Three days after the 2024 presidential election was decided, Bishop Hughes gave her sermon at the 150th Diocesan Convention on Micah 6:8: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Time: 32:39.)
In her sermon, Bishop Hughes identified seven areas about which she believes the diocese should be proactive:
- Climate
- Immigration and asylum seekers
- Racial justice and racial history
- LGBTQ support
- Libraries and literacy
- Women’s reproductive health and women’s leadership
- Youth
Video Transcript
[Whispers] Oh, I forgot my sermon. It’s sitting in there. [Laughter.]
In the name of the God who loves us, amen. That tells you something about how I am. I’m so excited I forget to bring the words with me. There is lot to be excited about, there is a lot to be worried about, there’s a lot to be scared about, but for us as Christians, there’s a lot to be faithful about. There’s a lot for us to know that God is calling us to do. Now is the time. God is doing something new.
We have been talking about God making a new church for years, and that intensified during the pandemic period, and I’ve been saying for the last three or four years, we’re already becoming something else. We are not who we were 10 years ago. We’re not who we were five years ago. And in this particular moment, at this time, we’re called into something else, completely new.
It’s interesting, though, God is always doing something new, but very often the new thing is something that we have done before, and that is helpful for us. We have to remember who we are. We have to look back at our past, to remember what we’ve done before, to know that we have the ability to do something all over again. In the midst of this time, in the midst of confusion, in the midst of trying to swim past all of the reactions that people are having and trying to figure out, how do we agree to disagree?
This is so much bigger than agreeing to disagree. I am not ever going to agree that it is okay for all of those people who receive text messages over the last two days telling them you are headed to a plantation in some state and we’re going to come and pick you up, naming them by name, children, teenagers, adults and some were treated to a follow up email the next day. I don’t lay this on any political party, but I most certainly do lay it on any politician who spends time speaking hate into the world. It unleashes something. [Applause.] It makes other people think it’s okay. And it is important for all of us. It doesn’t matter who you voted for. It is important for all of us to speak to those politicians and say, No, we don’t do hate. We do not do hate. This is not a new thing, but it may be a new thing for us and for our church right now.
And part of this that the gift to us at 150 years is the chance to look back and see who we have been. Part of the new thing is being who we have always been. The Diocese of Newark has always been strong. The Diocese of Newark has always been courageous. The Diocese of Newark has always been faithful. The Diocese of Newark has always changed things for the better. [Applause.] That is what we do. That is what we will continue to do from – you know, we talk about 1874, that being the start of the diocese, but in 1729 there was an Anglican presence in the city of Newark. We’ve been here for a very long time. We’ve been here for a very long time trying to figure out how to be faithful people and how to be people, that reach out to God’s people.
And when I say God’s people, I mean all people. I don’t mean just the Episcopalians. I don’t mean just the Christians. God didn’t seem to label us that way. When God brought us into creation, the only label God put on us was “very good.” That was the label. Everything else God called into creation was good, but the human kind, us, very good. All of us are God’s people, the ones sitting in this room, the ones not sitting in this room, the ones who swear there is no such thing as God. You can swear there’s no such thing as Carlye Hughes to the cows come home, but I’m still here! [Laughter, applause.] I am still here. It’s okay. People can believe what they want to believe. They are still God’s people, and our call is to care for God’s people.
Months ago – well, maybe it was more like weeks, maybe it was a month and a half – is when we decided that we would focus on that Micah passage for this particular service. We knew when we scheduled this over a year ago, two years ago, when we knew we were getting this close to our 150th that we wanted it on this weekend, and we knew it was going to be an election week right before us. But you know, November 12 is the day we were paying attention to, not the Tuesday. We were paying attention to that day.
