Episcopal News Service

Lois Siler’s phone rang at 4:45 a.m. on June 17; it was her 29-year-old daughter Suzanne Brush calling to tell her she was homeless. She wasn’t homeless, exactly, but she, a friend and a dog were trapped in her home’s second level and water continued to rise.

Brush next called emergency responders, volunteers in this rural part of Michigan, and an hour and a half later called her mother to say that she, Katelyn Hough, and Polar, a white, husky mix, were safe and at the fire station.

“My daughter’s house is a total loss with the flooding,” said Siler, a Lake Linden resident and member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Houghton, in a telephone interview with Episcopal News Service.

Brush’s was one of eight homes destroyed by the massive flood that ripped through Houghton County; hitting Lake Linden, Hubble and Tamarack City particularly hard. Brush’s homeowner’s insurance policy didn’t include flood insurance, so even though the property was condemned, she’s still responsible for the mortgage and property taxes. Brush, Hough and Polar have been staying with a friend in Lake Linden, said Siler, while they look for permanent housing.

Following the June floods in the Western and Central Upper Peninsula, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder declared disasters in Houghton, Menominee and, later, Gogebic counties. The Federal Emergency Management Agency early this month made available disaster assistance.

The rains began on Saturday night, June 16, and continued into Sunday, when more than seven inches fell in a matter of hours on the Keweenaw Peninsula, the northern most part of the state, home to just over 36,000 people, more than 20 percent of whom live in poverty.

“That set off this really strange flooding that happened all over the area,” said Rick Stanitis, campus missioner for Canterbury House at Michigan Technological University in Houghton. “Lake Superior is a huge watershed and you don’t [usually] have to wait long for it to drain.”

But the rains intensity was more than the watershed could readily absorb, made worse by rock and steep hills, and the flood destroyed streets and knocked out culverts, and left 500 basements filled with mud. Close to two months later, some residents still have mud in their basements, he said, in a telephone interview.

“There’s a lot of suffering going on and a lot of poor folk. A lot of people suffering without money who are not going to tell anyone they’re in need and they have a basement full of mud,” said Stanitis.

Three weeks after the first flood, heavy rains caused a second flood in Houghton County. It is

Stanitis’ job to keep the diocese informed of the work of the Long-Term Recovery Group Steering Committee, which is working on solutions to bring resources to the emerging needs. Following the June flood, the Diocese of Northern Michigan began collecting donations in support of flood relief and continues to do so.

“The flash flood in Houghton County on Father’s Day has left a path of destruction to infrastructure and homes in Houghton County, said Northern Michigan Bishop Rayford Ray, in an email to ENS. “Many of you have seen the photos and videos on news and social media sites showing the devastation to public infrastructure, but individuals in the community have also suffered many losses and set backs of all types. The community continues to assess the damage from the disaster, and relief efforts have been underway and continue to this very day.

“It is estimated that costs are over $50 million because of the flooding which does not include the emotional impact to those who were touched by this devastating flood.”

Siler’s yard was damaged, nothing serious. Brush, though, who lived just outside Lake Linden’s village limit in School Craft Township, near an old railroad bed that has since been filled in to accommodate snowmobiles and off-road vehicles, lost everything. That fill, along with water, ended on Brush’s property and, even though the century-old house still sits on its foundation, it’s beyond repair.

“This was a unique experience, the home she lived in was 100 years old and has managed to make it through serious weather … this was an extraordinary event,” said Siler. “The house is gone; the cars are gone. All is well with them, there’s been a little game of find Suzanne’s stuff, it’s strewn all over the place.”

To contribute to the diocese’s flood relief fund, make checks payable to The Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan. In the memo line, please write Houghton County Flood Relief. The address is: The Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan 131 East Ridge Street Marquette, MI 49855.

-Lynette Wilson is a reporter and managing editor of the Episcopal News Service.

One of the biggest developments at the 79th General Convention related to the Episcopal Church’s work on racial reconciliation was the approval of a new grant program to support grassroots efforts, building on the progress made under the church’s new Becoming Beloved Community framework.

The grant program outlined in Resolution D002 marks the first time the church will provide direct financial support for Episcopalians working toward racial healing and justice in their congregations and communities. The 2019-2021 church budget includes $750,000 for the grants, much less than the $5 million recommended by D002, but these initiatives – such as forums, workshops and informal gatherings – often don’t need a lot of money to become viable and thrive.

“It is exciting to think about how $750,000 over three years could really seed some powerful work,” said Heidi Kim, the church’s staff officer for racial reconciliation, and she is hopeful that the grant process will shine a brighter light on existing efforts already making a difference. “I think people all over the church are doing amazing things that we just don’t know about.”

