February 2009

Bishop Coadjutor Andy Doyle

Introduction

As we begin our life and ministry together in this new partnership I have busied myself with the great questions concerning my transition, such as:

How does one carry all this bishop stuff? How do I carry my cowboy hat, mitre, chimere, chasuble, crozier, bible, and prayer book to the church and lock the car. I remarked to John Logan, “There is nothing like carrying all this stuff to make a low churchman out of you.” 

And, the more existential question: Can a bishop live on green bean casserole and cake alone?

Let me begin by saying, “Thank you.” Thank you once more for your trust in the Holy Spirit and your call to me as your next bishop diocesan.

Thank you for the splendid gifts and symbols of my office, which are a constant reminder of my ministry among and with you.

Thank you for the generous hospitality of each parish with whom I have had the pleasure of visiting in these last few months. It is a joy to worship with you, pray with you, and get to know you and to witness how our paths of mission cross one another in throughout the diocese.

The Transition

Upon my election I immediately began to work with Bishop Wimberly towards June 7^th; and decided upon a course that would prepare me to assume the role of bishop diocesan.

The most urgent work at the outset was making the transition from Canon to the Ordinary to Coadjutor. This transition was completed after Bishop Wimberly hired The Rev. Canon Ann Normand to replace me, which led to the transfer of my duties to her office prior to my ordination and consecration in November.

Next came the planning, calendaring, and project development phase. I met with the clergy of the diocese, spent time with your diocesan program staff, and began asking questions about how I as your bishop, how your diocesan staff, and how together we might serve the people given into our care?

In conversation with Bishop Wimberly, encouraged by your ideas shared throughout the vision process and walkabouts, I worked with the Committee for Constitution and Canons and proposed Canon 4, for your consideration. As a collaborative leader, the proposed canon will enable me to share the authority of the Episcopate in the Diocese of Texas.

Both suffragan bishops bring a diversity of gifts to the episcopate in Texas and I intend to invite them into partnership to oversee the mission of the Diocese. This is an essential component to both my transition and the health and well being of our diocese and its mission. Your positive vote on Canon 4, will give me the canonical authority to share the ministry of the Episcopacy.

After two years of discernment with the Executive Board, the Canon 5 amendment is being proposed. This is another key piece of my transition. This amendment will allow a more functional and interactive board. Its passage will help to clarify roles and work. 

I intend to use the Executive Board, your elected body, throughout my episcopacy to share in the mission of the diocese.

Following Council, the very next work before me will be to return to the field and discern with you, seeking clarity, on the mission we claim. I will visit each convocation and engage in a conversation with the laity and clergy of the diocese around our stated mission and vision.

Leading up to the election the diocese you boldly proclaimed a mission were as one Church we understand that each is reconciled by Jesus Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, called by God through worship, witness, and ministry, to build the Kingdom of God together.

And that as followers of Jesus Christ, our vision, is to be One Church within The Episcopal Church and The Anglican Communion. All are sought and embraced in worship, mission and ministry in a spirit of mutual love and respect. You emphasized a vision of being youthful, multicultural, forming and growing, reaching out in service, and one church. You said each is key to what God is doing in the Diocese of Texas, and I agree.

You have already said some very important things in these statements about who we are: the diocese intends to grow, reach out, and serve. Together we must bridge the gap between where we are today and the reality of these visionary statements.

It will take leadership, courage, and stewardship to transform the lives of the people living within the boarders of the diocese of Texas.

Of one thing I am certain; we will have to claim an evangelical spirit, choosing to share our life in Christ with others. We will have to believe and act as a people who are willing to be spiritual partners, companions, with others who are seeking a deep relationship with the Holy. If we are not bold enough to claim Jesus Christ as our own – it will be most difficult for the Holy Spirit to add to our numbers.

I know us well enough to know that the vision and mission values expressed are only touch points to the deeper reality of who we are. What these values mean to our brothers and sisters in East Texas, or in Austin, or in Houston are very different. It is true that some of the challenges to growth are the same throughout the diocese. However, often our challenges are manifestly different based upon the mission field in which we find ourselves.

Therefore, I intend to be out in the field and listen to what meanings you give these words, and what challenges beset you. While this will be a heavy schedule for the spring, it is essential in order that I can lead us into prioritizing goals and setting a course to meet measurable objectives for the diocese.

The data from our mutual conversations will be collected with the information gathered from your diocesan program staff along with institutional information and brought together for clarity.

I will then work with a vision team of my choosing to develop a leadership strategy for me as your bishop that will aid set a course of ministry for the next five, ten, and then fifteen years.

