• The Rev. Ronald Abrams, rector, St. James Parish, Wilmington, North Carolina (Diocese of East Carolina);
• The Very Rev. Douglas Hahn, rector, St. Thomas, Columbus, Georgia, and Diocesan Convocation Dean (Diocese of Atlanta);
• The Rt. Rev. Santosh Marray, bishop assisting, Diocese of East Carolina;
• The Rev. LaRae Rutenbar, interim rector, St. Peter’s, Rome, Georgia (resident Diocese of Western Michigan); and
• The Rev. Nigel Taber-Hamilton, rector, St. Augustine’s-in-the-Woods, Freeland, Washington (Diocese of Olympia).

All candidates will be in the Diocese of Lexington for public gatherings, known as “walkabouts,” from July 31-Aug. 4, 2012.

The election of the seventh bishop of Lexington is scheduled for Aug. 18 at Christ Church Cathedral, Lexington.

Pending the required consents from a majority of diocesan standing committees and bishops with jurisdiction in the Episcopal Church, the consecration or investiture of the seventh bishop of the Diocese of Lexington will be held Dec. 15, 2012 at Christ Church Cathedral.

Information about the candidates is available at http://diolex.org/bishop7/candidates. A website with information about the search process and transition is at http://diolex.org/bishop7.

The sixth bishop of Lexington, the Rt. Rev. Stacy Sauls, announced in May 2011 that he would be resigning his position as bishop of Lexington to become chief operating officer of the Episcopal Church beginning in September 2011. Sauls was elected as the sixth bishop of Lexington in 2000.

But don’t think of this as some stuffy, distant appointment.

“We invited Barbara to tap into our inner poet and claim a creative expression of our faith,” said Bishop Suffragan Laura J. Ahrens, who took the lead on this effort. “By calling her ‘Diocesan Poet’ we hope she’ll help all of us, as a diocese, to claim our collective poetic voices,” she said.

Campbell understands her new role is more of an instigator than a distant expert, although she does come with credentials as a published poet.

A retired high school and college teacher, she also has the first assignment.

Love of poetry
Campbell loves poetry and has been writing poems for decades — “since I got my first computer more than 30 years ago,” she said. Her favorite poets (whom she calls her “poetic heroes”) include Billy Collins, Mary Oliver, Martin Espada, and Emily Dickinson.

She’s also an active lay woman serving in both parish and diocesan leadership, including St. Mark’s participation in a multi-year regional partnership to develop missional churches.

The poetry is connected.

“As Diocesan Poet, I encourage the writing of poetry as a way to continue to tell our stories,” she explained. “Directly related to us as Episcopalians is writing poems about our own reactions and those of others as we practice being missional, and our descriptions of living in a world and a church both constantly facing change. From time to time I will invite poetry written on a designated theme (see first invitation at end of article). If I can be an instigator of creativity, give an opportunity for a voice to be heard, encourage working as co-creators with God, the effort will be well-placed.”

# # #

The Remnant
by Barbara A. Campbell
(c) March 2012

Like metal filings to a magnet,
I am drawn to fabric stores.

I roll my carriage
through the new offerings
but know I am headed
to that corner of the store
where the remnants are,

usually strewn.

I don’t mind the mess.
I’m looking for that one piece of material,
just the right size,
perfect color and feel
for a special project.

That bolt of material down to its last yard
knows it is still worth
$9.99 or $12.00 or even $24.00 a yard,
so, too, those of us still in the church
know our worth lies in God’s grace.

We see, feel and know
(we count the congregation)
we are at the end of our bolt
and surrounded by new possibilities.

From all those shirts and dresses –
a warm quilt of memories,
from the Red Tag shelf –
the silky scarf so admired,
from the tail ends of skeins –
the knit laprobe
that delights with color, warmth and prayer.

What’s the next quilt, or scarf or laprobe
God’s fingers are itching to create?
What relationships of color and texture and warmth
will transform this remnant
into a new creation?

Within that grace,
will I be able to follow Her pattern?

More importantly,
will I be willing
to share my stash?

 Invitation #1: Annual Convention 2012

The themes of the 2012 Diocesan Convention are “Claiming, Equipping and Sending Leaders in God’s Mission.”  I invite poets in the Diocese to look through their journals and/or consider writing poems which address those themes.

Need a writing prompt? Here’s a few. It’s a broad topic. I’m being generous in options. Focus on one or two.
As you consider your specific example of what God is already doing in God’s world and consider how you can or do join in:

• When you listened, who gave you the best information on what was going on?
• Where are you as you see God working out God’s mission?
• What made you say, “I have to be involved”?
• What did you have to learn or perhaps unlearn as you lead?
• What’s the role of reflection as you lead in God’s mission?
• What are the joys, apprehensions, realities of being sent to lead God’s mission?

I welcome signed poems from all ages, in any language accompanied by an English translation. Please email questions you may have about the invitation, and your poems to:  campbellba@earthlink.net

_____________

More about Barbara Campbell:
Dr. Barbara Campbell has been writing poetry ever since she got her first computer more than 30 years ago.  Her poetic heroes are Billy Collins, Mary Oliver, Martin Espada and Emily Dickinson.  As an English teacher, she encouraged her students at New Britain High School and the University of Connecticut to write poetry.  She served as a Teacher Consultant with the Connecticut Writing Project, Storrs.  She was honored to have poems published by Bard College, the University of Connecticut, and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary.  Her poem, “Literalism – as hard to get rid of as bittersweet and poison ivy” was granted a Polly Bond Award of Excellence for Episcopal Communicators in 2008.

