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Closing Eucharist
Convention 2004
St. Augustine of Canterbury, Wiesbaden
II Tim. 4: 6-8, 16-18
The Apostle Paul wrote at the end of his life, “As
for me, I am already being poured out as a libation,
and the time of my departure has come. I have fought
the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept
the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the
crown of righteousness”
...sounds like what Sue Heise and her team that has
taken such good care of all of us this week can say.
They have finished the race!
Same for Mother Martha, who is however not quite done
with another endurance contest...
What a convention! We did a lot of work together. Principally,
we addressed the structure of the Convocation by calling
for a new Mission 2006, to build on the good work of
Mission 2000. That process transformed the Convocation
and all its parishes and missions. Besides the goal
you set then to become a diocese, we have made great
progress in youth ministry, as this convention’s
youth delegation can attest. We have grown in our ability
to provide education for laypeople and ordinands. I
authorized on Thursday for use indefinitely in the Convocation
the fourth bi-lingual Book of Common Prayer, in German
and English, fulfilling yet another Mission 2000 goal
to create worship materials in other languages. And
we have with us today leaders of new non-anglophone
missions, as well as others from new English-speaking
missions.
Mission 2000 is finished—time for Mission 2006.
We have to keep on running the race!
Paul liked this race image for the life of a Christian.
“I press toward the prize,” he told the
Philippians” of the upward call,” the call
to join Jesus forever.
For Paul he can see the end coming. His life poured
out upon the altar, as blood pours from a decapitated
body. But he was a man who always poured himself out.
No holds barred, no stops. He must ahve been a difficult
man to be around, because he was always being invited
to leave. And Paul was fine with that, because he knew
that just a bit further on, there was another church
to plant.
For us there is also, just a bit further on, another
church to plant. At the Missions Committee meeting yesterday,
we began to plan for an Asian mission church in Budapest.
We are also looking at the three French congregations
that have joined us, and, listening to the Haitians’
story of launching new missions in French territory
in the Caribbean, we need to begin planting missions
ourselves in France. And here in Germany, where we have
the most congregations and missions, we also have the
call to start yet more missions.
We are running the race, pressing on toward the prize
of the upward call, not only for ourselves, but also
so that many many others may win the prize of eternal
life.
For us in the Convocation, I think we have another
image, which is building the family. Martha is our example,
as she and Marko and Marcella build their family and
put down roots. And parenthetically, let me say to you,
Martha, that we expect that those roots will not soon
be uprooted, and that you will build your family with
us for many years to come.
Not only must we hit the road and plant new churches,
we also must build up those families where they are.
This parish of St Augustine has put together a determined
team to get more property so this parish can flourish
as it can and as our Lord is, we believe, calling it
to do. Let me say that the Convocation, which exists
only to serve the needs of our congregations, will be
here for you to make that a reality. Together we’ll
find that million euros. You are not alone. The whole
community of the American Churches In Europe is behind
you, as well as the Episcopal Church. If God wills—and
we believe the Spirit is indeed willing—we shall
run that race together and we shall win.
And so too with Ascension, Munich, and All Saints,
Waterloo, and Emmanuel, Geneva, and Christ-the-King,
Frankfurt, and the Cathedral in Paris, all needing building
up. Together we shall build up our family.
And it is bigger than it looks, you know. Conner Fay,
the outgoing president of the Board of Foreign Parishes
(for the past twenty-five years!), and I looked at some
numbers last night. The Convocation of American Churches
In Europe with 4,000 communicants in the 2003 parochial
reports, is bigger than 23 dioceses out of 107 in TEC.
23 dioceses are smaller than we are, and they seem to
manage just fine. We are mightier than we know. Time
to flex some muscle to build our home!
And my good friend Bishop Zaché, we are hand
in hand with you in Haiti, as you teach us by the extraordinary
example of your diocese, the biggest diocese in the
Episcopal Church, the Church that is so much more than
USA. You show us why “ECUSA” is the wrong
nickname. It should be “TEC”—The Episcopal
Church. You have well over 100,000 communicants, 100
schools, university, hospitals, even a philharmonic
orchestra, all in the land we think of as the poorest.
But you are surely very rich in Christ, and we are willing
to learn from you. We shall build the church of France,
we shall build up Haiti, and you will teach us how to
run the race as you have done.
Why are we running? Why are we building? Today’s
gospel presents to us the well-known story of the Publican
and the Pharisee. One man thanks God that he is so righteous,
so much better than that tax collector. The tax collector
cries out to God, weighed down with his sins, “have
mercy on me, O God!
Now the tax collectors were what I was raised to despise—he
was a collaborator. My French family was in Resistance
during the war. I only recently found out just how involved,
because my grandfather didn’t want to talk about
it. “Only those who were in the French fascist
militia like to brag about what they did in the Resistance,”
he said. But I did learn what a traitor—a collaborator—is.
The tax collectors were that. They worked for the enemy,
wringing their quota of taxes from the people to give
to the Roman occupiers.
God has called us to tell all those who are crushed
under sin, and hopelessness, and poverty both material
and spiritual, that God has mercy upon them. They are
diplomats and soldiers. They come by boat to Italy and
wind up at our refuge in Rome. They are up-and-coming
executives and so-called ‘trailing spouses.’
They are loaded into planes in the United States after
serving their prison terms and dumped in Frankfurt,
like garbage. There our people at Christ-the-King and
Good Shepherd race to meet them and share God’s
love and mercy with them.
So what if they are the equivalent of collabos? Who
is not a collaborator with evil in one way or another?
If you think you’re not, you are kidding yourself,
you know. Who does not need to ask God for mercy? Who
does not need to know that indeed God is merciful? And
more, that God loves you and me and them with a ferocious
unstoppable life-giving love through Jesus in the power
of the Spirit.
Jesus points out that the self-righteous fellow fell
under God’s judgment for his condemnation of the
other. The collaborator went home right with God. But
did he in fact know that?
Our race is against time, for there are all over Europe
and around the world that we do influence millions of
collaborators crushed under despair and guilt and shame.
Groaning in their poverty, whether in gilded apartments
or in cardboard boxes under bridges. They are the reason
we exist. They are the ones we are to serve. And the
Convocation and specifically I myself are here to serve
you and them, for Jesus’ sake.
And as we race to serve their need for Jesus, we also
must build homes for our families, all of us who know
Jesus and share the mercy of God.
So I am calling, with the unanimous support of your
convention, a year to seek God’s dream anew for
us. A year to decide how we shall allocate our resources
to continue the great growth of our work. A year to
sit down and count the cost, and figure out how better
to administer the running. And then in Frankfurt next
October, we shall decide and declare how we plan to
build our future for God. That the hopeless might hope,
for we know that we shall never hope in vain.
As I adjourn our convention at the end of this Eucharist,
and the folks from Frankfurt race off with the Canterbury
Cross, let us take a day to celebrate the great work
we have done here. To thank our wonderful hosts. To
enjoy each other company. And then, my friends, go race
off to the four corners of Europe and indeed, away to
the ends of the earth, pouring out our lives for others
that we might live with them forever with Jesus.
The Rt. Rev. Pierre W. Whalon, D.D.
Bishop in charge
Convocation of American Churches in Europe
23, avenue George V
75008 Paris France
phone +33153238406
office@tec-europe.org
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