By Sarah Cornwell

A Reading from the Gospel of Matthew 5:11-16

11 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

Meditation

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus first calls his disciples the salt of the earth, and then the light of the world. First salt, then light. Salt has several purposes. We most commonly know it as a flavor enhancer. A little bit can enliven our food. Salt can also be used as a preservative. Salting meat helps prevent decay. Finally, salt can be destructive. Salting earth makes it difficult for future crops to grow in that soil.

As followers of Jesus, there is much that we are called to do as the salt of the earth. We are to draw out the subtler meanings of the gospel to entice the tastebuds of the listener’s heart. We are also to preserve. Only God can save his Church, but we can help prevent it from going bad in some area. Finally, we can leave off the restraint we might show when adding just a pinch of salt to open up Scripture or spiritual truth for others, and we can pour all that we have into salting the earth. Where evil is used to taking root, Christians can salt the soil with holy lives, prayer, and virtuous acts — with all that they have — to keep it from growing.

The work of the salt is on the ground, attending to earthy tasks: eating, preserving, and removing evil things from soil. Let us not be embarrassed and shy away from this work. Some may wish to skip the humble work of salt and jump directly to the more glamorous work of the light, but the words of Jesus suggest that it is actually when we are united as salt, doing what the salt does, that we are lifted up as light. If we find our churches empty and we’re wondering how we’re going to keep the lights on, we must ask ourselves, are we first doing our work as salt?

♱

Sarah Cornwell is a laywoman and an associate of the Eastern Province of the Community of St. Mary. She and her husband have six children and they live in the Hudson Valley north of New York City.

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 Massachusetts
The Diocese of Ezo (Episcopal Church of South Sudan)

By R. William Franklin

Bishop Charles Henry Brent was a prophetic leader of the Episcopal Church in the early 20th century. What does his vision of Christian unity contribute to our post-pandemic Episcopal Church?

Brent was elected the first missionary bishop to the Philippines in 1901, and his influence was such that the new Prime Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines is named Brent Alawas. He was chief of chaplains of the American Expeditionary Force in France (1917-18), leading 1,300 chaplains of multiple denominations and faiths. In 1918 he was installed as IV Bishop of Western New York. He appeared on the cover of Time in 1927, and when he died in 1929 The New York Times published an editorial commemorating his service to humanity.

Brent is commemorated further in our Lesser Feasts and Fasts. From 1910 he led the emerging Faith and Order ecumenical movement, and for these reasons in 1921 he was invited to deliver the Duff Lectures of the ancient Scottish universities on the topic of mission and unity in the light of the First World War and the Great Pandemic of 1918-20. This article commemorates the centenary of those lectures.

The list of prestigious university theological lectures, speaking to major issues of the day, included the Duff Lectures. The oldest are the Bampton Lectures at Oxford, founded in 1702. And there are the Hulsean Lectures at Cambridge (1790). The Duff Lectures were founded in 1879 to honor Alexander Duff (1806-78), a Scottish missionary to India and a major force in Indian education. Thus the lectures were intended in some way to link mission to social issues of the day.

There was a requirement that the lectures should soon be published. The lectures appeared in print in 1930 as The Commonwealth: Its Foundation and Pillars (D. Appleton and Co.)

The topic of the published lectures: What should the mission of the Church be in response to the multiple disasters of 1914-20? The answer was clear: the rapid progress of the denominations toward one United Christian Church that could serve as the preliminary pillar of a new world commonwealth of humanity.

Brent framed his argument between two emerging realities: a crisis of social instability and the emergence of new secular models for international cooperation, from which Christian denominations might learn.

For Brent, it was clear that World War I was an international catastrophe, a significant turning point for the political, cultural, and economic climate of the whole earth. Four great monarchies had disappeared. The German, Russian, and Irish Revolutions could lead to totalitarianism. There was an upsurge of racial violence in North America and South Africa, with incipient racial genocide against Jews in Russian pogroms, and with the Turkish destruction of Armenians.

War and genocide were directly related to the Flu Pandemic of 1918-20, which caused perhaps 100 million deaths worldwide. Though called the “Spanish Flu,” this was another international threat to stability.

As Brent was writing the Duff Lectures and then revising them, two international political institutions took shape. The League of Nations was the first world intergovernmental organization, founded in 1920, to maintain world peace through collective security, disarmament, and the settling of international disputes through conferences. There were eventually 58 member states of the league’s Governing Assembly. Although the United States never joined, Bishop Brent was invited to preach at the service that inaugurated the league in Geneva, of which he said, “The meeting of a League of Nations was more full of hope than in any other period of history.”

The British Commonwealth of Nations was not officially established until 1930, though it was based on an agreement hammered out in 1926. When Brent first gave his lectures, the question of whether and how the British dominions should be related to the Mother Country was a greatly debated issue. The future of Ireland was a major focus. How would the new Irish Free State retain some connection, however symbolic, to the British Crown?

In the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, the term “British Commonwealth of Nations” was substituted for British Empire in the wording of the oath to be taken by members of the Irish Parliament. As an expansion of this understanding of a “commonwealth” as a community of equal institutions, in the Balfour Declaration of 1926, which established the Commonwealth, Britain and the dominions agreed that they were “equal in status, in no way subordinated one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations.”

Brent was a Canadian by birth, and his principal biographer, Alexander Zabriskie, speaks to the influence of this secular model on his ecumenical ecclesiology: “An analogy to Brent’s idea of Church unity was the British Commonwealth, of which the bond of unity was personal loyalty to the King, rather than organic constitutional or legislative ties.”

The great ecclesiological theme of the revised Duff Lectures is this: Thousands are leaving churches because of the rivalry of the denominations. No one denomination can claim to be the Church of Jesus Christ. Brent was opposed to all concepts of the Episcopal Church as “the National Church,” pursuing any kind of an “establishmentarian ideal.” He wrote to his own diocese as he was revising the lectures: “My lesser loyalty is to the communion of which I am a member. I can see nothing but disaster in matching religions.”

Brent’s term for the Church is “the Body of Christ.” He repeats again and again, “The Church is the Body of Christ. It is a visible social organization composed of all united to it through Baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” The One Church is already composed of “all Christian Communions throughout the world which confess Our Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior.”

There were four pillars of the One Church as Commonwealth:

1. Universal: Denominations must seek cooperative ministry across national borders.
2. The welcome of a variety of ecclesial structures: Brent believed the United Church was not one in which everything had to be done by everyone in the same way. The activities of congregations might be managed in keeping with a variety of polities: episcopal, presbyterian, and congregational. There should be latitude in doctrinal formulations.
3. A framework for a variety of styles of worship: Such a church, Brent said, should make room for four types of worship: a rich, historic liturgy, non-liturgical worship with contemporary materials, a form of silent meditation with brief teaching, and a frankly revivalist style of worship.
4. Ethics and morality are a key part of ecumenism: “We are talking in these days of the unification of the Church along lines of faith, but we have got to be even more elementary and go into the sphere of morals.”