The church also is taking steps to bring those people together to share their insights. Another resolution, A228, calls for the creation of a Becoming Beloved Community summit by the end of 2019 to support and inspire the leaders of such initiatives.

The resolution references the church’s aspiration to create “a network of healers, justice makers, and reconcilers” who would benefit from the pool of knowledge and shared experiences. Church leaders and staff members point to the model of the Episcopal Church’s church planting network, through which the creators of new ministries receive grant money and learn from fellow church planters.

“That’s when grants make a huge difference in the church, and that’s what we now have the opportunity to build around Beloved Community,” said the Rev. Stephanie Spellers, the presiding bishop’s canon for evangelism, reconciliation and creation care.

General Convention in 2015 identified racial reconciliation as one of the church’s three top priorities, along with evangelism and creation care, acknowledging the church’s decades-old efforts to confront its historic complicity in the sin of racism during the eras of slavery and segregation.

The labyrinth diagram showing the four parts of the Episcopal Church’s Becoming Beloved Community is colored for an Advent mailing.
Becoming Beloved Community is a framework that launched just last year. It is broken into four parts that are illustrated as a labyrinth: telling the truth about our churches and race, proclaiming the dream of Beloved Community, practicing the way of love in the pattern of Jesus and repairing the breach in society.

Because Becoming Beloved Community launched in the middle of the triennium, about $1 million was left from the money budgeted for implementation in 2016-18. When the 79th General Convention met last month in Austin, Texas, it approved a new budget that applies that unused amount to continued implementation in the new triennium.

A total of $10.4 million was OK’d for racial justice and reconciliation work over the next three years. That amount includes a range of expenses, from anti-poverty initiatives to ethnic ministries, as well as Becoming Beloved Community and the new grant program. The grant program was assigned to Executive Council for development and implementation. Executive Council meets next in October.

The local focus of the grants will be critical, said the Rev. Edwin Johnson, a deputy from Massachusetts and chair of General Convention’s Racial Justice and Reconciliation Committee.

“We’re excited because there is considerable funding available for communities to do this work in their own context,” said Johnson, who is rector of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Dorchester, Massachusetts. “There was overwhelming support in both houses [of General Convention] for this work and, in particular, for work that is decentralized.”

Johnson points to the experience of his own congregation, which is largely Afro-Caribbean. He received a Mission Enterprise Zone grant to start a Spanish-language ministry there, and it has thrived with support from the network of Episcopal church planters.

Johnson is active in the development of a similar network of racial reconciliation leaders. About 50 people testified before Johnson’s committee at General Convention about the various resolutions assigned to the committee, and afterward, he reached out to each of them to enlist them in a new community of action around racial healing.

“I think we did a really good job of bringing forth and calling forth new leadership in this area,” he said. Their energy is “precisely what we’re going to need for the long haul.”

Catherine Meeks, one of the pre-eminent leaders in the church’s longtime push for racial justice, echoed Johnson in emphasizing the role of congregations.

“This work has to be done at the parish level ultimately. … Becoming Beloved Community is trying to make that happen,” she said. “The more informed, the more conscious people are, hopefully, the more they engage with the work.”

Meeks’ work in developing and conducting anti-racism training for the Diocese of Atlanta has served as a model churchwide for such training, which was mandated for ordained and lay leaders by a 2000 resolution passed by General Convention. Implementation has been uneven.

“It’s a mandate that nobody really enforces,” she said, and dioceses’ track record of implementing plans for the training continues to be a topic regularly taken up by General Convention.

Last month, General Convention passed Resolution A044 attempting to clarify the criteria for such training, suggesting a structure that coincides with the four parts of Becoming Beloved Community. Another resolution, A045, acknowledges “not all dioceses have followed the spirit of the anti-racism training required,” and it calls for better documentation of participation in the training.

The training is vital, Meeks said, because it provides a safe setting for Episcopalians to confront tough questions about their church and themselves while helping them open their minds and consider ways they engage in racial healing and justice.

Meeks now serves as executive director of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing, a ministry of the Diocese of Atlanta that offers a churchwide resource for fostering open dialogue about race and racism.

At the same time, Meeks led a push this year to move away from the term “anti-racism” in favor of a greater focus on healing, justice and reconciliation. She helped Atlanta Bishop Robert Wright and others draft Resolution B004, which sought that shift in language.

“To talk about our work under the rubric of healing and justice and reconciliation just has a more positive energy around it and states what we’re trying to do in the world,” Meeks said.

Questions about the language of reconciliation and clarifying the mandate of the Executive Council Committee on Anti-Racism generated spirited debate during General Convention, and it ultimately ended in something of a compromise. “Anti-racism” remains in the committee’s name, but “reconciliation” was added, making it the Executive Council Committee on Anti-Racism & Reconciliation. And the approved version of B004 adjusts the church’s focus to “dismantling racism” while adding the emphasis on “racial healing, justice and reconciliation.”

