The following is a transcript of the opening remarks of Presiding Bishop Michael Curry to the House of Bishops, meeting virtually through Sept. 22.
St. Paul usually began his letters with words similar to these addressed originally to the church at Rome: “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you…” So in that spirit, allow me to offer a few words of thanksgiving.
For Brian Cole, Ednice Baerga, and all the members of our Planning Committee, for our chaplains, interpreters, and all the members of the staff and the General Convention Office. Thank you!
I also give thanks for you, this community of bishops and spouses. Thank you for your patience, your well wishes, your texted jokes, and above all for your prayers for me and my family. I am thankful that the issues with my heart are being managed and monitored, and that issues with this internal bleeding from this tumor on my right adrenal gland will get addressed with tomorrow’s surgery. I’m going to be fine, come what may, I’m going to be fine because we have a God, and God is real. So, God willing, I fully expect, with a short recovery time, to be back full time. In all things, to God be the glory!
Lastly, I want to thank Mike Klusmeyer, who a year ago held off his retirement to help us out serving as canon to the presiding bishop for Mission Within The Episcopal Church. He would like to retire by Nov. 1, and he does so with my deep gratitude. So, thank you, Mike; thank you, Marsha. And may God bless and keep you both on your retirement journey.
I know how important this role is for our ministry as bishops and for the work of this House. While this canon will only serve likely through the end of my tenure, I am mindful that this will be during a General Convention year and the transition to the 28th presiding bishop. I have therefore commissioned a small task group to:
- Identify a pool of potential persons to be considered for this position.
- Narrow that field.
- Contact persons to assess both their interest and availability.
- Present two or three names for me to consider.
Members of this task group are Andy Doyle, who has agreed to serve as the convenor; Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows, Mary Kostel, Mark Stevenson, and Ruth Woodliff-Stanley. They have agreed to begin their work with this announcement. Thank you to each one; thank you.
Several months ago, the Planning Committee designed our time around the theme, “The Vocation of Bishop Now.” That word “now” is important. Now, in this present moment. Now, in these days in which we live. Now, in the cultures where serve. Now, “for such a time as this,” as Queen Esther says in the Bible. This is not an easy time to be a follower of Jesus. It’s not an easy time to live by love. It’s not an easy time to be a bishop. It’s not an easy time to be the church. It’s not an easy time to be a leader in any endeavor; and frankly, it’s not an easy time just to be human.
The timely theme of “The Vocation of Bishop Now” invites us to wrestle with some issues that are before us:
- First, thoughtful engagement with clergy discipline—for bishops, priests, and deacons—upholding both the values of Title IV and the value of seeking and speaking “the truth in love,” holding each other accountable for our sins of omission or commission, and striving with all that we can muster by God’s grace toward becoming God’s beloved community on Earth as it is in heaven.
- Second, our context demands that we must help the church to face and engage the reality of decline—lovingly, wisely, strategically, and courageously. It demands that at the same time we must support and encourage healthy and vibrant ongoing and emerging communities of faith, and it demands that we are called to be “prisoners of hope,” as the Bible says, sentries of new possibilities, messengers of good news, and apostles and midwives of resurrection.
This is not easy. The times are not easy. But this is hard and holy work, and we can only do it together—as bishops, clergy and lay people, as the baptized people of God. We cannot, however, do this by ourselves, no matter how smart, how matter how capable, no matter who we are; we cannot do this by ourselves alone. We need God, we need Jesus, we need the Holy Spirit of the living God who, Jesus said, “will lead [us] in all truth.” Simply put, we need God, and we need each other.
In the 18th chapter of Matthew when Jesus was teaching about the hard and holy work of becoming beloved community, he pointed to this truth when he said, “Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” We need God, and we need each other.
I would dare say that Jesus was pointing to this when over and over again the four Gospels—hear that: the four Gospels, over and over again—record Jesus declaring in a variety of ways that the love of God and love for each other is God’s way of life, God’s dream for his human family, God’s vision for God’s entire creation. We need God, and we need each other. “You shall love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself.”
And I suspect that our baptismal covenant may well be getting at this when we promise to follow Jesus in God’s way of love and life with these simple words: “I will, with God’s help.” We need God, and we need each other.
Archbishop Tutu frequently quoted St. Augustine of Hippo who is reputed to have said: “By God’s self, God won’t. By ourselves, we can’t. But together with God, we can!”
So God love you, God bless you, and you have a blessed meeting. And I’ll be seeing you on the other side of surgery. Amen.
