Bishop Charles vonRosenberg's
address to the 20th Annual Diocesan Convention

Madame President, fellow East Tennessee Episcopalians — lay and ordained, and guests who honor us by your presence: I am blessed to address you once again on the occasion of our Annual Diocesan Convention. This is in fact the sixth time that I have done so.

At the outset, let me express the thanks of us all to God for the life, witness, and ministry of the Rt. Rev. Robert Gould Tharp, Second Bishop of the Diocese of East Tennessee. Bishop Tharp was a friend to all, a counselor to many and a compassionate leader of this diocese. He died last May, and we miss him. I invite us all now into a moment of grateful silence for Bob Tharp. … “May his soul, and the souls of all the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.”

I want to offer the thanks of everyone here to our hosts — the parish of St. John's, Johnson City. The Convention Committee has been recognized already in our gathering, but we do want to be certain that they are appropriately thanked. I also want to add here how grateful I am for our Convention theme for this year: “Unity, Constancy and Peace.” That theme — as a goal and a prayer for our time together — commends us to an admirable and timely task.

On a very personal note, I want to express my appreciation to the people of our diocese who have indicated your interest, concern, support and prayers on my behalf in recent months. I cannot overstate my sense of gratitude and thanksgiving in response to your words of encouragement and good will. The awareness that our lives are bound together in this part of the Body of Christ provides me with the strength and love that I need to do my best to accomplish the ministry to which I have been called. Thank you!

Staff Changes
As always, I want to give thanks to the staff at Diocesan House. I often call them “my staff” — proudly and with gratitude — but in reality, they work long, hard and well on behalf of us all. I am grateful to them for the fine and faithful work they do.

In particular, there have been — or soon will be — several changes in our staff configuration. Carolyn Dicer will be retiring following this convention, after 12 years of service on diocesan staff and more than 25 years’ involvement in diocesan ministry. There will be other opportunities to acknowledge Carolyn’s longtime, dedicated efforts later in this convention, but I do want to express now my deep appreciation for what she has meant to the life of our diocese and to me. In addition, Alice Clayton has begun working part time, as she pursues other interests in her life, in addition to the demands of diocesan ministry. Amy Morehous has resigned as bookstore manager, as she prepares for an addition to her family. On the other hand, Beth Anderson has agreed to become the new bookstore manager. Also, following the direction of last year’s convention, Alex Haralson was called as our part-time Youth Coordinator. Finally, Rick Govan has come on board as our Lay Ministry Development Director, since we met last in convention. I am grateful to God for the gifts and talents — as well as the commitment and energy — that these people have brought to the task of ministry in the Diocese of East Tennessee. Please join me now in expressing our thanks for the ministries of all our diocesan staff.

I hope that you know that the offices for our staff are in a new location, as of last summer. St. John’s Cathedral approached me several years ago about the possibility of purchasing the former Diocesan House, which is adjacent to the Cathedral and includes space that they need. After long and careful deliberation, we moved forward to make this possibility a reality. Our new offices are on property purchased from the Episcopal School of Knoxville. And I am happy to say that the property, the building, the furnishings, the move and the old mortgage all were paid in full from the proceeds of our financial transaction with the Cathedral! I am grateful, again, to my staff — especially Alice Clayton — in facilitating this challenging change of space. I also am grateful to those leaders of the diocese in days past, who made possible the building of the former Diocesan House and indirectly, the current one as well.

State of the Church: Differing Perspectives
The Annual Address of the bishop gives me the opportunity to offer a yearly evaluation of “the state of the Church,” as well as to reflect on some hopes and dreams for the future. In preparation for the address this particular year, I have thought a great deal about various perspectives on the state that the Church is in currently. It seems to me that the state of the Church varies a great deal — perhaps more so in this year than in others — depending on one’s perspective. For instance, some Provinces in the worldwide Anglican Communion have been quite vocal about their perspective on the state of the Episcopal Church, USA. Also, we might consider the perspective of the Episcopal Church on the Diocese of East Tennessee. In addition, there is the perspective that other denominations might have on the Episcopal Church. And of course, there are many, many other perspectives that we could consider.

