Disciple: The Way of Love Is the Way Forward

By the Rt. Rev. Sam Rodman

As we gathered outside the large hall where worship was being held at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas, a distantly familiar song was being sung from the stage at the front. It began to make its way to the back and out into the corridor where people were entering.

“We are one in the spirit, we are one in the Lord.”

The song took me back to the late 1960s and early 70s. It was a song that was part of the renewal movement and folk masses popular at the time. The refrain includes these words: “They will know we are Christians by our love.”

Love was the theme of the opening Eucharist, and “The Way of Love” was the message at the center of the Most Rev. Michael Curry’s sermon. Cards were handed out that carried on them a simple rule of life that included these actions: Turn, Learn, Pray, Worship, Bless, Go and Rest. It was invitational, it was evangelical, it was radically welcoming, and it was a practical expression of what we have been speaking about as Becoming Beloved Community.

More than this, the opening worship set a tone for the whole of the 79^th General Convention. As you know by now, this was my first General Convention, and I went into it expecting a fair amount of tension, and even discord, between the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops around resolutions such as revising the Book of Common Prayer, a salary for the president of the House of Deputies and approved liturgies for the Sacrament of Marriage.

What unfolded, instead, was a series of thoughtful conversations and debates grounded in deep and even holy listening, a strong desire to honor one another’s experience, a valuing of different voices and different perspectives, and creative expressions of compromise, common ground and collaboration.

This is The Episcopal Church at its best, and it was the spirit throughout General Convention. It was finding a way forward together and living into the way of love. It was a contemporary incarnation of the traditional Anglican principle of the via media, a middle way.
This spirit was especially evident in the conversation and debate around revising the Book of Common Prayer. After a lengthy and sometimes tense dialogue in the House of Bishops regarding a resolution passed by the House of Deputies, some of the bishops gathered and worked long into the night to hammer out a compromise. The result showed a depth of appreciation and respect for both those who championed moving forward with liturgical reform and those who were more cautious about, or even opposed to, any legislation that jeopardized the centrality of the 1979 Prayer Book in our life of common prayer and worship.

The “compromise version” eventually passed both Houses in the same form. It includes the language that the 1979 Prayer Book is a book of common prayer for the Church, and during the next three years we will enter a period of intentional reflection, during which we will develop new forms and revised liturgical rites to be submitted to a task force. The submission may then be approved for trial use. Some questioned whether this wording about the Prayer Book was strong enough. In the end, it was agreed the wording did not change the present status of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer as the prayer book for this church, but it also affirmed we can begin exploring other expressions that may, in time, supplement and enrich the forms and expressions of our worship in the Episcopal Church.

This shift and compromise was, for me, an expression of what it looks like when the Church moves forward in the way of love, in a posture of listening with reverence and respect for a variety of viewpoints and perspectives, and recognizes there is truth in each. Then, working together, we try and create language that celebrates and honors this.

It also gave me hope the Church might serve as a model, or even an icon, for our country and the world around us. We can demonstrate how to bring people at polar opposites to a place of connection and common understanding. This work, it seems to me, is at the heart of the call and witness of Becoming Beloved Community.

Here in North Carolina, this is often expressed in the way we define our common witness. The gospel of God’s love, in Jesus, is at our center. We are disciples of the Jesus Movement, the way of love. And we recognize that people of faith will not always agree about the best way to live out the gospel promise.

What we do agree on is the gospel values at the heart of our Baptismal Covenant have the power to hold us together even when we have strong and different political perspectives and practical objectives.

This is why the way we engage with each other is so important. We must always approach one another with mutual respect and strengthen our ability to honor each other and hold even those who see things differently in our hearts and in our prayers. We must not enter into conversation with the goal of changing another’s point of view, but rather to learn the truth they have to share and accept the gift of wisdom they bring to the table. To do this well, we often need to learn to listen differently and more deeply.

Holy listening was also a theme at this 79th General Convention, and the orientation to this deeper form of listening was grounded in worship. On the night of July 4, while so many watched fireworks outside, in a packed worship hall and in the context of a special liturgy built around the sharing of stories, 12 bishops read accounts of people from across the Church who had suffered some form of sexual harassment or abuse, or abuse of power in the life of the Church. As each bishop read an account carefully edited to preserve anonymity, other bishops stood with them, silently, listening, honoring those who shared their stories and the stories themselves. We stood with and beside the storytellers, both symbolically and literally.

It is this kind of holy listening, a deeper honoring and even reverence for the sacred stories that tell the truth about our journey, that helps others see the depth of our love and the unity at the center of the Jesus Movement.

“They will know we are Christians by our love.”

We will continue to share the work of General Convention with all of you. In addition to information already shared online and in the recap in this issue, the bishops and deputation will hold a meeting to present more details on General Convention happenings and the work ahead on Thursday, September 6 at St. Paul’s, Winston-Salem. All are welcome to attend, and our plan is to make available a recording for those who can’t.

In these days of high summer, I continue to give thanks to God and to the people of this diocese for the ways we live into our calling as the Episcopal Branch of the Jesus Movement in North Carolina. I give thanks, too, for the many ways we are discovering and rediscovering the promise and power of speaking our truth, of holy listening, of walking in the way of love, of finding a middle way and of Becoming Beloved Community.

The Rt. Rev. Sam Rodman is the XII Bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina.