"Living
the Covenant": Address to 168th Diocesan Convention
By the Right Reverend Thomas Clark Ely, Bishop of Vermont
Moun tain Echo, December 2001
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ: Grace, mercy and peace to you from God, the author and sustainer of all life and from Christ Jesus our Savior. In the power of God’s Holy Spirit we gather to celebrate our common life in Christ, our varied gifts and ministries and the joy that is ours in living the Baptismal Covenant. We gather to affirm our commitment to participate in God’s mission, the mission of reconciliation. This means Praying the Prayer of Christ, Learning the Mind of Christ and Doing the Deeds of Christ. We gather to affirm our commitment to this mission and ministry together as the people of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont—and to say, "We will, with God’s help."
We gather on this feast of All Faithful Departed with the scars of September 11th still very evident. I have a deep and abiding concern, that I am sure you share, for justice, accountability, peace and safety in the wake of that tragic event. On this the Feast of All Faithful Departed, I ask your prayers for those who have died as a result of the terrorism of September 11th and for those who have died from every act of terrorism around the world, every act of genocide, every act of cruelty, starvation, hatred, domination and war.
September 11th did not so much change the world as it did our awareness of the world. How we respond will change the world. Each one of us, from the President of the United States to the youngest child in our midst, has a part to play in that response and in that changing world. My prayer is for wisdom, guidance, compassion, understanding, courage and patience, and a healing response. I believe we can and, "We will, with God’s help."
Tonight, our prayers of thanksgiving are offered for those who responded with courage to the disaster of September 11th and for those who offer comfort, help and support. Pray for the leaders of the world and those in any way engaged in response to terrorism. This includes diplomats, state and government personnel the members of the military, military chaplains and their families, those raising their voice of conscience in response to military action and those urging resolution by means of diplomacy and negotiation. Pray for guidance to discern the root causes of terrorism and the wisdom to take the steps necessary to ameliorate those conditions. Pray for our enemies and those who wish us harm, including the enemy that lies within us; our own fears, prejudices, hatred and violence.
"Pray without ceasing," Paul tells us. I know we can and, "We will, with God’s help."
During the past few months we have been preparing, and are now gathered, for our annual Diocesan Convention. Its theme is "Living the Covenant." God’s reconciling mission is before us and God is calling us into that future. Tonight I want to talk about that Mission and what I believe it means for us as a Diocese to live into the Baptismal Covenant.
After professing our faith in God, the Baptismal Covenant asks five things of us: 1.) Continue in the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the breaking of the bread and in the prayers; 2.) Persevere in resisting evil, repent and return to God when we fall into sin; 3.) Proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ; 4.) Seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves; and 5.) Strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being. To each of these we respond, "I will, with God’s help."
Notice the verbs. They are all action verbs with a future orientation: seek, serve, and strive, continue, persevere, proclaim.
Our future is about mission, not maintenance; cooperation, not competition. Our future is about growth, not survival; about abundance, not scarcity. Our future is about hope, not despair; promise, and not fear. The question I ask us as a Diocese tonight is: Will we move toward and into that future? I know we can, and I believe "We will, with God’s help."
Living into our Baptismal Covenant as a Diocese requires four essential elements: Prayer, Commitment, Leadership and Action.
Prayer is the first essential to living the Covenant as a Diocese. Taking our spiritual lives seriously is crucial to our participation in God’s mission. There are many ways to do that and I hope that as a diocese there will be many opportunities for people to find the support and encouragement they need. A three member Diocesan Council Task Force (Diane Root, Leslie Black and George Lewis) is working with me to help coordinate our various Diocesan Spiritual Life ministries and strengthen this dimension of our common life in Christ. We’ll be meeting next month to review their report and make recommendations to Diocesan Council for action. I ask your prayers for the work of this Task Force.
Lex orandi, lex credendi: the law of prayer is the law of belief. This Anglican axiom maintains that what we pray is what we believe. To that formula we should add, lex vivendi, the law of living.
We believe what we pray and we live what we believe. Pray for our growth, the deepening of our faith and belief, and the welcoming of new members who will challenge us to new and fuller expressions of faithfulness. Pray for our openness to new endeavors and opportunities to reach out to others in love and service. Pray for our generosity in living into the abundance that God has given us. Pray that we as a people, as congregations, as a diocese, might be broken open like the bread of communion so that we might share our life in Christ and be leaven for the world. Can we offer this prayer? Can we be this leaven? Will we be this leaven? I believe we can and I believe, "We will, with God’s help."
Commitment is a second essential to living the Covenant as a Diocese. If it is God’s mission that we care about, then it is God’s mission to which we must be committed even if competing agendas compel us otherwise. Commitment is about investment. It is about the investment of our time, talent and treasure.
Commitment is also about learning. It means deepening our understanding of our faith story, the Bible, as well as increasing our knowledge of theology, liturgy, history, ethics, other religions, and the connections between all those things and our daily life. In all these areas, and more, we are "learners with much to teach and teachers with much to learn."
