Digital bishops

I was asked to preach at the consecration of my good friend, Nicholas Knisely as the XII Bishop of Rhode Island this past Saturday.  The sermon, which I thought long and hard about, got some good press.  Here it is for those interested:

NICK KNISELY CONSECRATION NOV 17, 2012

Digital Bishop

We have all been at meetings where the first thing the speaker does is to ask the audience to turn off their cell phones.  This afternoon I am going to do just the opposite—I am going to ask you to take them out and to turn them on!   Why? because you, my brothers and sisters, have a got yourselves a bishop for the 21st Century, a digital bishop, one who is going to help you communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ in a whole new and exciting way.  So get those smart phones ready, because beginning today you are about to tweet, facebook, and social media your way into the minds and hearts of a new generation--those who may text dozens of messages everyday, but have never heard the Message, who belong to virtual communities but not to a community of faith, who may be Linked-In, but are not yet raised up.  Who follow their friends on Facebook but who are not yet followers of Christ.

If you think that I am putting you on, that is because as Episcopalians we are seriously out of touch with a world where the average teenager sends over 3000 text messages a month, where the number one goal of nearly all Fortune 500 companies is to increase their social media presence, and where Facebook has over a billion users, making it the equivalent of the third largest country in the world.  In the past, the church used the revolution caused by the printing press to share the Gospel with the world.  It has pretty much dropped the ball ever since, missing out on the opportunities given to it by film, radio and television.  Is it too late?  Here are some are two scary facts—80% of people looking for a church to attend for the first time, go to the internet, and yet only 20% of Episcopal churches have an active and up-to-date website.  Here is another one.  There are 110 active bishops in this country, only six are on Twitter, and yet at our General Convention this summer, when we were discussing the blessings of same sex unions, over 10 million people worldwide were following us on Twitter!  File this under #majorfail.

Of course your new bishop is one of those high tech bishops.  In fact, he might be said, like Al Gore, to have invented the internet, at least for Episcopalians.  You will probably hear from him the story of how as a graduate student back in the 1980’s he realized that the then clunky computers he was using would have tremendous potential, and he set out to learn all about them and especially about how the church could use the Web.   By now you all know that Nick is a smart guy, how many bishops have an advanced degree in physics?  What you may not know is how much he knows about technology. He taught our Arizona clergy how to blog, and as the cathedral Dean in Phoenix, so much of his time was spent consulting about IT, that I considered getting him a tee-shirt which read, “NO, I will not fix your computer.”

Your new bishop’s desire to embrace technology is motivated by far more than a desire to be cool, hip, or wired.  It comes instead from a longing to connect, especially with those in our society who are often on the margins of the churches’ attention, especially young people.

Bishop Thomas Marsh Clark,  5ht   Bishop of Rhode Island told his convention in 1898:  “Innovation is not always improvement, but there can be no improvement without innovations. That which is more familiar to us was a novelty once, and that which is new to us will become familiar in the process of time."

Your new bishop embodies that tradition of Yankee innovation.

Those of you who were at the electing convention will remember that when Nick’s election was announced, you all sang his favorite hymn, “They cast their nets in Galilee.” We sang it again just now.  This was more appropriate than you may know.  Years ago, I served in a parish in Old Lyme Connecticut, not too far from here, and so my family would often come over Rhode Island to take the ferry to Block Island.  That ferry leaves from—Galilee, Rhode Island!  (As I recall there used to be a pretty good seafood restaurant there).  Galilee, Rhode Island is named of course after the place where Jesus did most of his ministry, and from whence he called his disciples.  Why did Jesus base his ministry in Galilee?   It was not his hometown.  He had to make quite a trip to get there.  The answer I think is that Galilee was the cultural crossroads of Jesus’ day.  It was home to many different ethnic groups, and hosted many different religious traditions.  Even though it was rural, it was a melting pot, a kind of first century Times Square.  

It is to that mix of culture and beliefs that Jesus preaches his message.  His audience is not the good, temple-going, establishment type Jew of Jerusalem.  But the marginalized and the forgotten.  Remember all the dismissive comments from the Jewish establishment about Jesus “the Galilean”.  Hence someone for them not to be taken seriously.

A digital bishop cannot but be concerned about one group found in our own modern Galilee of high tech pop culture, and that is youth. Its is to youth that the church must “cast its INTERnet.”   Internet communication is not a toy for young people—it is a way of life.  It is the language they speak, and if the church is going to grow, it will have to realize this.  This fact is especially hard for Episcopalians, a greying denomination where the average age is 62, and where the average number of youth involved in an Episcopal parish is 8.  We all say  we want to attract young people and children and families, and yet most church budgets allocate more for coffee hour than they do for children and youth.

