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An Epiphany Message from the Presiding Bishop

Episcopal News Service. January 13, 2005 [011305-2]

Un mensaje del Obispo Primado para la Epifanía

Message de l'Évêque président pour l'Épiphanie

Dear brothers and sisters:

I am writing in the season of Epiphany during which we contemplate the revelation of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ who assumed our humanity in its fullness. Every human face, therefore, bears the stamp of Jesus and is deeply valued in God’s sight.

I am exceedingly mindful of this as our global community continues to deal with the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunamis of December 26 that affected 11 countries in South Asia. Individuals and nations have rallied in support, giving witness to generosity and a deep sense of interconnectedness and solidarity. Episcopal Relief and Development reports to me an outpouring of care and compassion, and as of this date has received more than two million dollars, with additional gifts continuing to come in every day.

As we reckon with this devastation, we need to keep in mind that disease, poverty, hunger and civil strife are constant realities in our world. For example, we know that 165,000 people, mostly children, die every month from malaria, 240,000 from AIDS and 140,000 from diarrhea. Practically all of these deaths are preventable. It is my hope and prayer that the tragedy of the tsunamis will open our eyes and our hearts to what occurs day by day on a less dramatic but far greater scale.

We live with delusions of safety and permanence. Then suddenly a natural disaster of overwhelming proportions, such as the tsunamis and the hurricanes that wrecked havoc on our own shores last year, brings into sharp relief the uncertain nature of our mortal life. In the face of tragedy, as fragile humans of uncertain future, we are driven to ask the question: where is God in all of this?

We ask this question in all manner of circumstances. Where is God in the death of a child? Where is God in the auto accident on a snowy night? Where is God as we experience someone we love slipping irrevocably into the haze of Alzheimer’s disease? Where is God when wars tear apart nations and consume our resources and energies?

Where is God in all of this? Ours is a God who is no stranger to suffering, a God who is revealed through the mystery of the Cross, a God who shares our burdens and companions us in suffering.

At the same time, God’s presence is made known through us as we are in active solidarity with those who suffer. Our care and our concern is a manifestation of God’s own care and concern. In us and through us Christ continues his work of reconciling and healing. It is therefore an act of faithlessness to stand passively asking where God is in all of this without asking as well how God’s presence and compassion and care are seeking to make themselves known in deeds of generosity and service.

Here I am put in mind of St. Paul’s notion of the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings. When our humanity is laid bare, when we have lost control and can no longer hide behind our affluence and apparent self-sufficiency, we are obliged to stand naked with others in the truth of where we find ourselves. At such moments the communion of the Holy Spirit is realized in a shared vulnerability and our hearts are opened to the deep compassion of God which roots and grounds the universe.

How essential it is for us in our church to approach one another, particularly those with whom we differ, not as enemies or adversaries but as vulnerable brothers and sisters who, in spite of seeming strength and security, have their own anxieties, fears and burdens to bear. Is not the present strain within the Anglican Communion an opportunity given us by God to reframe and order the ways in which we relate ourselves to one another? Are we not being invited to live the mystery of communion in the Holy Spirit at a deeper level and to come together in unity to serve those who have lost so much and stand in such desperate need?

I have written to the primates of churches in the areas affected by the tsunamis to share with them our love and concern and our commitment to assist them in these times. Communion, as has often been said, is made up of many webs of relationship. One of the most fundamental aspects of communion is a willingness to reach beyond oneself for the sake of others in the power of God’s reconciling love.

A special meeting of the House of Bishops called to address the Report of the Lambeth Commission on Communion, the Windsor Report, has just concluded. I commend to you the word from the bishops addressed to the church following the meeting. Your bishops recognized that the Windsor Report at its heart is an invitation to strengthen the bonds of mutual affection between the churches of the Anglican Communion in the service of mission. It is my sense that the present disaster in South Asia, along with the reminder it brings of our ongoing need to be in solidarity with brothers and sisters around the world in their suffering, is the way in which we are being called at this moment to live a costly and self-sacrificing life of communion for the sake of the world God deeply loves and cherishes.

As your Presiding Bishop I am profoundly grateful to all of you who have so generously responded to the present situation in South Asia. At the same time I pray that we as a church will continue to reach out beyond ourselves in communion and loving service to those in many places who daily bear burdens of poverty and disease and live with little hope that their cries will be heard. The Lord hears the cry of the poor and so must we as well.

Yours in Christ,

Frank T. Griswold

Presiding Bishop and Primate

[thumbnail: Presiding Bishop Frank Gr...]