But I look at how all of these things come together, and I know there are those people who believe that God is some benign presence, not interested in the details of our lives. And if that is how you do your spiritual life, you go right ahead, I’m not trying to take it from you. But you know me, if I need a parking place, I’m praying. [Laughter.] And while you believe God doesn’t care, all I can tell you is, I never am without a parking place. [Laughter.] I just trust that God is in my details, in all of those details, including the details of this week, that we would look at those words.
When Israel was in trouble and Israel and Judah were in trouble, there they were separated again, two different kingdoms. Isaiah is talking to Israel. Micah is talking to Judah. Both of them are doing the same thing, trying to put one over on God. If we can get enough money out of those people, we can build a better temple. Doesn’t matter if they don’t have food, doesn’t matter if we don’t think it’s worthy of them to be in this temple. There was a level of corruption, there was a level of abuse of people that in no way, shape or form had God called them into. These are people who were supposed to treat their neighbors well, that you never know when you’re entertaining an angel. This is the language they had been given, and here they are, overworking, financially abusing people, letting those who are the wealthiest and the most powerful rise to the top, and take over the houses of worship and the governance of people because those were two things were together.
Micah was saying to them, God’s going to take this all away from you. You’re going to lose Jerusalem, which they eventually did. You’re going to lose Jerusalem, you’re going to be in exile, which they eventually were. And someone in the midst of all of this, probably more than one person, asked, Well, what can we do? I mean, how many goats do I need to sacrifice? How much money do I need to donate? How many people do I need to pay to come and sing the holy hymns. What do I need to do? How much, how many resources do I need to use to make God okay with me?
And Micah says God doesn’t want any of that. What God wants is for you to do justice, love kindness – you might have heard it, love mercy, depends on your translation – and walk humbly with your God. We have leaned into doing justice and loving kindness and walking humbly with our God in this diocese for 150 years. A hundred and fifty years of building hospitals, building homes, nursing homes, building homes where people could live in retirement and live with dignity and respect, opening schools, all of those things. Making sure that people got the education that they deserved to have, that they didn’t have to pay for the education, but they got the same education. We’ve always been a people in our particular faith tradition who prize education. And one of the ways we say I love you to people is, I want you to have a scholarship! I want you to have an education that’s better than mine. That’s one of the ways that we take care of people. We have been doing that justice work.
We have been ordaining people that before the rest of the church was ready to ordain women, we were ordaining women. Before the rest of the church was ready to ordain LGBTQ people, we were ordaining LGBTQ people. Before the rest of the church was ready to ordain people of color, we were ordaining people of color. And look what y’all did in terms of a bishop. [Laughter, applause.]
And I will have you know that when I was on retreat, on the retreat where we were discerning our call to do this whole thing, there was someone on the retreat, not from the Diocese of Newark, but there was someone on the on that retreat that said, You know, it might be good for you not to get your hopes up, because the church has already elected one black woman. They won’t do this again for another five to 10 years. Just to let yourself down easy. And I don’t know where it came from, and I said, Unless, of course, the Holy Spirit wants it. [Laughter.] And then another six black women were elected. [Applause.]
When we do this work, of doing justice, of making sure that things are in right relationship. I love the way Bishop Curry says it, and then shortly I’ll be talking about the way our new Presiding Bishop says things. But I’ve heard the other one for nine years, so he’s in my head. But I love the way he says that God’s justice turns things that were upside down, right side up. And that when we do that work of justice, when we do that work of putting things in right order, then we are standing alongside God. God is right there with us. The Holy Spirit is embodied in us, turning something that is upside down, right side up. Turning it into the way it was always meant to be, the way that it is called to be, the way God called it in to creation in the first place. But for the reasons of sin, and sin, and sin, and sin – a word we don’t typically like to use all that much – but for the reasons of sin, things get corrupted. They just get corrupted. So this is who we’ve been as diocese.
