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1Book1Diocese for Lent 2024

This Lent, the Diocese of Georgia offers a study using a book The Good Life written by the directors of a more than eight-decade-long study of what makes for a fulfilling life. The Harvard Study of Human Development offers a window into lives of meaning and purpose through the data they have collected. The book also looks at what is gleaned from similar studies around the world. While the book itself does not make connections to our faith in Jesus, the discussion guide does.

As the authors write, “The good life is joyful … and challenging. Full of love, but also pain.” And for those of us who follow Jesus, the good life is one in which loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself is central. We will see how these two greatest commandments connect to the key insights of the study that is the heart of this book. Join Episcopalians around Central and South Georgia for this 1Book1Diocese read this Lent.

The discussion guide is designed for a five-week study beginning in the week after the First Sunday in Lent and ending the week following the Fifth Sunday in Lent.

Click here to download the Discussion Guide

Baptized for Life: A Lay Minister’s Conference

“Baptized for Life: A Lay Ministers’ Conference” will take place September 9-10 at Honey Creek! This conference is intended for any lay person in the Diocese who is in any active ministry in their congregation. Examples of such lay ministries include those who assist or lead worship, serve on the Vestry, serve on committees, teach Sunday School or lead youth activities, serve on the Altar Guild, care for the buildings and grounds, lead outreach activities, and more. This conference will be led by Dr. Lisa Kimball, the Vice President for Lifelong Learning and the James Maxwell Professor Chair of Lifelong Christian Formation at Virginia Theological Seminary. “Dr. Kimball has focused her teaching and research on lifelong, life-wide, and life-deep discipleship and Christian vocation…She is a passionate advocate for lay ministry, the full inclusion of all generations, digital literacy, and leaders who are confident teachers of the faith.” For more information about Dr. Kimball’s background and history, click here.

This conference will focus on the ministry of the laity, including its joys and challenges especially over the past two years. It will frame our various calls in the context of our Baptismal identity and the vows we make at Baptism, and will give participants an opportunity to think toward the future in their own specific contexts. 

There will also be time to rest, relax, worship together, and enjoy simply being together at Honey Creek! The event begins with Evening Prayer at 5:30 p.m. on Friday and ends at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday. Registration is available here. You may choose to register for a single or double occupancy lodge room. If you choose double occupancy, be sure to name your roommate in the registration.

Contact Joshua Varner, Canon for Program and Liturgy, at jvarner@gaepiscopal.org with any questions about this conference.

Episcopal and Lutheran bishops in Georgia respond to the verdict in the McMichaels-Bryan trial

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The jury charged with handing down a verdict in the case of three men accused of murder for their roles in the death of Ahmaud Arbery issued its decision today finding Travis McMichael guilty of malice murder and other charges, Gregory McMichael guilty of felony murder and other charges, and Roddie Bryan guilty of felony murder and other charges. We give thanks for the dedicated work of the judge and jurors who served in a charged atmosphere with intense public scrutiny. Any verdict arrives too late to offer true justice in this case. Ahmaud Arbery is dead, and the court cannot return him to his family. Nonetheless, this moment is an important one. 

We prayed for the court to bring earthly justice and the court has acted. But it took a public outcry and the release of video of the incident to force the system into action. The three men who are now convicted of crimes were initially shielded from facing their accusers in court. Until we can bring equity to the system that initially protected them, the rest of us will not have done what we can to create the just society for which we long. Our country has not dealt with the racism built into the system at its founding and perpetuated until this day. Living into our faith means addressing directly any sin we see in our lives and in our communities. Divisions around the human-made concept of race are an offense against our faith which teaches that all people are made in God’s image and likeness. Jesus taught us to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. Through his parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus made it clear that all are our neighbors. Any racial divide breaks the heart of God. 

