MY FRIENDS IN CHRIST, ON THIS OCCASION OF THE ONE HUNDRED TWENTYSIXTH REGULAR SYNOD, I HAVE THE PRIVILEGE OF ADDRESSING YOU AS YOUR BISHOP IN THE TWELFTH YEAR OF THIS EPISCOPATE, IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Amen.

Please allow me to begin this Synod Address with a personal note. A week ago this morning at 4:30 A.M., I received a phone call from my brother in Hillsdale, Michigan, telling me that he was going immediately to the hospital where he had taken my father two days prior. My father had been suffering with recurring pneumonia for about five years, but in the last year it was much more frequent. He said the hospital had called him to say his heart rate was dropping radically. An hour later, my brother called again from the hospital to say Dad was on a manual respirator and electrodes to keep him breathing and his heart beating. After another hour, my brother telephoned to tell me our dad had died. Even before that final phone call, Melinda and I were preparing to go to Hillsdale. Arriving there in the mid-afternoon, we went directly to the funeral home to make the funeral service and burial arrangements. On Sunday, I had the privilege to celebrate and preach at my home parish of St. Peter’s, Hillsdale. The funeral was at St. Peter’s on Monday with Bishop Ed Little of Northern Indiana officiating, preaching and celebrating the funeral Eucharist. I was privileged to conduct the interment on Tuesday in the Duplain Township Cemetery, a good hundred miles north of Hillsdale where my dad was buried next to my mother, only a few miles from where she grew up. It all was a fitting celebration of his blessed life of 91 years. Why I’m telling you this is simply to share with you how overwhelmed Melinda and I have been by the outpouring of love and concern from so many kind and thoughtful people in the Diocese of Springfield. We have been so inundated by cards, calls and e-mails that it is impossible to respond to them all. As a result I want to thank you at this time for all your prayers and expressions of sympathy, and let you know your love has given me another firsthand experience of what it means to be surrounded, supported and assured by a grand crowd of faithful witnesses. Please know my family and I are truly grateful.

Now on behalf of our gracious hosts, the rector, wardens and people of the Chapel of St. John the Divine, Champaign, I am honored to welcome you to the One Hundred Twenty-sixth Regular Synod of the Diocese of Springfield. I thank God for you, knowing you and others like you are the heart and soul of the ministry in this Diocese.

At this Synod, I’m pleased to extend a special welcome to the Rev. Canon Frank Marshall and his wife, Beverly, from our Companion Diocese of Barbados. There Canon Marshall serves as the Rector of St. Mary’s Church. In addition, he is the Vicar General of the Diocese and a Rural Dean. Currently the Diocese of Springfield is participating with Canon Marshall, St. Mary’s Church and the Diocese of Barbados in the redevelopment of a community ministry known as St. Mary’s Home. This Synod will have the privilege of hearing more about that project before we recess this afternoon, and we’re honored to have Canon Marshall as our preacher tomorrow morning at the Eucharist to be held at 8 A.M. in the Chapel of St. John the Divine, the offering at which will be dedicated to the St. Mary’s Home project.

In addition to Canon and Mrs. Marshall, it is a pleasure to welcome the Rev. Dr. Jacqueline Linden-Schade. Dr. Linden-Schade will bring us greetings from Bishop Warren Freiheit and all our ministry colleagues in the Central Southern Illinois Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America whose geographical boundaries include all of the Diocese of Springfield, most of the Diocese of Quincy, and a goodly portion of the Diocese of Chicago. Though I’m sorry Bishop Freiheit is unable to be here in person, it may be just as well he is otherwise predisposed. Because if he were here I’d probably say something about him being an unrepentant, unremitting and sometimes obnoxious Vikings fan. Then, during his greeting, he’d probably rub my nose in the fact that his “Viks” are 3 and 0 and my St. Louis Rams are 1 and 2. So all in all, I think it’s good to have Pastor Linden-Schade with us.