She is a member of the Vestry of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, New Britain, Senior Warden Emerita, Liturgical Assistant, Prayer Shawl Knitter, instigator of the Poetry Corner, and member of the Higher Education Committee of the Diocese of Connecticut.  In February 2012 she read GOEs at Kanuga. .Last year she inaugurated a “Poetry Sunday” at St. Mark’s. Local poets read their work during the adult forum and she worked with the parish rector, the Rev. Pat Hames, to have poetry woven into the liturgy of the main worship service. (This year, scheduled for Ma 20, 2012.)

Barbara holds two degrees from the University of Connecticut, one from Central Connecticut State University and is a member of the Class of 1964 of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, the second class to include women.

Now retired from both UConn and New Britain Public Schools, she lives in Farmington and canoes at Crystal Lake, Ellington.

From left, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town Desmond Tutu and David Crabtree, a news anchor at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina, and a deacon in the Diocese of North Carolina. Photo/Lynette Wilson

[Episcopal News Service – Washington, D.C.] Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town Desmond Tutu shared a personal story from his childhood during a mission-focused conversation May 19 at Washington National Cathedral, a story that has stuck with him for more than 70 years.

The 30-minute, live webcast conversation between Tutu and Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was moderated by David Crabtree, a news anchor at WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina, and a deacon in the Diocese of North Carolina. It is available on demand here.

Tutu told a story about his mother, a poorly educated domestic worker, who cooked and cleaned for blind, black women during an age in South Africa “when blacks were ‘inferior,’ or so they were told,” he said, adding that on this particular day, when he was 8 or 9 years old, he was standing with his mother at her place of work.

“I saw something that I never thought,” said Tutu in a soft voice. “There was a white priest in a long flowing cassock and he had a large sombrero hat, and as he passed he doffed his hat to my mother. White priest, black woman in apartheid South Africa…. For him it is the normal thing that you do for any woman. This is how he demonstrated that he believed that each of us is a God carrier … I wasn’t aware that it was something that would stay with me. I am 80 now.”

The priest was Trevor Huddleston, a well-known anti-apartheid activist who later became archbishop of the Anglican Province of the Indian Ocean.

“I still remember the impact of Trevor Huddleston’s doffing and that was acknowledging what we say in our theology, ‘you are created in the image of God and you are a God carrier,’ and that is what we in our proclamation seek to be saying….”

Crabtree asked Tutu and Jefferts Schori to define mission, where the church is concerned, and “how we best carry it out.”

“Mission is really making us all aware of the incredible love that God has for all of us,” said Tutu. “It says things like, do you know what, you don’t have to earn God’s love. God loves you, period, and everything flows from there.”

Jefferts Schori said, as Tutu pointed out, that mission is about receiving love and then responding by going out into the world to spread that love.

“It is a matter of calling the near and the far off together into the fold; it is about healing and reconciling; it is about making that love incarnate in the lives of people around us and in the lives of people on the other end of the earth.”

The conversation centered on the Anglican Five Marks of Mission. Crabtree asked, in reference to the first mark, “To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom,” how do you bring that proclamation to a world so in need of the message, but mired in doubt?

The question reminded Jefferts Schori of an encounter she had some years ago in a nursing home where a woman was wearing a sweatshirt that read on the front: “‘Jesus loves you’ and on the back it said, ‘but I’m his favorite.’ We all have a sweatshirt like that. We are all God’s favorite. But we need people to remind us of that,” she said.

The doubt, she continued, “is an opportunity for someone else to reach out and respond; it’s an opportunity to grow in your confidence that you are that deeply, and abundantly and eternally loved, but it doesn’t happen for most of us without that fleshly encounter.”

What we seek to say in the proclamation, Tutu responded, is not that the world we live in is a paradise, but that we do have an omnipotent God who “waits for us that we will be coworkers with this God.”

“And that is our privilege and our responsibility: to help turn this wilderness into the garden that God had always intended his world to be,” said Tutu, who served as archbishop of Cape Town and primate of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa from 1986 to 1996.

The Anglican Consultative Council, the Anglican Communion’s main policy-making body, between 1984 and 1990 developed the Five Marks of Mission to offer parishes and dioceses worldwide a practical and memorable “checklist” for mission activities.

The Five Marks of Mission are:

1. To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom,
2. To teach, baptize and nurture new believers,
3. To respond to human need by loving service,
4. To seek to transform unjust structures of society, and
5. To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.

In reference to Tutu’s story about the respect shown to his mother by Huddleston, the second mark and the Baptismal Covenant’s (http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/baptismal-covenant) promise to respect the dignity of every human being, Crabtree asked: “How do we better doff our hats to people?”

Jefferts Schori, who early on had been educated in a Roman Catholic school and was taught to curtsy whenever encountering a nun in the hallway, said she learned a lot from monastic tradition, where in recognition of God you bow to your brothers and sisters in community.

“If we walked through life in that way,” giving thanks and recognizing the image of God “everywhere we go, the world would work differently, very differently,” she said. “We live in a society that so often assumes enemy rather than image of God.”

In response to a question from Crabtree about how best to meet respectfully the needs of others, Jefferts Schori talked about the necessity for self-compassion.

“When we have a sense of our own wilderness and have some compassion for ourselves, we can then have compassion for others. It is essential to be able to see that wounded human being who is in need of partnership,” she said.

“That is the only avenue when we can be co-healers, co-creators with God in responding to that wound. I think that is the salvation of the world. But it requires finding the vulnerability in your own soul.”

Segueing into the fourth mark of mission, “transforming unjust structures of society,” Crabtree observed that finding that “vulnerability” can be “like swimming upstream” attempting to correct society’s unjust structures. “Yet you have to keep pushing bit by bit and trusting that God sees the pushing because we know God does see that …”

Speaking from his experience as an anti-apartheid leader in South Africa and witnessing the oppression and injustice many faced, Tutu said there was a time when many in the world, and even some of the leaders of the movement themselves, could have said, “this ghastly system, there is no way in which we can overturn it.”