But I want to put this in a little bit of a wider framework. It was helpful hearing Bishop Beckwith say, Remember who you are! Remember where we come from, where our tradition comes from. That there was war going on, 30 years of bloodshed, trying to figure out, are we Protestant and should the whole nation be that? Are we Roman? Should the whole nation be that? When Elizabeth said, there will be no more bloodshed. It’ll stop. There’ll be one book. Both things will be ordered in that book. We will worship in the way that we worship, and we are not going to keep killing each other over this, and that middle way was born.
Now here’s the thing about middle way, it doesn’t mean you’re mealy mouthed, and that’s why I say, some things we can agree to disagree on. The things that are harmful and dangerous or unjust, we are probably not ever going to agree on. And so that means we have to roll up our sleeves and do some work. And that is where we are right now. There’s some sleeve rolling up to do and some work that needs to be done, and we’ve got to figure out how to do that and stay in conversation with people, because this has really hurt us.
I’m keenly aware that there are forces that have been involved in where we are as nation that are beyond the United States. There are forces that have been involved in where we are as nation that are so fueled with millions and billions of dollars that they think they can simply buy us and have whatever they want. Those forces are strong and powerful, and they have been committed. Those forces do not know us, though. That we are equally strong, we are equally courageous, we are equally faithful, and we change things. And that is the time that we’re in. We’re in a time where we have to know that about ourselves.
Now look, I know that people are going to be kind of all over the map, and you’ve got to work through your emotions. And I have just been so busy since everything happened. I know I have an emotion. They’re down the street somewhere. I’ve been tending to other people’s, and if mine rise up, I find a good piece of chocolate to take care of myself. [Laughter.] That can’t go on forever. I’m gonna have to work through mine. That’s why I have a therapist. If you don’t have one, now’s a good time. [Laughter.] And that’s why I have a spiritual director, and that’s why I have good spiritual friends that I can talk to. You’re gonna have to work through all of this. We’re gonna have to work through whatever response it is that you’re having, and you’re going to have to keep working through that.
And, again let’s widen that picture and put ourselves in bigger context. I think of the Grimke sisters who – abolitionists who lived in New Jersey part of their time. One of them got married in New Jersey, and when she was married, her wedding was firebombed because she was one of those speakers that was well known for saying that slavery should be abolished. For her, she actually thought if she went home to South Carolina and told everyone that, You need to understand as a Christian that Jesus loves all of those people, including the slaves, that if she just explained to them that Jesus loved them, they would let their slaves go free. She didn’t realize that was such a dangerous thing for her to do, that she had to leave town in the middle of the night in secrecy, because not only was her life threatened, but so was her family that did not agree with her.
Those sisters lived right here, and for 30 solid years, 30 solid years, they and other abolitionists, taught, wrote, protested, spoke to legislatures, did all of the work that they could, every year thinking, this is the year. This is the year that slaves will be freed, 30 years before the Emancipation Proclamation, 30 solid years. It’s been three days. Three days. You don’t know how much self control I have right now. Okay, I lost my self control. Snap out of it. It’s three days. It is three days. It may take years of doing the justice work.
The other piece of this right behind all of that, in terms of our justice work, to remember, is, something was simmering underneath the surface anyway. And there are those of us who were sensitive to it and knew that it was already there. And for me personally, I’d always rather know the truth. I would always rather know the truth. If, if you really hate me, please don’t come and smile in my face. Do not do that and stab me in the back or my family in the back. [Applause.] Do not do that and make my life dangerous. Just tell me the truth. I won’t run around calling you racist. I will just stay away from you and keep people from you that you might hurt. I’d rather know the truth. And there’s a piece of this that is the truth of who we are as nation, that original sin that has been with us as a nation from the very beginning, this sin of supremacy.
And trust me, strong people can take a look at this. Fragile people, as soon as they hear that word go, Oh no, you’re going to make me feel bad. I don’t want to hear anything about that. That’s why fragile people don’t want to talk about our racial history. Fragile people don’t want to have anyone have any sense of sadness over sad things. But strong people can look at that and ask the question of, how does that happen? And how do we keep that from happening again? What can we learn from that. We are strong people. We are strong people. It takes strong people to do justice. It takes strong people to love kindness. It takes strong people to walk humbly with God.
