“Human generosity is the incarnation of God’s abundance.”
Diocesan Convention Address
The Right Reverend Thomas C. Ely
The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Burlington
November 7, 2003

Human generosity, I have learned, is the incarnation of God’s abundance. In the summer of 1976 Ann and I were working as volunteers with the Highland Educational Project, a social action ministry program of the Diocese of West Virginia. It was our first year in West Virginia. The local women running the Clothing Center, where we spent a good portion of our time, were determined to have enough new shoes on hand so that every child who needed them would have a new pair to start the school year. Tirelessly they canvassed donations of new shoes from local merchants, but by early August they were far from their goal, and they knew that families would soon be coming to the Center.

Then it happened. The miracle occurred. Just when the women had reached the peak of their frustration and worry level, word came from an Episcopal Church, at the other end of the state where the program’s director had made a presentation some months before, that a truck load of new shoes was on its way from one of their parishioners who owned a shoe store. Two days later over 200 pair of new shoes arrived at the Clothing Center and the women were able to fill every order in time for the opening of school.

Human generosity is the incarnation, the visible expression, of God’s abundance. It was true that summer in West Virginia. It was true long ago in that deserted place by the sea where over 5,000 were fed. It has been true time after time, in place after place and in situation after situation. When the offering is made, the miracle happens. Human generosity is the incarnation of God’s abundance.
As we gather in Convention around the theme of Engaging God’s Mission, I want to claim that abundance as a valuable dimension of our ministry. That abundance, made visible in the human generosity of God’s people in this diocese, is a source of great joy and satisfaction to me. I love serving as your bishop. While I’ve made my share of mistakes, I’ve learned a lot. I’ve grown a lot too. I may have a few more gray hairs, but I have deep respect and affection for you. You have made my life richer. And, along the way, I hope I’ve offered something to our common life and engagement in God’s mission.

There are many ways in which that abundance, and the generosity through which it is manifest, is present in our common life and ministry as a diocese. Let me identify some of those ways, those important mile-markers on our journey together, pointing toward the future and our continuing engagement in God’s mission.

The work of ministry development
In the profile you prepared in anticipation of the Episcopal election process, you identified some characteristics you were looking for in the person you would eventually call to serve as bishop among you. You expressed a desire for someone “who will empower and equip the ministry of all the baptized of the diocese.” You also indicated a desire for someone who is “open to creative change in our church and has a desire to work as our leader and partner in pastoring this ‘emerging church.’” That suggested to me a bishop ready to roll up his or her sleeves and join you in the work of baptismal ministry development. I hope you got what you were looking for!

I think the work of ministry development, manifest in our commitment to deepening baptismal ministry in this diocese, is one of the most important mile-markers we can point to in our common life and ministry. Make no mistake about it. This is hard work. My experience is that in every part of our diocese, people and congregations are engaged in the discernment, education, and formation processes that are essential to this work of ministry development. Mutual Ministry Reviews, Leadership Reviews, visioning and planning, education, and conversation about new and creative ministry models are a regular part of our life as a diocese.

Gifts discernment, creative evangelism efforts, new forms of worship and a growing awareness and appreciation of ministry in daily life are all being woven into the fabric of our common life and ministry. Here in Vermont we embrace the model of clergy and laity working in partnership for the building up of the Body of Christ. I am grateful to be among you as a partner in that work.

Significant credit for helping to foster that atmosphere of collegiality, mutual responsibility and interdependence goes to parish leaders—you who are gathered here as well as those back home. Like the gift of shoes to those West Virginia kids, your energy, wisdom and commitment are incredible expressions of generosity, which manifest in countless ways God’s remarkable abundance. From the bottom of my heart, I thank the lay and clergy leaders of our diocese for all you do in your local faith communities and through your ministry at the diocesan level.

Thanks and credit for helping to foster that ever-deepening spirit and expression of baptismal life and ministry in our diocese also goes to our Diocesan Ministry Support Team. These colleagues of mine, whose ministry among us you support through your parish giving to the diocesan budget, are on the road and in the office ready to support and encourage the mission and ministry of our diocese at every level.

For those of you who don’t know them, let me quickly introduce them and invite them to stand.

