The Rt. Rev. Alan Scarfe, Bishop of Iowa
Convention Address, November 6, 2009
Convention Sermon, November 7, 2009
Guest Column, Des Moines Register, Sunday, September 27, 2009
Annual Bishop's Appeal, June 2009
Easter Day Sermon, April 12, 2009
Response to the Iowa State Supreme Court Ruling on Equal Marriage, April 2009
2009 Newsletter Articles:
From the Bishop, December 2009
From the Bishop, November 2009
From the Bishop, October 2009
From the Bishop, August 2009
From the Bishop, July 2009
From the Bishop, June 2009
From the Bishop, May 2009
From the Bishop, April 2009
From the Bishop, March 2009 AUDIO FILE
From the Bishop, February 2009
From the Bishop, January 2009
Previous Years:
As the members of Commissions meet this Saturday for All Commissions Day, our focus is on the ways in which we can strengthen congregations. It is remarkably well timed that many of the resolutions which we received from General Convention are congregationally located. The centerpiece is probably the new creation of a Commission to handle Lifelong Christian Formation, and the exciting prospect of developing a Diocesan wide Ministry Development Team for People with Disabilities or Different Abilities.
The Holy Spirit never stands still but continues to blow where the Spirit will, and of course we are pushed to follow. Recently I read my journal from the time I traveled around Iowa and met you for the first time in October 2002. One particular passage stands out in what has turned out to be a grasping of first sights which still holds up today.
“... I see three powerful desires in them (the people of the Iowa Diocese) that match my passion
- One, to develop ministry of all the baptized and find new ways to configure congregations with local and seminary-trained clergy and leaders together.
- Two, an emphasis on youth empowerment and bringing younger adult leadership to Iowa;
- Three, an acknowledged need to grow - not out of concern for survival, but from a passion to share God’s love and salvation in Jesus Christ.
‘From ministering to growing’ is their new vision statement, but I think ‘Mission through Mutuality’ would be a better slogan!”
It may not be a bad thing that I have not budged much from these initial thoughts. It may also indicate a meeting of minds in that early visioning process. We certainly have challenges which have caused growth: from Minneapolis 2003, through two wars, an economic recession, a devastating flood and the true ups and downs of our common life. And somewhere else in the journal I find a reference to the anticipation of our mutual growing together in our one call in Christ. We shape each other as we are being shaped by God and by the Spirit’s urgings in our relationship to the needs of the world around us.
Finally I want to share a section from my address to the Commissions: “I see every commission as a ministry development agency rather than a programmatic committee or a grant writing body. I encourage you to continue your ongoing work but also explore what you can do together regionally or across the State, and especially this year, how you can resource local congregations. As we consider every Commission and Diocesan grouping including the staff and me, I wonder how we can multiply our vision for ministry ( COM), or multiculturalism (Multicultural), or justice, peace and advocacy (JPIC), create healthy vestries and healthy clergy(Clergy Wellness) and call forth ever new generations of leadership and servants (YMDT and Cursillo), while also networking mission globally for local groups (OWOC), assisting congregations to grow resources (Stewardship) or enhance spiritual vitality and purpose (Congregational Companions), and develop our facilities to the fullest use (Property)...Today offers us a new beginning.”
May God grant each of us and our congregations the strength to pursue God’s mission through the Church - to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ - as we pray and worship, proclaim the Gospel and promote justice, peace and love.
+Alan
Alan Scarfe, Bishop of Iowa
How have we fared in attracting the next generations of faith? Or perhaps, to put the question in a better context, what is in place today which we did not have in place one year ago which positions us to do a better job at attracting the next generations of faith?
Last weekend, I confirmed seven young people – most of them students from Northwestern College in Orange City – six men and one woman. I then spent part of the supper time talking over a ministry call with another young woman of the new congregation, whom I had confirmed last year. Her interest was to work in the area of Muslim-Christian dialogue. The Episcopal Church had helped her discover this passion. Another young man wanted to talk about the pain he feels about Christian versus Christian conflict, and thanked me for what he heard in my sermon as a reconciling spirit.
Earlier last month I was at St Paul’s, Council Bluffs where the congregation had doubled in size since I was last with them. What I did not fully realize was that for a number of the congregation, they were meeting several new members for the first time. For three months, Meg Rhodes, a recently ordained priest, had been gathering young families on a Wednesday evening in something she called “wonderful Wednesdays’ and she waited to introduce the families to the Sunday congregation until there was a critical mass of young children just in case they needed strength in numbers if they proved a little noisy for the regulars!
At Summer Ministries Retreat I gathered with a dozen or so young people, a number of whom had been stalwarts of the youth program in Iowa. Now they were at college or away from home, and finding it difficult to settle in a church home. They admitted that they had not been to church for a while. But “when I heard we were getting together here, I had to come,” said one of them, “for this group is my church.”
On Sunday, in a very different situation I baptized two young children at St. Thomas, Sioux City. Their parents were Chuck and Steve, two men who had been co-signers with other couples on the court case that had brought about equal marriage in Iowa. These too are the next generations of faith.
At a different level, I have seen congregations who take risks for Christ reaping the benefits. You remember the Clermont bathroom appeal? Well who would have foreseen the large group of confirmands and receptions which met me this year. This congregation of four but a few years ago, is now 31. It also proved itself in reaching out to the Postville families this past year. This year the people of Trinity, Ottumwa and St. James, Oskaloosa decided to see what can happen if they take the gamble of having their own priest instead of sharing one. The people of Marshalltown have been engaging in intentional discussion with congregational consultants Ellen Bruckner and Georgia Humphrey because they believe God has a new purpose for them, and they want to discover it for themselves.
I lost my composure at the celebration of new ministry at Christ Church, Burlington, when I saw the fruit of our labors beginning to show – not only in John Horn, the new rector – but in the members of the Ministry Development Team at Fort Madison, whose priests were to be ordained to the transitional diaconate the next week, and as I sat next to one of our new deacons who had attended the first diaconal vocation sessions I had held at Grinnell three years ago.
I know we are Iowans, but sometimes things are as good as they sound. Even our sports teams are as good as they sound, and always our God is true to His word. “Cast your bread upon the waters, and it will return to you many fold.”
“The fields are white for harvest, but the laborers are few. Pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send laborers.” And we are the answers to that prayer.
To be reaching the stage of commissioning and ordaining members of the Ministry Development Teams, to be seeing how many of our young people flock to any event in which they can share their faith with others such as Happening and New Beginnings, and even this Convention and the General Convention. To see the same young people return from Anaheim bursting with what they called “Episco-pride” is to realize that God is working among us, touching hearts for Jesus Christ, and laying a pathway for these next generations of faith to lead us all into ministry adventure.
There is more – on two occasions now I have met people who grew up in Iowa, went away for most of their adult lives, and returned to lay to rest a beloved parent- only to hear God whisper in their ear: “These people need you.” And so they sold everything they had and returned home in their retirement to serve God’s people at their local Episcopal Church.
I don’t know where all this will lead, and it is not great Day of Pentecost numbers we are talking about here, nor anywhere approaching the average numbers of newcomers to Lutheran Church of Hope on any given Sunday, but it is movement in which the sense of the Holy Spirit is for real. I include in all of this the bold venture of starting a mission station at Indianola, started by a retired priest who has to go to dialysis three times a week to live, and would have every right to seek to put his feet up.
All of this is happening of course, as we share the burden of difficult economic times. This has given us more than cause to pause about how we use the resources God gives to us. The budget you will see tomorrow has already been cut $185,000 from 2009. $85,000 of this are new cuts as we had to carry over the $100,000 cuts of this year. I take the blame for the inflated income predicted for 2009. I was foolish to believe that all things being equal we might decide with the new formula which allows every congregation to exclude the costs of a clergy person, we might all decide to put the past behind us and meet the stewardship share we collectively agreed upon at this Convention in 2008. I admit my naivete in these matters, but do not apologize for trusting in the good faith and capacity of every one of you as vestries and clergy and congregations in seeking to do God’s will together as a Diocese! Ask me to budge from such a hope and you need to find a different bishop. I will remain as stubborn about this as I am that every baptized person is called to ministry, and above all to do whatever we can to share the Good News that “God has so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever would believe in Him might have everlasting life.” Just because we are Episcopalians and do things with reason, order and propriety, does not mean we can’t find a way to live this out for the next generations that surround us.
Genuine economic difficulties are with us, and we have choices to make. I think however of what Melody Rockwell reported back to us when discussing the tricky subject of “dependency” with Bishop Meshack. He said “in our situation we ARE Dependent – on you for our very lives.” She explained further how, nevertheless, he was seeking to encourage his own congregations where there is better growing potential to bring their share of goods at Deanery meetings to meet the needs of the starving in another diocesan region.
We can be grateful that things are not as dire as this for us. I also have no doubt that we would respond with equal charity and self sacrifice if they were. Furthermore, we can take pride in the way giving to Swaziland has not dipped at all as we reach out to the people there. Melody and Dan’s trip there for several weeks to deepen the impact of the water ministry started last year is one of a series of longer missions which we are planning in the years to come. In return we have had the wonderful gift of Charles Kunene as missioner in South West Iowa raising two Ministry Development Teams which we hope will cover three congregations. Before we gather again in Convention, Charles will be returning to Swaziland, with the hope of his bishop that he returns with a lot of lessons to pass on from us. What will we have taught him?
Along with our partnerships in Swaziland and Brechin, I want to announce the exploration of a third partnership in the coming year.
Last year a young priest from the Sudan studying at the University of Dubuque and a worshipping member of St. John’s, Dubuque, visited Convention and stole a lot of hearts. Fr. Samuel Peni completed his studies and returned this summer to Yubia Diocese. Given the fast pace of mission there, his diocese has since been divided and he was elected as the new bishop of a new Diocese, with which I intend us to create as lively a partnership as we have with our other Communion partners. Plans are underway for individuals or maybe a group to go to his enthronement on February 28th, 2010. Milton Cole has already committed himself to such a trip, and to bring all of us in support of the new Diocese he has created a reminder for each congregation in Iowa that we share the cross with brothers and sisters around the Communion and especially in the new diocese of Nzara in the southern part of Sudan. The crosses are accompanied with a plaque. Please make sure someone from your congregation goes to the Companions table in the Exhibit Hall to pick up your gift.