The First World Conference on Faith and Order, over which Brent presided in August 1927, marked the first major advance toward a united Church based on these four principles. There were 400 official delegates gathered in Lausanne, Switzerland, from 40 nations, representing 127 autonomous churches.

What has been the impact of the ecumenism of a century ago on Episcopalians today? There has been a good deal of Life and Work cooperation between different denominations along the lines of the great Stockholm “Life and Work” Conference of 1925, assisting those severely harmed by the pandemic and the struggles after the death of George Floyd. Ecumenical and interfaith coalitions have been built. A more expansive and deeper ecumenical mission has been building among Episcopal bishops, for example. A College for Bishops salon met for the first time on June 29 to discuss proposals for shared ministry across denominational lines.

Bishops have become more outspoken. Bishop Kevin Nichols of Bethlehem, in a passionate speech to the Moravian/Episcopal Coordinating Committee meeting in June, sounded a passionate note: “The only way forward is partnership. Unless we learn to share our resources, we will die.” And Bishop Nichols referred specifically to the need for sharing by the more liturgical churches with all of their gatekeeping-style reliance on restrictive canons and rubrics.

Since the onslaught of the pandemic there has been some sharing of Brent’s four marks of ecumenism, in the light of violence and disease, with members of the General Convention Task Force on Ecumenical and Interreligious Work, the Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical and Interreligious Officers, and members of our dialogues with other denominations. It is possible to observe in the proposed resolutions to the 80th General Convention of the Episcopal Church some reflections of the expansive, generous spirit of the four marks of Brentian ecumenism.

There is a resolution to study a “limited exchange agreement” to make possible the sharing of clergy between the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA). Another resolution seeks approval of “Churches Beyond Borders,” a document which establishes full communion relationships, ensuring the permanent interchange of clergy and sacraments, between two primarily United States and two Canadian Anglican and Lutheran Churches. Other resolutions commend further study of other documents which can make possible full communion with some Methodists and also with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bavaria. Finally, as to the place of ethics and morality, the Task Force on Ecumenical and Interreligious Work will host a series of in-person consultations on this question as formulated by the Secretary of the Task Force, Marisa Tabizon Thompson: “Does full communion demand equal affirmation, agreement, and acceptance of Episcopal Church ethics by the other party?”

In the words of Margaret Rose, ecumenical and interreligious deputy to the presiding bishop:

“If there is anything we have learned during this pandemic it is that there is an ecumenism of suffering as Pope Francis, often says. Out of that suffering has emerged a commitment to join together for healing and worship, an exchange of gifts, and a deepening of relationships across issues, theology, and ecclesiology we might previously thought of as ‘church dividing.’ The pandemic has in fact been ‘church uniting’ and has encouraged us to come together sharing resources, experiences, worship and theological gifts.”

The Rt. Rev. R. William Franklin is assisting bishop of the Diocese of Long Island, a member of the faculty at the Episcopal Divinity School at the Union Theological Seminary, and chair of the General Convention Task Force on Ecumenical and Interreligious Work.

By Sarah Cornwell

A Reading from the Gospel of Matthew 5:1-10

1 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Meditation

Rather than consider each beatitude in isolation, it can be illuminating to consider them in relation to each other. To aid us in this — and for fun — let us think about each beatitude as a level in a videogame. Players start with the most basic level, level one, and upon completing it with enough success, they gain something necessary — a prize, a secret, a skill — to tackle level two. And on it goes. First we have the poor in spirit: those who exercise great humility. Without humility, we cannot hope to attain the kingdom. To achieve humility is to have received our proper orientation. Upon completion of this “level,” players can now see the map of the route to the other levels, which all lead to the final destination, the kingdom of heaven.

Note, however, that the end result of the first and final beatitudes is the same: “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The journey spirals back around, taking the players back to the start of level one. It is more challenging this time around, but the players, already armed with considerable skills and rewards, are sufficiently prepared for the added difficulty.

If we take the order of the beatitudes seriously, we cannot skip over any of them. Working backwards from “blessed are the peacemakers,” we see a person cannot become a peacemaker unless he has seen God. He cannot see God unless he is pure in heart, which requires the mercy of God. There are no cheat codes in this game. As we each consider our individual journeys that we set out on together — yes, this is a multiplayer game — we must learn the rules which God has set before us and start at the beginning, with humility.

♱

Sarah Cornwell is a laywoman and an associate of the Eastern Province of the Community of St. Mary. She and her husband have six children and they live in the Hudson Valley north of New York City.

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 Albany
The Diocese of Exeter (Church of England)

William “Chip” Stokes

By Kirk Petersen

New Jersey

The Rt. Rev. William H. “Chip” Stokes, XII Bishop of New Jersey,  announced on September 2 his intention to retire in June 2023, and has called for the election of a successor. Stokes has served the diocese as bishop since 2013, before which he served churches in Florida.

“Prayer, discernment and a recognition of the changing needs and demands of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of New Jersey all indicate it is time for me to step aside and allow a new generation to step forward,” Stokes said in his announcement, noting he will be 66 years old at the time of his retirement and will have served for nearly a decade.

A search committee is in formation, and the diocese has established a web page for the transition.

Mark Hollingsworth

Ohio

The Rt. Rev. Mark Hollingsworth, Jr., XI Bishop of Ohio, announced on September 14 his intention to retire “sometime in 2023,” and called for the election of a bishop coadjutor, who would automatically become the XII Bishop of Ohio upon Hollingsworth’s retirement.

“After more than 40 years of ordained ministry and nearly 18 deeply fulfilling and happy years since coming to serve with you in the Diocese of Ohio, it is time to begin a process of episcopal transition,” Hollingsworth told the diocese. An election is anticipated at the diocesan convention in November 2022, and the coadjutor would serve alongside Hollingsworth for an undetermined period.  Hollingsworth has been Bishop of Ohio since 2004.

