MY BROTHERS
AND SISTERS IN CHRIST, ON THIS OCCASION OF THE ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-NINTH
REGULAR SYNOD OF THE DIOCESE OF SPRINGFIELD, I HAVE THE PRIVILEGE OF
ADDRESSING YOU AS YOUR BISHOP IN THE FIFTEENTH YEAR OF THIS EPISCOPACY,
AND I DO SO IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY
SPIRIT. Amen.
On behalf of
the Rector, Vestry and parishioners of the Episcopal Parish of Alton,
comprised of Trinity Chapel and St. Paul’s Church, and with sincere
appreciation for their hospitality and organizational support, I am
pleased to welcome all of you to this Regular Synod of the Diocese of
Springfield. As some will recall, we had planned to have Synod here in
2003, but the untimely death of the Rector, Fr. David Heneghan, in
February of that year preempted our coming, and we were pleased to
accept the gracious invitation to go to the Chapel of St. John the
Divine, Champaign, instead. Now, three years later, we rejoice at being
in Alton, giving thanks for past ministry and future opportunities to
stand and witness on behalf of the Gospel of Jesus Christ strengthened
by the Grace of God who leads us through both pleasant and troubling
times.
The theme of
this Synod is “We are one in the Spirit.” To be a part of this world
and its value system is to be connected with that which is passing
away. If we are content with being in that place, sooner or later we
will be divided from God and each other. But thanks be to God, as
Christians we are in Christ and as such we are “resident aliens” in this
world, and by His grace we are not bound by the temporal powers of this
world which always lead to death. By the action of His Holy Spirit we
are bound to God and to each other in Christ. Truly by the providence
of God and the sacrifice of Christ, “we are one in the Spirit” to the
extent “we are one in the Lord.”
Joining us at
this Synod, are four (4) very special guests. Though you will have the
privilege to meet them as they bring greetings to this Synod, and two of
whom will preach, one at Evensong tonight and the other at the Synod
Eucharist tomorrow morning, I want to introduce each of them to you
now. I would ask them to stand as I call their name.
With us is
the Rt. Rev. Robinson Cavalcanti, Bishop of our Companion Diocese of
Recife. He will be the preacher at tomorrow’s Eucharist.
Also with us
are the Very Rev. Frank Marshall and his wife, Beverley, representing
Bishop John Holder and our Companion Diocese of Barbados. The last time
Father and Mrs. Marshall were with us he was the Rector of St. Mary’s
Church, Bridgetown, Barbados. Currently he serves as the Dean of the
Cathedral Church of St. Michael and All Angels, Bridgetown, Barbados,
and we are honored that he has agreed to be the preacher tonight at
Evensong.
And here with
us representing our esteemed neighbors to the northwest, the Rt. Rev.
Keith Ackerman and the Diocese of Quincy, is the Rev. Canon Ed den
Blaauwen. Fr. den Blaauwen serves as the Canon Missioner of the Diocese
of Quincy.
I thank you for coming for by so doing you
support us in our Faith and ministry. Truly we are “One in the Spirit,”
and we are most pleased to extend a warm welcome to each one of you.
As members of
this sacred, Christian, faith community, of which Jesus Himself is the
head, it is an honor to recognize those who have joined us in ordained
ministry or whose ministry status has changed since our last synod.
Please stand as I call your name:
The Rev.
Norman M. Erb-White was ordained to the Sacred Order of Deacons on the
Feast of St. Bartholomew, August 24, 2006, at the Cathedral Church of
St. Paul, Springfield, Illinois. Currently he is enrolled in the United
States Air Force training course for Chaplain Candidate Program Officers
at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio;
The Rev.
Brian T. Kellington and his wife, the Rev. Laurie R. Kellington, a
deacon, became canonically resident in the Diocese of Springfield,
transferring from the Diocese of Albany, before our last Synod but did
not take up residency here to serve St. Paul’s Church, Pekin, until the
first part of November 2005;
The Very
Reverend Robert Brodie has come to us from the Diocese of Tennessee. He
is the Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Springfield;
The Rev.
