Living in the Light

The United Thank Offering Ingathering at the Convention Eucharist, while a highly visible and moving event, is but one part of a process that moves along year in and year out and is, at its core, all about THANKFULNESS.

The UTO is not meant to be about writing a check once or twice a year for ingatherings at the parish level. Instead, it’s about the discipline of prayer. People of all ages are encouraged to offer prayers of thanks everyday. As these prayers for blessings big and small are offered, donations — just a coin or two — placed inside a UTO “blue box” are encouraged. These offerings are turned over to parish-based UTO coordinators once or twice a year during ingatherings. This money, in turn, is combined with offerings from congregations around the diocese and sent to the national UTO office where it’s added to all other offerings. Overall, over the past few years, gifts given in thank-filled prayer have totaled $2 million-$3 million. This money is returned to dioceses in the form of grants to further mission and ministry, and the circle of thankful people expands.

The grant process begins at the local level in each diocese and province, with an organization or ministry contacting the diocesan UTO coordinator for an application. Once the application is completed, each diocesan bishop must approve the UTO grant requests from their diocese, verifying each meets the two primary UTO criteria:

• addressing compelling human need

• advancing the mission and ministry of the church

Each diocese may submit only two grant applications each year, and the diocesan bishop must rank them in order of need. In the case of the Diocese of North Carolina, the bishop works closely with the diocesan UTO coordinator and her ECW committee in order to complete the grant requests every January.

Applications are then forwarded to the National UTO Commitee. As explained by Joy Tway, immediate past president of the UTO, the review process goes like this: “After months of work talking to every organization and ministry applying for UTO grants and working with diocesan coordinators and bishops to obtain the best information and greatest understanding of each need, the final grant review session is nine days of blood, sweat and tears, and much prayer.” There’s never enough money to meet all the requests.

In a General Convention/ECW Triennial year, grants are voted on and announced during Convention/Triennial. Attending the 2006 grants hearing were diocesan UTO coordinators as well as some ECW Triennial delegates and interested clergy.

Wednesday is the final day of Triennial. After morning Eucharist the Presiding Bishop-elect is scheduled to visit the ECW Plenary. I’ll be there, and once that’s over will head home to North Carolina. Just because I’ve left Columbus, though, I’m not done blogging. There’s still things to share with you, information there just wasn’t time to post. So please check back over the next week or so for news and odd bits from our church’s tremendous international gathering.

On Monday’s broadcast of General Convention Nightly (see “How it Works” posted on Friday, June 16), Bishop Michael Curry offered a reflection about the challenges and opportunities presented at this 75th General Convention, where a budget focused on ending poverty has been pursued and a commitment to the inclusion of young people honored.

He quoted from a familiar hymn - come Holy Spirit our souls inspire - which was sung by the sequestered bishops as they prepared themselves for the of electing a new Presiding Bishop. The Holy Spirit, he said, “came into the room of bishops and moved us in ways we never dreamed. …For many of us, it was like Pentecost.” He went to add that this General Convention, which made history with the election of a female Presiding Bishop,

may well be part of God’s dream for a new world. We all came here with ideas and dreams, but it’s helpful to remember God has God’s ideas and dreams.”

When you come to ECW Triennial and General Convention, you come to work. Doing that work means going from one too-cold or too-warm meeting room to the next too-cold or too-warm meeting room, and that requires a heck of a lot of walking. What’s in short supply are opportunities to experience local culture.

Not to worry, though. Your crack ECW delegation discovered, without even having to leave the hotel/convention center, a delectable Ohio tradition known as Buckeyes.

No, not the Ohio native. No, not the college team. After a brief amount of hands-on research, we have come to deeply appreciate the dense chocolate and peanut butter confection that in candy form is shaped to resemble the large nutlike seed of the buckeye shrub. Or is it a tree? No matter.

What barbecue is to North Carolina, buckeyes are to Ohio. People guard their buckeyes recipe. Buckeyes are sold for all manner of fund-raisers. Ohioans are proud to share them (they come in handy individually wrapped packages). So, in the spirit of giving, we thought we’d share as well. Thanks to the creamy goodness and stratospheric calorie count of another Buckeyes incarnation, Buckeye Cheesecake, we stayed charged for days on end. Let’s hear it for sugar highs!

Buckeyes, the mouths of these humble North Carolinians salute you.

