Sermon preached at All Saints Cathedral, Kowloon.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Monday, September 22, 2014
Fwd: Episcopal Church House of Bishops Fall 2014 meeting: Daily Account for September 22
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Episcopal Church House of Bishops Fall 2014 meeting: Daily Account for September 22
Episcopal Church House of Bishops Fall 2014 meeting:
Daily Account for Monday, September 22The House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church is meeting in the Diocese of Taiwan from September 17 to September 23. The following is an account of the activities for September 22.
The theme for the fall meeting of the Episcopal Church House of Bishops is Expanding the Apostolic Imagination.
The day began with Eucharist, celebrated by Bishop Prince Singh of Rochester. Preacher was HOB Chaplain the Rev. Stephanie Spellers of Long Island.
The emcee for the day was Bishop Paul Lambert of Dallas.
Three presentations were offered during the morning session. The first was Theological Context and Mission Challenges in Japan was presented by Archbishop Nathaniel Uematsu of Nippon Sei Ko Kai (Anglican Church in Japan).
The second was Theological Context and Mission Challenges in Korea presented by Archbishop Paul Kim of the Anglican Church in Korea.
The morning session concluded with Theological Context and Mission Challenges in the Philippines presented by the Most Rev. Edward Malecdan, Prime Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines.
The afternoon private session featured three important updates, reports and discussion:
The Taskforce for Re-Imagining the Episcopal Church (TREC), presented by Bishop Sean Rowe of Northwest Pennsylvania/Bethlehem.
Task Force On the Study of Marriage , presented by Bishop Tom Ely of Vermont.
Joint Committee for the Nomination of the Presiding Bishop, presented by Bishop Edward Konieczny of Oklahoma.
Media Briefers for Monday, September 22
Bishop Edward Konieczny of Oklahoma
Bishop Mark Beckwith of Newark
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Episcopal Church House of Bishops Fall 2014 meeting: Daily Account for Monday, September 22
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Episcopal Church House of Bishops Fall 2014 meeting: Presiding Bishop¹s Sermon at St. John¹s Cathedral, Taiwan
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Episcopal Church House of Bishops Fall 2014 meeting: Presiding Bishop's Sermon at St. John's Cathedral, Taiwan
Episcopal Church House of Bishops Fall 2014 meeting:
Presiding Bishop's Sermon at St. John's Cathedral, Taiwan
[September 21, 2014] The House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church is conducting its fall meeting in the Diocese of Taiwan September 17 – September 23. On Sunday, September 21, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preached at St. John's Cathedral, Taipei, Taiwan. The following is the sermon presented by Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori.
21 September 2014
St. John's Cathedral, Taipei, Taiwan
House of Bishops
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church
How do we decide that something is unfair? Is it different than being unjust?
When I was a child, we had family rules about sharing. If there was one piece of cake to divide between two kids, one cut the cake and the other got to choose the first piece. That was fair. If we had company for dinner, the children were reminded that guests were served first, and we weren't supposed to ask for seconds until they had had all they wanted. That was called hospitality. But when we looked around and began to notice that some people never seemed to get anything, then we started to talk about injustice.
Fairness involves judgments about whether people get a similar portion of whatever goods are at hand; justice is about whether people get what they deserve.
Jonah is royally ticked off because he thinks the Ninevites aren't getting what they deserve –they're not being punished for their evil ways. God has given mercy rather than their just deserts. When Jonah leaves the city to sulk, he enjoys the pure mercy of shade under a bush. But when the bush withers, he gets mad, because he thinks he deserved its shade. "Just kill me," he says, "I can't stand this – it's not fair!" And God reminds him that the 120,000 Ninevites are worth a whole lot more than this blasted plant. Mercy trumps justice, especially Jonah's understanding of justice.
Paul is sitting in a similar place as he writes to Philippi, but he has a very different reaction. He is poised between life and death, but he's not nearly so anxious about the outcome. Living or dead, he is with Christ, but if he's going to live, he decides he will use his life fruitfully, as a witness to good news. Paul is not bound up in the fairness question. He has a deep confidence in God's abounding mercy, whether he lives or dies, whether he suffers or flourishes.
The vineyard owner hires workers and treats them equally, whether they work all day or only an hour. He sees that as justice – giving each one the necessary wage, to all their daily bread, "whatever is right." But the ones who have worked all day long feel slighted – "those latecomers got more than they deserved!"