The Very Rev. Canon H. W. Herrmann, Rector of St. John’s, Quincy, was scheduled to be with us today to bring greetings from my friend, Bishop Keith Ackerman, and our neighbors in the Diocese of Quincy. However, Canon Herrmann received word this morning that his father had died. As a result, he is now off taking care of important family obligations. Nevertheless, Bishop Ackerman called to tell me we are in their thoughts and prayers as we gather for this Synod. We will want to keep Fr. Herrmann and his family in our prayers.

An additional special guest is Mr. Bill Oehlschlager, Executive Director of Faith Alive. We will have the opportunity tomorrow morning if not later this afternoon to hear about the good ministry he directs. I look forward to being encouraged and challenged by his words as to how our common mission in Christ may be advanced.

As members one of another, it is appropriate for me to recognize and welcome those who have joined us in ordained ministry from other dioceses and apostolic churches or through ordination since our last synod. I would ask them to stand as I call their names:

The Rev. William Clarence Anderson, Rector of St. Paul’s, Pekin, came to us from the

Diocese of Maryland as a deacon and was ordained priest in this Diocese; and

The Rev. Mary Christine “Mollie” Ward, Assisting Priest at St. Matthew’s, Bloomington,

came to us from the Diocese of Chicago.

The Rev. Donald Richard Perschall, Jr., former Presiding Bishop and Primate of the American Anglican Church, was received as a deacon and priest and is now the Rector of Trinity, Mt. Vernon;

The Rev. Thomas A. Davis, ordained priest and assigned as Vicar of St. Thomas’, Salem;

The Rev. Charles L. Walthall, ordained priest and continues to serve as Associate Missioner in the Hale Deanery Team Ministry; and

The Rev. Thomas D. Patton ordained deacon and continues to serve as a chaplain with the State of Illinois Department of Corrections at Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln.

Their presence and work among us is encouraging, and we are inspired and strengthened by their faith and commitment.

You may know the Rev. Rebecca Jo Crummey also was ordained a deacon, and now, at her request, is serving in the Diocese of Colorado on the staff of St. John’s Cathedral, Denver.

During this past year, I issued letters dimissory for the Rev. John C. Seymour, Deacon, to the Diocese of Chicago. As yet, I have not seen the notification from the Bishop of Chicago of his reception of Mr. Seymour.

Now it is my solemn task to declare a moment of silence as we remember two of our clergy colleagues who died this past year. They are the Rev. David Francis Heneghan, Rector of the Episcopal Parish of Alton, and the Rev. Raymond Lyle Holly, retired priest of this Diocese. We have been enriched by their witness and fellowship, and we thank God for them and for their good ministries. At the same time, we are diminished as a result of their deaths, and we grieve along with their families.

-- (SILENCE) --

May their souls rest in peace and may all who grieve know God’s most gracious consolation through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The theme of this Synod is: “We preach Christ Crucified.” Those words are found in the first chapter of St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians at the twenty-third verse. In a more complete context, we read: “…We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks” (I Cor. 1:23). The crucifixion of the Incarnate Son of God is always a stumbling block to any of us who fail to grasp the reality that on the one hand, in our free will, we have the power to “kill” God in our lives, and then on the other refuse to take responsibility for that action. Additionally, the death of Jesus Christ is always foolishness to all who are misled in believing we have no need of redemption as a result of the things we do, both large and small, which divide us from God and each other, or who are incapable of believing that God could love us so much that He, in Christ, has made provision that the whole world might be reconciled to Himself. May we, as members of this Diocesan community of faith, never forget that the Crucifixion of Christ is at the very heart of the Gospel in spite of how the world may view it.

As always, my primary responsibility in this address is to report to you on the state of the Church. As I approach that task this year, I feel more than just a bit like the suggestion seen on a Church sign, “Don’t let worries kill you! Let the Church help!”