Lynn Bates, Canon to the Ordinary
Zeke Hanzl, Jeanette Tweedy & Thad Bennett, Canons for Ministry Development
Val Hennessey, Administrative Assistant
Jan Lawrence, Receptionist
Julie Giguere, our new Financial Administrator
{Linda Hardy, who will continue to serve us in a consulting capacity for financial and administrative matters.}
Connie Saeger-Proctor, Canon for Youth Ministry
Anne Clarke Brown, Communications Minister
Debi Patterson, Director of the Bishop Booth Conference Center
Chuck Courcy, Rock Point Property Manager
Susan Ohlidal, Pastoral Enrichment Coordinator (an important initiative that you will hear more about tomorrow)
Elizabeth Allison, Registrar and Historiographer

I believe that every congregation in this diocese has had some interaction with one or more members of the Ministry Support Team. I hope you will join me now in thanking them for their ministry among us.

The strategic planning process
Another “desirable characteristic” you identified in the Episcopal election process was “A visionary planner.” Hoping to fit that bill, the Diocesan Council and I initiated a strategic planning process this past year and invited every parish, committee, commission, clergy person and institution in our diocese to participate. The response was tremendous. Forty-six of our fifty congregations participated in some way. The five clergy sessions and the diocesan leadership session were well attended, and twenty-eight parish facilitators were trained.

The result was a substantial amount of important data and the identification of six key ministry areas for our Diocese in the next five years. Task groups are now at work on the action plans related to each of these areas. A progress report will be made to Council in December, and the goal is to have final Council approval in March. Let me name the six key areas and say a word about each:

Diocesan/Parish and Parish/Parish Relationships: The focus of this task group is the building of mutual and collaborative relationships between our diocesan structures, the Ministry Support Team and our fifty local congregations. The task group will also focus on the cooperative work of congregations one with another. In both cases the goal is to enhance and enrich the ministries of the Diocese and its constituent parts. Action plans in this area will help build stronger relationships throughout the diocese.

Communication: This area of ministry was frequently identified in conjunction with other areas of ministry. Here the intention is to develop action plans to help us improve our efforts to “make connections” by using the current and ever-changing technology available to us.

Parish Life/Support and Spiritual Growth: This task group will focus on the inner life of the parish and the spiritual growth of the people of our diocese. Believing the local congregation to be the core mission center, the task group will offer action plans to help expand our expression of baptismal ministry and deepen our spiritual life and commitment.

Social Justice/Outreach: This ministry area was passionately represented by many participants in the sessions and covered a wide range of issues. There was a consistent reminder that this ministry is often best done when congregations work together and when approached on an ecumenical and interfaith basis. The action plans developed for this area will reflect that focus.

Christian Education/Youth Ministry: It will surprise no one that this area of ministry gave strong evidence of both the passion and energy of those participants who care about the Christian formation of children and youth. Action plans in this area will build on the good work in place and continue our commitment in these areas.
Organizational/Structural/Financial: This area of ministry focuses on the “supportive systems” of the diocese that enable the wide range of ministries in which we’re engaged to occur. Action plans here will address the challenges we face with regard to financial resources, as well as some of the challenge present in a state so geographically diverse and where mountains divide us.

Craig Collemer, our consultant in this process, cautions us in his report not to try to accomplish too much too soon. The Council will work to identify one or two action plans within each key ministry area that will move us forward. No one wants this work to become a report that gets put away in a file cabinet somewhere in the diocesan office, never to be seen again. I believe there are abundant human and financial resources available for us to move forward in mission in each of these areas as a diocese. It will take the offering of each one of us to make that abundance manifest in our common life. In other words, we need a lot of shoes!

The Diocesan Council, committees and commissions
For me, the life and work of our Diocesan Council is an important manifestation of Episcopal partnership in pastoring this emerging church with its focus on baptismal life and ministry. So much of our common life depends upon the commitment and hard work of the various committees, commissions and task forces of Diocesan Council.

This generosity of spirit, time, and talent enables an abundance of ministry to be done for, with, and on behalf of the Diocese of Vermont. The same can be said about those who serve on other boards and commissions of our diocese and those who serve in ministries on the provincial and national church levels.
These ministries represent a significant portion our common life as a diocese and so, for a few minutes, I want to draw attention to four among the many: our Dismantling Racism Commission, our Environmental Ministry Team, the Rock Point Board, and youth ministry.

Dismantling Racism
The Dismantling Racism Commission, established by vote of Convention last year, will report to Convention tomorrow. Among the fruit of their work are two important anti-racism training opportunities that will be offered throughout the diocese. The first is a two-hour workshop on white privilege that can be used in every congregation. A guide for workshop leaders—who do not need special training—is included in your convention packet. The second is an important anti-racism training opportunity that will be offered throughout the diocese. The format will be a daylong workshop, offered in three locations around the diocese on April 1st, 2nd and 3rd. This training is especially important for all those serving in any leadership capacity at the diocesan level.

