Articles & Sermons - 2012

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In his recent Iowa Connections article about the New Communities Conference in San Diego, Torey Lightcap writes, “In my experience what really drives change is good old fashioned demand and need, and too often what is needed isn’t really even talked about until after someone has been in pain for a while. In the church resistance to change can become institutionalized and calcified as a way of going about our daily rounds, and we can rationalize our resistance all we like, sometimes even protecting it. Yet the Holy Spirit blows where it wills, and if we are so tightly tethered that we can’t be bothered to be blown about, we’ll miss the general drift.”

With three Diocesan Task Forces at work right now in engaging structural change, we can have hope that there is an effort to loosen the tethers for the Spirit. It is true that each of the Task Forces are geared to the institution’s needs, but the general intention is to listen to its members and their pain rather than its own. Time, resources and motivation are the three presenting issues for the Task Forces. The Task Force on Structure is responding initially to the difficulty of filling out the nominations for diocesan elections. Beyond this however is the question of motivation and time. How do people want to use their time in the service of Christ? Are we gathering the most passionate members of the Church in the councils of the Church who might by their very presence alter the discussion and subject matter that tends to preoccupy those councils? Does everyone need to be part of the day to day decision making or can those with a vision focused more on the longer view of the mission of the Church, afford to meet less often? At the diocesan staff level we have answered this question by holding weekly meetings for staff that deal with the regular routines of business and need to keep up their ongoing communication; and holding off the broader discussions for less regular staff meetings. I just attend the latter for example.

The Task Force on Funding, also created by a resolution of the last Diocesan Convention as was the previously mentioned Task Force, is going over ground which is probably cyclical for every diocese, only the cycles are spinning around much faster. Nevertheless it is interesting that the last time we looked at this issue was when the last Strategic Plan was being formed, and that seems to be happening again but separately from the Strategic Plan process.

On Easter II, I chose to preach on Acts 4:32-37. In way of a warning I started with the story of the driver who was lost in a Welsh village on his way to Cardiff. “Do you know the way to Cardiff?” he asked a bystander in the village. “Ah yes,” came the reply, “but I wouldn’t start from here.” Luke’s description of the early community of Jesus’ followers seems easy to imitate, but we find ourselves so economically proscribed that we end up saying “I wouldn’t start from here.” What is clear, however, is that ministry primarily begins at the local level, and maybe we have to connect our ingathering for the good of the whole to ministry at that level, relating the Stewardship Share to what we can commonly understand as Shared Ministry. In my Easter II sermon, I used a quote from Barclay “It is not when the law compels us to share. It is when the heart moves us to share that society is really Christian.” As Jesus said: “Where your treasure is, there is your heart also.”

All of this leads to the final Task Force on Strategic Planning – your responses to the questions about our future in mission together; and what do we find: “Ministry is primarily local and locally driven. Seek ways to support and resource at the local level.” You are also excited by the increase of members who are engaging in these local ministries which are being undertaken. And there is evidence of new growth.

I believe much of that new energy has come from our common engagement in the plan we are finishing up. Just laying some common tracks for guidance and emphasis has produced results, even if we were not so conscious that our common life was actually being guided by a plan. (Hence the number of frustrating comments on “what plan?”). The future plan might have to have more specific destinations: such as responding to the “new community” of God’s rich diversity of people of different ethnicities and backgrounds. That will need to be an initially centralized effort but in a locally identified place. Similarly, our desire to engage young people in leadership continues to require direct invitation and a released leadership by those who have held the helm so long. I also think our time has come to raise our voice on issues of justice and truth as we see them through the Gospel lens. That is a situation where you are already spread out in your local situations, but need to be drawn together for greater force as a Diocesan voice.

With these three conversations ongoing, of which obviously I am also a part, my own stance is to wait and pray. This is a year for me to be among you in a teaching mode. And my choice of looking at the work of the Holy Spirit within us, and the issue of growth in trust to both release that Spirit and do mission together and not in isolation or even competition is offered as a contribution to turn the soil for the new things that will come. None of this is easy or automatic. It demands time and energy. Perhaps it is part of the Kingdom which Jesus says comes by force – by effort. The temptation of course, is not to strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.

+Alan


 

 

 

We, as a diocese, are blessed with an abundance of Good News. We have many opportunities to share that abundance, as we continue to live out our call to be “in Mission with Christ through each and all.” As a diocese, we can accomplish things that are beyond the reach of any one congregation.
 

