The Living Church

Prayer Is a Gift

Sat, 16 Jan 2021 08:00:14 GMT

By Elizabeth Baumann

A Reading from Ephesians 3:14-21

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. 16I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Meditation

The lesson we have today is one of the best prayers in the entire Bible, rivaled only, in my opinion, by the Lord’s Prayer itself. So here’s a thing about prayer: I teach my little girls that prayer is just talking to God, or even just being with him. That’s a good beginning. Prayer, after all, grows out of a habit, primarily the habit, not of some particular exercise or time (though it almost always has those features), but simply of remembering that we are in God’s presence and that because of that, he can hear us. But I’ve come to think of prayer primarily, not as a habit or a discipline, but as a gift.

Elsewhere in his writing, Paul describes Jesus himself as interceding for us, and the Holy Spirit translating our inadequate prayers to God. We don’t even pray on our own! Everything we do, everything we bring to God, he must give us first.

Thus I find most advice about prayer troublesome. Pray first thing in the day, pray this or that particular prayer, make time for prayer by showing up early, etc. All wonderful ideas and advice — if they’re the gifts you’re given. If they’re not, if it doesn’t work for you for whatever reason, you’re likely to become frustrated or discouraged. Prayer will happen effortlessly if instead of trying to use other people’s gifts, you simply remember you are always in God’s presence, and look for your own gifts — even better, ask for them! Wonderful things happen when you ask God for gifts of prayer. You may even discover that you had the gift you wanted most all along, and just didn’t know what it was.

♱

Elizabeth Baumann is a seminary graduate, a priest’s wife, and the mother of two small daughters. A transplant from the West Coast, she now lives in “the middle of nowhere” in the Midwest with too many cats.

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♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Ahoada (Nigeria)
Society of Mary, American Region, Providence, R.I.

Anglican Church of Kenya Names First Female Bishop

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 18:20:35 GMT

By Jesse Masai

The Rev. Canon Dr. Emily A. Onyango has been announced as the first female bishop for the Anglican Church of Kenya. The Anglican Diocese of Bondo unanimously endorsed the appointment at a January 12 synod.

The Rev. Emily Onyango

She will become the first assistant bishop of Bondo, a post created by the diocese. She is expected to assist the Bishop Rt. Rev. Professor David H. Kodia in training of clergy, in addition to programming for women’s ministry and gender issues, including initiatives focused on ending gender-based violence and encouraging child empowerment.

Onyango’s appointment will chip away at decades of male leadership of the church and comes 38 years after the first women became priests in the ACK. Following the 1978 Lambeth Conference, which stated that ordination of women need not be a communion dividing issue, the Anglican Church of Kenya permitted women to join the episcopate in 1980.

Dr. Onyango has been in ministry for over many decades, starting with children’s ministry in the then Diocese of Maseno South. She was made a deacon on July 29, 1984 and priested in December 1986 by the late Rt. Rev. Dr. Henry Okullu, who had also ordained the Rev. Lucia Okuthe, the church’s first woman priest, in 1983.

In 2012, the Rev. Dr. Lydia Mwaniki, currently the director of gender and women at the All Africa Conference of Churches,, unsuccessfully sought to be elected Bishop of Kirinyaga Diocese. Then, in 2014, current Provincial Secretary of the Anglican Church of Kenya, the Rev. Canon Dr. Rosemary Mbogo failed in her attempt to be elected Bishop of Embu Diocese. In October of the same year, however, the ACK’s House of Bishops declared a five-year moratorium on the possibility of appointing and consecrating women as bishops in the East African nation.

Onyango, currently a lecturer in Kenya’s St Paul’s University’s department of Theology and Development studies, has been a canon in Bondo Diocese since February 2018. She chairs The Africa Centre for Biblical Equity and is a founder-member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians.

Speaking in Bondo, 431 kilometres from the Kenyan capital Nairobi, the assistant bishop said it was a historic moment for her and the church. “I see a vibrant Church with two pillars. First, spiritual nurture and revival, grounded on empowerment through continuous training of clergy and laity. Secondly, a well-managed Church, through proper administration and management.”

She added: “I am thankful to be asked to participate in a well-structured pastoral ministry focusing on marriage, family and gender issues, including empowerment of widows. I particularly expect us to offer hope for those shackled by gender-based violence.”

Mwaniki, congratulated Dr. Onyango and said: “The Diocese of Bondo has just chosen to implement Article IV of the ACK Constitution in recognition and acknowledgement that male and female are created in the image of God (Gen 1:27). Leadership qualities are bestowed by God upon female and male as God desires, but unfortunately for a long time, ACK has regarded top Church leadership positions in the ordained Ministry as a male preserve. Thanks to Bishop Kodia for leading the way. We hope and pray that others will follow.”

Dr. Mbogo added: “Leadership is intergenerational. We are called to work together. There is space for each one of us to serve. I ask my other sisters not to shy off from ministry. There may be barriers and difficulties, some of which may not be overcome in this generation. But we shall overcome.”

Prof. Esther Mombo from St. Paul’s University’s Center for Christian-Muslim Relations in Eastleigh, noted that the development opens the door for other women to be nominated and elected. “The ACK has approved women bishops. Nyanza region and, more so, the Diocese of Bondo leads in the move to open space for women at the apex of leadership.”

Among those welcoming the news were Dr. Onyango’s former students, the Rev. Rebecca Bartocho of the Reformed Church of East Africa’s Kitengela Parish, and the Rev. Nolavy Arisoa of the Anglican Church of Madagascar’s Diocese of Toliara.

“The Church in Kenya is embracing change and having faith in women leadership. My own RCEA should not be left behind in embracing more of this,” said Bartocho.

Arisoa added: “I praise God for her elevation! We are still struggling with ordaining women in Madagascar. I am, since 2019, the first female priest in all of Madagascar. Pray for us!”

The Rev. Canon Francis Omondi, who serves at All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi, acknowledged that that the ACK is entering into a new phase of existence, but said it may be too early to assess Dr. Onyango’s impact.

“An assistant bishop has little influence to shape direction. Had she been tipped for diocesan bishop, that would have allowed room for some evaluation. Members of the Diocese of Bondo’s Standing Committee had initially been clear that the diocese has neither the capacity nor need for [an assistant bishop]. They said only the Synod could declare a NO,” he observed.

Dr. Onyango, who will be consecrated early March upon approval by the House of Bishops, obtained her doctorate in philosophy from the University of Wales in the United Kingdom. She earned her master’s degree from the Asian Centre of Theological studies and a bachelor of divinity degree from St. Paul’s United Theological College, the forerunner of modern-day St. Paul’s University. She further holds a certificate in ecumenism from the Ecumenical Institute of Graduate Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.

The soft-spoken but firm priest has published extensively and taught on women, missions and Church history.

Her husband, Mr. Apollo Onyango, is a retired high school teacher. According to Mr. Onyango, her social interests include reading and documenting new ideas. Their two children, Margret Nyakeno Yegon and Patrick Ngoye Onyango, are adults. They are parents in-law to Edmond Kirui Yegon and grandparents to Taita Kipchumba Yegon.

Africa’s first female Anglican bishop, the Rt. Rev. Ellinah Wamukoya, is also from Kenya. She was elected as the fifth Bishop of the Diocese of Swaziland on July 18, 2012.

Jesse Masai is a freelance journalist based in Limuru, Kenya.

Unveiling God’s Grace

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 14:45:41 GMT

Review by James Stambaugh

Reviewing a daily devotional is different from reviewing other genres. Devotionals are designed to be read in small doses throughout the course of a long period of time, usually a few months or a year. Even the most long-suffering editor would balk at a book review taking a year to write. So, the reviewer must cram an entire year’s worth of short meditations into a couple of weeks. This, of course, goes against the design and intention of the book.

Daily Grace: The Mockingbird Devotional, Volume 2
Various authors
Mockingbird Ministries, pp. 434, $30

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TLC earns from qualifying purchases.

Nevertheless, with Daily Grace: The Mockingbird Devotional, Volume 2, the compression of a year’s worth of material into a short time drove home one controlling truth: each entry has the same laser focus and singular purpose. This volume contains contributions from 63 authors who write from a variety of backgrounds and Christian denominations. The framing material is varied, including personal experiences, unvarnished scriptural exhortation, and myriad pop-culture references (imagine if the classic devotional My Utmost for his Highest constantly referred to the likes of Seinfeld and the hip-hop artist Ice Cube).

Each roughly one-page, daily meditation is unique and self-contained. Yet. each is remarkably the same. The editors were keenly aware of this. The introduction makes no apology for it. “We believe the gospel often goes in one ear and out the other, and that we need to be reminded of it constantly. Which is why our organization is, after all, called Mockingbird. We sing the same gospel song repeatedly…” (page 3). Each entry of this devotional sings about God’s grace abounding to sinners. It is aptly named Daily Grace. It relentlessly points the reader to a hope that is not found by trying harder to be a better person but only in the inexhaustible mercy of God. As one contributor writes, “Holiness is always a divine gift, not a human achievement” (page 160).

