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"Lift Every Voice"
Presidential Address, General Synod, Montreal
May 22, 1998
INTRODUCTION
I greet you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ: crucified, risen and glorified. And I welcome you to this 35th General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada. Now that this Synod is formally constituted, I welcome you as members. Others have joined us -- partners from other parts of the Communion, and ecumenical partners. We are delighted to have you as our companions, and look forward to your reflections during Synod. I welcome also observers and those of the staff of General Synod who are present.
Most are here, first of all, by virtue of election in our parish communities as delegates to diocesan synods. But once you were at that Synod, you were not delegates, you were members. No doubt, as individuals, you had a ear to your parish -- and accountability to share the decisions of Synod with it -- but together you were thinking and acting as a diocesan body. The work which you were engaged was not parochial, but the wider mission of the church. That same process has repeated itself: your diocese has chosen you to be a delegate to this body. Now you are no longer a delegate to, but a member of, General Synod. You will have an ear to your diocese, and the voices lifted there, but I invite you to remember that together, the responsibility we have here is for the mission of the national church. While valuing your local voice, I ask you to think globally and to work for the common good of the Anglican Church of Canada, its life, its health, its mission. We are meeting in a sacred gathering, and we are here to exercise leadership.
Now and then, I receive letters from people who think that leadership has lost faith, or has turned its back on it. I try to make, and hope I succeed in making, generous response. This past spring, my own spiritual director pressed me to write in a few words my fundamental commitments in my life and to my office. it was a good exercise, and I commend it to you. T.S. Eliot proclaimed that "old men ought to be explorers". I take that to mean they ought never to resign themselves to fading away, but rather always to be open to the great adventure of life. Perhaps Eliot knew that while the young are open to life in the sheer act of living it, a special gift and burden of the old is in reflecting on it, pushing the margins of reflection and sharing what they learn. I am perhaps rather older than younger, and so in the spirit of Eliot's phrase, I share my own convictions with you.
AFFIRMATIONS OF LIFE
I believe in God, Father, Son and Spirit, and I seek the first affirmation of this faith in my life and my work for the affirmation of life. My maker is the source of my and all life, and the making sprang from unforced love; My Redeemer came that all may have life and he lived and moved in selfless, unrequited love; My indwelling Spirit moves yet as giver of life and impulse of love.
I believe the universe, outer and inner, is filled with signs of life and love and I struggle to perceive and interpret those signs.
I believe that no greater sign of life is given to me and to the world than the Church, the only legacy of Jesus. I am committed to its life and true health, its external witness and its internal accountability.
THEME
Our theme is "lift every voice/Faisons entendre nos voix." I offer two texts to help us set this theme in context, and to reflect upon the sacredness of this gathering. The first comes from an ancient writer, whose words strengthened the people of his time, and continue to stir hope and imagination in our day:
"Get you up on a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good tidings;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings,
lift it up, do not fear.
Say to the cities of Judah:
'Here is your God'" (Is. 40:9)
The second text is from a more recent hand, and is found in the opening phrase of the prayer for General Synod:
"We are mindful:
that General Synod is being held in Montreal,
a city set under a cross on its mountain..."
Some of you live in places where the heights are enormous. You might be tempted to smile that this hill, which gives this city its name, is called a mountain. Hold your comment until the end of our time together, when you have had opportunity to experience it fully! For we will be scaling the hill - at least part of it - day by day. It may become mountain as the days go by.