Canon David C. Anderson has come canonically to us from the Diocese of
Los Angeles and, living in Atlanta, Georgia, serves as the President and
Chief Executive Officer of the American Anglican Council; and
Letters
Dimissory were received from the Diocese of Los Angeles on behalf of the
Reverend Frank P. Munoz. Fr. Munoz is a Lieutenant in the Chaplain
Corps, United States Navy Reserve, serving on Active Duty and with his
family has just begun a two year tour in Sasebo, Japan.
I believe the
Diocese of Springfield is particularly blessed to have these new
laborers in Christ’s vineyard numbered among us. The fact that these
godly people desire to share with us in ministry says volumes about
their orthodox ministry and ours, and in some cases it says volumes
about the crisis The Episcopal Church has created. I pray you along
with me think it is laudable they have joined us, and that together we
are thankful to God for their good witness and ministry.
During this past year, the following letters dimissory were issued by
me:
The Rev.
Beverly A. Factor, priest, to the Diocese of Los Angeles;
The Rev.
William C. Anderson, priest, to the Diocese of Maryland;
The Rev. Don
R. Brown, priest, to the Diocese of Louisiana;
The Rev.
Suzanne Wolfenbarger, deacon, to the Diocese of Missouri;
The Rev.
Christopher V. Coats, priest, to the Diocese of Central Gulf Coast; and
The Rev.
Donald R. Perschall, priest, to the Diocese of Dallas.
I
was informed in a letter dated November 1, 2005, by the Rev. Wilfred L.
“Army” Armstrong, Deacon, that he was received into ordained ministry by
the Rt. Rev. Frank Lyons, Bishop of Bolivia. Additionally, on March 8,
2006, the Rt. Rev. Frank Lyons, Bishop of Bolivia, informed me that he
had received the Rev. H. C. Joel Webb, formerly a retired priest of this
Diocese. Recognizing the continuing regrettable situation in our Church
I cannot but support these actions, and I have licensed them to function
in the Diocese of Springfield. In any case, we pray God will bless all
of these former colleagues in ordained ministry in significant ways that
their ministries will be to God’s greater glory as a result of their
witness on behalf of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The primary purpose of this address continues as it has been. It is to
report to you on the state of the Church. The fallout from the 75th
General Convention of The Episcopal Church held last summer in Columbus,
Ohio, continues. The evidence is overwhelming. Our national leadership
seems to have no intention of taking the Windsor Report seriously and to
change direction. As a result, the health of The Episcopal Church
continues to erode not because it is progressive and inclusive, but
because we have adopted secular values which reject orthodox Christian
theology and its understanding of morality and sin, and contend that the
authority of Holy Scripture is relative and the application of its
teaching is discretionary. It would be serious enough if the
consequence of this position and direction simply threatened the
relationship of our Province with the rest of the Anglican Communion,
which it does. But what’s worse is it challenges the appropriateness of
The Episcopal Church to claim the title of Christian.
To have believed that GC ‘06’s action and inaction would not generate an
even greater catastrophe experienced as a result of the 2003 General
Convention would have been naïve at best.
A survey
taken earlier this year (06) reveals our Church is in serious trouble:
* Only
72% of Episcopal teens believe in God compared with 92% of Protestant
teens;
* Only
40% of Episcopal teens say Faith is important in their life compared
with 60% of Protestant teens;
* 54% of
Episcopal teens believe Morality is Relative compared to 41% of the
Protestant teens;
* Only
35% of Episcopal teens believe in Life After Death compared with 55% of
Protestant teens;
* Only
8% of Episcopal teens read the Bible compared to 32% of Protestant
teens;
* Only
32% of Episcopal teens have made a commitment to live for God as
compared to 69% of Protestant teens; and
* 35% of
Episcopal teens consider all adults to be hypocrites compared with only
7% of Protestant teens.