“What pleased me the most was the conversation we had around the issue, because I think that conversation was very healthy and very needed,” Meeks said.

Many people feel strongly about these issues, whether affirming the need to maintain a focus on dismantling racism or pushing for a more theological approach to racial healing, said Kim, the staff officer for reconciliation. The value of the Becoming Beloved Community framework, she said, is that it seeks to engage all Episcopalians in that conversation, wherever they may be on their spiritual journey.

“We all have room to grow in terms of how we can be reconcilers and healers,” she said.

– David Paulsen is an editor and reporter for the Episcopal News Service. He can be reached at [email protected]

The action of General Convention can feel frenetic in a parliamentary sort of way, and when the Episcopal Church met in Austin earlier this month, Episcopal Relief & Development offered an antidote.

The organization’s booth, which was front and center in the Exhibit Hall, featured four life-sized coloring opportunities.

Illustrator and designer Portia Monberg converted some of Episcopal Relief & Development’s most iconic images to help tell the story of the organization’s three key strategic priorities: women, children and climate.

The panels – two 8-by-8 feet and two 8-by-16 feet – were blank canvases in the General Convention Exhibit Hall on July 3. Photo: Mary Frances Schjonberg/Episcopal News Service
The panels – two 8-by-8 feet and two 8-by-16 feet – were blank canvases on July 3, ready for participants to color.

Donna Field colors at the Episcopal Relief & Development booth in the Exhibit Hall on July 3 while her husband, Diocese of West Missouri Bishop Martin Field, watches. Photo: Mary Frances Schjonberg/Episcopal News Service
By the time the Exhibit Hall folded its tents midafternoon on July 11 (two days before the end of convention), the panels were a riot of color.

By the hall’s last day on July 11, the panels still had some coloring spaces left. Allie Haney of Lubbock, Texas, joined some last-minute artists. Photo: Mary Frances Schjonberg/Episcopal News Service
Some areas of the panels were colored precisely and complimented other more child-like spaces.

“Honestly, General Convention is long, and we felt that a booth that changed and evolved day by day with the ‘creative’ help of attendees would be more interesting and interactive,” said Sean McConnell, senior director for engagement. “Many people also wanted to learn more about what they were coloring, so the images gave us an opportunity to talk in depth about our partnerships and integrated programs.”

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And, the panels live on. The Rev. Anthony Guillén, the Episcopal Church’s missioner for Latino/Hispanic ministries, helped arrange to have Episcopal Relief & Development donate the coloring book panels to the Sunday schools at two Austin churches: St. James Church and San Francisco de Asis.

For those who wanted to continue their coloring elsewhere, Episcopal Relief & Development handed out coloring books and colored pencils. The booth panel illustrations are included in the “Color Our World” book, which can be downloaded here.

Episcopal Relief & Development also offered convention participants the opportunity to contribute to its climate-resilience programs to help offset the carbon footprint of the average attendee. Staff members were available to discuss the organization’s key program priorities and help people learn about the Episcopal Asset Map.

Visitors to the organization’s location in the Exhibit Hall could pick up giveaways and sample fairly traded coffee and chocolate via Episcopal Relief & Development’s partnership with Equal Exchange. The organization offered post-TEConversation discussions related to its worldwide work. The three TEConversations were joint sessions of bishops and deputies that featured presentations on evangelism, racial reconciliation and care of creation.

More information about Episcopal Relief & Development’s work on at the 79th General Convention is here.

– The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is the Episcopal News Service’s senior editor and reporter.

The Union of Black Episcopalians wrapped up a 50th anniversary celebratory conference here July 27, reviewing and renewing the organization’s historic commitment to justice for all, embracing the Jesus Movement’s way of love, and affirming its calls to youth and to ministry to the most vulnerable.

About 300 youth, young adults, laity and clergy from across the Americas and the United Kingdom enjoyed Nassau’s warm island hospitality and climate, and opportunities for daily Morning Prayer and bible study. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s opening sermonJuly 23 at Christ Church Cathedral sparked spirited, standing-room-only nightly worship with gospel choirs, jazz music and dance ministries in local congregations.

When on July 25 Curry announced he would undergo surgery for prostate cancer, UBE attendees felt shock and fell silent, responding in prayer as did thousands of Episcopalians and Anglicans worldwide.

Provocative presenters and panelists considered UBE’s role and continuing relevance in a post-Christian, increasingly racially and ethnically divided and politically charged world. Discussions included the complexities of multiculturalism, becoming the beloved community, the Jesus Movement, environmental justice, current clergy trends and youth leadership.

