Nine Resolutions That Won't Rescue the Church

The day after last week's Ascension Day release of "A Memorial to the Church" on the episcopalresurrection.org web site, the Rev. Jonathan Grieser wrote about why he won't be adding his name to the list of the memorial's endorsers:

I want to spend my time and energy in following where the spirit is blowing, into new ways of being church, new ways of encountering Jesus, and new ways of connecting with those who are seeking spiritual meaning. If the institutional church can be transformed to do those things, fine, but I’m not going to be fighting that battle. There’s too much else at stake.

Though I am one of the co-authors of the memorial and resolutions ("editor" or "suggester" may be more accurate terms than "co-author", in my case), I can't begrudge Grieser his position one bit. He writes about the work his church has been doing on the ground in his city, partnering with others both religious and secular to organize against yet another judicial failure in yet another police killing of an unarmed black man. In the face of matters of such import, what's the point of worrying about the institutional church?

While I don't think that means he shouldn't sign on to the memorial, I think the thrust of Grieser's argument is mostly right. In Salt Lake City in June and July, about a thousand lay and clergy Episcopalians will sit in conference rooms and exhibit halls, taking three days longer than it took God to create the world to take a good hard look at The Episcopal Church. But with the exception of the conversations we'll be having around the report from the Task Force on the Study of Marriage, little of what happens there will mean much to church congregations.

That includes these resolutions: even the one on church planting, even the one on congregational revitalization.

That doesn't mean these resolutions aren't worth passing. I wholeheartedly believe they are. Focusing resources on planting churches offers the opportunity for future graduating classes at some of our seminaries to relearn a skill mostly lost in our denomination. Focusing resources on congregational revitalization can expand the exciting work started by the Mission Enterprise Zone grants over the last triennium. But even with the millions of dollars the resolutions suggest deploying for such efforts, they will take many years to bear fruit.

The other resolutions are a lot more technical in nature but in brief they clarify a variety of church governance issues in a way that increases transparency and accountability in our governance, and eliminate one of our church's most opaque governance structures, the provinces. These too are worth passing because they impact the way we as a denomination act collectively. Good governance is part of good stewardship, and it's worth phasing out or reforming practices and structures that no longer serve the church or that engender confusion and distrust.

But the fact is that no piece of legislation, no matter how finely crafted, will save the church. Nor will any memorial or open letter save it, no matter how persuasively its authors make their points. Fortunately we Christians believe that the work of salvation has already been taken care of. Instead our task is to respond as a redeemed people, that is, in the words of the memorial, to:

• Recommit to reading scripture, praying daily, gathering weekly for corporate worship, and giving for the spread of the Kingdom, knowing that engaging in these practices brings personal and corporate transformation;

• Share the Good News of Jesus Christ in word and deed, including learning how to tell the story of how Jesus makes a difference in our lives, even and especially to those who have not experienced true transformation;

• Pray and fast for the Holy Spirit to add day by day to those who come within the reach of Christ’s saving embrace;

• Encounter Jesus Christ through loving service to those in need and through seeking justice and peace among all people.

This is the hard work of discipleship. At the very best the work of General Convention will clear a few obstacles, maybe offer a few new tools - and it should do those things! But the practices the memorial enumerates...General Convention can't make any of those things happen. These are the works of a people with hearts aflame, continuing in the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and the prayers, with God's help.

Oh, by the way! It's not too late to sign your name to the memorial. Just send your name to endorse@episcopalresurrection.org. Please indicate whether you are a bishop, deputy, alternate, member of the official youth presence, or, best of all, an interested Episcopalian.

These Bones

No one told us what to expect when we picked up my mother’s ashes from the crematorium.

The taxi turned into the parking lot at the top of the hill, across from the Chinese cemetery. Some chickens pecked around in the grass. The funeral director led us around to a table on the far side of the building, and then they brought her out.

She was in what looked like a large lasagna pan. She was fine dust, some ribs, an arm bone. The heat of the oven had broken her skull into three pieces.

“Mortal, can these bones live?” Ezekiel came uninvited into my mind. No, I said to myself. No.

We said no when they asked if we wanted to keep her teeth, to melt down the gold fillings. They took the tray around the corner, and in a moment we heard a whirring like a coffee grinder. They made a funnel out of newspaper and poured the dust into the urn. The funeral direction said he would take the ashes to the embassy to be certified for travel, and would drop them off at the apartment tomorrow.

The day before, Easter Sunday, Dad, Colin and I walked behind the hearse, coughing on exhaust fumes as it trundled the few hundred yards from the funeral hall up the hill. Dad asked them to turn off the gospel music blaring from the radio. On a portico outside the crematorium, we laid white flowers on the casket.

“Alleluia, Christ is risen,” I choked out, somehow.

“The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia,” said my father, brother, and assembled friends, uncertain.

I don’t believe any of this, I thought.

That night I had a nightmare that I had forgotten the sound of my mother’s voice.

On the flight home I stowed her securely under the seat in front of me and watched Frozen.

Six months later, before we buried the ashes in the churchyard, I stood with a wheelbarrow and shovel putting dirt back into the hole. We had it dug to a double depth, so Dad’s ashes could be there too, when the time comes, but it was a bit too deep. We were to gently lower the urn into to the grave and even with my long arms it was too deep for that to happen. I added a few inches and hoped for the best.

In the end it made no difference. Dad and I knelt in the gravel, guiding the urn down. But I lost my balance and fell, the heavy urn pulling my arms down into the grave. My forehead slammed into the gravel. The urn stayed upright, the lid secure. I stood up, sheepish and trembling, my sleeves muddy. Mother Suzanne touched my shoulder.

“You’ve taken her as far as you can,” she said.

In December, as I prepared to switch phones, I found a voicemail from February. Amiable, about nothing, like our conversation the night before she died, before anyone had an inkling her heart was already betraying her, and in a few hours would suddenly give out. “Have a good day,” she signed off.