Let’s be honest! The 74th General Convention of our Church was a disaster. No matter how it may be viewed, even if the Episcopal Church, USA, hasn’t taken apostate action, though I believe it did -- we have acted in such an unacceptably unilateral manner that the mission and ministry of not only our Church but the whole of the Anglican Communion has been shaken to its core in such a way that it may very well never be the same. And it won’t do to say, “We wouldn’t be in this mess if the reactionary conservatives would simply get with it and stop talking about schism!” The Episcopal Church authored this crisis in Minneapolis by taking action which in itself had all the earmarks of being schismatic except to those who refuse to look or listen! The truth be known, the four (4) instruments of Anglican unity – the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Anglican Primates, the Lambeth Conference and the Anglican Consultative Council – all advised beforehand against the sexual agenda enacted at the 74^th General Convention.

Having taken this action over against the godly advice of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Anglican Primates meeting a few months ago in Brazil, the Anglican Consultative Council meeting in Hong Kong a little over a year ago and the Theology Committee of our own House of Bishops, not to mention the Lambeth Conference of 1998, General Convention has demonstrated not only an incredible arrogance, but also a tremendous lack of connectedness to the larger Anglican Communion and our theological grounding in Holy Scripture and its authority, as well as reason and tradition. And this was orchestrated by the same people who themselves were so critically vocal about our Government’s unilateral action in Operation Iraqi Freedom. What hypocrisy!

Moreover, I think it is important to note that the resolution generated at the fall 2002 House of Bishops meeting which directed “…the Committee on Pastoral Development create a proposal (to be considered at our next meeting) for: 1) dealing with breaches of collegiality; and 2) providing assistance to bishops with diocesan situations which impact the larger Church” was not forthcoming and, therefore, not considered at our spring 2003 meeting. That in itself is a monumental leadership failure on the part of all of us who are members of the House of Bishops, but particularly so for the leadership of our House.

Relative to the tumultuous action of General Convention, I am reminded of what the great statesman, William Penn, said: “Wrong is wrong even if everyone says it’s right. And right is right even if everyone says it’s wrong.”

Two critically important resolutions, found on pages 14 and 15 of the Synod packet, are scheduled to come before this Synod addressing the grievous situation in which our Church finds itself. The first repudiates the action of General Convention in consenting to the election of Gene Robinson as Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of New Hampshire and the affirmation of and support for the blessing of same sex relationships. The other resolution petitions the Archbishop of Canterbury to intervene in this crisis in order to provide for the propagation of the Faith and Order of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church in the Episcopal Church, USA. I personally support these resolutions and respectfully commend them to you. I believe it is very important that we, as a Synod, take this stand. Not to do so will be to support a radical departure from the Christian faith, of which we are a mere one tenth of one percent, and the Anglican Communion, of which we represent only three percent.

The worst part of this situation, besides the division it has caused at every level of our Church, is the distraction it is causing in our mission and ministry. I pray we will affirm and renew our stewardship of the sacred ministry to which God is calling us in the Diocese of Springfield. To do that we must not be overly occupied with the issues of human sexuality and the demands the value system of this world seems to be thrusting upon God’s Church.

While standing firmly on Biblical teaching and affirming our baptismal promises, we are empowered by God’s grace to, among other things, persevere in resisting evil and whenever we fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord in order that our proclamation by word and example of the Good News of God in Christ will not be superficial or groundless.

Notwithstanding the current controversy, I am pleased to say there are some significant signs of ministry strengthening in the Diocese of Springfield. That progress is signaled by the following: The new clergy mentioned earlier entering ordained ministry with all their gifts and skills; the scheduled beginning of Sunday worship services for Sacred Journey Episcopal Church in Waterloo and Monroe County, under the leadership of the Rev. Beverly Factor; the Reverend Robin Cona’s initiative to restart a campus ministry at Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, in addition to her work in Mattoon and Paris; the interim ministry of the Rev. Gene Stormer, the Rev. Tom Barnett and the Rev. George Pence at St. Barnabas, Havana, Christ Church, Springfield, and the Episcopal Parish of Alton, respectively, assisting those congregations in preparing to call new rectors in a matter of months; the ministry of the Rev. Canon Elliot Blackburn and the Rev. Maurice Lee as part-time interims at St. John’s, Centralia and St. Thomas’, Glen Carbon, respectively; the new ministry of the Rev. John Bettmann at St. Paul’s, Carlinville, and St. Peter’s, Chesterfield, and the new ministry of the Rev. David Taylor at St. Andrew’s, Carbondale; ELCA Pastor Wayland Middendorf’s continuing ministry at St. Laurence’s, Effingham; and the scheduled reception as a deacon and a priest from the Anglican Catholic Church of Robert Giffin on Monday, November 3, at 6 P.M., in St. Mary’s Church, Robinson, where he will be assigned.