In the Scriptures, mountains and hills - high places - were associated with the presence of God, and often the site of sacred events: Sinai, the height from which God gave the law; Carmel, the place of Elijah's battle with the prophets of Baal; the mount of the Transfiguration, where Jesus is seen in company with Moses and Elijah, the law and the prophets; Matthew presents Jesus' great sermon in these opening words of his fifth chapter; "When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain... Then he began to speak, and taught them...' As the psalmist expresses our human experience, - as our eyes are lifted upwards to the hills, so our minds and hearts opened to the Holy. I invite you, on your daily climb, to reflect on the ascent as a sign of the presence of God in your own life, in this Synod, in the church, in the world. perhaps the journey up, and the journey we travel in our discussion and debate, can be a time in which we can sense with the writer of those opening words of Second Isaiah: "Here is our God". Here on this hill, in this city, in this company of people gathered together: "Here is our God." To sense the presence of God around us, and among us, is our first task. So I can ask, at the beginning of this Synod, the question Douglas Hambidge asked at the end of the Synod in 1989: "Where is God in all this?" The prophet spoke to the community of Jerusalem; "Lift up your voice with strength..." Tell out, sing out: 'Here is our God'. "Lift every voice/Faisons entendre nos voix"; our theme is rooted in that enduring word. Our God is with us here - that is the good news we celebrate with one voice.
To discover our voice is liberating and to give voice is freely to make a commitment. Our words reveal where we stand. To give voice is to exercise a franchise - to make choices. In that sense, our words wield power; and make a difference. They also have potential to make changes in attitudes and ideas. This gathering will be filled with voices that exercise the right to speak, voices of conviction that seek to persuade and convince..
The act of lifting our voices is clearly connected with song, praise and thanksgiving. I imagine the theme was chosen with at least some hope that our new hymn book, Common Praise, would be completed and in our hands. That is not the case, and the book -- about to be published -- will be available in the fall. The recent experience of others tells us that hymn books and deadlines are not an easy match. We have discovered what our friends in the United and Presbyterian churches have discovered before us: copyrights and proof reading take time. Nevertheless, the book will soon be ready - thanks to the work of volunteers and staff who have put in hours, months and years of effort, and we shall have the foretaste in the hymns and songs used in our worship together.
"Life every voice" pertains to more than just a book. There is an old saying: "Who sings prays twice." Someone has said that churches are among the few places left where we are still able to sing together. Perhaps they are one of the few places where we sing at all! Like speaking, singing also requires listening. Listening helps us to pay attention to word and melody, and to let both season our souls. more than this, however, to listen is to pay attention to one another. Donald Schell, a priest of the Episcopal Church, has written;
"When we sing together, we give and receive, listen and speak, wander and find our way back...Singing together with openness and willingness to share,...we make something beautiful and holy."
Listening joins us together so that we sing as one. Schell continues,
"...whatever part we sing, if we actually listen to one another and work to blend our voices, our voice becomes a humble and loved servant of the whole."
As corporate act, singing unites and enables us all to turn together and share in acts of prayer and praise, lament and joy.
This leads me to comment that I especially want to make about the theme of "Lift every voice". That comment is found in a word: connection. Our voices are meant primarily for communication. If one is voiceless, one is isolated and excluded-disconnected. To be denied a voice is to be disenfranchised and powerless. To have a voice renders us in touch, included, connected. I understand "Lift every voice" to mean that all are included.
In one of the last books he wrote before his untimely death two years ago, Henri Nouwen speaks about "lifting the cup' as a metaphor for "lifting our lives'. His words can apply equally well to "lifting our voice'. In quoting him, I am taking the liberty to change the word 'cup' to voice:
"We lift our voice to life, to affirm our life together and celebrate it as a gift from God. The enormous individualism of our society, in which so much emphasis is on 'doing it yourself', prevents us from lifting our lives for each other. But each time we dare to step beyond our fear, to be vulnerable and lift our voice, our own and other people's lives will blossom in unexpected ways."2
I believe this to be true whether our voices are lifted in song, in proclamation, in debate, in sorrow or joy, fearfully or foldly. To lift every voice, is to give ourselves to each other and to give ourselves together to God, that Christ might be known as Lord of all. An aboriginal tradition says that one goes to a mountain for a reason. We are casual wanderers, but pilgrims with spiritual purpose. Our purpose is found in our desire to be in relationship with God, and in partnership with one another. Our purpose is connection.
