10 June 2010

‘The Holy Spirit is not finished with us yet’

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori with Bishop Michael Doe of USPG and Canon Patrick Comerford of USPG Ireland at the conference in Swanwick this week

Patrick Comerford

Any Irish person with a commitment to mission would have been delighted with the way Saint Columba’s Day was celebrated appropriately last night in Swanwick at the closing of the first day of this year’s conference of USPG (the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel) – Anglicans in World Mission.

Our evening liturgy focussed on Saint Columba’s Day, and we prayed:

“Lord, teach us to silence our own hearts and minds
that we may listen for the movement of your Holy Spirit,
and feel your presence in the depths of our being.”

And the closing blessing was:

“May God bless us
in our sleep with rest,
in our dreams with vision,
in our waking with a calm mind,
in our soul with the friendship of the Holy Spirit
this night and every night.”

Earlier the evening, during a panel discussion, when a question came from the floor about Saint Columba’s day, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church (TEC), the Most Revd Katharine Jefferts Schori replied instantly: “Thanks be to God for Columba’s willingness to go.”

Another panel member, Canon Mark Oxbrow, international director of the Faith2Share network, spoke positively of the mix of Latin and Celtic Christianity on these islands, where two streams come together, and mused that this maybe model for the unity we can have as Christians and in the Anglican Communion.

The third member of the panel was the Southern African Primate, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town, who is the keynote speaker at this morning’s conference session.

Last night’s panel discussion ranged across a wide range of topics, including the environment, reconciliation, the future of mission agencies, sexuality, and the current crisis and divisions in the Anglican Communion.

Bishop Katharine, who is an oceanographer by profession, spoke of the current oil spill in the Gulf as a major environmental disaster. But she also spoke of other major environmental disasters, including those created by the search for oil reserves and the planting of oil wells and pipelines in Alaska and within the Arctic Circle.

She said one of her guiding environmental images from the Gospel was a Resurrection story, When Mary Magdalene first encounters the Risen Christ, she thinks she has met the gardener, and she said the image of Jesus the Gardener is one “we need to get to know more.”

Topically, Archbishop Thabo related the stories of people who are living in poverty in South Africa and who are facing difficulties and challenges because of the “clean-up” ahead of the World Cup.

Mark, who spoke of his own experiences of environmental issues in China, suggested Anglicans might benefit from engaging more with and learning more from the creation theology of the Orthodox Churches.

When it came to maintaining the unity of the Anglican Communion, the panel was asked whether there was a need for some sense of sacrifice to accommodate local sensitivities.

Archbishop Thabo said it cannot be an “either or” dichotomy. The heart of the diocese is the parish, the unit of the province is the diocese, and so on. In the current challenge, we should not be afraid to confront pain. If we opt for the particularity of the local, we will have given an answer that opts out of the current challenges we face, he said..

Quoting Archbishop Desmond Tutu, he said: “The Holy Spirit is not yet finished with us.” And he added that we need to face challenges as we build “our beloved community.”

Mark Oxbrow said we cannot separate the global and the local. “But that’s where the struggle begins ... and I want to go on with that struggle.”

“I think tension is a good thing,” said Bishop Katharine. She said we need to engage with God’s mission in the tense and painful places. God not finished with us, she said, echoing Archbishop Thabo’s earlier quotation from Archbishop Tutu. There is still growth to be had, light to discover, new challenges to face, she said. The only thing that does not face tensions is a dead body. But: “We are not called to be a dead body; we are called to be a resurrected body.”

When Mark said the saw reconciliation as part of mission, not something “separate from mission, it is mission,” she added that reconciliation is the goal, is the fruit and is the antecedent of mission, reconciliation “cannot be teased apart from taking part in God’s mission.”

Taking part in the panel discussion at the USPG conference in Swanwick (from left): Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town, Canon Mark Oxbrow, international director of the Faith2Share network, and the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church (TEC), the Most Revd Katharine Jefferts Schori (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2010)

When the panel was asked whether they thought there is a future for mission agencies or whether mission agencies have had their day, Bishop Katharine instantly responded: “My experience of mission agency is the Domestic Foreign Missionary Society. I am not a good person to try to answer this, but it is of the nature of the Church to be a mission agency, whether formally or not.”

Mark Oxbrow declared: “Frankly, I’m not at all interested in mission agencies, but I am interested in mission movements.” He saw mission moving in diverse ways, changing and finding new shapes that we cannot predict. “But if that shape is USPG, then praise God.”

Turning to mission and dialogue in today’s context, he referred to a conversation with an imam from a mosque in Woking who said that in a multifaith context, we need to share faith, and not just discuss what we eat.

As the discussion began to draw to a close, the General Secretary of USPG, Bishop Michael Doe, asked Bishop Katharine whether she ever thought that TEC, even if it had done the right thing, had done it too soon.

She replied that issues of same-sex relationships had been before her church since the 1960s. She conceded that not all Episcopalians agreed with the episcopal consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson, but she said that since then TEC had been living with a moratorium for seven years and that “was exceedingly painful for many in our Church.” She recognised that many are still offended and surprised. But she said this had been a faith decision taken in the TEC context, and that her church could not wait any longer and be faithful.

She said she did not want to be arrogant or dismissive, and said she recognises the pain this meant for others. But she said most Episcopalians do not think “we could have kept the moratorium any longer and remain faithful.”

When a diocese elects a bishop, and receives consent, “I don’t have a choice ... and as the presiding bishop it is my responsibility to go and preside.”

When a questioner from the floor asked whether sexuality is the real issue, or whether the real debate is about a reorientation within the Anglican Communion, she said .the legacy of colonialism is still being played out in many places, and there is still an unhealed legacy from the sin of colonialism. Addressing that history may help to find a way to live together in justice with people with whom we disagree, she suggested. “Human sexuality is the presenting issue. I don’t think it’s the basic issue.”

This morning, we begin the second day of the conference with a celebration of the Eucharist at 7.30, at which the president is the Revd Dr John Perumbalath of the Diocese of Rochester, a USPG Trustee. Later in the morning, Archbishop Thabo is to speak about ‘Mission Realities for Southern African Anglicans – and their Wider Implications.’

Later in the day, I am leading two workshops or interest groups on ‘Spirituality and Mission,’ and the Irish participants intend to have a few meetings too.

Meanwhile, as the debate continues way beyond Swanwick, may I adapt some of the words of last night’s blessing:

“May God bless us this day with vision,
in our waking with a calm mind,
in our soul with the friendship of the Holy Spirit
this day and every day. Amen.”

Canon Patrick Comerford is a member of the Council of USPG and a director of USPG Ireland

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