At the very least, we need to observe that our confusing times result in conflicting perspectives. Subsequently, differing evaluations emerge about the state of the Church in our day.

State of the Church: East Tennessee
I cannot do justice to all those perspectives, nor can any one person. The best I can do, after acknowledging legitimate differences, is to offer you something of my own perspective, at this time — flawed and hindered by its particularity. Also, as an introduction to my point of view, I wrote a letter in anticipation of this event … a letter included in your pre-convention packet and posted on our diocesan Web site. I hope that you have found time to read and to consider what I wrote there as a foundation of what I will say here.

As I considered the subject of perspectives — and, in particular, my own — I kept returning to the fact that I often observe our diocesan life from two viewpoints: the altars of our churches and the rear of our processional lines! As your bishop, I spend a good deal of time in front of you as we say our prayers … or behind your clergy and choirs as we enter and leave our churches.

From these points of view — and from others — I am blessed to observe the people of East Tennessee, worshiping and praising and offering thanks to our Lord. My privilege is to be a part of those activities with you who are faithful in doing so. We are gathered in worship prior to being scattered as Christ’s lights to the world. I appreciate being a part of our gatherings, as we go about the essential activity of worshiping God and in preparation for serving as missionaries for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Also, from my perspective, I am honored to be part of a community with a firm commitment — in prayer and in action — to several significant Christian pursuits: the nurture of our children and young people; the welcome of strangers and newcomers; the continuing Christian formation of the spiritual lives of us all; and the compassionate outreach to those in any need or trouble. East Tennessee is indeed a community of which I am honored to be a part!

At this point, I have one other observation to share — in particular, from my viewpoint at the rear of the processional line. From that perspective, I have seen the tip of a tiger tail emerge from the bottom of one clergy cassock. And I have noted some Mickey Mouse ears perched atop another rector’s head. While I do not necessarily advocate these particular liturgical ornamentations, I can conclude, though, that a healthy sense of humor is alive and well in East Tennessee! Humor provides a wonderful antidote for heightened tensions, my friends. Humor likewise challenges the temptation to take ourselves too seriously. I commend us all, therefore, to attend to and to celebrate the gift of humor in our lives — especially in times of significant stress. Surprising outbreaks of grace-filled laughter present us with moments to cherish. I am grateful for them … at least, most of the time.

Mission of our Diocese
Differing perspectives surely challenge us to enlarge our perceptions of the state of the Church. Such an awareness, along with some appreciation of current realities, has led me to name — as clearly and as precisely as possible — what is the appropriate focus of our diocesan mission in the present day and in the days to come. It is to that task that I now turn.

I have expressed to my staff for five years — probably so often that they are sick of it — that we are a service organization. That is, the structures of the diocese and our positions as diocesan staff exist in order to be of service to the churches of the diocese. Put another way, without our local churches, we have no reason to exist as a staff and an office. I came into this particular ministry with that awareness and commitment.

In recent weeks, though, I have come to even greater clarity and focus about the heart of diocesan mission. It seems to me that the Diocese of East Tennessee exists in order to accomplish a two-fold mission: to empower the ministries of our congregations and to encourage the spiritual journeys of individual Christians.

Listen to this partial list of activities and responsibilities of our diocesan office, and consider these tasks in terms of empowering congregational ministries and encouraging individual spiritual journeys. From our insistence on annual church audits to our support of seminarians on the way to ordination; from our communication about local, national, and international Anglican news to our development of a process to train lay leadership; from our providing counsel on stewardship to our calling the diocese to annual convention; from our partnerships in mission beyond Episcopal churches in this diocese to our weekly visits to share stories and confirm maturing Episcopalians; from our consultations with search committees to our development of a camp and retreat center — what we are called to do as the Diocese of East Tennessee is to empower the ministries of our local congregations and to encourage the spiritual journeys of individual Christians. I submit to you that those are the two lenses through which we appropriately view the reality and the institutional purpose of our life as the Diocese of East Tennessee. These two lenses, therefore, frame our diocesan mission.