Springfield

The Diocese of Springfield on September 14 announced a slate of nine nominees to become the XII Bishop of Springfield. In alphabetical order, they are:

• The Very Rev. Sheryl Leonard Black, Diocese of Springfield
• The Very Rev. Brian Kendall Burgess, Diocese of New Jersey
• The Rev. Canon George Arthur Munger Conger, Diocese of Central Florida
• The Rev. Canon Mark E. Evans, Diocese of Springfield
• The Rev. Michael P. T. Greene, Diocese of New Hampshire
• The Rev. Mary Ann Hill, Diocese of Oklahoma
• The Rev. Scott Allen Seefeldt, Diocese of Milwaukee
• The Rev. Jonathan (Jon) Robert Stratton, Diocese of Missouri
• The Rev. Dr. Gregory Allen Tournoux, Diocese of Springfield

Nine candidates is an unusually large slate in a bishop election. “Our diocese uses a uniquely transparent process for electing a bishop,” the election committee said in the announcement. “There is no search committee that assembles a slate; instead, your delegates to our Nominating Synod, will choose the final three candidates from among this group of nominees who completed the application/nomination process and passed the required reference and background checks.”

The slate includes seven men and two women, and three candidates from within the diocese, while the remaining six candidates are from six other dioceses.

The winning candidate will succeed the Rt. Rev. Daniel Martins, who retired at the end of June 2021 after serving since 2011. Martins is secretary of the board of directors of The Living Church Foundation, Inc., which publishes TLC.

According to the published timeline, the diocese’s annual synod and nominating synod will convene on October 15 and 16, respectively, and will narrow the field to three candidates. Walkabouts will occur in November, and an electing synod will convene on December 11 for the final vote.

Consecration of the new bishop is scheduled for May 21, 2022, at a location to be determined.

By Sarah Cornwell

A Reading from the Gospel of Matthew 4:18-25

18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake — for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. 24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.

Meditation

In today’s gospel reading from Matthew, we hear one account of Jesus calling Simon Peter and Andrew while the two brothers are out fishing. In the Gospel of John, there is another account of how these same two men came to follow Jesus. Soon after Jesus was baptized, Andrew comes into Jesus’ house to learn from him, and it is Andrew who calls his brother Simon. It is also in John’s account that Jesus gives Simon the name Peter. How do we account for this? Do the gospel narratives contradict one another?

In a homily on the passage from Matthew, St. John Chrysostom argues that Andrew and Simon Peter were called twice. John’s account is the first, shall we say, indirect calling, occurring just after Jesus was baptized but before he withdraws to Galilee to begin his ministry. Matthew’s account is the second, more direct calling, which takes place just after this.

Jesus started to gather followers, but then he leaves and has to go call them back together again later. Isn’t this a rather inefficient way to begin a ministry? Unfortunately, God doesn’t seem that concerned with efficiency. We may recognize this in the way God works in our own lives. There is something that draws us to follow Jesus, and like Andrew in John’s Gospel, we want to spend time with Jesus in his house. In other words, we go to church, some of us from infancy, some of us later in our lives. Regardless, it may still be some time before the Lord comes to us and issues a direct calling in our lives. We carry on doing our earthly work until one day, Jesus shows up and says, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” This may happen shortly after or long after we are first drawn to Jesus. When it does happen, however, we had better be ready like Andrew and Simon Peter to drop everything and follow wherever that calling leads us.

♱

Sarah Cornwell is a laywoman and an associate of the Eastern Province of the Community of St. Mary. She and her husband have six children and they live in the Hudson Valley north of New York City.

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

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

All Saints Episcopal Church, Jacksonville, Fla.
The Diocese of Evo (Church of Nigeria)

By Neva Rae Fox
Correspondent

An organization modestly based in a warehouse and dependent on volunteers and donations has provided much-needed help to thousands of men for nearly two decades. Since its founding in 2005, One Man’s Treasure has assisted more than 14,000 men released from Texas state prisons who call the greater Dallas area their home.

Praying over the clothing

One Man’s Treasure has one purpose: to provide men who have been released from prison with clothing and shoes. “It’s a simple ministry but it’s vital,” said Annette Jenkins, executive director. “We decided we are going to focus on one thing: clothes to go to church, to go to work, to go to their children’s baseball games, so they can look like everyone else. They don’t have to worry about clothes.

“The goal is to make him understand that people care.”

One Man’s Treasure “recognizes the barriers this vulnerable population face and the need for the community, especially the church, to reach out to assist these returning men as they seek to reenter with dignity and hope,” Jenkins said.

With its roots in Kairos, a well-known Christian prison ministry for laity and clergy, One Man’s Treasure became a 501(c)(3) in 2013.

Citing her calling through Kairos, Jenkins connected with One Man’s Treasure in 2008 and became executive director in 2010.

A member of St. James on the Lake in Kemp, Texas, Jenkins described the many challenges newly released prisoners experience. “Someone who has been incarcerated for 20 years and now faces cellphones, charge cards for gas pumping, so much more. The world has changed so much.”

A volunteer sorts clothing

COVID-19 has affected One Man’s Treasure in many ways: fewer clothing and monetary donations; rising prices; greater need from the men. Nonetheless, in 2020, 1,477 men were helped by One Man’s Treasure, with more than 800 to date in 2021.

At One Man’s Treasure, “Sixty percent of clothing is donated. We make sure it is in very good condition because we don’t want them to think that they are getting secondhand clothes,” Jenkins said. “They are getting clothes for them to wear and fit into the public.”

One Man’s Treasure relies on area faith-based organizations. “A lot of the donations come through clothing drives in churches,” Jenkins said. “Then there are individuals who will donate directly, such as widows, because they know where the clothes will be used and that gives them a level of comfort.”

Underwear and socks are purchased, mostly in bulk, through an arrangement with Fruit of the Loom.

Upon release from Texas state prison, the state provides men with minimal help: a bus ticket, $100, and one outfit, whether it fits or not.

The process is simple. Released adults call One Man’s Treasure, based in a warehouse in Rockwall, near Dallas. “They never come into our facility,” Jenkins said. “Transportation is a big challenge for those who have been released from prison.”

One Man’s Treasure tries to make it easy for the men. “We ask their color preference, sizes, if they have opportunities for a job, if they need special clothing for a job, like warehouse work or construction work,” Jenkins said.

From there, volunteers prepare individual packages consisting of “four or five shirts, pants, underwear, socks, a tie for an interview, and in the winter, a coat, hat, and gloves, shoes. It’s enough clothes for a week’s work.”

In a 10-minute video about the program, Bryan Kelley remembered when he was released after 22 years of incarceration. “I never Googled anything, I never sent an email, I never used a cell phone or a debit card. The world went on.”

“Have you ever felt like you don’t belong, like everyone you encounter singles you out as an outsider?” Bryan Kelley asked. “Such is the experience of our returning citizens in Texas each year. They are returning to society after years — sometimes even decades — of absence wearing a mismatched, ill-fitting set of clothes given them at release by people who don’t necessarily care about their successful re-entry. What if we could bless them with clothes that would help them fit in and feel like they belong? Clothes that would help them get a job and graft seamlessly into society?”