“Well,” he laughed. “Remember what happened? People in South Africa did their thing, but it was very largely the support that we got from the international community, the anti-apartheid movement, you know those alliances that we had, young people demonstrating and working for divestment, and here we are today.

“In the 1980s and even in the 1990s, many were saying no, the only way that thing is going to be resolved in South Africa is through an awful, racial bloodbath, but it didn’t happen. And it was because of an alliance of people around the world.”

Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his efforts to end apartheid. Following the fall of apartheid in 1994, he headed South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Crabtree, who had remembered seeing Tutu on ABC’s “Nightline” with Ted Koppel in the 1980s, asked him when he realized that he had to partner with God in fighting apartheid. “You didn’t just appear there you had already been in this fight for a long time,” Crabtree said.

Again, Tutu laughed and said, “I don’t know. One, I suppose is to be careful what you ask God to do with you, ‘when you say here I am use me,’ and God takes you at your word.”

He said that the success of the anti-apartheid movement was due to the outpouring of prayers from around the world, adding that he was just one person involved in a much larger community. “You knew you were part of something that would ultimately not be defeated,” he said.

Regarding the power of prayer, in a follow up question posed by ENS following the webcast, Tutu said: “One of the wonderful things is that God does not usually let us know where our prayers really work on this side of death because we, like it or not, we’d get slightly swollen heads. But the fact that prayer works is not in doubt.”

Also following the webcast, Jefferts Schori said the work she does is “undergirded by prayers and the strength comes from places that I don’t know where. And there is a sense of peace in the midst of it that comes, I believe, from the prayers of many, many, many people.

“I cannot do the work I do without that. I could not do it without that. And it’s an immensely humbling experience to realize that.”

At the start of the webcast, before moving the conversation to mission, Tutu took a moment to commend the Episcopal Church for its “generosity and gentleness of spirit” when it could have been “abrasive” in its response to recent challenges in the Anglican Communion.

Crabtree wrapped up the conversation on mission by addressing the fifth mark, “To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.”

“God set us in this garden to care for it because it is the source of physical life for all that is,” Jefferts Schori said.

“Christians have unfortunately in our history often misunderstood dominion as taking it for private property. It’s about house-holding, husbanding, and housekeeping carrying for the stuff of creation.

“It will be healed as we grow into a greater consciousness that we are all intimately connected … we are a dynamic community … and we cannot dismiss any part of it – the whole of its being is essential to our life and to the life of every other human being and every other creature on this planet,” she said.

– Lynette Wilson is an editor/reporter for Episcopal News Service.

The Rev. Robert Hirschfeld

[Episcopal News Service] The Rev. A. Robert Hirschfeld was elected on May 19 as bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire.

Hirschfeld, 51, rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Amherst, Massachusetts (Diocese of Western Massachusetts), was elected on the first ballot out of a field of three nominees.

He received 91 votes of 166 cast in the lay order and 54 of 87 cast in the clergy order. An election on that ballot required 84 in the lay order and 44 in the clergy order.

The election was held at St. Paul’s Church in Concord.

Because the election occurred close in time to the 77th meeting of the General Convention in July, Episcopal Church canons provide (in Canon III.11.3) for the required consents to be sought from the bishops and deputies at convention.

Assuming that consent is received, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is scheduled to consecrate Hirschfeld on Aug. 4 at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord.

On Jan. 5, 2013, the bishop coadjutor will be installed as the 10^th diocesan bishop at St. Paul’s Church, succeeding the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, who was elected as bishop in 2003 and is retiring.

Prior to becoming rector of Grace Church, Hirschfeld was vice chaplain at St. Mark’s Chapel at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, and was assistant priest at Christ Church, New Haven. He spent a year as pastoral assistant at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Paris, France. A current member of the board of examining chaplains, he served on diocesan council and as a regional dean in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts.

He is a 1983 graduate of Dartmouth College, where he received his B.A. in Literature. In 1991, he completed a Master of Divinity degree at Berkeley Divinity School, Yale University in New Haven. Born in Minnesota, he moved to Connecticut in childhood.

Hirschfeld is married to Polly Ingraham, a teacher and writer, and has two sons and a daughter. He enjoys painting and outdoor activities, including cycling, rowing, hiking, and skiing.

“I am honored to join you in the holy work of bearing witness to the power of Christ’s forgiveness and the hope of his resurrection in this time and in this place,” Hirschfeld said in a message to the electing convention. “What I have discovered over the past few months of getting to know this diocese is that I have not felt called to be a bishop so much as I have felt called to be your bishop, the bishop of New Hampshire … I am inspired by the powerful sense of collegiality among the clergy and people of this diocese. I am inspired by your commitment to bring the Good News of God’s presence and power to more youth and young adults in this state. And I am inspired by your desire to equip the ministry of all the baptized for the life and restoration of the world.

“God has been doing a good and holy work in New Hampshire, and I am deeply delighted to share in it with you. Thank you for this incredible honor and for the trust that you have placed in me. May God bless you, Bishop Gene, the people, and parishes of the Diocese of New Hampshire, in the days and weeks ahead and forever more.”

The other nominees were:

• the Rev. Penelope Maud Bridges, 53, rector, St. Francis Episcopal Church, Great Falls, Virginia (Diocese of Virginia); and
• the Rev. William Warwick Rich, 59, senior associate rector for Christian formation, Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts (Diocese of Massachusetts).

Information about all the nominees is available here.

The Diocese of New Hampshire comprises about 15,000 Episcopalians worshiping in 47 congregations.

She had just refused to let him into the offices of Christ Episcopal Church in Delavan, Wisconsin, where she is the parish administrator.