I challenge you to think in those terms during our time in convention — and beyond. In the budget we consider, in the resolutions we debate, in the elections we hold, and in our common life for these two days, are we empowering congregational ministries and are we encouraging individual spiritual journeys? If we cannot say “Yes” to at least one of those questions, then we are wasting our time in this diocesan gathering. Further, those two lenses for our diocesan life are the ones through which we may find meaning in all the activities and ministries we accomplish as the Diocese of East Tennessee.

Challenges for our Mission in 2004
Finally, then, with certain perspectives on the past and with particular viewpoints of the present, what appropriate challenges do we accept for the year ahead? I want to emphasize three areas of ministry that demonstrate the dual diocesan mission that I have suggested, our raison d'etre as a diocese.

First, we will pay special attention to the development of lay ministries among us. This emphasis does not deny or belittle the importance of nurturing ordained ministries, but the fact of the matter is that we have concentrated more on the latter in the past, to the detriment of lay ministry development.

For some of our smaller churches, this attention will address very pressing needs. For our larger churches, this focus will provide a means to become resources for others. And for all our people, such attention will encourage us to fulfill the calling of our Baptismal Covenant. This work promises to be as exciting as it is challenging — and it will be as fulfilling as it is spiritually enriching. May we therefore commit ourselves to the task!

Secondly, I intend to focus a good deal of time and effort on Grace Point Camp and Retreat Center. Our capital campaign was not as successful as we hoped it would be. The three realities of domestic terrorism threats, stock market downturns, and General Convention actions produced a triple play that ended the inning we called “Grow in Mission.” However, the game is not over!

We have a wonderful piece of property, well situated to serve all the people of our diocese. We have a couple of years’ experiences now that tell the story of lives changed by means of this grace-filled resource. The fact is that a focus on Grace Point gives us the opportunity to accentuate the positive in our life together. In practice, Grace Point has several wonderful priorities: the Christian nurture of young people, the spiritual growth of adults, and the opportunity to engage in retreat and restoration that will renew us all. Encompassing all of these opportunities, I am convinced that Grace Point can become what we desperately need as Episcopalians today — a symbol of our unity as a Church.

Thirdly and finally, I hope and pray that we will engage ourselves ever more seriously in ministries of outreach in the year to come. As a practical matter, there is no surer way to avoid destructive self-preoccupation than to consider the circumstances of others. And, from another perspective, we neglect the poor, the sick, the hungry and the oppressed to the serious detriment of our own spiritual lives. My friends, we dare not overlook those in need, those for whom our Lord gave his life.

We have many opportunities to reach out in love and concern, with the compassion of Jesus, to those who need our help. In particular, as a diocese, we will continue to look for ways to grow in our companionship with the people of South Dakota. We will be creative in working with our friends in Appalachia whose resources have dwindled, even as their problems have magnified. And we will be intentional in finding ways to assist the growing population of Hispanic people among us in East Tennessee. We must focus on such ministries to those in need, not only for the sake of the good we may do for others in the name of Jesus Christ but also for the sake of our souls in search of Christ.

Conclusion
In summary, then, during the year to come:

• May we turn from the temptations of pride and arrogance that accompany our claim to the exclusive validity of our particular point of view;
• May we resist the inclination to engage in angry criticism and judgment of others who hold perspectives different from our own;
• May we accept one another as fellow pilgrims on an uncertain road in a confusing world;
• May we recognize that the ties which bind us ultimately are the arms of Christ … and may we know the truth that those arms are far stronger than divisive forces that attempt to pull us apart;
• May we persist in the dual diocesan mission of empowering ministries in local congregations and of encouraging spiritual journeys of individual Christians — especially as we encourage the ministries of all the baptized, as we develop Grace Point, and as we reach out to others in love and compassion, as we share the gifts of our Lord;
• And, finally, may we know and live that peace of God that surpasses our understanding … that peace which at times is no peace at all … but that peace for which we long, to the very depths of our being.

Amen … and may God bless you all!

The Rt. Rev. Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

Copyright © 2004 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee