Reconciling mission focus of convention opening Eucharist
Episcopal News Service -- Anaheim, California. July 8, 2009 [070809-04]
Pat McCaughan
Rousing drumming, spirited music, a 50-voice choir of bishops, deputies and visitors and Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's words "mission, mission, mission" quickened pulses, inspired clapping and a little dancing, energizing the July 8 opening worship and the official start of the 76th General Convention in Anaheim, California.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who had arrived in Anaheim the night before, was among about 3,000 worshippers who filled the convention hall as Jefferts Schori invoked metaphors of changed hearts, transformed minds and transplanted hearts as signs of renewed life and opportunities for mission.
"A new heart results in renewed creation – that reconciling mission we're so fond of talking about," Jefferts Schori said, preaching against a backdrop of three multi-colored tapestries with images depicting convention themes of identity, ubuntu and mission.
Read the full text of Jefferts Schori's sermon here.
"Hearts renewed stay that way, living flesh not hardening into stone, when they continue to share that new life – the exercise of pumping keeps a heart healthy."
She recalled participating in the consecration of Bishop Suffragan Edna Bavi "Nedi" Rivera of the Seattle-based Diocese of Olympia, also provisional bishop in the Diocese of Eastern Oregon, whose late father, the Rt. Rev. Victor Manuel Rivera had served as Bishop of San Joaquin.
At the end of his daughter's consecration Rivera wrapped "Nedi, in his cope. Some of you may not know that while Victor Rivera was bishop in San Joaquin [California], and for many years afterward, he insisted that women should not be ordained.
"He didn't go to Nedi's ordination as a priest, and he had never taken communion from her, over the more than 25 years that she served as priest. I asked Nedi later how he had come to change his mind. She said to me, "He didn't change his mind; he changed his heart."
During communion, the Rev. Canon Lester Thandakile Mackenzie of St. John's ProCathedral in Los Angeles danced and played an African drum called a djembe. "God is calling me by name," he sang.
Jefferts Schori, in her sermon, also cited the Episcopal Church in the Philippines as "a remarkable example of what a healthy and life-sustaining heart looks like."
During the offertory, the Rt. Rev. Edward Pacaya Malecdan, the Prime Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, presented Jefferts Schori with a gift, a check for an undisclosed sum of money, as a token of friendship and solidarity with the Episcopal Church (TEC).
The Episcopal Church in the Philippines (ECP) traces its roots to TEC. "The heart transplant began in 1898, with services held by chaplains of the occupying U.S. Army," Jefferts Schori told the gathering. "Though we would probably prefer a different avenue, the miracle of new life happens even in war, and it happens even despite colonial structures."
General Convention 1901 established the Missionary District of the Philippines and elected Charles Henry Brent as bishop and the first Filipino clergy were ordained, the presiding bishop said. In 1937, it became a diocese and by 1971, there were three dioceses, each with indigenous bishops.
In 1990, the Episcopal Church in the Philippines became an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion, achieving financial independence in 2008.
"We are giving thanks to TEC for its support along our journey," according to a note included in the service bulletin. "The ECP is aware that TEC has not been spared by the global economic crisis, and that it is living out God's mission in challenging times. We in the ECP share this burden as we struggled against economic marginalization and social inequalities in our country."
That gift, the presiding bishop said, "is a sign of the strong and growing heart in that Church, eager to reach out to others in love. It is a sacrificial gift, and it will bring more abundant life to both donor and recipient."
She compared the gift with ubuntu, "a recognition that the one Body of Christ has many parts, each essential to the functioning and flourishing of the whole, and that no one part can be the whole. It is a deep and abiding acknowledgement that together we are whole, and he cannot be whole otherwise."
Echoing John's Gospel lesson about Nicodemus who wondered what it mean to be born from above, she noted that the first "first missionary bishop in the Philippines insisted that he wouldn't ‘found an altar against an altar'. He … believed that the cities already had most of the altars they needed. He went looking for people who were open to being born again, from above, open to receiving a new heart and a new spirit."
The church's mission is to offer "heart transplants to the languishing … The heart of this body is mission – domestic and foreign mission, in partnership with anyone who shares that passion," a message that spoke to pediatrician Anne Schuette, a first-time deputy from the Diocese of Fond du Lac, and a volunteer choir member.
"I'm new, but I'm trying to jump in with both feet, and experience as much as I can," she said.
Some participants enjoyed the experience of being among the more than 3,000 worshippers at ten communion stations. The North American Association for the Diaconate helped set up the altar space with 50 one-pound loaves of locally-baked bread and 20 flagons of sacramental wine, said Sandy Webb, a seminarian volunteering for the General Convention office.
Karen Olson, a visitor from Minneapolis said she felt one of those Spirit-led pacemaker jolts the presiding bishop spoke of which tweak heart rhythms and empower mission. "She called us into action for mission," Olson said. "She called us to really listen and get our hearts right."
For Diana Clark, a deputy from Newark, the sermon helped connect the ubuntu theme to "our lives as Episcopalians, as Christians. It is a much richer concept than I thought."
The Rev. Mom Kpartor, a deputy from Liberia, said the best part of all occurred when the presiding bishop challenged the gathering to mission work. "So, how will this heart push more lifeblood out into a languishing world?" Jefferts Schori asked. "Can you hear the heartbeat? Mission, Mission, Mission…"
The heartbeat was palpable, said Kpartor, rector of St. Peter's Church in Gbarnga, adding:
"The church is dynamic, not stagnant. Mission is important."
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Living Ubuntu in the Philippines
By Sharon J. Tillman
[Episcopal News Service – Anaheim, California] The journey of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines (ECP) from a mission of the Episcopal Church (TEC) to an autonomous church can be compared to that of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt into the desert, then on to the promise land, said Floyd Lalwet, general secretary of ECP. He was addressing July 8 a diverse group of guests at the Mission Centers of the Episcopal Church luncheon and discussion.
It was standing room only as guests listened to the remarkable history of the ECP from post-colonial rule to the ousting of dictator Ferdinand Marcos and a renewed commitment to social justice to present-day financial self-sufficiency as a Church with six dioceses, more than 200 clergy and 170,000-plus members.
"The example of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines should inspire other provinces, challenge them and give the partners of the Anglican Communion hope. If the Philippines can do it [become self-sufficient financially] – so can they. The number of overseas partners present at the luncheon illustrates the common concerns they have with taking those important first steps," said Peter Ng, program officer for Asia and the Pacific for TEC.
That inspiration can be found in the decision by the ECP in 2004 to stop using the subsidy it was receiving from TEC, or the "Mother Church" as Lalwet called it, in its operating budget a full three years before the subsidy was to expire. After much debate and protest, the resolution to create an endowment with the funds it would receive from 2005-2007 from TEC was passed and the Filipino Episcopalians found themselves "struggling to survive, but what subsequently happened was almost miraculous," Lalwet said.
The EPC finished 2005 with its first budget surplus. More churches were built from 2005-07 and more seminary students than ever were enrolled. At the General Convention opening Eucharist Prime Bishop Edward Malecdan, primate of the ECP, gave back to TEC with "a gift to our church in gratitude for our continuing covenant relationship, as a sign of the strong and growing heart in that Church, eager to reach out to others in love. It is a sacrificial gift, and it will bring more abundant life to both donor and recipient," said Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in her sermon July 8.
Malecdan gave a detailed church history from the Episcopal missioners sent to convert the indigenous people in the late 19th century to the current focus on the Church's world-renowned health ministry St. Luke's Hospital.
"Ubuntu lives in the Episcopal Church in the Philippines – we are because you are," Malecdan said.