Bishops' Blog

So What is Our "Book" After All?

Linked here is a resolution to change the Constitution of the Episcopal Church at the General Convention in Louisville in July of 2024.  In keeping with the Canons, we have placed the proposed resolution in our Diocesan Convention materials, but I also wanted to inform you of the proposal, since it has important implications for our common life in the coming years.

Usually when we think of a ‘book’ we think of a bound collection of words of paper, cover, and binding.  To be sure, our notion has been unsettled by the ubiquity of the Kindle option in our time.  For us Episcopalians the idea of a book and our shared life of prayer are conjoined in the Book of Common Prayer, which, with all its variants and translations, has come to us from Cranmer and the 16^th Century. To be sure, unity in one book has been more complicated at times than it seemed: Anglo-Catholics in the 19^th Century used the Missal, and our older BCP 1928 is still available under certain limitations.  But in general we as Anglicans have understood ourselves as ‘Prayer Book Christians.’

Now the General Convention seeks to redefine the book as any and all rites approved by the Convention for general use. (The proposed change would actually go into effect in 2027). The ‘book’ is now actually a file in the cloud gathering all these up. This aims to cut the Gordian knot of rites in the book, and those that are for trial use, and those that are more occasional.  While the proposal is certainly simple, it has the disadvantage of lumping together rites of very different importance, a blessing of pets next to Holy Baptism.  It also means that not all rites in the ‘Book’ have undergone the longer and more scrutinized vetting. 

I should hasten to add that, thanks to the Communion across Difference taskforce, on which our diocese has been well represented, there is a resolution to embed in the canons themselves the option, now expressed in its own resolution of GC 2018, to use the 1979 Prayer Book on an on-going basis.  This is a generous-spirited proposal which I as a more traditional Episcopalian would find reassuring.  It expresses the ‘big-tent’ approach to our Church which I hope we pursue.  The 1979 BCP would be a book in the ‘Book’ of the cloud.

The question that is left open is whether, in addition to both of these, there might still be a process of revision so as to produce a new BCP at some future date in the new decade. This would be ‘book’ in a third sense. As a child I recall the Green and Zebra books of drafts headed toward the 1979 BCP. I have my doubts that we have the resources, patience, or institutional stamina for such an effort. I wonder if we oughtn’t to use the energy we do have on catechism, evangelism, and finding new forms of cooperation in the demanding years to come. 

The great liturgical scholars remind us that change should be slow, and measured in multiple generations.  We are only beginning to inhabit the new prayer book we have.  Patience in liturgy, and urgency in evangelism and rebuilding would behoove us more.

Peace,

+GRS

Through a Glass Darkly: The Next Chapter in the Life of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas

This past meeting of the Executive Council, a member sagely asked for a concise summary of our vision and strategy going into the next few years. We attempted a version of this in our 2024 budget, which was organized around ‘oneness,’ the office of the bishop and various endeavors to underline our being one body, ‘flourishing’, help offered to specific parishes, and ‘the future,’ actions we hope are getting us ready for what is to come. These categories are also implied in this short statement. 

Strategic plans have an implicit tilt toward new initiatives. In fact a great deal of our time at the diocese has been, and will continue to be, with the perennial, and crucial, work: pastoral care, support in searches, help with stewardship, teaching, etc.

Years ago I heard about how Brown University put in its campus sidewalks. It let students walk for a year, and then paved the parts they had already worn clear. In a similar spirit,  I offer this response to the request: a statement that aggregates what we are already doing in a way, that shows how ecclesiological assumptions and contextual trends conspire to show a path ahead. It is a draft, since the context we minister in is changing constantly. This has no official status, nor do I anticipate any vote on it. If it provokes conversation, that would be a good outcome.

I could have said more about what the next General Convention may bring. It is included on list. Be assured that we will provide sessions of both ‘pre-game’ and ‘post-game’ commentary.

Of course the only vision statement we really need we already have:   ‘forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.’ (Philippians 3:14)

Peace +GRS

The Next Chapter 

Insofar as society in north Texas will be…

-Increasingly ethnically diverse,

-Bilingual,

-Politically divisive,

-Recovering still from the trauma of COVID,

-Graying among the Anglo populace (including Episcopalians),

-Rapidly growing economically and demographically, and

-Challenged in unprecedented ways technologically

And insofar as we as the Diocese of Dallas have

-A vocation of remembering our theological tradition, on behalf of the whole Church,

-Lived out in a spirit of ‘communion across difference,’ and

-A sense of the Church as one across racial lines,

-At once bound canonically to our own Church, and missionally to the wider Anglican Communion                                                

We aim in the next three years to

• Plant two Churches in growing communities north of Dallas, (as well as getting ready in Sherman, Kaufman County, etc.)
• Strengthen multi-cultural and Spanish-speaking congregations, (e.g. east McKinney)
• Continue to ordain young people, many of whom are on the ‘Canterbury Road’, with a
• Special focus on female and bi-lingual ordinands
• Continue to revive youth ministry in the diocese, (as we ‘travel lighter’ in infrastructure),
• Support and make flexible use of residential theological education,
• Encourage forms of cooperative ministry among smaller congregations,
• Strengthen our ties with predominantly African- American Churches,
• Forge new parish ties with global Anglican partners (e.g. our Cairo missionaries)
• Provide theological opportunities and fellowship for clergy and laity (clergy conference, RADVO, theology and technology lectureship, parish and mission days, new Spanish Stanton Center offerings)
• In a renewed Cathedral complex, including
• Contemplative prayer and healing ministry, to supplement our evangelistic efforts, and
• Articulate our vision and common life in relation to prospective changes out of General Convention 2024