Bishop Greg Rickel

Easter is Here!

2009-04-12T18:16:00.001-07:00

Dear Ones,

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! ( I will post this again but I am moving my blog to a new website www.bishoprickel.com, please join me there!)

I want to thank all of you who took the time to join in the reading of "The Great Emergence" throughout Lent. It added a rich dimension to the season for me. Thanks to Bishop Rivera taking St. Mark's Cathedral through this Triduum, I was able to travel to several different congregations for Holy Week.

St. Clement's, Seattle for Maundy Thursday

Grace, Bainbridge for Good Friday

"Dancing in the Darkness" Good Friday, Commission for Emerging Ministries

St. Micheal and All Angel's, Issaquah, The Great Vigil of Easter

St. Columba's, Kent, Easter Day.

In those travels, at Grace, Bainbridge, I was blessed to get this poem, by Mark Jarman entitled "If I Were Paul" It moved me greatly and I offer it to you as my Easter gift to all of you.

Blessings,

+Greg

Consider how you were made.

Consider the loving geometry that sketched your bones, the passionate symmetry that sewed

flesh to your skeleton, and the cloudy zenith whence your soul descended in shimmering rivulets

across pure granite to pour as a single braided stream into the skull's cup.

Consider the first time you conceived of justice, engendered mercy, brought parity into being,

coaxed liberty like a marten from its den to uncoil its limber spine in a sunny clearing, how you

understood the inheritance of first principles, the legacy of noble thought, and built a city like a

forest in the forest, and erected temples like thunderheads.

Consider, as if it were penicillin or the speed of light, the discovery of another's hands, his oval

field of vision, her muscular back and hips, his nerve-jarred neck and shoulders, her bleeding

gums and dry elbows and knees, his baldness and cauterized skin cancers, her lucid and

forgiving gaze, his healing touch, her mind like a prairie. Consider the first knowledge of

otherness. How it felt.

Consider what you were meant to be in the egg, in your parents' arms, under a sky full of stars.

Now imagine what I have to say when I learn of your enterprising viciousness, the discipline

with which one of you turns another into a robot or a parasite or a maniac or a body strapped to a

chair. Imagine what I have to say.

Do the impossible. Restore life to those you have killed, wholeness to those you have maimed,

goodness to what you have poisoned, trust to those you have betrayed.

Bless each other with the heart and soul, the hand and eye, the head and foot, the lips, tongue,

and teeth, the inner ear and the outer ear, the flesh and spirit, the brain and bowels, the blood and

lymph, the heel and toe, the muscle and bone, the waist and hips, the chest and shoulders, the

whole body, clothed and naked, young and old, aging and growing up.

I send you this not knowing if you will receive it, or if having received it, you will read it, or if

having read it, you will know that it contains my blessing.

HOLY WEEK 2009

2009-04-06T10:16:00.001-07:00

Dear Ones,

Yes, I did indeed "turn on the fire hose" on these last two weeks. And all of you handled it so very well! I am so sorry I have been a bit out of the discussion, but please know I have been watching and listening as they have come in. I cannot tell you how inspiring the posts have been. You have entered into this discussion with a depth I could not have imagined. What is probably most clear about this discussion is that a lot is not that clear. The Great Emergence, or whatever we might call it, something is happening, there is a change afoot. Perhaps more than anything this discussion with Tickle's offering as our catalyst has helped us learn a bit more about how to think, and not exactly what to think. I pray you have learned and grown and enjoyed our discussion. I hope we keep having it! I am already thinking of our next possible book. If you have ideas let me know.

For now, I hope you can let go of the intensive thinking on what is happening now and focus on the journey ahead of us on this week. In my sermon Palm Sunday I challenged those there to the following

"I would ask that in these first few days of Holy Week that you forget everything you think you know ABOUT these last days of Jesus life and instead of learning ABOUT Jesus this week, LISTEN TO Jesus and the events this week. Listen. "

I hope to also read in even more depth some of the fabulous posts here and to keep the conversation going .

Again, blessings in gratitude for your engagement in this little experiment,

Greg

Weeks 4 and 5!

2009-03-25T18:05:00.001-07:00

Dear Ones,

I am so sorry to be away from the discussion for so long. I continue to get great reports from all around the diocese. I have been reading the posts as they come in and I am so thankful for all of you, and your diligence in staying in the conversation. I want to still go through some, perhaps comment even more on some of the specifics, but for now I wanted to get out our final two weeks of readings as well as the study guide. Some of you may have found the guide at the "Great Emergence" website. If not, I am posting here the Guide for these last two chapters. For these two weeks the readings are as follows:

March 22-28- Part III intro and Chapter 6, pages 119-144

March 29-April 4- Chapter 7 and end discussion, pages 145-163

The Study Guide is just below, many blessings to all of you and don't blog so much that you miss out on Lent!

Blessings,

Greg

The Great Emergence Study Guide CC 6-7 The Great Emergence: Where is it going?

Where is the Great Emergence going? And, similarly, where is it taking us as it goes? Both questions intuit two seemingly opposite yet complementary issues. On the one hand, it is our responsibility to make educated guesses about what is happening in our religious landscape and instigate what we hope to be productive measures for the future of the church. Action is needed, and it is needed now. On the other hand, we must be honest with ourselves that, like in any previous time of "Great" change, we are not fully in control of what is going on here. We are located in a far larger environment than our own ecclesial (and even religious) walls.

Perhaps surfing is an apt metaphor for the kind of dual action required of us. Though we may choose our surfboard, our spot in the ocean, and the wave we take, we are not, in the end, able to control the movement of the ocean. We cannot determine the tide, or the length of the wave, or its intensity. It is our duty to ride it, and ride it well, in hopes that we arrive safely (and, with a little luck, gracefully) on the shore.

1. What do you find most difficult about facing the changes of the Great Emergence?

2. Taking risks through particular actions, or relinquishing control and accepting limits?

3. What spiritual practices can best inform us as we learn to ride the wave of the Great Emergence?

Chapter 6: The Gathering Center

As we consider the changing religious landscape during the Great Emergence, the diagrams of the quadrilateral, the cruciform, the gathering center and the new rose are helpful ways of mapping the responses and directions of particular religious traditions. Over and above and between all of these directional movements is centripetal force.

Centripetal force literally means "center seeking" in Latin. Centripetal force is absolutely necessary when matter begins moving in a circular direction. It is the only means by which movement toward the gathering center can be maintained. Each of us has experienced centripetal force when we have ridden in a car that suddenly turned while our bodies continued to go straight, shoving us into the passenger next to us or possibly the door or dashboard. It feels like we are being pushed outward, but this is not actually the case. We have been pulled inward toward the center of the turn. Our bodies sense a push outward despite the fact that we are not in any way moving outward, but what previously would have been straight. This is because during acceleration, Newton's first two laws of motion no longer apply (think the Heisenberg principle). It is no wonder that many of us have a difficult time finding our directional bearings during this time of acceleration around the gathering center of American religious life. We are currently in

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the middle of the turn, and we are unsure which direction we are actually going. We also happen to be picking up new ideas, new people, new traditions en route, changing the size and shape of the center itself. There is hope, however, in Tickle's assertion that we are perhaps being pulled inward by our common desire to become more incarnational.5 Before we are able to be pushed outward into "a new way of being Christian, into a new way of being Church,"6 perhaps we are gathered toward Jesus-the-Center through the guiding force of the Spirit.

1. How has the center-seeking centripetal force of the Great Emergence affected your faith? Your church? In what ways do you feel unsure of your direction? In what ways do you feel pulled toward Jesus-the-Center?

2. As you consider the final diagram in the chapter, where do you classify yourself? Did your classification change as the diagram shifted from the quadrilateral to its final surrounding currents? How can the diagram be used to help people describe their journeys of faith?

3. If you happen to be one of the "hyphenateds," how are you navigating the tensions between the pull to the center and the pull to the corners?

4. After the Great Reformation, the process of drawing up systematic doctrines provided both cohesiveness and clarity to new denominational bodies. While the confessional age was based upon distinction, the age of emergence will likely be based upon collaboration. Though this is not without its difficulties, Protestantism's "hallmark characteristic of divisiveness" is also being replaced by a significantly more harmonious one. Tickle uses the metaphor of a bursting geyser, gathering people from each corner and quadrant and spewing them upward into a new way of being Christian, to describe the gathering center phenomenon. What benefits and drawbacks do you see in the propelling force of the geyser? What are your greatest hopes for this "generous orthodoxy?" Your greatest fears?

5. Tickle writes, "In the Great Emergence, reacting Christians are the ballast." By reacting to the gathering center, they provide necessary stability as the center continues to take shape. If you happen to be someone nearer the center, how do you feel about those reacting most stringently against you as helpful, and even necessary? If you happen to be someone nearer the corners, how do you feel about stabilizing (if not strengthening) a movement with which you fervently disagree?

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6. There has been marked tension in the Great Emergence, specifically in the interactions of those in Emergent Village, between a desire to speak freely of what one currently does/believes/perceives and a desire to speak against what one used to do/believe/perceive. How, if at all, have you experienced this tension? How does it correlate to the changes happening in the Great Emergence? How does this experience coincide with our Christian understanding of the tensions between the now and the not yet?