“I spoke to him through the glass doors and I just had an uneasy feeling about him, so I wouldn’t unlock the door,” she told ENS in a recent interview. He said he needed help, but he wouldn’t say what kind of help.

“He got really belligerent and angry,” Karstetter recalled. He opened his coat, saying, “I don’t have a gun or anything, just let me in.” He began rattling the door.

Karstetter decided to walk away and go back upstairs to her office, where she watched the man test every door to get inside.

After she was sure he had left, she got in her car and went home, a decision she said she rarely makes.

“It just scared me to think what if I let him in,” she said. “I wonder what he did want.”

It wasn’t the first time Karstetter had encountered someone at the church who worried her, and it wasn’t the last. For instance, there was the woman who got angry when Karstetter offered her food instead of the money she demanded. The woman drove off, swearing and threatening to burn down the church. Karstetter reported the incident to the police.

“She has since been back, just a few weeks ago, asking for assistance again and we told her we’d give her food and not cash, and she said that takes too long,” Karstetter said. “She turned around and walked out mad again, but she didn’t threaten to burn down the church this time.”

Those incidents – and others – don’t prevent Karstetter from doing what she’s been doing in one form or another at St. Peter’s for the last 28 years: working at a parish that participates in a church-based rotating homeless shelter and offers a food pantry to supplement a larger community one.

“Part of the reason I keep coming back is that 95 percent or more of the people that come here for help are not a physical threat or danger to us at all. It’s just that small percent that get you scared,” she said. “The reason I come back is because you’ve got to love your neighbor as yourself, you know. It’s about the love and compassion that I think God puts in our hearts and part of the Baptismal Covenant that says is to seek and serve Christ in all people and to respect the dignity of every human being. If we treated everybody that came – those 95 percent – as a threat, what kind of message does that give them about the church being open and loving and welcoming to them?”

The question of balancing the church’s ministry with the safety of its ministers has been on many people’s mind, once again, since Douglas Franklin Jones, a homeless man, shot church administrative assistant Brenda Brewington and co-rector the Rev. Dr. Mary-Marguerite Kohn inside St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Ellicott City, Maryland, before killing himself earlier this month.

Speaking to reporters outside of Kohn’s funeral, Diocese of Maryland Bishop Eugene Sutton said the mourners also remembered “all who are on the front lines of ministry. These are the administrators, the secretaries, those priests who are alone” as their congregation’s sole employee.

Sutton also called attention to “a society that’s still has not figured out a way to keep deadly arms out of distressed persons who can do so much harm, and a society that will have people on the streets whom society at large has not cared for, and they end up at the doorsteps of our churches and our churches welcome them — our churches receive them and help them in the name of Christ.”

Craig Stuart-Paul, St. Peter’s warden, pledged days after the shootings that the parish’s ministry would continue, “and we won’t do it from behind bulletproof glass.”

To that end, the parish recently rededicated itself to its ministry, pledging to “transform” the office where the two women were killed “into an environment that welcomes all people to the church, and provides safety for those who will work there.” The parish also vowed to “reach out in search of the best ideas on how a church may minister to the poor and needy in suburban America” and to work with all of Ellicott City’s faith communities “to provide a hand up to the poor and needy in our neighborhood, developing a plan that is seeded with knowledge and broad community support.”

The Rev. Susan Rebecca Michelfelder, currently interim rector at Christ Church in Middletown, New Jersey, told her congregation in a recent sermon that the shooting had left her “truly bereft.”

Michelfelder has spent much her in ministry, as she puts it, “in neighborhoods with problems.” She’s been the victim of “smash and grab” crimes while in her car on the way to church. She’s had to warn employees to lock up their valuables or expect them to be stolen by the people the congregation served. She’s worked in a congregation whose pastor wore a bulletproof vest for a time after a mentally ill man burst into the church during a service and threatened to shoot him. A woman once asked her, “what do I have to do, stab you?” when Michelfelder refused to give her money.

“Maybe I’m addicted to excitement or something, but I like to be in neighborhoods with problems because there the church can really make a difference and a difference is needed,” she told ENS.

The Maryland parish is very much like her current parish in suburban New Jersey.

“It could have been us just as easily, absolutely,” she said. Noting that the parish helps run the Calico Cat Thrift Store, Cupboard and Pantry next door to the church, Michelfelder said, “we get scary characters walking in here sometimes, too.”

“It is truly a wonder that more of us haven’t been killed in the church office because that is often where people first come for help,” she said during the sermon.

There are steps that church workers, and their employers, can take to reduce the chances that an encounter with an unbalanced person will end in tragedy. Some are personal safety choices such as having a can of mace or pepper spray  — or in Karstetter’s case, wasp spray — handy. Some workers resist the temptation to come back to work in the evening to catch up, if it means working alone in the building.

Other steps are more institutional: installing adequate lighting, strong locks, video cameras, door bells on doors that are always locked, alarm systems or panic buttons; hiring security guards; and having a code word or phrase for staff to use with each other that indicate help is needed.

Security experts suggest limiting the access of non-employees to only certain parts of the building, and knowing who is in the building at all times. Training in how to de-escalate a potentially violent situation is another common suggestion, as is sharing information with colleagues at their church and others in the community about people they encounter.

Getting to know the people you serve is crucial, according to Sean Leas, an ex-Marine who is now the property manager at St. James Episcopal Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. What he and his colleagues have learned with “even our hardest cases, the ones who may be more of the criminal mind” among the 120 or so people who come to the parish’s weekday Anchorage breakfast program is the power of greeting each one, and wishing them well when they leave.

“Eventually with most of them you get to the point where they’re saying ‘hi’ and ‘bye,’ which is what you want,” he told ENS in an interview. “You want them to know that you see them, that you respect them.”

Lease said it is a “good investment to know the people who frequent our streets and may come into church,” yet in the end “our main thing isn’t to ask questions; it’s to feed them, and provide a safe place for everybody to eat.”