UBE National President Annette Buchanan renewed the organization’s mission to support African-American seminarians like Shawn Evelyn, left, from the Diocese of Los Angeles, who attends the Virginia Theological Seminary. Photo: Pat McCaughan/Episcopal News Service
UBE National President Annette Buchanan proclaimed the organization “the largest advocacy group in the Episcopal Church.” And she announced the addition of new chapters, expanding collaborative advocacy initiative and offering ongoing support of black youth, seminarians, congregations, clergy and institutions.

UBE alum Aaron Ferguson, now an Atlanta financial consultant, told banquet attendees on July 26 that the organization’s mentoring and support transformed his life. It afforded him opportunities to travel, create lasting friendships, acquire college scholarships, and garner appointments to such church bodies as the Standing Commission on National Concerns at age 19.

“We hear the board meeting, the business meeting, we talk about all those things. (But) UBE has a spirit about itself that affected my life tremendously,” he said. “I promise you, there’s some young people here whose lives will be changed in ways you can’t imagine, with the wonderful way UBE operates, to create this inner sanctum of peace, safety and security for young black people in the church.”

UBE: ‘Made for such a time as this’

No stranger to turbulent times, UBE emerged in 1968, the same year Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and the Kerner Commission concluded the nation’s 1967 riots and civil unrest were sparked by its steady move toward two societies: one black, one white; separate and unequal.

The Rev. Gayle Fisher Stewart, an associate pastor at Calvary Church in Washington, D.C., and a conference co-dean, said that knowledge made the anniversary celebration “both exciting but also bittersweet because we are looking at the very same conditions in our society then and now.”

The Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary, a conference presenter, agreed.

“We’ve come a long, long way during these 50 years yet … the very violence that took Martin Luther King’s life remains a prevalent and pervasive reality in our land, in our nation today,” she told the gathering via Skype from New York City.

“That assassin’s bullet is a manifestation of the very same violence that is the legacy of slavery, the very same violence that is white supremacy … that is ‘make America great again,’” she said, amid applause.

African-Americans continue to disproportionately experience extreme poverty; institutionalized racism; and a lack of decent housing, jobs, educational and recreational opportunities. Such lack contributes to pervasive violence – both self-inflicted and often at the hands of law enforcement authorities – and makes eventual incarceration more likely, contributing to what Douglas called “a poverty to prison to death pipeline.”

U.S. poverty rates hover at 22 percent for blacks and 19 percent for Latinos, more than double the 8.8 percent for their white counterparts. African-Americans number 13.2 percent of the U.S. population, but are 5.1 times more likely than whites to be incarcerated; constituting almost 40 percent of the prison population, she said.

But Douglas and the Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers, the presiding bishop’s canon for evangelism and reconciliation, described the presiding bishop’s initiatives as a way for the black church to strengthen its characteristic faith and to help others thrive despite the current climate.

Curry’s Jesus Movement calls us to a rule of life, a way of life, back to “the center of black faith … to discover what compelled slaves to continue to fight for justice against all odds and never succumb to the enslaving conditions of death that were around them,” Douglas said.

That faith was born of struggle and challenge, yet when slaves sang spirituals such as “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord,” they were affirming Jesus’ presence with them in their suffering and pain. That, not only was he there with them, but they were present to him as well. “They were living in this crucified reality” from which they drew strength to survive, she said.

That song represents both a call and a challenge to the black church’s present reality, she added. “What does it mean to be there with Jesus, not at the foot of the cross, but on the cross? What does that mean to be with the crucified classes of people in our own time?”

Douglas said it means it isn’t about fighting to be at the center of the inside (of institutions), but rather to be accountable to and in solidarity with those who are on “the underside of the outside” – to be in solidarity with the most vulnerable today, such as transgendered teenagers, who have the nation’s highest suicide rate, or with asylum-seeking immigrant parents separated from their children.

Spellers told the gathering that on May 19, Curry’s sermon at the royal wedding “proclaimed the Gospel and the world responded with a resounding ‘Amen!’ Now, black Episcopalians have to step out of the shadows and outside of our churches and proclaim it, too, proclaim the Gospel we know. Proclaim the love and saving power of the God we know in Christ so that the world can know him and love him too.”

May 19 was the day “Christians woke up and said, ‘That’s not the church I left when I was 13. I’m coming back.’ It was the day that atheists began to tweet, ‘If that’s Christian, sign me up.’”

Within a week of the royal wedding, a newly created Facebook page, Episcopal Evangelists, had 2,000 followers, she said. A “Saturday Night Live” skit, featuring Kenan Thompson as Curry, offered great one-liners that the presiding bishop loved, like “they gave me five minutes but the good Lord multiplied it to a cool 15.”