Delivering clothing to a client

Kelley, who now leads a ministry called Prison Entrepreneurship Program, continued, “One Man’s Treasure did that for me seven years ago when I released after 22 years in prison. Since then I have become the CEO of another prison ministry, and I’m currently serving on the board of directors for OMT. It wasn’t the clothes that enabled my adjustment and change, but they were a big part of a great start. Obviously we can’t expect everyone that receives clothes from OMT to become CEO, we should expect them to do much greater than that!”

One Man’s Treasure works with more than 50 organizations, including the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Reentry and Integration Division, Rehabilitation Division, Dallas Region 2 Parole Division; Windham School District; chaplains in state prisons; transition homes; government and local agencies; and ecumenical churches and groups. Area Episcopal partners are Holy Trinity by the Lake, Heath; St. Michael and All Angels, Dallas; St. Justin’s, Canton; and St. James on the Lake, Kemp.

Jenkins cited the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas, which “has been extremely supportive of what we do.”

One Man’s Treasure boasts 150 volunteers, of whom 80-90 are shepherds directly assisting men and delivering clothes. “We’re not a big organization,” Jenkins said. “Our resources are not huge.”

To many, it’s important to return the kindness. “Some keep in touch, some have come back after they have become established and became a shepherd to make deliveries,” Jenkins said. “They make wonderful shepherds, as they understand the overwhelming challenges the men are facing.”

Information on other services is offered to each man. “We have a resource guide for the Dallas area that we put together with the Episcopal Foundation of Dallas listing sources for food, job placements, substance abuse programs.”

One Man’s Treasure is a ministry. “We follow the call of Christ in Matthew 25,” Jenkins said. “But it is also to take that man who wants to change the direction of his life and be that hand up for them.”

Among its honors, in 2016 One Man’s Treasure was awarded the Governor’s Texas Department of Criminal Justice Reentry and Integration Division Criminal Justice Volunteer Service Award.

Jenkins has a message for the Episcopal Church: “When we talk about evangelism, we can show God’s love by reaching out to these men who are the most overlooked men. We can give them a chance.”

Holy Cross Day

By Sarah Cornwell

A Reading from the Gospel of Matthew 4:12-17

12 Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
15 “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles —
16 the people who sat in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
light has dawned.”
17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

Meditation

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus hears that John the Baptist has been arrested. Does Jesus go and seek John’s release? No. He departs, or, according to some translations, withdraws. Painful as it no doubt was for Jesus, who deeply loved and respected John, he did not come to save this one man from his death — at least, not this death, the death of his martyrdom. Jesus came to save the human race from the power of death itself.

In a reading for today’s Feast of the Holy Cross, St. Peter writes that, after his death on the cross, Jesus went down to hell to save those who had perished in the Flood. In Jesus, God’s mercy is extended beyond the salvation of the few. Only eight people were saved in the ark, but in the vessel that is Jesus’ living body, all have a place in salvation through God’s mercy. When John is arrested, Jesus does not stage an immediate rescue of his kinsman, but withdraws out to the land of the Gentiles — those who up to this point had had no place in God’s chosen people — and there begins his earthly ministry.

The choice to withdraw can be a fraught one. The same action can be an act of cowardice in one situation, and an act of courageous obedience in another. In this case, John chose not to withdraw and was arrested and executed. Jesus chose to withdraw so that he might fulfill the will of the Father. Different choices, but both were courageous and obedient acts. At times in our own lives, we may encounter a choice to withdraw or move forward. As we discern, we should consider: Does one of these choices maximize the number of souls who may be shepherded through the waters, welcomed to take up residence in the vessel that will carry them safely from this world into the next? Does one of these choices minimize that number?

♱

Sarah Cornwell is a laywoman and an associate of the Eastern Province of the Community of St. Mary. She and her husband have six children and they live in the Hudson Valley north of New York City.

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

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Morristown, N.J.
The Diocese in Europe (Church of England)

By The Living Church staff

One of the best-known and most controversial Episcopal bishops in the last half century, the Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong, died in his sleep September 12 at the age of 90. He served as the VIII Bishop of Newark from 1979 to 2000.

Bishop Spong’s assertively liberal perspective of Christianity, and his rejection of the literal truth of the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection, attracted both a passionate following and repeated accusations of heresy. For many conservatives, he became a symbol of everything that has gone wrong with the Episcopal Church. For many progressives, he provided a safe space for skepticism and for experiencing Christianity through a filter of contemporary society.

Of his two dozen books, perhaps the best known is Why Christianity Must Change or Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile. In the preface of that 1999 book he described how the word “controversial” became “almost a part of my identity.”

As a priest in Richmond, Virginia, in 1974, after publishing a book titled This Hebrew Lord, Spong held a series of public dialogues with a Jewish rabbi on the nature of God and Jesus. In response to a question from the rabbi, Spong said: “The Bible never says in a simplistic way that Jesus is God. Jesus prays to God in the Gospels. He is not talking to himself.”

Spong wrote this was “a theological distinction far too subtle for the secular press to grasp. ‘Jesus is not God, Rector Asserts’ was the headline greeting readers of the Richmond Times Dispatch the next day, and the debate was on.”

As Bishop of Newark, Spong championed the efforts of gay people to gain recognition in the church, and on December 16, 1989, he ordained the first openly gay, partnered priest, Robert Williams, causing an uproar. After his assisting bishop, the Rt. Rev. Walter Righter, ordained Barry Stopfel as a deacon in 1990 with Spong’s blessing, Righter was accused of “heresy” in 1996, and acquitted by a church court. Spong speculated that the church prosecuted Righter, even though Spong conducted the earlier ordination, because “perhaps they felt that he would be an easier target, or they simply did not want to give me so large a public forum.”

In 1998, Spong published “Twelve Points for Reform” in The Voice, the newspaper of the Diocese of Newark. Among the 12 points:

• The virgin birth, understood as literal biology, makes Christ’s divinity, as traditionally understood, impossible.
• The miracle stories of the New Testament can no longer be interpreted in a post-Newtonian world as supernatural events performed by an incarnate deity.
• The view of the cross as the sacrifice for the sins of the world is a barbarian idea based on primitive concepts of God and must be dismissed.

In response, Rowan Williams, the future Archbishop of Canterbury who was then the Bishop of Monmouth in the Church in Wales, wrote a lengthy rebuttal. Williams summarized by writing, “I cannot in any way see Bishop Spong’s theses as representing a defensible or even an interesting Christian future. And I want to know whether the Christian past scripture and tradition, really appears to him as empty and sterile as this text suggests.”