While on the subject of mission, I am delighted that Terry Shively, a dentist who has been on several mission trips to different countries and probably looked into the mouths of a good portion of the Anglican Communion, is seeking to coordinate other health professionals in a Diocesan wide network to plan such trips in the future.
I want also to draw your attention to a survey that is going to go out to all of you via the internet probably in early December.
We suspect that we are only catching a small portion of the amazing ministry being done in Christ’s name by you at the congregational level. And so please return the survey as fully as you can. We want to know what mission is done here in your locality as much as abroad.
Seven years ago as I contemplated being your bishop, I decided to make Isaiah 58 a core lesson for our ministry together. In that passage God compares the shallow fasting of religious duty and even worship with the profound fasting which is represented by God’s people meeting the needs of their neighbors and the less fortunate, and of preserving harmony and rejecting the “pointing of the finger.” You responded to that passage by sending in depictions of your fulfillment of Isaiah’s words and they were stunningly depicted on the banners that framed my consecration. This survey takes us back to that and yet also seeks to show us how we have moved forward.
This past year, Iowans have been hosts to fellow Christians coming to assist us with flood recovery in Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls, and Des Moines. The presence of the Jazz ensemble this evening to lead Evensong is a gift of thanks from the University of Iowa Music Department which has housed its Jazz department in Trinity Church after the flood destroyed its University buildings. Iowans have also sought to reciprocate the kindness by going to Galveston in February on a mission led by Pat Genereux, our Disaster Recovery Coordinator. Pat has been available to a number of dioceses this year as they have suffered similar flood disasters, often as a first responder to offer what know how we might have picked up.
The work highlighted last year at Shady Rest Motel is now almost complete, and the place has begun to receive back some of its long term residents. We drew the attention of pianist George Winston who raised $15,000 in his benefit concert at St. Paul’s in Des Moines thanks to the hard work of the Allaway family in particular. We were able too to draw the attention of the Jubilee Officers from around The Episcopal Church who gathered at Christ Church, Cedar Rapids, and took their turn in assisting with the recovery process. That Chris Johnson wants to declare Iowa a Jubilee Diocese because of the number of Jubilee centers we now have is something to celebrate.
I was proud of the involvement of our General Convention deputies in speaking against human trafficking and even daring to offer a resolution which called for an Acts 2 approach to common sharing of our wealth and resources as a Church. As a cosigner of the actions which sought greater generosity on the part of fellow bishops and the deputies in the way we respond pastorally to equal marriage, I was most grateful to those who were supportive, as well as I am for those who in your disagreement with such actions did not undermine our efforts, or break communion.
Your concern for me personally around the General Convention and into September with the worries for my parents and the loss of a close friend is something I will never forget and always be thankful for. I call my time in Bradford caring for my parents as the “day the boy from Bradford met the Bishop from Iowa.” It was a profound experience and I thank you for making it possible.
Transitions come to all of us. This year we give thanks for the ministries of Robert Elfvin who after 31 years retired as rector of St. Luke’s, Des Moines. Ben Webb from the other St. Luke’s in Cedar Falls also retired, but to pursue a ministry dream and vision in establishing the Center for Restorative Societies. We will hear from Ben later on in this Convention. He helps us lead the way in placing the importance of ministry and climate change together as a major priority for our time. Paul Fuesell has also retired from Grace, Cedar Rapids, moving to a new life in Tennessee with his wife Cindy, and Bishop Chris Epting and Susanne will be returning after Chris’s retirement from being the Ecumenical Officer – a decision he took long before the Pope decided to provide us with an ordinariate! With Jim Harris moving from Trinity Cathedral in Davenport, Chris has graciously accepted to be their interim Dean for what I hope will be as long as he wants!
There are always congregational changes in any given year – this has been a difficult year for the people of St. Paul’s, Durant, and I acknowledge their delegates here with us today as they lost more than half of their congregation to a new, what I call a “neo-Anglican” parish. I hope we will honor your trust in staying within the Diocese. Youth work in Durant happens across denominational and Anglican Provincial boundaries with St. Paul’s working alongside the local ELCA Church and the new St. David’s! This is Iowa.
Our love for our clergy sometimes takes us into difficult places. One evening the phone rang and Martha Kester was on the other end of the line – she had just heard from her superior in the National Guard that she would be deployed to Afghanistan in the fall 2010 with her unit. Martha had become a fully invested chaplain of the National Guard this year. Her ministry now takes her into new venues for which she will not only need our prayers, but will bring the conflict much closer. In fact there are few congregations where prayers for loved ones serving in harm’s way are not offered week after week. While we work and pray for peace, we are reminded that many pay a profound cost.
As we see clergy retire we also find that God never ceases to call new people to the ordained ministry. Kesha Brennom is now a rector in my old neighboring city of Oxnard in the Diocese of Los Angeles. And within our own ranks I have ordained three new deacons along with Kesha and Meg Rhodes as priests. The expansion of the Ministry Development Teams emphasizes that ministry is not only about ordination, but each of us as baptized people. I commissioned Dale Miner and Al Mackandz from Creston after going through the Iowa Curriculum. Dale’s call was probably more regular than Al’s. We commissioned Al as an evangelist and prophet! He then found himself called to Austin, Texas to be with his family, and so I encouraged him to knock on the door of the Bishop of Texas and introduce himself as a commissioned prophet from the Diocese of Iowa!
I look forward to the Ministry Development Teams of Decorah and Glenwood completing their initial journey of formation before we gather in Convention again. They join the teams of Fort Madison, Creston and New Song. We are finding that each congregation has to discover their own configuration of ministry leadership, and the diocesan process is there to assist and support on the way. I want to express my thanks to Willa Goodfellow as missioner on my staff for bringing us so far, very much at times at the cost of her own health.
Thinking too of staff, you have an incredibly gifted and devoted group of people who when they wake up each morning and think of the word “Diocese” think only of every one of you in this room and everyone you represent. If you want to know what they do, come to one of the Open Houses which we launched this year and find out. Eventually we will put this online, but let me reiterate the reality that when they say Diocese they think of sixty two gatherings of Episcopalians in various locations around the state of Iowa. They never think it is a word that refers to them apart from you. Nor do I. It is a good sign that as we attract more people from non Anglican backgrounds, we have to teach the meaning of catholic tradition, and diocesan identity. I am so grateful for every member of the staff, and I ask them, if they are in the room, to stand and to receive your recognition at this time.
This Convention theme of “Next Generations of Faith” comes from our strategic plan. Rather than think that now we move on from this phase of our mission – the next generations of faith- I would describe us as having come to the end of the beginning of the first strand of our strategic plan, and throughout the coming years we will build on this foundation of engaging the next generations of faith. What is new after tomorrow is that we add to this a devotion to paying fresh attention to our second strategic purpose namely the intentional strengthening of our congregations. This involves the launching of congregational companions – a consultancy ministry of best practices shared among ourselves through priests and laity who have offered to assist other congregations on how to become stronger in ministry and mission, I hope we will also create different congregations for young people perhaps more wonderful Wednesdays or thrilling Thursdays, or marvelous Mondays – all to go alongside Stupendous Sundays. My desire for a Development Officer is to help us focus on the raising of resources that can be geared towards congregational assistance and mission, both by helping shore up the Diocesan budget so that we can expend more resources on congregational needs, but also by helping congregations with their own stewardship and capital campaigning.
We need also to plug away at learning how to work ministry together, and share resources through chapters or for our regions. Throughout Iowa there is one Episcopal/Anglican presence and witness to Jesus Christ, and we are all it. We continue “In mission with Christ through each and all.”
Finally, I want to emphasize that I bring you these words because I want to share what my eyes have seen and my ears have heard and how my heart has been stirred as I make my visits among you. For the past two years I have visited every congregation annually. I admit that it has proven overly strenuous and I will be slowing down a little. I want to spend more time on each visit and do more teaching when I am with you and more writing when I am not. I have a dream of establishing for the summer of 2010 or 2011 or perhaps 2012 a cadre of young missioners who might go into every parish and spend a summer in groups of two at least and see what can be done to stir up the neighborhood for the Gospel and strengthen your witness. If you can supply them I will promise to provide for their training.
My visits are the heart of my episcopacy, and it what I see among you that make me so eager to have you work more together. I wish you could all see the great thing that is in each other as communities of faith. Above all I wish you could appreciate the glory of Christ which you emanate. At every reaffirmation of vows I start the laying on of hands by saying the same words: “May the Holy Spirit who has begun a good work in you...” Brothers and sisters, I believe every word. I believe the Holy Spirit has begun a good work in you. Sometimes I wonder if you actually believe it. Yet I have looked into too many eyes and seen your hunger for the Spirit. Put aside the temptation of individualism, and congregationalism and do not neglect the assembly of yourselves together in your regions, in your chapters, in whatever configurations can create the optimum impact for Christ across this state. We are a strange bunch to many church people. Then let us turn that well to God’s advantage by daring to introduce to Christ the many who think the Church has already given up on them. And let us do this as a people proud that God called us in this particular Church. To paraphrase the epistle from Philippians 2: 5-11 that was read at my Consecration, “Do not think being a good congregation something to hold onto, but empty yourselves and become one with your neighbor in Christ, even becoming their servant.” Paul reminds us that this is the work God always highly exalts, for it is the very nature of our God to be self-emptying, human identifying, and sacrificially serving. So let us continue to imitate Christ, and the next generations of faith will find us, even as we go out looking for them.