I entered this Holy Week, the liturgical anniversary of her death, with unease. But it was so much better than I expected - I was just glad to be in an identifiable place. Last year I boarded a plane Maundy Thursday morning and got off Good Friday at midnight a world away, spending the meantime in a great nowhere tunnel in the sky.

This Easter Vigil I spent with the clanging of bells rather than drinking scotch and telling stories and drafting a funeral liturgy I thought my non-religious mother could live with, for lack of a better term. This Easter instead of saying goodbye I said hello, bringing a glass of wine from Easter brunch out to the grave. I sat in the sun, liked some alleluias on Facebook, sent some emails.

At a Thursday night Bible study the other week we read the passage from Luke where the risen Jesus appears among the disciples in Jerusalem and shows them his wounded hands and feet, the gash in his side. Teresa asked us who in the story we identify with. The only characters to choose are the unnamed disciples and Jesus. Everyone picked disciples.

“Come on,” Teresa said, “doesn’t anyone identify with Jesus?”

“Ok,” I said, “I do. Today is the calendar anniversary of my mother’s death. And I’m grateful not to be able to re-feel things about that day, the splitting headache, the nausea. Today can’t be more different than that day for me. Some good things have happened. I have a new and interesting kind of relationship with my dad, for one, and that’s a gift.

“But look at Jesus here. He’s resurrected but still wounded. The world did something to him that resurrection can’t undo. I’m back, in a way, too. But I’m not the same.”

Last Saturday I found myself crying in the final scene of Die Walkure. Wotan, king of the gods, stands over his daughter Brunnhilde. For complicated Wagnerian reasons he has had no choice but to place her unconscious body, living but no longer immortal, on a high rock.

The music lasts far longer than strictly needed for the action in the stage directions to occur, so for a long time Wotan gazes at his beloved daughter, delaying as long as possible the moment when the flames rise, she will be hidden from his sight, and he will go back into the world.

“Do not hold on to me,” Jesus says to Mary Magdalene. But how hard it is to let go and turn away.

“Mortal, can these bones live?”

These bones, ground to dust, buried in the churchyard?

No. Maybe. I don’t know. I'll just keep saying the creed.

But. Love is patient, love is kind, love never dies. Love bears all things, hopes all things, believes all things.

Love, believe this for me.

This is a participating post in the Acts 8 Moment BLOGFORCE challenge, which asks, "Where have you experienced resurrection this Holy Week and Easter season?" Participation in the BLOGFORCE is open to anyone who's interested, just follow the link to learn how.

The Acts 8 Moment - Packing for the Wilderness Road

Saturday, December 15

10:30am-12pm

Episcopal Church of All Saints

1559 Central Ave.

Indianapolis, IN 46202

"Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Get up and go towards the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ (This is a wilderness road.) So he got up and went." (Acts 8:26-27a)

The Episcopal Church has gone through some tough times lately. At levels from national to local, a difficult economy and the fading cultural influence of Christianity have been hard on our institutions. But this is no time for gloom.

The Acts 8 Moment, launched over the summer at General Convention, is an informal group of lay and clergy Episcopalians across the country praying and acting for the renewal of the Episcopal Church. We take our inspiration from the eighth chapter of the Book of Acts, when the early church was expelled from Jerusalem. This proved to be a turning point - for the better - in the growth of the church.

At diocesan convention, delegates gathered for an Acts 8 workshop to start the conversation in our own diocese, dreaming together of what the future of our church might be. Join us on December 15 to keep the conversation going. No previous involvement in Acts 8 is required, just a love for the Gospel as proclaimed by the Episcopal Church.

Learn More:

Web: www.act8moment.org

Facebook: www.facebook.com/acts8moment

Twitter: @acts8moment

Betty White, the Episcopal Church, and Why You Belong on IndyDio's Restructuring Task Force

The Golden Girls went off the air in 1992. After that, Betty White appeared in occasional TV and movie roles and did some Vaseline-lensed ads for animal-related causes. In a sign that she was riding off into the pop-cultural sunset, she received a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood and racked up lifetime achievement honors at the American Comedy Awards, TV Land Awards, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. She was also named a Disney Legend, whatever that is.

If you didn't follow Betty White's career that closely, it could be hard to know whether to refer to her in the past or present tense. One saw Betty White around more often than Sasquatch, but not much more. For some reason I have a vivid memory of her as a foul-mouthed widow in 1999's Lake Placid, an otherwise unmemorable movie about giant man-eating crocodiles.

The situation of the Episcopal Church today resembles what seemed to be the twilight of Betty White's career. We've got gorgeous buildings that make excellent settings for awkward encounters in Six Feet Under or official mourning for Gerald Ford. We have a beautiful prayer book that makes a cameo appearance in Rachel Held Evans' excellent new book, A Year of Biblical Womanhood, and polite notice for its cultural significance in The Atlantic. But we're pretty short on actual influence in the national conversation these days.

The last 10 years have been particularly bruising. Our average Sunday attendance has fallen by about 20% through the strains of schism and death's inevitable toll on an institution whose average member is 62 years old. The popular metaphor among hopeful observers and participants is that we have been pruned for future growth. Fair enough.

Our church's numbers have been declining for decades, but the fact that many parts of the church are supported by endowments from generous members past have meant that until the last decade's economic and market disasters, our institutional structures could get by without adapting all that much. Maybe pruning is the right metaphor for this experience, but it feels a lot more like we've been knocked down. But we don't have to be down for the count.

The renaissance of Betty White's career began in early 2010 with a famous Super Bowl commercial for Snickers, depicting her getting knocked into the mud while playing football. The commercial inspired a social media campaign that soon had her hosting Saturday Night Live. Today Betty White is everywhere.

White's return to the cultural mainstream isn't just because of the commercial, though it was clearly a turning point. White is back because we have rediscovered that she has something to offer us: a sharp wit, openness, honesty about ugly truths (especially about aging), iconoclasm, and compassion. But her new career doesn't resemble her old career much. There's been no return to sweet-natured Rose Nylund, but an adventurous engagement with where pop culture is now.

