As you may know, I have been in Arizona for nine days. I was at a border experience and then came to Phoenix for the House of Bishop’s meeting. It has been informative and transformative meeting. At one point it was very difficult and even tragic.
The bishops worked hard to put out a Pastoral Letter to the Church on immigration. I know this is a hot button issue. It would be easier to let this go and focus on spiritual or liturgical or canonical matters.
However, this is the issue of our time and the Church needs her voice to be a central part of the mix. And it’s not as if immigration is foreign to Christianity. How we treat the stranger is a key theme in all of Scripture. That’s not strong enough. How we treat the stranger is part of the Good News of Jesus Christ. I urge you to read the Old Testament and the New Testament and look for border crossings and look for Jesus’ admonitions about hospitality.
In the Pastoral Letter and Theological Resource, the bishops have sought to be comprehensive and based our assertions on scripture and tradition. I urge you to read both documents, even though the Resource paper is rather long and not an easy read. Immigration is not a bumper sticker issue. It cannot be reduced to one principle. It’s about laws and economies and families and multinational corporations and NAFTA. We have to admit it’s also about America’s insatiable thirst for drugs as well as preventing those who would seek to harm us from finding a way into our country. It’s a tangled web.
However, we must engage it as the Church. We cannot allow politicians of any party to have the final word. God’s Word, the Living Word, is the lens we must use to look at any part of our lives.
We also called on The Episcopal Church to raise $10 million for Haiti. The Diocese of Haiti is the largest and poorest diocese in The Episcopal Church. The news cycle has moved on from the destruction there, but devastation remains. Our Church has been instrumental in rebuilding the country but there is much to be done and it is part of our task to do it. More later.
The tragic dimension of this meeting is the bishops’ call for Bishop Charles Bennison to resign as the Bishop of Pennsylvania. Over 30 years ago Bishop Bennison’s brother, a priest, was guilty of sexual misconduct. Bishop Bennison was found guilty by the Trial Court of not responding to these incidents (“conduct unbecoming of a clergy person”). However, the Court of Appeal ruled that the Statute of Limitations had run out. He was, therefore, reinstated.
The Church must be safe. Clergy must be held to a standard of behavior. There is forgiveness and new life, but not without the hard work of repentance. There is no canonical way to remedy this situation. Therefore, we called for this bishop to resign for the good of the diocese and the Church.
Therefore, this meeting was like all of our life: some was easy; some was fun; some pushed us to new places; some opened us up; and some required us into a land of pain and sorrow and tragedy where we did what we believed Christ called us to do and prayed for resurrection for everyone.
I mean as Christians we walk with Jesus into all of life; we go to every border with him and he brings us across to new land. It’s exciting and scary and everything else. However, at the end of the day, to be with Him is the only place to be. As bishops, that’s what we have tried to do this week and that’s the journey you and I are on as well.
I leave for WNC early this morning. I can’t wait to get back to a “wet” heat and home.
+Porter
No comments:
Post a Comment