The coordination of a daily, common worship for thousands of people must be exquisitely timed. It involves a cast of hundreds. There’s a revolving and international group of greeters, presiders and preachers, deacons and readers, musicians, singers, eucharistic ministers, altar guild members, and so on. There’s a team of American Sign Language interpreters. (The signers pictured here are preparing for the start of the liturgy.) Visual artists, sound engineers, the North American Association for the Diaconate (responsible for the daily intercessions) and the Ministry in Daily Life Committee of the Standing Commission on Ministry Development (responsible for crafting the daily scripture discussion questions) also play key roles in the gatherings. The fundamental assumptions that guided the design of the liturgies are:

• A committment to the rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer and the challenge of the Baptismal Covenant

• An acknowledgement that extraordinary gatherings should not attempt to replicate the worship of a local faith community

• An awareness that essentials should not be overwhelmed by non-essentials

• Sensitivity to the diversity of language and culture that characterizes the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion

The Presiding Bishop has noted that “we are using the fullness of our liturgical possibilities (at this convention).”

That’s an understatement. Readings and prayers are offered in multiple languages — English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, and Native American, for example. Music has ranged from organ to Gregorian-style chants, to soft rock, to jazz. I have to say, the deep, round, soft tones of an alto sax were surprisingly moving. We have offered prayers for, among others, “all fathers, grandfathers, godfathers, foster fathers, and all who offer parental love and guidance,” environmental conservation, the bishops of the Church, the delegates and nations represented here, justice for all people, the ministries of women, and always for the unity of the church.

But also, as the Presiding Bishop wryly noted one morning after nearly dropping something while at the altar: “There is no perfect liturgy.”

True. Consider the plight of the guys from the band that was to play on “Jazz Sunday” (Father’s Day). There were many problems with their flight from Houston to Columbus the day before. They finally arrived. However, their clothes and, worse, their instruments did not. This situtation required a late-night trip to Wal-Mart for clothing and a mad scramble to rent instruments.

Still and all, we’ve come awfully close to perfection. Over the course of these 9 days, there’s bound to be something that has spoken to the soul of everyone present, young and not so young alike.

It is hard not to believe in the viability and vigorousness of ONE holy, catholic and apostolic church when you hear thousands of voices lifted in song, prayer and greeting, when you drink from the same cup.

Today, the day after history was made and a woman, the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, was elected the next Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, some General Convention and ECW Triennial attendees began wearing pink badges that said, “It’s a girl!”

Meanwhile, unhappy with the results of the election, the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth has already filed an appeal for alternative primatial oversight. In other words, they want to be immediately removed from the Episcopal Church USA. Because of the Episcopal Church’s tradition of autonomy for its dioceses, including the right of dioceses to elect their own bishops, three dioceses — Quincy, IL; San Joaquin, CA; Fort Worth, TX — have not ordained women.

Now under consideration is a resolution that would change how a Presiding Bishop is chosen. Instead of leaving the election to the House of Bishops, as is currently the case, the House of Deputies - meaning clery and laity - would also have a vote.

So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. (2 Corinthians)

Look at the North Carolinians recently spotted in and around the Convention Center.

The Rev. Winston Charles

The Rev. Clifford Coles

Bishop Gary Gloster and wife Judy

Anne Butler and Eva Morriss

Patricia Barnes of the Church Periodical Club (ready to distribute candy for the CPC-sponsored afternoon “energy lift”)

Alice Freeman and the Rev. Philip Byrum

The significance of the election of the Right Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori as the next Presiding Bishop is many layered. Some who made their way to the ECW Plenary Room after the announcement found a wonderful and poetic irony in the fact that just as we’re celebrating the 30th anniversary of the approval of women’s ordination, a woman is for the very first time elected Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. It was, they believe, a bold and welcome move. “About time!” exulted a group of women from Florida as they gave each other high-fives. Others were saddened and/or angered that the Episcopal Church, which has already alienated parts of the Anglican Communion by consenting to an openly gay man as bishop, now runs the risk of further alienation by choosing a woman to head the church. “I’m afraid we’ve just pushed the envelope too far,” said a woman from the Diocese of Atlanta.
Of the 311 bishops eligible to vote in the election for PB, 188 - 60% - cast ballots. The House of Bishops remained in session after choosing a Presiding Bishop-elect until the House of Deputies (comprised of clergy and laity) concurred with the choice. After some discussion, the deputies did concur and the bishops certified the election. Shortly after 5 p.m. on Sunday Bishop Jefferts Schori, accompanied by Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, came to the House of Deputies where an overflow crowd erupted in sustained applause. The Most Rev. Griswold spoke first. He said, “It is my privilege to introduce formally to this House the Presiding Bishop-elect, the Bishop of Nevada, Katharine Jefferts Schori.”