The Episcopal Church also will not be the church we used to be. We were the church of the Roosevelts and the Vanderbilts, but we're about as likely to go back to that as Betty White is to have a reunion special with Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan. We will be the church God calls us to be, or we will wither away, cutting budgets and keeping up appearances the best that we can.

In the face of a public Christianity that devalues women and villifies gays, the Episcopal Church stands for the breadth of God's love. In a country obsessed with consumer goods, we share the simple materials of bread, wine, and oil as signs of God's presence. "Unfriend" is now an accepted verb; we offer real relationships. Instead of severing connections in the quest for the new, the Episcopal Church values the thread of history and tradition that connects us to the eternal. But outside our church, who even knows about us?

We as a church have resolved to change, but we have not yet resolved how to do it. The General Convention of the Episcopal Church voted to establish a task force to restructure our national institutions. The Acts 8 Moment, a grassroots movement for church renewal, is gathering steam.

Today the Diocese of Indianapolis is collecting nominations for the task force for restructuring the diocese. It is unfortunate that the task force has such a wonky title. But the fundamental issue is this: it is time for the Episcopal Church to stop clinging to its past and managing decline. It is time for us to actively engage with the culture around us, where going to church is not a social expectation and Biblical illiteracy is the norm. It is time for us to manage our ample financial resources in a way that grows and serves the message of Jesus, not our self-image. It is time for us to change ourselves without losing the core that makes us Christians.

If you want to engage with these challenges, you may well be called to serve on the diocesan task force. But you have to let the the Executive Council know you are willing to serve. Nominate yourself or someone else with passion for the future of the church. Find everything you need to make that happen here. You have until December 22.

Betty White's 2010 revival began with her lying in the mud. We're there today, on the margins of American culture. And as the Rev. Suzanne Wille of All Saints, Indianapolis reflects in a recent sermon (also available in audio), that may be right where we belong:

As so often happens in the Gospels, truth and faith and Good News are found at the margins. It is the outcasts, the poor, the sick, who understand Jesus, the ones who help US see Him better, understand the Gospel better.

We reach this point with the ample resources of our liturgy, our plentiful real estate, and our objectively enviable finances, to say nothing of the grace of God. Our challenge is to focus less on ourselves and more on what has happened around us, to hang out on the margins, and to listen for what we are called to do next.

Guest-blogging the Resolutions - Church Structure

Hello.  I’m John.  Brendan has asked me to write a guest post regarding the church structure resolution he is sponsoring, since he’s clearly biased.  He assures me that my general familiarity with his scoring system (from reading the blog) and my possibly passable knowledge of Episcopal affairs are the only requirements.  Still, I’m going to keep this brief so I don’t make a fool out of myself.

I’m not going to try to go into the resolution’s intentions too much, as I imagine its sponsor might have a few words to say about it himself.  But very briefly, General Convention this year passed a resolution to establish a task force to create a plan to reform the Church’s structure and governance and present it to the next General Convention.  It’s my understanding that the resolution passed unanimously.  The resolution to be put before the Diocese of Indianapolis at its convention is a resolution to support that effort, and to establish a similar task force for the diocese.

Of course, the guy who wrote the scoring system, wasn’t going to sponsor a resolution that failed the test, right?  Well, let’s see.

1. Is the resolution likely to pass unanimously? Well, I might have guessed not, but if the similar resolution passed unanimously in GC, I’m gonna have to lean yes here. -1

2. Does the resolution call for someone in the church to do something concrete? Yes. It calls for the creation of a committee, and for the committee to deliver reports at both the 176^th and 177^th convention of the diocese. +1

3. Might the resolution call for the person who proposed it to do something concrete? I’m not sure it does in itself.  However, I am sure Brendan, as its sponsor, will be engaging enthusiastically with the task force’s work (whether or not he is on it himself).  So this gets a yes. +1

4. Does the resolution contain an escape hatch? Not that I can see.  +1

5. If the resolution calls for an allocation from the diocesan budget, is it clear how the funding would happen? The resolution does call for the Executive Council to “make such resources available to the committee as necessary to enable this resolution to be implemented energetically and successfully.”  It does not specify how much resources that would take nor where it would come from, so I’m going to have to say no. -1

So, our final score is 1, and would be a 2 if C095 didn’t pass General Convention unanimously.  I proclaim that you can vote for this resolution with a clear conscience.  I look forward to Brendan clarifying anything I got wrong on this one, and learning more about his vision for the future.

What's going on in the Diocese of East Carolina?

In his address to the 2012 convention of the Diocese of South Carolina, the Rt. Rev. Mark Lawrence, Bishop of South Carolina, observed that South Carolina was one of only two dioceses in the entire denomination to grow its average Sunday attendance between 2005 and 2009, but then went on to say, "But before we raise a toast to ourselves or to our God for his blessing, I need to tell you this was in 2009. In 2010 we lost the largest parish in this Diocese."

Between 2000 and 2010, average Sunday attendance in the Diocese of South Carolina fell by about 5%. Who did better? Within the United States, only three dioceses - the Navajo missions, where attendance fell by 2.5%, the Diocese of Tennessee, where attendance fell by 3.9%, and the Diocese of East Carolina, where attendance fell by 1.3%. Check out your own diocese here (and weep).

In the world of double-digit attendance declines that characterizes most of mainline Protestantism, it looks like East Carolina is holding its ground. What's up?

The Diocese of East Carolina covers all of coastal North Carolina and portions of the center of the state. It contains no major metropolitan areas, but contains a few mid-size cities like Wilmington and Fayetteville. I contains a lot of military installations, most notably Fort Bragg and Camp Lejeune. It contains the home of the Lumbee tribe of Native Americans, Robeson County, one of the most racially troubled places in the state. And it includes North Carolina's tourist coast.

I think I'm going to spend quite a bit of time on this topic, but I just want to bite off a few things today:

1. The Diocese of East Carolina faces the same challenges the rest of the church does. A perusal of the stats of the dioceses parishes show that the stability in attendance in the diocese is not uniform. Many parishes are holding steady; more are in decline. At the 2012 diocesan convention, the diocese voted to close eight parishes and put another four on notice.
2. In the great battles over sexuality, East Carolina is in the middle of the road. It is a truism that only the "conservative evangelical" churches are growing (see my friend John's blog for why I put that in scare quotes), but East Carolina is not noted for particular liberalism or conservatism. I'm not clear on how the Bishops of East Carolina voted on the rite to permit same sex blessings, but official statements on the diocesan web site are quite measured.
3. A few churches are seeing massive growth. And their profiles are very different. One is St. Andrew's, Morehead City. In 2000, the vestry of St. Andrew's voted to leave the Episcopal Church, splitting the congregation. Subsequent to the split, average Sunday attendance was about 40. Today it's 120. Another is Holy Cross, Wilmington, a church planted in 2005 that is already up to 120 at an average Sunday. And then, boy howdy, there's Sagrada Familia, Newton Grove, which serves close to 500 migrant farm workers every Sunday in the summer and recently started operating year round.
4. The diocesan organization travels light. The annual budget is around $1.2 million (it's a little more complex that that, but this simplification will do for now). Just for comparison, my home Diocese of Indianapolis has a budget more than double that. Two things to note -- East Carolina only pays about half its commitment to the national church -- about 10% of its budget; Indianapolis pays the full asking, 19% of its budget. Also, Indianapolis pays for all clergy health insurance at the diocesan level; in East Carolina, that's devolved to the parishes. Even accounting for that, Indianapolis spends more, and has only about 1/2 the Sunday attendance that East Carolina does.
5. Parish websites aren't so hot. Of the three growing parishes I noted, none have slick, well-updated web sites. Here's St. Andrew's Morehead City (they've got a pretty good Facebook page, though). Here's Holy Cross Wilmington. And um...Sagrada Familia? Not so much with the web over there. I don't know exactly how these places are doing evangelism, but let's just say I'm guessing they're not waiting for the people to come to them.
6. The Bishop is very direct. I don't know anything about Bishop Clifton Daniel, but I'll tell you this, he doesn't leave a lot to the imagination. Read his addresses to Diocesan Convention for 2011 and 2012. I dare you to tell me you don't get a pretty good idea of what's on his mind, and how he thinks parishes should respond to that.

There's been a lot of talk about pruning in Episcopal church circles these days (check out this great post from  Nurya Love Parish, who turned me on to the glories of the Episcopal Church's Office of Research. Or read almost anything from the Acts 8 Moment blog (and add them to your RSS feed)). But there's not yet a lot out there about how things are  growing. The Diocese of East Carolina is a case where the pruning and growth seem to be happening simultaneously. Let anyone with ears to hear listen (Mark 4:9).

Resolution on Structure for the Diocese of Indianapolis

Here's the final text of the Resolution on Structure for the Diocese of Indianapolis I have submitted via .doc, .pdf, e-mail, and fax. Yeah, seriously, fax. Let this post be a witness that I made the deadline. Feedback still welcome as this can (and likely will) be amended on the floor of Diocesan Convention in October.

A reminder: this resolution borrows liberally from the C095 resolution; feel free to borrow from this, as appropriate, for your own purposes.

--

Resolved, that the 175^th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis affirms Resolution C095, Structural Reform, adopted by the 77^th General Convention of the Episcopal Church;

And be it further

Resolved, that this Convention urge all members  of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis to pray regularly for the guidance of the Holy Spirit to be upon the Task Force so established for the duration of its work, commending the Prayer for the Church found on page 816 of the Book of Common Prayer as a useful example;

And be it further

Resolved, that the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis commit itself and its officers to open and prompt sharing of information and expertise with the Task Force if and when so called;

And be it further

Resolved, that the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis believes that just as the Holy Spirit is urging the Episcopal Church to reimagine itself, so is the Holy Spirit also urging all of the constituent members of the church to reimagine themselves, through the conversion of individual hearts, parishes, and dioceses to more faithfully

• Proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
• Teach, baptize, and nurture new believers
• Respond to human need by loving service
• Seek to transform unjust structures of society
• Strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth;

And be it further

Resolved, that this Convention, under the legislative powers vested in it by the Constitution of the Diocese of Indianapolis IV.4.(c) create a committee whose purpose is to

• Study scripture and pray for God’s continual blessing upon the whole church and especially God’s people in the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis
• Engage in theological and historical reflection on the Diocese as the organizing unit of Christ’s church
• Make itself available to the Task Force established by C095 as fellow travelers in discernment of the will of God for the church
• Engage in appreciative inquiry of the programs, activities, and outreach of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis, obtaining the wisdom, perspectives, and expertise of others throughout the Diocese, including those not often heard from
• Discern a shared vision for the mission and ministries of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis, and the relationship among the diocese and its constituent missions, parishes, and other bodies that reflects the love of Jesus Christ and the theology and polity of the Episcopal Church
• Develop recommendations for the Diocese and its constituent missions, parishes, and other bodies to achieve that vision together, with God’s help
• Deliver an interim report to the 176^th Diocesan Convention and a final report to the 177^th Diocesan Convention, the latter to be published no later than the Feast of the Transfiguration, 2014 (August 6), on its discernment findings and recommendations, with such reports also to be made freely and contemporaneously available online, along with such resolutions as may be necessary to implement those recommendations;

And be it further

Resolved, that the committee be composed of at least eight and no more than twelve members, to be selected by the Executive Council through an open nominations process, that the members of the committee be named no later than the Feast of the Confession of St. Peter the Apostle (January 18, 2013), that the committee select its own chair and other officers, and that the members represent the diversity of the diocese in geography, demographics, talents, and order of ministry, and include those at a critical distance from the power structures of the Diocese;

And be it further

Resolved, that the Executive Council, using the powers granted to it by the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis, make such resources available to the committee as are necessary to enable this resolution to be implemented energetically and successfully, “…for surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

Explanation:

The 77^th General Convention in Indianapolis unanimously passed Resolution C095, Structural Reform, to reimagine the structure of the Episcopal Church, noting:

The administrative and governance structures of The Episcopal Church have grown over the years so that they now comprise approximately 47% of the churchwide budget and sometimes hinder rather than further this Church’s engagement in God’s mission. Reform is urgently needed to facilitate this Church’s strategic engagement in mission and allow it to more fully live into its identity as the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society in a world that has changed dramatically over the years but that also presents extraordinary missional opportunity.