One bright spot of hope we have seen emerge following Ahmaud’s tragic death has been the interfaith group of clergy in Glynn County. Their clarion call for justice after the video surfaced was critical in getting attention to this case. They followed this call by engaging in candid conversations that drew them together even as other forces could have deepened divisions. Participants included clergy from all five Episcopal Churches in the county and those of many other denominations, as well as leaders of Jewish and Muslim congregations. News stories have often quoted the clergy who were consistently engaged, offering a non-anxious presence on the courthouse grounds. They have witnessed to the dream of God: all of us becoming beloved community, not divided by ethnicity, but united in our common humanity. We know that long after the cameras and reporters are gone, the clergy in Glynn County will still be working together toward that dream.

We hope not just for good to overcome evil, but for God to redeem even the worst tragedies and the gravest injustices. While the court has acted, the work of healing and justice remains. Maya Angelou said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

The Episcopal Diocese of Georgia offers the following resources: ​​https://gaepiscopal.org/racialhealingresources/. 

The Southern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America offers resources here: https://www.elca-ses.org/racialjustice. 

The Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta’s resources can be found at the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing here: https://www.centerforracialhealing.org/virtuallibrary.

It does not take an evil person to do an evil act. Murder is evil. Ahmaud’s killing was evil. But we need to guard against demonizing anyone or denying their basic humanity. The accused have been convicted. They will serve their sentences and need our prayers that they may be awakened to repentance. In this, as with all of us, we pray that God will bring all who are guilty to repentance and amendment of life and give us all hope for the future. In that spirit, we offer this prayer:

Eternal God, we give thanks for the judge and jurors charged with bringing earthly justice in the death of Ahmaud Arbery. Be with the Arbery family and all in the Brunswick and Glynn County Community as they seek further healing. Be with Gregory, Travis, and Roddie and their families as they serve their sentences and work toward their own repentance. Be with all of us as we seek repentance and healing for ourselves, one another, and our communities. Give us all the grace to hunger and thirst for your righteousness that we may work together to become the beloved community to which you call us. This we ask for the sake of your Son our Savior, Jesus Christ, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns now and forever. Amen.

May God grant us grace to see the healing needed in our lives, our families, and our communities.

In Christ,

The Rt. Rev. Frank S. Logue, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia
The Rt. Rev. Rob C. Wright, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta
The Rev. Kevin L. Strickland, Bishop of the Southeastern Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Phase 1 Re-Opening Guidance

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An update from Bishop Logue on re-opening churches for in-person worship

Last week, I announced Phase 1 guidance that will permit rectors (and priests-in-charge) and vestries to make a decision for whether some in-person worship following strict guidance is right for their community at this time. In-person worship may last no longer than 40 minutes. There will be no singing, and all participants must wear masks at all times, and keep more than six feet away from persons not in their own household. As of today, July 1, Phase 1 guidance is now in effect.

You will recall that on March 13, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp issued a statement in advance of declaring Georgia’s first public health emergency saying it is appropriate for faith-based organizations to consider canceling public events. Though not an order, the request by the governor led Bishop Benhase to suspend gathering for worship. Since then, our clergy and lay leaders have responded faithfully to stay in touch with their parishioners, to find ways to still serve their communities and to offer new options for worship online. We have kept Jesus at the center of our common life while experiencing very different ways of being a community.

What Changed?
Suspending in-person gathering began with a request from the governor’s office; however, that guidance changed in late April. Bishop Benhase and I had worked together on guidelines stating “the number of new COVID-19 cases must have declined for at least 14 straight days” before we would return to in-person worship in any form. This approach was shared with other denominations and may still provide a basis for a congregational decision.

While many areas in the Diocese of Georgia are experiencing a troubling rise in cases and deaths, this is not equally true in every community. Beginning in late May, other denominations in Georgia and elsewhere began a return to in-person worship following strict guidelines. After discussing such a return with other bishops and subject-matter experts, I see that a shift in our practice could allow some churches to gather under new restrictions.

Subsidiarity
The Anglican Communion is organized using the principle of subsidiarity, rather than a strict hierarchy. The principle of subsidiarity emphasizes that many decisions should be handled at diocesan or congregational levels rather than as church-wide matters. One result of this principle is that the Episcopal Church as a whole did not choose to end worship across the Church, leaving such decisions to individual dioceses. In Georgia, our Phase 1 guidance shifts the decisions about whether to offer some smaller gatherings to individual congregations who, through their canonical leadership, will make the best decision for their local circumstances, within the context of the Diocesan guidance. No church must resume in-person worship now, and for many congregations, the situation is such that the safest route will be to continue online worship exclusively. This choice also has my full support.