7. This term has come into wide use through Brian McLaren's book of the same title, which aptly and beautifully describes the kind of ecclesial collaboration that will likely become a hallmark of Great Emergence Christianity.

8. Tickle claims the earliest assessment of the Great Emergence as simply a generational issue is an error that has since been recognized and understood. From your vantage point, do you and those you know agree, or do you continue to see the current religious changes as generational in nature? Why or why not?

9. If you agree the Great Emergence is not a generational issue, how can those in older generations seek to help rather than hinder the changes underfoot?

10. How can we focus on the emerging conversation not as one that rejects truth or tradition, but as a conversation seeking to create "new ways of being faithful in a new world?"

Chapter 7: The Way Ahead

The power of network theory can be summed up by the simple fact that interest in it has brought together physicists, sociologists, entrepreneurs, engineers, biologists, political campaign strategists and market analysts, just to name a few. The sheer volume of books written on the subject in the past number of years evidences a great desire to understand how the world is changing, and how network theory can enlighten people to effectively engage the new linked-in world.

Network theory quite simply refers to research being done to understand relationships, how they are formed, how they are strengthened or weakened, and what effects they have on individuals, groups and societies. At its most basic level, network theory can refer to two points, or nodes, connected by a line from one to the other. This line indicates the relationship between point A and point B. However, further inferences on what kind of relationship is happening between them can result in a variety of lines and arcs displaying mutuality, disagreement, commonality and proximity. Add a dozen or a hundred or

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thousands more nodes to these two at varying levels of complexity and you can see how quickly network theory books are needed if we are to make out the forest for the trees. And we must, for network theory is absolutely central in our quest to map the way ahead in the Great Emergence.

As we return to the question of authority, network theory gives us the Great Emergence's first answer. Where now is the authority? It is in the network, running in between all the nodes and connectors, this way and that, in no particular pattern, and asking nobody for permission. Authority exists for the church when the network, a collection of Jesus followers who are linked together, shares information back and forth about Scripture and faith. This is why Tickle suggests that an emergent would respond that authority now lies "in Scripture and in the community." This may be seen as a way emergents are reconciling the divorced parents of experience and Scripture. (Remember that experience was the foundational belief of modern liberal theology while a particular hermeneutic of Scripture was the foundational belief of modern conservative theology.) However, as Tickle describes, what we currently see in the Great Emergence is not a simple "patching together" of 1 + 1 but more specifically the emergence of something new, something greater than the sum of its parts. Emergence is not a bridge between the two warring houses of Scripture and experience. It is the demolition of both houses and the construction in its place of a highly networked web.

If we return to the concept of holism and the metaphor of a web of belief, which holds together what we deem true, then in the network theory world of the Great Emergence, there are multiple levels of webs, woven from the authors who wrote the Scriptures and people who experience the living God, the communities who preserved their writings and stories, a history of people who affirmed them, contemporary individuals, churches and denominational institutions that continue to believe them, and on and on. Therefore, authority that rests in both Scripture and the community suggests a network of two thousand years of relationships. Authority is held by each and every relationship strand, and yet is strong enough to withstand strands becoming broken by the sheer volume of the web. In this way, Scripture and community are not completely separate entities, but rather both are a means by which faith has been passed down to us and for us and with us.

As is always the case, parallels can be seen in the wider culture. Consider, as one quick example, Wikipedia. Previously, encyclopedias were painstakingly researched and written by experts, bound in leather and carted (quite weightily) around from door to door. In a world where even the morning newspaper could be hours late on reporting a breaking story that was sent all over the world in mere minutes over the Internet, the clumsy thick encyclopedia became the slowest turtle in the information race. It became impossible to keep encyclopedias up to date, for as soon as one was published the world had changed. Wikipedia not only provided much needed speed and editing capabilities to encyclopedic information. Perhaps more importantly, it proved that painstaking research by experts was no longer necessary. Regular, everyday people, using their own free time and without any payment, write, fill, edit and revise Wikipedia entries every single day. The network of relationships relaying information has become more impressive than the information itself.

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1. What is most exciting to you about the idea of authority resting in the network of Scripture and community? What is most worrisome?

2. Tickle describes authority being worked out in how the message runs back and forth over the network hubs and "is tried and amended and tempered into wisdom and right action for effecting the Father's will." Have you seen evidence of this kind of action working in your own congregation? How does this movement mimic the Book of Acts?

3. Tickle suggests that emergents would define the Church as "a self-organizing system of relations." How do you respond to this definition? How do you think previous eras would define the Church?

4. Tickle distinguishes between crowd sourcing and democracy, as crowd sourcing has flattened authority to a point democracy never dared. Crowd sourcing, she continues, rejects anything less than full egalitarianism, rejects capitalism, and rejects individualism. It should not surprise us that these traits were solidly implanted during the time of the Great Reformation, and are being rigorously dissolved in the century of Emergence. What does this do to the structure of the Church at ground level? At denominational level?

5. How does network theory inform Tickle's discussion of the concepts of orthonomy and theonomy? Can correct harmoniousness be evidenced by holistic, networked, sustaining relationships? What role, if any, does the concept of the Trinity play in such an idea?

6. Throughout the book, Tickle suggests that the role of the Holy Spirit, and our under standing of the movement of the Holy Spirit, will be essential in the unfurling of the Great Emergence. How do you see the Holy Spirit playing a role in the question of authority, the radicalization of the priesthood of the believers, and the future of the Church?

7. How does the shift from the bounded set of "believe-behave-belong" to the center set of "belong-behave-believe" affect the Church's understanding and practice of membership and evangelism? Of discipleship?

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8. Another marker along the way of Emergence so far is the shift toward narrative. This is not limited to theology, though narrative theology, preaching and the like is certainly evidence of it. It can also, and first, be seen in psychology in the works of Jerome S. Bruner and Donald J. Polkinghorne, who have discovered, much like Joseph Campbell, the significance of story on the human psyche. How can story serve as a helpful tool and guide for us in the Great Emergence? How can narrative theology disarm the difficulties and harmful carnage of the post-Constantinian Church?

9. As we move from an era of confessionalization to an era of collaboration, the concept of holism becomes central in describing how people and disciplines are shifting from the former to the latter. What once was held separate (whether one means the harmful distinctions between soul and body or the equally detrimental distinctions between humanity over and against the rest of creation, just to name two) is now moving toward one another, working to repair and re-network a relationship strand that had previously been severed. Holism is the natural paradigm of a world moving from one of competition and distinction to one of mutuality and collaboration. How does holism affect church practices? Doctrine? Structures? How does it connect us to a more Jewish worldview, over and against a Hellenistic one?

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Bibliography

For further study in the broader societal reaches of the Great Emergence:

Science/Physics:

Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe

Ken Wilber, A Brief History of Everything

Philosophy:

See writings by Jacques Derrida, John Caputo, Michel Foucault, Paul Ricoeur, Gilles Deleuze, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Richard Rorty, Martin Heidegger, Jurgen Habermas

Economics/Politics:

Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

Bill McKibben, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future

Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty

Muhammad Yunus, Banker to the Poor

Ecology:

William McDonough, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

Sociology:

Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community

Theology:

Brian D. McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy

Nancey Murphy, Beyond Liberalism and Fundamentalism

Week 3

2009-03-16T23:47:00.001-07:00

Dear Ones,

Here we are at week 3. I hope, on top of the study, and other activities in your life you are also experiencing a good Lent. Book studies continue around the diocese and even beyond. For this week as a reminder, March 15-21- Chapters 4 and 5, pages 63-118. I am a bit late on my blog, my apologies as this week I am attending the House of Bishop's Meeting in North Carolina. I have, however, been keeping up with the response. I really enjoy the conversation. I think many others who are not posting, but reading nonetheless, are enjoying the conversation as well.

I think it is important to remember that Tickle is a journalist, editor, writer, and lay Eucharistic Minister in the Episcopal Church. She is a theologian, as I believe anyone who "studies" theology is, but she is mostly peering in, making observations, and of course, giving her assessment of this era we are living through. This week I am not going to try to focus you, but instead hope that you will attempt to focus us with questions from these two chapters. What did you find most interesting, troubling, compelling?

In this week's responses I certainly think Brian McLaren is under scrutiny. Knowing him personally, I have been surprised by some of that, but I appreciate the great care in which everyone is holding the various views on this. I may try to see if Brian wants to join in this discussion. I will most likely not have a lot of luck with that so we will simply have to make due with ourselves!

Blessings to you as we journey with Christ in this Lenten season,

Greg

Week Two: The Great Emergence

2009-03-09T21:24:00.001-07:00

Dear Ones,

I want to thank all of you who have so diligently entered into this conversation. There are many others out there in small study groups, around the diocese working alongside you even if they do not get to comment online. So, this week, although many of you have already, we enter into Part II intro and Chapter 3, pages 41-62. I wanted to comment on an overall view of last week's comments.