The General Convention chartered a task force to develop a vision to restructure the high level structures of the Episcopal Church for a changed environment, the be presented at the 78^th General Convention in 2015.

This resolution establishes a similar committee in the Diocese of Indianapolis.

The Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis, along with many other dioceses of the church, faces a challenge. Our parishes are committed to engaging in mission and ministry to the communities around them and to people in need far away. But not everything is working – from 2000 to 2010, average Sunday attendance in the diocese fell by 19.8%. Our diocesan structures are little changed in response.

As ever, the Holy Spirit calls us to be a missional church, spreading the Good News of Jesus and doing God’s work in the world. A process of prayer, self-examination and discernment is necessary to hear God’s call to us for how we must change to empower our parishes, missions, and members to boldly, energetically, and creatively proclaim the Gospel in the world through word and deeds.

A Draft Resolution Supporting C095? Help, Please.

I'm drafting a resolution to do a re-visioning process in the Diocese of Indianapolis, in parallel with the Task Force established by resolution C095 (which...if you're going to read further, you should open it right now, because you'll want to refer back to it. I make no apologies for borrowing from it liberally). I'm interested in constructive feedback, particularly anything that points out where I might have violated the rules I posted yesterday.

I'm also concerned about anything that might undermine the work of the Task Force, so I'm interested in any thoughts on that issue -- though generally I think that a church wide visioning process is more likely to be supporting than interfering. Nonetheless that's the reason I set August 6, 2014 as the deadline for the reporting of my proposed committee's work, so it would be out there for a few months before the C095 Task Force's final deadline of November, 2014.

I'm definitely seeking ideas for how a committee might be chosen at the diocesan level.

Finally -- I'm under deadline! This is totally my fault, but resolution deadlines are coming down on the Diocese of Indianapolis right now. This puppy is due on Sunday.

Thanks to any and all for your help!

--

Resolved, that the 175^th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis affirms Resolution C095, Structural Reform, adopted by the 77^th General Convention of the Episcopal Church;

And be it further

Resolved, that this Convention urge all members  of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis to pray regularly for the guidance of the Holy Spirit to be upon the Task Force so established for the duration of its work, commending the Prayer for the Church found on page 816 of the Book of Common Prayer as a useful example;

And be it further

Resolved, that the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis commit itself and its officers to open and prompt sharing of information and expertise with the Task Force if and when so called;

And be it further

Resolved, that the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis believes that just as the Holy Spirit is urging the Episcopal Church to reimagine itself, so is the Holy Spirit also urging all of the constituent members of the church to reimagine themselves, through the conversion of individual hearts, parishes, and dioceses to more faithfully

• Proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
• Teach, baptize, and nurture new believers
• Respond to human need by loving service
• Seek to transform unjust structures of society
• Strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth;

And be it further

Resolved, that this Convention, under the legislative powers vested in it by the Constitution of the Diocese of Indianapolis IV.4.(c) create a committee whose purpose is to

• Study scripture and pray for God’s continual blessing upon the whole church and especially God’s people in the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis
• Engage in theological and historical reflection on the Diocese as the organizing unit of Christ’s church
• Make itself available to the Task Force established by C095 as fellow travelers in discernment of the will of God for the church
• Engage in appreciative inquiry of the programs, activities, and outreach of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis, obtaining the wisdom, perspectives, and expertise of others throughout the Diocese, including those not often heard from
• Discern a shared vision for a relationship between the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis and its constituent missions, parishes, and other bodies that reflects the love of Jesus Christ and the theology and polity of the Episcopal Church
• Develop recommendations for the Diocese and its constituent missions, parishes, and other bodies to achieve that vision together, with God’s help
• Deliver an interim report to the 176^th Diocesan Convention and a final report to the 177^th Diocesan Convention, the latter to be published no later than the Feast of the Transfiguration, 2014 (August 6), on its discernment findings and recommendations, with such reports also to be made freely and contemporaneously available online, along with such resolutions as may be necessary to implement those recommendations;

And be it further

Resolved, who should select these people and how should they do it? We don’t have the built-in PHoD and PB structure at the diocesan level, that the members of the committee be named no later than the Feast of the Confession of St. Peter the Apostle (January 18, 2013), and that the members adequately represent the diversity of this diocese, and include those at a critical distance from the power structures of the Diocese

And be it further

Resolved, that the Executive Council, using the powers granted to it by the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis, make such resources available to the committee as are necessary to enable this resolution to be implemented energetically and successfully, “…for surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

Explanation: Don’t have the energy for this now. But if you’ve gotten this far, you know what it’s about.

Rules for Resolutions at Diocesan Convention

Tweaking some of my fellow Anglo-Catholic friends about the Blessed Virgin Mary was fun for a couple blog posts, but it’s time to get back to some holy wonkery, and the clock is ticking. While I was asleep in a post-General Convention stupor, I failed to notice just how quickly the 2012 convention of the Diocese of Indianapolis was approaching. It’s still a little over two months away, and important deadlines are rapidly approaching. I have some people to get in touch with in a hurry.

Quickly now:

1. Resolutions for consideration by the convention are due by August 26. That’s THIS Sunday. They may be submitted via e-mail. Instructions here.
2. Nominations for diocesan committees are due by September 1. You may nominate yourself. A nomination form, including a list of the responsibilities of the various committees, can be found here.

I’ll get back to these in a bit, but first: Diocesan Convention, whether in Indianapolis or elsewhere, is really important. A fundamental principle of the Episcopal Church is that the basic unit of the church is not the parish, but the diocese, of which the Bishop is the leader. Conceptually, any ministry done in a particular parish is an extension of the Bishop’s own ministry. The Bishop derives her authority from the laying on of hands going back a great many generations to the touch of Jesus himself. That’s why a Bishop carries a shepherd’s crook. This does not make the Bishop magic, but it does make her well-connected.

