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A Dedicated Life
Newsletter May 2008 - Waters of Hope

A letter from Bishop Scarfe

to be read to your congregation May 27, 2007

or the following Sunday

The Day of Pentecost, 2007

The disciples had little idea what to expect as they obeyed Jesus and waited in the upper room for His promised gift of the Spirit. “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” What happened on the first Day of Pentecost continues to transform the world, as Christian communities are empowered by the Holy Spirit down the generations to both be witnesses to Christ’s forgiving death and His liberating resurrection, and to be servants of His incarnate Love as we fulfill His call to be seekers of justice and peace.

In Iowa we are not exempt from the call, nor are we exceptions to the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. But what to do, and where to begin? And how can we generally do things as one Church in Many Locations?

Since convention 2005, a Task Force of the Board has been asking, and listening to your sense of the Spirit’s leading, and we collected your information about ministry needs and priorities. You made specific comments, which were reviewed directly. So today, I am delighted to send you as a way of response, the first Strategic Plan since my time as your Bishop. It is to be used as a guide and planning tool for every level of ministry participation to help guide us through the years 2008 through 2012.

There are four overarching Ministry areas – which reflect what many see as the key places for our ministry energy, both together and as individual communities of faith. They are: Strengthening Congregations – the healthy hearts of God’s Mission in Iowa; Building the Next Generations of Faith – the intentional invitation to all to become people of faith and service; Affirming Episcopal/Anglican identity – the understanding that our tradition has unique ways of expressing and doing God’s Love in Jesus Christ; and finally Shared Ministries – the acknowledgement that as the Body of Christ, our ministry is mutual and interdependent and God works best through us all in concert, sharing our resources.

The “plan” is not a how-to directional guide. It is a compendium of possibilities arranged around the four major ministry areas. The key part, from my viewpoint, is the Worksheet entitled “Strategic Discernment” and the accompanying step-by-step guide. It is on this worksheet that we invite you at every level of ministry to write out your own goals, plans of engagement and measurements for success. These levels of ministry may include an entire congregation, a vestry or Diocesan Commission or Bible study group, a Choir, Finance Committee, or Diocesan Ministry Development Team -- whatever your configuration, no group large or small is exempt from this possibility.

The strategy is to be doing this collectively across the Diocese in our own time and pace, as the Spirit leads. The four major ministry areas will act as guide and guard rails. Each of the next Conventions (2009-2012) will be thematically focused on one of the four areas, starting in 2008 with a concentration on our overall dedication to Christ and Christ’s Mission. At my annual visitations, I hope your engagement with the Plan will be a major part of our conversations together.

On the Day of Pentecost, Jesus put His Church in motion to be in mission with Him through each and all. We are the recipients of the faithful dedication of generations that have come before us who have built us into a generation of faith. The Church’s voice and mission energy is needed today like no other. We are privileged to live in the best and the worst of times. We see the whole world laid out before us in great details through our electronically created global communication. God will not accept that we did not know the conditions of things as we are asked how did we express our gratitude for God’s love and obey the command to love as we have been loved. This is a call to carry out that command as One Church in Many Locations as the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa.

Alan Scarfe, Bishop of Iowa

May 27, 2007

To the Altar Guild, May 2007

From the Bishop

As the Day of Pentecost arrives, the choir is preparing for its final grand chorus before the summer recess; the Christian Education program is winding down and possibly hosting its student awards ceremony in church, even the rector is getting fidgety about those summer holidays. Yet, the Altar Guild keeps on! No relief for them, as the liturgical year shifts gears into the long green season of Pentecost.

In Iowa, of course, all of this coincides with prime time for fresh cut flowers – a seasonal phenomenon which continues to catch me by surprise. I still live by a longer summer than really exists around here. So what is the parable in all of this? How is the Kingdom of God like the parish Altar Guild moving into the summer months?