And I do mean walk humbly with God. I do mean asking God questions and figuring out what is happening right now and listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit, hearing that or feeling that feeling. Have you ever been in the midst of doing something and just had the sense, Don’t go. That’s the Spirit. Our tendency is to say it’s the Holy Spirit when things go well. We go, oh, wow, look at that. The Holy Spirit. When that guy bad mouthed me, oh, I said, I said, it was a him. I shouldn’t have done that. When that person, when that person told me to, to drop my aspirations and don’t think about this and kind of drop out of the whole Bishop search thing, when that person told that, I said, this is the Spirit, and when I told the rest of the story about then six other women being elected, that is clearly the Spirit. So our tendency, including mine, is when something really wonderful happens, when I get my way [laughter], then I say, that’s the Holy Spirit.
But I will have to say, in my life, I don’t know about yours, much more often, the Holy Spirit is the hand on the shoulder saying, Oh no, you don’t. Do not go in that direction. Do not speak. Close your mouth and listen. Listen to what is being said. Or the Holy Spirit says, I know you’re sad, and I know you’re heartbroken, but roll up your sleeves and do the work anyway. When – I think it was Angelica Grimke’s wedding – was firebombed. They had the wedding anyway, and a week later, she was back out talking about freeing slaves. She carried right on doing her ministry. Now is that time for us.
God is going to do something with all of this that is going on. It will not be the first time that God has taken something that looked like an absolute train wreck of a mess. However, it happened, whether it was intentional or not. It is not the first time that God has taken something that seemed impossible and was an absolute mess and turned it into something wonderful. Turned it into a blessing. That is not the first time that would happen.
There’s some things I think that we have to give some serious attention to, and that I think are kind of critical, based on what people who are headed into the White House and all of that administration have said. I trust people when they tell me what they’re going to do, I figure that’s what they’re going to do, because usually when I tell you what I’m going to do, that’s what I’m going to do. So I just take people at their word. So there’s some things that I think we have got to be proactive about as we prepare for that next administration to begin.
I think we have, sitting in New Jersey, there’s some things that we have figured the rest of the country has to worry about that we don’t have to worry about it. I want to start with climate. It is not supposed to be 79 degrees in New Jersey in November. Climate work will take a hit in this next administration. We can’t sit around waiting for somebody to do this. We cannot allow ourselves to passively wait to have a robust plan of action for responding to where we are in the climate. We can’t wait for someone else to do it for us. We, as diocese, need to be working on climate in a very active way. It needs to happen in parishes. It needs to happen in regions. It needs to happen in households. It needs to happen across the diocese. We have got to pay attention to the climate.
Clearly, there’s going to be a need to pay serious attention to immigration, to migrants, to asylum seekers. [Applause.] To people who – there’s a strange thing about deportation, people get caught up in it that have legal status and wind up getting deported by mistake, when, when things start moving at quite a clip like that, we are going to have to mobilize and start figuring out how we respond to that. We’ve got some work doing, going, we’ve done some resettlement of refugees. We have The Lighthouse, which is focused on asylum seekers. But this is going to be a pressing moment for us. Now is the time for us to be looking at that and preparing for it.
Racial justice and racial history, I will say the last time there was a Trump presidency, and I do not blame this on Trump, I’m just saying that there’s a there’s a wave of movement that happens when you discount the impact of race and racism and racial justice. I was living in, serving in, the state of Texas at that point, and in Texas, school books were up for approval that talked about the “migrant workers” that came over from Africa, the “migrant workers” that came over from Africa to be sharecroppers in the American South. They had no choice. No choice. Picked up and taken over here. Not in those history books was that topic. That book wound up being rejected, but the fact that it even came up says something about this whole notion of, We must ignore history. We got to pay attention to our racial history, and we have to pay attention to racial justice in our churches. It is already happening. It is – those phone calls are the tip of the iceberg. It is already happening. And very quickly, watch how fast it happens that there is no tolerance for talking about the history of race in this country, which has an incredible effect on almost everything we do in this country. It’s – again, it’s our original sin.