The entries are vaguely arranged according to the Christian year, but liturgical connections are not emphasized. Each entry begins with a Scripture passage (152 from the Old Testament and 213 from the New). The choices are eclectic. You will find stalwarts of devotional literature alongside more obscure stories from the historical books of the Hebrew Scriptures. You will find straightforward exposition of Pauline texts traditionally favored by reformed and evangelical Christians, as well as spiritual and moral exegesis from texts out of Exodus, Judges, Jonah, and Haggai. Even in the most obscure passages, God’s grace is unveiled and offered to weary hearts.

Three indexes move this book from the well-done category to the excellent. Daily Grace illustrates that almost any book is improved by a thorough index, including devotionals. A thematic index will aid the reader in finding meditations on particular themes. An author index will help the reader find more from their favorites (mine were Sarah Condon, Chad Bird, and Ben Maddison). A Scripture index makes this daily devotional a useful resource for preaching and teaching. You wouldn’t think a Mockingbird would make a good, daily spiritual companion, but this one does.

The Rev. James Stambaugh is rector of Holy Apostles, Wynnewood, Pa.

Bold and Sleepy

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 08:00:13 GMT

By Elizabeth Baumann

A Reading from Ephesians 3:1-13

1 This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles — 2for surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, 4a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. 5In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: 6that is, the Gentiles have become fellow-heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

7 Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power. 8Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, 9and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; 10so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him. 13I pray therefore that you may not lose heart over my sufferings for you; they are your glory.

Meditation

I can’t help laughing as I read the verse today in which Paul describes himself as “the least of the saints.” What, exactly, can the rest of us hope for in that case?

Thankfully it’s balanced against the reminder that in Christ we have an access to God that is not piddling or meager, but generous and exultant. We are to come boldly and with confidence before God. He already knows the worst; he already knows everything we need or think we need. And this is the God of resurrection — he takes Saul and makes Paul (least of the saints, my foot). In exchange for our merely coming to him, and being honest about ourselves, and thus letting go of our selves, he longs to make us also into saints. He doesn’t require anything more, he destines us for nothing less.

Recently I learned that, toward the end of her life, St. Thérèse of Lisieux usually fell asleep whenever she tried to pray. She came to God, and she couldn’t stay awake. But she didn’t worry, because, she said, parents don’t cease to love their children when they sleep (sometimes we even love them best when they’re asleep!). A surgeon deliberately puts his patient to sleep so that he might perform the needed operation. How much more so can God continue to transform us by his love while we sleep? All that mattered to her, all that matters to God, is that we remember we have all the confidence of Christ himself, and show up.

♱

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♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Aguata (Nigeria)
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Austin, Texas

People & Places January 14, 2021

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 15:49:13 GMT

Appointments

The Rev. Edmund Alleyne is rector of Advent, Westbury, N.Y.

The Rev. Robert Anderson is rector of Holy Child, Ormond Beach, Fla.

The Rev. Canon Joan Anthony is interim rector of St. Augustine in the Woods, Freeland, Wash.

The Rev. Canon Lloyd Anthony is interim rector of St. David’s, Cambria Heights, N.Y.

The Rev. Dr. Brian Baker is rector of Christ Church, Elizabethtown, Ky.

The Rev. Will Bergmann is rector of St. Mark’s, Leominster, Mass.

The Rev. Thomas Blake is rector of St. Catherine of Sienna, Reno, Nev.

The Rev. John Borrego is interim rector of St. John’s, Norman, Okla.

The Rev. Jasmine “Jazzy” Bostock is vicar of St. John the Baptist, Ma’ili, Hawaii.

The Rev. Justin Boyd is assistant rector of Christ Church, Tulsa, Okla.

The Rev. Dr. Ernest Boyer is rector of St. Stephen’s, Gilroy, Calif.

The Rev. Brooks Boylan is assistant rector of St. Peter’s, Arlington, Va.

The Rev. Bill Bradbury is bridge priest of St. Andrew’s, Methuen, Mass.

The Rev. Dr. Larry Bradford is regional missioner for the Southwest Region of the Diocese of Colorado.

The Rev. Lecia Brannon is rector of St. Mary’s, Cypress, Texas.

The Rev. Paul Briggs is interim rector of St. James, Langhorne, Pa.

The Rev. Steven Brill is interim priest of St. David of Wales, Shelton, Wash.

The Ven. Laurie Brock is Archdeacon of the Bluegrass in the Diocese of Lexington.

The Rev. Canon Walter Brownridge is canon to the ordinary for cultural transformation of the Diocese of Vermont.

The Rev. William L. Bulson is rector of Grace, Sheboygan, Wisc.

The Rev. Darryl Burke is priest in charge of Trinity, Portland, Conn.

The Rev. Larry Bussey and the Rev. William Heisley are co-priests of St. Luke & St. James, Minneapolis, Minn.

The Rev. Dr. Matthew Cadwell is vicar of Christ Church (Old North), Boston.

The Rev. Dn. Tina Campbell is indigenous missioner of the Diocese of Northern California.

The Rev. Chris Capaldo is rector of St. Chrysostom’s, Quincy, Mass.

The Rev. David Carlisle is missioner of the Diocese of Northern Michigan

The Rev. Brent Carey is interim rector of St. Michael’s, Norman, Okla.

The Rev. Donald Caron is interim rector of St. David’s, Cranbury, N.J.

The Rev. William Carroll is rector of Trinity, Longview, Texas.

The Rev. Hugh Chapman is rector of St. Michael and All Angels, Tallahassee, Fla.

The Rev. John Christopher is interim priest of Good Shepherd of the Hills, Cave Creek, Ariz.

The Rev. Paul Christopherson is priest in charge of St. John’s, Salisbury, Conn.

The Rev. Dn. Lawrence Civali is deacon in charge of St. Paul’s, Chester, Pa.

The Rev. Dn. David Clothier is deacon of St. John’s, Pensacola, Fla

The Rev. Daphne Cody is rector of St. Lawrence, Libertyville, Ill.

The Rev. Christopher A. Cole is rector of St. Andrew’s, Pittsburgh, Pa.

The Rev. Lea Colvill is rector of St. Luke’s, Idaho Falls, Idaho.

The Rev. Sylvia Czametsky is supply priest of Advent, Sumner, Miss.

The Rev. Don Davidson is interim rector of Holy Trinity, Wyoming, Mich.

The Rev. Lee Davis is rector of St. Mary Magdalene, Coral Springs, Fla.

The Rev. David Dearman is interim rector of Grace, Galveston, Texas.

The Rev. John Deason is pastor of Holy Apostles and St. Stephen’s, Arbutus, Md.

The Rev. David DeSmith is bridge priest of St. Stephen’s, Pittsfield, Mass.

The Rev. Charlie Deaton is rector of St. George’s Clarksdale, Miss.

The Rev. Gary D’Hommidieu is priest in charge of St. Matthew’s, Orlando.

The Rev. Amy Dills-Moore is priest in charge of Epiphany, Atlanta.

The Rev. Katherine Doar is priest in charge of St. Philip the Apostle, Scotts Valley, Calif.

The Rev. Dr. Gail Duba is interim rector of St. George’s, Roseburg, Ore.

The Rev. Steven Ellis is interim priest of St. Matthew’s, Eugene, Ore.

The Rev. Ted Estes is rector of St. Paul’s, Lees Summit, Mo.

The Rev. Darby Everhard is interim rector of St. Mary’s, High Point, N.C.

The Rev. Renee Fenner is priest in charge of All Saints & the Ascension, Saint Louis, Mo.

The Rev. Eric Fialho is rector of St. Gabriel’s, Marion, Massachusetts.

The Rev. Dr. Sally French is interim east regional canon of the Diocese of North Carolina.

The Rev. Ann Grady is priest in charge of St. Christopher’s, Grand Blanc, Mi.

The Rev. David Greer is locum tenens of Trinity, Marshall, Texas.

The Rev. Stacy Grossman is priest in charge of St. Francis of Assisi, Novato, Calif.

The Rev. Norma Guerra is associate for formation and transition ministry of the Diocese of Los Angeles.

The Rev. Jane Hague is interim rector of St. Anne’s, Damascus, Md.

The Rev. Dr. Lisa Hahneman is priest in charge of St. John’s, New Milford, Conn.

The Rev. James Hairston is bridge priest of Grace, Everett, Mass.

The Rev. Dr. Patti Hale, O.P. is priest in charge of Emmanuel, Coos Bay, Ore.

The Rev. Virginia Hall is interim rector of Trinity, Bloomington, Ind.

The Rev. Crystal Hardin is associate rector of St. George’s, Arlington, Va.

The Rev. John Heidel is priest in charge of St. Mary’s, Madisonville, Ky.

The Rev. A.J. Heine is rector of Trinity, Staunton, Va.

The Rev. Dr. Roy Hills is priest in charge of St. James-Santee, McClellanville, S.C.