If it is a time for a richer variety of colorful flowers as I am suggesting, then perhaps the imaging of the Kingdom is to be found in the reality that God’s most profound and moving moments with us are often when the crowds have gone away. This was certainly true of Jesus and perhaps that was why He was always trying to avoid them. When a quieter pace beckons us, when we are immersed in the rhythm of the teaching of Jesus as opposed to the more dramatic events surrounding him as typifies Advent through to Eastertide, when we work often alone because our partners are away with family, it is then God has us all to God’s self and visa versa. Fresh flowers can represent God’s ever abundant creativity which can reach us at such a time.

One of my favorite sayings comes from an imprisoned Lithuanian Catholic priest, who during his confinement under the Communists gave thanks to God that God was such a One who makes the most beautiful flower to grow in the highest of mountain crags where no eye will ever see it. Beauty for God does not need the eye of any beholder, but is there for God’s own delight. And so are you as you serve Christ in this special calling, and especially so when no human eye can see you because they are all on vacation!

Of course, you too deserve a break. That is not my point. But enjoy the moment of aloneness not to ask where’s the help or why me, but to greet your Lord who has us always under the special gaze of His love.

Commentary

Bishop Alan Scarfe's statement at a press conference at Capitol Building in Des Moines on April 10, 2007 standing in support of the civil rights legislation being considered by the legislature currently in session. The press conference was called by Interfaith Alliance of Iowa and Action Fund representing more than 30 faith leaders and organizations statewide that support adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the Iowa Civil Rights Code.

While The Episcopal Church continues to find itself a minority voice in its own global Anglican Communion, and still has divisions within its own people, regarding the formal authorization of blessings of same sex unions and the appropriateness of partnered gays and lesbians in the highest ranks of the Church, we are able, nevertheless, to manifest greater unity when it comes to seeking civil rights for gay and lesbian persons.

On March 29, 2007, the worldwide leader of the Anglican Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, said: "The commitments of the Communion are not only to certain theological positions on the question of sexual ethics, but also to a manifest and credible respect for the proper liberties of homosexual people, a commitment set out in successive Lambeth Conference Resolutions over many decades."

The Episcopal Church in its June 2006 General Convention reaffirmed "its conviction that Homosexual persons are entitled to equal protection of the laws with all other citizens and calls upon our society to see that such protection is provided in actuality."

The Iowa legislature has a historic opportunity to ensure that such equal protection of the laws on housing, employment, vocational education, on the job training, and credit accessibility be provided for all Iowan citizens without discrimination on basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

At the heart of The Episcopal Church's understanding of our covenant with God through Jesus Christ - our baptismal covenant - we declare that we will strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being. In serving all persons we believe that we serve Christ in them without discrimination or prejudice. Christ's own preference for the poor and the marginalized of his own day, persons often excluded from full participation in the religious community of their time, encourages us to follow His example. That opposition to such inclusion still comes from religious sources in our day continues to be an occasion for sadness and a call for renewed courage and faith.

Granting human rights to all of God's people should not be a matter of political partisanship or religious competition, but is something we all need to accomplish together. I am glad therefore to lend my voice to the urging of the passing of this bill. With all that faces us as a human race in terms of climate change, the efforts to eradicate poverty and hunger, the need for a new way of dealing with international strife beyond the specter of war, this removal of discrimination is one small action that is more than doable, and frees us to move on to other things.

"0 God who created all peoples in your image, we thank you for the wonderful diversity of races and cultures in this world. Enrich our lives by ever-widening circles of fellowship, and show us your presence in those who differ most from us, until our knowledge of your love is made perfect in our love for all your children; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (The Episcopal Church Book of Common Prayer, p. 840)

Statement by Bishop Scarfe on the ICE raid

Report from General Convention, 20 June 2006

“It’s a girl,” says the latest badge fashion to be sported around General Convention. Within 24 hours of the surprise election of Katherine Jefferts Shori as the next Presiding Bishop, the badges were appearing. I think it is true to say that few people thought that this would be the time for our first female Presiding Bishop. For the electing Bishops, however, the signs of possibility appeared at our Spring House of Bishops where Bishop Shori’s presentation at the conversation with all of the nominees was considered striking and began to turn people to pay serious attention. I certainly began to believe it was a possibility.