St. James keeps the doors to its offices locked, Leas said. The 10 to 12 paid and volunteer staff members who are in the building “try not to open the door to people unless we know them,” he said, adding, “we’re pretty loose with that and trusting.”

The parish hired a security guard nine years ago after “there were a couple run-ins with parishioners and some of the breakfast guests giving the parishioners a hard time” and “we know there was drug dealing and different things going on,” he said.

The degree to which any or all of these steps are needed and fit a particular church’s situation depends in part, Michelfelder said, on “how secure [the ministers] feel in general, how empowered they feel” to manage their own situation. That includes knowing and deciding to accept the risks.

“We know the church office is not a safe place,” she said. “We just know this. If you can’t live with that, you maybe shouldn’t work here.”

Deb Weber, the secretary at Christ Church, Delavan, is a case in point. As a former police officer who works part time at the Episcopal church, part time at Delavan United Methodist Church and runs the emergency shelter, Watson said she doesn’t feel very scared really, “but there are times I do feel uncomfortable.”

“If we let fear drive our ministry, we aren’t being very good about persevering against evil,” Karstetter said as Weber murmured agreement. “That fear is the evil that if we let get a foothold, we wouldn’t do any ministry.”

The church, Weber said, has a mission among people who might be frightful. “So many of the people we come in contact with, this is the only love they’ve ever seen,” she said.

That knowledge, and a good dose of empathy, help both Weber and Karstetter. “They work up the courage to come and ask for help, and then you treat them like they’re horrible, scary people? You can’t do that with everybody,” Karstetter said. “Even the people that sometimes you’re afraid of, we still need to respect their dignity even though they have substance-abuse problems and everything else. We still try to love them as Christ loved us.”

— The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is an editor/reporter for the Episcopal News Service.

La Convención General de la Iglesia Episcopal debatirá quién puede recibir la comunión. Foto/Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] La joven mujer que acudió a la iglesia episcopal de San Marcos [St. Mark's] en Hood River, Oregón, se veía alterada y preguntó si la iglesia le ofrecería la comunión.

“Realmente necesitaba algún apoyo ahora mismo y siento como si empezara con eso”, le dijo a la Rda. Anna Carmichael, la rectora de la parroquia.

El problema era que, si bien la mujer había asistido a varias iglesias, “nunca había sido formalmente bautizada y, no obstante, esa necesidad de sentirse en comunidad y la necesidad de sentirse apoyada tenía, en su mente, algo que ver también con la comunión”, explicó Carmichael.

“Yo sencillamente no podía decirle que no, lo siento no te puedo ofrecer eso”, precisó la rectora de la Diócesis de Oregón Oriental durante una entrevista reciente.

Existe una tensión, dijo entre “la teología que respalda la importancia del bautismo”, algo que según ella tiene “una increíble significación para mí” y “la auténtica realidad vivida de que hay personas que necesitan encontrar apoyo en su comunidad”.

He ahí un ejemplo del modo de pensar que respalda la propuesta de [la diócesis de] Oregón Oriental de que la Convención General permita a las congregaciones de la Iglesia “invitar a todos al altar para la Santa Comunión, independientemente de edad, denominación o bautismo”. La Resolución C040 de Oregón Oriental allanaría el camino para esta invitación mediante la eliminación del Canon I.17.7, que dice que “ninguna persona no bautizada podrá recibir la Sagrada Comunión en esta Iglesia”.

Es una de las dos resoluciones sobre el tema que la Convención tomará en consideración cuando se reúna del 4 al 12 de julio en Indianápolis. La diócesis de Carolina del Norte ha propuesto una revisión a largo plazo del asunto. La Resolución C029 pide que una comisión especial lleve a cabo “un estudio de la teología subyacente en el acceso al Santo Bautismo y la Santa Comunión” y recomienda a la 78ª. Convención General cualquier enmienda al Canon I.17.7 que crea necesaria.

Los textos de ambas resoluciones pueden encontrarse aquí. La de Oregón está acompañada por una declaración diocesana que explica su postura al respecto.

Esta será la segunda vez en los últimos años que se presenta ante la Convención lo que llaman, de diversa manera, comunión abierta, mesa abierta y comunión de los no bautizados. En 2006, la Convención General ratificó (a través de la Resolución D084) el Canon I.1.17 y pidió al Comité de Teología de la Cámara de Obispos y a la Comisión Permanente sobre Liturgia y Música [SCLM] que presentara a la reunión de la Convención de 2009 “una interpretación pastoral y teológica de la relación entre el Santo Bautismo y la práctica eucarística”.

En su informe a la Convención en 2009, la SCLM dijo que había estado en contacto con el comité de los obispos y que “estaba dispuesta a cooperar con ellos en el futuro sobre este importante asunto”.

Los obispos reportaron que había un estudio “en marcha”. En junio de 2009, el comité circuló [el documento] “Reflexiones sobre el Santo Bautismo y la Santa Eucaristía: una respuesta a la Resolución D084 de la 75ª. Convención General”, que posteriormente se publicó en Anglican Theological Review. El comité la llamó una “nota promisoria” porque “no suponemos que ésta sea nuestra última palabra en estas materias”.

“Es esencial entender las conexiones litúrgicas y doctrinales entre el bautismo y la Eucaristía, especialmente en una Iglesia que ha estado redescubriendo la centralidad del bautismo¨, escribieron los miembros en su conclusión. “Invitamos a la Iglesia [a participar] en esta labor”.