The Rev. Canon Moki Hino is priest in charge of Good Shepherd, Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii.

The Rev. Kenneth Hitch is rector of St. Eustace, Lake Placid, N.Y.

The Rev. Holly Hoffmann is priest in charge of St. Saviour’s, Bar Harbor; Church of Our Father, Hulls Cove; and St. Andrew’s and St. John’s, Southwest Harbor, Maine.

The Rev. Steve Holt is rector of Guardian Angel, Baltimore.

The Rev. Stephen C. Holton is interim priest of Christ Church, Warwick, N.Y.

The Rev. Peter Homeyer is rector of Christ Church, Dayton, Ohio.

TThe Rev. Jeffrey Hupf is rector of St. Martin’s-by-the-Lake, Minnetonka Beach, Minn.

The Rev. Martha Hurlburt is vicar of St. Paul’s, Klamath Falls, Ore.

The Rev. Jeffrey Hurst is priest in charge of St. Michael’s, Independence, Mo.

The Rev. Canon Angela Ifill is interim rector of St. Mark’s, Plant City, Fla.

The Rev. Justin Ivatts is rector of Grace Church & St. Mary’s Memorial Church, Berryville, Va.

The Rev. David Jackson is rector of Emmanuel, La Grange, Ill.

The Rev. Canon Dn. Katherine Jacob is an honorary canon of the Diocese of Alabama.

The Rev. Alan James is interim rector of Grace, Grand Rapids, Mich.

The Rev. Shancia Jarrett is curate in Christ Church, Greenwich, Conn.

The Rev. Marilyn Jenkins is priest in charge of St. George’s, Washington, D.C.

The Rev. Dr. Vincent J. Kopp is rector of St. Stephen’s, Oxford, N.C.

The Rev. Stephanie Kopsch is interim rector of St. Timothy’s, Centennial, Colo.

The Rev. Martha Korinek is interim rector of St. Bede’s, Menlo Park, Calif.

The Rev. Robert Kossler is interim rector of Transfiguration, San Mateo, Calif.

The Rev. Darlene Kuhn is rector of Mediator, Harbert, Mich.

The Rev. Charlotte LaForest is rector of St. Andrew’s, Longmeadow, Mass.

The Rev. Lauren R.E. Larkin is priest in charge of Nativity, Grand Junction, Colo.

The Rev. Kimberlee Law is vicar of St. Barnabas, Glenwood Springs, Colo.

The Rev. Dr. Robert Laws is rector of St. Martin’s, Bridgewater, N.J.

The Rev. Mary Jayne Ledgerwood is rector of Trinity, Mobile, Ala.

The Rev. Dr. Judith Lee is interim priest of Trinity, Milford, Mass.

The Rev. Andrew Cruz Lillegard is rector of St. Luke the Beloved Physician, Saranac Lake, N.Y.

The Rev. Bill Locke is bridge priest of Holy Spirit, Fall River, Mass.

The Rev. Canon David Lowry is interim rector of St. George’s, New Orleans, La.

The Rev. Ali and the Rev. George Lufkin are co-vicars of St. Alban’s, Tillamook and St. Catherine’s, Manzanita, Ore.

The Rev. William Lytle is rector of Christ Church, Gilbertsville, N.Y.

The Rev. Lisa Meirow is rector of St. Andrew’s, Jacksonville, Fla.

The Rev. Susanne Methven is chaplain of St. Simeon’s Senior Living Community, Tulsa, Okla.

The Rev. Rick Meyers is interim priest of St. Brigit’s, Frederick, Colo.

The Rev. Frederic Miller is interim rector of St. Jude’s, Wantagh, N.Y.

The Rev. Audrey Miskelley is interim vicar of St. John’s, Clayton, Calif.

The Rev. James Morgan is interim priest of Trinity, Huntington, W.V.

The Rev. Ralph Morgan is locum tenens of Calvary, Richmond, Texas.

The Rev. Kelly Moughty is priest in charge of Holy Cross, Dunn Loring, Va.

The Rev. Jeremiah Mustered is interim deacon in charge of St. Paul’s, Oaks, Pa.

The Rev. Charles Myers is rector of St. John the Baptist, Orlando.

The Rev. Nik Myers is rector of Epiphany, Winchester, Mass.

The Rev. Sarah Nelson is resource priest of St. Barnabas, Wilmington, Del.

The Rev. Frederick Nestrock is priest in charge of St. Katherine’s, Williamston, Mich.

The Rev. Canon Dr. Adeboyaga Okunsanya is priest in charge of St. Teresa’s, Acworth, Ga.

The Rev. Paul Olsson is rector of St. Paul’s, Middlebury, Vt.

The Rev. Bob Ott is priest in charge of St. Luke’s, Marianna, Fla.

Mr. Bal Patterson is regional missioner for the Front Range region of the Diocese of Colorado.

The Rev. Beverly Patterson is rector of Christ Church, Gordonsville and Emmanuel, Rapidan, Va.

The Rev. Dn. Wendy Pearson is parish deacon of Trinity, Marshall, Mich.

The Rev. Chuck Peek is interim rector of St. Mark’s on the Campus, Lincoln, Neb.

The Rev. James Perra is rector of Grace, Traverse City, Mich.

The Rev. Stephen Pessah is rector of Christ Church, Monticello, Fla.

The Rev. Nick Phares is rector of St. Luke’s, Bartlesville, Okla.

The Rev. Dr. Nina Pooley is rector of St. Stephen’s, Pittsfield, Mass.

The Rev. James and the Rev. Jo Popham are priests in charge of St. Andrew’s, Destin, Fla.

The Rev. Dr. Chip Prehn is a partner with Dudley & Prehn Educational Consultants and vicar of St. Mark’s, Coleman, Texas, and a member of the board of directors of the Living Church Foundation.

The Rev. Michael Ryan is rector of St. John’s, Kirkland, Wash.

The Rev. Robert Saik is rector of Transfiguration, Mesa, Ariz.

The Rev. Canon Dr. Marda Steedman Sanborn is interim priest of St. Margaret’s, Bellevue, Wash.

The Rev. Ramona Scarpace is priest in charge of St. Mary’s, Saint Paul, Minn.

The Rev. Lauren Schoeck is interim rector of St. Luke’s, Idaho Falls, Idaho.

The Rev. Regan Schutz is rector of Christ Church, Coronado, Calif.

The Rev. Douglas Scott is interim rector of St. John the Evangelist, Milwaukie, Ore.

The Rev. Tom Scott is extended supply priest of St. Giles, Northbrook, Ill.

The Rev. John Seib is rector of St. Mark’s, North Tonawanda, N.Y.

The Rev. Kevin Thew Forrester is priest in charge of St. Stephen’s, Portland, Ore.

The Rev. Rise Thew Forrester is chaplain of Mount Hood Legacy Hospital, Gresham, Ore.

The Rev. Kathryn Thomas is interim rector of St. Paul’s, Columbus, Ind.

The Rev. Jerry Thompson is priest in charge of St. James, Fremont, Neb.

The Rev. Dr. Chrysanne Timm is rector of St. Christopher’s, Northport, Mich.

The Rev. John Tober is rector of St. James, Las Cruces, N.M.

The Rev. Charles Todd is interim rector of Trinity, Statesboro, Ga.

The Rev. Andrew Van Buren is priest in charge of St. Gabriel’s, Douglassville, Pa.

The Rev. Abby Vanderbrug is director of children and family ministries at Christ Church, Greenwich, Conn.

The Rev. Dwayne Varas is rector of St. Elizabeth’s, Richmond Hill, Ga.

The Very Rev. Jesse Vaughan is interim dean of St. Michael’s Cathedral, Boise, Idaho.

The Rev. Nancy Woodworth-Hill is rector of Lawrencefield Parish, Wheeling, W.V.

The Rev. Catherine Wright is rector of St. Matthew’s, Austin, Texas

The Very Rev. Paula Vukmanic is rector of St. Francis, Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.

The Rev. Canon Raja Zanaba is priest in charge of St. Paul’s, Jacksonville, Fla.

Ordinations

Diaconate

Albany: Louis Enrico Midura

Atlanta: David Emory Boyd III, Derek Michael Larson, Edgar Otero-Ruiz, Rhett Berard Solomon, Adelyn Elizabeth Tyler

California (for Maryland): Peter Vazquez-Schmitt

Central Pennsylvania: Allison Jan Carnahan

Chicago: Michael Choquette, Timothy Murray, Christopher Phillips, Anne Smith, Max Smith

Easton: Stephanie B. Clayville (parish deacon, St. Mary the Virgin, Pocomoke City, Md.).

Fond du Lac: Julia Roane Hendrix, David Brent Manley, Jerome Peter Molitor

Fort Worth: Ted Hamby Clarkson, Jr.

