The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee



The Rt. Rev. John Bauerschmidt: Bishop’s Convention Address , Diocese of Tennessee, January 21, 2011, St. Bartholomew’s Church Nashville

Introduction.

My well-beloved fellow clergy and lay leaders of the Diocese of Tennessee, and our honored and esteemed guests, I bid you welcome to the 179th Annual Convention of the Diocese of Tennessee. We gather this year under the banner of the Lord’s words, “I am the Vine, you are the branches,” celebrating the common life we have in Christ as the Church in Middle Tennessee. I am thankful this year for the presence of the Rt. Rev’d Gary Lillibridge, Bishop of West Texas, and his wife Catherine. I’m particularly grateful to Bishop Lillibridge for addressing us today on our Convention theme, and thank him in advance for preaching tomorrow. The theme points us toward the common life we have together in the Diocese of Tennessee, the life of the True Vine that this Annual Convention exemplifies. We are involved in mission and ministry together, rooted and grounded in Christ who is the source of our life.

I’m also grateful for the presence of Robert Radtke, President of Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD), who will share with us tomorrow some information about the work of ERD, especially in connection with the Diocese of Tennessee in the wake of the Great Middle Tennessee Flood of 2010. His presence is a reminder of the common ministry we share with others as we respond in service to the needs of the world.

I also wish to thank the clergy of the Diocese of Tennessee who as a group have labored hard over this past year, often in circumstances that are demanding and challenging to faith. Our priests and deacons are our chief assets in ministry, and they give of themselves sacrificially as leaders of the Church. I’m grateful to them for their work and their support. We are also blessed in our lay leaders in the Diocese of Tennessee, who have been challenged this year as well to keep the parishes and missions of the Diocese of Tennessee moving forward in mission and ministry. I thank you who are gathered here for your care for the Church and your passion for the Gospel. We are branches rooted in the Vine who is Christ himself.

I also want to thank our Diocesan staff persons, a small group of folks who do good work in supporting the work of all of us. I’m grateful to Canon Snare, who works with clergy and congregations in transition and with the Commission on Ministry; to Jan Pate, who works with lay leaders on the Diocesan and congregational level on finance, insurance and development issues; to Cathy Hendrix who assists us with communications; and to Mitzi Kirby who provides administrative support to all of us. I’m also grateful to Canon Fred Dettwiller, who in the midst of running his own successful business is our Canon for Finance, Administration and Development, working on a number of special projects in relation to congregational life as well. I’m grateful for their support as I go about my own wide-ranging vocation. I too seek to be grounded in the True Vine who is the source of our common life.

Common Vision.

Common life demands a common vision. A little over a year ago, following our 2009 Convention, a series of focus groups were held with clergy and a representative group of lay leaders in the Diocese, to think about the future. Projects large and small were surfaced and identified. The feedback from the sessions was invaluable, and will help us move forward in this coming year, but it also helped to clarify for me a common vision for our life together, which I shared with the Diocese this Fall in the context of the inauguration of our new Annual Fund.

The Diocese of Tennessee is open to the power of God being made manifest in its life; obedient to Jesus’ commandment to make disciples of all nations; responsive to the Lord’s call to serve the world in his name; and committed to deepening our connection to our Lord Jesus Christ and to each other as faithful members of his Body. That’s the vision, and there is some meat on the bones. I’m framing this address within the context of these four words: open, obedient, responsive and committed. I believe that this is what we’re called to be.

Open

This year we created an Annual Fund for the Diocese of Tennessee, “Faithful & Focused,” in order to give the Diocese a chance to talk about the work we do together, and to give members of the Diocese an opportunity to support this work. In the November Connections we told stories of ministry from St Luke’s Community House, Holy Cross Church in Murfreesboro, and the Mid-Cumberland Mountain Ministry. These are great stories of ministry, and they are all made possible by the long-term commitment of the Diocese of Tennessee. The good news is that these are not the only stories. In order to continue the work that is ongoing the Diocese needs to engage our people’s passion and imagination and gather our resources. The creation of “Faithful & Focused” is just a start to this process. We will tell this story again and again.