There were a few comments about the Creeds. Many seem to point to the need to change them in some way. I want to throw into this discussion the idea that we have just passed through an era where this was the "plan." If only we could get the right word usage, or drop a line here or there, or simply leave it out altogether, we would be better off. In some ways I wonder if this does not show some contempt for those who went before us, a somewhat arrogant belief that we are smarter than they are. I put this up against the reality I am seeing in the newer generations, who do not seem to have the need for the semantic changes to yet continue the conversation. With this, they hardly check their brains at the door either. They seem more willing to honor those that left the tradition and history as they knew it, and to instead look for the Truth our forbears were trying to tell us in the story. Even in these conversations there seem to be insinuations, or outright statements, that Tickle is not very smart, that those that came before us are not very smart, and that it is up to us to "make this all right." I am pushing a bit I realize, but so have some of you! I used to teach a class where I invited the class to rewrite the Creed to "make sense" to them. Of course, if there were 20 individuals in the class, there were 20 different versions of what is "right." Even after putting them together to come up with one, well you see where this is going. I am well aware that this is how we got the Creeds we have, but having some unaltered centering point to come back to, to honor, and to question seems to make sense as well.

On a totally different subject, a rather passing thought in this but brought up by Tickle nonetheless, is music, and the importance of it in sharing and passing along the story. I have to say I am quite attached to this feeling as well, and wonder what others think about it. I see many places where music seems to get in the way, rather than help, and other places where it carries the day in profound ways. What do you think about this?

Finally, in some defense of Tickle, this book is not there to answer all questions, but rather, as Anonymous in the 8:39 p.m., March 8^th post states,

"The "greatness" and 500 year intervals seem contrived but there is an underlying truth: every so often the institution that is the church becomes inadequate. Today's inadequacies, in my view, include being disconnected from both its foundation in Jesus and from the culture in which we live. In what little I know of emergent churches I see an attempt to pull Jesus into the context of life today-and it's not one size fits all."

Although I do not want to try to direct this away from the way you choose to take it, my hope in this was more of what is spelled out above, less a critique of the book, and more of a "push" on the larger questions and what we might do here and now to address those.

Again, I am most honored by your engagement in this study.

Blessings,

Greg

’The Great Emergence’ Schedule and first discussion

2009-02-28T23:57:00.001-08:00

Well, I may barely make it but I did promise you a schedule and the kick off of our discussion. Actually, the author Phyllis Tickle did that pretty darn good herself last night. I know many of you have embarked on a schedule of your own, one that fits your context and community. I urge you to stay right with that. I offer this for those who would like to join in the discussion on the blog and anyone who wishes to be essentially reading at the same pace I am. Those on Facebook may certainly meet me there as well, although the blog will be the primary discussion point and where I hope we can center the discussion so that all that want to be, can be part of it, and can benefit from the responses.

So, here is my proposed schedule:

March 1-7- Part I intro and Chapters 1 and 2, essentially pages 1-40.

March 8-14- Part II intro and Chapter 3, pages 41-62

March 15-21- Chapters 4 and 5, pages 63-118

March 22-28- Part III intro and Chapter 8, pages 119-144

March 29-April 4- Chapter 7 and end discussion, pages 145-163

April 5-11- Holy Week and April 12^th Easter!

For this week, Part I Intro and Chapters 1 and 2.

Of course Part 1 sets the case that Tickle wishes to make, that every 500 years the Church has a rummage sale, and we are living in the midst of such a time today. It would be interesting in our discussions to see where you are with that. Do you agree? Do you see it as she does? This quote from the bottom of page 26, and then top of 27 really intrigues me.

"When Christians despair of the upheavals and re-formations that have been the history of our faith-when the faithful resist, as so many do just now, the presence of another time of reconfiguration with its inevitable pain-we all would do well to remember that, not only are we in the hinge of a five-hundred year period, but we are also the direct product of one. We need, as well, to gauge our pain against the patterns and gains of each of the previous hinge times through which we have already passed. It is especially important to remember that no standing form of organized Christian faith has ever been destroyed by one of our semi-millennial eruptions. Instead, each simply has lost hegemony or pride of place to the new and not-yet-organized from that was birthing."

That one paragraph is packed with so much.

Finally, "The Cable of Meaning." What do you think?

I look forward to our discussions!

Blessings,

Greg

A Message to Olympia from Phyllis Tickle

2009-02-27T20:31:00.001-08:00

Dear Ones,

Well, Lent is upon us and so our study and discussion now begins. I have been so moved by the response. Churches, communities, across this diocese are taking up the challenge to read and discuss this book together. This will happen in many different ways. I have heard of groups meeting weekly in parishes across the diocese. Many are primed to follow along and comment on the blog. Tomorrow, I plan to put out my first musings and a question or two, but more than anything I simply hope you will engage one another in this journey. The discussion alone will be priceless.

I asked my friend Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence, if she herself might kick us off. She readily and joyfully agreed, and sent the following to all of you!! I am so very grateful to her for taking the time and she is very excited to see what might come from our discussion.

From Phyllis "Seen through the long lens of history, ours may be the most exhilarating century of the last twenty in which to be alive and Christian, in no small part because we live for the first time as thinking and believing people in an information age. For the first time in our two thousand years of existence, we can know—we do know—across all the barriers and borders of time and culture what is happening to us as Church in the aggregate and as individual believers in particular. But like a good knife, that blessing cuts two ways.

That is, we would indeed be foolish not to take great comfort from the exposure of patterns and currents that are not of our making. We would likewise be foolish to not take enormous hope from the demonstrable evidence that our forebears have always survived and grown as a result of similar periods of upheaval. We would be more than foolish, however, to not understand that such a perspective, since it has been given us now, carries with it the holy obligation to participate in this time of re-configuration and re-formation in a prayerful and humble way. We know, but we also will be asked some day how we have used our knowing. For that reason, my heart and my prayers join you and yours in Olympia this Lent as you assume the work of considering the Great Emergence we are living in and which we also are fashioning, even as it fashions us.

And there is one last thing, which I am sure you know, but which I can not leave you without saying: A diocese is most blessed when its bishop chooses to become its shepherd in so direct and open a way as the one that you and he are pursuing together this Lent. May what you discover together inform not only Olympia, but all of us who are Church in this time of monumental change.

Phyllis Tickle"

Thanks to Phyllis and to all of you, blessings, and may you experience a Holy Lent.

+Greg

2009-02-21T22:22:00.001-08:00

Lent is Just Around the Corner!

We will soon be in the midst of Lent. It is a season that invites us to "hold" Christianity a bit closer, to mine it for its depths, to move into realms of it that we have not visited before. Lent is often described as a time to give things up. In the past few years I have resisted focusing on that as much, while focusing more on taking on something you have neglected over the last year. Maybe better than that is the idea of "holy adjustment." Lent is a time to get the balance back, to assess with an open heart, mind, and soul the reality of what the living of our lives truly reveals to us, and to those around us. One idea is to essentially do both, to give up, not what most people do, something bad for you anyway, but perhaps something actually good! I'll give you an example. A few years ago I was inspired by a writer who loved reading books, spent lots of times doing it, who made the decision to give up reading books for Lent. Her journey and struggle was instructive. I had another couple in my former parish who decided to stop using a calendar or watches during Lent. They loved it, but many of their friends and co-workers did not! That reaction points out what we expect. About four years ago I decided to drive the speed limit, everywhere, for the whole of Lent. Just about drove me and those around me crazy. Many sentiments were shared with me by fellow drivers during that Lent, for following the law! I learned patience and forgiveness.

Lent is a time, like no other, where we are reminded that Christianity is not something that can be dabbled in. There seems to be more and more the quest for a spiritual smorgasbord. We want to look at spirituality like a buffet, taking what we want, leaving what we don't. I see some good in that, but also some that is not so good. I was struck by a friend of mine who was delving deeply into First Nations spirituality when one of the guides she had sought out became a bit frustrated and told her, "you have a spirituality, you should learn it, for all of the good and not so good you can find from it." Christianity, as quite frankly most faith traditions, especially the most adhered to, are not something to be dabbled in but something instead to give over your life too. It is a way of life, not a part of your life.

We will be soon sharing our book study together, studying The Great Emergence by Phyllis Tickle. I have heard from so many who will be joining us for this. I will be launching this the first week of Lent after Ash Wednesday, letting you "get into" Lent a bit first. The best way for us to stay in contact on this is to use this blog. Perhaps this can be a way for us to look more deeply at our faith, where we have come from, and where we might be going. I wish for you a holy, blessed Lent, and the giving up or something, or the taking up of something that is just "off balance" enough to help you see balance again. I pray for you a depth that takes you deeper, less dabbling, more living! I will be working on it, and praying for it too.

Blessings,

Greg Rickel

I Did It!

2009-02-09T22:33:00.001-08:00

I bought a snow shovel today. I guess I am home!