After Curry preached, people not only discussed his sermon, Spellers said, but they were “debating the power of love. The word ‘Episcopal’ was the most searched term on Google that Saturday. People were so curious about what is this church and what kind of Jesus does this guy know about.”

The presiding bishop woke the world up about the Episcopal Church. But, “at times such as these … when white supremacy has gained not just a toehold, but is sleeping in the White House, … when our nation scoffs at the poor and the refugee and the widow and children and everybody Jesus loved most,” the world needs Christians to wake up too, Spellers said.

“The world needs Episcopalians whose lives depend on the God we know in Jesus Christ, and if there is anyone in this church who has needed this faith to survive, who has wrested the faith from the hand of the colonizer and the hand of the master, surely it is black Episcopalians,” Spellers told the gathering.

UBE is celebrating not just a half-century but 400 years of black Anglicans on this continent, she added, with “the ups and downs, the trials and triumphs that have brought us to this moment. … The question now is, do we know what time it is?”

Multiculturalism and becoming the beloved community

Massachusetts Suffragan Bishop Gayle Harris was the first woman to celebrate Eucharist at the Holy Cross Anglican Church in Nassau, Bahamas. Photo: Pat McCaughan/Episcopal News Service
Panel discussions focused on changing circumstances affecting many already-vulnerable black churches, such as diminishing opportunities for full-time traditional clergy employment, and ways to welcome those with different cultural identities, including youth, who have largely left the church.

Elliston Rahming, author and Bahamian ambassador to the United Nations, told the gathering that, while the United States prides itself on being “a melting pot” for all cultural identities, the percentage of foreign-born people in the general population has remained static over the past 156 years.

“In 1860, foreign-born citizens within the U.S. represented about 13.2 percent of the population. In 2016, there were 43 million foreign-born citizens within the United States, representing about 13.5 percent,” he said.

Quoting a 2013 “Christianity Today” article by Ed Stetzer, Rahming added, “The church is called upon to be an instrument in the world showing and sharing the love of Jesus. The church is also to be a sign pointing to the Kingdom of God and acting as a credible witness of God’s power. People are supposed to look at the church and say that’s what the Kingdom of God ought to look like.”

Yet, to paraphrase Martin Luther King, “Sunday morning at 11 a.m. is still the most segregated hour in the U.S.,” he said.

Heidi Kim, the church’s missioner for racial reconciliation, and the Rev. Chuck Wynder, missioner for social justice and advocacy engagement, presented “Becoming the Beloved Community,” a reconciling initiative to help “repair the breach.”

Kim and Wynder, who have organized justice pilgrimages as a way to healing and transformation, called the resource creative, adaptable and different.

“Previously we thought we’d just make everybody do anti-racism training and then we’d all be trained and everything would be fine, but that didn’t work,” Kim said.

The Rev. Sandye Wilson said facilitating authentic relationships at the Episcopal Church of St. Andrew and Holy Communion in South Orange, New Jersey, where she is rector, requires “deep prayer, with deep respect for the traditions of all the people who are there, with an opportunity for people to learn from one another.”

Wilson said, “My challenge to us is to recognize that the kind of hospitality we have to offer folks is very different from years ago when American blacks sat on one side of the aisle in churches and folks from the Caribbean sat on other. Just because we look alike doesn’t mean our experiences have been similar. And our hermeneutic of life is determined by our lived experiences.”

In another workshop discussion, the Rev. Anne Mallonee, executive vice president and chief ecclesiastical officer for the Church Pension Group, said the traditional model of the full-time priest is in decline because of dwindling membership, aging congregations, and static pledge and plate income, accompanied by rising costs – trends that had prompted some UBE youth delegates to question the church’s goal of raising up leadership if congregations are unable to fairly compensate them.

Strategic Outreach: ‘A seat at the table’

UBE added three new chapters – Haiti, Alabama and Central Gulf Coast – to its current 35, collaborated with the Consultation and Deputies of Color to help ensure representation on church-elected bodies, and passed supportive legislation at the 79th General Convention affording members “a seat at the table,” according to Buchanan in her address at the July 26 business meeting.

UBE also supported the Episcopal Church’s appointment of the Rev. Ron Byrd as missioner for the office of black ministries, she said. Byrd, who had been slated to speak at the gathering, was called away because of a family illness.

UBE Youth participants planned and led a July 25 worship service at Holy Cross Anglican Church in Nassau, Bahamas. Photo: Pat McCaughan/Episcopal News Service
Youth representatives Julia Jones and Cameron Scott reported that a dozen youth from Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Alaska, Michigan and Georgia attended the conference. They participated in a local service project along with their Bahamian counterparts, Jones said.

They also led July 25 evening worship, a jazz mass at Holy Cross Anglican Church, “the highlight of our conference,” according to Jones. “We definitely felt the Holy Spirit moving.”