Indianapolis: Rebekah Sims

Iowa: Susan Lynn Forshey

Long Island: John Marsden Hunt

Louisiana: Lindsey R. Ardrey, R. Lynn Hooks, Allison C. Reid

Maryland: Kathryn Elizabeth Beaver, Margaret S. Brack, Thomas Clement, Derek Harris Miller

Michigan: Melissa Congleton, Christine Fentress-Gannon, Timothy Flynn, Patty Fraley, Ronda Johnson, Cleda Smartt, Marion Andrea Peglar VanLoo

Northern Indiana: Katherine Sue Townley

Northwestern Pennsylvania: John Wise (parish deacon, St. Clement’s, Greenville, Pa.).

Rio Grande: Nancy Antrim, Katie Hudak, Cindy Lose.

San Joaquin: Catherine Mary Kline, Theresa Dianne March

Southwest Florida: Marcella Robinson

Vermont: Jonathan Ross

Washington: Catherine Ann Ballinger, Antonio Jermaine Baxter, Ethan John Bishop-Henchman, Michael Sheldon Cahall, Hope Alice Jee Christensen, Adrienne Joann Clamp, Robert Douglas Kirby, Sally Ann Lermond, Linda Lorraine Mahler, Ebele Patience Okonkwo Onuigbo, Mary Norvell Sebold, Sara Marie Thorne

West Missouri: Lynda Ann Hurt, Isaac Ross Petty

Western Louisiana: Keith Dorwick, Robert Harkness, Rita Jefferson, and Paul White

Western North Carolina: Cheryl Antoinette Belhu

Priesthood

Alabama: Drew Brislin (associate rector, Ascension, Montgomery); Emily Collette (curate, Holy Apostles, Hoover, Ala.); Kelley Hudlow (priest in charge, Birmingham Episcopal Campus Ministries); Rose Veal Eby (outreach missioner, Nativity, Huntsville and priest in charge, St. Timothy’s, Athens, Ala.).

Alabama (for Georgia): Ranie Neislar (curate, St. Thomas, Huntsville, Ala.).

Albany: Jennifer Hull Dorsey (priest in charge, Christ Church, Greenville and Trinity, Rensselaerville, N.Y.), Meaghan Keegan (rector, St. Paul’s, Greenwich, N.Y.)

Arkansas: Laurie Bridewell (priest in charge, Emmanuel, Lake Village, Ark.), Teresa Cantrell (parish priest, St. John’s, Helena, Ark.), Brandon Hudson (curate, St. Thomas,’ Springdale, Ark.), and Katherine Wren (St. Stephen’s, Blytheville & Calvary, Osceola, Ark.).

Central Florida: Joseph Dewey (assistant rector, Incarnation, Dallas, Texas), Jennifer Grady (director of children’s ministry, St. Francis in the Fields, Harrods Creek, Ky.), Elizabeth Hall (associate rector, St. George’s, The Villages, Fla.), Daniel Pinnell (associate rector, Grace, Ocala, Fla.).

Chicago: Catherine Anthony (associate priest, St. Stephen’s, Richmond, Va.), Timothy Murray, Christopher Phillips

Connecticut (for New Jersey): Douglas Worthington (rector, St. Andrew’s, Kent, Conn.)

East Carolina: Melody Mae Perdue (associate rector, Eastern Shore Chapel, Virginia Beach, Va.)

East Tennessee (for Colorado): Michelle Lynn Moore Simmons (associate, Good Shepherd, Lookout Mountain, Tenn.).

Eastern Michigan: Paul Brunell (priest in charge, Christ Church, Owosso, Mich.), Wendy Brown (priest in charge, St. John’s, Charlotte, Mich.), Thomas Manney (St. Paul’s, Bad Axe and St. John’s, Dryden, Mich.), Harold Schneider (parish priest, St. John the Baptist, Otter Lake, Mich.)

El Camino Real: Susan Stanton

Retirements

The Rev. Barbara Abbott as interim lower school chaplain of Episcopal Academy, Newtown Square, Pa.

The Rev. Rebecca Brown as rector of Christ the King, Arvada, Colo.

The Rev. Canon Nancy Deming as interim rector of St. Peter’s, Phoenixville, Pa.

The Rev. Mark Diebel as rector of Christ Church, Greenville, N.Y.

The Rev. Sarabeth Goodwin as missioner for Latino ministries of the Diocese of Washington.

GTS and VTS Forge a Deeper Partnership

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 15:47:25 GMT

By Kirk Petersen

The Episcopal Church’s oldest seminary and its largest seminary are in talks that may lead to a formal partnership in which they share faculty and resources, the two schools announced.

General Theological Seminary and Virginia Theological Seminary both announced on January 13 that they had agreed to look for ways to expand the partnership they began in 2018 with the launch of TryTank, an “experimental laboratory” funded by both institutions, designed to develop new models of conducting church.

The Very Rev. Ian Markham

The schools emphasized that they have no plans to merge. The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, dean and president of Virginia Theological Seminary, told TLC “there’s no financial exigency driving this. In other words, this is an idea born not of desperation but of potential.”

The Very Rev. Kurt H. Dunkle, dean and president of General, said “we want to see how this model can extend to other project possibilities.”

In a letter to the VTS community, Markham said:

Both seminaries are strong. General has no debt, a solid endowment (with a responsible draw-rate), operating surpluses over the last three years, and over sixty students. The identities of both seminaries will continue; the assets – endowment and land – will be safeguarded. You can still make your gifts to one or the other seminary. This venture is not a takeover nor is it a merger; instead, this is an opportunity to work together closely; to provide additional programs; and to give the faculties and students access to both institutions.

General went through a financial crisis a decade ago, but currently has an endowment of $34 million and 50 students, according to the Association of Theological Schools. Dunkle told TLC that General went from an annual deficit of $3 million when he arrived in 2013 to a modest surplus over the last three years.

Virginia, on the other hand, is the largest and most affluent Episcopal seminary, with an endowment of $176 million and nearly 200 students. Markham said the endowment provides 80 percent of the seminary’s operating budget. VTS also receives occasional seven-figure donations from the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation, because Ms. Evans, a Coca-Cola executive and heir, supported the seminary during her life.

Dunkle acknowledge the financial disparity between the seminaries, and said “the only reason this is going to work is that we’re both stable organizations.” He likened it to a marriage, and noted that a human relationship can succeed even if one partner has more financial resources.

“None of this was propelled by cost savings,” he said, “but I certainly expect there will be cost savings, in the midterm and in the long run.”

TLC published an extended interview with Dunkle in November 2020, when the dean announced plans to step down at the end of the academic year. That decision is unrelated to the new partnership, Dunkle said, but “whenever you have any alteration, a change, in stable organizations, it creates opportunity.”

A master’s of divinity (M.Div.) is typically a three-year program. Markham said one possible outcome is a “two and one” program, where a seminarian at one school would spend a year, or perhaps a semester, at the other, thereby taking advantage of a broader curriculum than either school can offer alone.

The Very Rev. Kurt H. Dunkle

“You can get a degree from General, or you can get a degree from Virginia, but you can draw on the resources of the other for your educational and formation experience,” Markham said. He noted that this would give a seminarian experience in both a suburban and an urban environment, which could serve as preparation for a variety of ministry settings. Dunkle said this is one of the most exciting potential benefits of the partnership.

The two seminaries launched TryTank in 2018. The Rev. Lorenzo Lebrija, TryTank’s founder and sole employee, explained that the discernment process will start with a due-diligence period, in which each can review the legal and financial status of the other. The boards are scheduled to receive reports in February, and would then explore program and governance issues, in the hope of having some decisions to announce in November.

“What might we do programmatically, what can we do together that we can’t do right now by ourselves,” said Lebrija, who reports both to Dunkle and Markham. “If we have 30 faculty, rather than 10 and 20; if we have a larger budget, if we have more staff, if we’re in multiple locations, does that allow us to serve the Kingdom of God better?”

The Rev. Lorenzo Lebrija

TryTank has launched dozens of experiments in conjunction with churches in more than 25 states, and Lebrija cheerfully admits that some of them have succeeded and some have failed. A program called “Prayer Puppets,” conceived as a “Christian Sesame Street,” is expected to launch in late January, and Lebrija provided a link to a sample music video.

Early in the pandemic, Episcopal News Service reported on a TryTank experiment called “Dial a Priest,” designed to provide priests who could offer last rites by telephone to dying and quarantined COVID patients. Lebrija says that service has ended, but TryTank has used the relationships developed with priests to offer prayers by telephone in conjunction with special circumstances, such as before the presidential election.

Markham pointed to another service started via TryTank: if you say to an Alexa device, “Alexa, open Episcopal prayer,” Alexa will respond “the Lord be with you,” and then people from partner churches will launch into Morning Prayer.

Podcast: Is Football a Sin?

