Bishop Rickel's Blog

Missional Renaissnce: the last week of the study, but not of our work!

Dear Ones,

I truly appreciate once again your deep engagement with this Lenten study.  This last week we were scheduled to take a look at Chapter 8 and the Conclusion and I am a bit behind getting this out.  Many apologies.  I have been at the House of Bishops meeting in Texas and did not get to it as I had hoped.  But this way, you can use this week and Holy Week to think and pray on our work.  I found the most interesting part of Chapter 8 to be page 160 and the list of possible measures that would reflect an intentionality in developing a missional paradigm.  I would urge you to take a look at those and see how close you think your community gets to these measures, how closely can you identify with them?

This week I also add a video that my good friend Bishop Brian Prior directed me to, the Missional Church made Simple.  It is two minutes long!  Again, thank you for sharing Lent with me in this way.  I have enjoyed our conversation, may it continue in all the places of the world where God is to be found, which is of course, all places. 

Blessings and may you experience a rich and full Holy Week!

+Greg

A Report from the House of Bishops, March 22, 2010

Dear Ones,

Greetings from Camp Allen, Navasota, Texas where we are now into our third full day of the House of Bishops meeting, a day of Sabbath on this Sunday. We have done quite a bit already and I wanted to update you on it.  I arrived late Thursday evening.  We officially began Friday at 3:00 p.m..  I had several meetings scheduled before the actual start.  We began with the walkabouts with the 8 candidates for Suffragan Bishop for Federal Ministries.  You may remember I have served on the Special Committee appointed by the Presiding Bishop for this election.   It is good to see it get to this point.   There were 6 candidates which the committee put forward, and two petition candidates.   All were excellent.  I was grateful for the walkabout as I learned a lot from it, and one candidate did, in fact, emerge for me.  We have the election this week on Wednesday.

Saturday, we had the presentation by the Theology Committee and their report "Same Sex Relationships in the Life of the Church."  I was a bit disappointed with the report itself, which was really simply two papers, one from the conservative viewpoint, and one from the progressive viewpoint.   While they were good papers, the House of Bishops had asked for the committee to prepare "a" paper, not two.   I am quite sure this will be published soon, if it is not available already out there somewhere.  Still, it did provoke very good discussion, as did the report of the "Around One Table" results.  This was a church wide study on the identity of the Episcopal Church.  Saturday night were class dinners, and then our Sabbath began. 

Sunday was mostly free, with Holy Eucharist at 10 a.m.. You may remember I sing in the choir, and so that was part of the day as well, under the able direction of Dent Davidson, who now lives in Chicago but we will always claim him, and he us.  Bishop Rivera sends you all her love!  It was great to see her and hug her neck!

Sunday night after dinner we had a fireside chat with the Presiding Bishop.  Many topics were covered, and much shared but perhaps the most moving was the talk by Bishop of Haiti, Zache' Duracin, who I am blessed to say is at my table for this triennium.   (We are at tables for our meeting, usually made up of five bishops, for the three years between each convention.  My table has Bishop Larry Benfield of Arkansas, Bishop-Elect Andrew Waldo of Upper South Carolina, Bishop-Elect Ian Douglas of Connecticut, and Bishop Duracin. 

Bishop Duracin shared with our group the day of the earthquake.  It was so moving to hear his story.  He had just left his car and was in his front yard, when the earthquake struck.  He watched his house crumble before his eyes, with his wife and two girls still inside it.  The girls came crawling out of the rubble just minutes after, basically unharmed, but his wife, although alive was trapped.  Her leg was, and is, severely damaged.  She is now under care in Tampa, Florida.   He reported that his car, the one he had just left before the earthquake, was only unearthed this past Friday.  He is a very grateful man, to be here, but also for all you have done, and many across this church.  He is currently planning the reconstruction plans, and I have assured him we want to be part of that.     Here is a picture, not the greatest but the best I could do,  of him addressing the House during the fireside chat along with his interpreter.

Tomorrow we begin our two days discussing and learning about the Emerging Church.  Karen Ward from our diocese arrived tonight with two musicians from COTA in Fremont.  Also Stephanie Spellers from The Crossing in Boston, Tom Brackett from the Church Center Staff, and the two keynoters, Phyllis Tickle and Diana Butler-Bass.  I will be introducing them all to the House tomorrow. 

We also issued a statement regarding the assassination attempt of Bishop Barahona of El Salvador.  That is just below.

I will report again at the end our time here.

Blessings to all of you,

+Greg

The Episcopal Church

Office of Public Affairs

 

 

Episcopal Church House of Bishops express

solidarity with the bishop, people of El Salvador

 

[March 21, 2010] The Episcopal Church House of Bishops “express our solidarity” with the people of El Salvador and the “condemnation of the attempted assassination of our brother bishop, Martín Barahona.”

 

The House of Bishop, meeting in retreat in Texas, issued the following letter.

 

_____________

 

March 20, 2010

Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne

 

 

To the People of the Episcopal Diocese of El Salvador:

 

Grace and peace to you in Christ Jesus, who is our hope and our salvation.

 

We write to you from Navasota, Texas, where we gather as a House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church, to express our solidarity with you and our condemnation of the attempted assassination of our brother bishop, Martín Barahona, and his companions on Wednesday evening.  We hold everyone involved in our prayers: Bishop Martin and those assaulted with him, particularly Francis Martínez has he recovers from his wounds; the families of the victims; all who are more fearful in the wake of this violence; the perpetrator of this act; those who assisted him; and those who were passive in response.

 

As we prepare to commemorate the life and ministry of Archbishop Romero on the thirtieth anniversary of his martyrdom, we know too well the cost that can be paid for being a servant of Christ. We fear that those who can prevent a repeat of this heinous act will be too slow to respond.  We call upon the civil authorities, particularly the Department of Justice, to promptly investigate, apprehend, and bring to justice those who are responsible for this crime.