Cathedral Church of St Paul, Des Moines, Iowa
Alan Scarfe, Bishop of Iowa
Isaiah 52: 7-10; Acts 1: 1-9; Luke 10: 1-9
What do you get when you cross an Episcopalian with a Jehovah’s Witness? Someone who knocks on your door but has nothing to say.
Not a nice joke! How in fact do we get such a reputation? And why do we allow it? Why do we actually want to joke about it? It is almost a badge of honor to stay away from getting tagged with the E-word – Evangelism.
Evangelism is about getting cornered, forcing yourself or your views on someone else, proselytizing, akin to abusive behavior. All this is our misperception or fear for we have seen it abused.
Yet it is interesting that it is also a word we rarely find as a noun on Jesus’ lips. He speaks a lot of Euaggelion – the Good News – the Evangel. The Evangelists themselves in Scripture tell the story of Jesus – seek to write down in order, says Luke in Acts 1. But Christ’s favorite word is Witness.
“You are my witnesses” - witnesses of my resurrection and that the Kingdom of God has come near; witnesses of all that I have said and done; witnesses to my working among you.
Now indeed, there is talking involved. No getting away from that, though I remind you of the famous phrase of St Augustine: “witness to the Lord Jesus Christ at all times, and if necessary use words”.
Witnessing has been going on for 1000s of years. And thank God for that. This past summer, right after General Convention I helped bury a dear friend from England. We grew up through Grammar School and went to the same University. He was best man at our wedding, and at 15 years of age he was bold to witness to me about God’s gift of love in Jesus Christ. I wouldn’t be here today without his boldness, faithfulness and compassion.
For of those three qualities I would say that witnessing is about compassion first and foremost. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who announce peace” says the prophet Isaiah.
- Peace to a people who have suffered invasion, exile, seeing their leaders dragged off on butcher’s hooks, seeing their religious center – the Temple – looted and sacked.
- Peace to a people who for 70 years wondered if God had forgotten them and all of God’s promises to them
- Peace that meant salvation – for they were to be delivered from the hands of their enemies and returned to start again in Jerusalem.
We have a hard time getting our heads around such a situation. But think for a moment how it might sound in Southern Sudan on the Ugandan border where brigands roam in makeshift and cruel armies, taking the name of the Lord in vain calling themselves The Lord’s Army.
God is still in the delivery business and has never stopped. For compassion rules the day; plus rescuing, restoring, resurrecting, redeeming, making all things new.
It is time we captured the spirit of this. It is true that we witness to this in our mission to bring fresh water, clear storm ravaged debris, share our bread with the hungry. This is a witness to a God who is love and whose hope makes al things new. But there’s so much more for us to witness.
We can witness that our God is a God of healing; who can heal the land as well as the people. We can witness that our God is a God of peace; who can deliver nations from their warring madness as well as comfort the afflicted or intervene in the most violent dysfunction of families and individuals. We can witness that our God is a God of transformation who provides forgiveness and power over human sin, and can turn our lives around, but also can challenge the very premises of our economic structure and social arrangements.
Our God asks us to witness with more than a bright red door, or a strategic and funny sign, or a cute web-site - though all of these can get people’s wandering attention.
In fact our witness is to be IN people’s homes, or in as many as will receive us. We are to eat whatever is put before us, and funnily enough in contrast to public opinion or perception – not go door to door.
When Canon Ben Shalom began his evangelistic ministry, he simply started with one of his great loves and solid capacities. He was a highly trained soccer player. So it was natural for him to see young men in particular loitering around, kicking a balled up collection of paper bags as balls. These were young men with too little to do, but who shared a passion with Canon Ben Shalom. They all loved soccer. Witnessing first to his own gift and passion for soccer, he formed his soccer teams going to organized training three nights a week. He bought proper balls, provided jerseys formed teams even with his own family name. Eventually even the bishop wanted him to form two teams for the Diocese, to play in the leagues Canon Ben Shalom formed.
His witness to Jesus was to be at home with these young men where their home was. He worked and witnessed to whoever would come. He loved them doing what he also loved!
And as each opportunity came along he witnessed to the transforming life of Jesus Christ, and how Jesus sought to be at home with them and they with him.
John Wesley – my favorite all time evangelist and Anglican priest – realized as a priest of the Church of England that the majority of the British working class had no time for church. It is in doubt as to whether the Established Church of England even noticed. It was busy doing its own thing regardless of who was interested. The Church expected people to find IT, and probably to serve it too. Rather than the other way around.
No one expected to experience the Holy Spirit – rather like Prince Charles of recent times who when asked if he loved Diana in their early days of married life answered:’ I suppose so whatever love is!”
So the poor working people of Britain, the masses who were being pulled into the urban hobbles at the beginning of the Industrial Age were totally disregarded. Except for men like Wesley, who after being thrown out of more churches than you can imagine, went to where the people were.
He went to their homes, to their pubs and gathering places, to their factories and mining pit heads, to the fields where they worked the harvest. 50,000 miles a year he traveled and not in a Subaru but on horseback! One story tells of a young lad who was struck by everyone’s tears as they listened to Wesley preach. His dad lifted him onto his shoulders to get a better look. The young lad said – “ but, dad, he’s not scolding them!”
The prophets did the scolding! The proclaimers of the Good News witnessed to that Good News, and compassion drove them to where the people were.
Jesus was not a street evangelist; nor did he knock on doors. He went to where people lived and so honored them that they opened their doors to him and from there he witnessed to God’s peace, salvation and Kingdom.
His strategy had to be foolproof because someday there would be fools like me who would be invited – depended upon- to be a witness. Just as he did not tell them to greet everyone on the road or go door to door, or linger where they were not wanted, nor did he allow them to go alone. He sent them in pairs, and even as he was to leave the disciples to their own devices on that day of His Ascension, his final piece of advice was TO WAIT.
Can you imagine their anxiety and sense of urgency to get on with the task. And yet He told them to wait, and thank God they waited. They waited til God could continue to be with them through the coming of the Holy Spirit!
The Holy Spirit made all the difference.
We need to hear this. We witness – tell what we know of what God has done in Jesus Christ, but we do it empowered by the Holy Spirit, who finds a new home in the hearts of every human being who will receive Her. What does the Holy Spirit do? Pours the love of God into our hearts; moves us to see with compassionate eyes.
Witnessing is about compassion and compassion is fueled by gratitude; gratitude springing up from our awareness of God’s amazing grace being at home in our own lives.
Church life is not so difficult really. Yes – we are lambs among wolves. Innocents abroad, We love where others scheme. Yes – we have to bring no purse or sandals – what does that say about our church budgets? We are actually invited to trust those we are going to in love to provide for us.
But we are asked to do what is already God’s own passion – to love God’s creation; bring us God’s peace; cover us in God’s salvation; shower us with God’s love – a love so solid that it is symobolised by an executioner’s instrument of death – a Cross.
It is harvest time for the people of God in this Diocese. Just let your heart cast your eyes on those for whom we cannot avoid compassion. Just say what you see when you look at Jesus Christ, and then let the Holy Spirit do the rest. It is why the Spirit was sent and why you are called Christ’s witnesses!
If you have ever traveled on the London Underground, you are familiar with that delightful reminder to “Mind the gap” as you get off the train. Some stations platforms do not quite manage to fit snugly alongside the train doors, and so you have to perform an athletic leap to avoid landing on the electric rail beneath!
It is a phrase that comes to mind when I consider ecumenical matters. I am incredibly appreciative and somewhat in awe of those who work in the ecumenical field, especially our scholars who engage in the close discussion of a denomination’s meaning and articulation of aspects of the faith. The goal in the end cannot possibly be precision, but trust. There is bound to be a gap between the two after all these years, just as there is an unspoken and often unacknowledged gap between the Church of five hundred or a thousand years ago, and the Church today. No one is engaged in a revisionist drift here. But like the fact that train designs have changed over the years creating the need for the kind warning to “mind the gap”, so has the people of the Church. When I consider the martyrs we celebrate, often put to death by their own faith kind, I must say I am most grateful for that.
Whether Pope Benedict is seeking to bolster Christian solidarity before the growing strength of Islam as a New York Times writer suggests, or is deploying a rather ingenious marketing device as lampooned on The Daily Show, or is simply extending pastoral concern to disaffected brothers in Christ ( and any sisters who don’t believe in their own gender’s call to ordination), I prefer the shift of understanding in ecumenical circles which has been expressed in the relatively recent round of ecumenical agreements. I refer to the fundamental understanding behind actions like the Call to Common Mission between the ELCA and The Episcopal Church, the Recent Moravian agreement and our ongoing efforts towards the United Methodists and others. Embedded in this exercise of mutual respect is a “mind the gap” generosity. We cannot dot every “I” and cross every “T” but we can recognize that Christ died for one and all, and that in each other’s people there is a faithful desire to serve God, bring God’s compassion through the Holy Spirit and be about God’s reign among us. We bring the train as close as we can to the platform and we jump. And we have the kindness to call it “full communion”. No re-ordinations, but interchangeable orders, and, if we dare, common mission. The competitive marketing temptation tends to get in the way of the latter.
I am an athletic kind of guy, and so I don’t mind leaping over larger gaps. I am also a poor golfer and appreciate generous “gimmies”, just to change the metaphor to that most otherwise merciless of sports.
I presume therefore that I am also a poor ecumenist. I know however that you can’t build a community solely on what you are not. Eventually you run out of adversaries. The Ebionites learned that lesson early. Yet we have to be very confident of what we are, or rather whose we are.
If you think about it, it was awfully early for John to write about the concerns in Christ’s teaching about unity. Jesus’ High Priestly prayer prays for us to be one. And the first century had not yet set on the Christian Church. He had to teach about “sheep of other folds” to his followers who even before his death were raising questions about who would sit at his right hand. I am not sure Peter in the end would have appreciated what we created in his name. The truth is that we are one in Christ. That is God’s perspective because it is God’s action who in Jesus on the cross “was reconciling the world unto Himself”. To be sentimental about it, perhaps in religious terms there is a global warming which needs to occur that is to our mutual benefit. Why in such a time as this do we want to insist that trust must come only with precision. Risk minding the gap, be generous with the gimmie, let it be enough that Jesus is Lord.