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 15:30:44 GMT

13 Bishops Urge Episcopalians to Avoid Protests

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 13:46:05 GMT

The People in Darkness

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 08:00:03 GMT

By Elizabeth Baumann

A Reading from Ephesians 2:11-22

11 So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision” — a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands — 12remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

14 For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. 15He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. 17So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, 20built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

Meditation

One of the few non-fiction books I come back to again and again is Forming Intentional Disciples, essentially a how-to for converting cultural Christians who are already sitting in the pews by helping them to understand what the gospel really is and what it demands. As I read this passage from Ephesians for today, I’m reminded of a long quote toward the end of the book in which a young woman who started attending a church as a totally uninitiated teenager reflects on the difference since she’s come to know Jesus and been baptized. She begins by speculating that life-long Christians simply don’t know the difference that Jesus makes, and if they only knew, would be much less afraid of evangelizing.

Paul does something similar here: he asks the Ephesians to remember what it was like when they were without God. Wandering in the world without hope, divided into Jews and Gentiles with no way to surmount the divisions between them. It seems impossible to read it without feeling that this is the very world we also live in now: people divided by their hurts and sins, seeing no way to break down the divisions, without hope and thus doomed to anger and fear.

We life-long Christians really don’t know. But perhaps we could ask — ask adult converts if you know any, or just ask the Holy Spirit to help us imagine. If we better understood the plight of those outside the peace that is the gospel, don’t you think compassion would compel us to find more ways to share it?

♱

To receive a TLC Daily Devotional in your inbox each morning, click here.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Agra (North India)
Trinity Church Wall Street, New York, N.Y.

Creative Ideas for a COVID-19 Ash Wednesday

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 18:28:45 GMT

By Neva Rae Fox
Correspondent

The beginning of Lent 2021 is mere weeks away, raising questions about how to approach Ash Wednesday during a pandemic.

What will the day look like? Will churches be open? Will there be the imposition of ashes? Will the imposition of ashes be safe? Will there be restrictions? Will the vaccine be available in time?

On-line services are planned, and creative suggestions about ashes have surfaced, many involving Ziploc bags, plastic containers, a long stick, and lots of gloves. Some ideas include leaving ashes for people in church; sending packets of ashes home; having packets available for congregants to pick up; and forgoing ashes completely.

“For years I have been advocating the idea of people signing themselves with ashes to indicate their willing commitment to enter into the disciplines of Lent, rather than having that ‘imposed,’” said the Rev. Don Caron, St. David’s, Cranbury, New Jersey. “We are considering making available little packets of ashes that can be distributed along with a prayer card with an appropriate statement of the intention for the season. I am also considering distributing a sticker in the form of an ash cross that can be put in a prominent place, such as a mirror or computer screen.”

“We won’t be doing Ashes to Go out in community this year,” said Senior Warden Karen Sanchez of Holy Cross, Carlsbad, California. “However, we will livestream our service and distribute ashes in Ziploc bags ahead of time to the congregation, for self and family imposition during the liturgy.”

The Minnesota winter cold will not stop St. Clement’s in St. Paul. “We will be having brief outdoor (freezing cold) services with cantors and Ashes to Go in small lip balm containers (pre-filled) for people to take and administer to themselves and those in their household,” the Rev. Joy Caires reported. “So, no one will be coming close enough for imposition of ashes by anyone not in their bubble.”

“I don’t see how Ashes to Go is not also a high-risk scenario,” said the Rev. Josh Hosler, Good Shepherd, Federal Way, Washington. “We’re working on a plan to distribute ashes in little Ziploc bags in the mail for the purpose of self- and family-imposition during our Zoom liturgy.”

The Rev. Canon Holly Herring, Canon Precentor, Trinity Cathedral, Phoenix, is looking at all angles. “While we have not made our decision about what we will do, there are a couple of things that stand out for me from the BCP, within the context of imposing or not,” she said. “Not Imposing: ‘If ashes are to be imposed, the Celebrant says the following prayer…’ What about our traditions must we engage, may we engage, should we engage — how do we grieve these changes, embrace these changes, grow from these changes? Imposing: ‘Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’ What does that look like when you really embrace that (statistically) it will most likely happen before we gather for ashes again in 2022 — I’ll bury one of them, or they will bury me… and certainly that will happen to all of us eventually. How do we grieve that reality, embrace that reality, grow from that reality?”

Some are recognizing the loss that will be felt in 2021.

“Maybe a year off from ashes isn’t a bad thing,” noted the Rev. Tim Schenk, St. John The Evangelist, Hingham, Massachusetts. “At worst, they’ve become something of an idol in recent years, a mere liturgical party favor. This may be an opportunity to recapture the reason for Ash Wednesday, a time to truly rend our hearts as we enter into Lent.”

“I know for me and many clergy, Ash Wednesday is one of my spiritually/pastorally moving services of the year,” said the Rev. Gillian R. Barr, Calvary, Stonington, Connecticut. “But in a year when we’ve already forgone Holy Week, Easter, and the whole Christmas cycle, it’s just another loss.”

“I’ve done Ashes to Go at our local train station for years. There have been years it’s been almost unbearably cold, years it’s been rainy, and years when I’ve wondered why I bothered with my coat, but it’s always, always been an uplifting experience,” said Patricia Arlin Bradley, Holy Trinity, Hillsdale, and Chief Business Officer at St. Peter’s in Morristown, New Jersey. https://www.stpetersmorristown.org/ “I will miss it this year. I’ll also miss our parish’s traditional Ash Wednesday pizza party. Yes, we order pizzas for after our 7 PM service, because many of us come straight from work. Feed the soul, nourish the body, bring the kids. A little unorthodox, but we love it. Next year, God willing.”

And what about the traditional and much-loved Shrove Tuesday pancake dinner?

“Sadly, I do not see how any of those traditions – the pancake supper, Ashes to Go, or even the imposition of ashes, can happen this year,” said the Rev. Diana Wilcox, Christ Church in Bloomfield and Glen Ridge, New Jersey.

Caron agreed. “Ash Wednesday is important, but pancakes, while traditional and a great social occasion, are not.”

New: 1/24 TLC Online

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 15:45:24 GMT

The January 24 Parish Ministry issue of The Living Church is available online to registered subscribers.

The cover story by G. Jeffrey MacDonald describes the increasing demand for deacons, particularly in financially strapped parishes and dioceses. But while the number of deacons has risen over the past decade, the median age of a deacon is 73, and efforts are under way to recruit younger deacons.

When a deranged gunman was shot and killed by police on the steps of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, one of the priests there recalled another fatal shooting 12 years ago on the property of a Pennsylvania church, where he served as rector. Kirk Petersen has the story.

Jordan Hylden examines whether the Episcopal Church still welcomes traditionalist priests who, like him, oppose same-sex marriage. His answer is a resounding yes.

In CULTURES, Ben Lima dives deeply into the psychology of Salvador Dalí, as expressed through his illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy, currently on display at the Dallas Museum of Art.

In Cæli enarrant, Christopher Wells says that although St. Thomas Aquinas lived centuries before the formation of the Anglican Church, he nevertheless based his work on an Anglican foundation of Scripture, tradition and reason.

In the news, the Diocese of Chicago elects a black female bishop, GAFCON sets its sights on the Anglican Church of Australia, and a priest dies at 108, more than four decades after he retired.

Bishop Gregory Brewer reviews Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry’s latest book, Love is the Way, saying the book’s all-encompassing prescription of “Love” may be simple, “but it is certainly not naïve,” and the book takes full advantage of the author’s oratorical skills.

Timothy P. O’Malley finds a surprising thread of ecumenism weaving through two books of essays about the man born Joseph Ratzinger, now known as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

All this plus more news, more book reviews, People & Places and more, from an independent voice covering the Episcopal and Anglican world since 1878. Consider subscribing today.

NEWS

Cathedral Gunman Reminds Priest of Earlier Shooting

FEATURES

Deacons Play Evolving Role
By G. Jeffrey MacDonald
After the Bishop Love Trial, Does the
Episcopal Church Welcome Us?
By Jordan Hylden
Egypt’s Anglicans Offer Quiet Challenge to Intolerance
By Samy Fawzy Shehata

CULTURES

Dalí and the Psychology of Sin | By Ben lima

BOOKS

Love Is the Way | Review by Gregory Brewer
Joseph Ratzinger and the Healing of the Reformation-Era
Divisions and The Theology of Benedict XVI
Review by Timothy P. O’Malley
Daily Grace | Review by James Stambaugh
Orthodox Anglican Identity and The Future of Orthodox
Anglicanism | Review by Eugene R. Schlesinger
Following Christ | Review by Brit Frazier
Holiness and Desire | Review by Wes Hill
Inspiring Service | Review by Justus Hunter

OTHER DEPARTMENTS

Cæli enarrant
People & Places
Sunday’s Readings

Everything Is a Gift

Wed, 13 Jan 2021 08:00:59 GMT

By Elizabeth Baumann

A Reading from Ephesians 2:1-10

1 You were dead through the trespasses and sins 2in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. 3All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.

