Associate Rector’s Reflections...June 18, 2009

There shall be a General Convention of this Church, consisting of the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies, which Houses shall sit and deliberate separately; and in all deliberations freedom of debate shall be allowed. Either House may originate and propose legislation, and all acts of the Convention shall be adopted and be authenticated by both Houses. - Canon 1.1.1, CONSTITUTION AND CANONS OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

This summer, the triennial General Convention of the Episcopal Church will meet in Anaheim, CA, July 8-17. The ECUSA General Convention website states: "The General Convention is the governing body of The Episcopal Church (TEC) that meets every three years. The Convention is a bicameral legislature that includes the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops. The work at Convention is carried out by deputies and bishops representing each diocese. During its triennial meeting deputies and bishops consider a wide range of important matters facing the Church."  It has become customary over the years to designate a theme for each General Convention, and this year's theme is Ubuntu, a concept that emerges out of the African cultural and anthropological experience, and has been given a Christian interpretation by, among others, Nobel Peace Prize-winning Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Archbishop Tutu has said (in different times and places) of Ubuntu:

One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu - the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can't exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can't be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality - Ubuntu - you are known for your generosity... "Ubuntu is a concept that we have in our Bantu languages at home. Ubuntu is the essence of being a person. It means that we are people through other people. We cannot be fully human alone. We are made for interdependence, we are made for family. When you have ubuntu, you embrace others. You are generous, compassionate... If the world had more ubuntu, we would not have war. We would not have this huge gap between the rich and the poor. You are rich so that you can make up what is lacking for others. You are powerful so that you can help the weak, just as a mother or father helps their children. This is God's dream..." A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed...We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.

Speaking from my own perspective, anything to which Desmond Tutu gives an "imprimatur" would give me the strong impulse to regard whatever it is with great favor. He is a spiritual giant, and I am proud that we share the same Anglican tradition. His life and witness is what being an Anglican Christian is about. I am a bit less enthusiastic about how Ubuntu is played out in the context of the North American Church, especially the Episcopal Church. It is being spoken of, in the context of the General Convention, as a kind of "I-in-you-and-you-in-me" breezy, humanistic "kum-bay-ya" togertherness, without regard for the Scripturally witnessed truth of how necessary Jesus Christ is for real reconciliation and human community to happen. Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it best in his classic LIFE TOGETHER: "Chrisianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this. Whether it is a brief, single encounter or the daily fellowship of years, Christian community is only this. We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ."

I will be praying for our General Convention that they will know Jesus Christ as our true Ubuntu, and that their deliberations will lead us, among other things, to a deeper, Gospel-based sense of what it means "to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves..." (The Baptismal Covenant of THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER). Jesus said: I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. - John 15:5

Peace and Blessings, Bill Bennett

Prayers for the General Convention

For a Church Convention or Meeting

Almighty and everliving God, source of all wisdom and understanding, be present with those who take counsel in the General Convention of the Episcopal Church for the renewal and mission of your Church. Teach us in all things to seek first your honor and glory. Guide us to perceive what is right, and grant us both the courage to pursue it and the grace to accomplish it; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

For the Church

Gracious Father, we pray for thy holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior.  Amen.