+Alan
Over time the distinction of purpose of the Diocesan newsletter and the newspaper has become blurred. I certainly feel this when it comes to my own columns in the respective communications. Initially, the newsletter was a more intimate vehicle for congregational leaders where we present resources and events that could enhance ministry development for clergy and non clergy leaders alike. It was also a means for presenting personal prayer requests by the clergy and congregational leaders. It has become a much more general document overtime, and especially now that it serves as our lead-in for the website.
Nevertheless I prefer to keep my own writing on a more personal level. It becomes a way to let you know what I am thinking about our life together and my own place within it.
Many of you have graciously and lovingly asked about the welfare of my family and me in recent times. You have stood, or still do, where I am - caught between the care for ailing parents, the trauma of adult children not yet settled and the reality of choices that created geographical distance over time which now return to haunt us. One of my dad’s favorite evening soaps (big things in England) is Eastenders. Everyone comes and goes into each other’s houses with their unfolding dramas and disputes. In fact, all three 7-8.30pm soaps are about such small communities: Coronation Street, Emmerdale Farm and Eastenders! Eventually the characters and storylines all roll into one but nevertheless it is addictive. I recognized some characters as being there forty years ago before I left.
I suppose I had not realized how much the distance had been affecting me, probably ever since my brother’s death which hung over me during our last Convention. To be able to spend some considerable time at “home” was a greater gift than you can know. It helped the development of much integration, a development I am imagining is to be an ongoing intentional process through the next eighteen months at the end of which time I will have completed a much more extensive sabbatical.
This time away had all the signs of a sabbatical but it was not. It included a three and a half hour Board meeting by telecommunication from my parents’ living room (as Emmerdale Farm was playing), as well as keeping up with daily Diocesan affairs by phone and internet. The time change helped as I could respond to e-mails while you were all sleeping. There was also a change of routine which opened up times for almost daily reading which I do not schedule as much as I should when at the office. This helped reinforce some things which I do not want to forget. Above all in the Eastern apophatic tradition of the negative way of knowing, I got in touch with the call as Bishop more by not being Bishop or rather being a “hidden” Bishop during the leave.
My mum finally came out of hospital after seven weeks, still under the doctor’s eye because she has to return every Friday for several weeks to the same ward for “doctors’ rounds”. She is feeling much stronger and is gradually realizing how serious and life threatening her condition was. She is very grateful for your prayers. She could not keep me hidden completely as I overheard her telling a staff nurse on her discharge that I was a Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Iowa!
Vladimir Lossky reminds us that we believe in a God who is by nature a kenotic Trinity. God gives God’s self away as Father in the Creation, as Son in the Incarnation and Salvation, and as Spirit in revealing Father and Son and in infusing the people of God as Church. We stumble closer to God as much as we image that self-emptying characteristic. To use the evangelistic phrase of Rowan Williams, we become witnessing agents of God’s trustworthiness as much as we are able to exemplify that same self emptying. The opportunity to do this is far from “churchy”. In fact it is probably more authentic the less church conscious we become. What remains to be shown is our love of God and all whom God has made. And our faith that God is good.
So how am I? Well, I have been trying to learn this apophatic lesson as I enjoyed how the wind dries clothes. Of course it is a lesson as old as Christianity itself recovered by the monastics in particular and especially when the Church as Institution got ahead of itself. It is giving me a whole new way of thinking about what it means to be created in the image of God, and restored to that same image in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. On return, as with everything, the temptation is to forget September 2009 and build Empires again that people if I dare say, like my mum and dad, have never understood nor want to. But they do want people who in the gentleness of Jesus can coax them into trusting God.
We are back to Philippians 2: 5-11 and Isaiah 58, my consecration service lessons! (How does God do that?)
+Alan
The Episcopal Church held its triennial General Convention in Anaheim in July. The focus of the media and the worldwide Anglican Communion of which the church is a constituent member was on what we would do on matters of human sexuality. Regardless of the fact that the Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the communion, came to deliver a keynote speech on the spiritual and ethical challenges of the economic crisis, even he responded after the convention on the two resolutions on same-gender couples.
Iowa finds itself along with the dioceses of the five New England states where equal marriage is upheld in the forefront of the church's conversation on marriage equality. Faith communities are deciding what this means to their traditions or what it does not. Many faith communities have long awaited the chance to celebrate civil marriage for same-gender couples. The Episcopal Church has been engaged with this for more than 30 years - almost alone among churches of the Catholic tradition. That Episcopal couples were among those cited in the Iowa State Supreme Court Ruling is significant.
Of course, we are not of one mind in this. Not all my own clergy or congregations agree with my position in celebrating this opportunity for same-gender couples. But is there not a beauty in this situation? Faith communities that cannot and will not welcome or embrace these marriages have that freedom in this state and nation, even while others that do coexist beside them peacefully and lawfully. When a bishop in Southern Africa learned of the Iowa ruling, he sent me a note asking me its implications. He was concerned that we might be seen as going against the constitution now if we disallowed such marriages. He found it rather admirable that there was no such pressure upon religious institutions, and that there was a specific exemption for religious institutions to pursue their consciences.
Marriage and its significance for all people is an essential value in our social life. For every faith community, marriage exists not only to protect but to reveal the deeper connection of God's love for us. It is precisely as such that it is as important an institution to same-gender couples as it is to heterosexual couples in those same faith communities.
Faith, however, demands more of us. At the recent General Convention, we heard a sermon by Bishop Stephen Charleston, a Native-American bishop. He stood before us and said in hyperbole that he "had 10 minutes to save the world." Boldly claiming his anointing as a prophet of God by the power of the Holy Spirit, he said that the alarm clock. which had been ticking away the hours toward our civilization's demise, had stopped its ticking. "The alarm bells are ringing," he said. He went on to say that unless we woke up and put aside those things that have used up our energies for the past 30 to 40 years in our disputes together, and bring the peace among human beings needed to care in common for each other and for the planet God has given us, none of what consumes our heated passions today will mean anything. The generations to come, he added, who will have to rebirth civilization on their burned up cinder of a planet, will not thank us, nor will God thank us.
I find myself considering, as a growing number have had to in recent times, the vital nature of jobs and resources to feed the married family, peace across our global communities to keep us safe in our extended families or a fair sharing of the world's goods, education and health resources to provide for all people. In seeking these things the clock is ticking, calling us to action as one, even as we disagree on marriage. These efforts, too, are how we reflect the commandment of our God to love one another as God loves us.
The 76th General Convention, as you may know, was set, for me, in the context of personal pastoral events which managed to place much of what happened in an unusual context. Unexpectedly I had to fly to Los Angeles via England to spend a week relieving my brother as he cared for my dad while my mother recovered from surgery. My parents always provide a refreshing outsiders' view of life in the Church, mostly inviting me not to take it all too seriously! Even more sudden was the news of the death of my school days' friend, Philip, who had actually invited me to take Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, an event without which I would not be your bishop today.
The importance of Philip in my life and his introduction of Jesus Christ to me certainly put the
Presiding Bishop's reference to such a doctrine of personal salvation as heresy in a proper perspective. I am convinced that those who wished to hear her wrong did so, and that the Presiding Bishop, along with the rest of us, has made that personal decision to follow Christ. At every visitation I urge you to do so as I lead you in our baptismal promise to follow Him as Lord and Savior. Of course, what the Presiding Bishop and I understand as happening once you are in Christ's hands is that we are immediately bonded with all who fill out the whole Body of Christ, and none of us get to heaven alone or on our own terms. It is all part of the "you have not chosen me but I have chosen you" of John chapter 15.
These personal circumstances served to remind me that life and mission do not stop for the General Convention. Hopefully we are re-focused and re-energized by the experience. The
Bishop of Honduras came burdened with his concern for the political situation in his country. The
Archbishop of Canterbury, though later choosing to confine most of his reflections to the actions we took on human sexuality, initially came among us with profound thoughts on how the people of God can respond to the global economic crisis. The presence of the Archbishop of the Sudan only brought home to us the breaking news of northern Sudanese troops massing towards the South. Most prominent among the younger deputations were members from the Native American communities, while we discussed together the need to alleviate domestic poverty particularly on the Native American reservations.
Human reminders of the decisions we were making were all around us, and that was no less significant when we took up the resolutions relating to gay and lesbian brothers and sisters in Christ. Other passions and prophetic calls were displayed in the multiple resolutions on immigration, health reform, Palestine and Israel, MDGs, solidarity with the poor in Haiti, human trafficking, condemnation of torture, growing the Church especially among Hispanics and young adults, making disciples within a life-long formation process, caring for our environment and lessening our carbon footprint, acknowledging the sacred nature of water, preparing for the potential of a flu pandemic, celebrating advances in ecumenical relations with Moravians, Methodists and Presbyterians, finding our theological voice and principles for inter-religious conversation, and widening our celebration of God's grace in the lives of holy women and men--a revised version of Lesser Feasts and Fasts.
In a number of ways I found this to be a defining Convention. We became clearer about where this Church stands at a number of levels. The economic pressures created the need for a deep cut in our expenses as a Church. The greater part of this was born by the infrastructure of the Church Center, which meant the painful task of reducing staff by one fifth. Once again, the words of John 15 seemed relevant reminding us that God's ways often involve pruning for the sake of greater effectiveness and fruitfulness in the Gospel. In a similar vein, one of the most striking comments during the ten days of debate in the House of Bishops came from the Bishop of Mississippi who quoted Presiding Bishop John Hines who once said, "I hope for a witnessing community of unquestioned integrity. Maybe we become a smaller church because of such a witness, less powerful, less influential. It is not a question of how should we grow but how can we be faithful. That is a heritage worth sacrificing for, both for our children and future generations."
