House of Bishops gathers in North Carolina to worship, work and blog
Episcopal News Service. March 16, 2009 [031609-02]
Pat McCaughan
Members of the House of Bishops, gathering at the Kanuga Conference Center for their regularly scheduled March 13-18 spring meeting, are expected to engage in worship and Scripture reflection, consider national and church economics, discuss full communion with the Moravian Church, anticipate General Convention 2009, and elect the next bishop of the Diocese of Ecuador Central.
They're also learning to blog, according to Bishop Kirk Smith of Arizona's blogsite. "Our own cathedral dean, [the Very Rev.] Nick Knisely is here at Camp Kanuga teaching bishops how to blog," Smith wrote. The meeting, which in its spring session traditionally takes the form of a retreat, is closed to the public and media.
During a Tuesday, March 17 evening session bishops are expected to discuss Anglican Communion issues and also to cast their first ballots for the bishop of Ecuador Central, according to the agenda for the meeting. Delegates attending the February 14 diocesan convention of Central Ecuador authorized the House of Bishops to elect a successor to the Rt. Rev. Wilfrido Ramos-Orench, who is retiring.
The nominees will participate in "a 'walkabout' among the bishops so that they may get to know [them]," wrote Bishop George Councell of New Jersey in his blog. "The House of Bishops will then take ballots to elect a new bishop, who is to be consecrated this summer."
Anne Rudig, communication director for the Episcopal Church, addressed bishops as part of a March 16 orientation session for the 76th General Convention, which will take place July 8-17 in Anaheim, California, in the Diocese of Los Angeles. Bishop Suffragan Ken Price of Southern Ohio and retired Bishop Richard Chang of Hawaii also participated in the orientation session.
"I shared my plans for beginning to tell our story, rather than let others tell it for us," Rudig said via email following her presentation. "Part of this is the message strategy work on the positive stories of mission and faith that we are doing, and part of it is just being prepared for controversies."
Also discussed were enhanced General Convention staffing, including new roles such as press officer, rapid response coordinator, corporate communications advisor, Episcopal Church bloggers and offsite media manager, which will allow media to cover the July 8-17 triennial gathering remotely for the first time, according to Rudig.
Additionally, "Episcopal Life Daily will be bilingual, with a Spanish-speaking staff of writers integrated into the usual E-Life staff," Rudig continued. She also described for the bishops media hub specifics, including "live webcasting of worship services, interviews and events, twitter as news bulletin, daily calendar, news feeds from secular press and E-Life, "Flickr" photostream -- everything shareable and embeddable so that the dioceses and congregations can take elements of the Hub for their sites, too."
'Very good stuff and very hard work'
Some bishops remarked about the cold and wet weather at Kanuga. Bishop Stephen Lane of Maine said this in his blog about the gathering: "The spring meeting is always a longer meeting of the House of Bishops because at this meeting we have time for continuing education for all the bishops.
"The past two days we've been reflecting on our roles as bishops in this time of recession, when we are very divided politically about what to do. Friday we heard from Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann and from author Bill Bishop about "The Great Sort," the self-imposed segregation of communities into like-minded cultural ghettos that are coming to dominate our political landscape," Lane wrote.
"Saturday we heard from Harvard Business School professor Warren McFarlan about the state of the economy, and North Carolina Congressman David Price about the political process of addressing the recession and President Obama's proposals for our future. Very good stuff and very hard work."
Bill Bishop's "The Big Sort" predicted greater polarization in the future because "Americans are more and more segregating themselves into like-minded communities, where politics and life-style are shared," wrote Bishop Kirk Smith of Arizona. "This is one reason that the Episcopal church, which promotes diversity, does not do so well in a culture which promotes homogeneity."
Brueggemann addressed the bishops during the March 13 opening session, titled "New Era of Engagement: Gospel Alternatives to Polarization," according to the meeting agenda.
Bishop Wayne Smith of Missouri called McFarlan's presentation "honest talk without a tone of doom and gloom" on his blogsite.
Arizona's Smith described the session as a dose of "good news, bad news" on his blog.
"The bad news? It is the worst economic crisis since the Depression, and will affect us in some way for the next ten years (or at least the seven lean years the Bible speaks of)," he wrote. "The cause? An unprincipled get-rich-quick 'extended drunk' that affected us on every level. We are now paying the price for our greed," with churches likely to be impacted as donations decrease, he wrote.
Expressing confidence in the Obama administration as good news, Smith's advice to the church is "to counter the atmosphere of fear with a message of hope, and we have to redouble our efforts of faithful stewardship," he wrote.
In upcoming sessions, the bishops are expected to discuss a possible pastoral letter and consider an enhanced relationship with the Moravian Church through study of the document "Finding Our Delight in the Lord: A Proposal for Full Communion" with bishops M. Blair Couch and Wayne Burkette of the Moravian tradition. Bishops will also discuss mission funding with Church Pension Group personnel Pat Coller and Susan McCone and explore aspects of Title IV of the Episcopal Church canons.
A call-in telephone media briefing is planned for Wednesday, March 18 at a time to be announced, after which Episcopal News Service will file a final report.