. They hoped that there would be alternative Episcopal oversight for
those needing it, something I have always endorsed in published work, and do
so again now in your hearing.
Repeating their confession that they have not done their homework, the primates
urged the Archbishop of Canterbury to appoint the commission that was supposed
to be appointed years ago so that a thorough-going study could in fact happen.
The primates have specifically asked that no unilateral actions be taken in
this twelve-month period, making it clear that those who contemplate unilateral
action are doing it without their blessing. They adopted this statement unanimously.
While some rectors report to me that there are people who have switched parishes
or a very few who have ceased being Episcopalians based on what they know of
Minneapolis, other rectors report that people who haven't felt welcome in any
church in more than a decade have come to the Episcopal Church. And they are
not all gays and lesbians. Just yesterday afternoon, a priest told me of a
man who said very directly and with tears, "I guessed that if the Episcopal
Church would take gays and lesbians, it would take me," and came to communion
for the first time in 13 years. Nothing could make me feel better than being
in a church where somebody would feel safe enough to say that, because Jesus
was indeed the one who would take anybody, even me. Even you.
It remains clear that, on an issue that touches us in our faith, minds, feelings,
customs, and cultural values, there is a great deal more to discuss while the
primates take their year to consider questions of sexuality and while some
of them contemplate how far the church should be democratic. People among us
need the ability to talk and to be heard.
I call on rectors, wardens, and vestries to insure that each parish
in the diocese is a community where people can share and explore
their views, a community where everyone is taken seriously. A parish
or family or any system that blocks free discussion is storing up
hostility that can be re-directed in unexpected and very damaging
ways. With all respect to those who think otherwise, no committee
or bishop can make conversation happen in your parish: each priest
and lay leader must take a clear stand that their parish is a place
where conversation is welcome on this or any other issue.
Internally we have some puzzles. Since 1783, this Church has operated on democratic
principles, and now we see those among us who were not able to prevail in a
democratic situation rejecting democracy per se. More astoundingly, last week
the bishop of Pittsburgh said quite plainly that if the Archbishop of Canterbury
didn't see things the way he and his followers do, they would find a new titular
head for a rebuilt Anglicanism. I hope this was hyperbole born of anxiety,
but we have seen in a few short months the rejection of both democracy and
hierarchy as governing principles for the Church by some who I am sure in their
hearts love both the Church and democracy.
I observe this not as a criticism, but to say that this extreme position indicates
the depth of their pain which we in the majority must take seriously and treat
with respect. It also indicates the seriousness with which we must maintain
our overarching principle in the American Church that we are a democratic body
and that the people may indeed be trusted to sense the work of the Holy Spirit.
I will continue to bend over backwards in the matter of forbearance, but, in
the end, tails will not wag dogs.
The meeting of primates this week has determined to take a year to study the
issue, including, I hope, what they have just learned about the concept of
democracy in church government. There are other built-in delays: by its terms
the resolution of General Convention on sexuality also delays direct address
of the issues on a national level. The resolution places the work of gathering
discussion and teaching materials on the shoulders of the Presiding Bishop,
who is to bring a study package to the 2006 General Convention.
There are nonetheless a number of things we can and should be doing in the
intervening three years.
First. I am doing ten evening presentations of two hours length to address
the question of how we use the Bible in general and how it applies to the sexuality
issue, with particular reference to the actions of the General Conventions
of 2000 and 2003. These are under way. The list is available on Bethlehem of
PA (our diocesan internet list), and should be publicized by the parishes in
each area. I am requiring that clergy and that those who hope to be ordained
attend these presentations to reflect on their own way of teaching scripture.
Second. The General Convention deputation is scheduling meetings around the
diocese so that you can discuss the entire convention, but also the two most
famous resolutions, with the people this convention elected to serve in Minneapolis.
They have been scheduled to take place at St. Alban's, Sinking Spring (Nov.
19), the Cathedral Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem (Dec. 3), Christ Church,
Towanda (Dec. 4), and St. Stephen's Pro-Cathedral, Wilkes-Barre (Dec. 10).
Third. I have appointed The Rev. Dr. R. Jane Williams to chair a diocesan team
to explore and model forms of reconciling conversation. Our November Council
meeting will assist her in finding members for her team who represent the variety
of viewpoints present in the diocese. We discovered with the work of the Structure
and Finance Task Force that a diverse body can and will work together productively.
