Endowed Parishes Urge Continuing Dialogue; Middle East Primate Brings Message of Hope
Episcopal News Service. May 10, 2004 [051004-2]
Matthew Davies
Stressing the importance of dialogue, discernment and collaboration as the key to working through differences, the 19th annual conference of the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes (CEEP) met in Atlanta May 5-8, under the banner "The Power of Vision: The Gospel Insight."
According to their mission statement, the Consortium is a national network that strives to embrace change, promote consensus, and bring hope and energy to the church. The meeting was designed to bring together lay and clergy leaders to "inspire and equip endowed parishes for effective leadership, stewardship and transformation in the church and beyond."
During a sermon at evensong in St. Luke's Church May 6, Dean Samuel Candler of St. Philip's Cathedral, Atlanta, told the congregation that "it is right to be proud of our endowments" but emphasized that they are not the primary calling of a congregation. "Our primary calling is to find divine faith...in a parish of glory and joy," he said. "And when people die they leave their glory and joy, and some leave endowments. So...these endowments...are the fruits of glory and joy."
A Gospel based on community
Dean George Werner, president of the House of Deputies, addressed the meeting on the outcomes and implications of last year's General Convention and spoke about his travels around the dioceses and experiences of some of the struggles that people are encountering.
"We are at a time when people are yelling and few are talking to each other," he said. "When I was presiding over the Gene Robinson debate [at General Convention] the people were magnificent, but one person would say their piece and another would respond. There was no dialogue...[Yet the] Gospel is based on community."
Werner, who served as dean of Pittsburgh's Trinity Cathedral for 20 years, described St. Paul as a "wounded healer" who, because of his experiences, saw things in a different way. "We--like Paul--are all on a pilgrimage and we have all changed in every year of our lives," he said. "We are not only called to a people and a place but to a time in God's history...[and] we have an obligation to look at what it means to be part of a family and community."
Speaking about the problems that people encounter when taking on the authority of scripture, Werner proposed that it can often prove to be "more than we can chew" and stressed the need for having all voices at the table.
Werner, who is in close contact with the American Anglican Council and other groups who are advocating for realignment of Anglicanism in North America, added that as "the children of the God of grace" the need for discussion is imperative if "we're going to do [justice to] mission."
Democratic system
Because he is often confronted with the comment that "those people in New York have done this," Werner told the workshop that he likes to remind people how the Episcopal Church really works. "We have a system where any major decision is made by a voting in orders so that any decision is not just made by a majority of halves," he said. "When we gather we have to agree between the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies. Both houses have to concur."
Furthermore, he explained, in the House of Deputies clergy and lay deputies must also concur, otherwise legislation doesn't pass. In a vote by orders, the chair of a diocesan deputation polls each deputy in each order. If two vote yes and two vote no, the deputation in that order is counted as divided, and recorded as "no." In that way, the system leans in favor of an overall "no" vote. Thus, Werner said, even if all the clergy voted in favor of a particular measure, if the laity defeated it by one vote, it wouldn't pass.
"Once you begin to understand that this is our system and you look at other systems in Christian denominations you realize that, although it's not perfect, it is the best we have," he said.
Continuing dialogue--however painful
A question and answer session focused on Werner's suggestion that the antagonism is coming from one side, with particular reference to a comment he attributes to the moderate voices in the church, "they're giving a war and we're not coming." One participant cited concerns that more moderate or liberal voices are not as forthcoming or intentional about their beliefs as conservatives. "The more moderate people are very polite," she said. "Some of these people really are at war, so shouldn't we be more intentional or political?"
Sandra Ferguson McPhee, recently elected member of the Executive Council, said she had just attended a partnership for global mission meeting in Texas, during which conversations arising from General Convention's decision to confirm the election of the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican Communion had been difficult. The main thing, she added, is continuing dialogue. "The meeting was painful and several members have resigned from the partnership," she said. "Many of us were in painful dialogue but at least we are still talking to one another."