As leaders, we need to set the example by our willingness to participate in this kind of training. This training will help us better understand the issues and dynamics of personal and institutional racism, white privilege, and what we can do to help ourselves and our church live more deeply into the baptismal promises to “seek and serve Christ in all persons, to strive for justice and peace and to respect the dignity of every human being.”

The recently released report from the Vermont Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights concluded that racism persists in Vermont Public Schools. Other testimony, including that brought out through the Racism Study Circles in Burlington earlier this year, indicates that racism persists in all parts of Vermont and in all areas of our common life. Here is a place where the church’s voice needs to be raised. The workshops being offered for congregations and for diocesan leaders will better equip us for that work. The human offering of our time and commitment to addressing the sin of racism can be the generous gift that helps manifests God’s abundant love for all. Who knows what miracle might spring from that! Who knows how many feet will enjoy new shoes if we commit ourselves fully to this work!

Environmental Ministry
Our Environmental Ministry Team has also been hard at work on our behalf. One piece of that is the resolution we will consider tomorrow. They also have an extensive display in the exhibit area downstairs. Their effort is a generous offering of resources, practical ideas, and partnerships with others around Vermont and New England, all with the expressed purpose of helping to raise our awareness and increase our commitment to love and care for God’s creation. As I said in my homily at the Ministry Fair days in October, loving and caring for God’s creation is God’s first assignment to human beings.

In Vermont, we can help lead the way for the rest of the church and society in addressing environmental concerns and caring for the earth and its future. Please take that responsibility seriously and appreciate the implications for future generations if we fail to act. I encourage you to go back and read and study the New England Bishops’ Pastoral Letter on the Environment, To Serve Christ in all Creation. You can get the letter on the diocesan web site or by calling the diocesan office. Deepen your understanding by attending the Province One Convocation this November 21-22. Use the resources identified by our Environmental Ministry Team and available downstairs at their display. Adopt and carry out the resolution before us tomorrow.

This is not the work and ministry of one short season. It is a commitment we must make for the rest of our lives. Here, we need enough shoes for a lifetime. Small steps are better than no steps. Find the right place to connect yourself to this ministry. Make the generous offering to do something concrete. Expect the miracle.

Rock Point Board
The work of the Rock Point Board and the many ministries associated with Rock Point is another area of our common life where God’s abundance is manifest in the generous offering of people’s time, talent and treasure. One important dimension of the board’s work is a long range planning process that will lead to recommendations and action plans for the future of Rock Point. Rock Point has many stakeholders, and it is an incredible resource for our diocese. To secure the future of Rock Point will require a strong commitment from people throughout the diocese. Those who have gone before us have given us a wonderful gift in Rock Point. We have worn those shoes well! To secure that gift for future generations will require our human and financial commitment. I hope and trust that we are ready to rise to the challenge and opportunity that is before us, with gratitude and generosity.

Youth Ministry
Youth Ministry is another important area of our common life and baptismal ministry, in which God’s abundance is manifest in the gifts offered by the people of our diocese. When I became your bishop, you said this ministry was a priority, and I agreed. Both Council and I wanted a full time canon for youth ministry, but the funds just weren’t there. Then the miracle! The shoes arrived—or were they sneakers! The generosity of Holy Trinity, Swanton, made God’s abundance tangible; and the seed money we needed was given.

Here, I could easily point to the ministry of our Canon for Youth Ministry, Connie Saeger-Proctor, and all that she has accomplished. However, Connie is not alone in that ministry and God’s abundance is not manifest in her alone, as she herself would tell you. For me, and for her, that abundance is displayed most fully and wonderfully in the ministry of the young people throughout our diocese and the adults who minister to and with them. The work of our Diocesan Youth Council, the Summer Conferences, all the mission trips, all the local outreach, all the ways in which young people are active in their local churches and minister to and with one another in daily life, and all the ways they make us proud by their actions, speak volumes about their commitment to Christ and our continuing commitment to them and their ministries in this diocese.

It also gladdens my heart and gives me hope for the church when I see young people taking their place as leaders in the councils of our church. Elizabeth Hall, our first lay alternate deputy to General Convention, was the third youngest deputy at General Convention. Ian Olgelby (St. James, Essex Junction), Stephanie Philips (St. Peter’s, Bennington), Sarah Woodbury (St. Michael’s, Brattleboro) and Colin ? (Good Shepherd, Barre) were active participants in the Count Me Faithful youth ministry presence at General Convention. Young people from our diocese have served in leadership roles and on planning teams for diocesan, provincial and national youth events. I could go on and on in praise of their ministries, but the point I want to make is that this ministry needs the full support of each one of us here today, and every person in the congregations you represent, if we are to continue the good work that we have begun.