So, the Bishop commands a great deal of authority, through both the literal touch of our Lord and Savior and the considerably less mystical means of the constitution and canons of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Indianapolis. Mystical or not, the constitution and canons spell out that the Bishop’s authority is shared with her flock.

Let me state it forthrightly: laypeople and clergy all have power to influence the way things are done in our dioceses. We just have to use it.

What I am not calling for is for anyone reading this to prepare a raft of resolutions. That’s basically the last thing we need.  General Convention was littered with well-intentioned but basically meaningless resolutions, and the same thing happens at diocesan convention, too.

From the 174th Convention of the EpiscopalDiocese of Indianapolis, I give you two examples:

Equitable Education for All Our ChildrenResolved, that the 174^th Convention of the Diocese of Indianapolis affirm Resolution B025, Equitable Education for All Our Children, adopted by the 76^th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, and urge the implementation of this resolution, as appropriate, within our diocese and our parishes.

Renew and Strengthen Economic Justice MinistryResolved, that the 174^th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis affirm Resolution C049, Renew and Strengthen Economic Justice Ministry, adopted by the 76^th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, and urge the implementation of this resolution, as appropriate, within our diocese and our parishes.

Note the weasel words – “urge”, “as appropriate”. Note the total lack of specificity in assigning any specific action. I can guarantee you that I voted for these things as a delegate last year. Because the last thing I was going to do was be the jerk from All Saints who voted against Equitable Education for All Our Children, especially when the resolution calls on me and everyone I know to do precisely nothing.

So a few ground rules before you go submitting resolutions:

1. Is this resolution likely to pass unanimously? If so, can it. The resolution probably hasn’t called anyone in the room to do anything meaningful.
2. Does the resolution call for someone in the church (not government officials) to do anything concrete? If so, we’re on to something.
3. Might the resolution legitimately call on you to do something concrete? Better yet. There was an interesting resolution that passed at last year’s Diocesan Convention requiring a research project on the system of Township Poor Relief in Indiana. The township poor relief funds carry large amounts of cash on their balance sheets, where they aren’t helping the poor, and given today’s low yields, aren’t even earning interest! (See Matt 25:27 for what Jesus thinks about that investment strategy). But if I recall correctly, it was suggested that the Bishop kick that project over to the Deacons. I’m not sure if this has been done or if this resolution will appear on the ever-lengthening unfinished business report (the reading of which should frankly be promptly followed by confession and rending of garments; then maybe absolution). I’m not blaming the Deacons, by the way (the Indianapolis Star hasn’t been able to crack this issue, either) – just saying it was an easy one to pass because we kicked responsibility to someone else. Full disclosure: I believe I spoke in favor of this resolution. Maturity comes slowly, y’all.
4. Does your resolution contain an escape hatch? Note that these most often take the form of non-committal verbs. If so, edit those out right this minute! If you provide an escape hatch, it will be used.
5. Does the resolution involve money? If so, just make sure you really know what you’re talking about, and you really understand the way the budgeting process works in your diocese and what the actual resources available are. Get help from someone who does know the numbers. There’s a perfectly wonderful resolution regarding support for the Episcopal Church in Haiti committing $500,000 of Diocesan resources to reconstruction efforts. It passed, but it’s pretty problematic. The draft budget for 2013 at this stage completely ignores it. Another one for the unfinished business report? Also - guilty. I voted for it.

So what subjects might deserve a resolution? I can think of two off the top of my head. First, we have a major resolution that passed at the General Convention, C095, establishing a committee to imagine a restructuring of the national church (I've put my name in for this, and maybe you should, too. You've got till August 23 to do it). But as one Bishop pointed out during the debate on this resolution in the House of Bishops, this is a call to reimagine what our dioceses look like as well. A restructuring of the national church is a good and necessary thing, but the dioceses and the parishes are where we spend most of our time (and money). A resolution adapting C095 for diocesan use would make a whole lot of sense. This is my project for the next few days.

Also, specific to the Diocese of Indianapolis here...our website is sorely in need of an upgrade. Fact is, we did one two years ago. There's no reason to lay blame, but we must acknowledge that this did not work at all. Let's allocate some funds and get something usable. We will all feel better. Keep in mind that the audience for a diocesan website is almost entirely church insiders, not outsiders. Easy accessiblity to diocesan resources for parishes is vital.

I'm sure there are other things we need to address (besides the budget, obviously, about which...more later), but not much. One of the great problems of General Convention and Diocesan Conventions is that we so rarely get our geographically dispersed groups together, it's shame we spend so much of our time in legislative snoozefests rather than sharing with each our successes and frustrations, and building networks across distance.

To that end, I'm excited to see that this year the Diocese of Indianapolis is creating room during one of the breaks for workshops. This is an excellent idea (Acts 8 gathering, anyone?). Let's see how short we can make our legislating, and spend our time together instead exchanging ideas, stories, and experiences as we work for the one who is coming into the world.

UPDATE 9/15/2012: I referenced the diocesan website being in need of an upgrade. I recently learned that one is well under way, and caught a sneak peek of it during a brief moment when the new design was accidentally made public. I'm not sure what the launch date is, but it looks very good.

Toward a Positive Vision of Liberal Christianity

Can the problems of the Episcopal Church be summed up with one silly t-shirt? That may be an overstatement, but New York Times columnist Ross Douthat got me thinking about it in his recent column, “Can Liberal Christianity be Saved?” Douthat argues that recent decades declines in mainline Protestant church membership and attendance is related to the church’s engagement in the divisive cultural debates of our day, principally but not exclusively the role of LGBT
people in society and the church.

Douthat cites two principal factors behind this. One is the influence of thinkers like retired Bishop John Shelby Spong, whose work eviscerates the core of orthodox Christian doctrine. The second is the failure of the church to articulate religious backing to its concern for social justice that in any way distinguishes the church from secular voices advocating similar positions. He's wrong on the first, and correct enough on the second that it's worth talking about. That's where the t-shirt comes in.

