Bishop Brookhart's 2016 Convention Address
CONVENTION ADDRESS, OCT. 10, 2016
I hope you know by now that the vision statement for our diocese states that we are a community transformed and transforming by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. At the center of our life in Christ is the resurrection. St Paul says, “If Christ hasn’t been raised from the dead, then our preaching is useless and your faith is useless.” (I Cor 15:14) This act of God certainly stands at the center of the human story, and it certainly changes everything about the way we act and think. The resurrection is the ultimate fact of life.
The resurrection stands as God’s decisive way to transform all of creation so that it serves God’s mission. Without the resurrection death and decay reign, and all that we could say is that life is hard and then you die. But Jesus’ being raised bends everything toward God’s goal of reconciling and blessing all of creation with divine life and love. Resurrection summarizes the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So here we are, people who claim the resurrection as our own and who propose to live by its power. In fact, resurrection has already claimed us in baptism, when God joined us to Jesus’ death and resurrection. As one of those people baptized as an infant, I stand in wonder that God has done that for me long before I could comprehend or accept it; it was for me a pure and simple act of grace, of God reaching out and making me part of the life of my Lord.
If this gospel is true---and it is---then this means change, transformation, conversion have to be understood as a necessary and inevitable part of our lives as church. Maybe you have seen that cartoon, in which a search committee is discussing what they seek in a new priest. “The new rector should be energetic, visionary, and committed so that he or she can lead us to change nothing at all.”
I point this out because we in this country are going through a monumental change as the church. The time when everyone went to church, when the church was seen as a respected and important part of any town, when all we had to do was open the doors for worship on Sunday in order to thrive, those days are gone. Some of us still remember them, but we all need to say good-bye to that image of who we are. A corollary, then, must be that we need to be resurrectional people, people capable of transformation and conversion as we seek to be the church in this new time. Trust in the presence of the Risen One assures us that we can go through the process of transformation and come out better as the result.
In the midst of this, we cannot ever forget that this is all about Jesus. He is the one who reveals to us the very heart of God and who puts us in touch with God. He is the source of abundant life, he is our purpose and our hope, he binds our broken lives together, and without him we live in vain. It is all about Jesus!
We all tend to lose that focus. We think worship is about making us feel good, or that the message of the church is about success. We sometimes get caught in the idea that we ought to have worship that sells the church or appeals to people’s need to escape and be entertained. Sunday school is not about helping kids feel good about themselves. We should not believe that there is out there some magic program out there that will do the job, or that if we had a better rector and bishop all would be well. We are about Jesus. The point is to be encountered by resurrection and to be shaped to serve Jesus in a world that calls out for life and hope.
I daily pray for all of you---one of a bishop’s basic duties is to pray for the people of the diocese---my overarching petition is that we will be a resurrectional church. From that flow some implications for my prayer. One is that we all will have a deep and comprehensive love for Jesus. Now I certainly do not mean that we should all go around with warm, fuzzy feelings about our Lord. There are simply times when we could not, no matter how hard we try, to feel warm and fuzzy about anything. What I do mean by “love” is that we are committed to Jesus, and that we seek to commit more and more of our lives to him. Everything about what Jesus does in the resurrection calls forth from us this love and commitment. Sister Barbara Jean once told me that she wears a wedding ring as a sign that she is married to Jesus. It’s a startling and perhaps slightly disconcerting image, but it certainly states what needs to happen to us. Jesus’s cross demonstrates his total commitment to us and it asks for our total commitment to him.
I also pray that we will become more grateful and generous people. The older I get the more convinced I become that the beginning of any spiritual commitment is gratitude. Americans are not prone to this virtue, because we get caught up in what we perceive to our rights and privileges. But the truth I see is that it is all gift. It is all grace. And all I can do is praise God and thank God. One of the psalms says that the earth is full of the love of God, and that rings true to me. What about you?
As always Jesus serves to focus this for us. He came among us to heal, to teach, to feed, to grant liberty and forgiveness. In his cross we sense that God has dived deep into the human condition, and that on Easter God conquered all that separates us from God. All this shows us a God of grace, gift, and generosity. How can we not be profoundly grateful?
