The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee



The Rt. Rev. John C. Bauerschmidt: Bishop’s Convention Address, Diocese of Tennessee, January 22, 2010, St. George's Church Nashville

Introduction.

 

My fellow clergy, esteemed delegates, honored guests, I bid you welcome to the 178th Annual Convention of the Diocese of Tennessee.  We are assembled here to “take counsel for the renewal and mission” of the Church, as the Prayer Book says, and in doing so we are blessed to have the presence of two especially honored guests, Bishop Alfredo Morante of our Companion Diocese of Litoral in Ecuador, and Bishop Gregory Kerr-Wilson of the Diocese of Qu’Appelle in the Anglican Church in Canada.  I was especially blessed in being Bishop Morante’s guest this summer in Ecuador, where I was privileged to be with him and his wife Olga, and to solidify our friendship as bishops and companions in ministry.  Bishop Greg is a friend from some years back, when we were priests with a common concern for the Catholic witness of Anglicanism.  We were thrown together again as “baby bishops” in the orientation course for new bishops, and at the Lambeth Conference, and it’s been a pleasure to renew the friendship.  It’s a pleasure to welcome both bishops, as a sign of the international scope of the Anglican Communion; and if we have confined ourselves this year to the Western Hemisphere, we’re still reminded that Christianity is an international phenomenon.

 

I’m grateful to all of you for your assistance in the past year.  Someone asked me recently to define what I do.  Now that’s a great question!  I think a good answer is that I have the privilege of working with the leaders of the church.  By that I mean that I get to work with Vestries and Mission Councils, with the Diocesan Council and the Standing Committee, with the Evangelism Committee and with Diocesan Cursillio, with the Board of St Andrews-Sewanee School and of St Luke’s Community House, with the Commission on Ministry and with the Living in Creation Ministry, with our hard-working diocesan staff and with the Trustees of the University of the South… the wonderfully diverse list could go on.  We are blessed with wonderful lay leadership in the Diocese of Tennessee, with many great leaders.  The clergy of the Diocese are our chief assets, who give of themselves sacrificially, with good grace.  I am particularly indebted to them.  God has blessed us and placed before us so many opportunities for the work of the Gospel.

 

Let us remember, here at our Annual Convention, that we are the church, a Eucharistic fellowship and assembly here in middle Tennessee that is linked by the ministry of the bishop to other churches elsewhere, an expression of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church of the Creeds.  St Cyprian of Carthage wrote in the third century that there is “one episcopate diffused through many”, a multiplicity of bishops but one ministry of oversight that ultimately points to the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, Jesus Christ our Lord.  We celebrate a common Eucharist at a variety of altars, a Eucharist that is presided over by the Lord himself.  The church stretches from the cross and empty tomb to the heavenly Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, from the mighty acts of salvation to the consummation of all things.  We pause here today to take stock, and to take counsel with each other for the Church’s renewal and mission.

 

Our Convention takes place at a time of challenge for the Church in Tennessee, but also in a spirit of Gospel hope and the expectation of new life.  The Letter to the Hebrews tells us that Christians must have patience and faith in order to inherit the promises (Heb. 6:12).  Our own patience and faith are being tested, so let’s talk about some of the challenges, and then about the new life that is coming, as we put our trust in God.

 

 

 

Financial Challenge.

 

Financial issues have loomed large over the past year.  I have talked about them at length in various forums, with lay leaders and with the clergy.  We have striven to be transparent.  Very briefly, the Diocese of Tennessee is guarantor or co-borrower for significant bank loans for building projects at three of our new church plants, loans that come to about $5.6 million.  We have unrestricted assets of about $3.2 million, and over the past three years we have been forced to meet some of these obligations from our diocesan assets, especially at All Saints’, Smyrna, which went through a serious division in the congregation in 2006.  This situation has been exacerbated by the economic troubles of the past year and a half, which raised the possibility that the slow drain on our resources might suddenly become something more than that.  I think it is fair to say that our assets are heavily leveraged.  We have invested in new ministries that remain vibrant and promising, but we now have little flexibility in our overall financial situation.