I have a good deal else to say about General Convention, but cannot say it
all here. You will find in your packets or at the tables the text of a short
pastoral letter written last August, and a very much longer letter written
to the clergy and wardens for distribution as they saw fit. Between them they
should make clear my own position on these matters, and much more important,
describe with some precision what is and is not at issue for us as a diocese.
As our Presiding Bishop has said, the vote on Gene Robinson does not settle
the sexuality question for this Church, and we must continue to listen and
learn from each other.
I have never met anybody on any side of the questions before us who does not
take the Bible seriously. At the same time, I have never met anybody who follows
all of the Bible. Everybody has a way of interpreting and applying the Bible,
so I again invite you to join me on one of the remaining evenings of the ten
I will lead this fall.
I am grateful to be an Episcopalian. Sometimes the things I am grateful for
are painful. I am grateful to be a member of a church where, when lay people
have a complaint about the moral behavior of a priest, not only is there no
way to sweep it under the rug, that complaint must be heard and dealt with.
Because of the way our process works, however, I have not been able to comment
to you directly on the last two years' worth of trial and appeal regarding
one of our clergy convicted of immorality. I simply want to acknowledge here
the courage and maturity of the two young people whose convictions were more
important than their convenience, and their steadfastness under unconscionable
assaults during the trial and continuing in the civil courts. I don't think
the Episcopal Church has more dirty laundry than the Roman Catholic, Lutheran,
or any other church-perhaps less-but we are historically committed to doing
our laundry, and this sets us apart, and other churches do recognize that fact.
At our diocesan convention we elect an ecclesiastical court - an office which
many people accept on the assumption that they will never have to act. Chief
Judge John Feather and the Court gave many hours, many days, of faithful and
difficult service. We are all in their debt for the impartial and professional
way they conducted their business. Although some were naturally very disappointed
in the findings of the court, there has been only praise of the way they did
their work.
In this same regard, the House of Bishops has issued a pastoral letter, which
I sent to each priest and warden, also in your convention packet, making it
clear that for lay volunteers and clergy alike, this is a one-strike Church.
Abuse of children and young people does not get a second chance. New national
canons are coming to you in January that redefine as sexual misconduct plain
and simple some of the items we had to try as "conduct unbecoming a member
of the clergy." Let me be clear about one of the new canons: it is not
ever the place of adult workers in this church to joke or share fantasies about
sex with young people, who are in years that are already confusing and painful.
Church needs to be the safe place, not the assaultive place, for young minds
seeking stability and direction.
In a church that knows some conflict, in a church that is still learning that
growth is something we do rather than assume, in a church without a lot of
money right now, what can we be doing? I no longer have the $50,000 or $75,000
the Share the Bread festivals each cost. I no longer have a large staff to
tailor programs. I no longer have the level of cooperation that a new bishop
or rector has before people catch on to the fact that he or she is not perfect
- this is entirely normal, not a complaint. Are we to despair, or is it possible
that the answers to the challenges before us are not institutional but communal,
even individual?
There can be no denying that the parishes that are growing are those that have
effective and energetic leadership, and I salute those of my colleagues who
are energetic and apostolic front-line representatives of their parishes in
the community. I am grateful for those of my colleagues who build teams, who
empower and then also trust the people of God.
Let's however, consider the worst case. Maybe your parish doesn't have powerful
clergy or lay leadership. Maybe you don't have a permanent priest at all. I
finished seminary and was ordained on a September morning exactly 30 years
ago - nothing prepared me for the challenges of ministry today. I have spent
many times the amount of my seminary tuition on continuing education and still
feel behind the curve.
So maybe your priest doesn't share and never will have your passion for evangelism,
stewardship, youth work, Bible study, social ministry, world mission, work
with young children, music, liturgy, advertising, presence in civic groups,
outreach, ecumenical relationship, adult education, Sunday school, senior citizen
concerns, health ministry, community organization, and the rest of those things
that you write or tell me your rector lacks but should have in equal proportion
and zeal. What if that is never going to change?
I have kept myself from quitting my job and from quitting some other things
in my life during the last six weeks by asking myself one question several
times a day: "Paul, are you a victim or a leader?" And now I ask
you as you think about church, are you a victim or a leader?
