The Bishops of the Episcopal Church meet twice each year for prayer, consultation, mutual support. and learning, for the good of the church and the world we are called to serve. We gathered for our spring retreat this year from March 9-14 in the ancient mountains of the Appalachian chain in Western North Carolina. Our meeting immediately followed the meeting of the Primates, the leaders of the 38 member churches of our Anglican Communion, presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury. We were blessed by the presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury for two days, and by the participation of the Primates of Central Africa and Papua New Guinea. These brother Christians were a reminder of our participation in a 70-million-member worldwide Anglican family.
During these days we have been united through prayer to you, God’s beloved people. With thankful hearts for the Spirit of Christ moving among us, we send you this pastoral letter, to be read in every congregation on Sunday, April 1.
Dearly Beloved in Christ:
Grace and peace be with you in these days of Lent as we journey with our Lord up to Jerusalem and through the cross into the joy of Easter and the new life of the resurrection.
Our retreat has made us freshly aware of the boundless love of God and the gift of our belovedness in Christ. We have become mindful of how God has been leading us into deeper communion as your bishops and into a renewed awareness of our call to mission. The words of the prophet Isaiah speak to us powerfully, “I am about to do a new thing, now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”
We who are called as bishops to be a sign of unity speak to you with minds and hearts being united and transformed by the love of God. Our unity does not mean we are in agreement about all of the difficult and complex questions before us. It means we have claimed our oneness in Christ.
We are heartened by the Primates’ Pastoral Letter to the Anglican Communion and their conclusion that – though we live in enormously diverse settings, and hold a wide variety of perspectives – God means for us to remain united and to learn from one another in a spirit of unity and interdependence. The Primates have also called upon us to provide pastoral care for all in our Communion, as we grow in Christ’s wisdom. We mean to respond faithfully to that call. We trust in the promise of God to lead us all the more deeply into the mind of Christ, whose dying and rising makes us free to live not for ourselves alone but for God.
Our Study together centered on leadership for the purpose of advancing the mission of the Church. This mission, as the Catechism of the Book of Common Prayer tells us, is “to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” We live in a world urgently searching for such restoration: spiritually, socially, racially, and environmentally. As Christians we have been given a word to speak and a new life to live: God has “reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation” (11 Corinthians 5: 18). This is the Good News that we proclaim. This is the work God gives us to do.
Ronald Heifetz, the author of Leadership Without Easy Answers, was with us. He challenged us to help create an environment in our dioceses open to a variety of convictions so that faithful ministry and creative interaction can be sustained within a richness of diverse perspectives. The objective of such leadership is to build authentic community ready to be animated by the Spirit to go forward in mission.
We are under no illusions that leading in this way is simple. Each of us is keenly aware of our weakness and failure, such that repentance is the necessary preface to our leading. We are humbled by God’s boundless mercy and promise. Our repentance renews us as we are encouraged by one another. As leaders we are convinced by the Gospel’s deep assurance that every member of the Body of Christ is the beloved bearer of God’s purposes in the world. We are grateful for the many gifts and capacities entrusted to our church. We are inspired by the faithful and sacrificial ministries of so many. We are sustained by your prayers.
As your servants we are determined to put our common call to serve the mission of Christ above all else. We pledge that we will give our best energies to the work of restoring all people to unity with God and one another, because we know that the reconciling power of God in Christ is ceaselessly at work to overcome all division. Every concern for truth finds its wellspring in God’s love for the world. Every concern for justice finds its wellspring in God’s love. Every concern for peace finds its wellspring there. We call upon you to grow in the unity of the Holy Spirit as we together claim the fullness of our calling to share in God’s mission of reconciling love.
Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, let us press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:14).
Your servants in Christ,
The Bishops of the Episcopal Church, gathered for the Spring Meeting, March, 2001
The Most Reverend Frank T. Griswold
XXV Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church, USA