4But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Meditation

There have been seasons of my life when I’ve relied on Pinterest as a devotional — a helpful tool for the busy, distracted, and phone-attached. Thus I’ve collected quite a number of quotes from the saints. I love the saints! As I scroll through them from time to time it strikes me that in their varied ways they say the same thing. From St. Alphonsus Liguori: “If you embrace all things in this life as coming from the hands of God … assuredly you will die a saint.” From St. Thérèse of Lisieux: “Trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be,” and “All is grace.”

It is what St. Paul also says at the end of this lesson we have today. All of salvation is a gift of God — grace through faith, but even faith is a gift. “We are what he has made us,” Paul writes, even our “good works” are prepared by God “beforehand to be our way of life.” Don’t we leave each Mass having prayed, “Send us out to do the work you have given us to do”? The heart of following God is having the courage to believe in his providence: that all the circumstances, all the temperaments and personalities, all the sufferings especially, are a path he has a prepared for us to make us holy and thus to bring us to himself. The hardest thing is not navigating the obstacles in the path, it’s wanting to come to him enough that we are willing to give up finding our own way.

♱

To receive a TLC Daily Devotional in your inbox each morning, click here.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

The Diocese of the Horn of Africa
The Episcopal Church in Minnesota

Looking Ahead to the Biden Administration

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 21:21:25 GMT

By Kirk Petersen

People of every ideological persuasion are well aware that the political environment will shift dramatically on January 20, as one American president g0ives way to a very different successor. After years of divisiveness, months of a global pandemic, and appalling revelations about a violent insurgency, the stakes are high — and the Church is not immune from the turmoil.

In that context, five department heads from the Episcopal Church gathered virtually on January 11 for a webinar sponsored by the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes, titled “Mr. Biden Goes to Washington: What a New Administration Means for the Church.” The short answer is that it means quite a lot.

Immigration and Refugees

Perhaps the most dramatic changes will involve immigration and refugee resettlement. Episcopal Migration Ministries “for the past 40 years has been one of the nine official refugee resettlement agencies for the United States — and for the past 80 years, the church engagement unit of EMM has supported refugees, asylum seekers and others who have left horrific situations in search of a new home, and a new hope,” said the Rev. C.K. “Chuck” Robertson, canon to the presiding bishop for ministry beyond the Episcopal Church.

But for the past four years, EMM has been living in limbo, as the Trump administration has steadily and severely tightened the rules on immigration. Demetrio Alvero, director of operations for EMM, said the Biden administration has promised “a big change — to lift the refugee admission ceilings from 15,000 to 125,000. But while we’re pleased with the change in direction, in reality it’s more of an aspirational announcement, that will really take about 12 to 18 months to realize.”

“The U.S. had been one of the world leaders in the resettlement program” run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “but these past four years have seen its leadership virtually vanish,” he said.

This has led to the dismantlement of much of the infrastructure that supports refugee resettlement in the United States. EMM went from having 31 resettlement partners around the country to only 12, Alvero said.

Office of Government Relations

Nobody in the Church is more plugged in to the daily machinations of Washington than Rebecca Linder Blachly, director of government relations. Her team has offices are in the United Methodist Building directly across the street from the Capitol, and on January 6 she told Episcopal News Service “We condemn violence in all its forms and the effort to overturn the will of the people and the peaceful transition of power.”

But the webinar was scheduled long before the insurrection, and Blachly stayed on message, describing five “big-picture issues” as the focus of the Church’s lobbying efforts:

Racial Equity, including timely topics like disparate COVID impact and police reform;
Immigration, in conjunction with EMM;
Human Rights & Peace Building, representing the interests of the Church and the Anglican Communion to the State Department and Congress;
Creation Care, most recently focused on pollution and Arctic preservation; and
Anti-Poverty Efforts, both domestically and internationally, ranging from food assistance to homelessness.

“All of our advocacy is based in the resolutions of General Convention, going back decades and decades,” she said. “We want to make sure that we, as people of faith, can have our voices be heard, and can make sure we can represent our values, and that our government can respond.”

Anglican Communion

The Rev. David Copley, director of global partnerships, oversees relationships with the global Anglican Communion and the wider international community. The Church has four partnership offices, staffed with professionals experienced in specific regions: Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Jerusalem and the Middle East. Copley urged congregations and dioceses with projects or interests elsewhere in the world to be in touch with his office, which also oversees Episcopal missionary programs.

“We do not have all the answers,” he said, “but we so often know somebody who does.”

Because of the pandemic, the physical missionary operations have largely been put on hold. “At this point in time, it’s difficult to think about sending volunteers to work internationally,” but the office is working to develop support for border dioceses and ministries, while looking ahead to a more normal environment.

Ecumenical and Interfaith Partners

The Episcopal Church maintains extensive relationships with other faith-based organizations throughout the United States, in part through coalitions such as the National Council of Churches, Churches Uniting in Christ, the Congress of National Black Churches, and others. “We often work together on a number of public policy issues,” said the Rev. Margaret Rose, director of the Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations.

Some of these organizations have very different perspectives on public policy, but Rose said the Church is always “looking for ways to speak across the divisions, without denying they are there.” The pandemic has in some ways broadened these relationships, as people who were reluctant to attend a physical meeting were more willing to participate over Zoom. For example, Shoulder to Shoulder, which addresses anti-Muslim bias, hosted a virtual Ramadan road trip in conjunction with the Islamic month of fasting and prayer. “In the past, it would have been a real road trip,” she said.

“I think the collaborations and coalitions strengthened during this past year, among diverse groups of Christians and interfaith partners, will be a continuing foundation for the work that lies ahead,” she said.

Communication Across Differences

Robertson, to whom the others all report, served as moderator for the webinar. Near the end of the discussion he obliquely raised the issue of political conflict, without referring to the crisis at the Capitol that occurred five days earlier. “We’ve seen in this election season an opening up of just how significant the divisions are amongst us in this country,” he said, and asked the others to describe resources available from the Church.

Blachly said her office offers a civil discourse curriculum titled “Make Me an Instrument of Peace,” aimed at facilitating conversation across differences. Also, “I think it’s important to notice the prevalence of disinformation, we have a whole series on that.”

Rose said the Church this week is releasing a new resource called “From Many, One: Conversations Across Difference,” aimed at “listening with love,” and helping to resolve conflict.

The webinar was sponsored by the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes, known as CEEP, which describes itself as “the largest group of resourced institutions from across the Episcopal Church. The network’s membership is committed to strengthening leaders for a changing church through connecting, equipping, and diversifying.”

Looking for Resurrection

Tue, 12 Jan 2021 08:00:28 GMT

By Elizabeth Baumann

A Reading from Ephesians 1:15-23

15 I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints, and for this reason 16I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. 17I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, 18so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. 20God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. 22And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Meditation

My little girls love their Fancy Nancy Christmas book, Splendiforous Christmas. The plot hinges on a light-up, flashing, swirling tree topper, which Nancy bought with all her birthday money, that shatters when she accidentally knocks the tree over. Her grandpa shows up a few minutes later and helps her “improvise” a new tree topper made of odds and ends of Christmas decorations. Nancy realizes their homemade topper might someday be an heirloom.

In our Ephesians lesson today Paul prays that we might know the power of God, and the archetype of his power is the resurrection of Jesus. Of course, when we profess that we believe in the resurrection from the dead, we mean it quite literally: a transforming resurrection of the body from death into eternal life; as it was with Christ, so will it be for all believers.

But while that might be what we strictly mean when we recite the creeds, we seem to imply — as Paul seems to suggest — much more. This is why I prefer the prayer book translation of the Creed to the Roman Catholic version now in use: “We look for the resurrection of the dead,” rather than, “We look forward to the resurrection…” I know that the Council which composed the Creed intended the resurrection of our bodies at the end. But the archetype which is Christ’s resurrection reverberates out further, not only to other bodily resurrections — it becomes the whole pattern of God’s power. He is in the business of transforming things that are dead, hopeless, finished, into new things — as with big things, so with little things. Because he cares about us, he cares about all the little things we care about. Even Christmas tree toppers. In all the things big and small, let us look for and see his power.

♱

To receive a TLC Daily Devotional in your inbox each morning, click here.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

The Diocese of North Africa
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Baton Rouge, La.

Dalí and the Psychology of Sin

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 17:31:36 GMT

Hell: Departure for the Great Journey

Dalí’s Divine Comedy

Dallas Museum of Art
Through February 21, 2021

By Ben Lima

Growing up in the town of Figueres, in Catalonia near the French border, Salvador Dalí was born in 1904 to an anticlerical father and a Catholic mother. From an early age, he knew the power of art to channel powerful experiences.

When he later wrote about the long winter evenings in the Christian Brothers’ school in Figueres, waiting for the bell to toll the end of the day, he recalled that “my imagination was in fact constantly guarded by five sentinels, faithful, frightful, and sublime”: the two cypress trees outside; the two praying figures in the reproduction of Millet’s painting Angelus; and “God in the person of Jesus Christ — yellow, nailed to a black wooden cross standing on the brother’s table.” About Millet’s painting, he wrote that “this painting produced in me an obscure anguish, so poignant that the memory of those two motionless silhouettes pursued me for several years with the constant uneasiness provoked by their continual and ambiguous presence.”

