Episcopal Church

Information may not be reliable

We have heard Jesus say: "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few" (Luke 10:2). Indeed one of our needs in this Diocese is to recruit fellow laborers to work with us in the plentiful harvest fields of North Dakota. Jesus says in another place: "Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them" (Matt. 18:20). You see it doesn't take very many laborers to make a difference. For the quality of the worker, not the quantity, is the issue.

A number of us have been involved in training sponsored by the national church known as Asset-Based Community Development or ABCD. One of my takeaways from these trainings has been its focus on "opinion vs. motivation to act." All of us have many opinions about a number of things, but not all these opinions are equal. Some of them are passions that actually motivate individuals to act rather than merely talk about an issue. ABCD asks the question: Is that only an opinion or is it a passion on which you are willing to act? Two or three people with passion, ABCD teaches, are enough to make a difference. In biblical language two or three disciples or two or three laborers are enough to make a difference in the worlds in which we find ourselves.

I have seen this principle in action recently. Brock and LuAnn Baker are a young married couple with a new baby at the Cathedral. They have a passion for the needs of the people of the Turtle Mountain Ojibwe Nation where Brock has roots. One Sunday, at announcement time, they shared with the congregation their idea for a Thanksgiving project at St. Sylvan's Church in Dunseith. Some in the congregation were obviously inspired by their passion. Within a few weeks they had raised $1,500 and gathered 10 adult volunteers to work with them on this project. Two or three disciples with a passion can make a difference.

I hope you were able to participate in the Fresh Expressions workshops yesterday led by Professor Philip Harrold. He reminded us of five values of a mission-shaped church: A missionary church is focused on the Trinity, incarnational, transformational, disciple-making and relational. Although the culture in England is further down the road of secularism and institutional church decline, the Fresh Expressions of church movement there has been encouraging us to make changes now while we can. It only takes two or three disciples with a passion to make a difference.

Last weekend at Richardton, Julie Helgaas of Grace Church in Jamestown and the Cathedral in Fargo, shared with those lay leaders and clergy gathered, some of her learnings from the recent Episcopal Network for Stewardship conference. Julie has a passion for what she learned about those under the age of 35 and their views of and relationships with money. She reported that researchers are discovering that young adults, with some good reasons, are very suspicious of institutions, including the church, and are not likely to "pledge" payments of money as we have been accustomed in the past. They are, however, interested in %u2018making the world a better place' and will invest their money in projects they see as such. These young adults don't carry much cash, it seems, and prefer to contribute using their credit cards. Accordingly, Julie is working to make such payment options available at the Cathedral and for the Diocese.

Young adults are among those who largely identify themselves as "spiritual but not religious." They are demonstrating a hunger for spirituality and for many of the traditions of the church we aging baby boomers have taken for granted and even reacted against. I think it essential for us to focus on the recruitment of disciples under the age of thirty-five as part of our "fresh expressions" of church. And if we are going to recruit them, we must be ready to teach and train them in the spiritual and corporal disciplines of the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ.

A priority I have seen is a need for continuing education for our clergy and lay leaders and formation for those in our local ordination processes. With those needs in mind, several years ago I began to encourage our canon missioners to work on their Doctor of Ministry degrees. The idea is for them to serve as a kind of "seminary faculty" or providers of theological education for the Diocese.

Every teacher knows that he or she is best when the teacher has energy and passion for the subject being taught. I think we have experienced that at the monasteries in Richardton, only last week, learning from John Floberg, Julie Helgaas, Zanne Ness and myself; and the one before that from Steve Sellers and Kevin Goodrich; and a good number of others before that during the deacon formation program. I, myself, have begun a Doctor of Ministry program this fall and can report that I have done valuable reading and study I would have never found the time to do unless I had a professor challenging me with deadlines. I am also learning how to facilitate and deliver online theological education via the internet. This is the wave of the future and we must not be left behind.

My hope had been that more lay ministers would join us for these educational and formational opportunities in Richardton, but this has not been the case. Therefore, I call your attention to p. 16 of the Pre-convention issue of The Sheaf and the schedule for the 2010-2011 North Dakota School for Ministry. If lay leaders will not come to Richardton, we will come to you. Among this school year's offerings are workshops and courses in Jamestown, Grand Forks, Minot, Bismarck and Fargo. Our people deserve the best theological education available. Education is a good investment for the Diocese.

Restoration of Episcopal Priesthood
One of the things we learn from good theological education is that the church is a community that participates in and continues the reconciling work of Christ. In fact, the Book of Common Prayer teaches that the mission of the Church is "to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ" (BCP 855).

Today it will be our privilege to participate in an act of restoring the Rev. Cherian Mathew as a priest of The Episcopal Church. We have worked through the canonical processes and are ready to celebrate his restoration as he makes the Oath of Conformity with you as witnesses.

Cherian will be assigned once again as a part of the ministry team in Dickinson where St. Paul's Independent Episcopal Church and St. John's Episcopal Church have merged as one congregation. In this time of ecclesiastical chaos where splitting and litigation seems the order of the day, this story coming out of Dickinson is indeed good news and should be celebrated and shared.

Anglican Communion Covenant
Finally, a few words about the Anglican Communion Covenant and the resolution before us today: Resolution 3, "affirming the principles of the Anglican Communion Covenant" marks the culmination of a six year process begun in 2004 when the Windsor Report was released.

I have friends and colleagues who believe that the Anglican Communion Covenant is essentially about the exclusion of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered persons from the Church. There are those who assert that women would never have been ordained had a Covenant been in place during the 1970's. Others state that the idea of a Covenant is somehow "Un-Anglican." It will come as no surprise that I disagree with all three of these assertions.

In my view, the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant is about keeping disparate voices and conflicting theological views at the same table long enough to think and pray through issues that threaten to divide us permanently. Those on both extremes, the Left and the Right, are already moving in their own directions, splitting from one another, confident that their causes are just and the will of God. Those who support the Covenant tend to be the moderate Liberals and moderate Conservatives who don't claim to know all the answers, but are convinced we need opposing views to discern the whole truth. This "diverse center" of the church is comprised of those who are willing to wait on one another as together we discern the mind of Christ.

To my friends who say this is about excluding gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered persons I say I have never heard anyone in the Diocese of North Dakota argue that anyone should not be welcome in our churches. To the contrary, everyone must be welcomed with open arms. The essential theological question about which there has been almost no discussion is not "inclusion," but rather "Christian marriage." We need divergent views and voices at the same table in order to help one another understand this matter more clearly. This is what the Anglican Covenant seeks to commend.

To my colleagues who assert that women would not be ordained today had there been a Covenant in the 1970's, I refer you to the Windsor Report where the controversies around this matter are cited as an example of the healthy functioning of the Anglican Instruments of Communion. In the end, without splitting apart, the provinces of the Communion agreed that this was an area where we could "agree to disagree" and a period of reception of this new practice began.

To those who say the idea of a Covenant is "Un-Anglican," I say that every living organism must adapt or perish. To say "we've never done it that way before" is to ignore the signs of the times. No, we are being invited through this proposed Covenant to become part of a new and invigorated Anglicanism and called to participate in global mission with the third largest group of the world's Christians.

An important part of a bishop's ministry is to "guard the faith, unity and discipline of the Church" and with my fellow bishops to "share in the leadership of the Church throughout the world" (BCP 517.) I have worked diligently the past six years on local, national and international fronts, laboring to keep Conservatives in the Episcopal Church and working to keep Liberals in the Anglican Communion. Today I ask you to stand with me in this endeavor by urging the General Convention to adopt the Anglican Communion Covenant for The Episcopal Church. I am,