What your bishop will do
Other than Ordinations, I will not lead in-person worship in July and August. My travel schedule could otherwise make me a vector for spreading the virus if I contract it. I will record and stream worship from churches around the Diocese as I have done in recent weeks from Albany, Hawkinsville, and Thomasville. I will be in smaller congregations that have for the most part not been able to offer many online worships from their church. In this way, your Diocese will offer an option for the many Episcopalians in the Diocese who cannot return to worship for the sake of their health.

Each day I remember our parishioners, lay leaders, and clergy in my prayers. I continue to stay in contact with colleagues in order to learn from other dioceses. And I seek to remain faithful in the spiritual disciplines that feed me, as we are all taxed by these unprecedented times.  

Pax et Bonum,
+Frank

Summer Camp 2020 Update

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Dear Friends,

In May we announced that we would not hold summer camp sessions in June, but we held out hope for some sort of gathering in July. Unfortunately, it has become clear that holding large in-person gatherings of youth from across the Diocese still creates too great a health risk for our young people and those with whom they are in contact. We are sad to announce that there will be no in-person camp in July 2020. 

One of the things that campers routinely name when asked about their favorite parts of camp is the chance to be with one another. While we cannot do so in-person this summer, we are working on a few virtual gatherings in July. If you or your youth are interested in being part of putting this program together, please contact me at jvarner@gaepiscopal.org.

God’s Peace,
Rev. Joshua Varner
Canon for Children & Youth

Injustice and Faithfulness

Habakkuk 2:9–14

The Rt. Rev. Frank Logue preached this sermon on June 3, 2020, for a livestream Evening Prayer liturgy from the Diocese of Georgia.

I want to speak this evening from my heart about matters I would rather not disclose in my first week as Bishop of Georgia. But with protests are raging around the country this week following the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, we all could use to let some of our own stuff surfaces and let God work on it. I want to be vulnerable with you for a few minutes and share something of my story. 

I grew up saying that my family never owned slaves, so racial unrest is not my problem. I have come to see this quite differently over time. But the truth is whether you think issues of racism is your problem or not, our house is on fire and we are all going to have to work together. I share not to make anyone feel bad, but because this is the best way I know to name how Jesus can bring the reconciliation we all need.

I was born in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1963. It was a divided city in a fractured time and while I did not understand, that context is the one in which I came to learn about race, without even knowing I was being taught. I am old enough to recall seeing water fountains and bathrooms marked “colored” and I never wondered about why that was so. Just as I never wondered why I started school at a Methodist Church when my grandmother ran the school lunchroom at a nearby public school. 

I was taught to use the word colored and never heard my parents saying racial epithets, though that was all around. But my dad did buy and play for us Reb Rebel Records, a racist record label that is best not looked up by those who haven’t heard of it. They were the sort of thing one would find at a Klan Rally and other white supremacist gatherings. I think my father thought they were funny. I don’t know. They were horrifying. They were part of my childhood. I never asked him about the records or why he played them for us. I just know that embedded in my childhood were messages of not sharing pools with colored children and I learned that there was a taint, a stain that I was to avoid. And it would take many years before I ever examined the implicit messages I received. 

I came to see that the theological truth that every human is a child of God and that our differences are a gift, and no one is cursed. But by the time I considered and rejected the underlying premise that different ethnicities make some people inherently better than others, I had a lot of words, phrases, jokes, and songs implanted in my mind. The ideas of race that had been hard-wired into me were in the way if I wanted to love my neighbor as myself. They were separating me from God. And that my friends is sin. Racism was an important founding sin for this nation as we built great cities on the backs of enslaved workers and to do enslave people, the enslaver needed the enslaved to be inferior. Otherwise, how could we treat equals so cruelly?