Hell: The Men who Devour each Other

Perhaps building upon such tensions, by the time Dalí finished his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid and fell in with the French Surrealists in the late 1920s, his work had moved in a decidedly anticlerical direction. The Surrealists, along with Dalí and his art-school friend and collaborator, filmmaker Luis Buñuel, took the Freudian line that bourgeois repression, specifically including both Church dogma and sexual chastity, must be transgressed and overthrown in the name of liberating the individual.

Accordingly, the two notorious Surrealist films made by Buñuel in collaboration with Dalí made the Church an object of mockery. In Un Chien Andalou (1929), Dalí played a bumbling, clueless priest, while L’Age d’Or (1930), for which Dalí co-wrote the screenplay, aroused furious right-wing protest for its blasphemous final vignette, which juxtaposed a Christ-like figure with motifs from the Marquis de Sade. As part of the Surrealist avant-garde, Dalí achieved international fame and notoriety, as throughout the 1930s he made the uncanny, dreamlike paintings for which he remains best known today, such as The Persistence of Memory (1931).

Purgatory: Avarice and Prodigality

But by the end of the 1940s, he had definitively parted ways with his former avant-garde comrades. Officially expelled from the Surrealist movement in 1939 over his commercialism and embrace of the victorious Francoists in the Spanish Civil War, he left for the U.S., where he worked with Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney. In his 1942 autobiography, The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, he announced his return to Catholicism and to classicism. As he returned to Franco’s Spain in 1948, and obtained an audience with Pope Pius XII in 1949, Dalí’s new direction was seemingly well established — one that would soon lead to his widely seen Catholic paintings of the 1950s.

However, Dalí’s story is not quite as simple as a “return to order,” although some might have seen it that way. Quite unlike most classicists and neo-classicists, Dalí never lost his penchant for the bizarre; his canny showmanship (which cast doubt on his sincerity); nor his amateur enthusiasm for modern science. For instance, in his rather eccentric program of “Nuclear Mysticism,” Dalí claimed that the strangeness of matter at the subatomic level, as revealed by modern physics, could be the basis for the mystical experience of saints such as Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, thus reconciling science and religion.

Paradise: Opposition

Most of all, despite embracing the institution and traditions of the Church, Dalí consistently denied that he had faith. In his 1942 autobiography, he wrote, “At this moment I do not yet have faith, and I fear I shall die without heaven”; as late as the 1970s, he said, “I believe in God but I don’t have faith. I know, thanks to mathematics and science, that God must exist, but I don’t believe it. It’s terrible. I get closer all the time, but I don’t believe.” This was the ambiguous position from which his later works emerged.

In 1951, when Dalí began making the first of his 100 watercolor illustrations for Dante’s Divine Comedy, not only was he was already midway through the journey of his own life, but the torments and trials encountered by Dante and Virgil along their journey must have been powerfully recognizable to the restless and imaginative artist. After his audience with Pius XII, the Italian national library had commissioned him to illustrate a new edition of the epic in advance of Dante’s 700th birthday in 1965, and by 1960, Dalí had produced 100 watercolors, one for each canto of the Comedy.

However, when political backlash led the Italians to back out, Dalí took the project to French publisher Joseph Forêt. Working closely with Dalí for over four years, artistic director Jean Estrade and engraver Raymond Jacquet made resin-block engravings from Dalí’s watercolors for Forêt’s company, Editions d’art Les Heures Claires. One of the resulting 100-print sets was eventually given to the Dallas Museum of Art by the fashion executive Howard B. Wolf and his wife Lois; a selection of 14 of these prints is now on view in a small second-floor gallery at the DMA, in time for the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death in 2021.

The high technical quality of the works is immediately apparent, not only in terms of Dalí’s virtuosity as a painter, but in the craftsmanship of the printers, who, in order to achieve the full range of colors and tones, reportedly made over 30 impressions for each print (that is, over 3,500 overall). It’s also apparent that Dalí, typically for a 20th-century artist, and by contrast with the great 19th-century efforts of Gustave Doré or William Blake, did not feel himself to be very much constrained by the literal sense of Dante’s text.

Purgatory: Leaving the Terrace of Anger

Just to take one obvious example of this, at the very beginning of the poem, Dante finds himself within a dark wood, having lost the straight way. Dalí, however, in his illustration for Canto 1 of the Inferno, shows the pilgrim in a wide-open space, only a few steps away from the straight path directly behind him, and still far off from the wood in the distance, which he has not yet entered. Likewise, his illustration for Purgatorio, Canto 17, is dominated by an enormous woman-spider, recalling the mythological Arachne, whose connection to Dante’s text is at best obscure. Or again, at the beginning of Purgatorio, where Dante has the pilgrims rowed across the water by a silent angelic boatman, Dalí chooses instead to show a seated, introspective “fallen angel,” seated in sunken isolation and preoccupied with a series of open drawers which emerge from its body.

Although Dalí’s somewhat fanciful approach means that, unlike Doré, he can’t be considered a wholly reliable artistic guide to the text, his preoccupations can nevertheless make for a striking accompaniment to the poem’s vision. In Inferno, Canto 30, the impostor Schicchi is reduced to a cannibalistic beast, sinking his teeth into the neck of his victim; Dalí’s illustration for this scene shows two of his characteristically flabby, shapeless Surrealist heads locked together in bloody congress as they drip over the edge of the wall.

Perhaps the greatest strength of Dalí’s renderings of the Inferno and Purgatorio is the artist’s vivid sense of the psychology of sin — a sense which surely must have fed into his own disavowal of faith and been intertwined with his transgressive and erotic obsessions. The isolation of the pilgrims in vast, empty, featureless spaces, defined only by thin, red, perspective lines; the bestiality of human lusts, culminating in cannibalism; the angel’s alienation from his own fragmented body — in each case, Dalí translates a spiritual reality into a visible form.

Purgatory: The Fallen Angel

Similarly, what most marks Dalí’s interpretation of the Paradiso is the sublime light that suffuses each of the spheres as the pilgrims ascend toward the divine presence — a light that comes, as Dante ultimately concludes, from “the Love that moves the sun and other stars.” In his opening illustration for Paradiso, Dalí shows the forms of Dante and his beloved Beatrice facing, and embracing, each other. As their bodies dissolve into scores of shimmering fragments (recalling Dalí’s interest in the “mystical” properties of matter as revealed by nuclear physics), Beatrice’s form is pierced by rays of golden light from above (recalling Bernini’s rendering of St. Teresa). Here Dalí offers the merest glimpse of a transcendence of earthly finitude.

Along with representatives of the secular avant-garde, Protestant critics, ranging from Francis Schaeffer, to Paul Tillich, to David Lyle Jeffrey, have been highly skeptical of Dalí’s “Catholic turn,” pointing not only to his professed lack of faith, but to doubts about his basic sincerity and about the overall coherence of his program. By contrast, Catholics, ranging from Pius XII to the theologian Michael Anthony Novak, have been more willing to grant Dalí a place within the broad mystical tradition. Meanwhile, the public at large has always been enthusiastic; Dalí’s Catholic paintings in Milwaukee, Glasgow, New York and Washington remain enormously popular.

Although Dalí’s ambition in the end outruns his ability to resolve all the contradictions that his work contains (quite in contrast to Dante), his attempt at the Divine Comedy is at least a reminder of the slow, cumulative, step-by-step nature of life as a pilgrimage, and that despite the notorious postmodern “incredulity toward meta-narratives,” the Dantean story is capacious enough for just about everyone’s biography to fit inside of it. In the light of divine love, and granted the right Beatrice and Virgil, even the worst Surrealist can find himself on the way back to the straight path.

Ben Lima (@lectionaryart on Twitter) is an art historian and critic, and a parishioner at Church of the Incarnation in Dallas.

1/17 Readings: You Don’t Know What It Is

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 14:38:54 GMT

2 Epiphany

I Sam. 3:1-10 (11-20)
Ps. 139:1-5, 12-17
I Cor. 6:12-20
John 1:43-51

“You did not choose me, but I chose you” (John 15:16). These words of Jesus challenge the idea that we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior and that our accepting him is what saves us. Our help is in the Name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. Our help is not in the strength of our will or a choice we exercise. Our help and salvation are rooted in the inscrutable will of God who deigned to call us before we were, in any sense, aware that God was calling

The boy Samuel hears the voice of the Lord, but Samuel does not know that it is the Lord. Although Samuel ministers to the Lord before the ark of the covenant under Eli’s direction, he ministers without personal knowledge of the Lord. For, “the word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread” (I Sam. 3:1). The Lord calls out to Samuel three times, but “Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the Word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him” (I Sam. 3:7). God speaks, but, at first, Samuel (and we) do not know who is calling or what is happening. Providence is confounding and confusing! “Something is happening here, but you don’t know what it is. Do you, Mr. Jones?” (Bob Dylan)

Turning to another character, we see Nathanael under a fig tree. Philip arrives to tell him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth” (John 1:45). Nathanael follows Philip but with some reservation, asking, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). Jesus, perhaps respecting Nathanael’s honest doubt, says, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit” (John 1:48). Nathanael, wondering how Jesus recognizes him, asks, “Where did you come to know me?” (John 1:48). Then, Jesus reveals the mystery of divine election, saying, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you” (John 1:48).