I want to explore this sense of connection in a few different ways. First to comment on the providential nature of our being in this place at this time. Then to give some accounting of the present circumstance of our own church in light of our experience since the last General Synod in 1995. How have the actions of that gathering, which led us into new directions nationally, re-shaped our life and mission? What sense of connection or disconnection is there among us? Then I would like to widen the horizon so that we look beyond ourselves to partner churches internationally and ecumenically, as well as at the world in which we live.
It is thirty-nine years since the synod met in the Diocese of Montreal. It was a significant meeting. The synod approved the revision of the Book of Common Prayer, a work of eighteen years duration, and also elected Archbishop Howard Clark as ninth Primate. But during the synod there occurred an event of great importance in Quebec and Canada, the sudden death of the Prime Minister, Maurice Duplessis. That event set in motion the "quiet revolution" and the new face of nationalism with all the consequences that still affect our lives and will continue for years top come. As a synod we contain many different voices and we shall strive to listen to those voices. The voice heard least in our midst is that of francophone Quebec and francophone Canada. I suggest that for many in this assembly the discipline of listening with care to that voice will be among our most serious challenges.
PREPARING THE WAY
In 1992, General Synod meeting in Toronto, directed the National Executive Council to undertake a strategic planning process with wide consultation to determine the direction and priorities for our Church from 1995 - 2004. The result of that work was presented to General Synod in Ottawa in 1995. That Synod affirmed the plan that had emerged during the previous three years: "Preparing the Way". In broad strokes, the national Church was entrusted with the following mission priorities: to deepen our relationship with partner churches, the Council of the North and aboriginal Anglicans to give emphasis to Anglican identity, to advocate for social justice in Canada and beyond. Other work including ministries of evangelism, youth, stewardship and congregational development, were to find their grounding in the local church. A key principle in that decision was that each level of the church would own and take responsibility for the mission for which it was best equipped.
We did not have the luxury to ask "What would we like to do?", but the harder question, "Of those tasks intrinsic to the gospel, which of them must be done nationally lest they not be done at all?" We were aware that in making this choice, there were losses to be mourned. National program had given leadership in many areas of ministry that have now found their home base in the local church. Resources that had been available - especially staff resources - were not longer offered. In 1995, there were expressions both of concern and affirmation. One concern was that dioceses would not have the resources to 'pick up' these ministries. Another misgiving voiced was whether or not the plan might have the effect of distancing local and national levels of the church from one another because of the different focus in each. Among the affirmations were these: a clearer sense of mission and vision, the commitment to our partners overseas and to the work of ecumenical coalitions, the determination to walk in solidarity with aboriginal peoples , the potential for networking, consultation, new ways of working, diocesan initiative. One feature that was strongly resisted was the proposal for a small Council without representation from every diocese to carry on the work between Synods. We opted for a slightly smaller Council, but one with representation from every dioceses, from youth and from the Canadian Forces. That kind of diocesan-national connection was perceived to be essential as we set out together in a new direction.
Three years later, and one-third of the way into this new pattern of mission, how are we doing? The answer will come from you, from your sense of the last triennium as reflected in the reports of the Standing Committees, and from the results of our work together in these ten days. The two Forums - "New Ways of Working" and "Diocese to Diocese", - will provide opportunity to give voice to you experience, thinking and imagining. They give occasion to connect with one another, to offer input, to learn from each other as we continue on the way determined by the last Synod. Allow me to take this opportunity to express some of my own thoughts.
General Synod is not uninterested in the ministries that have been relinquished as part of national program. Although these are not a priority of the national mission, they remain priorities of the church in its local expressions. And the flexibility of the plan has permitted the development of the hoped-for networking which has made possible ongoing connections. I think, for example, of the recent meeting of the Primate's Evangelism network in Winnipeg, the meeting of youth workers this spring in Sorrento, the gathering of ADW presidents. I think, too, of the support offered by the Anglican Book Centre, the Library and the Resource Centre at Church House to those seeking help with local ministry; they often help make connections for persons and groups who are looking for other persons and groups with whom they can be in touch to share resources and ideas. The Anglican Journal sharing the stories of parishes that are finding new life in a whole variety of ways. And Ministry Matters offers articles that reflect local as well as national priorities of our church.