 

We stand in steadfast solidarity and love with our brother Martín and all the people of the Diocese of El Salvador.  The apostle Paul said, “If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”  Indeed, today we suffer with Bishop Martín and the people of El Salvador.  We pray that through our solidarity and the resolve of those who carry the responsibility for civil order that we will one day soon rejoice with all our brothers and sisters in El Salvador when their land has become a place of Shalom.

 

In the hope found in Christ,

 

The House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church

 

__________________________

 

 

The Episcopal Church welcomes all who worship Jesus Christ in 109 dioceses and three regional areas in 16 nations.  The Episcopal Church is a member province of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

 

 

Related article:

Episcopal News Service: EL SALVADOR: Attempted murder cause for great concern, bishop says

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81808_120980_ENG_HTM.htm

MIssional Renaissance : Week 4

Dear Ones,

Welcome to week 4 of our tour through the Missional Renaissance as presented by Reggie McNeal.  Our focus this week: Chapters 6 and 7.   Chapter 6 is about moving from changing the scorecard from measuring programs, to helping people grow.  In this chapter two areas stick out for me.  First, his discussion of prayer, and looking at how and where we count prayer, participate in prayer.  Second, was his discussion of our communications, especially our websites, our bulletins, our announcements in church.  He suggests a communication audit (something we are doing on the diocesan level currently), in order to see how what we say we are about, and focused on, matches what we talk and write about. 

What do you think?  When you listen to your church community, does the communication match the reality?

In Chapter 7 McNeal begins the discussion of Shift three, from church based, to Kingdom based.  This week I direct  you to his FAQ section, which contains questions that mirror many that have come up on this blog.  What is your most intriguing question?  Which answer by McNeal was most suprising to you and why?

I hope your Lent has been a full and rich one so far.  Thanks for your input, your challenges, the studies you are going through out there! 

Blessings,

+Greg

Missional Renaissance: Week 3

Dear Ones,

Welcome to week three in Lent and therefore in our study of Reggie McNeal's, Missional Renaissance.  I want to thank those who have joined in the discussion and invite you, if you haven't, to give us your thoughts.  This week we are in Chapter 4 and 5.  Chapter 4, Changing from internal to external focus and Chapter 5, from Program Development to People Development.  

McNeal states early on in Chapter 4 that, "What gets rewarded gets done."  He says that church folk are no different.  He says that the current scorecard for most congregations actually militates against missional behavior. 

Do you agree?  If so, what is it we reward now which militates against missional behavior?  How could we do better?

Chapter 5 made me think again about that question that has haunted me, that I have shared with many of you along the way, asked of a group of clergy some years ago of which I was a part.  The question was this; "Why would anyone come to you church on Sunday morning rather than sit on their deck, reading the paper, and sipping a latte?"  When McNeal speaks of moving away from program development to people development it seems to be about lives being transformed by being engaged in the transforming of lives.  Being involved in any community has to be compelling.  In former generations loyalty to the institution and its goals was enough.  That does not seem to be the case any longer. 

McNeal summarizes chapter 5 by saying that everything he has been speaking of in it is based in relationships.   He further says that giving to people cannot simply end there, but be also about developing those people we help, as well as being helped and taught by them as well.   He ends this chapter with this paragraph:

God is not confused about his intentions.  He fights against everything that diminishes life.  He has spared nothing, not even his own Son, to secure a better existence for humanity.  The missional church ventures into the world as partners with God on his redemptive mission.

What does this paragraph mean to you?  Can you relate to what McNeal says here?  What does moving from program development to people development mean to you?

Blessed Lent to all of you!

+Greg

Missional Renaissance: Week 2!

Dear Ones,

I am hoping to put out the weekly blog from me each Tuesday of Lent.  I may put interim posts up too, should our discussion warrant, and other blog items may appear from time to time as well.  For now, I intend to respond, when I respond, in the discussion below. 

So, week two is Chapter 2 and 3.  In these chapters we hear about McNeal's "Missional Manifesto" and

So, here are some questions for this week. 

McNeal talks about the difference in saying "a" church and "the" Church.  What do you think about this?

He quotes George Hunsberger as identifying three distinct notions of Church.  1) "A place where certain things happen" 2) Going to church merely for the rites offered, and then going on about life, and 3) "A body of people sent on mission."  Which one have you most readily experienced and which one would you most want to experience, realizing these are gross over generalizations to begin with.

What about his discussion of the Bible for missional eyes?

Chapter 3 is about the first shift that being from internal to external in focus, from church-centric, to Kingdom-centric, from destination to connector (airport!), from thinking we are the point, to being absolutely the point, from attractional to incarnational (very Anglican, anyone care to comment?), from member culture to missionary culture, from proclamation to demonstration, from institutional to organic, from reaching and assimilating to connecting and deploying, from worship services to service as worship, from congregations to missional communities, from there to here. 

What do you think of his discussion of this shift?

From the first week, I sense the need in some to have this be an always "either/or".  I would remind you that I do not choose books that we would all mostly agree with necessarily, but books who will challenge both our Christianity and our Episcopalian life, perhaps to only affirm, and perhaps to look at ways to change.  There was one comment regarding worship, that McNeal was trying to do away with worship as we know it and saying it all had to happen externally.  You may feel he is, maybe he is, but we don't have to necessarily agree.  I would not, and I don't think he would either.  He would say that our work in the world should be seen as worship and that in fact, we often exclusive by claiming worship only to happen internally.  That is a challenge I am willing to face, without giving up what the internal worship works in us, in order to do the worship he speaks of externally.

Have a good week, be a blessing, and look for them around you.  Thank you for joining the conversation.

+Greg