Our day on Sunday as bishops began with Eucharist with all of the Convention. In a special dismissal we were asked to leave first and go on buses to Trinity Cathedral several blocks away from the Convention Center. The Church was cordoned off with police yellow tape, but unlike Philadelphia, the site of the last election, there was an absence of media or crowd attention.

We filed into the Church. Around the walls of the sanctuary was the timeline of the history of Women’s ministry in the Episcopal Church, a coincidental but poignant occurrence. Iowa’s Barbara Schlachter is the Chair of the Standing Commission on Women’s Ministry and had created the timeline with help from members of Christ Church, Cedar Rapids. It had been dedicated earlier in the week of Convention in recognition of the thirty-year anniversary of women’s ordination to the priesthood. At the end of the day, Mark Andrus, Bishop-elect of California, and I placed an additional reference to the end of the timeline: Katherine Jefferts Shori elected Presiding Bishop, June 18, 2006!

The election took place in an atmosphere of prayer and reflection, interspersed with hymn singing. The five ballots took four hours to complete, and then we waited for the response of the House of Deputies that took up another two hours. The balloting focused on two people from the second ballot onwards. Bishop Shori took an early lead, but was quickly “caught” by Bishop Parsley. A shift appeared in the third ballot, where Bishop Shori seemed to have gathered new impetus from votes moving from other bishops clearly no longer in the running.

There was minimum evidence of politicking in between the ballots. Most of the time, we stayed quietly and reverently in our pews. As the third ballot was being counted we broke for lunch. People were respectfully and gently inquiring as to the welfare of the various candidates as they mingled among us. The care of one another as bishops is an aspect of this House of Bishops that does not get the recognition it deserves. It is the fruit of several years of increased meetings and intentional small group ministry, and it is fine example to the rest of the Church.

By the fourth ballot there were only two candidates with substantial votes and Bishop Shori seemed to move within a few votes of election. When I began to see the retired Bishops, some who were known for their more conservative stances in current Episcopal issues, come up to greet Bishop Shori, I gathered that history was about to happen. And it did, in that economy of God by which she received the exact number of votes needed for election. The Spirit had surprised us again.

Episcopalians in Iowa have experienced firsthand the ministry of our new Presiding Bishop elect as she was keynote speaker and preacher at the Convention in 2001 as you moved into your own Episcopal election year. She will continue to offer that deeply centered spirituality that has marked our Presiding Bishop’s leadership under Bishop Griswold being very much a devotee to desert spirituality.

She comes from the deserts of Nevada, but also from the experience of a diocese of vast contrast, with many small churches developed over time in total ministry models on the one hand, but the fastest growing icon of secular life – Las Vegas on the other. There she has worked on creating a different way of doing church to meet the demands of such a population. Her professional life as an oceanographer and university teacher before ordination has given her a serious sense of the precariousness of life on the planet. It is my hope that she will lead us to play a leading part in the stewardship of God’s creation.

She was one of the few bishops to attend our budget hearing at this Convention and make an appeal to lend ourselves to the fulfillment of our part of working for the UN Millennium Development Goals as our response to the Gospel, especially Luke 4: 16. In her own diocese she had led the members to do significant work in Kenya at a time when the Kenyan Church is not very happy with us. In fact reconciliation continues to be one of her themes of ministry, as well as mission.

For me it is the very speed of her life’s accomplishments as an ordained person that is most intriguing and hopeful. She would be the first to say that it all takes her breath away. I take great hope in this, for it means that her ministry will be dependent on the One who created it, the Holy Spirit of God. This is how each of our lives in Christ should be. How it all works out incarnationally we have yet to see, but I trust that we will offer our prayers to God on her behalf. As she said to the bishops in her acceptance statement immediately after recollecting herself at the announcement of the election, “we all do this (ministry) together – you are not off the hook!”

