PERSEVERE IN LOVE

Dear Friends in Christ:

One of our Tuesday night movies this summer was Chocolat, the story of a woman who opens a chocolate shop in a French village at the beginning of Lent. The mayor of the village is offended at her timing, among other things. After all, Lent is a season of penitence and fasting, not a time to indulge in chocolate. He warns the woman that her business will fail and will have to close by Easter. She perseveres and the business is not only open, but also thriving, on Easter Day.

We Episcopalians are being given another opportunity to persevere. The actions of General Convention, most noticeably the confirmation of the election of my long-time friend Gene Robinson to be Bishop of New Hampshire, have been responded to very differently by different members of the Episcopal Church. Some of us, including me, see the election of an openly gay man who is living in a committed relationship with another man as an indication that the Episcopal Church is becoming more inclusive and more honest about who we are. Others see this action as a clear and serious violation of the teaching of Scripture.

In the face of this disagreement - and there are bound to be disagreements over other actions of the General Convention as well - we are called to persevere in love. Our unity is not based on uniformity of opinion, but on the love that we have been shown in Jesus Christ. To me persevering in love means remaining in community even when the community is marked by significant divisions. It also means continuing to love those who decide to leave the community because of those divisions. I may disagree with their decision to leave, but that doesn't mean that I stop loving them and praying for them. Persevering in love means listening to one another and respecting the integrity of those who disagree with us. Our series of forums on General Convention (beginning September 14) will give us all opportunities to both speak and listen to one another.

In his sermon at the Eucharist on the final day of the General Convention, the Presiding Bishop spoke of the centrality of love in the life of the Episcopal Church:

Love is not just a feeling: it is a matter of the will. And the willingness of many of you who are deeply distressed by certain actions of the convention to stay, quite literally, at the table, is a profound act of love for which the community can be grateful. Some have felt obliged to leave the table. While we must respect their freedom to do so, it is very much my prayer - and I am sure yours as well - that they will find themselves able to return. Their leaving diminishes us all.

Love takes other forms as well. It is love that gives us the desire to enter into the pain of the other and to bear it as one's own. It is love that gives us the desire to exercise restraint and forbearance for the sake of one's brother or sister.

What has this convention been about and what do I take away? This 74th General Convention has been about love. It has been about love at work in a community that heretofore had been able to live with both/and realities and now was forced to make an either/or decision. And yet, in doing so, something has happened that is larger than any one perspective or even the decisions this Convention has made. Paradoxically, our differences writ large have stripped us of our facile civility and plunged us into the vast sea of the divine agape. That is not to say one position is right and the other wrong. It is to say that God in Christ is with us.

Over the past few years, the members of Saint Matthias Church have been called many times to persevere in love. While we have not always responded to that call with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, I have seen over and over clear signs that it is love that holds this community together, that we are persevering in love. May that same love continue to empower us and to bind us together as beloved children of God. May we "walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." (Ephesians 5:2)

Your brother and priest,
Daniel+