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Annual Address to the Diocese of Vermont
by the Right Reverend Thomas Clark Ely, Bishop of Vermont
October 27, 2006
The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Burlington
(Printed as Bishop Ely's column in the December 2006 Mountain Echo)

On a recent retreat, my spiritual director invited me to do an exercise. I was to look back over this most recent chapter of my life since becoming a bishop. He suggested I make a couple of lists, one responding to the statement, “this has seemed good, or welcomed,” and the other responding to the statement, “this has seemed hard, or un-welcomed.” It was a good exercise.

Some of the things I wrote down on each list were very personal, like the birth of a grandchild and the death of my mom, but the overwhelming majority – both welcomed and un-welcomed – gave emphasis to personal relationships within our diocese and beyond. For those who know me well this comes as no great surprise, but what was dramatically brought home for me in that spiritual exercise is how really important personal relationships are in the life of any community.

Community: It is a word I would like us to think about while we are gathered in this Convention. The New Testament word for community is koinonia, most often translated as fellowship; the meaning of which Fred Buechner worries has “become so stale and overused by churches that it summons up little more than drinking coffee in paper cups with each other after the eleven o’clock service.” 1

Buechner invites us to speak of friendship instead. Preaching on a text from the First Letter of John in a sermon entitled The Word of Life, Buechner makes the point that we are being urged by the author of 1st John to live ‘the word of life’ – the ‘logos of life’ – this ‘Christ-life’ – “so that at long last we may not be just coffee-hour friends, social friends, but true friends. And not just true friends of each other but true friends of God, true friends of Christ. 2

I believe that one of the reasons we in Vermont have not experienced the turmoil currently embroiling the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, to the degree that some other dioceses have, is that this spirit of koinonia, community, fellowship, friendship has been cultivated within the life of this diocese for a long time. I say that not to dismiss the differences among us, for surely they exist, but to acknowledge the gift of the “Word of Life,” the “Christ-life” among us.

What I learned in that spiritual exercise of reflecting on the welcomed and not so welcomed things of the past five and a half years is that the friendship Fred Buechner speaks about was present more often than not – and not just in the welcomed events, but in the less welcomed events as well. And so it is that I stand among you after these years of ministry together and give thanks for our koinonia, our community, our friendship, and our connections.

This year our Diocesan Convention celebrates our Cathedral around the theme “Connecting Communities.” We especially welcome among us the Very Reverend David duPlantier, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, New Orleans, where God knows they know something about community and about connecting communities. When the call went out to connect to those in need following the hurricanes of 2005, Vermont responded with incredible generosity. David, we look forward to hearing from you tonight at our dinner banquet and tomorrow as our preacher during the Eucharist. Our offering tomorrow is designated for continuing assistance to the dioceses of Louisiana and Mississippi through the church-wide fund raising campaign: Darkness Into Day. I encourage all of you to continue your connection to our sisters and brothers in these dioceses by your generosity.

In this diocese, the connection with our own Cathedral is an important symbol of our koinonia, our “Christ-life” friendship – bishop and people of a diocese gathered and sent to pray the prayer of Christ, to learn the mind of Christ and to do the deeds of Christ. The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul is a lively and vital center for spiritual formation, pastoral care, and the promotion of social justice in the life of our diocese. We celebrate our Cathedral not because it is a better church than any other church in our diocese, but because we have asked this Cathedral - its staff and people – to be for us a sign and symbol of our koinonia, our common fellowship, our true friendship, and to call each of us in our several congregations more deeply into that same “Christ-life” friendship with one another. Please join me in expressing thanksgiving and appreciation to the staff of our Cathedral, the members of the Cathedral Chapter and the congregation of Saint Paul’s.