The new Presiding Bishop began her brief remarks by stating, “I am awed and honored and deeply privileged to have been elected.” She then spoke a few sentences in Spanish. After reverting back to English, she went on to thank, “all my brother bishops who walked this journey with me”; her husband, Richard “Dick” Schori; their daughter Kate and Kate’s husband Aaron Harris; and finally the people of Nevada. “The hardest part of this day,” she said, “is beginning the process of saying ‘adios and adieu.’” Later, at another meet and greet, the bishop added to her earlier remarks.

I believe God welcomes all to His table, those who agree and those who disagree, those with a variety of theologies and a variety of opinions. …I will bend over backwards to build relationships with those who disagree with me.”

Bishop Jefferts Schori is 52-years old. She was ordained deacon and priest in 1994, and consecrated the ninth Bishop of Nevada on February 24, 2001. Prior to entering the priesthood she was a scientist and oceangrapher. Presiding Bishop Griswold’s 9-year term ends on November 1, 2006. The PB-elect, whose investiture service is set for November 4 at National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., joked, “I hope he stays healthy until November.”

At 3:15 this afternoon, while in the second of the day’s Triennial workshops, National ECW President Harriett Neer popped in to say that the House of Bishops had come to a decision about a new Presiding Bishop and an announcement would be made in the House of Deputies. Harriett left to notify the next workshop group. The rest of us hurriedly packed up and joined the throng of people headed from hotel meeting rooms to the House of Deputies in the convention center. There was much buzz, of course. Mostly, people were surprised that a decision had been reached so quickly. (After a 9 a.m. Eucharist at the convention center, the bishops had been sequestered at 10:30 a.m. at nearby Trinity Episcopal Church for debate and vote.)

Copyright 2003
Episcopal Church

It was standing room only in the hall. At 3:30 p.m., as we strained to hear the words coming through a weak sound system, it was announced the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Bishop of Nevada, had been elected the 26th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church on the 5th ballot. There was stunned silence for a few seconds; Bishop Schori, as the only female candidate for PB (in fact, the first woman ever to be nominated for the job), was in the minds of many the dark horse. Then came thunderous applause, screams of delight and tears. Some people shook their heads in disbelief. Still others hugged the person next to them, whether in joy or for comfort I don’t know. Everywhere you turned, cell phones were in use; people were calling home with the news.

Earlier this week, Bishops Charles Jenkins (Louisiana) and Duncan M. Gray (Mississippi) came to a plenary session of the ECW to speak about the crippling devastation in their dioceses resulting from Hurricane Katrina in 2005; to ask that people not forget the massive amount of recovery work yet to be done; and to introduce “Darkness into Day,” a $6.5 million fund-raising campaign to rebuild the Episcopal Church in their states.

More than 40 churches were either totally destroyed or severely affected by the storm. Parishes are without resources. In some areas, over 65% of parishioners lost their homes, as have scores of church staff. In some cases, there’s no money to pay clergy. Episcopal Relief and Development cannot help because its charter doesn’t allow it to target church infrastructure and rebuilding. Thus, the bishops have initiated a multi-phase program to address immediate and long-term needs.

During her homily on Friday, Triennial chaplain Marilyn Engstrom challenged every woman present to donate whatever cash they could comfortably give at that moment, “for a quick offering to show the support of the women of the church for our sisters and brothers in Christ” in Louisiana and Mississippi. The total giving would then be matched by the National ECW Board. About 10 minutes later, the collection was taken away to count. When Jenkins and Gray were called back to the Plenary Room later that day, they were presented with a poster-style “check” for “at least $10,000.”

When the women heard the giving had come to $10,000 one table of delegates spontaneously began singing the Doxology. They were joined by everyone present. “There are many in the church who wonder at the usefulness of women’s ministries. Because I’ve worked with the women of Louisiana, I know better. I am not surprised at this outpouring from women across the entire Episcopal Church,” said Bishop Jenkins before having to stop to compose himself. Bishop Gray was so overcome he was momentarily unable to speak.

The women then suggested the bishops take the ECW challenge to the House of Deputies and House of Bishops.