Lay Delegate Reflects on the 116th Council of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta

Delegate Scott Smoot with verger Jessica Kirchner, participant in Scott's EfM class

 

The Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta's 116th council took place in the main gym of Holy Innocents Episcopal School, established in 1959 by the Episcopal church of the same name. Scott's mother taught there from the early 1970s to the early 2000s. Here's a photo of the same location, then and now.

At a presentation by The Office of Congregational Vitality (vitality@episcopal.org), Scott joined Sue and Sharon, co-mentors of the morning EfM group at St. James. The presenters advertised services offered to congregations regarding stewardship, leadership, and congregational discernment.

There we participated in an exercise based on the late John Westerhoff's list of Anglican characteristics. Stations were set up along the walls of the room for the "temperaments" centered on aesthetics, nature, history, moderation, intuition, comfort with ambiguity, open-mindedness, catholicity, and politics (but not "partisanship" -- one participant told us that a round-table discussion of the Scripture "Behold, I am doing a new thing" earlier in the day had turned ugly when partisanship got involved). The other stations identified Anglican "spiritualities" described as mystical, pastoral, sacramental, communial, and liturgical.

We were asked to stand by one of these that excited us personally and to share our experiences with anyone else who joined us at that station.

When we were asked to identify one of these that's strong at our church and one that's pretty weak, we began to understand how this might be a useful tool for congregations in setting goals.

One of the resources available from the Center is "MapDash," which analyzes data from the church's surrounding neighborhood for the purpose of discerning needs and resources.

The Bishop's sermon drew on a poem about the "minutes" of our lives, and a bit of Isaiah. Before the prophet talks about "a new thing," there's a passage of remembrance of God's great deeds. Then Isaiah tells us to forget about all that -- Bishop Wright called that a "what the--?" move. The Bishop guessed that some of us might be anxious wondering what "new thing" we might have to do and reminded us that it's God who's doing something.

The music was provided by a "flaming Baptist" who led a gospel choir of diverse make-up, young and old, black, white, Hispanic, lay and ordained. The keyboardist accompanied some spoken word parts of the service when we're accustomed to silence. For example, the Psalm was spoken -- alternating high voices and low voices -- with accompaniment. All joined in singing a swinging refrain after every few verses. The Bishop called this an experiment that might inspire us to try something new and appropriate in our parishes.

Saturday

Worship on Saturday was led by youth from the Diocese. The speaker was one of the seniors from my church, St. James, Marietta. Evie Hague spoke of mustard seeds and the mustard plant she grew in Miss Nancy's Sunday school cloass. She told us that the noun "faith" is more properly thought of as a verb, e.g. I faith Jesus. "The grammar may be painful," she said, "but the theology is true."

We used our handy electronic clickers to vote for a few resolutions. Yes, the Council's handling of COVID was retroactively ratified and proactively authorized in the case of another emergency. Yes, parishes are strongly encouraged to make new buildings carbon-neutral according to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards and to make plantings environmentally-friendly. Yes, the Diocese will continue to bless same sex marriages even if, hypothetically, these would not be recognized by the state. Deacons can sit on the Standing Committee (that sounds like a joke), and they'll be paid something -- that's new -- but only the minimum needed for them to qualify for benefits, so as not to burden the needy churches they serve.

When business was done and we were ready to bolt, Bishop Diana Akiyama of the Diocese of West Oregon won from us several minutes of rapt attention as she reflected on what she had seen and heard at our council.

She spoke of our "elasticity," seeing evidence of deep listening, respect, prayer, and vibrant ministries. Our other characteristic is "curiosity," for she had wandered around the room during debate, and witnessed leaning in, the "caution and courage" that are needed to be curious. She did wonder if our energy put into legislation might be a way to avoid "heavier" work.

Of the youth presentation, she said that youth ministry is just a "discretionary" item of the budget in many dioceses; obviously not so in Atlanta, and concentrating on raising youth in the faith is imperative.

A traditionalist in Episcopal music, she said that her first thought yesterday when she saw a drum set on the dais was "Shit." But she learned from the worship service. She had heard us sing thanks before we got to controversy, and saw that gratitude "creates a space where you can deal with things that hurt."

These bishops are high-powered people who earn the respect we give them. I also was very impressed by some clergy who came to the mic a lot -- "frequent fliers," Bishop Wright called them -- Father Ben Day was one; State Representative and Priest Kim Jackson was another. Canon George Maxwell and Dean Sam Candler, both of the Cathedral, spoke eloquently, wisely, and graciously to controversial questions.

[Of related interest: See a curated list of my blogposts about the faith and institution of the Episcopal Church at my page Those Crazy Episcopalians]