Consecration of Bishop Robinson
There is so much in the present and on the horizon that is positive about our diocese and the Episcopal Church. The attention people are paying to the Episcopal Church right now, as a result of the election and consecration of Gene Robinson and other actions of General Convention, provides us with an important moment—an opportunity to claim the abundance of God’s love and grace in the way we welcome all people into our hearts and churches. How we deal with disagreements will say as much to the world as anything else we might do right now.

The gift of Anglicanism to the larger church has always been its capacity to holds things in tension, to live with ambiguity, to respect the differences we have and to stay in relationship around the communion table which is not ours, but God’s.
The ordination and consecration liturgy in New Hampshire this past Sunday was, for me and for many, a powerful and glorious event—a witness to the diversity of our church and the power of God’s Holy Spirit moving in our midst. I recognize that for some it represented something quite different. I respect those who are struggling with this development in our common life and find themselves at odds with their church. I will not turn away from them. Yet, at the same time, I want to turn towards those persons, especially gay and lesbian persons, who find in these developments a sign of welcome and affirmation. For far too long, they have lived with the pain of being marginalized and objectified by a church whose slogan is, “The Episcopal Church Welcomes You.” I believe Gene Robinson’s ordination and consecration enables us to become more honest in our proclamation of that Good News. Those who supported Gene and those who opposed his ordination need to stay in conversation and live into its implications for us as Anglicans. On Sunday, that was his deepest expressed desire.

A friend of mine, a priest of the church who also happens to be a gay man, recently wrote to me and said,

I have stayed at the table for 35 years since my confirmation and 24 years since I understood myself to be a gay man. It has not always been easy and at times I wanted to leave. But I know God wanted me to be present with the whole Body of Christ, to be a part of that Anglican body. Now, I have been invited to that table in a new way and what would pain me the most would be to have other people who were there during the discernment process to leave and find myself with less of a Body of Christ. I stayed through pain and confusion and anger and found God ever more present in this wonderful Church of ours. Please, if people are confused, pained, or angry, please do not run away...because I believe we will find God even more present in this part of the journey.

I keep wondering, as we seek to make our way through all this, who will call and tell us there are enough shoes coming? My prayer and plea to any who are feeling alienated is to stay connected: make your offering, share your concerns, listen to others, live in charity with all, trust God, walk with integrity. My prayer and plea to the rest of us is the same: stay connected, make your offering, share your concerns, listen to others, live in charity with all, trust God, walk with integrity.

The struggle with the question of “enough”
I have attempted in this address to call us to a deeper awareness and appreciation of the abundance of God as that abundance is made flesh in the concrete actions of God’s people making the offering of their lives, their gifts, their time, their talent and their treasure. Sometimes, like the disciples in the Gospel feeding stories, we are reluctant to make the offering. Like them, at times we may fear there will not be enough to meet the needs at hand. The struggle with the question of “enough” is ever present in our ministries: enough time, enough money, enough people, enough spirit and enough commitment.

Commenting on this theme, William Countryman writes, “Does our hope in God make it worthwhile to contribute what we have to offer at any given moment, even if we feel quite sure that it will not be enough?” “Hope,” he writes, “is the expectation that the good will we have experienced from God in the past is not exhausted, that God will continue to work with us even under the most difficult of circumstances.”

For me, it really is all about offering. Words from the hymn we will sing in just a moment encourage us on to make the offering and remind us to what end we do that: “Open wide our hands in sharing, as we heed Christ's ageless call; healing, teaching, and reclaiming, serving you by loving all.” I think this is something we need to learn over and over again. I learned this lesson during that summer in West Virginia and I have learned it many times since.

Not every effort we make will meet with great success, but dwelling on that feeds our fears of inadequacy. Instead, the Gospel calls us to engage the question, “What do I have to offer, even if it seems inadequate to me?” We don’t have to fix everything or produce perfect solutions. To engage God’s mission is to offer what we have in the confidence that God will make it do more than we can ask or imagine. Miracles become more possible when the offering is made. Human generosity is the incarnation of God’s abundance. Make the offering. Send the shoes. Live and minister as generous people. Manifest God’s abundance.

Glory to God whose power working in us can do infinitely more that we can ask of imagine. Glory to God from generation to generation in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and forever.