Today (Tuesday) we march into the heart of the Windsor Report resolutions, and that as they say is probably another story yet to be told. Pray for us.

+ Alan

Diary of the Cathedral-to-Cathedral Run, May 2006

Days 1-2
Davenport to West Liberty

Wonderful two days of the Cathedral-to-Cathedral Run have been completed. I cannot say enough about those who have come out and lent a hand as we journey along. I learned early that if I thought I was in charge of the schedule for the run, I was mistaken. Two members of St. Alban’s, Davenport, Julie and Jean, turned up to walk the first five miles with me, creating a much more sensible timetable and balance of walking and running than I could have come up with. We walked five miles, and then I ran eight by myself until I met up with Lynn Carver of St Peter's Davenport for the next walking stage.

We were joined for a short while by Kay Ungurean of Trinity, Davenport, whose husband Karl was one of the two escort cars for the day. Charles Cox of Trinity, Iowa City, is our lead car for the whole journey, and his red BMW with a flashing light on top is the most comforting of sights! Lynn and I walked together for four miles until a member of our destination church, St. Paul’s Durant, David Lewis, met us. It took a walk along the road for Lynn and I to catch up with each other's lives and ministries, a wonderful gift. After a mile of walking David and I took off into Durant for the final two miles of running.

The weather was windy and the rain had been intermittent all day. I was soaked and dried off several times. At St Paul's the rector, Daren Lovelace and his wife marcia headed a receiving party which was ready and waiting with welcome signs and a feast of fruit and turkey sandwiches and carrot cake and cookies. I doubled back to meet Lynn only to find her with a new companion in Michael Schreck who walked her into town! That night Darren served as my chaplain at the Confirmation service in Trinity Cathedral back in Davenport, and Doreen Sanderson supplied the pasta for the next day's effort.

On the second day, we were joined by the Schrecks and their RV, hailing much longer stops on the way! David Lewis returned to “run me out of town” as we covered the first hour together. I continued alone still running for five more miles, taking a detour through Moscow just to say to make the trip international. A mile later, my first walk of the day began as Willa Goodfellow drove out to meet me. Coaching tips on a better walking style from Willa were initially unsuccessful (and she would say actually resisted!). I hurt more skeleton-wise as I walk than I do when I run.

Along the way we were met by Betsy Lee, and David from Muscatine and a theological discussion unfolded. I thought of the many times we read of the disciples holding discussions as they walked along the road! They just did not have semi trucks speeding by and blowing of their hats!

Every three miles, I would turn attention to a new church to pray for, and I wondered if the suffering of this particular pilgrimage counts as any of those ancient pilgrimages where deprivation was seen as a spiritual high point.

As West Liberty loomed before us I started off running for the final two miles, making 13 for the day and 7 miles of walking. Willa turned back after five miles, and Betsy and David at 7 miles. We met reporters at the six-mile stop in Wilton, and at the finish in West Liberty.

Mike and Lou Schreck were terrific cheerleaders throughout the day, as they returned to Durant, leaving their RV in our charge for the rest of the journey. I finished the day with the people of Trinity, Muscatine, where they, as St. Paul's Durant the previous day, provided afternoon hospitality for a cleanup, food and rest, and where I could contact the office and do whatever business of the day was pressing.

We have had occasions for prayer - Morning Prayer at the Cathedral and at St. Paul's - and evening prayer after a picnic at Trinity, Muscatine. At Trinity we met in the round in the parish hall, with a small altar table with candles and a cross, and two sneakers to the side bookended by two cards with the Cathedral to cathedral Run prayer.

Just to recite the cast of players in these first two days is cause for joy. What I am seeing as I run and walk are the neighboring communities from where our people come, beyond the church towns themselves. I am also finding people happy and grateful to God to have found or to have been found by this Church.

