But, as I think Jesus learned in today's Gospel, leaving home is helpful
--- it changes one's perspective
-----Giving one fresh eyes
And sometimes, when you return home after being gone, you've changed, but home still sees you as you've always been.
And therein lies the conflict and the challenge....you are full of new ideas, you are different.
But folks see you as you've always been.
General convention is a bit homecoming and a bit entering a new land.
You catch up with old friends--- I saw Paul Lillie, seminary friends, folks from Chicago and in one instance someone I've known for over 40 years--- and you make new.
You see these old friends in a different light and you consider your new friends in a unique light--- that of being among several thousand other Episcopalians!
General convention changed our church
And it changed my life
Just as it should!
First of all, being anywhere where episcopalians make up the majority is awesome.
Everywhere we went in SLC there was a sign, welcoming us! They were happy to have us.
Secondly, everyone was really happy.
Now remember we are not of one mind----(table)
But we are of one God
And at GC that really comes through
We truly are a church of via media....the middle way....and everyone must adapt, adjust, bend to create a unified whole
Not so easy for those on the far edges
But everyone worked very hard at it.
So,let take you through what we did as we took the councils of the church for 10 days:
Budget.... Diocesan asking will go down by 2019, but by streamlining some things we should be able to do this without significant cuts. (iPads)
----PB election
Liturgical revision:
BCP
HYMNAL
NAME CHANGE LITURGY
REGULARIZING THE IRREGULAR
DISCUSSION ABOUT BAPTISM
Alcohol use in congregations
Many other "inside baseball" issues that can be tedious but will affect us at the parish level in due time.
We are a people of representative governance. You elect, we represent and on we go.
It's an amazing thing.
And then there is the worship!!! Wow.
Get up girl!!
It's not that hard to find lost sheep...without the lost sheep and the beggars we are nothing but a museum
Music. Dancing. Praising God in many forms and in different languages.
But of course, overarching the whole experience were three events--- one national and two church wide---
Which will change many lives for generations
Supreme Court marriage equality
+Michael
Church marriage equality
Structure
But as Presiding Bishop elect reminded us, we are a Jesus people and Jesus people are committed to making disciples of the whole world
I don't care who you are,
how the Lord has made you,
what the world has to say about you,
if you've been baptized into Jesus
you're in the Jesus Movement and your God's.
As he died to make folk holy
Let us live to set them free
While God is marching on.
Glory.
Glory, hallelujah.
God's truth is marching on.
Now go.
~The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry,
Presiding Bishop - Elect
*****************************************************************************
At the 4:30 service I worked off these notes:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—
Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
From June 24-July 3, as we gathered Episcopalians from far and wide we witnessed the fundamental truth of these statements come to fruition in our country and in our church.
And it was awesome.
We did a lot of work—much of it the “inside baseball” of church polity and structure—all good but not immediately germane to our life together.
And then, as I was sitting in a committee meeting the text message I’ll never forget came through on my phone---the Supreme Court had voted 5-4 for marriage equality. Suddenly I and so many people I know, knew that our marriages were not only “valid” in the eyes of the state they were, at that very moment, the law of the land. Suddenly Pete and I, along with thousands of others were full citizens.
And then we did some really bold things:
We elected the first African American to hold the office of Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church---Michael Bruce Curry, a prophet, an evangelist and a born leader. We are blessed to call Michael ours as he was raised at St Phil.
The electricity around his election, the power of the Holy Spirit as the Bishop’s elected---in a landslide and on the first ballot---him and then we, in the House of Deputies, confirmed their choice---was incredible.
And then we did some other business…like opening the way for other churches to experiment with liturgy as we do here….we decreased the tax levied on dioceses….we addressed issues of alcohol abuse among the clergy and in many of our parishes….we talked about divestment of investments that feed the hatred of Palestinians in Israel….we voted to make a plan fro the revision of the 1979 BCP and the 1982 Hymnal. We did a lot of work.
And then the Holy Spirit did her thing again and in four momentous votes---two in the HOB and two in the HOD---we stated, once and for all, that all people are free to be married in our churches and that the sexual orientation of those people, or the gender identity of those people DOES NOT MATTER. That what matters is Love and that once and for all in our church—the church Pete and I were born into and love----those whom God has brought together, let NO ONE put asunder. In other words, ---all people---in this country and in our church, are created equal---ain’t nobody gonna mess with out marriage.
Two hymns best exemplify the feeling of General Convention and the supreme court decision of last week ---
Lift Every Voice and Sing and The Battle Hymn of the Republic---
Lift Every Voice and Sing
Lift every voice and sing
till earth and heaven ring,
ring with the harmonies of liberty.
Today, my friends, this is true.
Later in the hymn we sing:
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
My brothers and sisters in Christ, for years, for decades, for generations, for millennia, many of us have felt weary and have shed gallons of silent tears.
But now…now those tears have turned from those of weary separation into tears of unbounded joy….
But here’s the thing---whenever the oppression of one is ended it is incumbent upon those who once were lost but are now found to go out and find the lost sheep of this world, the despairing, the hopeless and the terrified an to bring them back into the fold. Our current presiding Bishop, in her sermon to us last Sunday told us that it was time to get up and get out into the world, spreading the Good News of God to all whom we encounter. This may be old news to us at Ascension, but it is very new news to much of our church and it was refreshing to hear it from the Presiding Bishop and then, this past Friday we heard a riveting sermon from our Presiding Bishop-elect who picking up on the theme of inclusion and going out into the world, making disciples of the nations, ended his sermon with this adaptation of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, one of my favorite hymns of all time:
I don't care who you are,
how the Lord has made you,
what the world has to say about you,
if you've been baptized into Jesus
you're in the Jesus Movement and you’re God's.
As he died to make folk holy
Let us live to set them free
While God is marching on.
Glory.
Glory, hallelujah.
God's truth is marching on.
Now go.
~The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry,
Presiding Bishop – Elect
So yes, much was accomplished at the GC but there is much more to do until all peoples—all peoples---will, in joy and thanksgiving lift their voices in a unified hymn of praise to the one God who loves all of us, no exceptions.
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