March 19, 2005
St. Joseph’s Day

Dear Friends in Christ,

Following our Diocesan Convention, I spent about ten days outside of our Diocese, participating in two gatherings of the wider Church.

In Texas for Committee work and the House of Bishops
From March 8 to 10 I was in Houston to attend my first meeting as a newly appointed member of the Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget and Finance of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church (whew!). This is the body charged to develop the three-year budget for our Church that is submitted to the General Convention. The Committee is made up of one bishop, one clergy deputy and one lay deputy from each of the nine Provinces, plus several ex officio members. Our meeting was an orientation session ( about one-half of us are new to the Committee). The scope of our responsibilities is breathtaking and the amount of information was overwhelming. We meet again next February to prepare for our work at General Convention in June 2006. I am told that this is the most time-consuming Committee of the entire General Convention and that its members are seldom seen outside of their assigned meeting space. Sigh. But, somebody’s got to do it, right?

I was much encouraged to see the committee’s strong emphasis on the budget as a statement of mission. It was said, again and again, that our budget development process is mission-driven and guided by mission priorities established by the General Convention. I would love to see more of that discernment of mission and priorities in our own diocesan budget development process and in all of our congregations. Budgets are missionary documents.

Following that meeting I attended the meeting of the House of Bishops at Camp Allen, in Navasota, Texas. It was a good gathering of good and godly servants of Christ and shepherds of Christ’s Church. It is not easy to come together and work together in the midst of our current struggles and tensions and turbulence in the Episcopal Church and in the Anglican Communion. But the overwhelming number of the more than 150 bishops in attendance affirmed the Covenant Statement of March 15, which I commend to you, in response to the Windsor Report of the Lambeth Commission on Communion and the Communiqué of the Primates of the Anglican Communion.

How the Covenant Statement came to be
The key turning point in our proceedings was a presentation by a self-organized group of 15 to 20 bishops -- representing the entire breadth of diversity of views -- which came together and prepared a draft statement for the House to consider. Most of us were convinced that God the Holy Spirit was at work through this group to offer us common language and a strong center around which we could covenant together and communicate, in word and action, our desire to live in communion with the Anglican Communion. In my view, the Covenant Statement offers us a way forward in unity of spirit and will help us to remain focused our common mission in Christ and for Christ’s sake in the world. It was passed by a near unanimous vote. I commend it to you.

In all of this, I share the view that we are still becoming a Communion. The four "Instruments of Unity" (the Archbishop of Canterbury; the Lambeth Conference; the Anglican Consultative Council; and the Primates’ Meeting) are still evolving. And our various understandings of what it means to live in Communion are under discussion. Whatever the Anglican Communion once was, it is becoming something new. As our Presiding Bishop told the House, we are no longer polite cousins in a loose and undemanding fellowship in which the West calls all the shots. We are being called to live the mystery of Communion at a much deeper level, for the sake of the mission to which we all are called. We are on a pilgrimage toward Communion.

While that was the major subject of our meeting, we also heard reports and entered into discussion about other matters of common concern. The Theology Committee issued a number of Papers on the subject of Confirmation. We heard a report on the work of Episcopal Relief and Development and its Tsunami relief efforts in South Asia. We heard from the Anti-Racism Committee about the preparation of another Pastoral Letter to the Church on Racism, to be issued this fall. We also had reports about new policies and programs to prevent the sexual abuse of children and youth.

The Election of a Presiding Bishop in 2006
One presentation was given by Ms. Diane Pollard, co-chair (with Bishop Peter Lee, of Virginia) of the Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop. The Committee comprises 29 members (one bishop, one priest and one lay person from each of the nine Provinces, plus two young people). Nominations are now being received. They will be reviewed this summer. Finalists will be visited this fall. In February 2006, an announcement of three or more nominees will be made. The election will take place during the General Convention in Columbus, Ohio, in June 2006.

A Quiet Day with Clergy
Upon my return home to New Jersey (I really like the sound of that!), I was very pleased to lead a Quiet Day for our clergy, held at Trinity Cathedral on March 17th. I offered two addresses on friendship, based on a text from a favorite hymn (The Hymnal 1982, Number 458, My song is love unknown):

This is my friend, in whose sweet praise I all my days could gladly spend.

The idea came from a quotation by St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 394), sent to me in an email from a friend last month.

This is true perfection: not to avoid a wicked life because we fear punishment, like slaves; not to do good because we expect repayment, as if cashing in on the virtuous life by enforcing some business deal. On the contrary, disregarding all those good things which we do hope and which God has promised us, we regard falling from God’s friendship as the only thing dreadful, and we consider becoming God’s friends the only thing truly worthwhile. (from The Life of Moses).

Two vestry members at Vestry Day

A Quiet Day with Vestry members
On St. Joseph's Day (March 19th) it was a my delight to welcome vestry members from churches all across our Diocese to a Vestry Day, held at Trinity Cathedral.

Canon Thad Bennett and the bishop

Our leader was the Reverend Canon Thad Bennett, Canon to the Ordinary of the Diocese of Vermont. Canon Bennett led a Vestry Day last year and we very much wanted him to come back. He is an inspiring and empowering, wise and faithful, engaging and entertaining speaker. We were blessed to have him as our leader and resource to help Vestry members to exercise their ministry as discerners and leaders, with the clergy, in local congregations. God bless them for the gifts of their time and attention. 

And into Holy Week...
I am mindful that tomorrow, Palm Sunday, we begin our observance of Holy Week. I call upon all of our members in all of our congregations to walk in the way of the cross and discover it to be the way of life and peace.
    I pray that our hearts may be astonished at the love of God, revealed for us in the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we "enter with joy upon the contemplation of those mighty acts whereby we have been given life and immortality, through Jesus Christ our Lord, our Savior and our Friend (BCP, page 270).

May our observance of this awesome week lead us all to the joys of Easter.

Faithfully yours,