The Great Emergence: Let’s Talk

2009-02-06T09:13:00.001-08:00

Dear Ones,

If you read the Episcopal Voice produced by the Diocese of Olympia, this post will look remarkably similar to my column in the most recent February edition. I offer it here to invite into the proposed discussion anyone who might like to enjoy it here. I received a great idea from my colleague the Rev. Hollis Williams. He suggested that I select a book that we might all read and discuss together. He called it the "Bishop's Book for Lent." I actually used to report the books I was reading, when in the parish, and people seemed to like that. I have not done that here and suspect you may not be all that interested anyway, however, I like this idea from Hollis and would like to give it a try. I like this as it will provide a way for us to have some discussion around the book and perhaps the issue the book addresses. I am thinking we might use my blog as a way to hold the discussion. Some of you have also found me on Facebook and we might chat about it there too.

So, I am willing to give this a try, see how it goes, and maybe we will hit on something here, a way for us to center a discussion. The book I would propose it The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why by Phyllis Tickle. I had a chance to read a draft of this book and to discuss it in person with the author before it was published. It has been published and I found it to be very compelling and thought provoking. The basic premise she takes comes from Bishop Mark Dyer who said to understand Christian history you have to understand that about every 500 years or so, the Church has a rummage sale. Tickle's premise is that such a seminal time is being experienced right now.

This article will come out the first week in February. Ash Wednesday is February 25^th, so, should you decide to join this experiment you will have time to acquire the book and begin reading it before we enter Lent. What I will try to do is to provoke some discussion, perhaps even parcel out chapters over Lent so we might be able to "read it" together. This is a book you should be able to find at all the usual places. I hope to alert our Episcopal bookstores of this plan so they can stock up a bit as well. If you want to take a sneak preview there is one available at www.thegreatemergence.com On this website you can view a three minute video introduction hosted by Tickle as well as other information about the book. Tickle will be the Clergy Conference speaker in 2010 and hopefully be present in other venues with us then too.

Let's see how it goes!

Faithfully,

Greg Rickel

Justice before our eyes

2009-01-20T17:28:00.001-08:00

On this most important day in our common life together, when we have been called to a new era of personal responsibility by our new President, I offer this essay along the same lines, which was recently published. Here goes,

Perhaps my ponderings on this subject should be far more global and all encompassing. I suspect this is what is expected when one is asked to muse on what it means to be a Christian seeking justice. Actually, I am in total agreement that it is a big thing, crucial for the world, for all of us, even those who don't particularly feel that injustice is a regular part of their lives. In fact, it may be even more important for those of us in which this is true.

No, my thought on this is really a very small thing. Some will even dismiss it as too small and perhaps even irrelevant but I am going to persist nonetheless. I have three major ministry initiatives I have vowed to work on as I begin my new episcopate. The first of these three is work and focus on those 35 years of age and under. To this group, the church seems ever more irrelevant because the Church, to them, seems to be irrelevant to the world. This is not actually new. In some ways every new generation has had its "issues" with the Church. However, even when viewed historically, we seem to be witnessing as stark a denial as we have ever seen. The denial comes with a wish, at least from what I hear from these generations, that it might be different, which is hopeful.

When I meet with the mostly older generations that occupy the pews in our churches, I hear, eventually, some notion, and even accusation, that the younger generations seem to be uncommitted and self indulged. I listen for a while and then I have to ask, "Who raised them?" Somewhere, from someone, these young people learned to be uncommitted and self indulgent, if that be the truth. In reality, the entirety of the former generations raised them, corporately, as well as individually. I have to wonder if, in fact, they are not uncommitted and self indulgent at all. This is not what I sense when I engage them. Instead they are wise enough to sense, in the Church, an often inauthentic loyalty and some suspicion that our words and proclamations don't match our intentions or actions.

This is my small thing. Though I have not been one to jump on the family values bandwagon as the solution to all things, I am coming around to the notion that it makes a difference, perhaps a more profound one than many of us want to imagine. Instead of biting off the major social issues of our day, some of which are truly more than one has time to spend any time on, perhaps it would do well for us to calculate how we can make a difference within the moments in our lives which we cannot avoid, working in our jobs, making our way to those jobs, living with our families and others we live with each day. How can we live justice in those relationships so that justice becomes a way of life?

I think of my twelve year old son. Several years ago, I took him to Disney World. We lived in one of the perimeter hotels which require that you board buses, mostly packed unsafely to the gills with humans, so that you might make it to the various parks. I witnessed old women and men having to stand up, holding on for dear life, as we whipped through the park, while strapping young men sat inches away safely in a seat. It was clear that the thought had never crossed their mind to get up and offer their seat.

I became rather obsessed from then on to teach my son, making him get up, as I did on many occasions to allow others to sit. You will never know the great conversations that started as we offered this kindness. Sadly, it was so unusual as to be novel. My son began to actually look forward to doing it.

Lest you think I am taking it to the younger generation, you can witness the same from everyone. We are a pampered nation, a people blinded by our wealth, and so this type of entitlement living is all around us. I succumb to it too, I am not excluding myself. We, here, have to work hard to see beyond it. On a small ferry ride recently I watched an older woman plop herself down in a chair, prop her leg up on the one next to her, and proclaim loudly, "Just let someone try to take this seat away from me!"; all the while, all around her, the same scene; men and women bouncing around in the waves trying their best to stand.

I know, I told you these were small things, you might even be saying petty. But, like the ripples of waves that come from the stone thrown upon the water, or the old adage that the flap of butterflies' wings in Japan is connected to the tornado in Texas, I think this may actually be the world when we consider how a Christian seeks justice.

I think this same mentality keeps us from having real conversations, something also quite wanted by the younger generations and something they see quite missing from our midst. A friend of mine recently bore her soul regarding her experience with racism, only to have those very ones who should have praised her venture, eat her alive. It is so much easier to stay on the surface, to keep the veneer of care and concern alive rather than really delve into our demons; so much easier to look across an ocean than to see the injustice in our homes, schools, or churches. We have seen this played out on the national scene as well.

Thich Nhat Hahn once reminded us that peace is every step. I believe Jesus walked, with every step, purposeful and centered on justice and peace, for every person he encountered.

The call or need for justice is not far away, in some other place. The root of our response, the place we learn, is right before us every day. May we teach our children consideration, hospitality, and justice. Have them watch us do the same, and I think we will change the world. A Christian seeking justice, is a Christian doing justice with every step.

Resolutions

2009-01-05T01:01:00.001-08:00

Now is the time for resolutions. To some degree most people make them. I am no different. I make many, every year. I am going to lose those 10 or so pounds I need to lose. I will work out more, pray more, eat less, or at least better. The turn of a new year is like a car tune up in a way, a reboot of the computer. The reality of how few of these get actualized in a year, and are lost before January is even history, may have something to do with our feelings of immortality. Deep down we know, or hope with all our might, that we will be around next year, and we will just do it then. I have to wonder myself if I might let these go believing in some strange way, if I were to accomplish them all, well, then what would I do next year? Which of course, means, I truly believe next year is mine already.

I remember fondly doing a Vestry retreat many years ago with a fabulous vestry from my home parish. A member of that vestry was one of the old, and he was, patriarchs of the parish. I had them do an exercise where they imagine if they were to die five years from now, what would they want people to say about them? Of course, the whole point is to show that usually what is on these lists are not possessions or even accomplishments, but attributes and relationships deepened; the punch line being, well why don't you live the next five years so that people would say all of that. This wonderful man, when first asked the question, what would you want people to say about you in five years, said, with a big smile, "he's alive!: I just want to be here in five years!" He, of course, had a good and timeless point.

And so, on this New Year's Day, surrounded by my family, sisters, mothers, fathers, I was thinking this same thing. I was musing about my "resolutions" watching some bowl game when the call came in, a frantic one, from my sister, who had just left our gathering hours earlier with her husband. She was desperately doing CPR, the ambulance had finally arrived. She did all she could, we met the ambulance at the ER and shortly after got the news, that her husband, who had sat right beside me at dinner just hours earlier, had passed on to larger life at the age of 45 leaving my sister and 6 children. His name was Norm. He was a good man who loved them all very much. The next day we were graced with lunch with our good friend, mentor, priest, Dennis Campbell, who just two weeks ago said goodbye to his wife, mother of our god children, priest, mentor, friend, Peggy Bosmyer.

Two days into 2009 and I had been given some rather pointed perspective. In both cases, what I hoped for was just one more conversation, a little more time, perhaps a little less of that notion that next year is mine, and that I will be part of it, along with everyone I love and value in this world. Of course we all have these moments in our lives, and then for some reason, maybe it is survival itself, we fall back into the inevitable illusion that we direct our time.

Perhaps the most difficult thing, and in the strangest way, the place I learned the most, was watching my 6 year old niece and nephew try to reason with the fact that their Dad was not coming back. They are, of course, at different places with this and yet their questions are the ones we all have. Most of us have answered them in one way or the other, some are answers of faith, and others simply the answer we need in order to go on, and in some cases both. Combine all of that with the many problems throughout the world, not the least of which is the continuing death and struggle in the Middle East and certainly some of our resolutions would pale in comparison.