The Church held strong in its financial commitment to programs on youth, the alleviation of poverty, restoring the MDGs as a specific line item, keeping its promise to "the least of these." The Program Group on Budget and Finance, on which I serve, called for efficiency, accountability and transparency as it prepared the budget. This included a greater spelling out of the costs for the policy of property litigation. I think these same principles rolled over into the substantial issues that were up front and central in most people's eyes- human sexuality and relations with the Anglican Communion.
Two compound resolutions caught everyone's attention. The first was
D025 on reaffirming the inclusive nature of our ordination discernment process and our acceptance that God may call any of the baptized to serve God in the ordained ministry, and that at best God's call is itself a mystery. Some saw this action as a repudiation of the resolution of last Convention in which we said that we would refrain from consenting to the episcopate anyone whose manner of life (code words for partnered gay and lesbians) was a concern for the wider Church. There was no repeal of such a resolution from the last Convention. This new resolution freshly stated what we have already in our canons.
The second resolution,
C056, concerned matters close to home for Iowans. It provided for the gathering and study of liturgical resources related to the blessing of same gender relationships. No action was indicated, and the gathering was to occur across the Communion. Of particular concern for us in Iowa was that we bishops from states where equal marriage is permitted were granted generosity in how we provide pastoral discretion in guiding our clergy who must respond to the pastoral needs of all couples in their local faith communities. The presence of Iowa standing among the more familiarly liberal states of New England was, I think, recognition for a number of bishops that the movement towards equal marriage is going to grow in the next few years. What we face here today others will be facing shortly, and the Church needs to respond with grace.
I offer you two commentaries which I have found helpful on these debates from a moderate and more conservative perspective: Bishop Pierre Whalon, Churches in Europe, in his article "
What Didn't Happen at General Convention 2009 - and What Did?," and Bishop John Howe, Central Florida in his "
Debriefing about the 76th General Convention". The lengthy
response of the Archbishop of Canterbury on our actions over these two resolutions is also available online. I want to write more fully about the Archbishop's statement at another time.
It is sufficient for now to say that there are more than hints from the Archbishop that he, too, recognizes that this is a defining Convention for us. It may so define us that we become confined in how the Episcopal Church can be used to represent the Anglican Communion in ecumenical affairs. It may be that it causes him to lean more towards the acceptance of a second Anglican province for North America. I am sure the Archbishop recognizes that what we are engaging in is only one month ahead of what faces the ELCA at its Church wide Assembly, or what faces the Presbyterian Church of the USA or the United Methodists. These are our ecumenical partners in mission on a day to day basis and welcome our representation and partnership. We share the same cultural context for mission, and it is no surprise that we share the same dilemmas of how to be Church to all God's people.
How defining this Convention's actions will be for us as an institution set on course for mission depends on where we manage to take the Church in our strategic planning and discussions on structure that will happen in the next triennium. How effective will we be in bringing resources closer to the diocesan and regional bases of missional operation? How will we let God reshape us through younger minds and hearts released in the power of the Holy Spirit to bring Christ to their generation, and in fresh ways to the older generations. One small joy for Iowa's credit is to see the phrase "Next Generations of Faith" appear in budgetary and mission priorities for the next three years. Of course it will only become a real joy if we manage to become God's agents to reach them!
All in all I return from the General Convention saying about The Episcopal Church - watch this space! Another highlight rarely mentioned in the general media was the worship. We can sing if we are really invited to. We love gospel and we continue to embrace the rhythms of our Communion - of Latin and African beat in particular. We know how to set this alongside Anglican chant and hymns ancient and modern. And we have preachers! I invite you to look for three sermons in particular by
Ray Suarez,
Brian McLaren, and
Steve Charleston.
Brian McLaren told us how we are evangelists if we only recognized it. Steve Charleston reminded us that the alarm has sounded on the future of this planet and we must step away from our distractions and gather the world in the peace of Christ or perish together. Ray Suarez made me realize how much hurt I have felt as an Episcopalian over the years, that there are those who wish to replace us and discount our witness to Christ. He brought tears to my eyes in restating for me why I am glad that God invited me, through a very circuitous path, to serve Jesus Christ in this wonderful part of God's vineyard. It is time to be proud to define ourselves as a people God uses for Christ's sake, and not be ashamed, for we have been given the Gospel for our time and our place. And we can and we do proclaim it to the honor of God's glory.
+Alan
As we prepare to gather at General Convention, we can never fully know the circumstances in which we meet. Ministry is always about real people, real needs and a Gospel that gives real hope and strength. One of my colleagues on the Program Budget and Finance, Bishop Allen, has notified the Presiding Bishop in a letter shared with the House of Bishops of difficult circumstances facing his people right now. I append it to this note for your prayers. I think too of one year ago when floods covered much of Iowa and some of you carried that to the Provincial Synod while I stayed here. Later we were able to share our experience with the Lambeth Conference. In turn we saw video at Canterbury of the sufferings of the people of Myanmar which only the Church could provide because of its deep involvement with its people. In my bible study group was the interim (once retired) bishop of Harere from Zimbabwe whom we knew returned to an atrocious as well as dangerous situation.
So as we gather in Anaheim, I don't have to remind you that our deliberations - whether over budget or the myriad of resolutions - are about the very same lives and more - of all of us in fact whom Christ has called as His beloved. They are also about those sheep of other folds for whom God's love knows no bounds. We are tempted to write off such occasions as political conventions. Bishop Allen for one, in the name of his people, is letting us know that it is very much otherwise. It is about the mission of God through the Church in which God has found us and called us to serve. I thank you for your prayers during this time.
+Alan
* * * * *
June 30, 2009
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Thank you all for your prayers and concerns for the diocese and the people of Honduras. So far, the entire clergy, lay leadershiop and our families are all well I spent the past weekend at one of my churches attending a vigil of prayer and praise where many were baptized and confirmed.
I returned home at five thirty a.m. to learn that President Zelaya had been outsted. the political tension had increased as president Zelaya pressed on with plans for a nonbinding referendum which opponents said would open the gate for him to rewrite the constitution to run for re-election dispite a one term limit. In the weeks leading up to yesterday's coup, supporters and opponents held demonstrations.
Last week Congress and the Supreme Court rules the referendum unconstitutional. On thursday, the presidnet led a group of protestors to an air force installation and seized the ballot boxes, which the procurator's office and the electoral tribunal had ordered confiscated
The armed forces commander, said the military would not participate in the referendum, president zelaya fired him, and the Supreme Court declared the firing illegal.
I predict that you will be hearing a lot more about all what has happened, A month ago the country was shaken by a 7.1 earthquake and now this, what next and how much longer can this empowerish country survive. The actions leading up to this events will take us back in time, which will take us many years to recover and regain confidence in the international eyes.
I want to Call on the Church to keep this diocese and the Honduran people highly in Prayers. I really don't know what the future will bring. The Honduran dlegation is ready to participate with you all at General Convention, However, if the course of actions does not improve in the next few days, I may have to reconsider.
Once again, So far, we are doing well, I will continue to update you all as of the course of events in this my country,
Faithfully in Christ Love
+Lloyd Allen
Taking pause is one of the gifts of summer. I tend to stumble across such moments rather than plan them. But they have been cropping up more frequently of late. It tells me, as my mother used to say as she watched my life unfold as a young person “someone somewhere is looking after you!” I want to tell you of two recent ones.
In the first example the “someone” is a newly ordained deacon, who gave me a present of the book “Father Joe” by Tony Hendra. It was published a couple of years ago, but I had not come across it, nor had I remembered that it was cited in Rowan Williams’ book “Tokens of Trust” which I had used for the E-Seminary class on the doctrines of the Apostles’ Creed. Killing two birds with one stone, I want to recommend to you the William’s book, and “Father Joe”, as ideas for summer reading.
Father Joe was a monk living on the Isle of Wight who played a pivotal part in the up and down spiritual journey of the author, Tony Hendra. It is a biography within an autobiography, but also a spiritual journal written without any pious pretence, but which addresses the reader in what I would call a raw or straightforward use of language rarely dared or associated with a book of the religious genre. I hope that alone gets your attention to wonder what do I mean by the word “raw”? I encourage you to do yourself the favor of searching out the book. It is a book version of one of those paintings in which the subject matter seems to be looking straight at you whichever direction you look at it.
The second “moment for pause” came on my recent few days at home intended to get on with some garden and house work. Two years ago the summer ended with a strong storm smashing to pieces the glass table top of our patio table. Glass shattered all over the graveled floor in the garden. I shoveled most of it up with the gravel and deposited it in the garbage. In 2008 I bought a new glass table of the same type, but only managed to put it up and never got the chairs out or even used it the whole summer. Lambeth, Brechin, Swaziland all took care of the rest of the summer and fall.
So my first act of 2009 vacation was to bring out the table and the chairs, thoroughly clean and set up them up for potential summer jaunts in the back garden. As I attempted to place the umbrella pole in the center of the table, it slipped, got jammed, and, yes you guessed it, the glass top smashed into smithereens as I tried to adjust the table to ease the tension! I spent the next two days visiting Home Depots etc, and then places like the Ames Mine to find out that the gravel was limestone and of a certain size and coloring only available at one or two mines probably in the east or north west of Iowa!
Eight supermarket paper bags of limestone and glass shards stood in a row off my back door steps. The poor paving area looked quite bare. I did not want to replace with river rocks. So one afternoon I stepped outside, sat down by one of the bags and began one handful at a time to sift through the glass and the limestone. I deposited glass in a paper bag, and the limestone in a bucket. I reckon I have thirty hours of work ahead of me. Soon I realized that this was going to be my God time for these days ahead. It is probably not a bad way to prepare the heart and mind for General Convention, and to ponder on the excellent book I had just finished! I cannot say how many days it will take to get through the bags, but as I turn it into prayer time, if I think of each piece rolling through my hand as a potential offering of intercession - just as I did when marking each step of the run from Davenport to Des Moines a few years ago - perhaps I have stumbled yet again into God’s gracious moment. May you discover such moments these coming months - though I would hope not out of such circumstances! There may only be one Inspector Clouseau or Mr. Bean in the world - but some of us give them a close run.