Tonight the legs are sore and the back of my left knee is tight. Tomorrow promises to be a running day. It is also a day when reality is with us, as Trinity, Iowa City will be celebrating the life of a great Anglican in holding service for Meg Wagner's mother, during the time we had planned to be arriving there. Instead we will finish somewhere along the road, and offer our own thanksgiving and prayers. We are all in the Spirit's hands.

Days 4-7

May 31, 2006

“Come Lord Jesus, you too were tired when the day was done. You met your friends at evening time.” These were the appropriate opening sentences for the gathering service at New Song, Coralville. I have used them at every gathering place since.

Tonight I complete Day 7. Opportunities for checking in have been less possible than I had hoped as the journey enters its final third phase. Today was the most tiring, running 18 plus miles after a day of 15 miles running. I am grateful for the companions along the way, more than 30 of you, some able to walk a few miles, others to go for 10, yet each help pace the day. Others have come to gather with us representing churches such as Grace, Cedar Rapids; Christ Church, Cedar Rapids; Trinity, Iowa City; Trinity, Muscatine; Trinity, Davenport; Trinity, Ottumwa; St. Alban’s, Davenport; St. Peter’s, Bettendorf; St. Paul’s, Durant; Grace, Albia; St. Paul’s, Grinnell; Christ Church, Burlington; New Song, Coralville. And many more, of course, are supporting in prayer and contributions.

Day 4, Sunday, was a rest day. Physicians in our church family treated my blisters, my aches and pains. In turn, I fulfilled my Episcopal duties confirming and receiving members of Trinity, Iowa City, and Christ Church, Cedar Rapids, celebrating and preaching at all three services. It was a reminder that life goes on even as we do extraordinary things.

I was met at Trinity, Iowa City, by a clean-shaven rector, Mel Schlachter, who told his congregation that he would shave off his beard if they raised 3,000 dollars. By Saturday night the goal was met.

Bill P of Christ Church, Cedar Rapids, had a more physical challenge. On Memorial Day we set off walking together – Bill fulfilling the pledges of his congregants who have paid for an 18+ mile walk in quarter-mile increments of 25 dollars each. Bill set off at a lively pace, leaving behind the rest of our good-sized group. I stayed with Bill for a while until I got into conversation with a young couple and we let Bill move ahead. Suddenly a van pulled up and unloaded its passengers. “We are the sheep,” they said, “whose shepherd has left them behind.” They had completed their walk and just wanted to say goodbye and Godspeed. Another family of walkers joined us from Christ Church, Cedar Rapids, coming alongside Bill at one of his most difficult stretches and helped him along the way.

This flow of angels in disguise is a mark of this pilgrimage. Today on Day 7 there was a Des Moines Register reporter who walked 2 miles with us helping break up what would have been a 20-plus mile run

Days 6 and 7 belonged to the runners, Richard Graves and Tom Shafer of Ottumwa spent all of Day 6 with me as we ran 15 of the 20 miles, a personal distance best for Richard; and Catherine Quehl-Engel ran Day 7, 18 of the 20 miles.

There are no more rest days and the tiredness is accumulating. Tomorrow I meet the Women of the Gospel from St. Stephen’s at 10 miles and know they will bring me to the conclusion of another stage.

This Christian life is all about our companions on the way. We don’t always notice them until unusual circumstances help them stand out. Of course they are there all the time but often taken for granted.

Each day is covered by prayer. Each morning we start by Morning Prayer in the parking lot and finish with Evening Prayer at the gathering service. Again the obvious becomes much clearer that we are a people who pray by reading out loud together in a way unparalleled in the Christian Church for this is our common prayer, just as this pilgrimage is our common journey.

What am I learning about Iowa? Sightseeing is at a premium, but the breeze, the smells, the hills, the beauty, the beginning shoots of the corn and the beautifully kept farms are all bringing it that much closer to my soul.