This strategy will be communicated first to the staff, Executive Board, then the Clergy of the Diocese at October’s Clergy Conference for feedback before I undertake a communication plan that will strategically inform the diocese.

Due to his health, Bishop Wimberly’s unfortunate and all-to-early absence from the office caused the pace of the transition to pick up with a life of its own – a natural progression. I appreciate Bishop Wimberly’s kind words and support this morning. I also appreciate his continued partnership and mentorship as I more and more become your bishop diocesan. 

Companionship with Anglican Diocese

Two years ago Bishop Wimberly cast a vision of being in real partnership with dioceses and provinces in the Anglican Communion -- living out our mutual bonds of affection. He tasked the committee for World Mission to develop a strategy and plan for 3 companion relationships disbursed throughout the communion. 

After much work the committee has proposed beginning the investigation of the first companion relationship; specifically with the Anglican Diocese of Southern Malawi.

As you may well know I was privileged to have the Rt. Rev. James Tengatenga, bishop of that diocese, at my ordination. Many Texans have already worked with him and the people of his diocese to bring clean water to those villages under his care. 

This companion initiative is largely an outgrowth of your ministry to dig wells combined with Bishop Wimberly’s passion for communion relationships.

I therefore would ask you to support the further investigation of the bonds of affection between the Diocese of Texas and the Anglican Diocese of Southern Malawi, and how they might be incarnated through a companion relationship.

With your support we may begin to live into what it means to be in communion with others beyond the words that bind us and living into that desire to be a communion grounded in knowing one another through the helping hands of Christ’s action.

I would only add that we must realize as we undertake this vision of One Church across continents that we are the ones to be changed by this process. It is not solely about aiding others…but I firmly believe it is about our own transformation; perhaps even, that our own transformation depends on initiatives such as these.

Leadership Regarding General Convention and Anglican Communion

It would not be a bishop’s address without some words about General Convention and the Anglican Communion.

I continue to be concerned for the Anglican Communion and I also continue to desire to see our “Christian World Communion”[1] united and growing. Thomas L. Friedman expressed in his book by the same title: the world is flat. Our current economic situation is a global affirmation of this reality.

When it comes to being Church, our new reality is that today, more than ever, what we do here in our parishes, in the diocese of Texas, and what we do in the larger country affects the mission and ministry in other contexts throughout the global Communion.

There are matters that remain before us that affect both the “spiritual health and the well-being” of our communion.[2] In the Primates Communique of February 5^th, the following statement was made:

“The soul of our Communion has been stretched and threatened by the continuation of our damaged and fractured relationships, even though we believe that God continues to call us into a Communion founded not on our will, but on the action of God in Christ Jesus. We have experienced God drawing us more deeply into that honest engagement and listening which both require and engender trust, and which must continue and intensify if we are to move forward under God. We must find a deeper understanding of the basis of the bonds, both divine and human, which sustain ecclesial fellowship.”[3]

Into this situation comes our General Convention. You have elected a very diverse group of deputies to General Convention. While there are issues for which they do not all agree, I am impressed with their commitment to live out our vision of being One Church. And, that they intend to represent the diocese well.

Each of your deputies brings to the table your voice, of that I am sure. My commitment to them, and to you, is to engage with them in a healthy relationship of prayer and conversation that will bring us to General Convention assured of our mutual ministry and our mutual commitment to do good work on the part of the people of the Diocese of Texas.

You have my commitment to have a strategic communication plan in place prior to our arrival in Anaheim. I will communicate with you in the weeks leading up to General Convention and daily during our time there. I will return to the diocese the week following in case there are needs that arise from decisions made at General Convention. 

I ask you to pray for your deputation and for the convention and for the communion as we move closer towards our time in Anaheim.

As issues arise at General Convention I can promise you for my part clear prayerful and discerning leadership.

Let me reaffirm my insistence on leadership in harmony with the Windsor Report. Our Global Communion has not changed its teaching on sexuality. Moreover, I believe the “securing of a covenant to be a vital element in strengthening the life of the Communion.”[4]

I very much understand my work and ministry as your bishop, the Episcopal office itself, to be a primary instrument of this Anglican unity. The weight of this office is heavy and it is always present as I seek to fulfill your call to me and God’s call to me to serve as the symbol of our common and historical faith, our mission, and our unity. Such a conversation with our Lord is a palpable part of my daily prayer life. 

