DWTX from Anaheim — Before presenting his meditation at the daily Eucharist on the second day of General Convention, July 9, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams got candid with his listeners. He spoke, he said, “simply and directly” because he does not like coded messages or hidden agendas. He thanked General Convention for inviting him, and he thanked The Episcopal Church (TEC) for its “continued willingness to engage with the wider life of our Communion,” even though he knew that such engagement was costly for some. “I’m sorry,” he said. “This has been hard and will not get much easier, I suspect.”

He went on to say he hopes and prays “there won’t be decisions in the coming days that could push us further apart,” adding that many in the Communion are concerned because they have a “profound sense of what The Episcopal Church has given and can give to our fellowship worldwide.”

“If we – if I — had felt that we could do perfectly well without you, there wouldn’t be a problem,” he said.

He echoed that theme in his meditation in which he spoke of a vision of Christ’s Church that is both simple and alarming: “We have been chosen . . . we have been spoken to by Christ, and our fellowship has been created by his word to us.” We are holy, said the Archbishop, “because we have been brought within earshot” of the eternal conversation between Christ and the Father.

It is this intimacy, said Williams, for which we are here as a Church. “Our life as a church declares to the world that God’s longing is for a humanity like this, a humanity broken open for intimacy.” In its corporate life, the Church presents and represents “creation restored in celebration of the word of God.”

Life, said the Archbishop, is not proclaimed in our achievements but in our admission of helplessness. We are bound to each other, and our life is invested in each other.

Full text of the Archbishop’s meditation can be found by clicking on the gold “resources” tab.

VIEWPOINT – I wrote a blog early this morning. Somehow, when I posted it, I lost what I had written and posted a blog I previously posted. Oh, well, that’s how it goes for us newbie bloggers.

Last night, when I went to dinner (E had gone off to where the action was), Bishop Fry and Barbara invited me to sit with them for dinner. Soon a deputy from the Diocese of Rio Grande, where Bishop Fry is now serving as an interim Bishop, came by and the Frys invited her to join us for dinner. Had they had a larger table, they would have filled it with their gracious hospitality.

The deputy from Rio Grande was on the committee putting on the Mission Conversation, a four part program presented at General Convention to better enable us to foster mission in our Dioceses. The first of the four programs was presented yesterday. Basically, we are to tell our personal stories, identify the point of crisis/pain, tell how the decision we made in response to the crisis/pain drives our personal ministries today and invite others to join us in our mission.

As we were breaking from dinner, it became apparent the deputy from Rio Grande was nervous and uncomfortable about participating in the second program to be presented today. She told us there were a number of people who had criticized the first program and felt the entire thing was a waste of time. Bishop Fry said “Let’s pray.” We joined hands and Bishop Fry laid on hands and said a wonderful, comforting, encouraging and affirming prayer. Truly a holy time! I left much uplifted and I am sure the deputy from Rio Grande did as well.

This morning at exercise, I was two treadmills down from a priest serving on the Prayer Book, Liturgy and Music Committee, a brilliant woman who is also a seminary professor. Soon a woman, obviously in need, got on the treadmill between us and started talking and talking and talking to the seminary professor/priest. When the woman would pause for breath, the seminary professor/priest would offer words of wisdom and encouragement. The woman would interrupt and then talk and talk and talk. I thought—oh, darling—listen, just listen. Can’t you see how you are being ministered to. As I thought about it, I realized that I also often talk and talk and talk when I could instead listen to the wisdom and love flowing from the wonderful community that embraces me. I suspect that truth might be applicable to others as well as to the talkative woman and me.

A final bit for this blog. The Prayer Book, Liturgy and Music Committee is considering a number of new liturgies. The following is an example included in Rachel’s Tears, Hannah’s Hopes: Liturgies and Prayers for Healing from Loss Related to Childbearing and Childbirth that particularly touches me: “Memories of N. will come to us, unbidden, sometimes unexpected, in all the various moments of our lives,” including “in the rising of the sun and its going down, . . . at the blowing of the wind and in the chill of Winter, . . . at the opening of buds and in the rebirth of Spring . . .” We have a stillborn grandson, Henry, who comes to mind from time to time and those words comfort me.

Blessings,

Drew Cauthorn
Lay Deputy
St. Mark’s, San Antonio