It’s been almost a year since the Diocese of Tennessee gathered to celebrate the consecration of its eleventh bishop, an event very much on my mind as I prepare for this first Convention in my new role. It may not be legitimate, after a year, to claim to be the “new bishop,” but that’s still how it feels to me.
Something within me remains fresh from the experience of prayer and the laying-on-ofhands that are at the heart of ordination, and I have to think that this is part of the gift imparted in holy orders.
Let me recall to you the text of the wonderful anthem commissioned by Murray and Hazel Somerville of St. George’s Church and composed by Michael Velting of Christ Church Cathedral, sung a year ago at the service of consecration: “I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self discipline”¦ Guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us” (2 Tim. 1:6-7, 14).
So let’s claim the territory that comes with being new and celebrate it. “New” may reflect a lack of experience, but there are some positive aspects. “New life” is a good thing, perhaps the crucial thing for Christians, as we reflect on the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. A “new start” is positive, especially as we think about moving out of our timeworn patterns of sin and setting off in a new direction under grace. A “new world” brings challenges and excitement, as we contemplate the unknown quantities that are set before us. A “new perspective” holds out to us the promise of escape from the spiritual myopia that besets us, and
of seeing things from a fresh angle.
“New” has limits, of course. Poet and priest George Herbert once wrote that “The Country Parson is a lover of old customs, if they be good”, and those who know me will know that the ancient and well-worn truths of Christian faith are decisive for my life. But is there not a connection between the antique truth and the springing forth of new life? I think so.
Another priest and poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, suggests exactly this when he wrote, “And for all this, nature is never spent; There lives the dearest freshness deep
down things.” From the Source, sometimes concealed and perhaps even buried deeply over time, comes the eternal freshness which is always new. So we return to our sources, in reading and in prayer, in preaching and in sacrament, to discover once again the new start, the new world, the new perspective, that comes with new life.
Where is this from? It’s not posted on the “Bishop’s Forum” on the Diocesan website. Is this the whole statement? It’s good but it kind of seems he was leading up to something and then stopped.
It’s from “Connections” the Diocesan Newsletter/magazine from January. That is all of it.
Thanks Jody. Here’s the [url=http://episcopaldiocese-tn.org/uploads/newsletters/11-Connections_2008_01.pdf]link[/url] for anyone who wants to read the article in context (it’s a .pdf).
(Okay, really I’m just linking because there’s a picture of my parish on the cover 🙂 )
The bishop is just crying, poor bishop he thinks that orthodox Anglicans will spent time reading Rowan advent letter or taking it serious. Who cares about what Rowan says.
This bishop has many years to go before he turns 72. Until then, he has plenty time to run more people away from his diocese. A great many of the people who pushed for his election, and were his biggest supporters, have already left. His episcopacy may just outlast his diocese.