Spong attended Virginia Theological Seminary, was ordained as a priest in 1955, and for 20 years served parishes in North Carolina and Virginia, until his election as bishop in 1976. Since retiring as Bishop of Newark in 2000, Spong continued an active career of writing, speaking, and teaching, until suffering a stroke in 2016.

He is survived by his second wife, Christine Mary Spong, and five children. His first wife, Joan Lydia Ketner Spong, died in 1988 after more than 30 years of marriage.

Funeral arrangements for Bishop Spong have not been announced.

SUNDAY’S READINGS | September 19, 2021

Prov. 31:10-31 or Wis. 1:16-2:1, 12-22 or Jer. 11:18-20
Ps. 1 or Ps. 54
James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a
Mark 9:30-37

Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly. Help us, O God, to set our mind on things that are above, above space and time, above all need, above the cycle of life and death. Take us to that place of eternal peace where joy and gladness reign and where the happiness of one is the shared happiness of all. Help us to contemplate the highest things. And yet, O Lord my God, you have sent your Son into the world; and you have sent us into the world in the power of his spirit.

We lift up our hearts, and we put our hands to the plow. We have heaven to hope for and the earth to walk upon in good works and righteousness. In union with Christ, we sit close to the Father, and we endure on earth. Our contemplation, though always directed to God, moves in two directions, above and below. “May your thought be with the Almighty, and may your prayer be directed to Christ without intermission,” says Thomas à Kempis. And because we cannot always consider the highest things, he recommends, “rest in the passion of Christ; willingly dwell in his sacred wounds. Endure with Christ and for Christ, if you want to rule with Christ” (Imitatio Christi, Lib. 2, 1, 1-16).

“[Jesus] was teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will again.’ But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him” (Mark 9:30-32). In a sense, no less than the first disciples, we fall silent before the mystery of the cross. We are rightly stunned and shocked by the wickedness of “human hands.” We are startled even more by the forgiveness of Christ. What is happening?

Jesus Christ is the righteous one. He is light shining in the darkness. The world, so exposed, reacts with a vengeance. The Book of Wisdom describes how the ungodly react to the righteous. “The ungodly by their words and deeds summoned death; considering him a friend, they pined away and made a covenant with him, because they are fit to belong to his company” (Wis. 1:16). “Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training” (Wis. 2:12).

We think of Jesus’ teaching, his healing, his love. We are perhaps afraid to consider Jesus in another way, as the one who exposes human evil. And so, as the author of Wisdom writes, “the very sight of him is a burden to us” (Wis. 2:15). The prophet Jeremiah, speaking of plots against himself, speaks as well of the passion of Christ. “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living so that his name will no longer be remembered” (Jer. 11:19).

The world wanted a dead and forgotten Jesus.

In the death of Jesus, the evils of this world were fully exposed, spent, and forgiven. Jesus rose from the dead not to destroy his tormentors but to show the victory of life itself. As the sons and daughters of God, we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and yet death has been served notice by the victory of Christ over death. Christ has conquered death, setting in its place a new and deathless humanity.

Look It Up: James 3:17

Think About It: Pure, peaceful, gentle, yielding, merciful, good fruit, no partiality or hypocrisy. In other words, the new being.

By Sarah Cornwell

A Reading from the Gospel of Matthew 4:1-11

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. 3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,
‘One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,
‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; 9 and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
‘Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.’”
11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

Meditation

Give the devil his due; his suggestions can seem harmless and within reason, while God’s commands can seem cruelly arbitrary and entirely unreasonable. Jesus has been driven into the desert by the Holy Spirit. He’s fasting, starving. Then here comes the devil. Why not turn a rock into a little bread while, at the same time, proving that he really is God the Son? Kill two problems with one stone, suggests the tempter. What would be the harm?

What would it mean if Jesus had done what the devil suggested? Would it really have made a difference if Jesus had changed a rock into bread? What would it mean if Jesus had not performed his first signs among the people but rather with the devil in the desert?

Satan approaches Jesus three times, and during his last temptation his true intention is revealed: “Worship me.” In three steps we go from the very reasonable — “you seem hungry, have a little bread” — to the unthinkable. We should take heed. Most if not all “no-downside” propositions are lies. Actions have consequences and some can be extremely serious, even devastating. This can be hard to see on our own, which is why the devil loves to come to us when we’re alone. Consider Eve who, while on her own, accepted a similar devilish proposition, the consequences of which we’re still wrestling with today.

Whenever a call for action is presented to us as perfectly reasonable with no downsides, especially if the moral waters are murky, we should go and seek out a few people — let’s ironically call them devil’s advocates — and together seriously consider the potential upsides, as well as whether the idea holds water — or hides a temptation.

♱

Sarah Cornwell is a laywoman and an associate of the Eastern Province of the Community of St. Mary. She and her husband have six children and they live in the Hudson Valley north of New York City.

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♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Murfreesboro, Tenn.
The Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe

By Sarah Cornwell

A Reading from the Gospel of John 11:45-57

45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” 51 He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. 53 So from that day on they planned to put him to death.

54 Jesus therefore no longer walked about openly among the Jews, but went from there to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness; and he remained there with the disciples.

55 Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. 56 They were looking for Jesus and were asking one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?” 57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

Meditation

Today’s gospel reading tells of what happens after Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Many of the Jews witnessed this miracle and believed in him, but now some of them go to inform the Pharisees, who themselves say, “this man is performing many signs,” or in some translations, “miracles.” They all seem to believe that Jesus actually brought Lazarus back from the dead. The Pharisees then say they can’t let Jesus go on like this. Why not? What’s the problem? If the Pharisees let Jesus continue his ministry, then everyone will start believing in him. And if an entire nation follows this one man, the Romans will see it as a potential coup and feel compelled to destroy both the temple and the Jewish people to neutralize the threat.

We might sympathize a little with the Pharisees here and feel we are caught between a similar rock and a hard place. Some of us may be in positions of leadership ourselves and naturally take the responsibilities of those positions seriously. There is nothing wrong with caring for the preservation of God’s people and their places of worship. The crucial caveat is: at what cost? Though the Pharisees believe in the miracles of Jesus, they ultimately decide it is best for the people to deny them and, ultimately, to deny Jesus.

If we unapologetically and unequivocally affirm the miracles of Jesus, from his virgin birth, to his earthly ministry, to the glorious miracle of the resurrection, then we risk offending people. (Doubly so if we don’t shy away from Jesus’ particularly hard teachings.) Won’t this drive people away from the Church, resulting in the ultimate decay of God’s house? Not according to today’s gospel, which claims that the miracles of Jesus are going to make a huge number of believers.

