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Dear saints,
Earlier this week I returned from the U.K. where I attended a gathering of folks from around the 165 countries of the global Anglican Communion. At the dinner hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, I sat next to one of his photographers. Aside from pleasing me greatly by saying that I looked younger than 50, it was fascinating to hear about his work with the Archbishop around the globe. His job, of course, is somehow to capture the spirit of what must be one of the world's most highly diverse, yet least centrally controlled organizations.
What I heard, from Archbishop Welby and from his photographer, was of a church that is facing the future often in the most challenging of circumstances. There is the current travail of Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo of Sudan, who had to flee the diocesan seat in Khartoum and is now working from from Port Sudan, trying to support the people around him through what Archbishop Welby described as potentially the largest famine in history with more than 10 million people internally displaced. There is the extraordinary ministry of the Anglican Bishop of Amazonia, Marinez Rosa dos Santos Bassotto, who may take a week to travel to visit a parish, by plane, boat, on foot, crossing rivers and jungle. And there are Anglicans in Melanesia, who along with Anglicans in western North Carolina and central Florida, are facing down the devastating consequences of climate change—from storm surges and flooding to entire communities lost to rising sea levels.
It would be easy to see all of this around the world we share as Anglicans—and of course as humans—and expect to hear from leaders of the church a sense of anxiety and even despair. Yet, that was not the message I received. I heard the witness of the Diocese of Jerusalem that remains steadfast in proclaiming peace a year into the awful and bloody conflict that engulfs their lives. I heard the witness of the church trusting in the power of relationship—of being in communion—from the borderland dioceses across the U.S.-Mexico dividing line. And I heard the witness of a church that names over and over the core belief that in Christ there is no east nor west, no Jew nor Gentile, no male nor female, but one Body grounded in God's grace and love.
In so many ways, the church I heard being witnessed to this week is a church that trusts in its vocation to be a community of hope. That is our calling too.
This Sunday, I invite you to come to Ellis Hall following the 9:00 a.m. service and hear about the hope we have for the future of All Saints' as I share the Future Church Task Force's report with you. It is brimming with confidence and trust that the future of the church, here and everywhere, belongs to God. We should not be afraid. What's more, we should take heart in our faith, from the partners we have on this block, in being Christ's hand and feet in the world. Joining me for the forum will be leaders of those four core ministries as they seek to share with us their hopes for the future.
I warmly invite you to join us, in person or online. On Monday we will send out an email with a digital copy of the future church report. I invite you to read it, give thanks for its vision and clarity, and pray for how you can be a good steward of God's hope in this place.
"In the Lord I'll be ever thankful."
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