The Bishop of Western North Carolina’s Diocesan Convention Address

Posted by Kendall Harmon

Every Christian must have a prayer discipline. Every Christian can give time to God every day. We need to teach one another and be clear about this as the bottom line. It’s the only way to stay sane in an insane consumer culture. I keep saying that we will not legislate our way through our disagreements in The Episcopal Church or the Anglican Communion, but we might pray our way to the place where Christ is, which is Holy Communion.

I am determined that our work in 2010 and beyond is to be about reconciliation. I have been talking with a group in 2009 to create A Center For Reconciliation because as Christians our calling is to be reconciled. We believe the waters of baptism are deeper than any division—any division. My intention is to establish a framework and then invite parishes to use it to create conversations across all kinds of divides: race, sexual orientation, class, ideology, gender, faiths, economics, geography and so on. I want to get bring together groups like: Developers and Organic Farmers; or African Americans, Whites and Latinos; or Sheriffs and men and women who do not have green cards, or Jews, Muslims, and Christians; yellow dog Democrats with die hard Republicans; gays and lesbians with those who are opposed to the consecration of gay bishops. I want us to have honest and loving conversations so we can go deeper than our divisions and be a sign to a broken world. The Church is the only safe container for everyone to have a voice. The Church is where we go to the Center and invite everyone there. And it’s about salvation.

Read it all (pdf).

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Bishops • TEC Diocesan Conventions/Diocesan Councils

7 Comments
Posted November 18, 2009 at 4:16 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. New Reformation Advocate wrote:

I hope Tom Rightmyer+ or someone else from that diocese will chime in here.  Now that I’ve read the whole address by +G. Porter Taylor, I’m glad that Kendall highlighted the short part he did.  It is probably the most revealing, and to me it was the most disturbing.  Because the bishop appears clueless that there are, and there necessarily have to be, limits to the inclusiveness of TEC.  Yet +Taylor was quite emphatic when he said,

“We believe the waters of baptism are deeper than any division—ANY division.” (caps mine).

That’s disturbing, because it’s the same old politically-correct relativist nonsense that’s so endemic in our culture, and that’s killing us.  I’d agree with the bishop that we ought to be SOCIALLY inclusive, yes, of course, and that for those who are in Christ there ought to be no insuperable barriers to fellowship in Him.  But to suggest as he does that “the waters of baptism are deeper than any THEOLOGICAL division is not only wrong, it’s utterly disastrous.  There is such a thing as heresy, after all.

It’s fine to be zealous for “reconciliation,” and for pursuing what Paul calls “the ministry of reconciliation,” as long as we understand it in the same theological terms that Paul had in mind in 2 Cor. 5, which is primarily about being reconciled to God.

For naturally it’s simply not true that the waters of baptism are deeper than the division between Christian and non-Christian, for that is exactly what those waters represent: the passing from unbelief to belief, from disobedience to obedience, from error to truth, from sin to righteousness, and from death to life.  The reality is that the waters of baptism mark the most important division in the world.

The road to genuine reconciliation only goes through the cross, it only happens through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.  By glossing over that all-important fact, the bishop has distorted the Christian message in a way that’s inexcusable, even if popular.

David Handy+

November 18, 5:02 pm | [comment link]
2. Br_er Rabbit wrote:

“And it’s about salvation.”

I’m surprised he didn’t put that in a footnote.

November 18, 5:46 pm | [comment link]
3. dwstroudmd wrote:

Apparently he has a magic understanding of baptism….......................

November 18, 8:23 pm | [comment link]
4. Frances S Scott wrote:

Also a magic understanding of salvation….
Frances Scott

November 18, 8:43 pm | [comment link]
5. John Wilkins wrote:

I do hope that Jesus didn’t die for perfect theology. 

That said, inclusion is not a goal, nor a virtue.  Magnanimity is a virtue.  The goal is the kingdom.

November 18, 9:20 pm | [comment link]
6. TomRightmyer wrote:

I had a broken tooth and spent the first day of diocesan convention in the dentist’s chair so had to miss hearing the convention address. I did hear the convention eucharist sermon which is also on the diocesean web site. About a third of the congregations in the diocese are part-time, served by the large number of active retired clergy in the diocese.Another third are probably heading toward part-time status. The diocese has 3 good size and 5 small churches in Asheville and a presence in the county seats of the other parts of the diocese. In-migration by retired Episcopalians has helped. Some of these are “halfbacks” who moved from the north to Florida and halfway back - or will when/if the Florida real eatate market recovers. The bishop has a canonical veto on clergy calls, and for the first time in some years the diocesan convention did not have to approve another resolution endorsing kind treatment of homosexuals.

November 19, 8:13 am | [comment link]
7. New Reformation Advocate wrote:

Thanks, Tom (#6).  Having invoked your name above (in my #1), I’m glad you chimed in and gave us a brief report.  I hope your mouth is back to normal; a broken tooth sounds awful.

David Handy+

November 19, 1:55 pm | [comment link]
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