I understand that communion in large part rests squarely on the shoulders of bishops to sustain, strengthen, and restore relationships even in the midst of divisive issues. [5]

Clergy and laity too have a part. That part is to deepen our prayer for one another. Increase our engagement and reading of the scriptures. Undertake conversations with others that begin with listening. Seek unity over division. And, in the words of Steven R. Covey, “Keep the main thing the main thing.” The main thing is missionary leadership founded upon the love of Jesus.

The primary mission of proclaiming Jesus Christ and sharing our message with our world, reaching out in both word and service requires unity. Perhaps it is for this reason that Jesus himself, in his last hours he prayed for us to be one.[6] Unity is also the church’s vocation, without the unity our commission, charged by Jesus himself, is jeopardized.

The Windsor Report is clear, resting its own witness upon Ephesians and Corinthians, that the church is to be “an anticipatory sign of God’s healing and restorative future of the world.”[7] Like it or not our diversity is representative of God’s kingdom and the church’s restorative mission is intimately contingent upon how we walk into the years that are before us as a unified people of God.

I am cognizant that my stance and leadership focused on the sacrificial nature of unity and the cost of mission is painful for members of our church. My heart breaks for all those who are alienated in this time of conflict. We as a diocese say that ALL will be embraced, and when we embrace our neighbor who is in pain we cannot but help bear some of their burden and cannot help but feel responsible for some of their pain. 

Nevertheless, in future generations let them say of us that we were faithful and discerning in this time. Let us together seek the middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of truth.[8]

The Economy and Stewardship

Let me thank you, the representatives of the congregations of the Diocese of Texas, for the stewardship and faith you have exemplified in these past few months. You have brought forth the gifts of your parishioners to bear upon the assessment and missionary budgets; because you understood the importance of being one in mission. I view this year’s stewardship campaigns and those to come in 2010 to be sacrificial offerings for Christ’s mission in Texas.

We are in the midst of a very great and troubling time regarding our economy. Government and our financial systems have for our culture served as icons of sustainability and security. In their crisis we are tempted to feel unmoored as those icons are seen for what they are: worldly creations.

As Christians we understand that our sure and certain hope lies with Jesus Christ and that he is the one who delivers us through valleys filled with shadows.

In this time, with the secular foundations shaken, people will be moving to Texas with a hope that things are different here. People will turn to us searching for hope. They will be looking for security. They are searching for food for their stomachs and food for their souls. They are searching for shelter over their heads and shelter for their hearts. Many people will return to church in the hope that the promise of Jesus’ incarnation is made real within our walls.

As Simon Peter says to Jesus in Capernaum, “Everyone is seeking you.”[9] And they will be telling us, his church, “We wish to see Jesus.”[10]

Jesus’ Church must stand ready to meet his people and offer them a vision of life transformed from the pain and suffering of this world into a life lived in the grace and hope you and I already share.

It is a time of great testing for the church financially, like any institution. Yet the church, specifically the Episcopal Diocese of Texas and her congregations, must rise to the challenge understanding it is by grace that we minister to God’s people and that all that is needed, even our daily bread, will be provided by our Father who is in heaven.[11] It is this providence that empowers us to faithfulness that is able to hear his calling and to mission

So, I give thanks for your stewardship, your sacrificial giving, which makes possible the continued missionary ministry of our diocese. Thanks to your vision we are able together to do more than we could alone and to continue to undertake mission, ministry to the homeless and working poor, ministries to multi-national seafarers, newly arrived immigrants, and the children of our diocese. 

Conclusion

After serving the Diocese of Texas for 25 years Bishop Kinsolving addressed the 79^th council with these words:

The willing, trustful mind which gives itself to follow the truth; the pure heart which longs to realize the fruition of our faith in the vision of Christ’s glorious Godhead; the humble and contrite spirit – will not be left without their reward. A revelation will be made to them, and it will be the revelation of the Incarnate Son of the Father. It will be the vision of St. Peter when he exclaimed: Rabbi, thou art the Son of the Living God. It will be the disclosure of the secret which St. Thomas recognized after the resurrection when he cried in glad, adoring joy, “My Lord and my God.” It is the Epiphany which the disciple whom Jesus loved is speaking of when he wrote the words, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory.”

At the beginning of my journey Bishop Kinsolving’s words stand as a promise. As your bishop coadjutor, through this transition and into June, and beyond, I say to you the people who have called me to this task, “I look forward to the years that are upon us and the work of discovering the Incarnate Christ through our mutual ministry and mission. Let us together set about the task of seeing Jesus.”

The Rt. Rev. C. Andy Doyle
Bishop Coadjutor of Texas