Someone once commented that the ministry of the Bishop of Alaska must be rather peripatetic. Well, I don’t know about that, but I sure do travel around a lot.
This Sunday, September 15, I will visit with St. Jude’s, North Pole. Later that night (actually early Monday morning), I travel to Minneapolis to attend the Living Waters Cooperative conference, “A New Day Draws Near.” The two-day conference includes lots of workshops and opportunities to learn and share how the Episcopal Church is reimaging church and community in the changing context and landscape of faith and religious practice. The Conference offers several interesting workshops. For more information about Living Waters Cooperative and the conference, visit their Facebook site: Click Here
I am excited to visit and learn from friends, colleagues, and our siblings across the Episcopal Church. In Alaska, we often fall into a trap thinking we are unique; that our context and challenges are different from any others in the Church. While there is some truth to that–few of the domestic Episcopal Dioceses have the transportation and isolation challenges that we face, I have discovered that we share far more in common than we think. Especially when it comes to addressing the shifting cultural dynamics of faith and religious expression in our world.
Where we often still hold fast to the idea of the Episcopal Church as a large, well resourced, community served by a full-time priest, the reality is that most Episcopal communities are small (fewer than 25 people on a Sunday) and more and more dependent on Lay Leadership.
And yet, the potential to grow in faith, ministry, and witness to the Gospel remains rich. Our task is to seek the Kingdom of God, open to and understanding that the Kingdom of God is found in new and perhaps unimagined expressions of community as much as it is found in our traditional models.
I’m looking forward to the conference and to our Diocesan Convention October 3-5 where our theme: “Sailing to other shores” will invite us to seek the Kingdom of God in reimagined ways.
I return from Minneapolis late next week to visit St. Matthew’s, Fairbanks and take part in the installation of the Reverend Stephen Reed as their next Rector. I am off to visit Huslia and the Church of the Good Shepherd the following Sunday.
A peripatetic ministry indeed! And everywhere go, the Kingdom of God is there in the wonderful and faithful hearts of the people. Let us journey together in the Kingdom of God.