On the debit side of things, we acknowledge the following: The impending retirement of the Rev. Canon Arnold Hoffman as Canon missioner in the Hale Deanery on January 1, 2004; and the current clergy leadership vacancies at St. John’s, Albion, at St. Anne’s, Caseyville, at St. Bartholomew’s, Granite City, and at St. Alban’s, Olney. Nevertheless, I am optimistic that we will have a number of qualified candidates to fill many of these openings within the next few months.

The Rev. Canon Kevin Martin, the Canon Missioner in the Diocese of Texas, has some excellent insight and suggestions to help us from being overly distracted by the current controversy. I commend them to you because they are sound principles of ministry development no matter what the situation may be. If you would be interested in a copy of them, they will be available in the near future on our Diocesan website within this document. Canon Martin advises:

            "Issues divide, mission unites" and…a divided community is very poor at   welcoming newcomers and making disciples. It is predictable that the polarization        around human sexuality will create an even more difficult context for ECUSA to turn              around our 40 years of decline and reach new people.

Of course, supporters of these actions will argue that doing these things will open the church to many people supportive of these actions, but this is just a rationalization. The greater truth is that few people want to join a Christian community that is at war with itself. As one GenXer said to me, "If I wanted to fight, I would go home to my parents!"

In addition, only a very small number of un-churched people would ever choose a church because of its position on human sexuality. Those who do are not un-churched people, most are in a category I would call the "de-churched." When un-churched folks look for a church, they are choosing for very different reasons than de-churched people.

So, what do I suggest that Church leaders do to weather the storm produced by this controversy? I would list the following:

1. Aim at communicating the central message and proclamation of Christianity that in Jesus Christ, God has reconciled the world to himself, forgiving our sins and restoring us, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to a wonderful new life.

2. Provide Alpha, The Discovery Class and other organized teaching ministries aimed at bringing in new people to the local church.

3. Create small groups of fellowship, study and care to nurture believers, especially new ones.

4. Make the Great Commission and the Great Commandment the core values of your congregation.

5. Provide inviting, vibrant and inspirational liturgy and worship with engaging biblical preaching that applies Christianity to everyday life.

6. Do not have study groups, discussion groups or the like to talk about what to do about

General Convention.

7. Do not threaten to leave the Episcopal Church, join AMIA or one of the other dozen or so offshoot Anglican groups. You can't plan a hopeful future by reaching out to people on the basis of their anger with ECUSA.

8. Offset negative publicity by creating an aggressive and positive public profile for your congregation in the local media.

9. Answer the question, "what were they thinking?" with "They weren't thinking, thinking has little or nothing to do with General Convention."

10. Answer the question, "How can I remain is such a denomination?" with "Denominations aren't the future of Christianity…

Father Martin concludes with some basic but crucial insight by saying:

The…Church that evangelizes and makes new disciples (for) Jesus will have a bright future. Those that don't, have no future.

A Midrash on Genesis points out: "God prefers your deeds to your ancestors' virtues."

Being Episcopalian isn’t nearly as important as allowing God to work through us as Episcopalians.

I pray God will help us to see that as Christians all our actions constitute ministry, whether good or bad, positive or negative, and I also pray we may always desire to discern and follow His direction for our lives.

Amen. Amen.