The Diocese of Springfield also is in the midst of difficult times. The
latest statistics on Church membership, average Sunday attendance and
annual financial giving perhaps are a significant indicator. They show
that in the last eleven (11) years (from 1995 through 2005) we in the
Diocese of Springfield have lost more than nineteen percent (19%) of our
membership – going from about 7300 baptized members to about 5900. Most
notably the majority of that loss has occurred since 2002 -- from about
6800 to 5900 -- or more than 13%. Interestingly, average Sunday
attendance remained basically constant from 1995 at about 3,000 through
2001. In 2002, attendance decreased by about fifty (50) persons per
Sunday or a bit more than one and one half percent. In 2003, attendance
decreased another 50 persons to about 2,900. However, in 2004, the
decrease in attendance jumped to another 200 per Sunday or almost seven
percent. Last year, 2005, attendance decreased another 200 to about
2,500 per Sunday or almost another seven and one half percent.
Perhaps what is most telling are the statistics regarding financial
giving. Contributions steadily rose from 1995 to 2003, from about
$2,650,000.00 a year to $3,600,000.00, more than a 35% increase. In
2004, giving dropped about $200,000 or a bit more then five and one half
percent. Last year, 2005, giving went up about $50,000 or just under
one and one half percent. Only time will tell if this is more than
merely a momentary upturn.
Since our Synod a year ago, St. Anne’s, Caseyville, has suspended
operations. “Suspended” is the word they chose, because they are
hopeful and anticipate becoming active again sometime in the future.
I’m confident you join me in praying that will happen sooner rather than
later. I believe their decision was appropriate since to continue had
become overly burdensome for the few who remained without a realistic
expectation that their continuing efforts would develop into anything
appropriate. I am pleased to say the majority of those people now are
involved in the ministry at St. Michael’s Church, O’Fallon.
Sadly, St. Alban’s Church, Olney, no longer is an active ministry. It
ceased operations earlier this month a year ago for the same reasons St.
Anne’s did. The difference is that no formal action was taken. It just
went away. I expect the Standing Committee and I will take appropriate
canonical action to formalize that situation sometime in the next twelve
(12) months.
If that weren’t bad enough, I count eight (8) other congregations in the
Diocese which appear too similar to St. Alban’s and St. Anne’s situation
and are in jeopardy of suffering the same fate in the near future unless
something significant occurs. Moreover, no congregation is exempt from
that reality because the Church is always just one generation away from
extinction.
It would be a mistake to think the current crisis in our Church is
entirely responsible for what’s happening in the Church at large and the
Diocese of Springfield. Likewise, it would be a mistake to think it has
nothing to do with it. Nevertheless, the mission of this Diocese and
the spiritual health of our congregations are compromised and
jeopardized by any relationship, however remote, with those who confuse,
change or contradict apostolic teaching.
I
believe it is important to take seriously what
Charles
W. Slaton has said in Biblical Malnutrition & Today's Episcopal
Church: "We should all take issue with the notion that man inherits
the right to update and revise Scripture as he sees fit. This is what
the revisionist movement is all about, changing God to accommodate man."
Is it not true, as the retired Bishop of South Carolina, C.
Fitzsimmons Allison, recently said: “Those who are substituting good ideals for Christian hope are so
unconcerned with Christian doctrine that they do not notice its
prevailing denial among our leaders and seem undeterred by its shrinking
numbers and repudiation by the worldwide Anglican Communion?”
The bottom line is this: There is no significant motivation
for anyone to join us if we simply offer what they already have in the
world. Moreover, as
I have
read, “if we don't have a clear, unalloyed message to proclaim and we
offer more doubts and questions than answers and our mission statement
is ambiguous, two things are clear. The first is we don’t understand
the Christian faith and what it means to be a Christian, and the second
is we shouldn’t expect that anyone will be drawn to what we profess.”