And while a panel of youth representatives called for change, telling the gathering they are frustrated with their lack of voice, power and role in church leadership, Jones said, “We know we are the future and we are proud to live up to that challenge.”

UBE’s continued support of the historically black St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Voorhees College in Denmark, South Carolina, was acknowledged by their respective presidents, who reported increased enrollment and fundraising efforts, expanded curricula and higher retention rates.

Buchanan said UBE’s priorities remain to foster the vitality of black churches and to support laity and clergy. The organization is planning to offer mentoring programs for both and has already sought to strengthen its ties with clergy in the dioceses of New Jersey, Newark, New York, Long Island and Maryland.

Additionally, the organization provided financial and material aid to Hurricane Irma victims in both the United States and the British Virgin Islands. The organization is hoping to recruit clergy for three- to four-week stays in the Virgin Islands to offer much-needed rest to overwhelmed clergy, she said.

The next annual meeting is planned for late July 2019 in Los Angeles.

Honorees at the organization’s July 27 banquet included:

Diane Porter, with the Marie Hopkins Award for outstanding contributions to the social mission of the church;
Austin, Texas, City Councilwoman Ora Houston with the Dr. Verna Dozier Award for service-oriented work;
Dr. John F. Robertson, a founding UBE member, with a special community award for physical and mental health initiatives and “for ensuring UBE stays a healthy community,” Buchanan said;
The Rev. Donald G. Kerr, assistant curate, St. Barnabas Parish in Nassau, for facilitating the organization’s first gathering outside the United States; and
Panama Bishop Julio Murray, who in August will be consecrated primate of the Church in Central America, with the 2018 Presidential Award for steadfast support of youth and UBE.
He called the award “a surprise. You do what you do because God has given us talents and gifts and we need to share,” he told the gathering.

“The Union has played a very important part in my life,” Murray said, adding that the organization gives voice to brothers and sisters across the diaspora and raises up youth leaders. “We need to keep connected. While we are together, we are so strong. We are called to be a union. We need each other; we need to take care of each other.

“Union of Black Episcopalians, don’t stop only at change. We need to continue to work for transformation,” he said.

“If you stop at change, it will go back to be what it used to and some of that is going on now. So we need to move and work together for transformation so that it will never be what it used to, but it will be part, as (Presiding Bishop) Michael (Curry) would say, part of the dream God has for all of us.”

– The Rev. Pat McCaughan is a correspondent for the Episcopal News Service.

The Episcopal Church’s General Convention first approved trial rites for same-sex marriage ceremonies in 2015, but the bishops of eight domestic dioceses still refused to allow those ceremonies in their congregations as of this month, heading into the 79th General Convention in Austin, Texas.

Then Resolution B012 happened.

After a back-and-forth negotiation between the House of Deputies and House of Bishops, both houses approved an amended B012 that struck a compromise on the issue of granting Episcopalians across the country access to the liturgies, regardless of their bishops’ stance on gay marriage.

The new requirement doesn’t take effect until the first Sunday of Advent, Dec. 2, and it remains to be seen how those eight dioceses will implement the process outlined by B012. They are the dioceses of Albany, Central Florida, Dallas, Florida, North Dakota, Springfield, Tennessee and the Virgin Islands. Five of the eight bishops said before General Convention they would implement Resolution B012 if passed. None of the eight has said explicitly he will defy the resolution’s mandate.

A joint statement signed July 13 by 11 acting and retired bishops, members of a group of traditionalists who call themselves the Communion Partners, sounded a conciliatory note. Though warning that “challenges to our communion in Christ are profound,” they praised efforts to find common ground at General Convention, citing as an example Resolution A227, which ordered the creation of a Task Force on Communion Across Difference.

The Communion Partners, including seven of the eight bishops who had blocked gay marriage in their dioceses, affirmed their desire to “maintain the communion of our dioceses within the Episcopal Church,” despite differences over Christian teachings. “We recognize that other Christians of good will and commitment hold contrasting convictions about marriage. There is deep disagreement, which leads to a difference in teaching and practice among dioceses and congregations of our church.”

One of the core compromises of B012 was to allow bishops who object to gay marriage to request that another bishop provide pastoral care and oversight for same-sex couples who wish to be married by priests in their home churches. The resolution also makes clear that no clergy member can be forced to preside over any marriage ceremony.

“The meaning of B012 for our church remains to be discovered, and we recognize that the contexts of our dioceses vary, as well. We continue to seek, through the Task Force on Communion across Difference [in A227] and in other ways, more lasting means of walking together within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, preserving and deepening our communion in Christ,” the Communion Partners’ statement said.