But let's deal with Spong first. I think Douthat vastly overestimates the influence of people like him within the church. Spong is not an instigator of where the Episcopal church finds itself today. His work is a last gasp of a line of inquiry that included Bishop John A. T. Robinson’s Honest to God and Leslie Weatherhead’s The Christian Agnostic. The latter book concluded that it’s ok to be a Christian and deny the gospel miracles and the virgin birth, as long as you’re still on board with the physical resurrection of Jesus. Spong does Weatherhead one better and dispenses with the resurrection, too.

What all of these books have in common is a struggle to identify what is true about scripture and the creeds in the face of scientific discoveries about evolution, medicine, cosmology, and the like. Weatherhead’s book, alas, credulously relies on some junk science about spiritualism to support some of its conclusions. The debates contained in these books were perhaps necessary as the church grappled with the discovered world and chose not to be a faith that denies the facts in front of it. This is a good thing. But these authors erred in allowing discovery to constrain revelation, rather than expanding their understanding of revelation to accommodate discovery.

As quickly as I dismiss Spong and his intellectual forbears, I should acknowledge that the conversations they started opened up my own understanding of the claims of scripture and the creeds and gave me a vocabulary to express my own views. The idea of the virgin birth, the resurrection and second coming of Jesus, etc. do not require us to deny objective scientific reality, but they do live in tension with it. There is our daily lived reality, and a deeper real reality. We experience that real reality as if it is on the other side of a veil: close, but often invisible,
occasionally seen, only once in a great while truly breaking through. I cannot quantify how many other Episcopalians see things in this or a similar way, but I’d guess that it’s a greater proportion than those who say the Nicene Creed with their fingers crossed. It’s also not a unique or new idea, as I recently learned when I chanced upon a fascinating lecture on Jewish scholar Franz Rosenweig while driving the other night, but it's one that members of the church may not feel comfortable articulating.

Douthat’s second critique – that Episcopalians have failed to articulate a religious reason for their positions is worth spending more time on. It’s easy to get defensive on this point, to say, as some have, that if Douthat comes to any Episcopal church on a Sunday, he’ll find a congregation at prayer as sincere as Douthat’s own Roman Catholic parish. One might also reasonably argue that there’s some heavy-duty theological work behind the rite for blessing same sex relationships approved at the recent General Convention. Both of these things are true.

But these objections do not negate Douthat’s observation. To experience the church as a praying community, one must first walk in the doors. There’s no question that in our denomination, though certainly not in every parish, over the last couple decades, more people have been walking out than in. Heavy duty theological discussion deep in the pages of the Blue Book may be wonderful, but it’s no good if few within the church can restate them. Indeed, in the House of Deputies at the recent General Convention, just about the only folks expected to read the many hundreds of pages of documentation underlying all manner of legislation, referenced theology and the Bible rarely enough to make much of the debate in the house indistinguishable from what might occur at any other organization of humanists unusually well-versed in parliamentary procedure.

(On the other hand, perhaps we shouldn't judge the deputies too harshly for this, because one alternative to the status quo is some horrific proof-texting extravaganza. But I digress.)

Moreover, the Episcopal church has a problem not just in stating its reasons grounded in faith for the prominent social stands it has taken in recent years. It also has difficulty defining its reason for being in terms that involve God, or for that matter, positive terms of any type.

Take, for instance, what is perhaps the Episcopal Church’s most visible vehicle for attracting believers, the “Top 10 Reasons to be anEpiscopalian” t-shirt. The reasons are apparently derived from a Robin Williams HBO special a decade or so ago. They are:

10. No snake handling.

9. You can believe in dinosaurs.

8. Male and female God created them; male and female we ordain them.

7. You don’t have to check your brains at the door.

6. Pew aerobics.

5. Church year is color coded.

4. Free wine on Sunday.

3. All of the pageantry, none of the guilt.

2. You don’t have to know how to swim to get baptized.

1. No matter what you believe, there’s bound to be at least one other Episcopalian that agrees with you.

I’m going to set the question of whether t-shirts are an effective means of evangelism to one side (I think they can be helpful, but they shouldn’t be at the top of anyone’s list), and focus on whether this is really how we want to define ourselves as a church. Reasons 10, 9, 7, 3, and 2 all define the church in negative terms. Rather than saying what the Episcopal Church is, these reasons just define us in opposition to other Christians and they're smug to boot. Number 6 and number 5 don’t mean anything to outsiders. Number 3 and number 2 manage to demean what should be one of our top selling points, our sacramental life together. Number 2 further discredits immersion baptism, which is a perfectly valid and meaningful option. Number 1 simply reinforces the popular point that Episcopalians don’t really believe anything. Number 8 may be the only one worth saying in the
way it’s presented: it says something positive about our church and articulates a reason grounded in faith for it.

None of this is a judgment on Robin Williams’ comedy routine, by the way. I’ve never seen it; it may be very funny, though one certainly hopes there's more to it than these 10 lines. And there’s certainly no harm in making jokes about our church – that, too, is one of our selling points. But I emphatically do not think that these top 10 reasons should be adopted as any kind of official statement by the church, and the fact that these t-shirts were on sale at the national church’s booth at General Convention and are sold by a church affiliate certainly seems to indicate that they are.

I wouldn’t bother attacking this defenseless t-shirt if it were not broadly indicative of how we talk about ourselves as a church. We have a hard time saying who were are. Too often we define ourselves in the negative. It’s my bad habit, too. This is particularly perilous in a post-Christian culture. Trying to define ourselves this way implies that our evangelism strategy is to engage in a market share game, where we try to pick off converts from the Catholic church or our more fundamentalist brothers and sisters. Meanwhile the proportion of unchurched Americans is steadily rising, and we need to act as if we have something to offer those who do not yet believe. How do we tell our story?