+Alan
Dear Beloved in Christ,
An enhanced ability to communicate lies at the heart of my Annual Bishop’s Appeal for 2009. With the technology available to us these days, I am asking your help in raising funds to provide for networking accessibility in every congregation. At the same time, we want to communicate at a very different level to the people of Swaziland our shared love and compassion for their work with their own network of orphan care stations.
In other words, this is a shared appeal. We will divide every dollar raised with the Diocese of Swaziland who has recently lost a major grant which has been supporting their ministry to the orphans around their parishes.
I think we have all become familiar with the concept of conference calls and teleconferencing. We see people with technology at their fingertips which has allowed them to cut down on travel, help reduce our carbon footprint on the earth, and save time and energy. While the church will always remain and I trust increasingly be, a place where communities keep learning to gather face to face, and break down the walls of division between us, there are some practical steps we can take to do our day to day business of education, joint planning work for commissions, communication and above all be accessible to the unchurched.
We have already begun down this road at a quickened pace since launching the E-Seminary in 2004. Conference calls are becoming commonplace for diocesan planning, and we have experienced occasional teleconferencing with members who could not attend a Board meeting for example. The newsletter now comes to congregational leaders online, and much of the flood recovery work has depended on online communication and online donation capacity.
This year’s appeal aims to improve this fledgling system. We want to provide a teleconferencing ability in every congregation by raising funds to buy upgraded equipment and high quality software for congregations to gather together through the gift of technology. Our God who is both Word and Incarnate is always the One behind the human breakthroughs in how we learn to understand and harness the capacities of nature around us. The cyber revolution is an expression of this, and we are seeing that our connection in the Name of Christ can and does happen through this space.
We also seek to bring the E-Seminary into your congregation through this teleconferencing capacity. The ICN system has served us well but more can be achieved if the place of gathering and study is the familiar community church. I think it will encourage more to come together in our communities of faith. Technophobe as I am, I can use the technology to communicate more regularly with you through podcast and such. I already enjoy connecting in some small way with the young people of the Diocese through Facebook at least.
Obviously we can do as much as we are able with our common generosity. While our goal would be to provide for such capacity in every congregation, we will certainly seek to provide such a center in one congregation for every chapter. At the heart of it for us, this technological advancement is about sharing the Good News about Jesus. The chariot, an image from the Acts’ recent story of Philip and the Ethiopian, is the internet. That is how most people travel. It is where they are reading their news and making their connections. It where and how they find their churches. It is where they come to share their faith. My hope and prayer is that we will be there for them and share in the telling of the Story.
The internet is also where the Church’s global character is before us every day. Hence, we can know when a partner diocese has lost an important grant. Therefore, please remember that every dollar raised will be shared with the Orphan and Vulnerable Children Centers of the Swaziland Diocese. This is an appeal directly linked with seeking the next generations of faith here in Iowa and preserving the same in Swaziland.
May God bless you as you consider your gift to my 2009 appeal.
In the love and peace of Christ,
+ Alan
A new sketch hangs on my office wall. It is a birthday gift from the people of the Church of the Savior in Clermont from my Sunday visitation. Now we all know how it feels to open up presents in public with expectant faces looking on. We had had an amazing time all morning – confirming five and receiving three new members. The congregation has quadrupled in the last year or so and this Sunday was the fruit of that in many ways. After the blessing, we processed outside to the foundations of a new extension which of course will house the blessed bathroom of Convention fame of a couple of years ago.
So what was there to be hesitant about in opening a present in such a joyous atmosphere? I ripped off the wrapping and was stopped in my tracks. Before me were striking images depicting the human cost of the ICE raid in Postville. Men were being hauled off in shackles, being fingerprinted by ICE officials. There was the Homeland Security coach and the wire fences, and in one corner were women and children holding their faces in their hands horrified by what they had experienced. This coming May 12th is the anniversary of the event, and a prayer service and solidarity walk march is being planned from St Bridget’s Church in Postville, gathering at 3.30pm.
Spontaneous tears have always intrigued me especially where matters of the spirit are concerned. Jesus once spoke of there being more joy among the angels at one sinner who repents than at ninety nine righteous ones. As a young person I could never hold back the tears as friends would respond to the altar call which was the custom at the Methodist church of my faith upbringing. I have seen priests with tears down their faces as they watch members of their congregation come forward at one of my invitations to reaffirm faith through the laying on of hands. At the Episcopal Youth Event in 2005 the organizers did not leave enough time for the proper pastoral response to the lines of young people coming forward for healing and the streams of tears evoked and needing careful handling.
There is also the weeping over Jerusalem, weeping at the incompleteness of humanity through our unwillingness and unreadiness to embrace the joy that is complete. The Postville images provoke such a tearful response. But there was also a sense of incredible honor that this gift symbolized. I was being invited into the pain and struggle of that community’s life just as they were also saying thank you for being already there even if only in part. Sometimes the greatest expressions of love are when we trust one another with our pain and the incompleteness as yet of our humanity.
It is the kind of generosity God is asking of us all these days. No one bears every pain except the man of sorrows who is acquainted with all our grief, and who offers us precisely that complete joy. But in this global consciousness that is now ours, none of us are exempt or can hide from being captured by some of it. There is a reason we pray “Thy Kingdom come” and why the early church greeted each other with “Maranatha”, “Come Lord Jesus”. This is what we sign on for, (whether we like it or not) when we hear Christ’s voice say “Follow me”. He is also the one who will always ask us (even after we deny Him, or are tempted to pass judgment on each other) - “Do you love me more than these?”
Philippians 3: 10-11
I share my life with a woman of exceptional spiritual sensitivity. Donna “feels” Holy Week and Easter as well as Christmas. I found this out early in our courtship, when after a Christmas Eve service, she quickly shook hands with the vicar and excused herself saying “she had to run” and disappeared around the block! Joy to the world was more than a hymn or Christmas carol to be sung, it was a song to be run.
This Holy Week and Easter seems to have been a particularly strong one in the feeling department. She shared a prayer for someone that they “may have a resurrection moment in their life”. And I thought what a wonderful concept – a resurrection moment!
What a wonderful sentiment – a resurrection moment. Certainly the Iowa State football team is hoping for one; as is our President for our economy, and more importantly for many families and individuals who are looking for one for their personal circumstances. Hollywood lives off depicting them. For I believe that it is in our bones to wait for resurrection moments. It is what makes human history so resilient. We match our downturns with the search for resurrection. There is always the hope of starting things anew. In the profoundest way it is in God’s heart to seek to make resurrection moments happen for us and around us.
The Apostle Paul understood this. He had to, in that as a persecutor of the Church he had sunk as low as he could imagine going, but was picked up by the Risen Christ. For Paul, his life’s goal became “to know him ( Jesus Christ), and I mean by that to know the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, while I continue to be made like him in His death; if by any chance I may attain to the resurrection of the dead”.
(Philippians 3: 10-11)
I have “felt” this Holy Week and Easter in a particularly strong way this year, mostly because I have spent a large part of Holy Week outlining what the Church can and cannot do in being responsive to the recent Iowa State Supreme Court ruling. It is a highly divisive and emotional issue, I know, but for those affected the most because it is a direct ruling on their behalf, it is a potential resurrection moment – an honoring of their lifelong committed relationships with one another and their love for one another.
I want to share with you a resurrection moment that I received as an Easter story from one of my priests earlier this week. It drew me in because it concerned the writer’s racially mixed parents who in 1958 came into Iowa from neighboring Nebraska to marry. Iowa was one of the early Midwestern states to strike down its laws against inter-racial marriage. I realized from the article that Donna and I would have been dating when such was still illegal in some states. Now the writer, a gay man with a partner, was heading himself to Iowa, to stand in the same City Hall at Council Bluffs to receive the very rights his parents received so many years ago. This was to be his resurrection moment.
Last night we heard of God’s invitation to love and be loved – from the beginning of time as the first infant footprint of humanity ever set upon the earth. Resurrection moments are about this Love. But it is a Love which does not avoid suffering. It is a Love which suffers, which offers itself in sacrifice; is seemingly overcome and snuffed out by darkness but then suddenly overpowers its enemy and rises from the tomb.
It should not surprise us that resurrection rises out of darkness; that the Cross must come first; that Paul sought the power of the resurrection but did not shirk the sharing of Christ’s suffering for the sins of the world. This is important. We are not dealing with sentimental happy endings engineered without pain.
On Good Friday, I walked the way of the cross as it processed around downtown Des Moines. My station was where Jesus cried out in abandonment to His Father and then gave up His spirit. I found myself meditating on the cry of dereliction – not in terms of reciting Psalm 22 or even as a theological act where the holiness of God was encountering the sins of the world laid upon the Lamb of God – but I considered that Jesus was facing what we all must face. That it is one thing to enter this world as we do, but a far different thing to leave it. Death comes to us all, and it was Jesus’ only way out, and I wondered if its stark nature even took him by surprise. And yet it is at such a moment and in spite of his state of dereliction that He yields Himself up to God, which is where our resurrection moment comes.
It ultimately says that Christ leads every death to life, every despair to hope, every bewilderment to light, every time of abandonment to recognition and honoring.
It gives rise to why a young man from the Sudan, who has the chance to live and be educated in this country, nevertheless refuses to give up his people’s pain, but is preparing to return as a law graduate to make a difference hopefully as an elected official in his regional government, while fully aware of the costs. He is engaging his resurrection moment, first enduring the pain before entering into joy. And he is in the midst of us this morning.
It tells why numerous people who on suffering sudden loss – some at the hands of an unjust system, or from the reckless behavior of others, or from the warring and competing nature of nations, or from diseases we cannot yet control – find the strength to turn their grief into the energy to tackle the issues before them that will make things right for the new generation. This is resurrection power.