And that leads to generosity. Years ago I read a comment by a famous Presbyterian pastor to the effect that he had never know a committed Christian who was not generous. I have found that to be true for myself. To step into the realm of the resurrection is to be caught up in the generosity of God and to be transformed toward being generous ourselves. So it is that I wonder when I hear people trying to figure out how to give less to the church, how to cut something out of the budget, or becoming enraged when anyone talks about tithing, let alone generous giving. That attitude just does not add up in my mind. I have a friend who tells me that part of my job is to hold up the diocesan budget and ask, “Do you think this is all that Jesus wants.” How would you answer that question?
We are in the midst of a capital campaign to benefit our beloved Camp Marshall. I see this as a resurrectional moment, a resurrectional opportunity. Many of us love Camp Marshall and the ministry that goes on there exactly because it is a resurrectional place for so many people, especially for our youth. The campaign offers us a way to be transformed, both to share and to care more, to consider what a gracious blessing camping ministry has been in this diocese, to step up, to be extravagantly generous. I think we are on the cusp of becoming more resurrectional in our life together in and through this campaign.
But none of this is suggest that we are not resurrectional people or are not becoming more so. Let me offer a few instances of the presence of our Lord active in, among and through us. First, as you know I visit all our churches about every fourteen months. I almost always walk away with a sense that our vestries and rectors work hard at being the church and at becoming more active and holy congregations. I am now warmly welcomed in all our churches, and the general “vibe” I receive is that our worship and coffee hours are experienced as uplifting, warm and helpful.
I can report that nearly every one of our churches is involved in at least one significant outreach ministry, and many are involved in multiple projects. As time passes I sense that most of these grow in their impact in their respective towns. We can all be very proud of that.
The capital campaign was, you remember, preceded by an extensive discernment stage. Everyone on parish membership lists had a chance to comment via a survey, and there were a number of group meetings, too. What was clear is that there is considerable support for Camp Marshall and its ministry. Many sense, rightly I think, that it is one of jewels of the diocese. The feasibility study showed that we could and should proceed with a capital campaign, and that recommendations was eagerly accepted by both the Standing Committee and the Diocesan Council. Furthermore, many of you have stepped forward to volunteer your time and talents for this; in fact, dozens of you have done so.
During summer camp itself we are seeing record attendance, more than we can handle in some cases. Canon Blessing reports that her staff was great this past summer; that was certainly my observation---serious, caring, camper-centered people. We are also noticing an increase in the number of unchurches campers and in the number of native campers; both of those are significant developments. And Grace Camp continues to garner more and more support.
And that leads us to the blessing of the work and the presence of Bishop Gallagher. She has become like yeast in the loaf, and I am seeing more and more signs that we are on our way to having a significant effect of the lives of native people, both in service to them and even more in raising up good native leaders for the years to come.
What can I say about my staff? You know them, too, and you know they are the best in the business. It is a blessing for me to work with them.
As I have said before, our clergy are, I believe, the best in The Episcopal Church. What a grand and crazy bunch they are! Each and all have significant gifts which they offer to this diocese and to their congregations. It is for me a sign of the resurrection that we can attract, train and retain such good people.
We in the church are not in the numbers game. But sometimes numbers help us figure out where we stand and where we need to go. So let me share some statistics from the last reports we have, those from 2015, and I will compare them with the previous year’s report. So here we go.
Active membership, 4,478, up 18 from the previous year. I know that seems slight in some ways, but remember we have churches smaller than that.
Average Sunday attendance, 1,497, up 41.
Sunday Eucharists, 1,897, up 30.
Baptisms, 58, up 13.
But I have saved the best till last. Communicants in good standing, 3,834, up 342. And finally, total revenue, $4,595,409, up $93,003.
We are the resurrectional people of Montana. We see many signs that we are living more and more into the resurrection. We see also many challenges, or, shall we say, opportunities, presented by our Lord so that we can more fully his people. Jesus is always among us and in us, calling us to new life.
In 1853 the English painter William Holman Hunt completed a large scale work he entitled “The Light of the World.” It is a brilliant and moving work, and you can see it in St.Paul’s Cathedral in London. It shows the Risen Christ standing before a closed door. He is still wearing the crown of thorns and is holding a lighted lantern. With his other hand he is tapping on the door. As he does so, Jesus looks directly at you, the person viewing the painting.
That’s the way he still is today. Do you hear the tapping?
+CFB