At the same time, the decision to adopt the plan has meant that the interaction between dioceses and General Synod has intensified in those areas in which General Synod has a mandated responsibility. There is considerable networking taking place around the priorities set by Synod: Volunteers in Mission, the Ancient Roots-New Routes conference for people involved in justice ministries co-sponsored by the Ecojustice Committee and the Magnificat network; the third Convocation - the Anglican Indigenous Circle - last summer in Lethbridge; meetings of Finance officers. Financial development, especially in the area of planned giving, has also received increased attention. In such areas, there are deeper relationships between General Synod and dioceses.
It is not just the General Synod-Diocesan relationship that has shifted. The adoption of "Preparing the Way" also has meant that diocese-to-diocese relationships have taken on greater significance. Often, this has been fostered provincially through more attention on education and through workshops in Provincial Synods. But sharing has been taking place between dioceses - I think of a delegation from Ontario diocese who visited New Westminster diocese to learn more of the Stewards in Action program. Or the conference on mutual ministry offered in Qu'Appelle that drew participants from well over half of the dioceses (in a January event - a prime time in Saskatchewan!) These kinds of connections will be crucial in the future for mutual learning and sharing.
Another key principle underlying "Preparing the Way" is that we need each other as we work out both local and national priorities. That principle motivated the national/diocesan consultations held over the past year. A full report is in your binder, so I spare you the detail. But these were almost universally found to be good events which provided for fruitful sharing of both national and diocesan stories. I hope members of this Synod will be fully engaged in future events. You have a particular role in those discussions as story-tellers, people who can help connect local and national mission. It is in such forums that we sustain and renew relationships and realize that we really are working in common. The question I would ask you to address in this Synod, and beyond it, is this: In our ongoing working out of the strategic plan, what does it mean to be the Church together? How can we strengthen the connections we have in the whole Body of Christ?
The Synod of 1995 changed the way the work of General Synod is financed. It asked that the expenditures budgets, previously divided into assessment and apportionment budget, be united and this has been done. It also called for a way in which the revenue budgets could be not only united but made "fairer", more closely related to the realities. The debate around this proposal is an important example of a discussion among dioceses -- the General Synod proposes no change in its program, no increase in total giving but simply asks whether the cost of the work might be more equitably shared among dioceses whose proportions of giving vary widely.
ECUMENICAL RELATIONS
Now let me broaden the scope and look beyond ourselves. First let me address the conversations between the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and ourselves. Although they are not the only ecumenical conversation for either denomination, Lutherans and Anglican have come to a point in which there is a friendship that holds the promise of genuine partnership. Parish expressions of this friendship, which have taken account of our particular history, and a sense that we really do look very much alike, are growing up in many places in Canada. Some of those expressions are in the form of shared ministries and some in shared facilities, but many are found purely in the willingness of neighbouring congregations to take time to meet, learn and worship together. I am very encouraged by this.
Our House of Bishops and the Lutheran Conference of Bishops have met in joint sessions twice in this past triennium. We plan to gather in the same place, to share in worship and common learning, once a year through and beyond 2001. Much of our work has focused, and will focus, on the questions we have of one another, but a good deal of our time is simply about connecting. This Synod is asked to reflect more fully on the relationship, especially on the draft of the "Waterloo Declaration", as our two churches move towards the hope of full communion. Especially, I want to invite you, and through you many others, to raise those issues that need to be raised. It is crucial that we move in ways that allow for serious questioning and reflection so that if we lift our voice to proclaim 'Yes' to full communion in 2001, we will affirm our partnership knowing that we have seriously addressed the issues.