 

This situation has colored the proposed budget for 2010.  In shaping our budget to bridge the gap between requests for funding and the resources God has given us, many ministries of our diocese have been affected.

 

Most missions that receive aid have not received all that was requested; most committees and commissions of the diocese have not been fully funded; and the deacon-in-training program that has helped us to place newly ordained clergy within the diocese has been eliminated entirely for the second half of the year.  Administrative costs have been likewise pared, not only in day to day operations, but also in the phasing out of one administrative position at the diocesan level, after a resignation, beginning last year.

 

It’s my conviction that this budget speaks to our times and also charts a way forward in faith to the future for the Diocese of Tennessee.  The diocese of Tennessee has a commitment to congregational life, and to investing resources in our local faith communities.  We continue to invest in the revitalization of our two mission churches in Rutherford County, where we already have a substantial investment in property and buildings (which are, remember, tools of our mission).  We’re also raising our investment in the Southeast Tennessee Episcopal Ministry, in order to better serve the pastoral needs of an entire large area of the diocese, and continuing with a number of initiatives in mission and service as well.  Part of the hope this budget represents is the expectation that as our revenue increases in 2010, the Bishop & Council can think again about our priorities and increase funding for particular ministries as we go.

 

 

 

St Andrew’s Complaint:

 

Since the beginning of my episcopate I have worked to establish a relationship with St Andrew’s Church, which under the Constitution and Canons of the Diocese of Tennessee and of the Episcopal Church remains a parish of the Diocese of Tennessee.  This fall, after a renewed invitation from me in the spring to participate fully in the life of the Diocese with no penalty, the leadership of the parish reaffirmed their wish not to participate in the Diocese of Tennessee.

 

The Constitution and Canons of the Diocese of Tennessee are very clear about the responsibilities of the bishop in cases where parish property (remember, a tool of our mission) is not being used for the purposes for which it was intended (the mission of the Diocese of Tennessee), and require the bishop to act.  The Complaint filed by the diocese in Chancery Court at the end of October was the only recourse left to us.  Tony McFarland and Dick Lodge, and their colleague Wendy Warren at Bass, Berry, & Sims have undertaken the work pro bono, and are ably supported by our Chancellor and Chancellor Emeritus.  We are grateful to them.

 

 I have listened carefully to many different perspectives, both before and after bringing this action.  I weighed our options before advising the Diocesan Council that we should bring this Complaint against the disaffiliating leadership.  No one should undertake such a course without grave consideration and prayer.  I have considered what Christian charity and justice require of us, searched the Scriptures and our history of interpreting them, in charting this course.  After two and a half years of efforts to build relationships with the leadership and membership of St Andrew’s Church, seeking reconciliation and a way forward together, I don’t think this action is hasty.  St Andrew’s disaffiliating leadership does not wish to be connected with the Diocese of Tennessee: if so, so be it; but this is a very different thing from asserting that St Andrew’s Church is not a parish of the Diocese of Tennessee.  St Andrew’s is and always has been a congregation of the diocese since its inception in 1889, and no group of parishioners can subsequently modify or end that relationship unilaterally.  We have a common life in Christ in the Diocese of Tennessee, and are accountable to one another.  That is the very heart of the matter.  It’s at the heart of what we’re doing here this weekend in this Convention, as we take counsel together for the renewal and mission of the church.

 

Our preferred resolution remains the full participation of St Andrew’s Church in the Diocese of Tennessee.  We have explored all options and seek to resolve this in good faith.  Please continue to pray for this situation and for all involved.

 

 

 

New Life.

 

In the midst of challenge there is evidence of new life.  First, the Vocational Diaconate program, which will begin this year.  The Diaconate is a part of the three-fold order of ordained ministry comes down to us from the earliest times as the mainstream pattern of ministry in the church, a pattern that was re-affirmed at the Reformation in the Church of England and given additional visibility and definition in the Ordinal of 1550, with rites for ordination of bishops, priests, and deacons.  The order of deacons served in various capacities in the first centuries of the church, in ministries of service often associated with the administration of the church’s charitable works, serving at the altar as well.  Deacons (like Vincent of Saragossa, for instance) were often the bishop’s chief support, and many early bishops had served as archdeacon of the diocesan church.  Gradually over the centuries the diaconate became less of a distinct ministry, and more a stepping stone to the priesthood, which probably preserved it, a sort of ministry encased in amber, as it were, waiting for better times.