A large part of “Faithful & Focused” is the opportunity to pray for the work of the Diocese of Tennessee, to be faithful in our prayer and focused in our attention. I’ve told you before that one of my besetting sins is to forget to pray, so let’s not do that here. Prayer cards have been provided to keep this work before you. I wonder if you would take up the card and join me in saying the prayer?

“Almighty God, you give gifts generously to your people, and call us to service in the name of your Son: keep us faithful and focused in all that we do, and as we respond to your call, make us thankful for your ever present guidance and love; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

I am so grateful to those who have contributed so far to “Faithful & Focused.” To date, one hundred and forty-one distinct gifts have been made to the Fund, for a total of $46,225. This is a visible sign of investment in our common life. We are engaged in work in Middle Tennessee that goes beyond the scope of any single congregation, and which we can do most effectively and credibly together as a Diocese. We cannot take the Diocese or its work for granted. I encourage you to read the stories of the good work that is made possible by the Diocese of Tennessee, and also to contribute generously. There are pledge cards in front of you along with the other vital signs of our Diocesan life. Jesus is the Vine, and we are the branches. We are depending upon grace, upon God who is the giver of the gift. In the Diocese of Tennessee, we are open to the power of God being made manifest in our lives.

Obedient

The Diocese of Tennessee has also been obedient to the Lord’s command to make disciples of all nations. In the last half of the Nineties and in the first five years of the new millennium, the Diocese of Tennessee planted new churches, new branches on the Vine. This was a part of a vision articulated by my predecessor Bishop Herlong, and as a result of his leadership the Diocese has a number of vital new congregations in areas of growth and among new constituencies that are important for the future of our mission and ministry. We owe much to his leadership in this area. A large part of the work of the past four years has been in sustaining this work, of trimming and pruning (to keep with our theme). We are not done with planting new congregations in the Diocese of Tennessee, but right now we are marshalling our strength to move our existing congregations forward.

The budget that is now before you puts resources unabashedly on the congregational level, and represents an advance over the work that we were able to do last year. This is very encouraging to me, because it indicates that we are on the right track. We invested resources in the STEM ministry last year and have seen the reward in greater participation and in a rapidly developing ministry there (more on this later). We also continued to invest in the work at All Saints’, Smyrna, and have been blessed in the way this ministry has reached out and helped the refugee population there. New immigrants are a growth constituency for the Episcopal Church, and we will be blessed in the future for getting our foot in the door now.

An exciting aspect of this budget is that it increases the resources invested in Holy Cross Church, another of our Rutherford County congregations. I love to tell this story. When the congregation there suffered a division at the beginning of 2008, right before our Convention, there were seven persons left who desired to remain with Holy Cross and the Episcopal Church (two of these were home bound). Now, two and a half years later, under the leadership of a part-time priest, the Rev’d Bill Dalglish, and good lay leadership, this congregation has grown to over seventy, which is larger than it has ever been at any time in its history! Numbers, of course, are only part of the story, as this church has developed new ministries, but they are an important part of the story.

We are putting our Diocesan resources on the congregational level, strengthening the branches rooted in the Vine. The Diocese of Tennessee exists to serve our congregations, and this budget tells that story. This is work that can be supported most effectively by all of us together as a Diocese. I believe that this is the way at this moment for us to be obedient to the Lord’s call to make disciples.

Responsive

The Great Flood of May, 2010, had a profound effect on the city of Nashville and on many communities in Middle Tennessee. It affected our neighbors, our fellow parishioners, and many of us, often in unseen ways. It left physical damage and in some cases heartbreaking death in its wake. I am mindful today and commend to your prayers Bill and Frankie Rutledge of St George’s Church, who perished on that Sunday morning in the swiftly rising waters of Richland Creek, on the way to worship. I’m also mindful of the damage at St George’s Church, where we gathered just a year ago for the 178th Annual Convention of the Diocese, which has reminded them and all of us in the Diocese of Tennessee of the spiritual value of our places of worship, where the members of the Church gather as branches of the True Vine. I am very proud of St George’s Church for its response to this Flood, for they have reached out beyond themselves to help others.

