By George Clifford
Socrates’ statement that the unexamined life is not worth living seems applicable not only to individuals but also to organizations, including the Church. In November 2006, shortly before the installation of the Rt. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori as Presiding Bishop (PB) of the Episcopal Church (TEC), I boldly wrote an essay for the Washington Window that was previewed in the Daily Episcopalian proposing an agenda for her tenure in office. Now that her nine years as Presiding Bishop are roughly at the halfway mark, revisiting that agenda affords an opportunity to reflect on the last few years and to think about our way forward from here.
In my original essay, I sketched a fork at which I saw TEC then posed:
One road involves continuing efforts to placate those who contend that views about the compatibility of same sex unions with Christianity constitute a litmus test of Christian identity. Tragically, this road only leads to growing frustration and animosity. Those who would make sexual ethics a litmus test have drawn a line in concrete, unwilling to change and unwilling to accept big tent Anglicanism. No middle ground on which to find reconciliation currently exists. Denying the inevitability of a split within Anglicanism will not prevent that division but will seriously dissipate the precious gifts and energies of Episcopalian Christians.
The other road regretfully acknowledges the futility of the first road and then allows the Church to move forward. If ECUSA takes this second road, the Church will need leadership characterized by fidelity to three classical Anglican emphases: the pastoral, the incarnational, and the via media.
During 2006-2009, TEC chose the second road. The choice was neither quick nor easy, but an extended and at times painful process. For the most part, individuals who believe that same sex unions are incompatible with Christianity have exited TEC or reluctantly accepted that big tent Anglicanism can survive a plurality of views on this subject. Continuing battles over property and a relative handful of disputes over which body is the legitimate expression of Anglicanism in the United States (never an issue for either TEC or the Archbishop of Canterbury, incidentally) represent the dust that is still settling from the fork in the road that TEC chose.
Apart from persons and entities directly involved in resolving those issues, TEC and its constituent members are moving forward. The 2009 General Convention initiated development of rites for blessing same sex unions. Sexuality has generally ceased to be a prime focus and bitterly divisive issue in most dioceses and parishes. The majority of Episcopalians accepts the fork chosen with rejoicing while a minority accepts it with resignation or even lamentation.
Recently, I spoke with a woman who for several decades played a leading role in her parish, one of the first in my diocese both to welcome everybody regardless of gender orientation and to embrace ministry to GLBT persons. Almost all of the congregations in this diocese, she remarked, now welcome everyone. To have a distinctive identity and fresh energy, she said that her parish must develop a new focus. I’m not as sanguine as is she about every congregation’s genuine welcome of GLBT persons, but we’ve come a long, long way since 2006, thanks be to God.
To move TEC along the second road, the road we’ve chosen, I presumptuously suggested that the PB adopt three emphases: the pastoral, the incarnational, and the via media for her tenure in office. Let me be clear: I have no idea whether the PB ever read my essay and claim no credit or responsibility for her actions or leadership. Furthermore, although I write about the PB, my comments are about TEC; in time-honored naval tradition, I presume that an organization’s leader symbolizes the totality of the organization, an idea that coheres well with bishops symbolizing the Church’s unity. Unlike a naval leader, the PB is not personally accountable for everything TEC does or fails to do. Nevertheless, my original essay affords a useful platform for assessing where TEC stands today, at the midpoint in the Most Rev. Jefferts Schori’s tenure as PB.
First, the PB has consistently emphasized what it means to be the Church, drawing upon our rich Anglican pastoral heritage of inclusivity and openness, consistently welcoming all who seek to live out their faith in this part of the body of Christ. Her exhausting travel schedule brings her to all corners of the Church, building vital relationships. A recent headline from Houston made this point in good naval lingo, “PB covers the waterfront.” Without my prompting or inquiring, people who have met her consistently tell me that she impresses them as a godly bishop who inspires and challenges them to be more faithful in our modern world. In retrospect, a bishop who told me that he hesitantly voted for her election as primate, sensing the movement of the Holy Spirit in the House of Bishops showing him that she was the leader whom God desired for this time, was right.
Work remains to be done. TEC still expends too much time and too many resources to keep its legislative and bureaucratic structures moving. We have yet to implement a constructive process for dealing with dysfunctional relationships between a bishop and diocese, a problem encumbered with more urgency and even greater complexity given recent developments in South Carolina than when I wrote in 2006. Property and other disputes with departed dissidents continue to sap individual and institutional energy. Reconciliation is Christ’s, and therefore our, business.
Second, the challenge of articulating a clear, bold, and passionate vision for TEC, its ministry and mission, has proven more difficult. The PB frequently receives positive media attention; her presence and words help to move public opinion. However, the many forces pulling TEC in a wide variety of directions exert too strong of a fragmenting influence for what, from national and global perspectives, is a relatively small organization. Similarly, most dioceses and parishes lack a clear vision, torn in multiple directions, dissipating individual leadership and organizational momentum.
No person or organization can do everything well. Maximizing effect requires establishing and adhering to realistic priorities, an essential lesson for military leaders in combat (concentration of force is one of the first principles of tactics and strategy they learn) and a lesson equally applicable to the Church. The Rev. Canon Sally Bingham’s achievements in creating Interfaith Power and Light offer an example of what focused leadership and energy can achieve.
The PB, acting upon insights from feminist and liberation theologies, might call upon Episcopalians at all levels to:
• Decentralize authority, e.g., empowering individuals to form formal and ad hoc task groups to achieve clearly defined objectives without burdening a parish with new permanent structures and administrative overhead.
• Encourage diverse priorities by different groups, e.g., a diocese in an area where the population is growing rapidly emphasizing church planting and evangelism while a diocese in an area with a stable population emphasizes stewardship and environmental ministries.
• Emphasize mutual interdependence, i.e., TEC in conjunction with the other branches of Christianity can in their totality incarnate the fullness of the body of Christ. Similarly, mutual interdependence between dioceses and between parishes will result in the whole being larger than the sum of the parts.
Third, the PB (and TEC) has appeared to seek to bridge the secular and sacred, a path faithful to our via media heritage. Her frequent appearances in venues that address the relationship between science and religion are a sign of this choice. Her affirmation of the value of other religions while insisting on the integrity of Christianity is another such sign. Yet a third sign is leading TEC in choosing the road that led to welcoming GLBT persons fully into the life of TEC, a choice that now seems irrevocable and God directed.
In a Church that has suffered through decades of numerical decline, painful conflict, and significant fiscal constraints, TEC daily offers healing words, living water, and the bread of abundant life to literally hundreds of thousands of God’s broken, thirsty, and struggling children. Those ministries deserve a cheerleader who incarnates the Christ. Surely, God has sent Bishop Jefferts Schori to us for just such a time as this, a time when we build on the past to achieve new glories of faithful service in the future.
George Clifford, a priest in the Diocese of North Carolina, served as a Navy chaplain for twenty-four years, is now a visiting professor of ethics and public policy at the Naval Postgraduate School, and blogs at Ethical Musings.