House of Bishops explores “Inhabiting Reconciliation”
By the Right Reverend Thomas Clark Ely, Bishop of Vermont
Mountain Echo, April 2002

From March 7-13, 2002, the Bishops of the Episcopal Church gathered at Camp Allen in Texas around the theme “Inhabiting Reconciliation.” We explored the theme and ministry of reconciliation from the interconnected perspectives of relationships—personal, communal and global. Our time and conversation together was centered theologically in the Paschal Mystery and in the understanding that reconciliation is a gift from God to be received and lived into with passion. As the Presiding Bishop succinctly put it in his opening remarks, “We are talking about living into what God in Christ has accomplished.”

Reconciliation is God’s mission, and it is our privilege and calling as the baptized Body of Christ to share in that mission, to join ourselves to it and to let it come alive in us and in the interconnectedness of our relationships—personal, communal and global. Sharing in the Paschal Mystery is all about “inhabiting reconciliation.” This was and is important work for the bishops. It is also important work for all the baptized.
Only you know where the challenges and opportunities for “inhabiting reconciliation” lie in your personal, communal and global relationships. For me, at least in part, those challenges and opportunities lie in seeking a better connection to those with whom I disagree theologically, politically and/or philosophically. Challenges and opportunities also lie in the areas of race relationships, the growing gap between rich and poor, environmental concerns, relationships with people of other faiths and relationships within our own Anglican Communion. All these and more are growing edges of “inhabiting reconciliation” for me.

I know that the work is difficult at times. I also know it is work worth doing. I know of no time in my life when the joy and presence of Christ was more evident to me than when I have experienced the reconciliation of a relationship. Personal, communal and global matters in need of reconciliation call for the very best we have to offer. This is deeply spiritual work, calling us to prayer, study and action. Ever mindful of the Paschal Mystery, we are invited in this work to embrace Christ’s call to repentance and forgiveness. God’s unconditional love for us and the prospect of God’s grace in every moment, every situation and every encounter of our lives brings me joy and gives me hope as I engage in the ministry of reconciliation.

Reconciliation is God’s gift to us. It is a gift to be received and lived into with passion. It is that boundary crossing beyond toleration into love and, as Rowan Williams has stated it, “a solidarity not of our own choosing.” In this season of Easter, this season of new life, new hope, new possibility, I invite us to live more fully into the deep mystery of God’s reconciling love for us. I invite us to accept the high calling to “inhabit reconciliation” as our way of life in all the interconnected relationships of our lives—personal, communal and global.

Reconciled in Christ and your brother in Christ,
+Thomas

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