Examples: 
Youth
Education
Domestic ministry
International ministry
 

These are just a few of the ministries that we Iowa Episcopalians are pursuing as a diocese. To support them and to grow our Episcopal Church in Iowa, we have created the Alleluia Fund. Gifts to the Fund will: 

Eastertide 2012 kicks off the start to an annual Alleluia Fund campaign. The Alleluia Fund will replace the Bishop’s Annual Appeal. Since 2004, the Appeal has highlighted various ministries such as the Davenport to Des Moines run which funded curacies in five congregations, Waters of Hope which supported clean water initiatives, the Haiti Appeal, support for our companion Diocese of Swaziland, and Theological Education and E-Seminary. Bishop Scarfe notes “The Alleluia Fund is a way to pull it all together.”

During the weeks from Easter to Pentecost, you will see more information on Fund and the ministries that will continue to grow through your giving to the Alleluia Fund. Please consider supporting them through a gift of:

        $50 in celebration of the 50 days of Eastertide, or

        $365 in thanks for God’s blessings on our diocese each day of the year, or 

        A gift at some other level that has special meaning for you.

The joyous Easter season is a time for us to say, “Alleluia” for the many ways our Risen Lord has blessed our ministry together. The Alleluia Fund will support us as we respond to the Great Commission He has given us: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (MT 28:19-20) With the promise of His continued presence, our diocese can do great things.

Alleluia! Give Thanks and Praise.

+Alan

 

 

This year we celebrate thirty years of official companionship with the Diocese of Brechin. It is fitting that we will be inviting the Provost of the Cathedral in Dundee and his family to be with us during the Ministry School at Grinnell, and for Diocesan Convention to host Bishop Nigel and his wife Anne. I just spent nine days in the Diocese of Brechin where I made a presentation about our ministry in Iowa. I asked those present what brought them to the workshop that day and many said that they had spent years supporting us in prayer and now were happy to put some faces and context to those prayers. One person had with her the print out from the web site of our Strategic Plan which she thought was “Brilliant”. Someone asked whether we followed the Communion’s five marks of mission and it was good to be able to demonstrate how we fulfill them as a matter of natural course, if not intentionally. Rather like many of you do with the Strategic Plan.

I visited or passed by two-thirds of the twenty-six churches in Brechin, and thanks to my visit coinciding with the pre-Lenten Clergy Day, I met most of the clergy. I posed in front of the tolbooth in which the Episcopal priests were imprisoned and which is featured in the famous painting many of us have hanging in our churches. The priest in the painting, The Reverend John Troup, was vicar of Holy Trinity Church in a small village called Muchalls just south of Stonehaven and Aberdeen at the top end of the Diocese. We would call the leadership configuration at St Ternan’s in Mucchles a ministry development team. I learned in fact that Iowa priests helped form some of the early teams, for example Steve Hall in Montifieth. Most congregations are served by part-time clergy who often lead two or three cures. The Scottish Episcopal Church has a training scheme towards ordination which brings people together across the Province, combining short term residential courses with local gatherings in each Diocese. The Church also uses the prestigious religion departments of the great Scottish Universities as a provider of theological education for residential priests- to-be. The local training which takes three years is also used for the formation of the Lay Readers who are licensed after two years of the training, but often carry on and take the whole series of courses designed primarily for the locally and bi-vocational ordained.

As we grow in our relationship in this new phase, I hope for some fruitful conversation on congregational ministry development, how we form people for ordained leadership and commitment to life-long learning among all the baptized. Though our numbers and opportunities are different, we face sufficient similarities in seeking to develop consistent, strong congregational leadership with which to engage mission in this new generation. There are also places in both dioceses where we are increasingly in need of creative ways to deploy ministry personnel to suit our ministry income.

In Scotland many young people have no concept of the Church’s purpose. This forces the Church to see its mission beyond its own growth. In fact one thing said to me over again was that they see mission as more than congregational growth. It made me consider how our competition with other churches for congregants while in one way a blessing because it means many are interested in Church in our society, it is also quite a luxury by which we can lose our focus on the mission to which Jesus calls us. Again this is a potentially rich conversation with our companions which would benefit us all. I look forward to seeing this aspect of our Shared Ministry unfold. I am encouraging us to be patient with future steps as we must first introduce Bishop Nigel and Provost Jeremy to our Diocesan home. I hope to share more at the Diocesan Day of Global Mission later this month and with the clergy at the May Clergy Conference. I foresee a lot of potential for things like parish leadership exchanges, but we need to acknowledge that Bishop Nigel is just beginning to bring his leadership vision and considerable experience particularly in clergy deployment and congregational development into fuller focus.

While in Brechin I met with their Mission Coordinator, Pat Millar. We discussed the tri-companionship with Swaziland. I spoke with Linda Chambers of USPG Ireland who have taken a considerable challenge in raising 160,000 euros for partnership on behalf of the Diocese of Swaziland with a Farm project marketing baby vegetables, an industry which would provide quite an income stream for the Diocese – their version of Recasting Our Assets. Linda’s goal is to raise half and looks to us to try and match their efforts among the various agricultural businesses and their grant programs in Iowa!
 

