St. Paul’s Cycle of Prayer – Tuesday – Seekers and other Young Adults, those in our community who are unchurched, our community and those in need, especially Family Promise and CROS ministries

(click Prayer Instructions for links to Morning or Evening Prayer for today)

4 A certain woman named Lydia, a worshiper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul. 15 When she and her household were baptized

This portion of Acts chapter 16, appointed for today, is a great reminder of two aspects of evangelism (there, I said the “E” word!). Lydia was listening. Which means someone was talking, explaining, teaching about Jesus. So we need a preacher. But the preacher cannot allow himself or herself to think this is all about them! The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly. And then…all her household is baptized.

We all can preach the gospel. Let us always begin so with prayer, asking God to open hearts of those who will hear and see.

The Acts 8 BLOGFORCE has posted a new question for us to consider: “Where did you see resurrection at work at the General Convention?“

(find out about Acts 8 here, the BLOGFORCE here, and the Memorial to the church from Acts 8 leaders here)

Yesterday I posted one response to the Acts 8 BLOGFORCE question above. On further reflection I thought of an entirely different way I saw resurrection at GC, in an unlikely place – the budget process.

I was very excited that both houses had passed significant legislation around evangelism, Latino/a ministries, and church planting. Some of these proposals had quite large budget allocations. Unfortunately, the budget submitted by Program, Budget and Finance (PB&F) contained very little funding for these projects. It was like a kick in the stomach. We keep saying we need to be more outward focused, that we must evangelize and be mission oriented, but when it comes to allocating funds to do so, we get cold feet.

To our rescue came several Acts 8 folks and I was thrilled when the Reverend Canon Frank Logue proposed an amendment to the budget, asking for an additional .5% of unrestricted endowment income be allocated to these projects. This raises our take from the unrestricted endowment to 5.5% from 5%. The last three years the funds earned over 8%. While asking for this may be considered risky (my diocese of Mississippi does 5.5% annually), it is exactly the taking of that risk that was empowering. There was debate of course, and some wanted us to be more cautious of our investments. But the amendment passed overwhelmingly in the House of Deputies, and after more debate, in the House of Bishops.

Similar proposals to take .5% for evangelism projects had failed at the 2006 (or maybe it was 2009?) GC. Passing an amendment to the budget at that point in the GC legislative process is unheard of. But we did. I am grateful to the leaders who came up with a plan to “resurrect” these vital programs. I cannot wait to see them in action.

The Acts 8 BLOGFORCE has posted a new question for us to consider: “Where did you see resurrection at work at the General Convention?“

(find out about Acts 8 here, the BLOGFORCE here, and the Memorial to the church from Acts 8 leaders here)

2015 was my fourth time at General Convention as a member of the deputation from the Diocese of Mississippi. Having served on the Task Force on the Study of Marriage (TFSM) during this last triennium, I was paying particular attention to the special legislative committee on marriage, as well as the debate on the marriage resolutions in the House of Bishops and as a participant in the House of Deputies.

I was ordained in 2002. The approval of the election of Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson at General Convention 2003 caused quite a stir in the Delta of Mississippi where I was serving (as well as most other parts of our diocese). There is no need for me to recap any of the battles which followed the 2003 GC, but I have been really consistent in one observation – in my humble opinion the real evil in all this was the expenditure of such an enormous amount of time, energy, financial resources and ill will between brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter what “side” you may have been on. We lost our focus. We put mission on the back burner, we burned up funds as churches split, as priests left, as lawsuits were fought over church buildings. I remember saying to our bishop, Duncan Gray, III while at a packed house in the Delta for a town hall meeting with the Bishop following the 2003 GC, how I wished we could get this many Episcopalians to turn out on a weeknight to talk about Jesus, or evangelism, or outreach or even just to attend a church service.

While it may be said, with some accuracy, that many of the people most upset over our church’s decisions regarding human sexuality have long gone, the resurrection I heard, saw, and felt had to do with how we honored one another. Making doctrinal and liturgical decisions via legislative processes is always messy, with vote totals dividing folks into winners and losers. But for me, this time around it seemed there was a real effort, prayerfully attended to, to listen to each other, to pray with and for each other, and to honor sincerely those who disagree with what the majority supported. Perhaps we have learned a valuable lesson. Our church has so much to offer this world and it is high time we poured our resources of time, energy, people and money into making disciples, serving others and being the church God has called us to be. Coupled with the amazing and energetic leadership of our new Presiding Bishop, we are indeed sent out to make disciples and also to BE disciples of Christ, loving one another as He loves us. I believe we have turned a corner and I could not be more excited.

I said something to this effect in my sermon this past Sunday. Afterwards a parishioner, well into her 80’s, came up to me and said, “I kept up with it the whole time you were gone and I feel the same way. I just love that new Presiding Bishop and the good feeling I have now about the church”.

Amen.

There was such a different feel at General Convention this time around. Once again the hours were brutally long, the tasks in front of us daunting. We had the usual crew of folks who could not resist the temptation to speak to resolutions only to echo what had already been said 2 or 3 or 4 times. The plethora of “point of personal privilege”, each day producing even louder groans and eye rolling from the deputies (although a couple of them were pretty inspirational), and the incessant desire to wordsmith the good work of the committees who “perfect’ resolutions continued as always to drive me a little batty. Yet in the end much amazing work was done and done well.

Entering GC, most folks were talking about a trinity of important work – the election of a new Presiding Bishop, structure reform, and marriage. And rightly so. I will have more to say about all three in the days ahead. But I am equally, if not more excited about the real money we allocated for racial reconciliation work and evangelism.

And while our Presiding Bishop Elect, the Right Reverend Michael Curry, did, as expected, preach a moving and inspiring sermon at the closing Eucharist (watch it HERE and by the way you can watch his sermon “Crazy Christians” from GC2012 by clicking HERE – it’s a great message also), I don’t want anyone to miss what I thought was by far the most amazing sermon delivered at GC 2015. Please watch the Reverend Becca Stevens of Thistle Farms (click HERE to learn more about her amazing work there) preach the gospel so beautifully.

Her sermon is HERE.

Most of the Mississippi Deputation gathers on the floor of the House of Deputies.

By the time you read this I will be headed home and GC2015 will be winding down or over. Thursday was a LONG day on the House of Deputies floor, and people were getting a little punchy. The audible groans whenever someone offered an amendment, asked for a moment of personal privilege, or echoed their support for something that had already been endorsed in the same terms by several others were growing louder by the hour.

Some really good stuff happened in between all that. The Reverend Canon Frank Logue of Georgia managed a brilliant budget move, resolving we put in over 5 million dollars for new church plants and Hispanic ministries. It required raising our endowment draw from 5 to 5.5 percent. The idea had been approved previously but the budget was not there until this change. The bishops concurred – this is great news for our evangelism efforts. As one fellow tweeter said – go big or go home. We can’t be afraid to spend money on evangelism. These two efforts will go a long way.

Most of the other resolutions were no brainers or simply were concurring with action from the bishops. I was pleased with how most of the turned out.

I have dearly loved being here, seeing old friends, and hanging out with the fabulous deputation from Mississippi. It’s back to the daily grind but we leave Gc2015 behind knowing some monumental things took place for our church here.

Thanks for reading.

David+