It should be very clear that every community of faith
claiming to be Christian must be totally open to everyone as a place of
learning, discipline and transformation and not a place to be indulged.
It is as A. W. Tozer has said in The Set of the Sail: “The
business of the Church is God. She is purest when most engaged with God
and she is astray just so far as she follows other interests, no matter
how ‘religious’ or humanitarian they may be.” In another place in the
same book, Tozer says: “The Church’s mightiest influence is felt when
she is different from the world in which she lives. Her power lies in
her being different, rises with the degree in which she differs and
sinks as the difference diminishes." We are in the world, but we are
not to be of the world. It is most appropriate as Christians to view
themselves as “resident aliens.”
If we are becoming as a Church, and it appears we are, what
Oxford Professor V.A. Demant described in 1947 as, “…an un-supernatural
and un-evangelical religion (equating) Christianity with good ideals
(and attaching) no vital meaning to sin, grace, redemption or to the
Church as a divine society,” we have no future. Or if we are becoming
an organization equated to the subtitle of E. Brooks Holifield’s book,
A History of Pastoral Care in America: From Salvation to
Self-Realization, we have no future. Or if we ignore the essential
human problem about which the eminent psychiatrist, Karl Menninger,
warned churches in his book, Whatever Became of Sin?, we have no
future. It is as simple as that. On the other hand, as Bishop
Allison has noted, “The Churches that acknowledge the reality of sin and
persist in their trust in forgiveness, redemption and salvation will not
only survive but prevail.
That understanding, in conjunction with the ordination vow to “…guard
the faith, unity, and discipline of the Church,” are the motivating
reasons for my actions over the last few years. That includes linking
up with Acts 29 Ministries to develop and sponsor the pilot program
entitled “Yes, These Bones Can Live” which now is simply referred to as
“Bones.” That program emerged out of a concern about appropriately
responding to the erosion taking place in our Church to see if the
current trends can be reversed and envisioning what the impact would be
if the Diocese of Springfield and her congregations could truly live
into the Apostolic Faith as revealed in the New Testament. What impact
would it have in people’s lives and in the life of the Church, if as
members we were truly committed to gospel precepts and the principles of
the Kingdom of God as Jesus taught them? What would be the effect if
those who came to Church were healed spiritually, emotionally and
physically? It is obvious to me that our Churches, themselves, would be
transformed. The petty bickering would cease. Those involved would be
inspired and as a result would be inspiring to others. Faith community
gatherings for worship, education and fellowship would be eagerly
anticipated rather than perceived as interruptions or inconveniences.
As people’s lives experienced godly change, the word would spread,
membership would increase and congregations would become viable and
vibrant as opposed to struggling just to survive.
I
believe “Bones” and the ministry spirit it fosters is a very positive
hope for the future. Fourteen (14) congregations were interviewed and
selected to participate and they were represented at the three (3) basic
two (2) day training courses offered last May, June and August. In
January and March of next year, two (2) follow-up training sessions are
scheduled which will engage the ministry of healing.
The “Bones” ministry spirit was present, I believe, in an extraordinary
ministry which took place last July though it was not directly linked to
“Bones.” St. Luke’s, Springfield, under the very capable leadership of
Archdeacon Denney has been having outstanding Vacation Bible School
sessions for a number of years. This past summer St. Luke’s volunteered
to put on a Vacation Bible School at Redeemer, Cairo. Plans were put in
place and on the appointed day the volunteers from St. Luke’s traveled
to Cairo. Upon arriving, they found only one student had registered.
