Ordination to the Diaconate of Christian Carroll, Alexei Khamin, Thom Murphy, Karen Rezach
For the past two weeks, I have been in regular phone and email conversation with several members of the House of Bishops. We began talking and writing because of our concern that the Archbishop of Canterbury has announced that our colleague and friend, the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, will not be receiving an invitation to the Lambeth 2008 Conference, which gathers together all the bishops of the Anglican Communion every ten years. We drafted a letter expressing our disappointment and concern.
I learned yesterday at a meeting of religious leaders that New Jersey is the most diverse state in the country. California would like to claim that honor, but the data, so I am told, clearly favors residents of the Garden State. For some people, diversity gets confused with density – and its corresponding lack of open space, treacherous traffic and foul air. It turns out that other states have long conceded New Jersey to have premier status in the density department. For other people, greater diversity poses a threat to the established garden.
We, the Bishops of the Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Newark and New Jersey, are enthusiastic fans and supporters of the Women’s Basketball Team of Rutgers University.
In the prologue of John’s Gospel, the evangelist makes the claim that “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John1:5) I would agree with the Gospel writer that darkness does not snuff out light; but in my experience a more powerful statement could be made -- light ruins darkness. I know a host of people whose night’s sleep is ruined by the glow of a digital clock, or the infiltration of a street light through wind-wafted curtains.
Recently I have taken to praying with icons. An icon is a painted image that we are not so much invited to look upon, but to see through. See through to the presence of God, perhaps even the image of God, who is also looking back through the image to see and embrace us. St. Benedict, the sixth monk who is widely regarded as the founder of Western monasticism and Christian spirituality, said the first task for monks is to listen – a very important and life giving enterprise. Orthodox Christianity, rooted in the East, first calls upon Christians to gaze.
Today is the first full day of Lent. And today was the first day that we began a regular weekday 12:15 prayer service in the chapel at Episcopal House. Bishop Carol Gallagher has designed a simple and inviting liturgy – and has produced a list of dates for people to sign up and lead it. Since Episcopal House is, in some ways, the center of the diocese, it seems fitting that the center of our workday should involve an offering of prayer. The service may involve just one person – or several.
From the ancient world through the middle ages, cities were surrounded by walls, for protection and cohesion. Entrance into the city during the day was through a large monitored gate. At night people came into the city through the eye of a needle – which was narrow passageway through the wall, just wide enough for one person and/or one camel to pass through unarmed.
One of the challenges of the Christian faith is to live in humility. Humility is a grounding experience, in the literal sense of the word – given that humility has a connection with the word humus, which refers to the earth. When we are humbled, we are grounded. Grounded in God. When I am humbled, I am less absorbed in myself and more absorbed by God. Unfortunately, there has long been a confusion between being grounded – and being ground down. Between being brought low in order to see the full majesty of God – and being brought down by rejection or disappointment, or worse.
1 Cor 12:12-27 Luke 4:14-21
The first verbal message of Easter in the Gospel of Mark is actually a commandment – do not fear. When the women arrived to anoint the body of Jesus on that first Easter morning, they found that the stone had been rolled away. Jesus was gone; and the women were told that he has been raised. “Do not fear”, an unknown young man tells them. But they were out of their minds with fear – they could not absorb all that they felt and heard and seen. And they left the tomb afraid.