I still have some things I would like to do this year, to better myself, always with the hope of more balance in my life. But perhaps more than anything, I hope I can just be more aware, and believe what has always been a line in my rule of life, that every day should be lived like it's my last, because one day it will be. Jimmy Buffett has a great song where he says, "I'd rather die while I'm livin' than live while I'm dead." These two, Norm and Peggy were great examples of just that, and that seems like a good resolution for us all, to truly, deeply, fully…. live.

Blessings with the Snow

2008-12-22T23:05:00.001-08:00

I have always said I would never live where I had to own a snow shovel. Today, I finally wished I had one, and yet I still don't own one because there is not one available within 100 miles. I hope I can stick to my plan. To top it off, since moving to the great Pacific Northwest, in every season we have lived through, and this is our second winter, I have heard this line from just about everyone, "This is not normal for Seattle" I am beginning to wonder if there is a "normal" for Seattle. Right now I think 45 and rain sounds great! I have also said often that snow is highly overrated. I guess I do like heat, you don't have to shovel that!

Still, there are some great things about this. I have to wonder if this is God's way of making us slow down, even though some people don't, can't, or won't. I have also witnessed some people being not so kind, but far more being very kind and helpful as we all struggle together. Sunday, I could not get to where I was supposed to be, St. Columba's, Kent and then St. Mary's, Lakewood and that is just difficult for me. I hate not to be there. I get fidgety and kind of aimless when the plan is subverted. Getting past that, I decided I would take the opportunity to attend services at St. John the Baptist. This is the very good thing about living right next door to an Episcopal Church in this diocese. My wife was having a bit of back trouble after an ice spill the night before, so my son and I went together. This alone was such a gift, and to go without anything to really do, but be with him, even better. I was treated to a truly fine meditation by Rector Peter DeVeau, who had not intended to preach. He had a guest preacher who could not make it, yes, because of the snow. As is so often the case, these rather impromptu offerings are often some of the best. This one was. We even had an old fashioned hymn "call out" for Christmas carols. But perhaps the most meaningful part of this day was my son, sitting beside me and instructing me as we moved through the service. He was being very helpful, telling me "how it happens here", and guiding me through the service, leading me around. He wants to be a deacon, and he is serious about this. He would make a good one. But I found myself sitting next to him so thankful, for him, thankful that the moment had been created, thankful for the snow.

The Rev. Dr. Peggy Bosmyer Campbell

2008-12-15T22:39:00.001-08:00

She was a force to be reckoned with. And one of the most caring forces you would ever know. She was a friend, colleague, mentor, and perhaps her most important role in our lives, the mother of our two godchildren. Peggy was the first woman ordained an Episcopal priest south of the Mason Dixon line in 1978. The number of lives she touched, transformed, mentored, and nurtured is countless, and some even unknown. She and her husband, Dennis, another touchstone in our lives, and the priest that led me through the process toward ordination, helped a few others officially "introduce" me to the Diocese of Olympia at my consecration in September 2007. It was the greatest honor to have them there. Had Peggy and Dennis been given the opportunity, they would have surely been able to tell some stories! Shortly after that Peggy received her diagnosis. Not long after that, my wife and I talked to both of them, and we asked Peggy what she needed from us. She did not miss a beat and said, "Just love my babies."

Peggy died at the age of 60, this past Saturday, December 13^th. Ironically, that same day, just hours after she died, our son, Austin was confirmed in the Episcopal Church. A few weeks ago as we checked in with Dennis we had told him about Austin' s big day on the 13^th of December and he had assured us that we would be in their prayers. We remarked upon hearing the news, that Peggy had once again taken our request straight to the source, this time the source of all things. My son has vowed, along with the other vows he took on Saturday, to learn as much as he can about Peggy and to always remember her when he remembers this day. While I wish, as much as I could wish anything, that it were not so, since it is, I am thankful my son will have this day, and this great saint of the Episcopal Church, and of our faith, to carry with him on this journey. Her family reports that she was watching "It's a Wonderful Life" at the time of her death. She reminded so many through her life and ministry of that very truth, that it is a wonderful life. She certainly reminded the Rickels of that and for the moment, it is just very difficult to imagine this life without her in it. Your prayers for Dennis, the children, and all who grieve her loss would be a gift to me.

Messy

2008-12-10T21:56:00.001-08:00

There is a friend I have. I have known him since he was about the age my son is now. I even mentored him and tutored him in subjects he had problems with in school. I moved when he was a young teenager and then, through the wonder of our journey, I was back in his life and by then he was out of high school and living the rough and tumble life as a young adult. Today he is in prison. He and I have kept up through letters. I must admit I have learned more from him in these letters than I would ever surmise he has learned from me. He can put so eloquently the feeling of being left out of God's world, and at the same time feeling the closeness of God in what he goes through on a daily basis. He states in his latest letter, "It's hard trying to do what God intends us to do." He goes on to suggest that saying one is only human seems like a very shallow excuse. Indeed on many days I feel that same way. In this Advent season as we await again the coming of Christ into our lives, I am thankful for the human nature our God was willing to take on. Somehow it is comforting to know the Holy One knows those feelings.

There was at the end of this letter from my friend, a bit of an apology. I think he was referencing the letter but it reads, "Hope to hear from you soon and I am sorry it is so messy." Me too, I thought. It is often messy. I wrote him today to say his letter was not messy at all, that I got it, all of it, clear as a bell and the beauty and clearness in it will help me know Christmas in a way he would never imagine, and finally, thank you, once again, my friend.

Advent Conspiracy

2008-11-30T16:10:00.001-08:00

In the chaos of the horrible terrorist attacks in India in these past days, as that was just beginning, a sign for a life insurance company was hanging from a storefront which after the name of the company read, "peace of mind, guaranteed."

As I said, it was deeply ironic. This is the actual sea we swim in. One in which we have learned the illusion that we can actually buy things such as security, safety, relationships, peace of mind. We enter the season of Advent today; the beginning of the church year. And as we do I mourn, as I do each year, the fact that we, for the most part ignore it. Instead, we as Christians, have sold out to the season of the masses, the consumeristic Christmas. Advent is designed to be a season of waiting, of watching, of preparing, of slowing down. It is, as is often the point of our faith, the very opposite of what the world sees these days as. These are the days of the frenetic, of 4 a.m. sales, with people camping out in order to get that great deal on a gift that will be forgotten completely long before we repeat this season, it is the season of literal deadly stampedes in the stores which should make us wonder about our focus. It is so off balance, that as Christians, we are actually not supposed to party right now, or celebrate Christmas, because Christmas has not yet come. Christmas is a season too, but instead of celebrating it we often also follow the societal herd. Our Christmas trees our out on the curb before noon on the 26^th, a tribute to the selling out to the Hallmark Christmas season, our Advent, signifying the end or that celebration, when in fact, Christmas is just beginning. For me this is always, each year the iconic, incarnated picture which states clearly, we have forgotten Christ, just as he is arriving. On January 6^th, the Epiphany, the Magi will arrive at the side of the baby Jesus, and this, in fact, is one of the holiest of days, and yet it is virtually lost in the new years resolutions and the hangover of an overindulgent Christmas and New Year celebration. But I am not cynical.

As we enter this Advent, the lines are longer at the food lines, than in the lines at the mall. That is a switch this year indeed. It was a change foisted on us by the downturn in an economy that thrives on just this scenario, but if there is a silver lining perhaps that is it; perspective. And that is just what Advent is supposed to give us each year. In some of the monasteries, it is custom each year to count their shoes, to inventory what they had accumulated in the past year, and to rid themselves of the excess. In many ways, Advent is such an invitation and event for us. We might do well to take it; to actually step back and take stock.

In these times it would be so very natural to contract, to retreat into a scarcity that rather scoffs at the reality, that even in these times we are among the very wealthiest people on the face of this planet.

We should take this inventory individually but also collectively. Many, in these times, have suggested that the church will suffer greatly in our pledge drives due to this downturn, and that may be true. IF it is, it will break all of the records and statistics we have. In the course of every recession the church has at least held its own, and even in the depression, giving continued to far exceed the losses that were experienced.

Here is what is shown in the numbers. People continue to find the will and the means to give, when they believe in the purpose and mission of what it is they are giving too. I was sent a link to a great video that I would direct everyone to! It is entitled Advent Conspiracy, and it sums up what I am trying to say better than I could ever say it. I commend it to you, and I also commend to you a holy and observed Advent.

Blessings, now go see the video… www.adventconspiracy.org.

