In this Issue:

Who will bear my light to them? Whom shall I send?

Archbishop Tutu and Bishop Sauls call Berea graduates to action

From the Bishop

News and ideas form across the diocese

People, Parishes and Passions across the Diocese

Part of the Heart of our Mission

Faith Matters: St. George's Day

Love First, Knowledge Second: Baccalaureate Address to Berea College Class of 2005

Commentaries

Reflection: As others see us

X-ercizing: What causes revelry?

Editoral: The 'use and abuse of the Bible'

Who's in charge here? One bishop's perspective

Diocesan Calendar

Past Issues

Reflection: As Others See Us

By Kay Collier McLaughlin

“Where’d you come from?” The questioner was the smiling bellhop who welcomed me to the Salt Lake City Hilton. “Are you here for a conference?” came next. I identified Lexington, Ky., as home base, and said that I was in Utah for a meeting of the Episcopal Communicators annual conference. There had to be a next question in the bellhop handbook, but it seemed a little longer in coming. We were waiting for the elevator when he spoke again.

“You Episcopals are (I waited for what was coming) the ones that do all of the good stuff for people all over the world. I’ve read about you,” he said. “Really?” I responded. “What made you remember us that way?” (Now I was really curious.) “Well, I’ve read about Bishop Tutu, and the difference he made in his country. I’ve read about you sending help to people that have been hit by hurricanes and other things. It seems like everything I read is about you all trying to help those who other people forget. I really like that.” We were now on the sixth floor and opening the door to room 607. “Do you have a church?” I asked. “No,” he replied. There was a small silence. I guessed him to be part of that 20-30’s age group we Episcopalians worry about reaching. “Well I hope sometime you’ll visit an Episcopal Church around here,” I said to him.

He smiled again. “I don’t know whether I want to be in a church,” he said, “ but if I did, I’d want it to be like yours.”

He filled the ice bucket and was gone.

The next two days were the kind of Episcopal world immersion in which we Anglicans revel, where every conversation and every elevator are filled with brothers and sisters who speak our language and share our table.

The major take-away memory came for me when one of the 20- 30’s panelists leaned across the speakers’ table in the large plenary session dedicated to hearing from and about young adults and said: “The only prayer book we have ever known is the one you all gave us — and it’s about love and justice and peace!” The implication was clear. This is the way we learned to be the church; to “do” church.

Then it was Delta to Cincinnati and a puddle-jumper home – the transition time to move me from world Episcopal to reality. This time it was an Episcopal shield on my well-worn tote bag that started a conversation — one of those flying-at-ten-thousand-feet-instantintimacy kind of things.

“So, you’re an Episcopalian.”

“Yes, I am.”

“Long time?”

“From birth.”

“How do you feel about all of the publicity your church is getting in the newspapers these days?”

“I like it best when it is about our mission and ministry in the world,” I responded quickly.

“I thought it was all about that,” my seatmate responded. “You all are certainly doing major ministry for all people by the courage of your honesty, and willingness to look at every aspect of life. I have been so discouraged by the lack of honesty in my own denomination that I had given up on church. But I’ve been to yours a few times, and even though the service is still a little unfamiliar to me, I want to be with people who are living so honestly and lovingly.”

In the shuffle to de-plane and retrieve luggage, we went our separate ways. But his words, like those of the bellhop, remained.

The perspective from the “inside” of any system is frequently filtered by proximity, and the noise from the outer edges, which clamor for position. A bit of anxiety provides another filter — this one about how we’re perceived from outside our own system, and whether or not we’re going to survive.
A trip out into the world — both the Episcopal one, and the non-Episcopal — revealed a center that is apt to be missed in the “cheerleading” from both edges. The center, after all, is the center because it is more about keeping on keeping on than it is about positioning and politicking and all the rest of it. And it is time for the center to be seen, and heard — even if it isn’t as exciting a place as the fringes. Most of the time, the center won’t make the news at all, much less the front page above the fold, or the prime time reports on TV.

The center is about mission and ministry steadily going forward – in Bible Schools, Reading Camps, ESL classes, divorce recovery ministries, refugee programs, confirmations, pot lucks, hospital visitations – and in relief work in southeast Asia, and AIDS work in Africa and peace efforts wherever there is no peace. It’s about a caring that is real enough that it touches men and women and young people who weren’t the target at all, but just happened to notice that something important is taking place in God’s name. And not one time did any of these folk ask me my “position” – on anything.
I keep hearing that young voice speaking about growing up with a prayer book that is about love and justice and peace. That’s the voice I hope will be heard in its heart-stopping wisdom, calling us all to a center where with clear vision we may see Christ in each other, and in all we meet unburdened by the arrogance and defensiveness that drain the very energy we so desperately need to live out God’s call to us to love one another.

Advocate Online Staff

© 2005 The Episcopal Diocese of Lexington

The Advocate is mailed free to all Episcopalians in the Diocese of Lexington. The Advocate is published 10 times a year (monthly Sept.-Mid-Summer, bi-monthly Mid-Summer-June, July-Aug.) by the Diocese of Lexington, a non-profit organization.

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