Wow, what a disappointment. At that point, any “normal” person might
very well have simply thrown up their hands and said, “Well, we tried,”
and return home feeling disappointed but thinking their good intentions
were certainly worth something. Well, that’s not what happened. What
happened is Mary Ann Denney and some other volunteers got in the van and
drove to the housing projects and rounded up every youngster they could
find. The result was there were sixteen (16) students and the Vacation
Bible School was a huge success. The closing service comprised over
thirty (30) souls including the students, some of their families and
most of the parishioners. The full story, if you didn’t see it, can be
found in an excellent article which appeared in last month’s
“Springfield Current.” But there’s more to the story. The first
weekend of this month the Denneys were back in Cairo. What did they
do? They went to the projects and found five (5) of the youngsters who
had been at Vacation Bible School and brought them to Church. Later
that day, the Denneys met a parent of one of the students. What she
said was most affirming! She said: “My son just loves your Church.”
This experience dispels a great American heresy which was ballyhooed in
the popular motion picture a number of years ago now called, “Field of
Dreams.” Building something -- even something that’s wonderful --
doesn’t mean people will come. Scripture teaches that we have to compel
people to come. St. Luke’s did that with great success in Cairo. We
all need to adopt that kind of spirit, resolve and behavior in each of
our ministry situations.
Because the Church is always to be an important model for others, why
shouldn’t we expect the good things being experienced to have a
positive, ripple effect? St. Paul wrote to the Church in Thessalonica
commending them for being faithful examples not only to the Churches in
Macedonia and Achaia but beyond, saying: “…from you the word of the Lord
sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in
every place…your faith toward God has gone out…” (I Thessalonians 1:8).
Would that our Diocese became so godly, so Spirit-filled that it would
have a healthy, spiritual influence on every life we touched. When St.
Paul praises the faithful in Thessalonica by saying that they had became
a model to all the believers and their faith in God had become known
everywhere in 1 Thessalonians 1:7-8, is he not exhorting us to be like
that? Why then would it be unrealistic to think that our congregations
can and will become so Spirit filled, worshiping the Triune God, living
godly lives in a way that others notice and as a result are themselves
changed and are blessed by it?
Well, there is one reason, and perhaps it is best revealed
in an
old Cherokee proverb which describes the conflict that is present inside
people. That battle is depicted as between two "wolves" which exists in
every person. One is very evil. It consists of anger, envy, jealousy,
sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance,
self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride,
superiority and ego. The other is very good. It consists of joy,
peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy,
generosity, truth, compassion and faith. The central question now
becomes which wolf will prevail? The answer of course is the one we
feed! We will not ever be what God created us to be if we go about
feeding the wrong wolf!
As stewards and leaders of the ministry incorporated in the
Diocese of Springfield, does it not behoove us to feed only the good
wolf in us and starve the evil one? By doing that, we truly will give
God permission and access to work through us for His Glory, and we will
become effective members of the Body of Christ and instruments of God by
which others come to know the salvation He, through Christ, has prepared
for us all eternal in the heavens.
Please allow me now to close with a prayer attributed to Sir Francis
Drake, said at the outset of his exploration of the Western Hemisphere.
I think it is applicable to us as we strive to be faithful in the
spiritual journey and ministry which is ahead of us as a Church, as a
Diocese, as congregations and as individuals. Let us pray.
Disturb us
Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves; and when our dreams
have come true because we have dreamed too little.
Disturb
us, Lord, when we arrive safely at our destination because we sailed too
closely to the shore.
Disturb
us, Lord, when with the abundance of the things we possess, we have lost
our thirst for the Waters of Life; and having fallen in love with life,
we have ceased to dream of Eternity.
Disturb
us, Lord, when in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our
vision of the New Heaven to dim.
Disturb
us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms
will show us Your Mastery; where in losing sight of land, we shall find
the stars.
We ask
that You would expand the horizons of our hopes, and in the future to
guide us with renewed strength, courage, hope and love to new
opportunities to serve you.
This we
humbly implore in Jesus Christ who is Savior and Lord. Amen.
NOW UNTO GOD
THE FATHER, GOD THE SON AND GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT BE ASCRIBED AS IS MOST
JUSTLY DUE, ALL MIGHT, POWER, MAJESTY, DOMINION AND GLORY NOW AND
FOREVER. Amen.