On April 29, 2001, when I was welcomed and seated in this Cathedral, Dean Poppe said to me, “Thomas, Bishop in the Church of God, and our Bishop, we welcome you to your Cathedral Church, the symbol and center of your pastoral, liturgical, and teaching ministry in this Diocese.” 3 I responded, “Thank you for your welcome. I promise, God helping me, to be a faithful shepherd and servant among you. I pray that the ministry which we will share may be pleasing to God, and that it may strengthen the life of this diocese, and the whole Church of God.” 4

For five and a half years, I have tried to live out that pastoral, liturgical and teaching ministry in a collaborative, collegial fashion, believing with all my being that it is not my ministry but our ministry together - which is ultimately a sharing in Christ’s ministry. With each renewal of the Baptismal Covenant we affirm that the apostolic ministry into which you have called me does not belong to me alone, but to all of us. “Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship (koinonia), in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?” 5

The pastoral, liturgical and teaching ministry belongs to the whole people of God. The bishop is the animator of that ministry, a ministry which we hold in common. In the course of these past five and a half years, I have sought to make baptismal ministry the organizing principle of our koinonia as we seek to live out our mission statement to “pray the prayer of Christ, learn the mind of Christ and do the deeds of Christ.”

Simply put, what I mean by baptismal ministry is that in baptism each Christian is commissioned by God to a life of full participation in the church, the Body of Christ, as a minister. To express it another way, the Body of Christ is called to be a ministering community – a “Christ-life” community of true friendship and service.

Along with the term “baptismal ministry,” I have also come to appreciate the term “baptismal living.” Baptismal living reminds us that discipleship is primarily about living out the promises of baptism in our daily life. It is about the Word being made flesh, or, as the old saying goes, “where the rubber meets the road”.

I am very proud of the many expressions of baptismal ministry and baptismal living evidenced in the congregations of our diocese. I am grateful for the ways in which the clergy and laity of our diocese have been engaged in learning, teaching and leading the way. I am particularly pleased that members of the Commission on Ministry have been working with members of the Ministry Support Team and Linda Grenz from LeaderResources to offer appropriate resources for working with congregations exploring innovative models of baptismal ministry. I believe this effort will enhance our experience of koinonia, and so I will continue to make this developmental work a priority for me and the members of the Ministry Support Team.

It won’t surprise you to learn that the Ministry Support Team of our diocese is one of those special communities of koinonia for me. My goal in calling the Ministry Support Team together five years ago was to try and live as deeply as possible into that collaborative, collegial expression of the bishop’s pastoral, liturgical and teaching ministry that I spoke about earlier. I think we have done that well and yet there is still much room for growth. My commitment to this way of working together remains strong, as I know it does among the members of the Team. The gifted and talented members of our diocesan Ministry Support Team serve me and our diocese with great competence and devotion. Please join me in thanking them as a group for their faithful service.

As you know from your pre-Convention material, we are in the process of hiring a new member of the Team - a Minister of Stewardship Development, whom we hope to have in place by next summer. This position description, along with the comprehensive stewardship strategy called for in the Diocesan Strategic Plan for Growth and Ministry, will be on the agenda of Diocesan Council in November for final approval.

I am very grateful to Bob Uerz, the consultant working with us on this project, and to all those throughout the diocese who were part of the conversations with Bob this past year. I appreciate the hard work of the Executive Committee of Council on this project, and I applaud the efforts of Steve Smith, our diocesan treasurer and the Trustees of the Diocese who have helped secure the funding needed to put this ministry in place. I believe this initiative will provide a great resource and support to the congregations of our diocese as you continue your financial stewardship efforts in the areas of annual giving, capital fund drives, and planned giving programs. This ministry will also assist us as we plan for and carry out a diocesan capital fund campaign in the not too distant future.

The combination of the several transitions we’ve experienced on the Ministry Support Team, the reality of some operating budget limitations, and the fact that we have lived with this current configuration of the Ministry Support Team for five years now created a superb opportunity for me to review and re-envision the roles and responsibilities of the Team. Thanks to a grant from the Pastoral Excellence Project, I was able to hire an organizational development consultant, Merryn Rutledge from ReVisions, Incorporated, to assist me in this review. All members of the team were interviewed and the team met together with Merryn for a full morning session. Merryn, Canon Lynn Bates and I have held several conversations leading up to and following the recommendations in the consultant’s report made available to me.

