Bishop's Journey: 'Stardust' And Celebration
Episcopal News Service. March 8, 1979 [79071]
New York -- What does a bishop for the Armed Forces do? Everything from play "Stardust" for the Guam evening newscast to minister with troops at the tense "demilitarized zone" in Korea to meet with the House of Bishops of the Nippon Seikokai.
Mostly, though, the Rt. Rev. Charles L. Burgreen, Suffragan Bishop for the Armed Forces for the Episcopal Church, just enjoyed and celebrated the burgeoning network of lay leadership that expands and bolsters the work of the regularly-commissioned chaplains for whom he is bishop.
Bishop Burgreen returned recently from a month-long tour of the western Pacific basin which took him to Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines, Japan and Korea. He Baptised and confirmed nearly everywhere he went; gathered chaplains and lay leaders together for retreats and conferences, preached and celebrated with the Episcopal congregations and met with senior military officers throughout the turbulent area.
The Rev. Canon William Johnson of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York, traveled with the bishop to lead quiet days and conferences. Canon Johnson is a theologian and director of the Cathedral Institute of Theology in New York. During the month-long trip, he delivered 37 lectures.
This is Bishop Burgreen's first extensive trip to that area since his consecration in February, 1978 and, a recent conversation at the Episcopal Church Center brought out much about the Episcopal Church's ministry with the military and about his own thoughts for the office.
The first stop on the trip was Hawaii where he held services at Schofield Barracks, Pearl Harbor Naval Station and Hickham Air Force Base and also presided at the first of many quiet days for the chaplains. He also assisted at a memorial wreath-laying ceremony near the USS Arizona memorial and presided at the committal of the remains of a survivor of the Arizona. The latter involved hovering in a launch often within inches of the hulk of the sunken battleship.
It was at this point that a key refrain to military ministry first surfaced: "The civilian harbor master at Pearl is a retired military man and one of our lay readers and every Sunday, right down there on the harbor, he sets up an altar. The cross is made of an anchor and he has an Episcopal service there with the harbor and Diamond Head in the background. It's just beautiful, like an Easter sunrise service every Sunday and he draws a good steady congregation. "
From there, the journey took them to Guam over which Bishop Burgreen has Episcopal oversight "as we develop our idea of the Diaspora -- ministry to the Episcopalians who are separated from the normal parish life."
He spent time with the chaplains and the Episcopal community and then launched into his "diocesan duties": meetings with the Council of Advise, the board of the preparatory school, vestries and mission committees and working with the Ven. Jordan Peck, the archdeacon for Micronesia on whose shoulders much of the day-to-day running of the district falls.
He also met with his Roman Catholic counterpart and had high praise for the quality of cooperation out there: "I ordained a deacon there and Bishop Felixberto Flores joined our service after his had concluded. I invited him up to the altar where he gave the new deacon a special blessing and called him 'our new deacon.' Then we both went down the aisle to greet the people. It's a very close relationship that you develop out there that's just great fun."
It was also in Guam that, in addition to a taped television new interview, Bishop Burgreen found himself playing "Stardust" over the closing credits of the evening news broadcast. "That was a real thrill, to see myself on television like that. The next day, as I boarded my flight, one of the flight attendants recognized me."
On to the Philippines and the emergence of the recurring theme: "I was very, very pleased to find that the lay reader group is well and alive. Since Chaplain (Norman) Cram is so often at sea, the lay readers hold that group together."
Bishop Burgreen also said that the lay readers did some counseling and teaching and expressed the hope that they could do more. He pointed to the success of a pilot lay pastorate program launched among military people in Germany and said; "That thing is going great guns. I've already licensed my first lay preacher who will preach a sermon at a conference in Brechtesgaden next month (April) and -- get this -- she is a fine preacher."
The work at Clarke Air Force Base in the Philippines is also held together by a lay reader: "He's an Air Force Officer, a flyer. Amazing. He's been doing it for nine or ten months now. He's just magnificent. Dean (Robert) Hibbs of St. Andrew's Theological Seminary comes once or twice a month to administer communion to the Clarke congregations and the rest of the time it's the lay leadership. "
The Bishop and Canon Johnson then whipped off for one of those if-it's-Tuesday-at-0800-this-must-be-Honshu-type tours of Japan where, once again, the key elements of the military ministry were much in evidence.
At a base in northern Japan, they found a congregation of 30 "just dying for us to get there so they could have the communion. The Roman Catholic chaplain broke out his vestments, we didn't even know we were to have a service -- and we had a marvelous Eucharist. It's part of a very personal relationship that you get into with the people who are scattered. It's an exciting ministry."
Bishop Burgreen spoke repeatedly of the role of the lay readers, serving and leading congregations where no Episcopal chaplain is stationed. "I'm just so proud of these lay readers. It really is good to see it all first hand. I'm more convinced than ever that it's all worth it."
The Japan stop also included a five-day conference for lay readers and chaplains from all over the Pacific basin, centered on lectures in sacramental theology by Canon Johnson.
During that interlude, the bishop has an opportunity to have tea with the House of Bishops of the Nippon Seikokai -- the Holy Catholic Church of Japan and a sister Church of the Anglican Communion. He also visited a military base near Hiroshima. "When I realized how close I was, it kind of gave me the creeps. I've studied enough of nuclear weapons and war... maybe I'm more aware of it than some of the protesters. "
Bishop Burgreen traveled next to Korea and then to the Okinawa Prefecture of Japan. In Korea, he met with chaplains, lay leaders and the senior officers including members of the negotiating team and the men commanding some of the units of American troops that operate under near-combat conditions along the so-called demilitarized zone. It was here that he saw, once again, the active faith that makes so many kinds of ministry possible among military people.
"You see a man on the line up there so vitally interested in his troops. And it's not a show just because the bishop's there. To meet these Christian leaders is quite an experience. So many try to characterize military men as warmongers.... I find these people to be real. They're bound to reality because they know what life and death really is."
Finally to Okinawa and talk with the Rt. Rev. Paul Nakamura, Bishop of Okinawa of the Nippon Seikokai. (It was formerly a jurisdiction of the Episcopal Church.) Trained as a Kamikaze in the waning days of World War II, Bishop Nakamura converted to Christianity after the war, took orders and finally returned to his native Okinawa as bishop of the diocese. "A fascinating man with a wonderful Christian story," Bishop Burgreen said.
The vestments, the bishop and the canon are all beginning to be a little wilted at this point. Back to Hawaii for a few days rest then the return to the States and the opportunity to reflect on the learnings of the odyssey.