In our reading from the Habakkuk, the Prophet cries out, “Alas for you who build a town by bloodshed, and found a city on iniquity!” That strikes home in Savannah, which was built on the rising price of and market for cotton. It is well documented that I was consecrated Bishop of Georgia in a church paid for at least in large part by money made from the slave trade and from cotton. The seal of the Diocese on my ring was the personal seal of our first bishop, whose wealth came from generations of enslaved workers. We have a constant reminder in our midst of how painfully wrong people of goodwill can be when they benefit from getting the Gospel wrong. We can also work to get it right. The actual ring was worn by Bishop Stuart as he championed integration in the 1950s and received death threats for it.

Habakkuk is one of those books of the Bible you didn’t get as a child in Sunday Schol. He is what you get when you cross a more traditional prophet like Amos or Isaiah with the not-afraid-to-complain-about-God-to-God’s-face character of Job. Like Amos or Isaiah, Habakkuk is righteously indignant about the moral decay of the world in which he lives. Habakkuk looks at the utter unfairness and sometimes downright evilness he sees all around him and he cries out to God with words that sound like they come from one of David’s Psalms of lament. The prophet says, 

“O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous—therefore judgment comes forth perverted.”

Habakkuk’s cry seems so very like cries rising in our own nation this week. We were reeling from the COVID-19 crisis and in the midst of that rising unrest at restrictions, three more killings added new names to the list of black and brown people who have been killed while doing things that would not put my life in danger. We should not be surprised when injustice repeats in predictable ways that cries of How long? can take some past to the breaking point.

If you were to read further in Habakkuk, you would learn of a greater vision of justice still coming. We have to wait for true justice. In the meantime, the righteous are to live by faith. But the translation faith is not completely right. If you look it up in a New International Version or New Revised Standard Version of the Bible you’ll see a text note suggesting faithfulness as another translation. Faith is an agreement to a belief. Faithfulness is the practice of being faithful. More than just head knowledge, faithfulness comes with action. God tells Habakkuk that while we await God’s justice, we are to put the love of God into action against the injustice we see. We certainly can do this with outward action, but I have to tell you that I have learned to begin with the injustice I find in my own heart.

There is an image I have of the work I need to do and it is one close to home for me, as it is a vine in my own backyard. My wife, Victoria, and I bought a lovely 1925 bungalow in 2014. Everything inside was perfect. The yard was another story. The family and then the couple that lived there for the forty years took less and less care of the yard as they aged.

Trees grew close to the house and the garage and vines grew everywhere. The thick thorny vines were the worst. The roots had likely grown stronger over the years as the trees and vines put more energy into root systems as the plants got cut off above ground.

In my struggle, I soon found that one can’t just cut the vine. That seems to make the plant happy, or at least no angrier than the grass when it gets cut. You have to dig up the roots. For a single vine, I usually have to dig six inches deep in an area two to four feet out. Underground I find interconnected sweet potato-like tubers. When I dig up the roots, if I don’t get all of it, the root will grow back. Like a sweet potato coming back from a smaller piece potato planted in the garden, so the vines can regenerate from a part of its root system left in the fertile soil. I spent the first several years-worth of Mondays off from work, dirty, covered with sweat, and with what looks like a bushel of sweet potatoes out by the road for the City to pick up. 

When I look at those vines, I realize that stopping sinful actions without addressing the roots of the sin, won’t bring healing. For the soil within me is fertile for sin. If I just cut off the vine, without working to remove the roots, the sin remains, growing and biding its time.

If you were to ask me if I am a racist, I would swear that I don’t have a racist fiber in my being and I want to mean it. I think I have rooted this out of my being and then through my reaction to some event, I recognize my response as arising out of those messages planted deep inside. How is that still part of who I am? Once conscious of my response, I look to root out more of the messages I took in. This isn’t just about issues of race. 

We see something like this in 12 Step Programs that begin with someone admitting that he or she is powerless against their addiction and then turning over the problem to a Higher Power. We know the truth of this and that the Higher Power is Jesus. Even with the Holy Trinity on our side, the struggle is one that is fought day by day, even hour by hour. The roots of the addiction grow so deep and get so entangled in our very core, that this is no easy fight.