One of the few dioceses in this country that is growing in numbers has done so because of a concerted effort a decade ago to put a youth minister in every parish.  Your new bishop will also make the needs of youth a priority.  He talks to them, not down to them. And he speaks their language both online and offline.  I have seen him do that at our Arizona diocesan camp and at the cathedral in Phoenix, which thanks to his efforts now does have a full time youth director.  Nick knows that those fishermen in Galilee who followed Jesus were not the bearded figures we tend to imagine, but were all probably about 18-20 years old.  When they followed the Savior, they left their old man, their father Zebedee in the boat.  Hmm,  I wonder what that might mean?

But there is no use in effectively communicating if we don’t have something to communicate.  And your new bishop is clear as to what that is—the Good News of Jesus Christ.  This might seem like a no-brainer, but sadly that is sometimes not the case in our church.  I remember very well the meeting I had with the Arizona Cathedral Chapter just before they called Nick as their new Dean seven years ago.  They were down to two candidates, and I was with them to help break the deadlock, I asked each member of the cathedral chapter to tell me what they liked most about the two finalists.  One woman, said, “I really like that Nick Knisely, there is only one problem, in his interview he talked about Jesus an awful lot.”  Another member of the chapter quickly chimed in.  “Oh, don’t worry about that, he said, “It’s just a fad, they are all doing it these days!”

Happily we have come a long way since then.  The cathedral in Phoenix has seen a nearly threefold increase in attendance since six years ago, due mainly to Nick’s instance that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is to be proclaimed in that place with power, clarity and conviction.  Nationally too, we have learned the hard way that merely resting on our laurels as genteel post-Victorian protestants is not going to bring new people in. We need to be absolutely focused on our mission and unapologetic about our church:  Episcopalian and proud of it!  

--We need to be clear in our theology—
No more Unitarians in vestments—
--We must be compelling in our worship—(no more mumbling our way through the prayer book and droning hymns by 19th Century dead white guys)—
--We have to be demanding in our formation as disciples—no more confirmation classes in which a few weeks of instruction to bored eighth graders is the standard for joining the church.

Bishop Andy Doyle of Texas (another digital bishop) has a new book called Unabashedly Episcopalian in which he rightly challenges us to fall in love once again with our Episcopal church. It’s not enough just aspire to follow Jesus, we must live our out discipleship in a unique church community with a particularly rich theology and tradition which we can be proud of.  In his words:

“I am not challenging you to come up with your own really cool understanding of our church, but rather to choose to form people of every age in the way of the Episcopal Church...to be unabashedly Episcopalian.”


Nick, we are all called to be unabashedly Episcopalian, and today, we call you to be our bishop unabashedly!  And so I would ask you to now stand.  

You stand facing the altar, but you also stand with with 200 years of history and ministry of the Diocese of Rhode Island, standing behind you.  You stand on the shoulders of its previous twelve bishops, most importantly those of Gerry Wolfe, and the clergy and lay leadership who elected you.   They have chosen to consecrate you on the feast day of two great bishops of the medieval English Church, Hugh of Lincoln and Robert Grosseteste.  Hugh, because he was known for his great personal piety, and his gentle pastoring of his clergy and people.  Legend has it that as he traveled around his diocese he was so humble that he chose to walk rather than ride his horse.  Although this might in fact be possible given the compact nature of your diocese, I do understand they have provided you with a Toyota.   Robert Grosseteste on the other hand was noted for his intellect.  He was chancellor of Oxford University before he was elected bishop of Lincoln, where he wrote on physics and astronomy and pioneered the scientific method--sound familiar?  His great learning earned him his surname of Grosseteste which means literally “swelled head,” or “egg head,” as we might say today--so be careful!  It is these two qualities of pastor and teacher that this diocese was looking for, and it is these two gifts that you will bring them.   Indeed, you have already began to care for them when you contacted every congregation after Hurricane Sandy, and you have already begun to teach them on your online blog.   As you continue this Episcopal ministry, always be mindful the changing nature of the church you serve.  Be to them a true digital bishop, using technology to strengthen relationships, to reach the unchurched, and to proclaim the Good News.  