What is justice? And what do we do when we discover that others believe that ultimate justice is a lot bigger or a lot smaller than our view of it?
Capital punishment is the human dilemma where this comes up most urgently. Is it just? Nation after nation has abolished the death penalty in recent years. It's been ended in most nations where The Episcopal Church is present, starting with Venezuela in 1863. Ecuador and Colombia eliminated it more than 100 years ago. Honduras in 1956. Curaçao was the latest, in 2010. Only the United States and Taiwan continue to execute people. In the last three years, the United States has executed about 40 people a year, and 30 thus far in 2014, including Lisa Coleman, a black woman, last Wednesday.[1] Taiwan executed five people in April of this year, after putting five or six to death in each of the last three years.[2]
The good news is that many people are raising questions of justice about the death penalty – about the adequacy of defense, the reliability of prosecution evidence and tactics, as well as the capacity to carry out an execution without causing undue pain and suffering. All of that, however, stands in opposition to the position of this Church since 1958 – that capital punishment is fundamentally wrong, a violation of the intrinsic worth of every human being, of the divine image each one bears. Yet the reality is that all Episcopalians live in societies where there is disagreement over what justice looks like.
Jonah apparently expected something like the death penalty for Nineveh – that it would be annihilated like the city of Sodom. That's an all too common reaction to apparent injustice – well we'll just destroy the wrong-doer, we'll kill the enemy. Yet God's mercy is greater than retributive human justice. Jesus challenged us to love our enemies. Bishop Azariah told us on Friday that he focuses on loving his neighbors – all of them – for he apparently does not want to define anyone as enemy.
There is great power when we can shift from demanding justice as punishment for wrongdoing to giving thanks for the grace of God's presence – God's presence with us and in our neighbors. It's a shift from defensiveness to open-hearted vulnerability that ends by producing compassion, mercy, and godly justice.
We visitors in Taiwan have seen that kind of mercy here in this diocese. Over and over, we have discovered abundant compassion rather than minimalist understandings of fairness. When a church many years ago from South Carolina [3] helped St. James Taichung to build a church, that congregation in Taichung responded with profligate compassion by helping to build 12 churches in the Philippines. The chaplain at St. John's University does not just offer occasional pizza for a few Episcopal students – he provides 20 meal plans to students for the whole academic year. The parish kindergartens here and across the diocese don't just serve parishioners – they reach out to all children from the neighborhoods, of all creeds and none, to see that they get what they need and deserve. The people of this diocese are reaching out to the elderly, the imprisoned, the handicapped, and the lonely, bringing life and dignity and abundant mercy.
True and godly and eternal justice makes more of self, it enlarges hearts and creates more life and greater abundance. The pinched kind of self-centered justice that Jonah and the vineyard workers were looking for chooses death rather than life, and misses that expansiveness. When we know that we are held in the palm of God's hand, whether we have suffering or joy, we discover that we can choose that deeper sort of justice, and choose it for all our neighbors.
May we remember God's mercy on the Ninevites. May we remember Jesus' telling the criminal dying next to him that they'd be together in paradise that very day. We will find our daily bread of life in the mercy we offer our neighbors.
[1] http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/execution-list-2014
[2] http://www.deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=736 After an effective moratorium from 2005-2009.
[3] St. James, Greenville, SC
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Episcopal Church House of Bishops Fall 2014 meeting: Daily Account for September 20, 21
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The Episcopal ChurchOffice of Public Affairs
Episcopal Church House of Bishops Fall 2014 meeting: Daily Account for September 20, 21
Episcopal Church House of Bishops Fall 2014 meeting:
Daily Account for Saturday & Sunday, September 20 & 21
The House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church is meeting in the Diocese of Taiwan from September 17 to September 23. The following is an account of the activities for September 20 and September 21.
The theme for the fall meeting of the Episcopal Church House of Bishops is Expanding the Apostolic Imagination.
On Saturday, the bishops and spouses enjoyed the hospitality of the Diocese of Taiwan by visiting various religious, secular, historical, government, scientific and other key locations throughout the island.
On Sunday, the bishops and spouses attended local churches to worship and learn of the church's mission and ministry.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preached at St. John's Cathedral, Taipei. Her sermon here.