 

In the past thirty years the diaconate has revived as a distinct order of ministry in both the Roman Catholic Church and in many churches of the Anglican Communion, not just a stepping stone to the priesthood, with a focus on the world outside the church’s doors.  Vocational deacons are distinct from transitional deacons, who proceed on to the priesthood.  Diaconal ministry as modernly conceived is meant to focus the attention of the church on ministry in the world.  The church seeks to ordain people who are already involved in this ministry, especially those who can lead by involving others in this work.  They serve at the altar, but their focus lies outside the church.

 

The proposals for the Vocational Diaconate program are contained in your Convention book.  I’m grateful to Linda Hutton and the other members of this working group for their careful work over this past eighteen months.  An initial group of postulants will begin preparation in the fall of this year.  This is normally a non-stipendiary ministry, under the leadership of the bishop and supervised by the parish priest.  It will mean so much to us in the future as we seek to reach out to a world that needs the witness and ministry of the church for healing and for reconciliation.

 

In the past two years the new Living in Creation ministry, which has focused our diocese on environmental concerns, has taken shape.  A Committee came into being, and a network of parish liaisons has helped to bring the work into our local parishes and missions.  Care for the environment is crucial for us as Christians, for theological reasons as well as pragmatic and prudential ones given the environmental crisis.  Our God made the world and all that is in it and called it good (Gen. 1:31), and Revelation gives us a picture of “a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev. 21:1), where “righteousness is at home” (2 Pet. 3:13).  I encourage you to pay careful attention to the resolution that calls for the observance of a Rogation Sunday in Eastertide that focuses the Church’s attention on the gift of creation.  I’m grateful to Emily Jones for her leadership here.

 

The Evangelism Committee has, over the past two and a half years, sponsored a number of good conferences and done considerable parish level work building a network of concern for the Great Commission.  There is a new conference coming up on the 5th and 6th of March, with Andrew Weeks.  Again, there’s opportunity to become involved.  What’s happening in your parish to focus us intentionally on the proclamation of the Gospel and the sharing of the Faith?

 

There are so many opportunities to become involved.  The new Lenten Food Drive for Second Harvest this year, outlined in the November/December Connections, is a good example.  We carry out the Great Commandment of loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves through service.  Again, a parish network is being built.  Do you see a common theme?  In these three areas of ministry in the diocese we rely on cooperative ventures between congregations, which help to flesh out the life of the diocese and make it a living reality.  If you want to know where the Diocese of Tennessee is, you must first look to your local context and the fellowship which connects us to others.  Which brings us back again to the heart of the matter that we are engaged in at this Convention, in taking counsel together for the renewal and mission of the church.

 

This year we will continue the work of gathering feedback from clergy and lay leaders, looking toward the articulation of a vision and goals for the Diocese of Tennessee.  The proposed budget supports these efforts. All that I’ve said today is really preface to that work.  There are signs of new life all around us, but there is need for a new focus and a new articulation to guide the diocese in this next part of our life together.  Our mission is unchanged, but we need reminding what it’s about.  We will need to seek the resources to address the ministry needs we have today.  Some of these needs are immediate, but some are longer term, as we dream of new ministries and discover anew the passion we have for ministry.  Again, there are signs of new life all round us.

 

 

Conclusion

 

These are times of patience and faith, with challenge and Gospel hope for the future.  Thank you again for all you are doing, to the glory of God and the increase of the Faith.  I continue to give thanks for the ministry that was given me three years ago in Tennessee, and I continue to give thanks for all of you who minister to me and make possible this ministry we share.  Ministry is a privilege granted by others, and I am grateful to you for calling me.

 

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