Presiding Bishop and President of the HOD
Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswald and the Very Rev George LW Werner, President of the House of Deputies, addressed both houses this afternoon. The PB reminisced about his first General Convention 30 years ago in 1976. He was a Deputy from Pennsylvania and was tapped to serve as Sergeant at Arms for the House of Deputies, a role he wonders may have prefigured his current position!
PB Griswald suggested that in the past 30 years he has seen the Episcopal Church wrestle with difficult matters and make wise decisions. He reminded us that reconciliation is costly and demanding, just as reconciliation cost Jesus his life. This Convention is an opportunity for God's Love to break loose among us, an opportunity to experience that the truth we seek is larger than any one individual. Truth is discovered in community and seeking truth is a communal exercise. Our task is to become aware of our blindness to the truth.
Griswald also defined conflict as a clash of the images of what the Church is, could be, and should be. Any one image is necessarily partial and incomplete. We are living stones being built into a spiritual home that is still in construction. We don't know what this Church will grow into.
"Come and Grow" is the theme of this Convention, and the Presiding Bishop invited us to be part of the process that turns the mountains of paper we will sift through over the next days be turned into decisions, to remain faithful to God's larger purpose. He cited Arch Bishop Rowan Williams, "Through baptism we are caught up in solidarities not of our own choosing." Reconciliation and communion are from God's grace and are not of our own construction.
The Very Rev George Werner, the President of the House of Deputies, opened his talk by reminding us that fear is not a gospel value; neither are hate and anger. He recounted his enchantment with the poet Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote while watching a lamplighter touching his lighted wick to the gas lamps in the town, that he was watching someone punch holes in the darkness. Rev Werner chided the Church for fearing darkness, for trying to protect the light rather than taking it out into the world. He challenged us to share our stories, the stories of the light of the Church.
His deeper message was that reconciliation does not mean "walk with me until you understand that I am right. Reconciliation is walking together, like the walk to Emmaus. We are on a pilgrimage to where God sees us and wants us to be. We must tell the stories. The world is so hungry for the peace of Christ."
Presiding Bishop Griswald closed the session with this prayer for the Convention:
God of all creation, in whom we live and move and have our being: be with us as we seek your will for our church. Send your Spirit of love and truth into our hearts, and enable us to grow up in all ways into Christ. Inform our deliberations with your wisdom. Help us with your grace to recognize and repent of our sinfulness. Fill us with patience, courage and hope. Widen our vision that we may see and act in union with Jesus who stretched out his arms in reconciling love upon the cross in order to draw all to himself. This we pray through Christ our Lord.
AMEN
PB Griswald suggested that in the past 30 years he has seen the Episcopal Church wrestle with difficult matters and make wise decisions. He reminded us that reconciliation is costly and demanding, just as reconciliation cost Jesus his life. This Convention is an opportunity for God's Love to break loose among us, an opportunity to experience that the truth we seek is larger than any one individual. Truth is discovered in community and seeking truth is a communal exercise. Our task is to become aware of our blindness to the truth.
Griswald also defined conflict as a clash of the images of what the Church is, could be, and should be. Any one image is necessarily partial and incomplete. We are living stones being built into a spiritual home that is still in construction. We don't know what this Church will grow into.
"Come and Grow" is the theme of this Convention, and the Presiding Bishop invited us to be part of the process that turns the mountains of paper we will sift through over the next days be turned into decisions, to remain faithful to God's larger purpose. He cited Arch Bishop Rowan Williams, "Through baptism we are caught up in solidarities not of our own choosing." Reconciliation and communion are from God's grace and are not of our own construction.
The Very Rev George Werner, the President of the House of Deputies, opened his talk by reminding us that fear is not a gospel value; neither are hate and anger. He recounted his enchantment with the poet Robert Louis Stevenson who wrote while watching a lamplighter touching his lighted wick to the gas lamps in the town, that he was watching someone punch holes in the darkness. Rev Werner chided the Church for fearing darkness, for trying to protect the light rather than taking it out into the world. He challenged us to share our stories, the stories of the light of the Church.
His deeper message was that reconciliation does not mean "walk with me until you understand that I am right. Reconciliation is walking together, like the walk to Emmaus. We are on a pilgrimage to where God sees us and wants us to be. We must tell the stories. The world is so hungry for the peace of Christ."
Presiding Bishop Griswald closed the session with this prayer for the Convention:
God of all creation, in whom we live and move and have our being: be with us as we seek your will for our church. Send your Spirit of love and truth into our hearts, and enable us to grow up in all ways into Christ. Inform our deliberations with your wisdom. Help us with your grace to recognize and repent of our sinfulness. Fill us with patience, courage and hope. Widen our vision that we may see and act in union with Jesus who stretched out his arms in reconciling love upon the cross in order to draw all to himself. This we pray through Christ our Lord.
AMEN
posted by Toni Marie | 7:07 PM
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