Perhaps we the leaders of God’s church today should take heed, particularly those of us in mainline Protestant churches. When we edit out the miraculous from Christian faith and teaching, do we watch our churches decline? Some of the largest churches today — Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Pentecostal — emphasize the miraculous. Let us at least take pause. The problem of too many believers is a good problem to have.

♱

Sarah Cornwell is a laywoman and an associate of the Eastern Province of the Community of St. Mary. She and her husband have six children and they live in the Hudson Valley north of New York City.

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

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

St. Michael’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, Carlsbad, Calif.
The Anglican Church of Tanzania

By Michael Smith

A Reading from Philippians 3:14-4:7

14 I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. 16 Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.

17 Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. 18 For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. 19 Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21 He will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. 1 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

2 I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. 3 Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Meditation

“Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Easier said than done on this day 20 years ago, when nearly 3,000 people were killed by terrorist attacks in the U.S. For those of us who remember, worry, fear, confusion, anger, and shock were the order of the day as we struggled to come to terms with what was unfolding before our very eyes. There are days that live in infamy in the heart and soul of a people: 9/11, the assassination of JFK, the bombing of Pearl Harbor. We all remember where we were when we learned of the news.

And yet, there is a generation of young people who have no personal memory of these traumatic days. They have moved on, and so must all who will never forget but are challenged to face the future set before us. Jesus once asked, “Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?” (Matt. 6:27). Worry about the future robs us of the peace of the present moment. Jesus also said, “strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matt. 6:33) instead of worrying. Even in the darkest and most traumatic of days, God is with us and already working to bring good out of even the most evil situations. Even if it’s impossible to trust and to pray with thanksgiving in the present moment, hang in there. Help is on the way. While striving for the kingdom of God, sometimes waiting on God takes an act of will.

♱

Michael G. Smith served as bishop of North Dakota for fifteen years and is currently the Assistant Bishop of Dallas. He works with the Navajoland Iona Collaborative and is a Benedictine Oblate and an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.

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♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Richmond, Va.
The Diocese of Etsako (Church of Nigeria)

By David Paulsen
Episcopal News Service

Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry is scheduled to preach at the 11:15 a.m. service this Sunday at Trinity Church Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, near the World Trade Center site. The church’s St. Paul’s Chapel became a focal point for pastoral outreach to Ground Zero after the attacks, with hundreds of volunteers ministering to first responders and the workers who were tasked with sifting through the ruins of the towers after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.

For the 20-year commemorations, Trinity Church is inviting the public to “A Time and Space for Remembrance and Healing” that will span the weekend, starting with a service at 8 p.m. tonight. After the service, St. Paul’s Chapel will remain open to all who “are seeking a place to pray, reflect, mourn, or simply sit with their memories,” according to the church. Congregations and dioceses across the Episcopal Church are preparing their own commemorations.

In the nation’s capital, Washington National Cathedral offered a Morning Prayer service today from its War Memorial Chapel led by the Rt. Rev. Carl Wright, bishop for armed forces and federal ministry. The cathedral will hold a memorial service at 11 a.m. Sunday, including the tolling of the cathedral’s funeral bell. The images of the 343 New York firefighters who died in the attacks will be displayed on the cathedral’s West Lawn.

Read the rest at Episcopal News Service.

The September 19 Fall Book issue of The Living Church is available online to registered subscribers.

In our cover story, Christopher Wells chronicles the dedication of the $67 million expansion of the largest Episcopal church, St. Martin’s in Houston, where President George H.W. Bush used to worship.

In News, Kirk Petersen reports that the Episcopal Church paid $4.5 million in legal fees to the Fort Worth diocese of the Anglican Church in North America after 12 years of unsuccessful property litigation. Episcopal Migration Ministries is scrambling to support Afghan refugees, and Neva Rae Fox has the story.

Fox also describes One Man’s Treasure, a Dallas-area charity that has provided free clothing to released Texas prisoners since 2005, to help them make a fresh start in society.

Pandemic lockdowns and separations have led to an increase in domestic and gender-based violence, and three articles address the issue from different parts of the world: Anne O. Weatherholt from the United States, Robyn Douglass from Australia, and Dr. Esther Mombo and Jesse Masai from Africa.

And it’s the Fall Books issue, so we’ve got lots of book reviews: Mac Stewart reflects on the sublime heights of John’s Gospel; W.L. Prehn on how Christians can use the news media rather than be used by it; Robert D. Edmunds on exploring the Old City of Jerusalem; Deonna D. Neal on scripture and ethics; and Poulson Reed on the prayerful use of leadership techniques from the for-profit sector.

All this plus more news, obituaries, and Sunday’s Readings, from an independent voice serving the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion since 1878. Consider subscribing today.

NEWS

• TEC Pays $4.5 Million to ACNA’s Fort Worth Diocese
  By Kirk Petersen

FEATURES

• One Man’s Treasure Helps One Man at a Time
  By Neva Rae Fox
• The Marvel of St. Martin’s, Houston
  By Christopher Wells
• Charles Henry Brent and a Post-Pandemic Vision
  for Christian Unity | By R. William Franklin
• Australian Church Confronts ‘Emergency’
  of Domestic Violence | By Robyn Douglass
• Wounded and Silenced: Gender-Based Violence
  and the Anglican Communion in Africa
  By Dr. Esther Mombo and Jesse Masai

ETHICS

• Intimate Partner Violence | By Anne O. Weatherholt

BOOKS

• Homilies on the Gospel of John | Review by Mac Stewart
• Reading the Times | Review by W.L. Prehn
• Gateways to the Divine | Review by Robert D. Edmunds
• Bridging Scripture and Moral Theology
  Review by Deonna D. Neal
• Pastoral Leadership | Review by Poulson Reed

OTHER DEPARTMENTS

• People & Places
• Sunday’s Readings

By Michael Smith

A Reading from Philippians 3:1-16

1 Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.

To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard.

2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh — 4 even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. 16 Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.

Meditation

Paul writes to the Christians at Philippi: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death.” Wait, what? It makes sense to want to know the power of resurrection, but who in their right mind would want to share sufferings and death? Paul seems to know something that we do not, or perhaps would rather ignore or deny: the paschal mystery of Christ points to the journey of all who are joined to him. You cannot have one without the other. Resurrection is linked to suffering and death, and vice versa. As the saying goes, there is no Easter Sunday without Good Friday.

In another place, Paul writes: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:3-4). Conversion to Christ and baptism mark our entrance into the pattern of suffering, death, and resurrection.

