Dear people of God:
Grace and peace to you in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Introduction
The bishops of The Episcopal Church gathered from March 17-24 at Camp Allen Conference Center in Navasota, Texas. Our gathering included 122 bishops and bishops-elect, representing 89 dioceses and special ministries across 17 countries and territories. As we conclude our meeting, we give thanks for the mutual affection and fruitful collaboration we experience during our time together, and we renew our commitment to bear witness with clarity and unity to the transforming power of the Gospel.
Reflections from our meeting
Our gathering was focused primarily on the challenges and opportunities before us as a church. We welcomed 12 representatives from Episcopal seminaries and local formation programs to engage in thoughtful dialogue about the state of theological education and our need to better integrate traditional and innovative modes of discernment, recruitment, and training for future clergy and lay leaders. We explored possibilities for expanding the work of church planting and the redevelopment of existing congregations. We reflected on our relationships within the Anglican Communion, including discussion of The Nairobi-Cairo Proposals and expressed our concerns regarding the urgency to change the definitions and structures of the communion. We rejoiced in the election of the Rt. Rev. Alba Sally Sue Hernandez Garcia as primate of the Anglican Church of Mexico. Finally, we issued a courtesy resolution celebrating the installation of the Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. Dame Sarah Mullally as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury.
While engaged in this important work for the church, we gathered each day to pray for the church and the world. We prayed for a swift conclusion to the armed conflict with Iran; the wars in Ukraine, Sudan, and Myanmar; and all hostilities across the globe. We prayed for peace in the Holy Land, for Archbishop Hosam Naoum, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East, and for all those living in the reality of violence in that region. We prayed for healing and reconciliation among the nations of the world, that there may be justice and peace on the Earth. We prayed for those who are victims of injustice and discrimination, terror and war, and the pervasive degradation of human dignity. We prayed for strength and courage to continue the robust and tangible response in our respective dioceses to the myriad and varied challenges before us. And yet, in the face of these challenges, we are not without hope.
A word of hope
We find our hope in God’s promises as made known to us in the words and actions of Jesus Christ. Christian hope is the sure and present confidence, grounded in the resurrection of Jesus, that suffering is not the end. Hope is the stubborn trust that God is not finished. Even in the shadow of the cross, God is already at work, bringing life out of death.
This promise of hope is central to the story of the raising of Lazarus (John 11:1-45). Jesus stands before the tomb of his friend, surrounded by grief and despair, and a community aching for his intervention. It is precisely in the moment when all hope seems lost that Jesus speaks the Word of life. There is hope because “even in death, Lazarus has access to the voice of life.” Jesus, the Word of God, commands Lazarus to “come forth,” and that same divine Word immediately calls the gathered community to “unbind him and let him go.”
In our present moment, in a world ravaged by war and the degradation of human dignity, Jesus is still speaking the Word of life. There is hope in this moment, because even in the face of grief, death, and despair, we have access to the voice of life—the voice of the One who calls us to participate in the Gospel mission of unbinding those who are held captive by the bonds of injustice and ensnared by the cords of corruption and oppression. We do not raise the dead; God alone does that. But we are summoned into the tender, deliberate work of unbinding, of participating in resurrection by loosening the grave clothes that still cling.
It is in this hope, as those who have received life and heard the voice of life, that we go forth in faith to bear witness to the resurrection, to unbind what is still bound, and to trust in Christ’s promise to make all things new.
As we prepare to celebrate the Paschal feast, with the hope of the resurrection ever before us, may the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing through the power of the Holy Spirit.