It is why there is always hope and a potential newness out of every slammed door, or political outmaneuvering, or spiritual mayhem that comes along.
We know that Christ is risen to open up Paradise to guarantee that death is never the final word. And I am aware that often on this Easter Day, I focus my sermons on seeking to persuade you of the reality of the resurrection. But let me also say that Christ is risen to open up the blessings which remain stilled locked up inside the limited nature of our life’s experiences and possibilities of the here and now and that He seeks each of us to experience resurrection moments at every stage of our lives – whether we are teenagers impatient or confused or even depressed by life’s pace or demands, or seniors aware of the limits of a life already lived, or those of you in between who are on the top of your game and may have achieved everything you have dreamed but wonder is this all that there is. Jesus comes to continue to give you resurrection moments. And we see that we need this as much to live fully as we do to die bravely.
Above all resurrection is about knowing Jesus Christ, and thus knowing God. This was Paul’s overarching emphasis. He wanted to know Christ, not as an educational figure or a person from history, but in the here and now as we know our closest of friends.
In this knowing I wondered also if this is not what Jesus meant by the idea of being born again. The Spirit of the Risen Christ lives in us as we grow and it is precisely as our bodies die that the Spirit within us that has already overcome death takes up its new life and provides for us what Paul says is a heavenly body for our eternal purpose. That same spirit seeks to be nurtured by us today.
Believe it or not I have struggled with this sermon this week. In fact, as I remarked at 8 o’clock I scrapped my original one and wrote this at 3am this morning. Hence I could refer to last night’s sermon! I have struggled because I know that even as I want to acknowledge as a resurrection moment the rights afforded by the State Supreme Court, I am aware of the remaining pain which is present in the Church in the limits of our canonical response. I struggle also because each year I seek to convince people of the resurrection, but in the end I cannot prove anything. I can only invite you to witness the event itself as it reveals itself in the transformation of lives around us. For I have seen lives turned around. I have seen joy-filled people who live without clean water or on one dollar a day, yet who give their suffering to God as Jesus did on the cross, and know their hearts resurrected in joy to bear the suffering, look beyond it and believe in a better future. They in turn reach out to us who have everything and offer us their joy from that same source.
I have seen the generous rich, in this age when CEOs are not very popular people. I have seen the whiners who become people filled with gratitude as they see things as gift; and I have seen bullies made compassionate – all because Jesus is risen in them and His love wins out over greed, self preoccupation, and violence.
In the end Donna again asked me – so what exactly is it you want to say to people? What do you want them to know? It is this: that God may break open for us the power of Christ’s resurrection, that we might seize God’s resurrection moments, and let them transform our lives – facing the suffering we must, but knowing the overcoming power of the One who is Risen within us – so that we might become in Him the instruments of further resurrection moments. This is my prayer for me and for every one of us. Amen.
A Pastoral Response
to the Iowa State Supreme Court Ruling on Equal Marriage
Introduction
I invite you to read the “pastoral response” to the Iowa State Supreme Court Ruling on same sex marriage carefully and prayerfully. It is, I believe, the only position available to us according to the polity and custom of our Church. We stand four months away from a General Convention where the limited character of this position will be challenged by resolutions that will come before the Church in Council.
While I affirm the practice of pastoral local option, never repudiated even by the Windsor process, I am aware of the discrepancy, and discrimination in practice this response reveals. Some would seek that I unilaterally ignore the canons and assume the State’s broadened definition, others are caught by the inequity of treating heterosexual couples different than same sex couples. These become important insights for the upcoming debate given our different circumstances in Iowa. A short while ago there was not much energy around a Task Force on Marriage as asked for by General Convention. I would think that the urgency of that conversation has greatly increased, and I am glad for the reasoned and careful statements I have been receiving on that topic. I know emotions are running high, and they have to be expressed. But polemics do not get as much attention as engaging conversation.
We are being sought after by couples around the country, who want more than a civil ceremony. They truly are people of faith seeking their depository of faith, the Church, to celebrate with them. In the calls I receive, I am told of the church membership of the various callers. Being welcoming is vital, and I believe it can be done creatively and within our current canonical constraints by clergy able to engage a local option. For me “being welcoming” also includes support for the rights already afforded. This is a pastoral response, it is not a final answer. The issues have been made clearer. This is not a time to walk away from being part of the process as it reaches another critical point and we fear our differences. We need courage to keep talking and we continue to need patience which in such circumstance becomes itself a form of courage.
+ + + + +
Good Friday 2009
The recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling has opened civil marriage for same-sex couples in the state of Iowa on the constitutional principle of equal protection under the law. This ruling clarifies for me what the issue is that is facing the Church. Like so many who support the rights of gay and lesbian people, I thought civil unions would provide adequate protection for their relationships. I began to see things differently as I heard the arguments presented in court several months ago. Last week the Iowa Supreme Court concluded, “We have a constitutional duty to ensure equal protection of the law. Faithfulness to that duty requires us to hold Iowa’s marriage statute, Iowa Code section 595.2, [restricting marriage to a man and a woman] violates the Iowa Constitution. To decide otherwise would be an abdication of our constitutional duty.”
The State Supreme Court ruling did several things beyond the immediate rights it affirmed. It removed in this instance, the final place where church and state have not been separated. Clergy act as dual agents in marriage ceremonies, and at times wonder whether participating couples actually desire to make their promises before God, or whether the Church is being used as a lovely setting for a civil commitment. The new ruling of the Court for same-sex couples brings the dilemma of dual agencies into a different light for the Church.
The Supreme Court’s ruling broadens the legal definition of marriage beyond that which is currently stated in the Canons of the Church or the Prayer Book which contains our authorized services. Further, the Prayer Book requires compliance with both the laws of the State and the canons of the Church. But the Church’s definition of the sacrament of marriage and the state’s definition of the legal form of marriage now differ. In spite of the good intentions many may have, I am unable to permit Episcopal clergy to sign marriage licenses for same-sex couples. Couples wishing prayers and a blessing therefore must go first to the state to be married or a priest may ask a state official to provide for the vows and the signing of the license.
Prayers and the seeking of blessing with the receiving and witnessing of the couple in the company of the people of God are a pastoral decision at the parochial level in the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa. That was the situation before the possibility of marriage, and remains in practice now. What is now clear is that the Church is discussing the nature of the sacrament, not civil rights. The Court has provided us with a definitive debate. While that debate continues, some will enjoy a new freedom for which I am grateful and rejoice.
As an Episcopal bishop I honor the fact that the title of the ruling names an Episcopal couple. I know many Episcopal clergy and baptized who have worked and prayed to see this day. I also know that I am the bishop of the whole Diocese in a global Communion as well as a Catholic Church, and we are not of one mind on this issue. It ought to be no surprise that I desire the Church to find the will and way to move forward beyond our focus on this disagreement to the more fundamental mission of God which we share. What we can hope for is to witness God’s power to reconcile, even in our differences. Let us see what this new freedom will bring before we speak poorly of each other. Hope is about having the will to see the loving best in each other, as reflecting God’s own love for all. Eventually all of us will witness to the fact that “all shall be well.”
As Holy Week comes upon us, I remember how busy those days of preparation in the parish were. I appreciate too how important it has been to come together on Monday – a significant day for some of us in that it is our regular day off – and renew our ordination vows. Some of you are very disappointed that we have moved the day this year, but it was because of an effort to combine two good things. George Winston offered a benefit concert for the Diocese’s flood recovery and Wednesday of Holy Week happened to be the only date available. So I thought that we might come together and make this our communal renewal, as well as a collective work of acknowledging the ongoing needs of flood victims around the state. This is the first liturgical movement towards Good Friday and Easter Day since the floods, and there is certainly a lot of loss and sacrifice to bring to the cross, as there is hope that will be strengthened by the resurrection.
Throughout Eastertide and into the summer, there are numerous volunteer teams coming to Iowa from around the country. I hope we will form our own teams from the parishes to come and do a day or a weekend of work with our guests. Contact Pat Genereux about that (pegenereux@msn.com or 319-750-0338).
On other issues, I remind you that we gather as clergy at the end of the month at American Martyrs and once again we have a change in our usual pattern. We gather on Wednesday through Friday starting at the usual time for dinner on Wednesday evening. Again this change is for this year only and does not indicate a new pattern. I hope we will come prepared to discuss General Convention issues, that may have caught our attention, as well as be ready to engage with Howard Anderson as we think about what some have called The Great Emergence. I have enjoyed spending our cluster time sharing the ways in which God brought each of us to faith, and now we can ask how to best assist the non churched find their way to that same knowledge of the love of God for them.
God has certainly placed us in interesting times. Even as I am writing this, the historical decision by the Iowa State Supreme Court on marriage equality has been announced. I welcome your input as we find our way through the Church’s commitment to the legal and civil rights of same sex couples balanced with the Church’s divided opinions on the theological implications. At the House of Bishops meeting recently, Walter Brueggeman appealed for a stance less of prophet in our relations with one another in the Church matters that divide, and more of becoming scribes who Jesus described as being trained for the kingdom, sorting through treasures old and new. I invite you to consider his new book on the topic “Mandate To Difference.”
+Alan
Back to top
The month of March takes us deep into the heart of the Lenten season. I seek to capture the sweep of that experience from the heights of the Transfiguration mountain to the foot of the Cross in a sermon from Global Mission Sunday (audio file below). Other uses of newly available ways of communicating are being explored further later this month when we are preparing a video cast for display at your Spring Chapter meeting. I truly hope that the Chapters will become opportunities for area ministry sharing, attended by all the baptized and not just the clergy. I am grateful for the clergy supporting one another, but the mission of God is resourced by all of God’s people and the Chapters need broader representation. Wardens, youth interested in God’s mission, Convention delegates would be a good starter gathering with the clergy.
This issue of the newsletter also highlights the concern of Human Trafficking. Please attend to the Trafficking materials prepared for distribution as part of our Lenten focus. I am grateful to Maggie Tinsman for keeping this before us, and guiding us to these materials. As she reminds us the Diocesan Convention resolved to bring this needed action before the Church and the Community (Resolutions 156-F and 156-G).