This Diocese has a long, rich tradition of helping people deepen their faith and commitment through education and formation. At my request, Larry Yarbrough is heading a Task Force charged with strengthening and expanding the ministry of our Diocesan Study Program so that it might reach more people and offer more opportunities. Their work is well underway and I look for some exciting new opportunities to emerge from that effort. Please keep that work in your prayers.
Commitment involves bringing resources to bear on the challenges we face. During the past eight months I have spent a lot of time visiting so that I could listen to as well as talk with people about our resources and the challenges we face. There are many challenges to be sure, but I believe we are a gifted diocese, gifted with the people and resources to do great things for God and for the mission of God. There is work to do and good people, committed people, are needed for that work. Can we do that work? Will we do that work? I believe we can and I believe, "We will, with God’s help."
Leadership is a third essential for living the Covenant as a Diocese. Christ is our leader and Christ calls us to share in the management and promotion of God’s mission. Leaders for such work come in all shapes and sizes. By God’s grace this Diocese is blessed with many. That reality became quite apparent to me soon after you elected me to be your Bishop.
Tonight, I want to say a word of thanks to some of those leaders.
First, to the Transition Committee for all the work they did in preparation for our arrival: the work on the house, our moving in and the planning for that wonderful celebration on April 28th. Please join me in expressing appreciation for the time and effort given by this fine group of people. Would those members of the Transition Committee who are here please stand.
To the Standing Committee, especially its President and the Dean of this Cathedral, Ken Poppe, who gave tirelessly of himself during the transition; to Molly Comeau who handled deployment matters this past year, even as she made her way into a new Parish assignment; to the Trustees of the Diocese; the Diocesan Council; all the Diocesan personnel; and the clergy and parish leaders of the diocese, who all worked together and held this diocese together during the transition of Episcopal leadership, the Church and your new bishop say thank you, merci, gracias—well done! (That’s Episcopal for thank you).
I also want to say a word of thanks and send greetings to my predecessor and friend, your former bishop, Mary Adelia McLeod. No bishop could want for more from a colleague than the support, help, advice, prayers and good wishes that I have received from Bishop McLeod. She served you and this Diocese and the Church well and I am honored to follow in her footsteps, and in the footsteps of all the great Bishops who have served this Diocese.
As we look to the future, what I see and experience of the clergy and lay leadership in this Diocese encourages me. Just reading through the list of those willing to offer themselves for elected office in this Diocese is enough to make one proud. I feel most privileged to be among you as a leader, challenged to live out the servant calling of my baptism in a new and life-giving way.
One of the gifts that Presiding Bishop Griswold gives to each new Bishop is a mounted and framed copy of these words from Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo: For you I am bishop, but with you I am a Christian; one is an office, accepted; the other is a gift, received. One is danger; the other is safety. If I am happier to be redeemed with you than to be placed over you, then I shall, as the Lord commanded, be more fully your Servant.
One key to effective leadership in a Diocese is the ministry of its clergy. This Diocese has a wonderful, diverse, committed, smart and talented group of deacons and priests, and even a retired bishop or two, serving among us. I have asked them to vest and sit together tonight as a way of celebrating their leadership and commitment to Christ, the Episcopal Church and this Diocese.
Another key to effective leadership in a Diocese is the elected and appointed bodies, where lay and clergy members serve together. We have many, including this Convention, the Trustees, the Standing Committee’ the Commission on Ministry, our Deputies to General Convention and the various Vestries, Commissions, Boards and Committees that carry out the work of this Diocese and its institutions at the local and diocesan level. That is you, my friends, and others like you who say yes when asked to serve and yes when asked to lead. Thank you!
Tonight, I want to say a word about two other important leadership groups in the Diocese. One is the Diocesan Ministry Support Team, and the other is the Diocesan Council.
As you know from the discussions at our Regional Baptismal Ministry Days and from your preconvention material and conversation, I have put into place a plan for our diocesan personnel to serve as a Ministry Support Team. Several, including Lynn Bates newly appointed Canon to the Ordinary, will carry out their ministries primarily from the Diocesan Office in Burlington. Others, especially the three part time Canons for Ministry Development, will be living and working in the midst of the Diocese. Most of them are here tonight. I want to introduce them to you and ask them to stand so you can join me in thanking them for their ministry among us.
Lynn Bates, Canon to the Ordinary; Zeke Hanzl, Canon for Ministry Development; Thad Bennett, Canon for Ministry Development; Jeanette Tweedy, Bishops’ Missioner for the Northeast Kingdom (and soon to be Canon for Ministry Development); Barbara Adams, Financial Administrator; Valerie Hennessey, Administrative Assistant; Marsha Hoecker, Canon for Youth Ministry; Anne Clarke Brown, Mountain Echo Editor; Jan Lawrence, Receptionist; Joan Ouimette, Office Support; Elizabeth Allison, Historiographer and Chuck Courcy, Rock Point Property Manager.
The Diocesan Council is the most broadly representative body we have in this Diocese, apart from Convention. They are the Diocesan Convention between conventions. They provide important leadership in the Diocese of Vermont and I hope and trust that they are looking forward to some hard, creative, challenging and rewarding work in the months and years to come.
