Saint Andrew’s Net | July/August 2006 | Vol. XXI No. 5 | Page 1

I know this is not true, but I have to say it anyway. This summer has felt like the hottest summer I have ever experienced. It is definitely not the time to have your air conditioner goes bad, but such is life in the Browning household. Melissa reminded me the other day that I say the same thing every summer, but it feels like we are setting weather records every day. I know I am not alone on this. It has been pretty hot, but we will survive. The humidity will break, temperatures will come down, and the ocean breeze will cool us all down. It just feels really hot right this minute. 

There are some who would say that the Episcopal Church is feeling a lot of heat these days—that things have never been worse, and so on and so on. If one were to read all of the newspaper articles recently, you would certainly get that impression. Of course, I am talking about our most recent General Convention, and specifically its response to the Windsor Report on the issue of sexuality. If you saw the articles you probably thought that was all that was done at General Convention, but that is not true. Recently, the Bishop of New York, Mark Sisk wrote, “The Convention itself did three things: (1) it elected a new Presiding Bishop; (2) it wrestled with the requests of the Windsor Report and associated requests from the Anglican Consultative Council and the Primates of the Anglican Communion, and (3) everything else. Everything else: The third of these achievements—‘everything else’—is easily overlooked in all the energy over the first two, but this third was extraordinarily important. Found here is a new focus on our faithful participation in the Millennium Development Goals, a commitment to our continuing focus on youth and young adult ministries, and a renewed attempt to help this nation wrestle, in a constructive way, with the burden of the sin of slavery. We approved interim Eucharistic sharing with the United Methodist Church. There were, as well, a plethora of liturgical measures considered, including the adoption of the Revised Common Lectionary [on the First Sunday of Advent, 2007]. A number of additional commemorations for Lesser Feast and Fasts were moved forward or authorized, notably including Thurgood Marshall. As an indication of the actual importance of these items, as appropriate, they each found an appropriate place in the National Church budget for the next triennium.”

I share this with you, because it is important to see that much more was done than simply talking about the issue of sexuality. I am not trying to downplay the issue, but sometimes we have a hard time looking past our own noses. The Episcopal Church is doing good things and we are moving forward even in the midst of our struggles. There are thousands of Episcopalians who are committed to this church even as the heat beats down on us, and sometimes I think its okay to feel hot. This whole process is going to take a long time, so just hold on, and let’s keep doing what we do—which is to love God and love one another. I am sure that when next summer rolls around we are going to say, “It’s the hottest summer so far,” but then the humidity will break, temperatures will come down, and the ocean breeze will cool us down.

God’s Peace,

  Peter