Este año, el comité de teología de los obispos informó en el Libro Azul (a partir de la página 51, aquí), que se está “emprendiendo un renovado compromiso con la teología de la Eucaristía”. [Los obispos] advierten lo que llaman “la práctica continua (y controversial) de invitar al no bautizado a recibir la comunión” y sugirieron que se necesitaba “una interpretación renovada y fundamental de la asamblea eucarística y de la celebración eucarística como la reunión por excelencia del pueblo de Dios”.

Carmichael dijo que Oregón Oriental comenzó a debatir lo que ella llamó “la cuestión de la práctica versus la teología” durante su convención [diocesana] de 2010 y convino en presentar una resolución a la Convención General.

“Para mucha gente aquí en la diócesis ya hemos comenzado a vivir en la práctica, que sé que nos coloca en una situación difícil, pero ésa es la realidad”, y agregó, “no verificamos a la entrada el carné de identidad” y a los desconocidos que se acercan a recibir la comunión no les preguntamos si han sido bautizados”.

“Sentimos que ha sido una realidad vivida por nosotros e imaginamos que puede ser cierto en otras diócesis también”, recalcó Carmichael.

La Rda. Beth Wickenberg Ely, canóniga para el ministerio regional en Carolina del Norte y presidente de la diputación a la Convención de esa diócesis, se hizo eco del mismo sentimiento. “Nuestra reacción visceral es que no solamente nosotros nos enfrentamos a esto”, dijo ella en una entrevista reciente. “Creemos que es probable que esto sea cierto para todas las diócesis”.

“Todos los domingos nos enfrentamos con esto”, agregó. “No es sólo una cosa de Navidad y Pascua. Si algo forma parte de nuestra vida en común, realmente debemos sacarlo a relucir y hablar sobre el asunto”.

De ahí, la propuesta de la diócesis de que la Iglesia estudie el fenómeno.

El diputado Joe Ferrell, profesor de derecho público en la Universidad de Carolina del Norte en Chapel Hill, defendió la resolución de su diócesis, no porque él se oponga a una comunión abierta, sino porque “tenemos un canon que específicamente lo prohíbe y mi punto de vista siempre ha sido que no escogemos las leyes que obedeceremos, a menos que nos veamos obligados a hacerlo por una superior autoridad moral, y yo no creo que este asunto nos lo imponga ese tipo de autoridad, de manera que debemos hacer algo con el canon”.

Ferrell dijo que si él “pudiera agitar mi varita mágica” el canon sería revocado.

“Nos quedaríamos con las rúbricas del Libro de Oración, que creo son perfectamente adecuadas”, dijo él en una entrevista. Al recordarle que el Libro de Oración Común guarda silencio sobre el tema, se rió entre dientes y replicó “así es, así es”.

Habiéndose criado en la Iglesia Episcopal, Ferrell, de 73 años, se acuerda [de la época] anterior al Libro de Oración Común de 1979, cuando la Eucaristía no era el oficio principal cada domingo y cuando la comunión rara vez formaba parte de bodas y funerales.

“Ahora es cosa corriente y, en particular en bodas y funerales, uno tendría graves problemas pastorales si intentara restringir a quien va a ser bienvenido al altar”, dijo. “Y lo tienes en alguna medida los domingos por la mañana”.

Su “conclusión” es ésta: “el clérigo que sienta que esto es importante desde un punto de vista pastoral no debería ser puesto en la posición de violar a sabiendas un canon que no podría ser más explícito”.

Los cánones de la Iglesia Episcopal sólo contienen una versión del Canon I.17.7 desde 1982, aunque el bautismo como un prerrequisito para la Santa Comunión se arraiga en los orígenes de la Iglesia cristiana primitiva. Al parecer la tradición se enuncia explícitamente en los cánones de la Iglesia Episcopal debido a un acomodo legislativo entre dos resoluciones en conflicto. En la Convención de 1982, reunida en Nueva Orleáns, los diputados y los obispos opusieron dos resoluciones que trataban sobre el Canon titulado “De las regulaciones respecto al laicado” (numerado entonces como Canon 16 del Título I).

La Resolución A48 (presentada por la Comisión Permanente sobre Relaciones Ecuménicas y que se puede consultar aquí a partir de la página 60) fue motivada por un mandato de la Convención de 1979 que mostraba cómo la Iglesia podía poner en práctica la declaración ecuménica, que entonces tenía seis años de emitida, “Hacia un reconocimiento mutuo de miembros”, que pedía se entendiera que el bautismo inicie a las personas en la totalidad de la Iglesia cristiana, según el suplemento de 1989 a la versión clásica anotada de la Constitución y Cánones de Edwin White y Jackson Dykman (hay un enlace disponible aquí).

La Resolución A78 (presentada por la Comisión Litúrgica Permanente que se puede consultar aquí a partir de la página 154) se basaba más específicamente en la interpretación de que la Iglesia Episcopal ahora consideraba el bautismo como la entrada de uno en la plena vida de la Iglesia. (En muchas partes de la Comunión Anglicana, si no en la mayoría, la confirmación sigue siendo un requisito antes de recibir la comunión).

“Las dos resoluciones reflejaban criterios y propósitos que diferían notablemente”, escribieron los autores del suplemento. “El diputado Charles Crump, de Tennessee, percibiendo los problemas inherentes a estas propuestas, así como el vasto tiempo legislativo y el debate que se consumirían en los plenos de cada cámara, redactó la Resolución A048 como un avenimiento”.

Los cambios que se reflejan en las tres resoluciones resultaron revolucionarios para muchos. Permitir que personas no confirmadas reciban la comunión era un cambio importante, como era la implicación adjunta de que los niños no tenían que alcanzar una indefinida “edad de discreción” antes de acercarse a la baranda del comulgatorio.

La tradición de la edad persiste en algunas familias y en algunas partes de la Iglesia Episcopal, la cual aún se empeña en reescribir sus cánones para adaptarse a la teología bautismal del Libro de Oración Común. Un resumen de parte de ese trabajo hecho por la Comisión Permanente sobre la Formación Cristiana y la Educación de por Vida comienza en la página 153 del Libro Azul de este año.