Thankful

2008-11-26T21:54:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. As it has approached I, like many I am sure, have thought about all that I am thankful for. This week started with a visitation to St. Alban's, Edmonds, where it was my great privilege to baptize a baby and a teenager. As we got to the baptism, it went about like these usually go. But the little baby was so very interested, and smiling, and she was simply enjoying this. I took her and did what I always did as a Rector; I paraded her around the church, up and down the side aisles, and the center aisle. Behind me walked the teenager, who had not really smiled during that morning, and I was bound and determined to get one out of her. I had her pick up the baptismal font bowl full of water and I told her, "You are going to follow me and you are going to get these people wet, and I mean wet!" An alert server ran outside, obviously being in the know, and brought in a cedar branch for her to use and away we went. I go on this parade to allow those present to meet the newest Christians, and to offer their blessings to them as well. The little baby was simply a charmer. There was not a soul along our path that could resist smiling and being just a bit happier about all of life. Half way through our journey I looked around at the teenager following me and there on her face was the biggest smile! She was having a ball, and she was living up to her task too! She was getting the people wet, reminding them of their baptism, and reminding them to be thankful. My day had been completely made. At the procession out of the church we marched straight out the back door to a gazebo which had just been completed as an Eagle Scout project. We gave thanks for the work that had gone into it, the bell tower that had once stood on the same spot, reportedly an Eagle Scout project of its time too, and we gave thanks for all the people that would seek out the shelter and solace of the space. After that, I was hosted at a parishioner's home, and we had a deep and wonderful conversation over a feast, about this journey we all share in bringing the Good News to the world.

Today, Thanksgiving Eve, I, along with the DHouse staff, volunteered at Northwest Harvest Food Bank where we always meet Jesus. Tonight, I was blessed to preside at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church, and to once again share in the baptism of a wonderful child who could not wait to get wet, who practically climbed into the font. I sit here now, thankful for every one of these experiences, thankful for this vocation which brought me to the most beautiful place on earth, with some of the finest people who now grace our lives. And, as I look forward to the feast tomorrow, I know that the greatest blessings will be gathered around our table. I am most thankful for our God who is grace and love.

On this thanksgiving, may you know the fullness that comes from being loved, and giving it.

Broken Open

2008-11-19T21:16:00.001-08:00

Here, in the Diocese of Olympia, we just finished our annual convention. The theme was Radical Hospitality, as we learn more and more about being the people of radical hospitality. I had hoped to model this convention off of the very good fruits that I believed came from my experience at Lambeth Conference this summer. And so we had more Bible Study, and more discussion in Indaba groups. We took up three topics in three hours spread over our time, the environment, hospitality, and human sexuality. My hope was that we would focus more on our relationships and conversation, and less on legislation with the belief that we will never be able to legislate our relationships or our growth and learning as we continue to live in community. We so often do not talk to each other. "Early returns" reveal that many truly loved the new format, I believe that is true because we don't get the chance to talk to one another much in our society or our church.

What I heard, even in this much smaller and surely truncated version of Indaba, was much the same as I heard and experienced at Lambeth; people coming away from conversations with those with whom they did not agree, but still knew they were in relationship with, thus making the strident stance we often hold a bit less easy or firm. Mostly, too, some joy in the fact that this might still be possible in the church. It was surely not perfect, there were some little problems here and there, but all in all a really good thing.

We also experienced the worship provided by Church of the Apostles, (COTA) and the Church of the Beloved, both emerging churches. There is a haunting song they sing, "Broken" with lyrics that repeat, "I am broken, you are broken, everyone is broken." It ends with the line, "I never knew broken glass could shine so brightly." I can rarely get through this tune without tears and I saw some of the same reaction around the room. Jonathan Weldon, Interim Rector of St. Paul's, Bellingham came up after the worship to say that what he sensed is that this emerging worship has brought back lament. It gives us a real way of lamentation. I think that is so true. Just as we don't have time to talk to one another about the deep issues of the heart, and our lives, we also do not have time or space enough for lament. Lament in our world is often seen as a sign of weakness, instead of strength.

We were offered both this weekend and most importantly the gift of time spent together and the courageous hope that God's Kingdom remains within our grasp, open to all, that we can still be signs of it, as we travel toward it ourselves.

Salute to our Veterans

2008-11-10T21:43:00.001-08:00

I write this on the Eve of Veteran's Day. Two images stick with me from this past week. One, is a Viet Nam Vet who stated that they did not get respect when they returned home back then, but they were getting it now, and he said just how much he appreciated it. The other is the story I saw tonight on one of the national news programs. It comes from Canada, the Highway of Heroes. Along this 100 mile trek that every soldier lost in the war takes, people come out all along this path to show their respects. One fire department is there every time, on the overpass, saluting one and all. A mother of a fallen soldier told just how moving all of this is, and told a story of a father and son, who stood in the back of their rusty pickup truck and saluted together as the motorcade drove under the overpass.

I have to admit I have been a bit worried at how sterilized this war, or wars, is for us here. Of all days I intend to, tomorrow especially, give thanks for those who have given their lives for me. I am thankful that our citizenry has seemed to accept and live out of the reality that these men and women, no matter what your feelings about the war, the military, no matter, they do it for us. I will use the day, as on all days, to pray for peace as well. I will pray for an end to the 100 miles drives on the Highway of Heroes, and that no such tribute be necessary anywhere in this world. It is a lofty dream, but our God is an awesome God, and calls us to the miraculous and the lofty.

All Saint’s and This Election

2008-11-03T17:51:00.001-08:00

I write this on the eve of our national election. Regardless of the outcome, I must admit I am so ready for this to end. I had the great privilege to preach in three different settings this All Saint's weekend. In each I found myself drawn to, and using, the story and witness of Ruby Bridges, a 6 year old African-American who participated in the integration of the New Orleans Public Schools in November 1960, 48 years ago this month. I was born three years after this event. Ruby became the focus of one of Norman Rockwell's famous paintings, entitled, "The Problem we all live with." It is indeed a problem we live with, even today, and yet on the eve of this election, regardless of how it turns out, I hope we as a nation can step back, take a deep breath, and be thankful for just how far we have come. Even in my lifetime I have often been doubtful we would ever see a woman on a national ticket, much less a person of color. Don't get me wrong, I am as unhappy as most people at the negative tone these seem to always go too, although the irony of that is, all the studies show that the negative ads work, and that seems to say something about us.

Still, all the way around, I believe it has been a remarkable few months to watch and live through. It is still a "problem we live with" and we have quite a few more of those. However, perhaps we can move that "problem" and others to a new place of holy conversation and realistic vision. I hope so. I think of the witness of Ruby Bridges, and so many like her, a 6 year old black girl, who though the smallest figure in that famous painting, walked taller than them all. To survive the attacks which were made on her daily as she walked to school, a school where all the white teachers, save one, had refused to teach her, she said a prayer which her mother had taught her. Robert Coles, the child psychiatrist who volunteered to work with Ruby and her family through that time, asked her one day what she was mumbling as she walked through that crowd. She told him she was saying this prayer, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do."

I give thanks for Ruby Bridges, for the saints in this story, the teacher that kept teaching against all odds, the black and white people who helped move this along in the face of so much inertia. No matter what happens tomorrow, we have all, collectively, witnessed a victory, and I pray now, we know more, that our blind spots are less, and that the horizon which our savior Christ has envisioned, that Kingdom of love and grace is a bit closer.

Harambee and Kairos!

2008-10-19T23:41:00.001-07:00

Dear Ones,

This weekend I have been blessed by attending two events. The first was Saturday evening. I traveled to St. David's, Shelton to attend their special meal entitled Harambee! This is a Kenyan word, and a movement in Kenya, the word means basically "to pull together" Kenyans, Moses and Lois, and South African Jonathan cooked and taught us in what this means. Harambee events were designed to be the spark that would spread. The gift of meal and the spirit of sharing and pulling together toward a common goal was supposed to spread from town to town, county to county, country to country. The meal was made with great care, and shared with members of St. David's and with many from the community of Shelton. As the smoke from the grill filled the town, people came walking by, and walking in. The food is why they came, but the fellowship and the sharing is what filled them, and me, as I left.

This evening I had the great blessing of attending the Kairos Closing at the prison in Monroe. About 100 people, some from "inside", some from "outside" joined in the faithful band there to welcome the 38 candidates who have been in retreat since Thursday. I was blessed to be in that band. I am always amazed by the gratitude and the faith of those on the "inside." I have said before that often, in prison, when in the prayers of the people, we get to the place for thanksgivings and blessings, the audible prayers are endless. When the same place is encountered in our churches, there is often a deafening silence. And, it always makes me wonder who is in prison? Our prisons surely are not simply made of walls and bars, but also the barriers we put up in our hearts and minds. One thing the prisoners say draws them to Kairos weekends is the food but they say what I say above about Harambee as well, that although that drew them in, and they are thankful for it, they leave the weekend with a fullness made of something other than food, a fullness that is more enduring, for many even life changing. I am always so inspired by their boundless honesty in their witness, the "open mike" time they get to share. Here some said simply, I am not sure I believe in Christianity yet, but I sure do believe in all of you, and the love you have shared with me. I am moved by this because often I see the opposite in our churches, where we are sometimes more inclined to eat our young, or shoot our wounded when they suggest anything outside the approved response.

As one candidate said, as he looked at the other 37 who had been through this weekend with him, pointing out to the "yard", 'when you see me out there, be there for me, build me up, remind me of what it was like in here, and I will do the same for you.' It reminded me that we should all be about that, out in the "world" too.