That work is not yet complete, but it will be before I leave for sabbatical on December 3rd. What I have said to the Team, and what I want the Convention to hear, is that the primary ministry of the Ministry Support Team is to partner with the bishop in supporting the ministry of our congregations, as well as the institutions, councils, commissions, committees, and boards of this diocese. That invigorates our ministry to the larger church and to the world. Whatever the configuration of the team for this next chapter, I promise you it will be in service to that commitment.

One area of our koinonia, our common life as a diocese, where I am proposing a change in organization is the Rock Point Summer Conferences. For generations, the Rock Point Summer Conferences have been a significant part of our life in the Diocese of Vermont, and I want to insure that we continue to provide a safe and fun summer ministry of Christian community for our children, young people and families.

To demonstrate just how significant this component of our “Christ-life” friendship really is, I need your help. Would all those who have even attended the Rock Point Summer Conferences please stand and remain standing? Now, would those of you who have served on the Rock Point Summer Conferences Committee, please stand and remain standing? Would all those who have worked as paid or volunteer staff for the summer conferences please stand and remain standing? Now, would those of you whose children or grandchildren have attended the summer conferences please stand and remain standing? And finally, would those of you who are clergy or lay leaders in a congregation that has sent children to the summer conferences please stand and remain standing? Thank you. I think I’ve made my point.
Five years ago, members of the Rock Point Summer Conferences Committee and I determined that oversight of the Rock Point Summer Conferences should be included among the responsibilities of the Canon for Youth Ministry and that the Committee would be a committee of Diocesan Council. At the same time, we began a strategic planning process for the future of the Bishop Booth Conference Center.

Today the mission and program of the Bishop Booth Conference Center is secure and growing. At the same time, emergent industry regulations for camps and conference centers, safety and security issues at Rock Point, and our commitment to safer-church practices have helped us identify significant overlap, duplication and in some cases confusion between the Rock Point Summer Conferences and the Bishop Booth Conference Center.
The proposal I am bringing to Diocesan Council in November will place the responsibility for oversight and management of the Rock Point Summer Conferences under the Director of the Bishop Booth Conference Center and the Rock Point Board. The Bishop Booth Conference Center is poised to hire a new Program Director, who would also serve as the Director of the Summer Conferences, providing us with the continuity in that position that we have not been able to realize in recent years.

Connie Saeger Proctor, Canon for Youth Ministry, and Debi Patterson, Director of the Bishop Booth Conference Center, deserve credit for developing the details of this proposal. It has the support of the Rock Point Board, Nancy Wuttke, chair of the Rock Point Summer Conferences Committee, and the Executive Committee of Diocesan Council. With full Council approval in November, I feel confident that we can continue, without interruption, the ministry of the Rock Point Summer Conferences. I hope this decision will receive the full support of our diocesan community. It certainly has mine.

Let me spotlight three more things about our koinonia, our “Christ-life” community, our fellowship, our true friendship as a diocese, before bringing this convention address to a close.

The first is Mission. At Convention last year we passed a resolution, similar to one passed in many dioceses, affirming our commitment to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. It called us to share in the worldwide effort to reduce global poverty by fifty percent by the year 2015. I have been tremendously impressed by the way this resolution has sparked increased attention to global mission in our diocese. Maybe it just uncovered the commitment that was already there, or maybe it just awakened a “sleeping giant.”

It is my conviction that the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion need to reclaim participation in God’s reconciling mission as a defining mark of our koinonia - our communion and community. Narrowly defining what it means to be Anglican on the basis of one or two wedge issues is not the work of koinonia. A communion-wide Covenant for Mission, like that proposed by the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Mission and Evangelism, would serve our koinonia and God’s reconciling mission far better. Let mission be the agenda of the church. Let mission be the agenda for General Convention. Let mission be the agenda for the Primates. Let mission be the agenda for Lambeth 2008. Let mission be our agenda.

A proposal for a new Global Reconciliation Committee is making its way to Diocesan Council. If endorsed, this will make us one of the first dioceses in the Episcopal Church to respond to the resolution passed at General Convention calling for the creation of such committees in each diocese. The proposal will not diminish our commitment to local outreach and social justice, but instead expand it to include those global partnerships that are a growing part of our common life in congregations throughout our diocese.