Sin embargo, el requisito del bautismo antes de la Eucaristía se mantiene y se remonta a la Iglesia primitiva. Por ejemplo, la Didajé, un catecismo que data de fines del siglo I o principios del siglo II, le dice a los cristianos “…pero no dejéis a nadie comer o beber de vuestra Eucaristía, a menos que haya sido bautizado en el nombre del Señor…” Y los eruditos sugieren que existen pruebas de fuentes litúrgicas de la Iglesia primitiva, incluida la Tradición Apostólica de Hipólito de Roma, de que los miembros no bautizados de la comunidad cristiana tenían que ausentarse completamente de la liturgia eucarística después de la proclamación de la Palabra.

Carmichael se remitiría a una fuente aún más antigua.

“Ésa es nuestra fabricación en torno al asunto, porque Jesús nunca dijo que uno tenía que tener el bautismo antes de sentarte a comer con él”, apuntó. “Luego, éste es el desastre que hemos creado y a veces me pregunto si en el gran plan de todas las cosas eso realmente importa. Cuando lleguemos al cielo, ¿a Jesús lo entusiasmará más que hayamos invitado a la gente o que le hayamos dicho a uno que puede venir y a otro que no puede?

Wickenberg Ely en Carolina del Norte sitúa al menos parte del problema en el contexto de la cuestión de la diversidad. “Creo que hemos sostenido la conversación acerca de la diversidad ad nauseam, pero no creo que lo hayamos tenido en el contexto de la mesa abierta”, dijo ella en una entrevista. “Para mí se trata de la diversidad, luego, ¿a quiénes vamos a dejar fuera? La respuesta, la respuesta bíblica a eso es: [no hay que dejar fuera] a nadie que quiera venir”.

El tema de la mesa abierta es también parte del conflicto de la Iglesia Episcopal “acerca de quiénes somos como Iglesia en el siglo XXI”, agregó.

Wickenberg Ely señaló que muchas personas que vienen a la iglesia con frecuencia “buscan ser acogidas dondequiera que van crean lo que crean”. Sin embargo, hay algunas iglesias que dicen “si vas a ser miembro de nuestra comunidad en Cristo, esto implica disciplina y compromiso, de manera que no perteneces tan sólo por virtud de ser hijo de Dios, sino por virtud de estar dispuesto a comprometerte con este modo de ser hijo de Dios”, enfatizó, agregando que ésta es la posición de la Iglesia Católica Romana.

La Iglesia Episcopal podría ser “conocida como una Iglesia que recibe a cualquiera en la Mesa del Señor, dispuesta a tomar en cuenta las dudas, dispuesta a dialogar con personas de todas las creencias y de ninguna -una posición generosa como Iglesia”, sugirió.

“¿Queremos que nos conozcan como una Iglesia que va hacia el futuro? ¿O queremos que nos conozcan como una Iglesia que tiene algunas fronteras, algunas expectativas [legales y canónicas], también con expectativas [prácticas] y educativas, o queremos estar en el medio?” preguntó ella. “Quiero decir, ¿quiénes vamos a terminar de ser? Ésta es justamente una de las cosas acerca de esta discusión que me ha dado que pensar”.

Esas dudas crean aun un contexto mayor para el problema de la comunión. Eliminar el requisito bautismal para participar en la comunión tendría indudablemente grandes implicaciones ecuménicas. En 2008, la Comisión Permanente Interanglicana sobre Relaciones Ecuménicas sostuvo su oposición a una mesa abierta en el reconocimiento -que alguna vez fuera revolucionario- de un bautismo común, haciendo notar que esa aceptación “ha hecho posible las empresas ecuménicas”.

En La visión ante nosotros [The Vision Before Us] la comisión advirtió que “un paso hacia la comunión oficial de los no bautizados debilita, amenaza y, en último término, niega los dogmas ecuménicos básicos”. Los miembros también advirtieron que la credibilidad anglicana en el diálogo ecuménico se ve amenazada cuando los textos anglicanos dicen una cosa, pero la práctica sugiere otra.

“La práctica de admitir personas no bautizadas a la Eucaristía echa por la borda un siglo de entendimiento y desarrollo ecuménicos”, concluyen.

La mujer que acudió a San Marcos en busca de apoyo ha seguido asistiendo a la parroquia regularmente, y Carmichael dijo que ellas dos han sostenido “conversaciones regulares respecto a cómo puede llegar a participar más en la comunidad y eso incluye, cuando esté preparada, la decisión de ser bautizada”.

“No es un prerrequisito para poder participar en la vida comunitaria, ya que eso es una decisión adulta acerca de su fe, pero yo estoy dispuesta a acompañarla en el trayecto cuando ella esté dispuesta”.

Infórmese más al respecto

A continuación una lista escogida de materiales adicionales (además de los apuntados antes) sobre el tema de las personas no bautizadas que reciben la comunión:

“Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (Faith and Order Paper No. 111, the ‘Lima Text’), World Council of Churches Faith and Order commission (1982)
["Bautismo, eucaristía y ministerio (Documento de Fe y Orden No. 111, el llamado 'Texto de Lima'), Comisión de Fe y Orden del Concejo Mundial de Iglesias (1982]

Open, the journal of the Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Music, essays
[Open, el diario de Parroquias Asociadas para Liturgia y Música, ensayos]

•   “Baptism and eucharist: challenges,” Andrew Waldo (2000)
•    “Baptism and communion,” Stephen Reynolds (2001).