The bishops’ level of acceptance of the compromise has varied, with Albany Bishop William Love and Florida Bishop Samuel Howard opposing it at General Convention and even raising concerns it could lead to further schism in the church over homosexuality, according to Religion News Service.

Episcopal News Service surveyed post-convention statements from the bishops and sought additional clarification about their stances on B012. Their reactions so far to the question of implementation range from noncommittal to proactive.

Diocese of Albany

Love was one of the most vocal bishops opposing the resolution, speaking for 10 minutes during debate in the House of Bishops on the final amendment to B012. He said passage would put him in the awkward position of violating parts of his ordination vows.

“There has been a lot of discussion as we have struggled with this issue over the past several years on whether or not sexual intimacy within that of a same-sex couple was appropriate,” he said July 11. “There are many in this church who have proclaimed that it is and that this is a new thing that the Holy Spirit is revealing and that the Episcopal Church is being prophetic in putting this forward and ultimately the rest of the body of Christ will come to understand that.”

Love said he wasn’t convinced, adding, “we have not had an honest look at … what God has said about this issue and how best to help people who find themselves in same-sex relationships.”

A spokeswoman told ENS that Love was on a brief vacation and had not issued any additional statement since General Convention ended July 13.

Diocese of Central Florida

Central Florida Bishop Greg Brewer summarized the effect of Resolution B012 for his diocese in a July 13 news story on the diocese’s website.

“We can expect to see some changes happen and it really will be up to the bishops in each of those dioceses, including the Diocese of Central Florida, to figure out what that may actually look like because it raises a lot of questions as you can certainly imagine,” Brewer said.

The bishop has not issued a statement on the subject since then, though he is scheduled to hold a “General Convention Debrief” from 10 a.m. to noon July 21 at the Episcopal Church of St. Luke and St. Peter in St. Cloud, Florida.

Diocese of Dallas

Dallas Bishop George Sumner supported the resolution, telling The Dallas Morning Newsthat he would abide by the process of reaching out to the bishop of a neighboring diocese when asked to oversee a same-sex marriage ceremony.

“I think we’ve come out of this with something that lets everyone stay true to their conscience,” he said. “That’s not bad in America in 2018.”

Sumner also released a video statement July 16 saying he was “grateful for some good things that came out of this convention.”

“The right of a rector found in the canons to oversee the liturgical life of his or her parish in his or her own building was affirmed,” Sumner said in the video. “New rites cannot be imposed on a priest or on a congregation which does not wish them.”

He also said he had sent a letter to clergy about accommodating the same-sex marriage rites.

“If a rector and vestry after deliberation decide that they want to use the rites of same-sex marriage, I can no longer hinder them. They will remain, I hasten to add, part of the diocese,” he said while noting the deep theological differences that remain. “We are doing what we can to work them out collegially, so as to maintain our communion as much as we can, so as to honor convictions and conscience.”

Diocese of Florida

Howard opposed the compromise B012, though he mentioned the resolution only briefly in a newsletter to the diocese before the final vote.

The diocese told ENS that it was working to coordinate a follow-up comment from Howard as soon as possible, but a statement was not available in time for this story.

Diocese of North Dakota

North Dakota Bishop Michael Smith said in 2015 he could not “in good conscience authorize the use of these trial liturgies for the Diocese of North Dakota.” When reached by email on July 17, Smith said he intended to release a statement to the diocese about B012 by the end of this week.

Diocese of Springfield

Springfield Bishop Daniel Martins supported the compromise resolution, saying during debate that he was “immensely and seriously grateful” for it, though he also expressed concerns that it could alter the bishop’s role as chief liturgical officer of the diocese and will begin to “erode the sacramental relationship between a bishop and a diocese.”

Martins followed up July 15 with an extended message to the diocese on the subject, titled “Toward Generous Faithfulness About Marriage.”

“This most recent General Convention has constrained the authority of bishops to simply prohibit same-sex marriage within the diocese,” he said. “This is deeply lamentable. It undermines and erodes the ancient and appropriate relationship between a bishop and a diocese as chief pastor, teacher, and liturgical officer.”

Martins also said B012 didn’t give “carte blanche” for same-sex marriage. He noted that priests may refuse to preside over marriage ceremonies, and the bishop remains rector of “all unincorporated Eucharistic Communities,” so Martins’ prohibition on same-sex marriage remains in those communities.

And he called the process of requesting an outside bishop’s assistance “harsh” and “a source of deep personal sorrow – indeed, heartbreak – for me.”

“I profoundly love all our worshiping communities, and it would be a grievous loss to be in an impaired relationship with any of them. Nonetheless, these painful measures are vitally necessary.”

Diocese of Tennessee

Tennessee Bishop John Bauerschmidt told The Tennessean he planned to write a message to the diocese about Resolution B012 this week. He expressed support for the compromise.

