by the Rev. Kate Atkinson
Over
the past three years, the Taskforce for Reimagining the Episcopal Church (TREC)
has been hard at work examining our church structure, governance, and
activities at global and local levels – and everywhere in between. One result of their efforts was the
development of three practices, rooted in the gospels, which inspired a theme
for the 78th General Convention of The Episcopal Church. It showed up in the opening remarks from our
current Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, and our House of Deputies
President Gay Jennings. It flowed through the speeches from the nominees for
Presiding Bishop; it appeared in the sermons at our daily Eucharist; and it
featured in the materials on display, and our daily prayers and songs and
conversations:
Follow Jesus
into the neighborhood
… travel lightly.
There
was a powerful sense of the Holy Spirit in Salt Lake City, inspiring us to
recommit to what Bishop Curry calls “the Jesus movement … the movement of God’s
love in this world.” There was a clear and genuine response to that call to
follow Jesus wherever he may lead us next.
And
where is Jesus leading us? The stories
we heard at General Convention, the resolutions we passed, the new directions
we agreed upon, these all helped us to understand that what we call “the
neighborhood” may not always be familiar surroundings. As Jesus reminds us in
the parable of the Good Samaritan, a neighborhood is any place that offers us
the opportunity to make new connections, to build new relationships, to
discover who our neighbors really are.
And,
as Jesus instructed his disciples, when we begin to explore those new
neighborhoods, it’s important to leave our luggage behind. Traveling lightly means letting go of old
ways of doing things, old prejudices and pre-conceived ideas of ministry and
mission. Traveling lightly means being
open to learning from the people we encounter, hearing their stories, allowing
them to tell us what they are looking for; not the other way around.
We
have an adventure in store for us – this church that could sit back and boast
about all we’ve achieved but chooses instead to keep moving forward.
As
Bishop Katharine said when she preached on the story of Jairus’ daughter, it’s
time to get up:
“Get up girl, and boy, and woman and man,” she
told us, “get up and dance!”
Find
out more about the 3 Practices at:
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