And Karen and Kenney, I would ask you to stand.  For you have an important job too.  Your task is to remind Nick that his ministry begins at home, and that his care for you is to be above all others.  I once heard a wise old priest say that in ministry, the clergy person is required to keep many different balls in the air--some of them are made of rubber and some are made of glass. The rubber ones represent work, the glass ones, family.  If you should happen to drop one of the rubber balls, it will bounce, but the glass ones will shatter.  So Karen and Kenny, remind your husband and father that he may be the chief pastor of the Diocese, but you are his most important flock.

And the rest of you, members of this great Diocese, would you all please stand.  You have probably all noticed that you are not standing in church building today, but on an athletic playing field.  I hope this symbolism in not lost on you, for you are all called upon to be part of a team.  Nick may be your new captain, but he can’t play the game without all of you, from those who are the starting players, to those who spend most of their time on the bench, or carrying water.  The team called the Diocese of Rhode Island needs all of you.  And it needs you to both treat your captain with respect and with care.  No intentional fouls, no elbowing on the court, no playing out of bounds,  and make sure you all call for plenty of time-outs.  Talk to your captain and not about him.  Make sure he takes his day off, and remember you are all wearing the same uniform--you know, the one which has written on it, “the cross is my anchor.”

Now sit down and get out your phones.  To paraphrase Jesus in our Gospel for today, “Be dressed for action and with your phones turned on!”  Before you leave here today I want you to text, twitter, or post an important message.  Your message is going to reach more people than has ever happened before in the Diocese of Rhode Island.  Here is the math--the average smartphone user has about 100 friends or followers.  There are about 2000 people here today.  So that means nearly a quarter of million people are going to receive this proclamation:

“The Episcopal Church in Rhode Island is a church for the 21st Century.

You  invited to join us  in the name of Jesus.

For we have a great new bishop--thanks be to God!”

Think Before Your "Share."

Think Before You “Share”

Recently I saw a YouTube video posted on facebook called “Rich Kids of Instagram.” (http://richkidsofinstagram.tumblr.com/).  The video featured a group of twenty-somethings unselfconsciously sharing their pictures of lavish beach parties, consuming countless bottles of Dom Perignon champagne, getting off their private jet in the Hamptons, all of which they post on websites to impress their friends. Over the top—right?

It got me to wondering if those of us with more modest means who try to hold to a Christian ethic of a simple life, attempting to respect the environment and meet the needs of the poor, have not succumbed to a similar temptation. When does sharing our blessings on Facebook become flaunting them?  A few cases in point culled from those I follow on facebook:  A priest wonders whether three trips to England is too much for one year. A deputy to General Convention posts the nightly dinner menu (with pictures) taken at Indianapolis’ most posh restaurants. A vacationing Senior Warden shares several pictures each day of the lavish golf courses he is playing in Hawai’i; a bishop poses with glamorous Hollywood celebrities at a recent fundraiser.

For my part I can think of times where I have done similarly, including sharing snapshots of the red rocks taken from the balcony of my home in Sedona, Arizona, purportedly one of the state’s more affluent communities.

What must our readers think?  What are we thinking? Are we on some subconscious level advocating our own Episcopal brand of the “prosperity Gospel” (follow Jesus and he will add to your bank account) or is this simply inadvertent boasting—”see what I have?” Don’t you wish you you had this too?

And can we include in our public boasting our quickness to broadcast photographs of our beautiful grandchildren, or gatherings of our  huge number of happy wine-drinking friends, or our designer wardrobe?  It is likely that those of our acquaintances who don’t enjoy such gifts will either be hurt, or simply envious, and envy is one of the seven deadly sins we don’t want to be responsible for engendering in others.

I am convinced that we Christians, especially those of us who are ordained, are not doing ourselves or our church any favors by these public displays of our material blessings. We are a Christian denomination which has always advocated for the poor and for a just economy, but do we practice what we preach?  Or are we more driven to impress our friends with what we have than to advocate for those who have not?

We might fool ourselves by thinking that our postings are only for our friends—although why should we boast to our friends?—but if there is one thing that social media has taught us, it is that anything we post on the web has the potential for becoming public in a big way. The average facebook member has several hundred friends and they in turn each have several hundred. In such a geometric progression it doesn't take much for our innocent boast about our new SUV,  European vacation, or five-star restaurant meal to go viral.  

Jesus is always reminding his followers about the danger of attachment to things,  material possessions, power, and prestige—you all know the proof texts.  What is even worse for Jesus is when we use our possessions in ways which harm others.  It is often said that social media is “word of mouth on steroids” for its power to reach so many people so quickly. What are the words in our mouth, or on our facebook page?  Facebook bragging is bragging on steroids and it has the power to harm not only our own soul, but the faith of those around us.  

Let’s “share” the things that really matter.  

