This weekend I attended the Investiture of the Twenty-sixth Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. The ceremony was amazing. It started with drumming and smudging by First Nations drummers and dancers. It continued with the passing of the pastoral staff from one Presiding Bishop to another and finished with a Eucharistic table served to thousands. Katherine Jefferts Schori was calm and graceful throughout the pomp and pagantry. At certain points there were eruptions of applause and cheering that seemed out of place, yet completely appropriate.
Our new Presiding Bishop preached a challenging sermon about the importance of home and peace.
That homecoming of shalom is both destination and
journey. We cannot embark on the journey without some vision of where we are going, even though we may not reach it this side of the grave. We are really charged with seeing everyplace and all places as home, and living in a way that makes that true for every other creature on the planet. None of us can be fully at home, at rest, enjoying shalom, unless all the world is as well. Shalom is the fruit of living that dream. We live in a day where there is a concrete possibility of making that dream reality for the most destitute, forgotten, and ignored of our fellow travelers – for the castaways, for those in
peril or just barely afloat on life's restless sea.
I was challenged by her message of journey and peace.
Recently we've been rethinking our plans for the future. There are ideas that have been growing in us that just can't be denied anymore. I don't know exactly where these ideas are taking us, but I know that it's important to explore them. I want to explore how I can be part of bringing peace and homecoming to my community - even if that means staying in the city instead of finding my own peace in a quieter place.
1 comment:
Awesome. How cool that you go to go to this. Thanks for sharing the experience.
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