To that end, the Bible study we undertook at the second evening gathering of the Acts 8 Moment (summarized here), is instructive. 30 or so people spent some time as a group reflecting on the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch from (you guessed it) the eighth chapter of Acts. Here it is:

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Get up and go towards the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ (This is a wilderness road.)²⁷ So he got up and went. Now there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸and was returning home; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.²⁹Then the Spirit said to Philip, ‘Go over to this chariot and join it.’³⁰So Philip ran up to it and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah. He asked, ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’³¹He replied, ‘How can I, unless someone guides me?’ And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him.³²Now the passage of the scripture that he was reading was this: 

‘Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter,
and like a lamb silent before its shearer,
so he does not open his mouth.
³³ In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.’ 

³⁴The eunuch asked Philip, ‘About whom, may I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?’³⁵Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.³⁶As they were going along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?’ He commanded the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.³⁹When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.⁴⁰But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he was passing through the region, he proclaimed the good news to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. 

We talked about all kinds of aspects of this story (there's a whole lot in here -- what about that wilderness road?), but I just want to focus on one of them as a starting point. Philip's conversation with the eunuch starts not with the miracles, nor the virgin birth, nor the resurrection, nor the threat of the outer darkness, nor a liberal commitment to social justice, but with the profound mystery of the sacrifice of Jesus. He goes straight to the heart of God's compassion for creation, and builds from there. The foundation of our faith is that God became one with us in the person of Jesus, sacrificed himself for all of us, and gives us hope in the resurrection.

This is kind of heavy stuff, and it's a little weird. I've noted before how I never really got the resurrection (until I did), so the next task is to connect this foundational understanding to our personal stories and our collective actions as a church. This is far from a sufficient solution, but it is a starting point. It involves saying something positive about the God who grounds us, not putting other believers down.

General Convention as Pilgrimage

Today I was back at work, and people remarked that I looked awfully poorly rested after a ten-day vacation. And I was. I worked long days...five hour morning shifts in the print shop followed by five hour evening shifts as a page in the House of Deputies. Then I came home and wrote this blog, or went to Acts 8 meetings, or went to July 4th barbeques, or who knows what else. I didn't sleep much.

So why on earth was I there? For me General Convention is a good example of a pilgrimage for a restless mind. A pilgrimage, as opposed to a mission, is an opportunity simply to renew one's faith. And while the usual picture of a pilgrimage is to the Holy Land or some cathedral or cave somewhere, the convention center did it for me. Each work session opened with prayer, and I occupied myself with simple tasks and attentiveness to the needs of others. I barely checked work e-mail, and was only distantly aware of the news. I spent a fair amount of time studying the Bible as I wrote this blog.

There were also lots of opportunities to connect with people in unusual ways. In the print shop in particular there were opportunities during downtime to share stories of faith and the communities we serve. I'm particularly grateful for the time I had to connect with other priests and laypeople within the Diocese of Indianapolis. While we have an annual diocesan convention, we wind up in busy, mostly meaningless legislative sessions and manufactured service projects with little time for personal connections. The ridiculous length of General Convention provides the breathing space for long conversations and relational development. As General Convention gets shorter, which it inevitably will, this is something I'll miss.

That said, in 2015, General Convention is getting longer. I kid you not. On the final day the House of Deputies concurred with the House of Bishops and bizarrely reinstated the 10-day long convention by passing A093. This is nuts. It may be subverted by the budget process. But for folks like me, who just want to get away from the world into an all-consuming parallel universe governed by parliamentary procedure and occasionally prayer, what's not to like?

Where to start with Tuesday's Session?

When I started writing this blog as General Convention got going, I was optimistic and hopeful, then quickly soured as I despaired at the prospects of accomplishing any significant change through the unwieldy structures of the General Convention. I got particularly discouraged over the weekend as the business of the House of Deputies screeched to a halt in a parliamentary morass of amendments to amendments, re-referrals to various committees, and general lack of understanding on the part of some of the deputies about what was going on.

Oh me of little faith.

Things started clicking on Monday. And yesterday the institutional church took a huge leap forward. I might as well start with the obvious - the vote to authorize a liturgy to bless same-sex unions. I've already written about this elsewhere. Debate started at 5:00 and ended at a little after 5:30, after which opponents engaged in elaborate parliamentary maneuvering to try to maximize the chances of a vote that would force sending the measure back to the House of Bishops. Supporters fought back with equally wily deployment of the rules of order. It was like the dweebiest action movie ever. After 45 minutes of this, the vote was finally taken, and it passed overwhelmingly. Yes, I saw this coming from a mile away. Yes, I still fought back tears.

Ok, let's back up a little. The session started with a joint presentation of the budget to the bishops and the deputies. This was far better than I expected. As with any budget, everyone can find something to hate, but the budget takes steps to focus on growth and mission through creative block grants. I was also very pleased that the Presiding Bishop's proposal to divert $700,000 of funding from Episcopal Relief & Development was undone. There's a lot that needs to change in the national church. Episcopal Relief and Development isn't one of them. As usual, Tom Ferguson's analysis is superior to anything I can provide. This budget has not yet been passed, but it will be moving through the houses today and tomorrow.

The Rev. Susan Brown Snook was elected to the Executive Council. Woohoo! Susan is one of the minds behind the Acts 8 Moment, and is an innovative thinker about the future of the church.

The structure resolution unanimously passed without amendment. In general you can ignore unanimous votes at General Convention because it means we haven't committed ourselves to do anything meaningful. Example 1: Sunday we passed a resolution to "stand as one" with Haiti. Who's going to vote against that? But it obligates us to do what exactly? Example 2: Also Sunday, we passed a resolution commending the work of missionaries. This is barely better than the courtesy resolutions thanking convention staff and volunteers. Really, why bother? At least the deputies voted down establishing a lay ministry month, because...seriously.

The structure resolution is a whole other thing. It commits the whole church to change how it envisions itself and operates. It's going to require a huge amount of work not only from the task force it establishes, but they're not going to get anywhere without input fm the rest of us, especially where things are working. And remember that if we're going to change as a church, most of that change is actually going to be happening at the parish level. Don't get too comfortable.

So I'm feeling pretty good today, as we go into the penultimate legislative day. We've still got big stuff ahead of us - mainly the budget and the denominational health plan, but I'm going in feeling better than I have in days. Thanks be to God.