This growing commitment to global mission by congregations throughout our diocese is wonderfully in sync with my sabbatical plans for exploring the global mission vocation of the bishop. For five years, I have wrestled to more fully understand the vocational call, to serve as a bishop, not just for this diocese, but as a bishop in the Church of God. Thankfully, I am beginning to get it, and with your help and your commitment to global mission we will continue to “get it” as a diocese.

In my most recent Mountain Echo column I share more fully my sabbatical plans, my gratefulness for this Sabbath opportunity, and what I think it means for me and for us as a diocese. Thanks to a great sabbatical planning team, I head off for this sabbatical confident that we have done all we could to prepare well for it and that things are in good hands. During the Eucharist tomorrow we will acknowledge this time of Sabbath and how it provides an opportunity for me and for us as a diocese to grow in our mutual ministry and to strengthen our koinonia. For tonight, let it be enough for me to say thank you for the sabbatical opportunity to explore my deepening sense of vocation and to be renewed for the ministry to which, by God’s grace, you have called me.

Moving from sabbatical to another matter of importance in our life as a diocese, let me turn to the resolution we will consider tomorrow regarding a new approach to the calculation of each congregation’s share in support of our common ministry – also known as the diocesan assessment. I have said it before, and it bears repeating here: there is no Diocese of Vermont apart from the community of our congregations joined together for mission and ministry. There is no “us” and “them,” no “we” and “they.” There is only “us.” There is only “we.” We are the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont, both together and in each and every local expression of our common life. Each congregation’s support of our common budget for mission and ministry is support for the common mission and ministry of all our congregations.
Both the Task Force that worked on the development of this proposal and the Diocesan Council that endorsed it are made up of members from the congregations of our diocese. They know the financial realities of life in congregations, and they know the value of our common life and mission as a diocese. They have worked very hard to balance the needs of both. They asked for and listened to your input. They have sought to keep the mission and ministry of our diocese moving forward, while at the same time upholding the value of the significant ministries carried out in local communities of faith throughout this diocese. They bring before you their best effort. I hope you will receive it with gratitude and support it with your endorsement.

And finally, I want to look ahead to the continuing celebration of our koinonia. On June 2nd, 2007 we begin an eighteen month celebration of the 175th anniversary of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont. Prior to 1832 we were part of the larger Eastern Diocese, comprising all the New England States except for Connecticut. At the Convention held on May 30-31, 1832 the Diocese of Vermont became a separate diocese and elected John Henry Hopkins as its first bishop. One hundred seventy five-plus years of ministry! There is much to celebrate, and celebrate we will.

The 175th anniversary celebration committee is already at work planning for this time of renewal and re-commitment to the mission and ministry of this great diocese. I am especially grateful that Mrs. Carolyn Kerr, widow of Bishop Robert Kerr, seventh Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont, has agreed to serve as honorary chair. Many others from around the diocese are also serving and there is room for more, so please let me know if you would like to join this planning committee.

The celebration will run from June 2, 2007 through Diocesan Convention 2008, when we will gather in Rutland, Vermont, the site of Bishop Hopkins’ first Convention as Bishop. Along the way, we will welcome the Right Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, our new Presiding Bishop, who will join us for Convention here in Burlington next year.  All in all, it promises to be a grand celebration.

In the sermon by Fred Buechner that I quoted at the beginning of this address, he points out that the author of 1st John writes as a pastor appealing to his flock so that their joy may be compete. Buechner writes, “Of all the things he (the author) might say, the thing he says is joy. This life that he has seen and touched and heard is not another religious obligation. It is not a matter of believing certain things and doing certain things in order to be saved. Joy is his word. To be called to this life is not like being called to order or to account or called to church. It is like being called to a great jamboree where everybody, including the host, is our oldest and dearest friend. . . That is what the word of life is.”

I think Buechner has it right! And I pray that we in the Diocese of Vermont will embrace that “Word of Life,” that “Christ-life” of friendship – that koinonia – that community, and the joy that dwells within that life as well as the joy that springs forth from it when it is lived.
May it be so!

+Thomas

The Right Reverend Thomas C. Ely, Bishop