“The resolution allows access to the liturgies for same-sex marriage in the Diocese of Tennessee while preserving the rights and responsibilities of the parish clergy for the use of their buildings for any liturgy,” Bauerschmidt said. “In other words, there is much to work out. It also preserves the ministry of bishops as chief pastors and teachers in our dioceses.

“We will be working out what it means for our diocese with clergy and congregations in the coming days.”

Diocese of the Virgin Islands

Virgin Islands Bishop Ambrose Gumbs was absent from the hearing July 5 on B012, according to The Living Church, which spoke with him earlier in Austin and quoted him as warning against adding the trial liturgies to the Book of Common Prayer because parishioners in his diocese “can’t condone this type of behavior.”

Gumbs, when reached July 17 by email, told ENS that he would accept the compromise contained in B012 and said he had just communicated the details of the resolution with diocesan clergy.

“If a same-sex couple asked to be married at their parish, they cannot prevent the marriage from taking place. While they are not obligated to marry any one, WE must make provision for a priest to perform the ceremony,” Ambrose said. “That is the law, and I have to abide by it, whether I like it or not.”

He was not among the bishops who signed the Communion Partners’ statement.

Diocese of West Texas

West Texas was among the majority of dioceses that chose to allow same-sex ceremonies, under former Bishop Gary Lillibridge. Bishop David Reed, who took over leadership of the diocese in 2017 after Lillibridge’s retirement, was among the bishops who signed the Communion Partners’ statement on B012, though a diocesan spokeswoman indicated Reed had not changed the policy put into effect under Lillibridge.

Reed and West Texas Bishop Suffragan Jennifer Brooke-Davidson issued a joint message to the diocese on July 16 that provided a summary of Resolution B012.

“The most significant change is that a bishop’s authority to not allow the use of the same-sex rites in his or her diocese is removed,” the bishops said. “We will be reviewing our diocesan marriage policies this fall to see what, if anything, will need to be changed.”

So far, four congregations in the Diocese of West Texas have taken the steps required to hold same-sex marriages in their churches, according to the diocese.

Convention. To complement Episcopal News Service’s primary coverage, we have collected some additional news items from July 7.

Full ENS coverage of the 79th meeting of General Convention is available here.
Committee expresses regret for lack of language interpreters, seeks changes

The Committee to Receive the Report of Resolution 169, which is dealing with a variety of resolutions regarding the Book of Common Prayer, on July 6 drafted a resolution of regret for situations that took place in one of its hearings on July 5 and sought ways to keep them from happening in the future.

In that hearing, on Resolution B012, Diocese of Honduras Bishop Lloyd Allen criticized the committee for failing to have an official interpreter available for Spanish-speakers who wished to testify. He said it was symptomatic of the constant feeling he has of being unwelcome in the church. (ENS story about the hearing.)

In response, the committee crafted Resolution A220, which expresses “deep regret for our lack of sensitivity and hospitality to our Latino and Latina siblings in Christ,” noting both the lack of interpreters and translations of the resolutions up for debate.

The resolution also recognizes that the committee itself is lacking in diversity and urges the presiding bishop and the president of the House of Deputies, who appoint members of legislative committees, to take note of this fact. It also asks that the Standing Commission on Structure, Governance, Constitution and Canons review the convention’s Joint Rules of Order and suggest changes so that translations of all resolutions, as well as availability of interpreters, is required.

-Melodie Woerman

Convention. To complement Episcopal News Service’s primary coverage, we have collected some additional news items from July 7.

Full ENS coverage of the 79th meeting of General Convention is available here.
Committee expresses regret for lack of language interpreters, seeks changes

The Committee to Receive the Report of Resolution 169, which is dealing with a variety of resolutions regarding the Book of Common Prayer, on July 6 drafted a resolution of regret for situations that took place in one of its hearings on July 5 and sought ways to keep them from happening in the future.

In that hearing, on Resolution B012, Diocese of Honduras Bishop Lloyd Allen criticized the committee for failing to have an official interpreter available for Spanish-speakers who wished to testify. He said it was symptomatic of the constant feeling he has of being unwelcome in the church. (ENS story about the hearing.)

In response, the committee crafted Resolution A220, which expresses “deep regret for our lack of sensitivity and hospitality to our Latino and Latina siblings in Christ,” noting both the lack of interpreters and translations of the resolutions up for debate.

The resolution also recognizes that the committee itself is lacking in diversity and urges the presiding bishop and the president of the House of Deputies, who appoint members of legislative committees, to take note of this fact. It also asks that the Standing Commission on Structure, Governance, Constitution and Canons review the convention’s Joint Rules of Order and suggest changes so that translations of all resolutions, as well as availability of interpreters, is required.

-Melodie Woerman