Bishop Diane Jardine Bruce of Diocese of Los Angeles preached at Advent Church, Tam Sui. Bishop Richard Chang, retired, preached at Church of the Good Shepherd, Taipei.
Following the morning's worship services, the bishops and spouses met in a joint session to share their insights and inquiries about their conference experiences thus far, led by Marla Hanley of the Diocese of Oregon.
The day's business concluded with the customary Fireside Chat of the bishops.
Media Briefers for Saturday and Sunday, September 20 and 21
Bishop Eugene Sutton of Maryland
Bishop James Waggoner of Spokane
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Friday, September 19, 2014
Episcopal Church House of Bishops Fall 2014 meeting: Daily Account for September 19
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Media Release
The Episcopal Church
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Episcopal Church House of Bishops Fall 2014 meeting: Daily Account for September 19
Episcopal Church House of Bishops Fall 2014 meeting:
Daily Account for Friday, September 19The House of Bishops of The Episcopal Church is meeting in the Diocese of Taiwan from September 17 to September 23. The following is an account of the activities for September 19.
The theme for the fall meeting of the Episcopal Church House of Bishops is Expanding the Apostolic Imagination.
The day began with Eucharist, celebrated by Bishop Robert Fitzpatrick of Hawaii and Bishop-in-Charge of the Church in Micronesia (Guam and Saipan). Preacher was HOB Chaplain the Rev. Simon Batista, Canon Missioner for Latino Ministries and Outreach of the Diocese of Texas.
Throughout the Eucharist, Bishop Fitzpatrick used Hawaiian language for the prayers and concluded with a Book of Common Prayer blessing in Hawaiian: Ka ho'opomaika'I 'ana o ke Akua mana loa, ka Makua ke Keiki, a me ka 'Uhane Hemolele me 'oukou a e noho pu me 'oukou amau loa aku. 'Amene. (The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be upon you and remain with you forever Amen.)
The emcee for the day was Bishop Dean Wolfe of Kansas.
Bishop David Lai of Taiwan, and the host of the HOB meeting, presented Theological Context & Mission Challenges in Taiwan. Bishop Lai gave an overview of the history of the Diocese of Taiwan, from a missionary district to today's diocese, beginning with the Episcopalians in the American military. The diocese grew to 20 congregations. The ministry context of the diocese is defined by Taoism, Buddhism and ancestor worship. Using the Book of Common Prayer in Mandarin is mandatory, even though 70% of the nation's population speaks Taiwanese Hokkien. Table conversation focused on two questions: What surprised you about the theological context or challenges for mission in Taiwan; and are the theology and/or challenges in Taiwan very similar or different from the context of my diocese?
The first afternoon session was devoted to the Rev. Peter Koon, Principal Secretary, Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, and Dr. Gareth Jones, Principal, SKH Ming Hua Seminary, Hong Kong, presenting Theological Context & Mission Challenges in Hong Kong.
The shifting political realities of Hong Kong's special relationship with mainland China shape the missional context of the school. Theological education in the Ming Hua seminary revolves around an interpretation of seeking the restoration of companionship with God, which the original couple lost when they abandoned God in the Garden of Eden.That was followed by Theological Context & Mission Challenges in Pakistan by the Most Rev. Samuel Robert Azariah, Bishop of Raiwind and Moderator of the Church of Pakistan. He prefaced his remarks about Pakistan with a broad characterization of the mission context of South Asia. It is a place of multiple languages, many religious traditions, different climates, and a variety of cultures. Turning more specifically to his home Pakistan, the Bishops were asked to imagine that we were not bishops but simply disciples of Jesus Christ. He then led us in imagining ministry in the third largest Islamic state. He detailed for us the numerous challenges that the small minority of Christians in Pakistan face daily. When asked how the Episcopal Church could be helpful to the Church in Pakistan, he replied that we could help them learn how to do development and capacity building. Additionally, there is a great need for addressing theological education. His example humbled and encouraged the members of the House of Bishops.
The evening was focused on class gatherings, discussion and dinners.
Media Briefers for Friday, September 19
Bishop Jacob Owensby of Western Louisiana
Bishop Pierre Whalon of Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe
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Episcopal Church House of Bishops Fall 2014 meeting: Daily Account for Friday, September 19
For more info contact:
Neva Rae Fox
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The Episcopal Church
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212-716-6080 Mobile: 917-478-5659
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