Discernment
Anticipating the end of the Most Rev. Michael Curry’s term as Presiding Bishop in November 2024, this week the Joint Nominating Committee invited nominations for his successor who will be elected by the House of Bishops during General Convention in July 2024. The profile published by the committee summarizes the qualifications, terms, roles, and functions required of presiding bishops, but it is much more than a job description. “This profile,” the committee states, “articulates from our perspective where we believe The Episcopal Church stands today and to where Christ now calls us.”
The committee first identifies three major global issues to which the church needs to respond.
Environmental Crisis: “The global climate emergency continues to be the most pressing issue facing the world over the next years. The Episcopal Church must recommit itself to the creation that God has entrusted to us.”
Violence, Conflict, and War: “The Episcopal Church will need to recommit itself in substantial ways to those words of the Lord given to the prophet Isaiah: that instruments for war be refashioned into instruments for the common good; that systems of death be displaced by systems of life; and that we shall not ‘learn war anymore.’”
Inequality and Division: “The inequality and division of our day … are fueled by systemic discriminations of all kinds: racism, nationalism, xenophobia, heterosexism, homophobia, transphobia, ageism, ableism, classism, and unfortunately, many others. … The Episcopal Church itself is plagued by such inequalities and divisions in its own particular way. There is much truth-telling and reckoning work to be continued.”
The profile then identifies four challenges the church must face due to declining trends in church attendance and membership.
Evangelism: This “primarily includes the daily efforts that are fundamental to the life of all Christian people. … Evangelism is about looking for where the Holy Spirit has been at work in the world all along. Evangelism is about being sent out to meet God there, ‘to do the work [God] has given us to do, to love and serve [God] as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord.’”
Catechesis, the teaching the faith: “The Episcopal Church seems ready to recommit itself to faith formation across all ages… and to the work of raising up and forming leaders, both lay and ordained. Passing on and building up our unique witness to the Christian faith will be essential.”
Nurturing our own faith: “We are in a moment in which individual Episcopalians need to tend to their own faith, to go deeper, for it is only by this that we can take up the work Christ has laid before us.”
Adapting to our current reality: This “is a process of reordering ourselves and our priorities to meet the needs of our day. We see glimpses of creative adaptation. … Such work will be crucial for The Episcopal Church over the next 10 years.”
These are not simply issues and challenges for the next Presiding Bishop. They matter also for St. Paul’s as we continue to discern how we will live as a people of faith, hope and love in the world. How will we strengthen our community as we seek to embody the grace, peace and mercy of Christ in all we are and all we do?