DWTX from Anaheim – Episcopal News Service – On July 12, Episcopalians at General Convention went to a Sunday service that was somewhat different from the thousands that occurred around the church that day. This Eucharist took place in a cavernous hall, was led by the current and two former presiding bishops, and featured a symbol of church members’ generosity: the United Thank Offering “ingathering.”
Leaving discussion, debate and theological differences at the door, the estimated 7,000 Episcopalians stood together to experience a variety of pageantry expressed in radiant vestments, in soulful music and in one of the clearest sacramental displays of the church’s mission: the acknowledgement of the $6.7 million collected by the United Thank Offering over the past triennium.
Each diocese was introduced as representatives approached the altar and presented slips of paper with the dollar amount they raised over the past triennium for UTO, a grant-making agency that supports work that alleviates human suffering.
UTO grants are funded in large part with the money that Episcopalians deposit in small cardboard “blue boxes,” which they keep in their homes and offices. The total amount of money available to grant in 2008 was $2.1 million; in 2007, $2.2 million; and in 2006, $2.4 million, according to UTO President Regina Ratterree.
The Diocese of West Texas has been the recipient of a UTO grant more than once. Most recently, the Uvalde Food Pantry organized by St. Philip’s Episcopal Church received a $40,000 grant to purchase the pantry facility from which food is distributed throughout th;e community.
Worshipers added another $28,168.92 during the offertory collected during the service.
Many agreed that the Scripture readings also seemed divinely appointed: From Isaiah, the congregation heard the call for God’s people to “beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.” From Ephesians, they were reminded that Christ Jesus “is our peace” who “has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.”
And from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, they heard a timely interpretation of Jesus’ first instruction for the mission field as recounted in Luke 10:1-9 – travel light, offer peace, and proclaim the reign of God has come.
“Episcopalians are like Boy Scouts,” Jefferts Schori said. “We like to be ready, with prayer book, hymnal, and bulletin in hand, and a Swiss army knife in our back pocket to open the wine bottle… This very convention is a testimony to our love for order, our desire to process and organize and structure our lives together.”
“The challenge is that structure or culture can become an idol, an image of our lust for control. Jesus isn’t interested in taking extra rations or all the comforts of home or in making hotel reservations for every stop on the journey.”
She then directed that challenge to convention-goers: “When you leave this place, how much more stuff will you have than when you arrived? You can ship the papers home, but are you open enough to receive what is offered here – from the housekeeper in your hotel room, the deputy across the aisle, an international or ecumenical visitor, or the person who beats you to the microphone?
Many said those words resonated with them in terms of work to be done at convention, but also as they relate to mission in the world.
– Mary Frances Schjonberg, Pat McCaughan, the Rev. Jerald Hyche, Marjorie George contributed to this report.
Tags: eucharist