Diocesan Convention Address – November 3, 2008
By the Right Reverend Thomas C. Ely
Mountain Echo, December 2007

With the encouragement of my sabbatical planning team, I used a portion of the sabbatical grant I received from the Louisville Institute to purchase a new digital camera before beginning my Sabbatical last December. They thought it would be a good idea for me to develop (no pun intended) a new interest during my sabbatical—and so photography became that new interest. I am glad that I paid attention to their advice. The point is not that I became a great photographer during my sabbatical—I didn’t—although I certainly did become a prolific one. Instead the point was to cultivate an interest in something new in such a way that this interest might carry on past the end of the sabbatical. It worked! I carry my camera with me most of the time and I’m continuing to learn more about how to take good pictures.

This camera purchase and the joy it has brought me came to mind as I thought about my Convention Address this year. In the short time I have available this morning I want to share some pictures, some snapshots if you will, about the Diocese of Vermont through the metaphorical lens of the bishop’s camera. Of course, I am not the only one in the diocese with a camera through which to look at our common life. Each of us is both a picture taker and a picture maker. Together our various impressions, reflecting our particular experiences in this diocese, create the album that is the Diocese of Vermont. This morning, I want to share a few of my pictures for that album.

The first picture is the one we are creating this weekend. What a joy and privilege it is to welcome our Presiding Bishop among us for this time of memory making and mission commitment. I suspect most of you are aware that this weekend marks the first anniversary of Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori’s investiture as the 26th Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church. Katharine, we are delighted that you have chosen to spend your anniversary with us as we celebrate the 175th anniversary of our diocese.

On May 31, 1832 John Henry Hopkins was elected as the first Bishop of the newly created Diocese of Vermont. This followed the formalities of Vermont’s withdrawal from the Eastern Diocese, which had served as our ecclesiastical group home since 1811, along with Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and later Maine. From January 13, 1865 until his death on January 9, 1868, in the days when Presiding Bishops served by virtue of seniority, Bishop Hopkins also served as the eighth Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church and therefore, as you know, as one of your predecessors.

Your presence among us is a poignant reminder of our connection to the larger Episcopal Church. We celebrate that connection. Your presence also serves as a visible link between the global mission effort of our diocese and the larger Episcopal Church as we embrace the mission and funding priority established by General Convention related to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The powerful public forum you led yesterday and the Global Reconciliation Offering presented to you this morning from the congregations of this diocese clearly demonstrate our shared commitment to give ourselves over to the reconciling, transforming, liberating, jubilee justice vocation of Jesus. Your leadership in this regard is inspiring and we thank God for it.

My hope is that the picture we are creating this weekend—the picture of the Diocese of Vermont that I want the world to see—is of a diocese deeply committed to justice ministry, a place where the inclusive, embracing love of God reaches all and where all who seek to be faithful disciples of Jesus are empowered for their ministry. Grounded in the promises of the Baptismal Covenant, we are a people who seek to pray the prayer of Christ, learn the mind of Christ and do the deeds of Christ in order that we might faithfully bear witness to the love of Christ both close to home and in places far away. We are a people of mission with much to offer and much to discover.

Continuing on with this theme of mission, the second picture I want to add to our photo album this morning reflects the gratitude I have for my recent sabbatical. The focus of my sabbatical was the global aspect of the vocation of the bishop. I had the wonderful opportunity to explore that theme in two very different and sacred parts of the Anglican Communion: the Diocese of Bor in Southern Sudan and the Diocese of El Salvador. The welcome I received in both places and the opportunities to learn about the church’s mission in these two unique settings was the gift of a lifetime. Since returning I have tried to share some of what I experienced, and I am quite willing to do more. I have sought to call the people of our diocese to an ever deepening commitment to global mission engagement, and my heart is indeed glad that so many have responded with such generosity to that invitation. I look forward to continuing this focus of our common life and ministry.

Closer to home, I add next to our album a wonderful collage of pictures meant to reveal a diocese that is reaching out in countless expressions of local mission and ministry. Our five-year Diocesan Strategic Plan for Growth and Ministry is at the midway point. The themes of Formation, Liberation, Communication, Connection and Celebration continue to guide the work of diocesan committees and commissions, as well as the effort of the diocesan Ministry Support Team. These themes also provide the lenses through which I am able to view the tremendous mission and ministry being carried out in and through the congregations of our diocese. I see evidence of this local mission effort in your newsletters (I do read them), on your websites, and most of all in my face-to-face encounters with clergy and lay members of our diocese.