Another area – I picked seven, so, climate; immigration, migrants; racial justice, racial history; LGBTQ support and preparation for what comes next. [Applause.] There are people – I think Reverend Cynthia Black said it very well yesterday – there are people in this room that worked for years, for years for marriage equality in the United States, but also in this church. In this church. Writing, writing, writing, presenting, showing papers, standing up at conventions, etc. This went on forever and ever. And we know that there are people who are already poised to take away that right. We need to be stepping up and stepping into that.
Another area for us to look at of the seven are libraries and literacy. The two are linked. I have got to say, anybody who, in my head, anybody, and this is purely my opinion, this is not of God. This is 100% Carlye Hughes, this is not scripture. But anybody who would ban To Kill a Mockingbird – for goodness sakes! [Applause.] It’s a classic. Who would ban To Kill a Mockingbird. That just makes no sense to me. Absolutely no sense. That’s like saying, I’m just going to ban third grade math. [Laughter.] Take it away. I mean, it just does not make logical sense. We need to be looking specifically at libraries. It feels like, Oh, we’re in New Jersey. Not a problem. It’s already happening in New Jersey.
I link that to literacy because also already happening in New Jersey is more than 30% of third graders across our state do not read at grade level when they graduate third grade. [Applause.] When you leave third grade, if you are not reading at grade level, chances are higher that you’re not going to graduate from high school. And if you get out of high school without that degree, I’m not saying everybody has to go to college, but if you get out of high school without that degree, that gives you a certain kind of life. I don’t want to spend all of our time as church making sure that people have food. If you have a great job, you can get your own food, but you got to learn how to read in the third grade to get to that place.
The sixth is women’s reproductive health and women’s leadership. If you have been listening, those two things have become intertwined. The bashing of women’s leadership happens right alongside the trying to remove the right to women’s health. And it’s not just the reproductive health. It is their health altogether.
The last one is – I added it because of talking with the youth yesterday. I am really aware that it is rare for us to hear the voices of young people- for people under 30, in our conventions, for people under 30, in our vestries, for people under 30, if we are trying to make decisions. We need to get out in front of that, because that group of people also feels incredibly disenfranchised. That things are happening in the world that they cannot stop. And when people feel disenfranchised like that and think there are things that they cannot stop, they start to feel helpless and hopeless. And I know there’s a people, a bunch of a number of people over 30, who are feeling helpless and hopeless, and I want to remind you that you are not created – none of us were created – to feel helpless or hopeless. That is not how God created us to be.
If you want to remember who you were created to be, look at the work that has happened in this diocese. Look at the things that we have done before. Look at the things that we’re doing now. There’s 18 people right now taking classes on how to be lay pastors. There are priests in this diocese that are working hard trying to figure out, how do we do this with one priest in two churches, one priest in three churches? How do we sort that out? There are people who are trying as many new things as they possibly can to reach people beyond our doors, because there are people who are wanting to have a spiritual life, but they don’t want to come through our red doors, they are not interested in church. We are doing all of those things because this is the time for us to do those things.
This is the time that God is creating that new church, and there is only one way for us to do that, and that is to remember who we are. Remember who we are. We are strong. Say it with me. [We are strong.] We are courageous. [We are courageous.] We are faithful. [We are faithful.] And we change things. [And we change things.] Go out and change things. That’s what we’re going to keep on doing. That’s what the first 150 years is about. That’s what tomorrow is about, and the year after that, and the year after that, into the next 150 years. We are strong, we are courageous, we are faithful, and we change things. Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with our God. Amen. [Applause.]
