FORT WORTH: Diocese explores means of reconciliation, renewal
Episcopal News Service. January 20, 2011 [012011-04]
Katie Sherrod, Communications Director of the Diocese of Ft. Worth
What is reconciliation? What is the difference between "worship" and "liturgy?" Is liturgy something the clergy "do" and present to the laity? What elements might be included in a liturgy of reconciliation?
All these questions were explored at a "Chili and Liturgy Workshop" on Saturday, Jan. 15 at St. Christopher Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Fort Worth. The workshop is part of a diocesan-wide process of developing a Liturgy for Reconciliation for use when all the parishes of the diocese are reunited, said the Rt. Rev. C. Wallis Ohl, provisional bishop of Fort Worth.
"In The Episcopal Church it is often said that if you want to know what we believe, look at how and what we pray," said Bishop Ohl. "This liturgy we're talking about here today is part of our ongoing work on reconciliation and renewal."
The former bishop and much of the diocesan leadership left the Episcopal Church in Nov. 2008 although they have continued to call themselves "the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth" and have sought to retain possession of Episcopal Church property. Litigation in this matter is ongoing in state and federal courts.
The diocese reorganized with new leadership at a special meeting of the diocesan convention called by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in Feb. 2009. The Rt. Rev. Edwin F. [Ted] Gulick Jr. was elected provisional bishop at that convention. He was succeeded by Bishop Ohl at the regular meeting of the Diocesan Convention in Nov. 2009.
The Chili and Liturgy workshop was led by David R. Brockman, Ph.D., an adjunct instructor at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, assisted by his wife Eleanor Forfang Brockman, and was presented by the diocesan Christian Education Committee.
"One of the things we've learned in this diocese is that God will often bless us in times of great pain," Brockman told the group of more than 80 participants. "Since the split in our diocese we've seen the growth of a new relationship between laity and clergy and a new understanding of the role of all the family of God in the life and work of the diocese."
Bishop Ohl said that reconciliation is a primary focus because "that's what Christians do – work on reconciling the world to God through Christ." This is especially important, he said, in the anxiety and fears left in the wake of the split in the diocese. In his address at the last diocesan convention in November, he said that he has been asked this question many times: if The Episcopal Church prevails [in the litigation], will those people still in the buildings be forced to leave?
"Will we drive folk from their church homes? Not on my watch!" he declared forcefully.
"If someone chooses to depart, I believe we must say to them "God bless you on your journey" without rancor or anger. Those who choose to stay -- or, if you prefer, to come back to the Episcopal Church —- must be greeted with prodigious welcome, as God has prodigiously welcomed us so often in our own lives."
Ohl said the Chili and Liturgy workshop was one part of a process aimed at finding ways to frame that "prodigious welcome' in terms of reconciliation and renewal.
"Reconciliation and Renewal" also is the theme for the 2011 Diocesan Lenten Series. Ohl said the series is presented for everyone in the diocese but especially for those congregations who have been displaced from their buildings and are worshipping in rented spaces, which often are available only on Sundays. This year's speakers include the Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris, retired bishop suffragan of Massachusetts, and the Rev. Dr. Louis Weil, the James F. Hodges Professor of Liturgics at Church Divinity School of the Pacific.
Weil will lead a diocesan clergy conference in April, during which work on the Liturgy of Reconciliation will continue, using input from the participants at the workshop.
To "prime the pump" for that input, as Ohl put it, Brockman led the workshop participants through a three-part process – a discussion of liturgy followed by a discussion about reconciliation that included a meditation, and then, in groups of three or four, a brainstorming session on what elements a liturgy of reconciliation might include. These discussions were primed with objects given to each group; a piece of fabric coupled with a variety of objects such as a broken mug, a small water fountain, a miniature bird cage, and a bowl and a cup.
Brockman urged workshop participants to contribute prayers, litanies and music as well as more concrete items such as paintings, weavings, drawings and sculptures for possible use in the liturgy. He said these contributions are due in the diocesan office by Ash Wednesday, where they will be collected and given to Weil for use during the clergy conference.
Victoria Prescott, chair of the diocesan Christian Education Committee said the Chili and Liturgy workshop is part of a continuing series of events designed by the Christian Education Committee "to help increase participation of all the baptized in the life and work of the diocese."
"For too long, we laypeople were taught to be passive recipients of liturgy. But the vital work of reconciliation that faces us is the work of all of us. Clergy can't do it alone," Prescott said.