Ensayos publicados en Anglican Theological Review

•   “Baptism, Eucharist, and the Hospitality of Jesus: On the Practice of ‘Open Communion,’” James Farwell (2004)
•   “In Praise of Open Communion: A Rejoinder to James Farwell,” Kathryn Tanner (2004)
•   “A Brief Reflection on Kathryn Tanner’s Response to ‘Baptism, Eucharist, and the Hospitality of Jesus,’” James Farwell (2005)
•   “Opening the Table: The Body of Christ and God’s Prodigal Grace,” Stephen Edmondson (2009).

— La Rda. Mary Frances Schjonberg es redactora y reportera de Episcopal News Service. Traducido por Vicente Echerri.

En inglés: http://bit.ly/IWxILP

This result of the vote by the House of Bishops completes the make-up of the 16 member voting body of the CNC *which will meet for the first time later this month.

The Most Reverend and Rt Hon Rowan Williams. Dr Williams announced in March that he will stand down on 31 December 2012.  He will take up the position of Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

CNC membership
Chair – the Rt Hon the Lord Luce KG, GCVO
The Reverend Canon Clare Edwards, elected from the Diocese of Canterbury by their Vacancy in See Committee
Mr Aiden Hargreaves-Smith – Diocese of London – elected by General Synod to serve as member of the Commission for a five year period
Mr Raymond Harris, elected from the Diocese of Canterbury by their Vacancy in See Committee
Professor Glynn Harrison – Diocese of Bristol –  elected by General Synod to serve as member of the Commission for a five year period
Mrs Mary Johnston – Diocese of London – elected by General Synod to serve as member of the Commission for a five year period
Mr David Kemp, elected from the Diocese of Canterbury by their Vacancy in See Committee
The Most Revd Dr Barry Morgan, Primate of The Church in Wales, elected by the Standing Committee of the Anglican Communion
The  Rt Revd James Newcome, the Bishop of Carlisle – elected by House of  Bishops
The Very Revd Andrew Nunn – Diocese of Southwark – elected by General Synod to serve as member of the Commission for a five year period
The Rt Revd Michael Perham, the Bishop of Gloucester – elected by House of Bishops
The Reverend Canon Mark Roberts, elected from the Diocese of Canterbury by their Vacancy in See Committee
Mrs Caroline Spencer, elected from the Diocese of Canterbury by their Vacancy in See Committee
The Revd Canon Peter Spiers – Diocese of Liverpool – elected by General Synod to serve as member of the Commission for a five year period
The Revd Canon Glyn Webster – Diocese of York – elected by General Synod to serve as members of the Commission for a five year period
The Right Reverend Trevor Willmott, elected from the Diocese of Canterbury by their Vacancy in See Committee

In addition, the Archbishops’ Secretary for Appointments( Ms Caroline Boddington), ), the Prime Minister’s Appointments Secretary (Sir Paul Britton) and the Secretary General of the Anglican Communion (Revd Canon Kenneth Kearon) are non-voting members of the Commission

Full background on the CNC

The recipient of the 2012 Virginia Seminary Ford Chair, a gift of Susan Ford to a member of the graduating class who has exhibited a strong commitment to the community life and mission of the Seminary, was Virginia Cuthbert Wilder from the Diocese of Western North Carolina.

The recipients of the Harris Award, given each year to candidates for Holy Orders who have demonstrated academic excellence and leadership ability, were Elizabeth A. Locher (Diocese of Virginia) and Kyle M. Oliver (Diocese of Milwaukee).

The St. George’s College Prize for study at St. George’s College in Jerusalem was given to Daniel M. Cenci (Diocese of North Carolina), and the Dudley Speech Prize, awarded to graduating students who, in the opinion of the faculty, have demonstrated excellence in the public reading and interpretation of the Scriptures and the Liturgy, was given to Florence May Mei Jee (Diocese of Eastern Kowloon) and Shawn O. Strout (Diocese of Washington).

This year, the Seminary conferred Doctors in Divinity, honoris causa, upon the Rev. P. Roger Bowen, Episcopal school leader and former headmaster of St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes in Alexandria, Virginia; the Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington; the Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris, retired suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts; Fr. Michael Lapsley SSM, South African Anglican priest and social justice activist; the Rev. Canon Louis C. Schueddig, president of the Alliance for Christian Media and “Day 1″ in Atlanta, Georgia; and the Rt. Rev. Michael Louis Vono, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande.

For their class gift to the Seminary, the seniors raised almost $8 thousand to support the acquisition of an altar that will grace the new prayer garden in the restored ruins of the old chapel.

“This is such a fitting gift from our class,” said Stephen McGehee, who spear-headed the initiative, “We started our seminary life in the old chapel, but with the fire, we learned to adapt to new worship settings, reminding us that the power of worship is as much about community as it is about place… the new altar, in an open space in the prayer garden, will reflect our actual worship experience as seminarians in this place.”

Ascension Day 2012
Dear Friends:

The city of Chicago is awash with preparation for the NATO Summit, which begins on Sunday. Many of us are approaching this event with trepidation. We are unsure about everything from traffic and public safety to how we should speak and preach about the complex and troubling moral issues of national security, economic inequality, and care for the poor that the summit and its protesters raise.

The Bible has a lot to say about these issues of money, fear and violence. While we may be unsettled by the NATO Summit and the conflict it engenders, as Christians, we cannot turn our back on it. But we can pray.

As the summit begins, let us cover it-marinate it, as I sometimes say-in prayer. Please include this collect in your services on Sunday and encourage the people of your congregations and your communities to include the NATO Summit and the protesters in their prayers:

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart, and especially the hearts of the leaders who gather now in Chicago, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, 823)

Today we celebrate the risen Christ ascending into heaven and empowering us to continue his work on earth. As we answer his call together, know that you and your ministry are included, with gratitude, in my prayers.

Faithfully,

Jeffrey D. Lee

Bishop of Chicago