The sermon audio file from February 22, 2009 is of a goodly length (approximately 18 minutes) and so I hope you will fix yourself a cup of coffee or your Lenten beverage of choice and settle in to listen (click the ► below).
+Alan.jpg)
Last Saturday several Commissions gathered together to share visioning for ministry in the Diocese for 2009. Under the banner of “Next Generations of Faith”, they were asked to think through ways in which their priorities and projects would enhance this strategic goal. Up front and center was the Youth Ministry Development Team which has been reshaped to include members of that next generation. The team is now made up of pairings of one youth and one adult from different regions around the Diocese, so that people of different ages are working together in regions with youth ministry. An offshoot of YMDT will be a young adult task force. This group again will include young adults, but also those working closely with them. I hope it will bring our Campus Chaplains together as part of the process.
As vestries are forming, I am glad to hear of younger people being invited to take on responsibilities. If you have questions about this I suggest that you contact Lydia Kelsey who can give good guidance on how to approach and include younger people on vestry in various ways. The same could happen as you consider your selections for delegates to Diocesan Convention and consider inviting young people as your parish delegates not just a youth delegates. Intentionality is the key.
The same is occurring through the deployment process. Suddenly I am interviewing or considering requests to come to Iowa of younger clergy families. Our clergy landscape is being changed before our eyes. It may surprise you to know that when I ordain the three deacons this February, I will have ordained thirty people since coming to Iowa. All but four are serving here. In addition we have received seventeen new clergy from beyond the Diocese during this time, which leaves a balance of forty three newly ordained or newly arrived clergy alongside eighteen priests and twenty four deacons still serving and who were serving when I arrived.
I want to invite clergy and congregational leaders to be equally as intentional in looking over the leadership of your congregations and seeing where there may be members whose expertise and energetic passions may be helpful to the Diocesan Commissions. The Commissions are how we bring ministries together and seek to make a greater impact because we are working in concert across the state. This is very important in areas of justice and peace and the environment, as well as in issues related to multiculturalism. We have Commissions attached to the Board on each of these areas but they are under-represented at the moment. This is a good time to invite new people to let God fan the flames of their spiritual gifts by offering themselves to the cause.
One radical change that is going to engulf the Diocese this year may help encourage broader participation. The plans for increased cyber communication passed recently by the Board will help us do much of our work together online. I realized as I heard of people’s use of facebook for social networking how much I am losing in refusing to appreciate this way of communication. But we have just seen a President elected along these channels. How much more can we expand Christ’s ministry? We don’t have to wait for the missionary to travel back from the Sudan and show the slideshows of need and despair. We can for example, get an immediate response from our Presiding Bishop with clear requests for action (See the Sudan link). This is where the next generations of faith live, and it is from where they are likely to begin their actions for Christ. And the very fact that I am saying this indicates that it has probably been true for half a decade if not more!
Finally, when I proposed the concept of Chapters, it was to help develop interactive ministry across an area. In fact I showed a map of the Chapters with Iowa counties in evidence so that each Chapter might catch a vision of their ministry area – not just the towns where they live, but into the counties where they have no presence. This was to be the Chapter’s mission field. Launching into internet developed chapter networking might help bring this alive. Perhaps we have to do this first, and then our twice a year requested gatherings as Chapters might become gatherings of people who are growing to know one another online. It might also break down congregationalism because our lives will have been expanded by our new social network. It is an incredible leap for many of us who might be reading this newsletter. It is a reality already for the next generations of faith who might well ask –where have you been all this time?
+ Alan
How do we get to the Gaza strip from Mills House? Let me chart one course.
Over the New Year, I have begun my own version of very early Spring cleaning. I am boxing files which cover the myriad of meetings from 2003-2007, with a few exceptions where I may have to go back to 2007. I am also creating new binder homes for the various ministry ideas which did not get into play in 2008 but which I believe are waiting God’s time. Some of those new binders are receiving new names – away from the institutional titles of our Board Commissions. One is “Public Advocacy” in which sits the challenges that take me up to Capitol Hill. Another pair – “Farm and Church” and “Climate Change Issues” – carry the burden of the stewardship of our environment. Yet another new binder simply states: “Anglican Communion Dioceses in Partnership”. This is not where Swaziland or Brechin relations sit, as they are more intimately “Companions”, but here is where The Diocese of Jerusalem is represented, along with the Sudan and Congo and others. This is the binder open on my desk right now.
We have access through our Communion experience to life beyond the news. Where BBC cannot go, our Anglican brothers and sisters in the Gaza strip can. Therefore we can hear voices and experience passions to take to our hearts and then to our prayers. I am grateful to Judith Jones, our MDG representative on the One World One Church Commission for alerting me to the following statement from the Bishop of Jerusalem, The Right Reverend Suheil S Dawani, which takes us deep into his people’s day by day experience, at one particular location. It is shared that we might respond.
JERUSALEM, January 7th, 2009 - At a time when great tragedy is occurring in the Holy Land in Gaza, I want to share some insight into what we are experiencing on a moment to moment basis. Our Diocese has one of 11 hospitals serving a population of 1.5 million residents in the Gaza Strip. The Al Ahli Arab (Anglican) Hospital has been in operation for over 100 years and has a very dedicated medical staff of doctors, nurses, technicians and general services personnel.
During the best of times they are stretched to their maximum, meeting the medical needs of this populous community. Now, during the current military conflict with its heavy toll on human life and material, the hospital faces even greater responsibilities and challenges. The result is growing strain on the hospital's resources. Every day since the beginning of military operations, the hospital has received 20-40 injured or wounded patients. A large proportion of them require hospitalization and surgery. These patients are in addition to those with non-conflict-related illnesses. About one-fourth of the patients are children.
In addition, the conflict has brought new type of medical and surgical conditions. For example, patients with burns and acute, crippling psychological trauma are being seen more frequently. Because it is not possible for aid workers to enter Gaza at this time, the hospital's staff is working around the clock, struggling with the effects of exhaustion and against limited resources in a conflicted area of ongoing military operations.
Many medical items are needed, especially bandages and supplies for burns and trauma. The hospital's windows have all been blown out or shattered from rocket and missile concussion and cold permeates the entire premises. Plastic sheeting to cover the windows could alleviate some of the cold but is unavailable now. Food supplies are scant throughout the Gaza strip and maintaining patients' nutritional needs at the hospital has been difficult, especially for the most vulnerable. Some medicines and supplies for the hospital have been generously donated by US AID, but it has not yet been possible to deliver the items.
Efforts to help alleviate some of the shortages are underway and we hope that the shipments will arrive quickly. Through the ICRC limited amounts of diesel fuel are being delivered to keep the electrical generators functional for life saving and other essential equipment. We are working with a number of related governmental and international voluntary agencies to speed up the delivery and steady supply of needed medicines and food. We are also working to ensure to the fullest extent possible the physical safety of the Hospital staff and campus.
On a "normal" day, approximately 600 life line trucks a day bring supplies to the Gaza Strip. Many are under the auspices of UNRWA and international relief agencies because about two-thirds of Gaza's residents are Refugees and living in UNRWA Camps. During this time of conflict, that number of trucks is not seen in a week or more. Because of the reduced deliveries, medical items, nutritional food, and other basic supplies are now scarce items, if available at all, for our brothers and sisters in Gaza.
I ask you to join with me in prayer and by offering whatever financial support you can for our Hospital and heroic Staff of the Al Ahli Hospital - and other such humanitarian endeavors. Thankfully the Hospital plant remains intact at this time. While several among our Staff have suffered loss and injuries within their own families, they are representing all of us as a witness of God's love to all people - "come unto to me all you who are heavy laden and I will refresh you". As we continue to pray for communal Palestinian and Israeli PEACE, we especially remember these dedicated individuals who cannot leave, but most importantly do not want to leave, but continue to do all they can to help.
Our Lord's imperative in St. John's Gospel during this Epiphany season gives each of us the new hope for a new dawn of light, life and communal conciliation - "I have come that you may have Life and have it abundantly".
(Refer to the Diocese of Jerusalem website (
www.j-diocese.org) for previous statements on Gaza from The Bishop.)
Information about donating money can be provided on request.
Judith also shares with us a way in which we can call for peace, in signing a petition at
http://www.cmep.org/letter. I have just added my name and invite you to do the same.
I share this because we know the importance of our Communion together. The Diocese of Iowa continues to be recipients of aid and prayers from around the world as people remember our own efforts to recover from the floods of 2008. In one way we have an opportunity to return the generosity in our support of the Diocese of Jerusalem.
The planned work trip to Texas over Valentine’s Day weekend is a different example of returning the generosity while sharing our sense of Communion. There is still room for people to join us as we head south to Galveston on February 11th through 19th. Others who cannot travel might want to support through defraying costs or supporting the Diocese of Texas relief efforts, or providing tools for the trip. You can find details of how to do this on the
Diocesan web-site, and particularly at
http://www.iowawaters.org/flood_buckets.html. For more details you may also contact Pat Genereux, our Disaster Relief Officer at 319-750-0338. Funds should be sent to the Diocesan Office payable to “Episcopal Diocese of Iowa” marked “Hearts and Hands”.
It is as Christians continue to give of themselves when times are dire, and the natural response is to look after your own, that our testimony grows strong. See how they love one another is not about smiling faces and lots of hugs, but resolved foreheads and gritted teeth, refusing to turn inwards when everything suggests you should. This is what resurrection people are about. They have already faced the worst that can happen, and so they are willing to give to their uppermost, returning the generosity to a God who refused to let the cup of suffering on behalf of others pass from Him.
If my file sorting only leads me to bureaucracy, then those files are empty nothings, however nicely arranged. But if my files lead me to ministry, then we have the start of something. You can get to the Gaza strip and to the entire world from the Diocese of Iowa.
+Alan