The Flood also saw an outpouring of help from all over the country, both in immediate relief and in ongoing recovery. Part of this story is the support that has come to Middle Tennessee from Episcopal Relief and Development, in the form of a grant made available to the clergy of the Diocese that enabled them to help folks immediately affected by the Flood through their Discretionary Funds. We are so grateful for this help. In December, we had news that ERD had also granted over $250,000 to St Luke’s Community House for the rebuilding of homes in West Nashville, one of the neighborhoods heavily impacted by the Flood, as well as funding for some ongoing pastoral care for residents. I’d like to mention Katie Mears of ERD and Archdeacon Russ Oechsel of the Diocese of Texas, who were crucial in helping the Diocese and St Luke’s in identifying our needs. It’s yet another sign of the reality of the life of Christ the Vine manifest in the branches. And of course we are profoundly grateful to Episcopal Relief and Development for this help in time of need.

Please also note that during Lent and Easter we will be asking our congregations to reach out to help the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti as it seeks to rebuild its life following last year’s devastating earthquake. ERD has been very helpful to Haiti is responding to the needs of the country, as has our own congregation of St Paul’s, Murfreesboro and perhaps others, but the Episcopal Church as a whole is now formulating a plan to help the impoverished Diocese of Haiti in continuing its important work among the grieving people of Haiti. Please look for more information about this effort this Epiphanytide. Remember, we are seeking to be responsive to the needs of the world, and this initiative will help us do that.

Committed

I’ve mentioned commitment to deepening our connection to Christ and to one another as part of the vision that sustains our life in the Diocese of Tennessee. This is part of the inspiration for our Diocesan magazine, Connections, which allows us to tell the stories of the life of the Diocese and to both reveal and enhance the connection we have to each other. Understanding that the life of the Church goes beyond the life of our own parish and acting upon that insight is essential for the Church to flourish as the Universal and Catholic organism that it’s called to be. This vision is part and parcel of the Creeds (“one, holy, catholic and apostolic church”), and is of course basic to the vision of branches rooted and connected to a common Vine, of a fellowship that goes beyond the familiar, but the Church continues to be challenged in living it out.

Church-going is very particular for Episcopalians. We know our parish and don’t like to go out much, even when the neighboring church is close by. But at four churches of the Diocese of Tennessee a regional ministry has been reconceived and reborn in the past year, an example of connection that goes beyond the parish boundaries. Under the leadership of the Rev’d Bill Barton, the Southeastern Tennessee Episcopal Ministry (or STEM) has grown to become a fellowship of four churches, sharing clergy leadership and resources, with lay leaders taking counsel together and seeking to live a more connected common life. I’m proud of lay leaders at Christ Church, Alto; Holy Comforter, Monteagle; Epiphany, Sherwood; and Trinity, Winchester, for having the vision and confidence to move ahead together. You are reminding us that we are “better together”, reminding us of our connection to each other, reminding us of the Catholic nature of the Church.

During this same year, youth ministers at a number of our congregations came together at my request in order to articulate a vision for Diocesan youth ministry, a persuasive vision that I have been talking about in a number of contexts this past year. I’m grateful to the Rev’d Dixon Kinser for facilitating this. In the past year, as well, St Augustine’s Chapel and St Bartholomew’s Church have come together in a cooperative venture in strengthening the ministry of the Episcopal Church at Belmont University in Nashville. These examples could be multiplied. Again, we are branches connected by the True Vine.

In the course of this year the Diocese of Tennessee has also been discussing the proposal for a Covenant among the Churches of the Anglican Communion. Many of our congregations have studied the Covenant in response to a resolution adopted at our Convention last year, and have reported back to the Coordinating Committee. We were responding to a 2009 General Convention resolution encouraging the study of the Covenant by the dioceses of the Church, as well as a request from the Presiding Bishop that congregations study the document and share their responses.

The proposal for an Anglican Covenant comes before our Church as a result of the reaction to the election and consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. The ordination as bishop of a gay man in a partnered relationship met with a varied response from the different churches of the Communion, but much of the reaction was negative. Church leaders struggled to find a way for the Churches of the Communion to stay together and to restore trust. In this way the idea of an Anglican Covenant between the member Churches got its start, proposed in the Windsor Report in 2004. This suggestion was taken up by the Archbishop of Canterbury and then drafted and re-drafted by a Design Committee commissioned by him; this idea was also embraced as a result of the Indaba process at the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Bishops, and then adopted and revised by the Anglican Consultative Council in 2009 which has now placed it before the Churches of the Communion for them to adopt or not.

