For many people, June is a favorite month. It’s the beginning of vacation season and the end of the school year. For those of us who follow the church’s calendar, it marks the transition from Easter to Pentecost and the green and growing weeks that follow. Our Sunday readings for the weeks after Pentecost focus on living into our faith, learning about Jesus, and responding to God’s call.
Liminal time is threshold time, when we stand in between what has been and what will be. And, as you can probably imagine, it has become very familiar to me over the past year. I am in-between. I am not yet the thirteenth Bishop of New Jersey, but I am on my way.
Susan and I are still filled with a profound sense of gratitude and thanksgiving for the blessings and love we experienced at Sunday night’s Farewell Gala. I am confident I can speak for Canons Mary Ann Rhoads and Ann Notte, as well as for Mary Ann Clisham, in saying that they feel the same way. It was an extraordinary evening highlighted by a Spirit-filled, high-energy keynote address by our Presiding Bishop. . . . More than 700 attended in person and more than 100 attended online. The event raised more than $51,000 for Episcopal Community Services of the Diocese of New Jersey. Wow!
You and I are the most recent inheritors of the mission and ministry that Jesus handed on to his disciples. We are those called to be his witnesses “to the ends of the earth, ” beginning in New Jersey.
Moreover, while the Jesus’ ascension marks a transition for him, his ascent to heaven and God’s right hand, the promise he made to his followers in Matthew’s Gospel still holds true: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). It is this promise which adds to the mysteriousness of his ascension.
In New Jersey, I feel like I have come home. I’ve been visiting congregations, joining meetings, and gathering with clergy and leaders from across the diocese. My family and I have been made to feel so very welcome, but this is more than simple hospitality. I do not feel like a visitor or guest in our congregations, but like a member of the diocesan family who has come home, and I am so very glad to be here.
Sometimes it’s difficult for our hearts not to be troubled. We have experienced a worldwide pandemic that killed millions. It seems that every day we are confronted with news of another mass shooting in our nation. Within our diocese and the community we serve, people have to face the life-threatening challenges of homelessness, poverty and domestic violence every day. Beyond all this are the day-to-day challenges of daily living which, as the Surgeon General observes, is often marked by deep, profound, loneliness.
The history of St. Thomas is a story of perseverance, resilience, and hope, often in the face of enormous obstacles. It is the story of people committed to faith in Jesus Christ and to life lived in name and in his way.
In truth, this continues to be the story of St. Thomas and of all our congregations in this pandemic era. Our congregations are made up of faithful people committed to the love of Jesus Christ and to his mission of reconciliation. They are committed to community and service together as members of the body of Christ. They, we, exemplify perseverance, resilience and hope, often in the face of enormous obstacles.
We’ve visited these friends a couple of times, but I still get confused when I pull onto the road that leads to their house. It’s a wooded area with several homes set back from the road. I turned into a long driveway that I thought was the right one and pulled up toward the house which seemed somewhat familiar. I got out of the car, went and rang the doorbell, and waited. No response. Susan called our friends on her cell phone. We were at the wrong house, they were next door. We got in the car and drove one driveway over. It was an innocent mistake that could happen to anyone at any time. As news stories of the past couple of weeks have made clear, however, in this country, a mistake like the one I made can be fatal.
We arrived in the Fort Lauderdale area on I-95 around 5:00 p.m. with the rain intensifying and heavy traffic inching along. Bands of rain fell in sheets. Flooding was extensive. We got on the phone with our son, John, who lives east of I-95, so that he could help us try to find a route to his home that would get past the local street flooding. We spent hours trying to get through, as our phone alarms went off, sounding a flash flood emergency alert, and as an increasing number of cars stalled out from trying to get through deep waters.
At the center of this day hangs a crucified God upon a cross, dead, murdered by the state, the Roman government, lawfully; crucified with the complicit support of the religious authorities. Crucified by humanity, crucified by us, in truth—by us, who crucify God every day in our faithlessness, in our own lovelessness, in our own sinfulness.
Our faith, our belief in Jesus as the Christ, calls us into God’s kingdom and God’s way of love. This way is given its most profound expression with Christ’s crucifixion on Calvary. It is about self-surrender, self-sacrifice, ultimate and unconditional love. This way is, or ought to be, in sharp contrast to the ways of the dominant, self-centered, violent, dare I say, “imperial,” culture in which we live our everyday lives. In this latter world, we are all “commodified,” and profit is the most absolute value.
In truth, there is nothing we can do to save ourselves from this sinfulness. We always require the grace and love of God. We could never do enough to earn God’s favor, never mind our own salvation or a place in heaven. These come always and only by faith, faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 2:16-17).
Bryan Stevenson spoke (actually, preached), to the members of the House following lunch which was hosted at St. John’s Church, Montogomery, just blocks away from the Legacy Museum. It was a message of justice, love, mercy, confession, redemption and healing. Stevenson’s message is absolutely a message of hope for the nation. But the hope doesn’t come from “cheap grace”—it comes from hard truths told and faced in love and contrition by people, and a society with a sinful history and legacy. At the end of his presentation, the House rose as one in applause and acclamation.
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:48 NRSV https://youtu.be/-4zrzTCAarQ Bishop’s Address to the 239th Convention of the Diocese of New JerseySaturday, March 4, 2023Deuteronomy 26:16-19; Psalm
This last act of thoughtfulness on her part offers a genuine picture of the kind of person she was. A person of faith, our mother sang in church choirs and taught Sunday School for much of her life. As we entrust her to the mercy and love of God in Christ, I imagine her singing The strife is o’er as a member of the heavenly choir.
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The Town Hall meetings will not be held in April but will return in May A chance for the Diocese to come together to discuss current issues, share fellowship, worship,
The Town Hall meetings will not be held in April but will return in May A chance for clergy of the Diocese to come together to discuss current issues, share
Standing Committee on Clerical Compensation Meeting Join Zoom Meeting
Bishop's Forum for Clergy is a chance for casual conversation, less structured and information-packed than the monthly Town Halls. Held the third Thursday of the month via Zoom, the Forum
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Dear Clergy Spouse Care Group or CSCG, The first meeting of the ‘Every Other Wednesday CSCG’ (Clergy Spouse Care Group) is tonight at 7 p.m. Join us tonight for the
New Jersey's Opportunity to Learn from New York and California. Online webinar moderated by the Rev. Charles Wynder, Jr. Speakers include NY Senator James Sanders, Jr., the Rev. Charles Boyer
A chance for clergy of the Diocese to come together to discuss current issues, share fellowship, worship, and work together on challenges facing us today. Register in advance for this
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