Wrong on Every Count

One expects good journalism from the Wall Street Journal.  What we got instead today in their reporting of General Convention was an inaccurate and nasty diatribe against the Episcopal Church in general and our Presiding Bishop in particular.


I hesitate even to give out the link to this example of muckraking, but I guess I must if I am to refute the errors it contains. If you are an Episcopalian and read it, be prepared to be slimed.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303919504577520950409252574.html?mod=WSJ_article_comments#articleTabs%3Darticle


The reporter himself as an Episcopalian, but it is clear that he knows little or nothing about our Church.  I very much doubt he even attended.


The Article is entitled, "What Ails the Episcopalians" and begins by saying that General Convention "is noted for sheer ostentation and carnival atmosphere. For seven straight nights, lavish cocktail parties spilled into pricey steakhouses, where bishops could use their diocesan funds to order bottles of the finest wines."


I can tell you as a veteran of three of these gatherings, that I have never come close to a lavish party or a bottle of expensive wine.  I took my breakfast at Starbucks, and lunch was usually at Subway.  Our last  dinner get together as the Arizona deputation was at a local sports bar--pictured below! Not a bottle of expensive wine in sight!

That's for starters. The Presiding Bishop (whom she incorrectly calls "Bishop Shori"), her next target,  she calls "secretive an authoritarian", who rules through a cabal of committees which she controls and who "brazenly" carries a metropolitan cross in procession.  The first charge is laughable, the second just plain wrong.  Previous Presiding Bishops carried this cross because they are, well, Primates of the Church!


Next comes a whole litany of attacks one usually hears from the ultra-right--the Episcopal Church has declined because of its liberal stands on social issues (actually all expressions of organized religion in the United States are in numerical decline, the Southern Baptists--hardly a liberal church--being the leader).  The church is in financial trouble because of the cost of litigation over breakaway groups which have tried to take our property--also not true, most legal costs have been born by individual dioceses, and in fact giving to the church increased this year.


If the reporter had bothered to talk to those of us who attended, he would have learned that General Convention was a wonderfully hopeful and positive experience, with better collegiality and cooperation that I have ever seen.


We Episcopalians can be hopeful about a church that has the self-awareness to take on its own restructuring, take prophetic positions on the world's urgent problems, include all people in its sacramental life, and proclaim to the Good News of Jesus in many new and creative ways.  And we do it all in a uniquely democratic manner, which is sometimes messy, but always Spirit-filled. 


I am at loss to understand how the Journal would permit this kind of article to published in its paper without even checking basic facts.  Could it be that the editorial board has connections with some of those groups who seek to discredit "mainline" American churches?  In any event, such "reporting" is hardly worthy of such a venerable publication.


I have only one more thing to say to the Wall Street Journal:  I am cancelling my subscription.


[Note:  Since I wrote this on July 13, I have learned a few things.  First, the Wall Street Journal reporter is not a woman, as I originally thought, and he has written before for Virtue Online.   I was also reminded that the Journal is now owned by Rupert Murdoch who uses his media outlets to further his own right wing agenda.  I would also recommend two additional responses. George Congar is a conservative writer, but he too has panned this particular hatchet job. http://www.getreligion.org/2012/07/rum-sodomy-and-the-cash-the-episcopal-church/  Scott Gunn, head of Forward Movement Publications, provides a closer criticism of the article at http://www.sevenwholedays.org/2012/07/13/errors-wsj/]

Arizona youth workers

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The video below

Whoops, this posting should have come before the video. Still having trouble with wifi connection--each place we are in, room, hearing room, HOB, has it own set of challenges getting on. As time goes on, I hope to get that fixed.

There are new policies in affect about use of electronic equipment in meetings. For example, no pictures from the meetings unless we have permission of those being pictured, and no tweeting or facebooking from the floor, so most of my reports will have to be after the fact.

I will continue to do my best to keep in touch with all of you!


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Trying video again

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Arrival in Indy

We had an uneventful trip to Indy. As suspected it is hot and humid here, although comfortable in the hotel. We are having some phone and internet issues which I hope to get fixed tomorrow. Right now, I am trying to do this blog over my iphone!

After we arrived, we went right into a Province VIII meeting. Although the Province does some great work, the administrative logistics always upset me. The meeting, badly organized and boring was at least offset by the reports about some of the good work being done. Carmen Guerrero spoke as did our own Winnie Follett about the work of ECW. I could have done with the mind numbing report on canon changes. Let's see if I can upload a picture of Carmen giving her report and we will call it quits for this first night.



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