Diocesan
Life Columns
Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Bishop Paul's writes a monthly column for the Diocesan Newspaper, Diocesan
Life, edited by Communication
Minister, Bill Lewellis.
For more features from the life of our diocese, check Diocesanlife....ONLINE; and Bethlehem
News.
We
best know who we are when we care for others
Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Diocesan Life, October 2004
Even if you don't see it on the national news, it really happened. This summer
we learned again that when followers of Jesus work together, great good comes
of it. Working together to meet a crisis and with very little time to act, our
tiny diocese in Pennsylvania staved off mass starvation on the other side of
the globe. (Please see The Miracle
of August, October Diocesan Life.)
From Athens to Whitehall (we don't have towns with X, Y, or Z), adults and children
pitched in for a rapid response to the needs of people they will never see.
While other relief efforts will continue to flow in, our rapid response kept
people alive for further help. In the month with the lowest church attendance
and the least contributions, something like a miracle occurred. I am grateful
to Connie Fegley and Bill Lewellis for keeping this need before us on a daily
basis during August.
While this event was in a quiet way quite spectacular, it is not uncommon. At
the same time that our concern for Sudan was growing, Episcopal churches in the
Lehigh Valley oversubscribed the building of a house for Habitat for Humanity.
(Please see October Diocesan
Life, page A4 (pdf).)
A family will have a new start in life and a chance at the American Dream because
individuals and parishes understood and enacted our baptismal commitment to "seek
and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself." I hope
that this will be an on-going ministry for those parishes.
Besides these cooperative ministries, as I read your parish newsletters I am
always impressed by how many of our parishes have a deep commitment to enact
Christ's compassion for humanity. There are only 15,000 of us, but we do make
a consistent dent in the life of Northeast Pennsylvania.
Our World Mission and Social Ministry committees continue to urge us on in these
ministries of compassion, and I know that we all thank them for their efforts.
In a time when some people are fascinated by the differences that exist in our
church, it is important to reaffirm our great unanimity of faith and mission.
We best know who we are when we care for others.
Several aspects of our common mission are developing for which I ask your prayers.
Kids4Peace is an effort to bring Palestinian and Israeli children - Christian,
Jewish, and Muslim - together in a safe place (the USA) so they can encounter
each other as human beings in an environment that values diversity. Each year
children come from the Middle East to this country to experience a reality their
parents cannot imagine. Those of you familiar with the Irish Youth Exchange know
how startled some of those young people were to visit a land where Catholics
and Protestants live in the same neighborhoods and participate in a single community
life.
Kids4Peace is an expensive and complex program. If we decide to undertake it,
we will need to seek funding and labor from many sources. We are constantly reminded,
however, that the toll in human misery exacted daily in Israel/Palestine is even
more expensive. Kids4Peace can change the future by changing the experiences
of tomorrow's leaders and citizens.
The second item involves me a bit more personally. In January, 2005, Diana and
I will be going in your name to southern Sudan, to the diocese of Kajo Keji.
As this visit was being developed, I had some questions (besides my well-known
jumping at any chance not to travel): why would we spend the money to visit Sudan
when people there surely could use the money?
The reply both from Sudan's Archbishop Joseph and the leadership of our World
Mission Committee was the same. People in the Third World need to see and know
that Westerners are aware of their existence, care about their needs, respect
their struggles and accomplishments, and can speak to them words of hope for
the future.
Diana and I will visit the orphanages and schools that our parishes support,
worship with the congregations, and do our best to listen to the stories and
hopes of our brothers and sisters in Kajo Keji. We will visit health care institutions
and attempt to visit refugee camps as well if conditions permit.
Our goal is to express your love for God's people in Sudan and the solidarity
we feel with them as they confront the effects of their government's genocidal
policies on a daily basis. Please pray for this mission that across the boundaries
of culture and language, the love of God may be seen and celebrated.
Attention in this country to the problems in Sudan has increased, due primarily
to the efforts of Christian groups to influence government and the media. The
Sudanese government is on the public-relations defensive, as we increasingly
see in the news. Change may be possible, and our prayers, words, and deeds must
continue to focus on redemption and release for both the black population in
southern Sudan and their Arab oppressors in Khartoum.
The U.S. government's recent agreement that what is going on in Sudan is, indeed,
genocide will help bring world attention to a situation that must be changed.
The witness that our diocese and the six other dioceses with Sudanese partners
have been making over the last four years has been combined with that of many
others. We are seeing results. With you I am deeply grateful for this.
I share all of this with you to give thanks for our common efforts, and to ask
your continued prayers and support. I also share it because churches, families,
and individuals who focus on caring for others come to know more deeply who they
are as followers of Jesus and move through life with a deeper sense of purpose
and joy. Given the efforts I continue to see in our diocesan community, I could
wish you nothing more.
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Index)
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