A parishioner from St Michael and All Angels in the Diocese of Dallas voiced disappointment with his bishop, saying that he wanted to take the diocese into the newly-formed Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes without offering individual parishes a chance to opt out. "We want to be in creative relationships with everyone--the diocese, the Episcopal Church, and the Anglican Communion," he said. "Our sense is that we need to move on and proceed but also to be in continuing dialogue."
Margaret Larom, world mission interpretation and networks officer for the Episcopal Church's office of Anglican and Global Relations, highlighted some of the incredible work in the Middle East with which the parish of St Michael and All Angels is involved. "When we see parishes trying to bring peace in a place where there is a real war we are reminded of the church's role in the world," she said. "Were we to focus on those things we would be a happier church."
Christian/Muslim reconciliation
The Most Rev. Clive Handford, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East, gave a workshop on Christian/Muslim reconciliation in the Middle East, bringing the message that "we need to tease out the things that unite us."
Introducing the workshop was Philip Whitfield, communications and development officer for the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East, who offered a useful demographic perspective on the province's vast geographical scale and socio-political problems. "In landmass, America comprises a little fewer than 2 percent of the planet and the Middle East Province is about 25 percent larger," he said. "If you were to set out from here in Atlanta and fly west, the Province in the Middle East would stretch to Dublin, Ireland. If you were to fly south, you'd be in the south of Brazil beyond Sao Paulo."
The Middle East, Whitfield said, provides 35 percent of the world's oil, yet a typical family income is $98 per week if living in an oil-rich country--about 5 percent of the average American family's income--and about half that if elsewhere. It's far worse in Palestine, Whitfield added. Furthermore, the average age in Palestine is 16 compared to 36 in America. "The political leadership in the Middle East has let them down...they have not put the infrastructure in," he said. "There are unfulfilled desires and they want a more equitable balance. But there is no leadership to bring them forward."
Handford, who with his wife Jane has created a hospitality ministry in the Middle East, spoke about how the Episcopal Church is playing a leading role in the dialogue between Christians and Muslims. He drew attention to the Building Bridges seminar convened by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams a few weeks ago in Washington, D.C. "Dr. Rowan Williams said that sitting with each other's scriptures is a very important and moving occasion. 'When we understand each other's love, we understand each other more,'" he said. "Understanding love; witnessing in love of our neighbor, rather than trying to take advantage one over another--these are the hallmarks of our Christian life."
Symbol of potential
The cooperation and "peaceful living alongside" between Christianity and Islam is the fundamental reality, Handford added, recalling a visit to Baghdad in March with Bishop Suffragan for Chaplaincies George Packard. "I was privileged to be at the historical signing of a peace accord between the leaders of the main religious groups in that city," he said. "It had been arranged by an Anglican priest, Canon Andrew White of Coventry Cathedral, working with the firm support of the Pentagon, the State Department and the British Foreign Office...It took a Christian priest to get Sunni and Shia Muslim leaders to sit down together and talk."
At the end of that conference about 40 people signed a nine-point accord and established the Iraqi Centre for Reconciliation, Dialogue and Peace. "That, I believe, is a symbol of both the heart of relations between Christians and Muslims and the potential for the future," Handford added.
Handford is regarded as one of the foremost authorities on contemporary life in the Middle East, having previously held positions in the Episcopal Church in Baghdad, Beirut, Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi. He admitted that, although there is a long way to go, there is a real sense that Christians and Muslims are on the road together. "We need to tease out the things that unite us, while not ignoring the importance of the things that divide us," he said. "If, week by week we proclaim, 'We believe in One God,' surely we have to find the reality of that in our life together with members of a fellow monotheistic faith."
'Creative coherence'
More than thirty workshops, fifty presenters and 300 attendees addressed and discussed areas of leadership, spiritual formation, stewardship, outreach, mission and ministry, investment, and encouraging young vocations.
"Perhaps our very best contribution is to truly live our vision and mission, and to share and practice the wisdom we've acquired," said Katherine Tyler Scott, president of CEEP. "If we commit to this we will contribute to a 'creative coherence' and a theology of effective leadership in the Episcopal Church and the world." She added that "to act in congruence with our vision and mission during turbulent times is indeed a bold and powerful act--it is leadership."
In-depth information on individual workshops and presenters can be found at: http://www.endowedparishes.org/.