JUBILEE
I turn now to still wider concerns. What I have to say I think can be best expressed by the biblical theme of Jubilee. This is a word that you will hear more and more in the coming months as we move into the next century. It truly is a call to lift every voice. Jubilee is a vision that proclaims release for the captives, renewal of the land and redistribution of wealth. Maria Harris, in her book Proclaim Jubilee!, has interpreted the core teachings of the Jubilee vision in this way:
"You shall let the land lie fallow, that is you shall practice Sabbath;
You shall forgive debts, letting forgiveness in;
You shall free captives and proclaim liberty;
You shall find out what belongs to whom and give it back;
You shall hold a great feast, learning to sing the canticle of 'Jubilate'."
Harris proceeds to uncover the deeper meanings of these themes in her writing, revealing their deep interweaving and their personal and public application. Undergoing them and braiding them together, is the experience of Sabbath. Sabbath means rest - rest fir the land, rest for debtors, rest for prisoners, rest for our souls and spirits. (Lev. 25;Is. 61;Luke 4)
Jubilee is a biblical vision for which there is no evidence of actual practice. Both the scriptures and the community of faith have held it as a memory and a hope connecting us profoundly to the promised reign of God. As the turn of the century approaches, Christians around the world have begun to draw on the jubilee dream as a way of renewing our faith and witness, and our relationship with God and others. Later in the Synod, we will begin to explore together the Jubilee vision for our Church. What I propose to do now is to take one of the Jubilee themes--redistribution of wealth of forgiveness of debt -- as a way of thinking about the agenda of two notable gatherings that are being held this year: the thirteenth Lambeth Conference of Bishops, and the eighth Assembly of The World Council of Churches. At both, the twin issues of international debt and globalization of the economy will be major concerns.
The Lambeth Conference, meeting this summer, gathers together bishops from dioceses rich and poor, from around the world. My hope for Lambeth is that it will not be dominated by lobby groups or media focus on single issues, but rather truly be an experience of genuine meeting connecting and opening us to one another. In preparation for Lambeth, national gatherings of bishops have worked at priorities that were then fed into regional gatherings. In every regional gathering, international debt was a major priority. It will be a key concern at Lambeth as we seek to engage ourselves in learning, and bring to our own local churches counsel as to education and action.
The World Council of Churches meets in Harare, Zimbabwe, in December of this year. A key concern there will be globalization. Dr. Konrad Raiser, General Secretary of the WCC, in an address to the Central Committee last September spoke of globalization this way:
"Globalization...has many contradictory faces. There is the globalization of the media and electronic communication and the globalization of the movements of refugees and of migrant workers...the globalization of financial transactions and...of ecological destruction. Globalization on the one hand increases opportunities for co-operation and participation, and on the other hand promotes marginalization and exclusion."
Much of what is good and positive about globalization, that which works for the common good, is (in Raiser's words) "being subordinate to the forces and demands of competition in the globalized market." He points out that policies of international, financial, and economic institutions "...have led to an unprecedented concentration of power and wealth in the hands of a small minority, thus widening the gap between rich and poor within and between countries." The talks to do with proposals for the Multi-lateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) in which our government has been a player, clearly have added to the possibility of yet more power in the hands of the few. In a remarkable irony, many local voices galvanized reality, to expose publicly the implications of a proposal which transnational money had hoped to keep secret. Globalization will be an increasing reality--the moral issue focuses on who will control it and who will benefit from it.
I have already noted that in our faith history, mountains or hills have often been associated with the presence of God; high places that have been a source of life and nurture. That is true.