* * * * *

The audience of the monthly Diocesan eNewsletter is primarily the leadership of the congregations and the Diocese as a whole. It began as a way for the bishop to communicate regularly with the clergy and has grown in its readership over time. All of you as leaders, clergy or vestry or Diocesan Commission members, ought to have received online the Strategic Plan Survey by early March 2012. Your input is vital to the accuracy of our direction over the next few years. The Strategic Planning Task Force meets again mid-March and mid-April to begin to articulate the vision of our future from what you have to say. Others, a true random sample on the Iowa Connections readership, have also received surveys by mail. Their response is equally vital. A third category is the Lenten “meaningful conversations”, for which guides and instructions have been sent to every congregation.

This is an important task, and a difficult one – to obtain a true reading and hearing of our common life in mission with Christ. Please treat it with a genuine prayerfulness and openness. It is an significant contribution to our future as we hear through one another the voice of the One whose Body we are, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
 
 

 

“Ministry is not a solo act. It is Christ’s choice that calls us into ministry. Thus, from the outset, we share in ministry with Him and everyone He calls”. These are the opening words to this year’s focus on Shared Ministry in the Diocesan Strategic Plan. The evaluative questions we are asking as we move through the year are: “How is the shared ministry of the Church reflected in the life and working of this diocese?” and “How are we supporting one another?”

Among the examples suggested as to what a congregation could do, we wrote: “actively participate in chapter activities to support interdependent ministries”. In the examples of what we could do as a diocese we proposed the following: “Provide budgetary resources for ministry at the Chapter level. Work at developing a budget which is 50-50: 50% for the Episcopate and Convention agreed ministry, 20% for The Episcopal Church or world wide Church, and 30% returning to regional level to be administered through Chapters”.

I know that in the Diocese of Colorado, this is achieved through a funding equation in which the Diocesan Mandated Asking is 10% of net disposable income, and a volunteer Asking is requested at 5% which in turn is given to the diocesan deaneries or mission districts for local ministry initiative. Of course, youth work, Native American ministry, chaplaincies, program monies for social justice or prison ministries are seen as local ministry initiatives, whereas such ministry in Iowa is shared by all in their being part of the Diocesan budget which your Stewardship Share supports. When our Iowa Diocesan Budget approves these action items in the budget, we are all getting behind such ministry by our collective giving. That is why it is not adequate to have each congregation establish its own rate of giving, but rather we share the decision together just as we offer support together.

Before I move away from referencing our shared ministry support, I would like to congratulate everyone on reaching the 99% level in actual giving to monies pledged in 2011.

On Saturday, February 11, 2012 I will be visiting Trinity Denison in the first Chapter-geared teaching visitation weekend. Eventually I will hold nine such weekends around the Diocese. Though there are actually ten Chapters, I will be combining my visits to the South Central and Central Chapters into one weekend. My hope is that this will be a time for clergy and lay to come together from your Chapter. I will meet with clergy in the Saturday morning and hold the teaching session for all comers in the afternoon from 1-5pm. This will be an additional Chapter gathering beyond the two meetings which are becoming more customary around the Diocese.

Every Chapter has a Board representative whom they have elected, alternating with a lay or clergy representative at each election period. These reps are expected to be actively engaged with the congregations in your Chapter, both in bringing your needs and concerns to the Board, and communicating Diocesan wide information to your Chapter. They also are asked to help convene the meetings, though this is best done by a separately chosen or volunteering person. Members of the Diocesan staff also are assigned to a Chapter as my liaisons with you.

Rather than plan this as just another level of bureaucracy, the purpose is to increase a sense of mission in your county and its neighbors. Another stated example or idea under the heading of Shared Ministry in the Strategic Plan is as follows: “Develop Chapters as viable places of interdependent ministry to a given region. Use the county map as a Chapter’s mission field”, and “congregations (are) to explore the development of multiple points of mission beyond their usual constituency”.

It amazes me that the Strategic Plan which was created in 2007 from the previous year’s survey work done throughout the Diocese at every vestry, clergy list and a truly random Iowa Connection recipient list has proven so prophetic and inspirational. It has helped us focus on youth as New Generations of Faith, on Strengthening Congregations, and on our Anglican Identity. Now in a timely manner it is pulling us together in Shared Ministry.

Soon a new survey will be coming your way from those responsible for the next Strategic Plan or Mission Focus. You will be invited to conversations about our future. Whether you remember the last plan or not, ( and many of you at Convention had to admit that you did not remember the plan, even though you actually lived it out) I know that through the Holy Spirit you helped shape it even as it in turn became something that shaped us all. Thus in fact we have shaped one another as Christ’s ministers. Our next step is to continue this process more intentionally, while at the same time expanding the concept of shared ministry to embrace the stranger, the prodigal, God’s lost treasure and beloved children.

+ Alan