DWTX from Anaheim - House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson invited deputies and bishops to a deeper sense of mission to the poor in her opening presentation to General Convention on Tuesday, July 7. Anderson, who is serving her first term as presiding officer of the House of Deputies, said this commitment to mission has to occur because of, not in spite of, today’s tough economic times.
She said that those who attended the previous 75 General Conventions could have described their own tough times, but she said today’s struggles are different because they are globally visible. “Our technology enables us to see and to know not only how we are affected,” she said, “but how the global economic crisis disproportionately affects the poorest people in the world. It is within our reach to do something about that, and that is the toughest thing about our tough times.”
Anderson applauded the dioceses and parishes that have made a commitment to mission through the Millennium Development Goals – an eight-pronged effort to halve global poverty by 2015 – but said that to close the gap between the needs of the world and the response of the church, the Episcopal Church needs the efforts of those outside its walls. “We must no longer be afraid to ask other people to join us in action,” she said. Public narrative, a tool being taught to General Convention deputies and bishops to help tell their faith stories, has great capacity to help church members engage others in action on behalf of mission, she said.
That intersection between faith and mission is an essential part of one’s Christian identity, Anderson said. “We find our place in creation where the story of Jesus Christ intersects our own stories.”
Source: Episcopal News Service
Tags: deputies, House of Deputies