The Covenant takes as a given that matters that are of concern to all should be decided in common; not a new principal but one that has had increasing purchase within Anglicanism over the past fifty years as it has grown to be a worldwide Communion of Churches. Not, mind you, that everyone has to agree about everything or do things in the same way (that wouldn’t be Anglican at all); but rather that together we decide what we will hold in common so that we can hold together. It’s almost a tautology, but not a wearisome one. There’s nothing un-Anglican about holding things in common; in fact, our tradition invested quite a bit in the 16th century on finding that common center, that via media, which would allow the Church of England to go forward as a united whole. If we as Anglicans don’t do that together then our “relationship” is a lot more casual and a lot less intimate than it has been in days past. This is not about centralization but about consideration, finding ways that we can relate to each other without talking past each other. When we have a common life with others we embrace a way of life that involves common consideration by the partners. How will these de-centralized Churches of the Communion find ways of preserving a common life? If we are serious about de-centralization, and we Anglicans are, then this makes the common center even more important so that we do not fly apart. The Covenant represents to me our best way forward as a Church that is a member of a worldwide Communion of Churches.

There are a few things to be borne in mind about the Covenant. First of all, a decision to adopt the Covenant is a decision made by member Churches, not by dioceses or congregations, which can certainly endorse or otherwise affirm it but won’t become participants in it as a Church except through the larger body of which they are a part (in this case the Episcopal Church). Second, adoption of the Covenant or failure to adopt it is not a measure of membership in the Anglican Communion. Archbishop Rowan Williams has cast adoption of the Covenant in terms of a deeper engagement and a more intensified relationship with one other. Some Churches will not want to commit themselves to this Covenant, perhaps for different reasons. It has fierce critics both on the Right and the Left, a fact that may embarrass folks on both sides who are forced to make common cause against it! But still, we are talking about member Churches deciding whether or not to make an explicit commitment to the principal that what is of concern to all should be decided in common, not about membership in the Anglican Communion.

There is opportunity for us in the Diocese of Tennessee, in the midst of all this, to deepen the sense of trust and common life that we have regained over the past four years. My sense is that we have decided to go forward together as Diocese. We have weathered some storms over the past three years, financial and ecclesiastical, and my own awareness grows that we are “better together” despite our differences. The challenge for us is to do the difficult work of remaining in relationship when we disagree about things that may be of fundamental importance to us. It’s easy to disagree about things that we don’t really care about, but challenging to be in relationship when the stakes are higher. But that’s the opportunity, to see the presence of Christ in the other. We have chosen to come together and not disintegrate, to be rooted together as branches in the Vine. Remember, connection is part of our call and our charism in the Diocese of Tennessee.

The Future.

This is always the most perplexing part of a Convention Address, to peer into the future and see the way ahead. But I think that a future investment in additional support for congregations, in the form of a person who could work as a supervisor and support for our parishes and missions who do not have full-time staff, and for small congregations that are in a growth mode, as well as provide some support for future new congregational starts, would be a good thing, and a logical outgrowth of our emphasis on congregational life and development. I think this would encourage morale among both lay leaders and clergy in our smaller and more isolated congregations, but would also help us move ahead in all our parishes in responding to growth. I know this is an ambitious job description, and would have to be carefully thought through before being embraced, but I think it could be of terrific help to us as we plan as a Diocese to carry out our mission and ministry in the future.

We also need to focus on the future, to witness “to the future” in the way I suggested we do in yesterday’s sermon. We know from the feedback from our focus groups in 2009 that there are big projects out there. We will need to continue to focus and discern the path and move forward together. We need to continue to tell our story, the inspiring story of ministry in the Diocese of Tennessee.

Thank you for your support in this past year. Thank you for calling me to be bishop here in Tennessee. Thank you for inspiring me and encouraging me. I am grateful to all of you for your prayer and your hard work. You have shown yourselves to be open, obedient, responsive and committed. He is the Vine, and we are the branches. These are great days for the Diocese of Tennessee, and there are great days ahead.

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