President Bonnie Anderson addressed the General Convention on this independence day with some simple stories, anecdotes and celebrations we have taken part and enjoyed. She pointed out that in all of it we have become an active and lively community of people.
After all the comparisons she made to the American revolutions, independence, freedom of thought and democracy she moved on to the important task that lies ahead of us a democratic community that is routed in full participation in the life of the community not simply at the local level but in all levels including administration at the top level.
She proclaimed that emancipation does not happen to some of us, but to all of us. She brought us to a place to think of what it would mean to talk about restructuring of the church and where it can lead us if we are not careful.
She called us the liberated Children of God headed towards the promise land. But as we are trying to leave the land of Egypt just like the Israelites we are tempted with a desire to return to the land where there were things that satisfied our immediate desire for whatever it is that we are looking for. They left the land of Egypt kicking and screaming as the things they faced were not easy and pleasant. So shall we as we move towards the promise land, but we don’t have an option but to keep going to the promise land.
Our true identity is in that we are the liberated children of God, and together we move and live. To do that we need the God given gifts of not just some of us, but all of us. We need the gifts of the slaves, the masters, the born and the unborn, the simple and complex. We need them all.
In concluding remarks she invited us to become the people of God church than the institutional church.
To read some quotes, thoughts and details on the day go to The Rev. Lowell Grisham page on the General Convention.
http://generalconvention.blogspot.com/
I like some of Anderson’s points, but in these days of declining membership, attendance, baptisms, and so on, how do actually make the connection between ‘liberation’ and the hard, real work of evangelizing the unchurched? Or perhaps that last thing–adding people from no church to the Church (and especially our Church, if possible)–is just not important anymore. While I’m a member in good standing of a USA diocese, I rarely live in the USA, so I would love to hear input from the rest of you. And thanks for this blog.