Now, turning to you (my reader), another one upon whom the mysterious will and love of God work without your knowing it. What are we to say of the wonderful workings of God? While your body was hidden from you, made in secret, woven in the depths of the earth, God was looking and working, forming and guiding. Even in infancy, God was searching you and knowing you. As you have grown, God observes your “sitting down” and “rising up.” God sees your journeys and resting places. God knows your ways and all your words. In all this, God is not asking for your permission. God will do what God will do.

God acts without your permission, but never contrary to your nature. Grace perfects nature; it does not destroy it. God is making you who you are and who you are meant to be in ways you can never fully know. Eventually, God allows providence to arise in your consciousness, and, mysteriously, you consent to the working of God. You say, like Mary, “Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Even this consent, however, is hidden in the prevenient grace of God.

Listen to St. Augustine as he traces his actions toward God to God as the ultimate source.

“I seek you, O Lord, calling on you; and I will call on you, believing in you; for you have been declared to us (me). My faith, O Lord, which you have given me, which you have inspired into me, calls on you” (Confessions, i.i).

Look It Up: I Cor. 6:19

Think About It: You are a temple of countless and unknown blessings.

Adopted, Chosen, Glorified

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 08:00:23 GMT

By Elizabeth Baumann

A Reading from Ephesians 1:1-14

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight 9he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, 12so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; 14this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

Meditation

I can’t help remembering George MacDonald’s objection to St. Paul’s use of the word “adoption.” As I recall it, he said that since God made us, we rightfully belong to him, and are his responsibility. For MacDonald, it’s as if Paul is describing, not a child being adopted by strangers she’s never met, but a child being adopted by her biological parents. Except perhaps as an outlying legal situation, we can’t make much sense of it. I think MacDonald has a point. Christ’s work is, after all, a redemption and glorification of an original relationship.

Chatting with a friend who has a number of adopted children, I’ve learned that adoption as we know and practice it is almost always traumatic — for everyone involved. She was able to confirm my supposition that adoption as we know it and adoption as Paul uses it just aren’t comparable. In fact, adoption as we know it might have been nearly incomprehensible to Paul. Adoption in Greco-Roman culture was about choosing your heirs — often already adults. It has nothing to do with caring for children, and everything to do with passing on your worldly goods. So it makes sense that Paul speaks of us as adopted and also as heirs, chosen by God from before time.

Paul intentionally uses the word “chose” (v. 4). You’re chosen by a God who made you and hence knows you better than you do yourself. There are no surprises for God — he already knows all our darkness, our ugliness, scars, and trauma. And through Christ he makes us heirs. Heirs of what? Of nothing less than the very glory that Christ has won for himself. He became like us so he could bring us into his house, so that we might be like him.

♱

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♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Afikpo (Nigeria)
The Diocese of West Virginia

In the Middle

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 08:00:04 GMT

By Elizabeth Baumann

A Reading from Hebrews 1:1-12

1 Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. 3He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

5 For to which of the angels did God ever say,
“You are my Son;
today I have begotten you”?
Or again,
“I will be his Father,
and he will be my Son”?
6And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says,
“Let all God’s angels worship him.”
7Of the angels he says,
“He makes his angels winds,
and his servants flames of fire.”
8But of the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever,
and the righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”
10And,
“In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
11 they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like clothing;
12 like a cloak you will roll them up,
and like clothing they will be changed.
But you are the same,
and your years will never end.”

Meditation

There’s a fun retelling of Pride and Prejudice on YouTube which purports to be modern Elizabeth Bennett’s video diary. She introduces herself as “the dreaded middle child, doomed to a life of” problems. Many of us will also remember Jan Brady. The person in the middle always seems to get overlooked, or to bear the weight. Full disclosure: I am not a middle child, but I am a wife and a mother, and I often also feel caught in the middle — between my priest husband and my needy small children.

In this opening passage from Hebrews, Jesus is also “in the middle.” The Second Person of the Trinity is begotten of the Father, who creates the world through him and sends him to save it. In turn, he sends the Holy Spirit. It’s by being in the middle, facilitating the will of the Father and sending out the Spirit into the world, that Jesus comes into his own and inherits “all things.” Submission to his role becomes glory.

And so it is for all of us who find ourselves in the middle. We can feel trapped, overlooked, underappreciated. Sometimes society beckons us to throw off the things — or people — on either side to become “free.” But we only become our true selves by holding the center. The way of Jesus, the way of holiness is a way through — not a way out of — the middle.

♱

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♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia
The Episcopal Church in Connecticut

Authority Over the Nations

Sat, 09 Jan 2021 08:00:57 GMT

By Amber Noel

A Reading from Isaiah 63:1-5

“Who is this that comes from Edom,
from Bozrah in garments stained crimson?
Who is this so splendidly robed,
marching in his great might?”

“It is I, announcing vindication,
mighty to save.”

2 “Why are your robes red,
and your garments like theirs who tread the wine press?”

3 “I have trodden the wine press alone,
and from the peoples no one was with me;
I trod them in my anger
and trampled them in my wrath;
their juice spattered on my garments,
and stained all my robes.
4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart,
and the year for my redeeming work had come.
5 I looked, but there was no helper;
I stared, but there was no one to sustain me;
so my own arm brought me victory,
and my wrath sustained me.”

Meditation

Here, a victorious warrior-king approaches, clothes stained with so much blood it looks like he’s been knee-high in a grape vat. He has trampled his enemies among “the peoples.” This bold figure, startling as it is, can be seen as Christ, whose salvation of the nations and authority over them are two sides of the same coin. So let us ask the question: what are we to make of this? Is Jesus a violent Lord?

First, we hear he has “trodden the winepress alone.” Only the perfect Son of the Father, full of grace and truth, can release particular (and particularly severe, as we see in today’s reading from Revelation) kinds of judgment in the earth. Only goodness and holiness can cleanse all that is not good or holy; and, in the end, it will. His judgment is a “redeeming work,” a rescue mission, even when it is drawn in the large and startling figures of allowing us to receive the wages of our sin.

We know there is also another sense in which he has trodden the winepress alone — the largest and most startling figure of all. The wine of God’s wrath is also an image of his own shed blood, his fearful mercy that covers sin. No wonder Paul warns about drinking of the cup unworthily.

But here’s one more thing: in Revelation 2:26, Jesus tells his Church that he will share his “authority over the nations” with “those who conquer.” Christians (like other people) have typically wanted to conquer, to gain authority their own way. But we will know Christ’s conquering, his authority, by its fruit. His warriors have emptied themselves — tread the winepresses of their own hearts — and conformed their lives to his. Like Christ they have died, and been made alive by God’s good Spirit. And so approaching the work of justice, they are as filled with grace and truth as they are with boldness.

♱

Amber Noel, M.Div., is Associate Editor at the Living Church and Associate Director of The Living Church Institute. Off the clock, she is the author of short fiction, book and culture reviews, and work for the stage.

To receive a TLC Daily Devotional in your inbox each morning, click here.

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

Diocese of Adelaide (Australia)
St. Joseph of Arimathea, Hendersonville, Tenn.

Curry, Other Bishops Condemn Insurrection

Fri, 08 Jan 2021 21:29:22 GMT

By Egan Millard
Episcopal News Service

Drawing on the words of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry implored Americans to choose community over chaos in a message to The Episcopal Church as the United States reels from the Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol, incited by President Donald Trump and led by his supporters.

“This past Wednesday, … a monument to democracy, the Capitol of the United States of America was desecrated and violated with violence by vandals. Lives were lost. A nation was wounded. Democracy itself was threatened,” Curry said in a message to the church on Jan. 8.

Curry connected the current situation with past crises like the Civil War, the civil rights struggle of the late 1960s and the apartheid regime in South Africa, as well as more recent ones like the violent white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, and last year’s murder of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minnesota.

“In the moment of a national crisis, a moment of great danger … a people must decide, ‘Who shall we be?’” Curry said, offering a stark choice between further chaos and beloved community.

“I want to submit that the way of love that leads to beloved community is the only way of hope for humanity. Consider the alternative. The alternative is chaos, not community. The alternative is the abyss of anarchy, of chaos, of hatred, of bigotry, of violence, and that alternative is unthinkable. We have seen nightmarish visions of that alternative.”

Echoing the presiding bishop’s condemnation of the coup attempt, bishops and other leaders across The Episcopal Church have spoken out forcefully against the terrorist assault and the lies about election fraud that sparked it.

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