This was a good, full, rich weekend. I am going on retreat this week, a much needed one, and I could not be more thankful for these two events as precursors to my time of prayer, reminding me that freedom and captivity are real, but they are also not as simple and clear as we might think; that the most isolated and restrained individual, can be as free as any freedom we know, and the most unrestricted individual, can live in total captivity. With God, we can defy the gravity of our minds , live beyond all barriers, and be "full."

Blessings,

+Greg

I'm Back!

2008-10-11T22:02:00.000-07:00

Dear Ones,

As I said in the October "Voice", I intend to blog a bit more, not nearly as much as I did from Lambeth, surely not every day, but hopefully enough for us to use this as a way to stay in contact, to communicate, and to be in conversation. For now, the financial meltdown may be a place to start.

You surely do not need me to tell you that our financial world has changed remarkably and indelibly in the past several weeks. Certainly, I am in no position to suggest where this is all going but I did want to state my firm belief that the unchanging reality of the love of our God, through Jesus Christ has not changed, and will not change, no matter what happens on Wall Street.

Still, the reality of these dramatic changes are affecting many in our fold, and surely those all around us. I will be speaking even more to this in my November Voice article, but before that I wanted to let you know of my concern, and my prayers, as we continue this uncertain ride. I also hope we can open up a conversation about resources and ideas as we move through this time. In the next few days we intend to put out resources we have and we would very much appreciate your adding to this or offering more such resources.

Today I was blessed to attend the ordination and consecration of the Rev. Brian Thom, as Bishop of Idaho. I arrived Friday to a snowstorm, the earliest measurable snowfall on record in Boise! It was gone pretty fast. The service was beautiful, our Presiding Bishop preaching and presiding. I have grown to know and respect very much Bishop Bainbridge and it was just as good to be there to honor him as well.

So, here is our start again! I look forward to being in touch. Blessings,

+Greg

Lambeth, Back Home!

2008-08-04T20:27:00.000-07:00

Dear Ones,

Well, I am actually back on US soil and looking forward to a few weeks of vacation with my family, who is with me now. I missed them so. My last Lambeth post will be my pastoral letter to the diocese, just sent out tonight and posted now here. Blessings to you all! For those who commented, thanks for taking the time to peer in. I hope it was helpful!

A Pastoral Letter in response to Lambeth Conference from the Rt. Rev. Greg Rickel, Bishop of Olympia to the People of the Diocese.

Dear Ones,

A message from our Presiding Bishop

Lambeth 2008

Many bishops came to this gathering in fear and trembling, expecting either a distasteful encounter between those of vastly different opinions, or the cold shoulder from those who disagree. The overwhelming reality has been just the opposite. We have prayed, cried, learned, and laughed together, and discovered something deeper about the body of Christ. We know more of the deeply faithful ministry of those in vastly differing contexts, and we have heard repeatedly of the life and death matters confronting vast swaths of the Communion: hunger, disease, lack of education and employment, climate change, war and violence. We have remembered that together we may be the largest network on the planet – able to respond to those life and death issues if we tend to the links, connections, and bonds between us. We have not resolved the differences among us, but have seen the deep need to maintain relationships, even in the face of significant disagreement and discomfort. The Anglican Communion is suffering the birth pangs of something new, which none of us can yet fully appreciate or understand, yet we know that the Spirit continues to work in our midst. At the same time patience is being urged from many quarters, that all may more fully know the leading of the Spirit. God is faithful. May we be faithful as well.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church

The statement is available on EpiScope http://episcopalchurch.typepad.com/episcope/

For complete coverage, be sure to check Episcopal Life Online
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/elife/

Dear Ones,

In the last day of our Lambeth Bible study, we studied John 20:1-19, “that through believing you may have life in his name.” In it we found that we, as Christians, most fully lead our lives as wounded and risen at the same time. The same might be said of this Lambeth Conference. Certainly, we entered this Lambeth with emotions, hopes and wishes that were all over the map. Regardless of just where you might be on that spectrum, I think it would be fair to say we entered Lambeth both wounded and risen. As we now see its end, I don’t see it much differently, but I would say that those who attended are different; we could not help but be so.

At the beginning of the conference a bishop gave us this quote from Mussolini: “It is not that governing Italy is impossible, just pointless.” I am not sure why that has stuck with me but I must say that this wonderful sacred mystery we call the Anglican Communion is a difficult thing to manage or govern. Perhaps God does not exactly want that. The great gift of the Anglican Communion has always been its very uniqueness in the face of many different styles of church throughout the world. All our ecumenical partners who were invited in as full participants said over and over that Anglicanism offers a unique witness in Christianity, and in the religious world, and they hoped we would stay together to be a witness to it.

The struggles we have had and continued to have in these almost three weeks can be summed up in the following manner: We are trying to solve our differences with a modern process imposed upon a postmodern problem. Another way to put it would be from Ron Heifetz’s work, Leadership without Easy Answers: we are trying a technical fix when we have an adaptive challenge on our hands. Our leading edge these past weeks was not to succumb to that temptation. More importantly, I think Jesus operated this way as well. He often led those around him to the most unlikely places, through the most unlikely people.

As the world has become more global so has the Church. It often does not do us well to try to have relationship in this instantaneous communicative world we live in. One can nary have a fleeting thought before it is posted on the World Wide Web, and this does not help our conversations. I am sure the web is humming already. What we had this last three weeks is real conversation, the face-to-face kind, where memos and e-mails cannot hide the incarnated being right before your eyes. There is no delete button or hiding behind the computer screen here. And there is nothing that can substitute for the experience of the primitive ancient church practice and reality of gathering around the Scripture in a small group, under a tree or around a table.

That is not to say that all the conversations during this time have been chummy, as they might say here in England. No; they were direct, even strident at times, but at least we were in the room together. We had to deal with each other. And on this last day, as we shared our hopes and dreams before we left, especially with those in our Indaba and Bible study groups, we realized we had put ourselves in the hand of God, and with Jesus as our guide, the vast majority had been solidified in one thing even if not changed as far as position or theological stripe: we value each other and we value this communion, even more deeply than when we arrived. Tears were shed, smiles were shared, vows were made to pray for one another and to share and talk, even when the rough times come, and we know they will.

I give great credit to the Archbishop of Canterbury in proposing and following through with an agenda and way of being at this conference that was centered on relationships, not legislation. As he said in one of his speeches, “For those of you who are unhappy or wish to criticize this approach, let me ask you: Have the old ways really been all that effective?” He has a very good point. I know many of you are divided as to trusting him or not. I can only tell you he is human, too; he has his strong desires and he is in a most difficult place. In all Christian charity, for now, I intend to trust the current process and work with our Presiding Bishop and our House of Bishops in working with the communion.

The senior bishop in my Indaba, from another province, offered this analysis before he left: a narrative is being proposed by some in the communion and by many in the press that the Anglican Communion is at war and is totally divided. The narrative says that everyone in the communion is in one or the other of these camps. Instead, there is a narrative, what he called the truer narrative, which suggests just what we have lived at Lambeth 2008—those two ends of the spectrum do in fact exist, but there is a huge center that simply wants to get along with mission and sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. I would add to this the even more important narrative that we cannot lose: that everyone on that spectrum—everyone, the left, the right, the center—is living out of a deep commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ as they have received it, in their context, and are trying to live that with the greatest integrity they can.

We did not resolve anything at Lambeth 2008; however, we did get closer to one another. We did have time to listen to one another. And, as we gather and discuss this in the months and years ahead, I would be glad to share some of the great misconceptions about us and some we had about others that were made clear by our sharing. These alone were worth the price of attending.

One bishop “listener,” the 16 tasked with collecting all of the inputs and putting them into some coherent statement, claimed her frustration by saying there was no way to be scribe and poet at the same time. And I would add even the poet could not completely articulate what has happened to those of us who have walked together during these last days.

I have begun new relationships that I hope will lead to work and relationship for all of us. One very promising connection is with the Rt. Rev. Michael Sande of the Diocese of Butere in Kenya. He and I met several times this week, along with Nedi, and I see the possibility of a growing connection. My Indaba group formed a statement on climate change and the environment which I will publish some time later. Nedi wrote a Rule of Life for us and it is being widely sought after now as a way for us to hold each other in prayer.

So I say to you we still have work to do, in our diocese, in the Episcopal Church and in our Anglican Communion. I am not sure where it will all lead. But the truth is we will always have work to do. It is who we choose to walk with while we do the work that deserves our attention. I do know friends from all over this communion now, who believe in Jesus Christ and his power, and who want to be in relationship with us, even if we don’t see eye to eye on everything. They know the truth of, and are willing to stay in, the wounded and risen nature of our life together.

At our last General Convention I heard a story; I believe it was a visiting Korean Anglican who said to one of our deputies, “We have a story in our country, that porcupines must hug one another to get through the winter. It is painful, but in order to survive they must hold each other tight. It seems your church is in the winter now.” Wounded and risen. Our Indaba, to my great joy, ended its last time together with my favorite prayer in the prayer book and I leave you with it now, too.