For me, the greatest joy of episcopal ministry continues to be the Sunday visitations and other opportunities I have to be present with members of this diocese; to see and hear about the joys, challenges, opportunities and struggles that are part of your lives as communities of faith. There is a generosity and tenacity to your commitment to be the church in each and every local community where The Episcopal Church is present. I thank God for that, and I thank you for that.

The 175th Anniversary Celebration of our diocese is yet another gathering theme for a collage of pictures I want to include in our photo album this morning. On June 2nd, we began our celebration with a wonderful liturgy at Saint Stephen’s, Middlebury—the site of the Diocesan Convention in 1832, which elected Bishop Hopkins. A DVD of that celebration is available to all congregations. During the liturgy we premiered the hymn commissioned by the Anniversary Committee and authored by Judy Krum of Saint Peter’s, Bennington. It was the hymn we sang as the entrance hymn this morning. I want to encourage you to use this hymn throughout the remainder of our anniversary celebration, along with the beautifully crafted Anniversary Collect.

In addition, our anniversary celebration has given birth to a new historical narrative by Elizabeth Allison, titled “To Have a Bishop of Our Own.” Several new parish banners have been crafted, and thanks to the creative leadership of Dave Shuffleburg and Judith McManis we launched an ambitious artistic project to design and produce shields for each congregation that will serve to welcome each of us to this—OUR Cathedral. I hoped you noticed the first fruits of that effort as you entered the Cathedral Narthex. We need and want every community of faith represented on that welcome wall.

According to Elizabeth Allison, there were nineteen congregations in the diocese at the time of Bishop Hopkins election. Several are no longer active, but most are. I want to honor those congregations by asking any members present to stand when I mention the name of your church. Four congregations present at the electing convention in 1832 are no longer active: Calvary Church, Berkshire; Trinity Church, Fairfield; Trinity Church, Pawlet; and Saint John’s, Perkinsville.

The congregations continuing to this day include (please stand and remain standing as I read the list): Saint James’, Arlington; Immanuel, Bellows Falls; Christ Church, Bethel (that’s the “old” Christ Church); Saint Paul’s, Burlington; Christ Church, Guilford (here the members of Saint Michael’s, Brattleboro can stand); Zion Church, Manchester; Saint Stephen’s, Middlebury; Saint John’s, Poultney (members of Trinity, Poultney should be standing); Trinity, Rutland; Union Church, Saint Alban’s (now known as Saint Luke’s); Trinity, Shelburne; Grace Church, Sheldon; Saint Paul’s, Wells; Saint Paul’s, Windsor; Saint James’, Woodstock. All disputes about this list are herby referred to Elizabeth. Let’s thank and congratulate these congregations for their long history in our diocese.

Looking ahead, the balance of our anniversary celebration includes participation in Vermont Day at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, on March 30, 2008, and the conclusion of our 18 month celebration next year at this time when we gather for Diocesan Convention in Rutland—the site of Bishop Hopkins’ first Convention. Along the way there will be some other opportunities to mark this important milestone in our life, even as we look forward to the future life and mission of our diocese.

One important question about that future will be before us later today. On our Convention agenda is consideration of a resolution that will help us take the next step toward an anticipated Capital Campaign. It has been over ten years since the last diocesan campaign and there are many pressing needs and even more wonderful opportunities that require the stability of our long-term financial commitment. Our ancestors in the faith were very generous in their giving. The legacy we enjoy today is a direct result of their commitment. We have the same obligation and the same opportunity for those who will call us their ancestors in the faith. I hope you will support our moving forward in this effort. 

No photo album of the Diocese of Vermont would be complete without a glimpse of the property and ministry of Rock Point. Most of you know it well, and for those of you who don’t I want to extend the warmest invitation to come and visit and spend a bit of time there. Rock Point is home to Rock Point School, the Diocesan Office, the Bishop Booth Conference Center, the Bishops’ House, a number of residents and a vast array of God’s creation witnessed in plants and trees and animals. It is truly one of our diocesan treasures. The stewardship of that resource is a continuing challenge.

Currently, we are addressing some major financial challenges connected with the Bishop Booth Conference Center, as well as with the continuing maintenance and infrastructure at Rock Point. The Rock Point Board is attending to these concerns with the help of Diocesan Council and the Trustees. Modifications in industry regulations, insurance and the ever-changing landscape of camp and conference center ministry, along with higher fixed costs and years of deferred maintenance have all contributed to the current situation. There is a strong commitment to the future of the Bishop Booth Conference Center, but it will require our continuing and increasing financial support for this ministry to thrive.

The proposed Diocesan Budget for 2008 takes a small step in this direction, but more will be needed. New programming ideas are emerging and new marketing strategies are underway, but I would be less than candid if I didn’t report my concern about all this. Gratefully, good people are working to turn this situation around, including those who minister at the Bishop Booth Conference Center and on the Rock Point Board. The best thing each of us can do is to support the programs of the BBCC, including the summer camp program, and use this facility as much as possible. It is a significant diocesan ministry worth our investment.