This body includes sixteen representatives elected from each of the eight deaneries in Vermont, eight representatives elected by Convention and two youth representatives elected by Convention. These representatives will be working with me to shape the vision and direction of the Diocese of Vermont. They are your connection to the process of mutual leadership and shared decision-making and I intend to engage them fully in that ministry. I will ask and expect that they communicate with you what they are doing.
If you have hopes and dreams and ideas for our mission and ministry together, you can share them with me, but more importantly you should share them with these other leaders. Likewise, if you have concerns, or questions or disagreements about the shape and direction of our diocesan mission and ministry, you can share them with me, but more importantly you should share them with these other leaders.
There are many leadership styles, but I know of only one effective way for me to exercise leadership and that is collegially. Collegiality is based on community; it implies honesty, accountability, mutual responsibility and interdependence. It is about teamwork, trust and shared decision-making. As you will see in the play, Uneasy Peace, being premiered at the Eucharist tomorrow morning, collegiality is risky and demanding. It is hard work. It is not always simple to achieve or maintain, but it takes us deeper and deeper into relationship, into communion with one another.
As leaders, can we go there together? Will we go there together? I believe we can and I believe, "We will, with God’s help."
Action is the fourth and final essential to living the Covenant as a Diocese that I want to underscore. Prayer, commitment and leadership must result in action if we are to be faithful to God’s calling as Partners in Mission. The front line of that mission is the day to day living of our lives. There is no more important ministry than the ministry in daily life of every baptized member of the Body of Christ. It is in the marketplace of our life—at work, home, school, and in the community—that we live out the promises of our baptism. Please don’t ever forget that, and please, don’t ever let me forget that.
Our action together in mission as a diocese is centered in our 50 worshipping communities and in our diocesan institutions: Brook-haven, Rock Point School and the Bishop Booth Conference Center. Each is vital to our common life and ministry and each must seek the full and faithful exercise of its life and ministry. Mission, not maintenance, is the lifeblood of the Church.
That mission is God’s mission and it takes us into the world as healers, reconcilers, prophets, proclaimers and doers of God’s justice, mercy, compassion, forgiveness, love and peace. I have been impressed by how seriously and fully so many of you take that ministry.
Every place I go, I witness the Episcopal Church active and involved in caring ministries. We need that action; we need that remarkable capacity of God’s people living out the covenant of God’s amazing grace and love. Yes, we need that action, and more, as we live the Baptismal Covenant as a Diocese. Along the way, we also need to ask ourselves the serious question of how are we going to give up our own comfort zones to live more fully into the covenant? Conversion and transformation call for radical grace within us so there can be the creation of a "Just Society".
How can we help create a "Just Society?" We have a serious problem of racism in Vermont. We have serious issues to confront: the shortage of affordable housing, the need for a livable wage, family farms at risk, poverty, and childhood hunger touch too many of our citizens. We have issues related to physical and mental health, to drug addiction and access to affordable health care. There are ministries waiting for us in our prisons, on our college campuses, in our nursing homes, and in the streets of our cities, towns and villages. Issues of social and economic justice, politics and government effect us here and stretch beyond our borders.
The Outreach and Social Justice Committee of the Diocese is one effective way in which we as a Diocese are working together on these and other important issues, including the formation of a Vermont Interfaith Coalition for a Just Society. Mission opportunities in Honduras and El Salvador engage us as a Diocese. Our action in Mission is further extended through our participation in the Episcopal Relief and Development Fund and the United Thank Offering.
Action. It makes the Covenant come to life. Will we take action? I believe we are and, "We will, with God’s help."
One final word about action. It needs to include our children and young people. The Diocesan Budget before you for consideration tomorrow includes provision for a half-time Canon for Youth Ministry. This is the first time such a position has been included in the Diocesan Budget. For the past two years this position was provided for by funds made available by the bishop. Now we are asking our congregations to support this important work with parish giving. This was a high priority in your diocesan profile and it is a high priority for me. I hope that in years to come this position can become full time. I hope you will support the whole budget as presented and in particular this ministry. And I hope you will celebrate and support ministry to, with, for and by young people in your parish and through the various diocesan programs we have, including the Rock Point Summer Conferences. the offerings of the Diocesan Youth Committee and the Canon for Youth Ministry.
As I bring my remarks to a close, I am reminded of the difference between being the owner of a store and being a customer. When the owner of a store sees some litter on the floor, or out in front of the store, the owner picks it up. When a customer sees litter on the floor, or out in front of the store, the customer often walks right over it, sometimes mentioning to the owner that the trash needs to be picked up. Owners and customers have different levels of commitment to the enterprise.
Be owners, partners in mission with God and each other. Live the Covenant of Baptism, individually and as a Diocese. Let prayer, commitment, leadership and action work in harmony for the building up of the Body of Christ. Make our mutual participation in God’s reconciling mission a compelling witness for Christ. Pray, commit, lead, act and say in response to God’s invitation, "We will, with God’s help."
+ Thomas
Copyright ® 2001, The Episcopal
Diocese of Vermont. All rights Reserved.