Fridays are traditional days to reflect on the passion and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some Christians abstain from meat as a reminder that Christ sacrificed his flesh; others walk and pray the Stations of the Cross. The 1979 Book of Common Prayer notes that Fridays are days of devotion to be “observed by special acts of discipline and self-denial” (BCP 17). What needs to die in you so that you might walk in newness of life?

♱

Michael G. Smith served as bishop of North Dakota for fifteen years and is currently the Assistant Bishop of Dallas. He works with the Navajoland Iona Collaborative and is a Benedictine Oblate and an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.

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

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

Church of the Holy Family, Chapel Hill, N.C.
The Diocese of Etche (Church of Nigeria)

By Rosie Dawson

Pressure is mounting on the Church of England’s Clergy Discipline Commission to revisit amendments to a code of practice that critics say will have the effect of silencing survivors of abuse and victims of bullying or miscarriages of justice.

The code supplements the Clergy Discipline Measure (2003), which lays out the processes for dealing with cases of clergy misconduct. Those processes have been repeatedly criticized by complainants and respondents for being psychologically harmful, lengthy, and expensive. Work is underway to replace the CDM with a new Clergy Conduct Measure.

Gavin Drake

The church says its aim in revising the existing code of practice was to protect complainants and others involved in clergy discipline procedures. But the director of the Jill Saward Organization, Gavin Drake, says the changes are “a clear abuse of power designed to cover up abuse, silence victims, and protect the reputation of the Church of England.” Named after Drake’s wife, who died in 2017, the JSO campaigns on behalf of victims and survivors of domestic violence.

Drake is particularly concerned about an amendment that says written documents and material relating to CDM cases can only be shared with legal representatives. He says it will prevent victims or survivors from accessing help from survivor groups and helplines.

“The Church of England provides legal aid for clergy who face accusations; and the archdeacon — who often brings the complaint — has the benefit of assistance from the diocesan registrar (solicitor); victims and survivors get no such help and most are unrepresented by lawyers,” Drake said. “Their only possibility of help and guidance is from family, friends, and support groups. It is vital that they should be able to share documents with them.”

“Those I know who are involved in bringing CDM cases fully understand the need to keep certain details confidential, but I am concerned about the rather draconian nature of this amendment which would prevent survivors from sharing information with therapists and others within their circles of support,” said Jane Chevous, cofounder of the national organisation Survivors Voices.

Another amendment forbids individuals from giving details or making any public comment about a case, regardless of whether they are party to it, a move interpreted as a “massive assumption of power” by Drake: “The Clergy Discipline Measure requires the Commission to prepare a Code of Practice for people ‘exercising functions’ — the Commission has no power to instruct any other person how to act or speak.”

The revised code was passed by General Synod in April. It had been tabled as “deemed business.” Such items are usually simply noted. On this occasion there was some discussion, but the particular paragraphs to which Drake objects were not debated.

“These were significant amendments ,” retired barrister and Synod member David Lamming told TLC. “It’s unfortunate that they were overlooked at Synod because they seem to me to go beyond what the measure authorises, which is that the guidance applies only to those who exercise functions within the CDM process.”

The timing of the amendments has led several commentators to conclude that they were drafted in direct response to concerns about the publicity surrounding a CDM complaint brought against the dean of Christ Church, Oxford, the Rev. Martyn Percy, in November last year. In May 2021 the President of Tribunals, Dame Sarah Asplin, effectively dismissed the case, ruling that it would be disproportionate to refer the matter to a tribunal.

The complaint against the dean came within the context of a long-running, very public and very acrimonious dispute between him and the college and cathedral chapter. Supporters on both sides have engaged in briefing a voracious media. A dedicated website keeps Dean Percy’s supporters abreast of every twist and turn in the saga.

“It is rarely a good idea to legislate from the circumstances of a single case as, appears to have been done here,” says Martin Sewell, a retired Child Protection lawyer and General Synod Candidate. While he believes the motivation behind the changes to the code of practice may have been well-intentioned, he says the effects run contrary to free speech and natural justice. “Much speculative gossip about the circumstances ensued about the nature of the case against Dean Percy. I don’t think it was wrong to have refuted such gossip in careful terms.”

The Church of England would not be drawn on the Percy affair in relation to the changes to the Code of Practice, but said that there had been number of recent cases in which details of complaints under the Clergy Discipline Measure had been made public, causing significant distress and upset for those concerned.

One priest who has fallen afoul of the new rules is the Rev. Robert Thompson, vicar of St. Mary and St James in West Hampstead, London, who announced on Twitter in April that he was subject to a CDM for online bullying. In the adjudication he later received, he was reprimanded for “weaponizing” social media and forbidden from disclosing any further details of the case, including the outcome.

“Robert got the result of his CDM and was told there was no case to answer,” says his friend and fellow priest, the Rev. Andrew Foreshaw-Cain, “but he was also told that he couldn’t share that news with anyone. And the instruction was couched in terms of a threat. It should really be up to Robert what he wants to share. He didn’t tweet anything that identified the complainant. The whole thing just smacks of an attempt to silence people within a system which everyone admits is broken.”

In a statement the Church of England said the update to the code was “simply to underline the expectation of confidentiality in clergy discipline cases, while they are ongoing. It said the Clergy Discipline Commission would respond to Drake’s concerns in due course.

The matter will be on the Commission’s agenda when it next meets in October, and David Lamming says the newly elected General Synod must look at the issue again in November or in February 2022, when it is expected to consider the proposed reforms to Clergy Discipline.

He says it is essential that the topic be revisited. “It damages the church’s reputation — for competence, as much as anything else — to have a code of practice that is so flawed.”

Synod was dissolved in July ahead of an election for a new Synod for 2021-26

Rosie Dawson is a freelance religion journalist and audio producer based in Manchester, U.K.

By Michael Smith

A Reading from Philippians 2:12-30

12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

14 Do all things without murmuring and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world. 16 It is by your holding fast to the word of life that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. 17 But even if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you — 18 and in the same way you also must be glad and rejoice with me. 19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I may be cheered by news of you. 20 I have no one like him who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. 21 All of them are seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22 But Timothy’s worth you know, how like a son with a father he has served with me in the work of the gospel. 23 I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with me; 24 and I trust in the Lord that I will also come soon. 25 Still, I think it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus — my brother and co-worker and fellow soldier, your messenger and minister to my need; 26 for he has been longing for all of you, and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. 27 He was indeed so ill that he nearly died. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, so that I would not have one sorrow after another. 28 I am the more eager to send him, therefore, in order that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. 29 Welcome him then in the Lord with all joy, and honor such people, 30 because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for those services that you could not give me.