Next, allow me to include in our photo album this morning an expression of thanks to all the members of the diocesan Ministry Support Team. The diocesan Ministry Support Team serves as an extension of the Bishop’s ministry of oversight and support for the congregations of our diocese. We are currently in the process of interviewing the finalists for the new position of Minister of Stewardship Development, and so the picture of the team is about to change. I trust you will welcome this new member, and indeed all members of the team, into your congregations. We don’t have all the answers. We don’t even know all the questions, but we do have a commitment to partnership with you in the building up of this diocese and its congregations to the glory and service of God.

Likewise, I offer a picture-word of thanksgiving for the many ways in which so many of you share your time and talents in service to the larger church, both here in Vermont and beyond. I have been privileged to meet and work with some very gifted people in the course of these past six and a half years. I truly believe in the power and potential of collegiality and shared episcopacy and, with your help, I will continue to work toward a deeper expression of those goals in our mutual life and ministry as a diocese.

The Baptismal Covenant includes the promise to “proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ.” We have Good News to share with the world. In our baptismal living we are heralds, with all the saints who have come before us, of God’s Good News story of life and salvation. Discipleship is about living into that proclamation and trusting in the power of God’s transforming love to move the hearts and minds and spirits of others to embrace the Paschal Mystery of life from death. My photo contribution to our diocesan album includes countless expressions of that devotion and discipleship in your lives and ministries. Don’t stop now!

Finally, I want to add to our Diocesan photo album an affirmation that we are part of a larger family, with a larger photo album. As members of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, we currently find ourselves in a place of challenge and some anxiety, due in large part to theological and ecclesial disagreements with regard to human sexuality. We have been in similar places before. Part of what is different this time is the reality of globalization, the challenge of information management and the pace with which we carry on conversations across the internet.

For example, I keep shaking my head and wondering how did the Windsor Report, a report that started out as a committee report, become in such a short time the sacred text and standard of “right” moral and ecclesial behavior that it is for many today! In my judgment, calls to be “Windsor compliant” are premature at best; and do a disservice to our Anglican heritage of faithful engagement with one another around complex issues and to the special Anglican charism of the via media, the middle way.

On this day when we remember in our liturgical calendar the great Anglican theologian, Richard Hooker, we would do well to take to heart the words of the collect appointed for his commemoration. “Grant that we may maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of truth.” As noted in the recent publication, Communion Matters, from the Theology Committee of House of Bishops: “Comprehension for the sake of truth has served us well. Perhaps it is our unique and essential charism as a Church.”

In the spirit of that heritage, I will continue to labor for a church that is welcoming and inclusive of all in every aspect of its life, governance and ministry. In particular, this means that I will continue to champion the justice ministry toward full inclusion of gay and lesbian persons in our church, including their full access to all orders of ministry and the liturgical blessing of the church on the committed, life long relationships of gay and lesbian couples.

I do not mean this to the exclusion of those who are not able to embrace this movement in the theological and ecclesial development of the Episcopal Church. I remain committed to conversation and to living with theologically diverse points of view. I also remain utterly open to the power of the Holy Spirit who leads us into all truth, and trust that the Spirit will help us find ways to celebrate our common life with one another in Eucharist and through engagement in God’s mission to a hurting and searching world. 

Inevitably, some will choose to leave and find their spiritual home elsewhere. While the leaving taking of anyone from a community of faith is an occasion of sorrow, it may well be a needed move for the one who has chosen to settle elsewhere. Only time will tell, and so I think we are meant to be gracious toward those who do leave. On the other hand, some will be drawn into our fellowship because of what they see and hear and experience of the presence of God in our congregations. They may be coming from some other community of faith or from no community of faith, but likely always from a place of deep searching and longing. We are meant to be gracious to these as well and welcome them as companions on the way, inviting them to bring their stories, their own picture albums, into our midst and thereby let our story and our album expand.

Obviously there are many other pictures I could have chosen to highlight this morning. Throughout the day today some of those will become evident. Others will need to wait for another time and place. Suffice to say for now that I expect to keep on the lookout for more pictures to add to the album of this fantastic diocese as we discover and live into the fullness of what God is calling us to be. One hundred seventy five years is a good beginning but there is plenty more that awaits us and invites our engagement. Keeping the focus on our participation in God’s reconciling mission is the best way I know for making sure that the pictures we have not yet taken will be among the most memorable.

Thank you for your faithfulness and zeal.

Faithfully,
+Thomas

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