But just as true, is a picture given in scripture of a mountain which held a vision of ostensible life, but of actual death. It is given in Matthew's gospel:
"...the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; and he said
to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." (Matthew 4:8-9)
The temptation that is here couched in dreams of the kingdoms of the world, and the possibility of wealth and power, is a temptation to be at a distance, high above everybody else, separate from their need. So high, that it would be possible to forget the voice that spoke at his baptism: "You are my beloved..." That is a word of life to Jesus, to us and to all creation. But the offer of "all the kingdoms of the world" is the voice of death. Jesus said to Satan, "Away with you". We need to learn how to lift our voice with Jesus. The temptation to Jesus was to be out of earshot of the voices of pain, to distance himself from the cries of poverty, homelessness and oppression. How will the voice from the margin be heard, if one is too far away to hear it?
I commend a remarkable book: When Corporations Rule the World. It's author, David Korten, a PhD from Stanford University Business School, is a member of the Harvard University School of Business, and spent years with the Ford Foundation in South East Asia. He is well qualified to address matters of global economic concerns. In his book, he has a chapter called "Illusions of the Cloud Minders". The name 'Cloud minders' came from the Star Trek series; it describes a civilization of people living miles above their planet in luxury, served by slaves on the planet below, they are totally devorced from the conditions in which their servants live. (It is not far removed from being shown the splendour of kingdoms from a high mountain. The view is enticing, but the reality is something quite different.) Korten, taking his cue from this, discloses how the very rich keep themselves isolated from the poor, and come to believe that their world is the only world. I quote one of the most famous of his illustrations: a pair of Nike running shoes that cost from $75 - $135US. are produced in Indonesia for $5.60US. The girls and women who make them are paid 15 cents an hour. Korten says:
"The $20 Million that basketball star Michael Jordan reportedly received in 1992
for promoting Nike shoes exceeds the entire payroll of the Indonesian factories
that made them...[This is] a striking example of the distortions of an economic
system that shifts rewards away from those who produce real value to those
whose primary function is to create marketing illusions to convince customers
to buy products they do not need at inflated prices."
The 'cloud minders' are those whose world is o far removed from the realities of most citizens of this planet, that they cannot see, or do not care about, what happens to those whose loves they affect.
These are concerns being raised at Lambeth and the WCC. They can also be raised here in this Synod. Jubilee, with its emphasis on sabbath (which is to know we are the beloved of God) and on release for captives (the Indonesian factory workers among them), renewal of the land and cancellation of the debt, offers us a lens that is biblical and faithful, through which we can see with new eyes and live with new hearts. It is a call to lift our voices and our lives in service of the reign of God.
A PERSONAL STATEMENT
At the beginning of the address, I quoted the first words of my personal affirmation. Permit me to quote some final words from the same spiritual exercise:
Because these affirmations are rooted in a deep commitment to the experience I have of the Lord as incarnate Brother, I affirm with the church that, like Jesus, I am a human being and that I think nothing human alien to me. Especially I strive to affirm not only my own personal distinctiveness, but to move the church to make the same affirmation in championing particularly all her minorities - of age, of gender, of ethnicity, of sexuality - and to work towards the day when the whole church can make joyfully all the difficult and necessary affirmations which spring from the incarnate love of God. I perceive that my affirmations all live within powerful, inescapable, divine paradoxes, manifested in the governing realities of my life and all human life - space and time.
The paradox of space renders me at one and the same time, local and universal, both in my person and my office. In my person I am given my uniqueness, different from anyone else, and my connectedness with all I meet and many I do not, I am sign and interpreter of local to universal, of universal to local.
The paradox of time draws from me the special commitment to be faithful to the past, to interpret that past to the church as foundation for what now is, to admit the sins and failures of that past, to work for their transformation. It draws from me as well a commitment to strive to speak and act in such a way that the future will find, in my words and actions, as much as possible to be edified by and as little as possible to be ashamed of.
That voice is mine. I pray that you may find in these words some connection with your own affirmations, and that together, we can commit ourselves to words and deeds pleasing to our God and challenging to our world.
CONCLUSION
"Get you up to a high mountain . . ."
So, let us 'get up' and begin our work together in this gathering. With a good and generous spirit, and mindful of God's grace, let us undertake to proclaim and to reveal that "Our God is here".