Meditation

Between the time we come to faith in Christ and the time we are called from life in this world through death, this is when we “work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling.” In other words, it is the time God has given us to live out our lives of obedience to the Holy One.

Today the Church commemorates the “Martyrs of Memphis.” Among them were monastics of the Community of St. Mary who had been invited by the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee to establish a school adjacent to the cathedral and a home for post-Civil War orphans. As these endeavors began, however, the city of Memphis was visited by an epidemic of the Yellow Fever which killed thousands and caused thousands more to flee. In a scene reminiscent of 9/11, when police, firefighters, and other first responders ran toward the danger, ignoring the danger to themselves, the Sisters of St. Mary changed course and adapted to the new situation by becoming nurses to assist the suffering masses in their midst. Their selfless actions cost many of them their lives.

While we may not be called to risk our lives in the face of deadly diseases or to run into burning buildings for the sake of rescue, some are. In whatever way we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, remember that “it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

(It has recently been a blessing for me to meet the spiritual descendants of the Community of St. Mary at their convent in Greenwich, New York. The charism of their foremothers lives through them. May their tribe increase!)

♱

Michael G. Smith served as bishop of North Dakota for fifteen years and is currently the Assistant Bishop of Dallas. He works with the Navajoland Iona Collaborative and is a Benedictine Oblate and an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.

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

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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

The Community of St. Mary, Greenwich, N.Y.
The Diocese of Southern Ohio
The Diocese of Esan (Church of Nigeria)

By Kirk Petersen

With unanimous support of the bishops present and voting, the Church in Wales authorized a service of blessing for same-sex civil partnerships or marriages at its Governing Body meeting on September 6.

The legislation enables only the blessing of secular unions — same-sex couples still cannot have a religious marriage service in the Church in Wales. This positions the Welsh church between the Scottish Episcopal Church — which authorized same-sex weddings in 2017 — and the Church of England, which forbids same-sex blessings.

The legislation passed after several hours of debate by the necessary two-thirds majority in the clergy and lay orders, on votes of 28-12 and 49-10, respectively. The service will be used on an experimental basis for five years, and individual clergy will decide whether to participate in any such service.

The bishops’ vote was perhaps closer than the word “unanimous” would imply, as the only bishops who vote in the Governing Body are the diocesan bishops of the six dioceses of the church. Church spokesman John Richfield told TLC that there is one vacancy currently, and another bishop was ill, so the 4-0 vote constituted exactly a two-thirds majority of the Order of Bishops.

“I come out of this debate with no sense of triumph but believing that the Church in Wales has done the right thing under God for the LGBTQIA+ community,” said Bishop of St. Asaph Gregory Cameron, as quoted by the Daily Mail. Cameron introduced the legislation.

“The church has spoken decisively today in favor of blessings. There is a journey still to be taken but I hope that we can do it together with all the wings of the church,” he said.

Civil same-sex marriages have been legal in England, Wales, and Scotland since 2014, and in Northern Ireland since 2020.

The Church in Wales is among the smallest of the 41 autonomous provinces in the Anglican Communion, with membership reported at about 42,000 in 2018, making it slightly larger than the Diocese of Long Island in the Episcopal Church.

By Michael Smith

A Reading from Philippians 2:1-11

1 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

6 who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
7 but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
8  he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.

9 Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

Meditation

Today’s passage from the letter to the Philippians contains what many consider to be a hymn of the early Church known as the Carmen Christi. The song of praise begins: “Though Christ Jesus was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

This kenosis, or “self-emptying” in order to be receptive and completely open to the divine will, is evidenced not only in the life of Christ but in other biblical characters as well. For example, John the Baptist says of Jesus: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Mary of Nazareth responds to the news that she has been chosen to be the mother of Jesus by declaring: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

Paul prefaces the hymn about Jesus’ self-emptying with these words: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” How might God be calling me today to empty myself in order to be more receptive and open to the divine will?

♱

Michael G. Smith served as bishop of North Dakota for fifteen years and is currently the Assistant Bishop of Dallas. He works with the Navajoland Iona Collaborative and is a Benedictine Oblate and an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.

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

♱

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer

Today we pray for:

St. Matthew’s Cathedral, Dallas, Texas
The Diocese of Enugu North (Church of Nigeria)

SUNDAY’S READINGS | September 12, 2021

Prov. 1:20-33 or Isa. 50:4-9a
Ps. 19 or Wis. 7:26-81 or Ps. 116:1-8
James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-3

The confession of St. Peter is no indication that Peter possesses special knowledge or privilege in and of himself. He indeed is the first to say of Jesus, “You are the Christ,” but he is also quick to deny the necessity of Jesus’s suffering and, by implication, the need to share in the cross of Christ. So, he speaks correctly but without sufficient understanding. St. Matthew’s version of Peter’s confession leaves no doubt that the confession itself is a gift from God, not a unique insight of St. Peter. “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven” (Matt. 16:17). If we may speak of a Petrine privilege, it is the privilege of receiving a gift. This same gift is offered to anyone anywhere who comes to faith. “To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh or the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).

Now, here is the gift — not merely a confession of words, but a deed that scandalized the Jews and seemed like foolishness to the Greeks. “Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31). Christian faith is faith in the crucified and risen Lord. Indeed, we know the Lord as truly risen only if we know him first as crucified and our lives crucified in him.

Jesus is the new humanity who endures the death of the Old Adam, so that sin and death no longer have dominion over him or his children. We, the children of God, are caught up in this mystery. We each take up our cross, and we die with Christ. “Do you not know,” St. Paul asks, “that all of us who have been baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:3-4). “We know,” St. Paul continues, that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and that we too might no longer be enslaved to sin” (Rom. 6:6-7). The old self, the ego, the body of sin, every manner of depravity and destruction, are all put to death on the cross.

We die; we no longer live. Jesus died on the cross, and we died with him. He died for us, but not instead of us. Dying in union with him, we undergo what Karl Barth called “the vast negation beyond which by grace we stand” (Commentary on Romans). Or, as St. Paul says, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). Christ is our life. We have no other.

Here is a glimpse of new life in Christ. Christ is the Wisdom of God. He is perfect; he revives the soul, is sure and just, rejoices the heart, and gives light to the eyes. He endures and is true, is righteous, and bestows riches. He enlightens, offers great rewards, and makes us friends of God. He is more beautiful than the sun and excels every constellation of the stars (Ps. 19:7-11; Wis. 7:27-29). He is all in all. He is our life and salvation.

Look It Up: The Collect

Think About It: Only a contrite and broken heart can be led by the Spirit.