O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever." AMEN

Faithfully,

+Greg

Lambeth, August 3rd

2008-08-03T16:16:00.000-07:00

Dear Ones,

The last day. A bittersweet moment actually. The Bible Studies and the Indaba's have been a blessing in so many ways. I know you have heard, and will hear more about how these did not work, but just remember there were 670 bishops here and many spouses as well. The vast majority of them shared today in our last day how much these discussions have meant. It was expressed that one cannot go through such an intensive experience and not leave changed. I feel that is very true, and I feel it myself.

My Bible Study was made up of bishops from South Africa, UK, Canada, Malaysia, and Japan. We have vowed to stay in touch and to pray for one another. We are exploring a Rule of Life together. The relationships are profound and it was exactly what was hoped for in the Archbishop's and the Design Team's work. The idea is, we cannot work out the very delicate and intricate issues that arise in this communion, without relationship.

After lunch, we entered the Big Top for one final time. It was a very cool day in Canterbury, with some rain as well, a lot like home! But that was welcomed as we all came into the Big Top. Upon our entering we were presented with the "Lambeth Indaba: Capturing Conversations and Reflections from the Lambeth Conference 2008." This was put together by the 16 member "listening" group. One member from each Indaba, with careful consideration to make sure there was as wide of representation as possible. The two Americans were Bishop Neil Alexander of Atlanta and Bishop Gerylyn Wolf of Rhode Island. Bishop Wolf actually was the representative from my Indaba. This group has worked around the clock, literally, and they were tired. It was not never proposed to be a document to solve things, not a legislative document, but a "reflection" of what we were about, and where our minds are right now, to the best of their ability. Many of you have probably read it more closely than I have had a chance to yet. Afterwards the Archbishop of York played the drums! Picture above!

At the plenary, the Archbishop thanked a lot of people. I was even included in one thank you as a leader of one of the Bible Studies. After those, we heard from our ecumenical partners who have been full participants in this process. Kallistos Ware, who is Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia of the Eastern Orthodox Church said, "your joys and sorrows are our joys and sorrows, and your problems are our problems, and if they are not yet our problems, they will be!" He went on to be quite clear about what he saw, we did not clear up everything, but he was also clear in saying, "I need you to be who I am!"

Jane Williams, the Archbishop's wife, led some from the Spouse's Conference in sharing their experiences. Thier experiences were much the same and resulted in some deep and abiding connections. Both the Archbishop and Mrs. Williams were given warm, and long, ovations.

We then boarded buses in route to Canterbury Cathedral for our closing Eucharist. We once again paraded down that street, past the Starbuck's, and through Christ Gate to the cathedral grounds. Again, stewards lined the streets to make a path, and to make sure we saw smiling faces, of which there were many.

The service was absolutely beautiful. I have provided one picture above that does not do it justice. The boy's and men's choirs sang. The Archbishop of Melenesia presided, the Archbishop of Canterbury preached, telling us to share the story, a story that should make "something happen." One of the most moving moments was toward the end. The names of the Melenesia martyrs murdered in 2000 were recieved by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He prayed over them and then the Melenesia brothers and sisters present took the names, along with the Archbishop of Melenesia, singing their litany of the saints and martyrs, a beautiful, haunting tune, as they did. Their singing would echo as it got fainter and fainter as they took the names to the Chapel of Saints and Martyrs of Our Own Time.

We then were treated to a dinner on the grounds and then back to the University to pack, to get ready, in my case, for a 5 a.m. bus ride to Gatwick.

I will be posting one more time on this blog, my last reflection on this blog as Lambeth ends. I hope to post it tomorrow during my travels.

I hope this has been helpful to you. I have enjoyed doing it. I have very much enjoyed your comments. Some have commented with no way to respond, including one clergy from my diocese. Please know I would respond if I knew who you were!!

Until then, I leave you with a prayer used during the intercessions tonight at Canterbury Cathedral;

God our Shepherd, give to the Church a new vision and a new charity,

new wisdom and fresh understanding, the revival of her brightness and the renewal of her unity;that the eternal message of your Son may be hailed as the good news of the new age; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Blessings,

+Greg

Lambeth, August 2nd

2008-08-02T15:52:00.001-07:00

Dear Ones,

I am not really going to be able to explain the first picture above. It is a public registrar's office I have passed everyday on my walks. I see it every time and wonder how it sums up something about our walk through life and all we have been about here in Canterbury. I offer it to you. Another one I saw but could not get a good picture of said "Bishops: acquired for clients". It is one way to do it!

Today started as the rest, Eucharist at 7:15 provided by the Anglican Church of Kenya, breakfast, then Bible Study on John 18:1-18. I think our Bible Study participants are mourning a bit. It has been truly transforming to be in these small groups, studying Scripture, and simply sharing our stories, how they relate and intersect with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and even more putting names and faces to the Communion. Tomorrow will be our last meeting.

We then went to our Indaba group for a meeting entitled "Fostering Our Common Life: The Bishop, The Anglican Covenant, and the Windsor Process." There was no consensus and in fact, in my group, I would say there are feelings that range from no covenant at all no matter what, to those simply open to the idea and not committing (perhaps the largest group), to those convinced it is the only way forward. I am becoming less and less convinced that it is the answer. I intend to address that in my last post from the conference. Today was our last Self Select workshop and I attended "The Science of Climate Change" which was headed by Professor Ian James, University of Reading, UK. He is also ordained. He gave an excellent presentation, much of which I have seen before but also new information is always coming out.

I must say that I keep hearing occasionally from other bishops, from some of our US congressman, and others that there is a lot of "science" that debunks the current science that seems to overwhelmingly corroborate that we have a serious humanmade problem on our hands. I have asked these folks, sometimes in person, sometimes in writing to supply me with this science or at least links to it, and I still have yet to recieve it. In all seriousness I would like to see the other side. I asked Professor James to direct me to some. He was at a loss saying that there are many articles debunking it, but hard science he had not seen either. We have a problem and a short time in which to address it, but I keep saying I am willing to look at the side that says we have no problem, or at least it is not a human made one.

This afternoon a special hearing was called to listen one final time to the reflections group, putting together the final draft of our reflections of these past weeks. If you were expecting a definitive answer on matters, you will most likely be dissappointed, but what lies behind it and I believe a lot of what will be in the statement, will speak to what Anglicanism is all about, what Lambeth is supposed to be about, and will be an investment that is well worth if for our future. What can't be captured in a statement of any kind are the miraculous meetings that occur at lunch, and dinner, and in the wonderful ques, lines, we stand in for everything. It is difficult to engage here and not learn, no matter where you are from.

The Church of Ireland provided evening worship. After dinner a plenary was offered in which four of our stewards, the young people from all over the communion, offered their reflections of these past weeks. Just a reminder, the stewards are those folks who wear bright yellow jackets, with "Steward" written across the back and direct us. They are essentially crowd control, and yet so much more. Stewards from Southwest Florida, the Seychelles, South Africa, and the UK offered reflections and then opened the floor for questions. It was pointed out that when questions have been taken this week they have been written on cards and turned in, but not tonight, they were taken fresh, off the cuff, from the floor.

This was amazing just as I thought it would be. These are truly stunning young people, divinity school students and graduates, cardiovascular medical students, and the list goes on and on. Some of them are in youth ministry now, some wanting to be ordained. Solo from the Seychelles wanted us to know that mass is often boring, sermons boring, music too slow and old. He also wanted us to know that even when it does not seem like it they want to know, youth love for you to tell them your stories.

Penny from the UK said that all she knew of bishops was that you had to clean up the church before they came, and it usually just meant more work for her. But, she said, "after spending these three weeks with you I can say you all are pretty colorful characters. " Please, she asked, don't wait for us, let us use our skills and talents now. In one of the more poignant moments she said to us, that being with us these three weeks has given her great hope and has fed her desire to be ordained. She said, 30 years from now I hope I will be here, wearing a purple shirt! This was greeted with raucous applause (think about that, a bit of a informal vote!) She hesitated and said, "When I have recently told my friends this, they have said, don't be silly, the Anglican Communion won't be here in 30 years!" She said, these past three weeks have made her know it will be and she implored us to stick with it, and she promised if we did, her generation would care for it too.

When they were asked what we should do about this, and I believe our own Nedi Rivera asked them this question, they said we need better music and maybe some dancing! I am sure Nedi liked that answer! Maybe hip hop once in a while. The next questioner told them not to expect him to hip hop dance, it would not be pretty. He then asked what is there not enough of? To which the wise Penny replied, "Not enough hip hop dancing!" While it was funny, I think we need to hear it. What we may least like to do, or feel we are least equipped to do, may be exactly what is needed. And we may just need to get comfortable enough to do it!

They went on to say we should not wait for youth to respond to what we have created for them, but instead ask them to create it.

When they were asked what they most loved about Jesus, they responded with his coolness, his good attitude, one said that Jesus could cry and showed sorrow for his friends.

When they were asked what specifically brought them hope in watching us these past weeks they said, the relationships they saw building here, the diversity, and as one put it so well, seeing people talking to each other not because they had to, but because they wanted to. Amen to that!

Blessings,

+Greg