NORTHWEST TEXAS: New bishop Scott Mayer sees diocese as 'open and expansive'
Episcopal News Service. April 16, 2009 [041609-03]
Pat McCaughan
During his first month as Bishop of Northwest Texas, the Rt. Rev. Scott Mayer sized up his surroundings--about 77,000 square miles of plains, small mountain ranges and arid desert with fewer than 40 congregations and rapidly changing demographics--and took a leap of faith. He blogged.
"So here we go," Mayer wrote to the diocese in a first blog offering "deep gratitude" for the energy and effort engaging his March 21 consecration. "Everything about it (the consecration) revealed what is true and beautiful about our tradition and our corner of the world," he wrote. "Northwest Texas is alive, vibrant, and like the big sky above us, open and expansive."
That expansiveness, the sheer geography confronting the 8,000-member diocese, presents one of his greatest challenges, Mayer, 53, acknowledged during a recent interview from the Lubbock-based diocesan center.
He had served 15 years as rector of the Church of the Heavenly Rest in Abilene when elected on the second ballot last November as the diocese's fifth bishop.
"Everyone said (the first) Bishop (George) Quarterman ran the diocese out of his glove compartment. I think Scott will be running it out of his I-Phone," said diocesan executive secretary Carolyn Hearn, who has now worked for four of the diocese's five bishops.
"But it's also very important to spend a lot of face-to-face time and one of the first things Bishop Mayer is doing is visiting each of our clericuses [clergy groups] as they meet in our four deaneries," she added.
Mayer's "authenticity, and ... intuitive and compassionate heart" balance pastoral and cultural sensibilities that "are pure Hank Williams," according to the Rev. Charles James Cook, retired professor of pastoral theology, who preached at the consecration. "The historical moment may be a bit dark," Cook observed to the 1,200 well-wishers assembled at the First United Methodist Church in Lubbock, but added: "there is plenty of hope."
Hope is what Mayer is counting on—as well as the people of northwest Texas, whom he describes as the diocese's "greatest resource. The kind of people in this part of the world ... will tear up their own truck while pulling a perfect stranger's out of a ditch," he said. "We are glad to be Episcopalian and we are passionate about the Gospel."
'Growing in clarity of mission and identity'
The Diocese of Northwest Texas emerged in 1958 from the Diocese of North Texas, which no longer exists, and includes cattle ranches, cotton farmers, oil fields, and wind energy facilities.
Part of the socially conservative Bible Belt, Lubbock has a population of 217,000 and the most churches per capita in the nation, Major denominations are the Church of Christ and the Baptist Church.
Nicknamed the "Hub City" because Lubbock is an economic, education and health care hub, its largest employers are Texas Tech University and four major hospitals. Lubbock's recent population gain means loss for smaller surrounding areas, and is felt acutely "across the board" among Episcopalians and other denominations, said the Rev. Jim Liggett, rector of St. Nicholas Church in Midland.
We face "distinctive demographic challenges. Most of the counties in Texas that lost population in the last census are in our diocese and we have many small congregations that are struggling as the towns around them go through serious changes and shrink in size," he said.
Add to that an influx of Spanish-speaking residents and "the challenge is how to do mission in the context of really changing demographics," said Liggett.
But with Mayer as bishop there is "a strong sense of excitement and energy ... a real coming together," he added. "We're developing a growing focus on outreach and on involvement with the community."
Achieving that "coming together" has been a challenge. St. Nicholas is "a continuing congregation [loyal to the Episcopal Church]," Liggett said. "We suffered a serious split in 2005" over the 2003 election of Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the church's first openly gay bishop.
"But the parish is recovering wonderfully," added Liggett. "The main thing is continuing to grow in clarity on our identity and mission and building on that."
'Easing into bishop'
The Dallas-born and Lubbock-raised Mayer said he "wore ten gallon hats and cowboy boots in college, but I haven't done the hat-and-boot thing in a long time. Although I will drink a Lone Star beer every now and then."
Approaching his new role as a native son has obvious upsides and potential downsides, he acknowledged. "The disadvantage would be—-and I don't know that it would play out this way—-being from within it's possible that I would be blind to some things that an outsider would see. It's also very true that it's difficult for the priest to go back into her or his home congregation because of the change in the role."
The self-described introvert sometimes finds the newfound attention uncomfortable. He prefers to "ease into the House of Bishops (but) ... the people here are doing a very good job of reminding me that I'm bishop.
"I am very much enjoying what I'm doing," he added. "You hear all the time it's like drinking from a fire hose. There is some degree of truth to that. But there is a good deal of mercy as I try to drink from that fire hose."
A former auto parts and equipment salesman, "the same industry as my father" he enrolled in the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest at 33, and was curate at St. James Church in Texarkana before serving 15 years as rector of Heavenly Rest.
When elected in November 2008, Mayer said he was committed to the historical oneness of the church, adding that "unity is the biggest issue facing the Episcopal Church" now.
Upon being elected, he recalled his initial reaction as "overwhelmed, thinking what in the world just happened? There was a real sense of unworthiness and being overwhelmed. But I'm not living in that place anymore."
The two-time deputy to General Convention is anticipating experiencing his changed role when he sits in the House of Bishops at the July 8-17 triennial gathering in Anaheim, California but acknowledged he will probably do more listening than speaking.
That is also his plan for developing a future vision for the diocese. It will come from the diocesan leadership, clergy and laity and will be a fairly lengthy process, he predicted. "It's not spending a weekend and coming up with a vision, but rather a process where sometimes that process is as valuable as the mission statement you ultimately arrive at.
"At least initially we'll focus on strengthening congregations and helping them understand theologically that they are the diocese. The diocese is not an office in Lubbock, but our congregations."
He has already faced hard economic realities involving the $1.2 million diocesan budget.
"We've had to re-examine the congregational giving to the diocesan budget and ... we've already granted an across-the-board three-percent apportionment relief for parishes for 2009," he said.
Meanwhile, there are other realities, including maintaining two households while Kathy, his spouse of 31 years, a marketing director for a local credit union, sells their home in Abilene and relocates to Lubbock. The couple has two children, Diane and Daniel, and a grandchild.
With 65 active and 35 retired clergy, the Diocese of Northwest Texas encompasses 38 congregations, a conference center, six schools and two retirement homes and represents about 8,000 Episcopalians. The first Episcopal service in the area, then known to the church as the missionary district of North Texas, was held in 1871; in 1958 General Convention approved Northwest Texas as a diocese.
Mayer said he is focused on "getting the message out. "We have practices that ... open us up to the possibility of a deeper awareness of the divine. In our prayer book we have almost a monastic pattern of life.
"It was a defining moment ... when this tradition emerged that was so comprehensive that within it we could have different theologies and expressions of spirituality and all come to the common table. It held us together and I hope that remains. It's been our vision that we don't become one expression of the faith but rather that we are this comprehensive communion."