That question works for me as attitude adjustment because you cannot be a victim
and a leader at the same time. The very first talk on a Cursillo weekend is
entitled, Leaders, the obligation each of us has to be Christ's presence. The
fact is that each of us, by our attitude, facial expressions, words, and deeds,
influences those around us. Act like a victim and you can demoralize an entire
community. Act like a leader and others will share their gifts.
In this time of challenge in the Episcopal Church there will be those who act
like victims, with all the whining or demagoguery that entails, and there will
be those who act like leaders, confident but not contentious, aware that because
God is in charge, God will prevail. Bishop Griswold remarked recently that
those who have actually tasted and experienced truth, for that very reason,
do not have to be combative about it. Freud points out that hostility is usually
a mask for insecurity.
So, out there in pew seven at lonely St. Swithin's, are you a victim or a leader?
You know, things might not get a lot better in your lifetime. No seminary actually
trains people for the present challenges and not too many vestries think it
is important to invest big bucks in continuing education for clergy in practical
skills, so maybe it is up to you if your particular vision is to bear fruit.
I have field-tested some ideas about this at the stewardship gathering we recently
held in Trexlertown, and offer them to you now.
First, I call on each member of this Diocese to decide each day if he or she
is a victim or a leader - does God's call to you depend on how somebody else
acts or makes you feel, or on your inner awareness of the Spirit and your worth
as God's child? It is one or the other.
Second, I call on each of us to ask if we are waiting for somebody else to
change before our ministry takes off. Certainly we must try to influence others
to see the things that are important for us, but we must never allow the fact
that others don't get it to keep us from doing what we are called to do.
Third, and this could be fun, are you willing to meet in unofficial, underground,
unsanctioned groups to encourage and support people in your parish or community
who share your convictions about stewardship, evangelism, youth, or any other
ministry? Are you willing to be the subversives whose only weapons are prayer
and a holy life? Are you willing to help each other be so pure and so focused
that you make the establishment in your parish or vestry uncomfortable - and
maybe see the light? Are you willing to be that thing that Episcopalians are
uniquely able to be, eccentric? What if the tithers in your parish supported
each other and shared ways to talk about that adventure? What if those who
witness to Christ directly supported each other and shared ways they have found
to do that?
If we take that responsibility for maintaining ourselves and each other as
strong, self-defined, perhaps defiant disciples, it won't matter what occupies
the minds of vestry and rector - as long as they leave space for and maybe
even bless your concerns. Your parish doesn't have a stewardship canvass -
well, you and your friends have one. We are all of us members of the largest
organization in history to be started by word of mouth - it still works.
Finally, no matter what your commitment is, are you willing to nag? We have
the commitments we do to New Bethany Ministries because two lay people never
let me forget about it. We have the commitment we do to AIDS in Africa because
a lay person never lets me forget about it. We have the Daughters of the King
praying for this convention right now because a very short time ago a lay person
had a vision, and now there are eight chapters of the Daughters in a diocese
that had none. Things are changing for our sisters and brothers in Kajo Keji
because the Episcopal Church as a whole led the pack in lobbying Washington
on the Sudan. Polite, firm, and persistent people change the world, give or
take the polite part.
In a movie I like, Robin Williams plays a defrocked psychiatrist who tells
one character who is struggling with smoking to decide whether he is a smoker
or non-smoker and then simply to be what he truly is. Each of us must ask whether
we are still living out other people's expectations or have come to know what
our life is to be about; each of us must then be that whether anybody else
approves or changes.
Your church may never have an effective evangelism program in your lifetime.
You may never be able to make them change. So what is your personal evangelism
program? Your diocese may never have the money or the people to educate you
in the in's and out's of whatever your particular ministry interest is. Every
library in this country has a computer where my 80-year-old mother is comfortable
searching for any information she wants on anything. Thank God we live in a
world where you can learn anything you want to learn - and, given the internet,
you can also learn things you don't expect to know, but that is the fun of
it.
There is nothing to keep anyone who knows what they stand for from doing that
thing. Maybe the church will catch on and maybe it won't. There are two lay
people in our calendar of saints who come to mind in this regard. Florence
Nightingale invented nursing despite the opposition of the army and the Church
of England. William Wilberforce persevered and achieved the abolition of slavery
in Britain despite the persistent and unanimous opposition of the bench of
Bishops in the House of Lords. Persistent, firm, often polite. Please note,
with all due respect, that our liturgical calendar reminds us that the bishops
of the Church of England (and its only recently liberated colonies and possessions)
may not always be on the cutting edge of social change. This is why, after
all, Samuel Seabury was consecrated in Scotland.
I sense that we will not soon be in a position to provide massive institutional
solutions to any of our problems. Can each of us be defined enough, even defiant
enough, to know and be what we are called to be, where we are, and act without
waiting for others to change? Are we willing to encourage that in others even
though it surely will make us uncomfortable?
The Evangelism Committee is sending each parish a copy of the radically refreshing
book, Reclaiming the Great Commission. I beg you to read it and be challenged
by it, not in reference to what somebody else should do or be, but in reference
to what you can do and be. It is about the transformation of the Diocese of
Texas. I know that in many, many ways this is not Texas, but we do have Dallas
- and we do have a Lord who expects us to let others in on the secret.
As for me, it is clearer and clearer to me where my skills and gifts are-and
are not. So I am going to work on my strengths, which lie primarily in the
word: preached, taught and written. I am suggesting that each of us work to
find and focus on our strength as well, confident that we are diverse enough
that, with each of us finding and doing what we are, the body will grow in
every direction.
I dare to say all this because I see it happening. Please hear this list as
a litany of thanksgiving, praising God in your heart for each one, and letting
it spark your determination.
Money talks, so let's thank God that in the last year people in this diocese
contributed to work in Africa over $100,000 in a period that has been economic
disaster for many charities.
On the human resources side, eighteen people in college years met with me in
Kingston on a football day because they are considering going directly to seminary
- bucking a culture; let no one despise their youth.
Individual parishes continue to build ties to Africa, and shortly we will be
introducing and welcoming guests from Uganda.
Because of a relentless stewardship team, we have finally moved away from our
historic position as having the worst stewardship in our Province - you may
applaud.
Our Commission on Ministry has agreed to work with colleges and seminaries
to give our local training efforts more content while preserving creativity
and flexibility.
Happening and Christophany continue to pack houses with young people.
Our Planned Giving ministry, known to you chiefly through the St. Matthew Society,
is considered a model at national headquarters, and has already born much fruit
in our parishes.
The ECW has undertaken on its own several projects that we will be recognizing
this weekend, entirely on their own, and quite stunningly.
I was humbled to walk into St. Peter's Hazleton and see them being recognized
by the local Air Force reserve unit for their collection of supplies for our
troops oversees, amounts collected far out of proportion to their numbers.
St. Peter's in Tunkhannock has undertaken what I consider a brilliant advertising
campaign that I encourage you to get very nosey about.
Good Shepherd, Scranton, had 135 people present at a 4 p.m. service on a beautiful
holiday weekend.
Trinity, West Pittston, has turned a garage into a lovely neighborhood ministry
center.
I have taken into my home a wooden sheep from Emmaus that reminds me every
day of my discipleship.
The Nativity choir brought American voices to England this summer and the Royal
School of Church Music continues to add a gem to the diadem of St. Stephen's
in Wilkes-Barre. A number of our churches have added one of the Episcopal Church's
three contemporary hymn supplements to their supply and sing the words and
thoughts of many more hearts.
Our wardens and vestry conference helped a record number of parish leaders
learn of their responsibilities and paths of service. You will soon hear of
the Good Neighbor award.
We now have a website chock full of resources for children's ministry. Our
communication ministry in general received numerous national awards, and little
old Bethlehem's website, receives more than 65,000 hits a months, with 150
different visitors each day.
St George's in Hellertown has taken to its heart and is caring in every way
for an impoverished family a county away, an act that is not only sheer service,
but also makes friends for Jesus Christ.
I could go on, but that's a small and accurate sample of what parishes, committees,
and individuals are doing. I say none of it in a spirit or horn-blowing for
the Episcopal Church, but to evoke our gratitude for what God does do whenever
given a chance, and also to sharpen in each of us the determination to take
responsibility for our own mission. We still have difficult times ahead, I
believe, and some of us may not live to see our present issues resolved and
our challenges met. I believe as well, however, that it is the faithful acceptance
of the challenges and the willingness to be who God has made each of us to
be that will allow us to do something worthwhile for Jesus Christ.
Thank you.
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