I have been on a years-long project to rewire my thinking. Reading books has opened my eyes to see the world through others. I make sure that at least half of the books I read are by persons of color, women, and people living in very different cultures. When not in a pandemic that has made it hard to concentrate, I average a book a week. That steady diet of seeing the world through the eyes of writers like the theologian Kelly Brown Douglas or the searing words of Ta-Nehisi Coates has helped me see the world anew. Mostly, they have given me new ears through which to hear scripture and new eyes to see injustice around me. 

There is so much more that could and should be said about the specific issues in the three killings that caused anger to boil over anew. We must dismantle the system that offers unequal safety and fails too often to render justice. But before I was ready to read Kelly Brown Douglas’ book Stand Your Ground and hear her reflecting on being a black mother in a world far more dangerous for her children than for my girl, I needed to start with the roots of what was implanted in me. 

I don’t know what the struggle is for you. But I know each of us has roots within us that we have left below the surface. We have worked on the outer facade, yet inside the sin remains. In Christ, we have a way forward, for Jesus is the Good Gardener. This means that our connection to God can give us the safe space to do that inner work, to weed out the nasty within that we try to keep hidden. Don’t worry about what may be revealed as we look within for God already knows the content of your heart and loves you. But that doesn’t mean you don’t need to work on some more weeding.

God gave Habakkuk the answer, the righteous are to live by faithfulness. And so day by day I read the Bible and pray. Since Ahmaud Arbery’s killing, I have prayed not just for his family, but also for the father and son who killed him as well as for the man who recorded the video and his family. And Praying for them all daily has become significant to me. Prayer is what I can do. Praying for all involved is what faithfulness looks like for me as I genuinely want Jesus to take the evil done and weave together for the good. 

Somehow, despite the fact that I will always need to root out sin from within, God still gives me the gift of his presence and the power in that work. Grace abounds as the work within me is the work of the Holy Spirit, not something I have to do by force of my own will. For God is both active in the world and present in our hearts. This doesn’t mean we don’t have a role to play in bringing more of the reconciliation for which all creation longs. God’s ongoing action means that the work is not ours alone, and this is Good News in a troubled and troubling week. Amen.

Fasten Your Seatbelts

Acts 2:1-21 and 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

The Rt. Rev. Frank Logue preached this sermon for the Diocese of Georgia livestream on the Feast of Pentecost, May 31, 2020.

Fasten your seatbelts we are in for a wild and wonderful ride. 

We are off the map—out in uncharted territory—
but fear not for God is with us and it is gonna be fun.

Yesterday, I was consecrated as Bishop of Georgia, in the first ordination of a bishop with the congregation taking part almost exclusively through livestream. There was no guide on how to make that liturgy work. Yet the ordination came together beautifully. 

Canon Joshua Varner guided the virtual choirs in three very different hymns. Then there were the congregations getting banner bearers filmed and sent in so that you could see your church in the liturgy. All together more than 100 people were part of the ordination that had just 10 of us taking part in the nave of Christ Church, Savannah, with a livestream crew and organist Tim Hall and Joshua up in the balcony. 

I offer this little look back to yesterday because it demonstrates clearly how when we seek to faithfully follow Jesus in this strange time we are living through, the Holy Spirit shows up and we discover gifts we never knew we had. 

Christians have lived through unprecedented times before and Christ has never left his church or failed his followers. That first Feast of Pentecost, those gathered in the Upper Room in Jerusalem had no idea what was coming next. They were gathering daily and devoting themselves to prayer trusting God to show up.

In looking at one came next, I turn to our readings. It’s funny how a new context can cause you to see scripture in a new light. In our reading from John’s Gospel, Jesus breathes on the disciples. 

I never saw that act as risky before. Inspiring, yes, but didn’t Jesus know that while he might have wanted his Movement to go viral, it shouldn’t be taken so literally? And the image of the disciples packed into a room in Jerusalem also struck me as unsafe in a way it never had before. 

The truth is that gathering for worship has always been intimate. We join our voices together. We hug. We share a common cup. These acts connect us more closely with each other even as we draw closer to God. 

We Christians have always been an odd lot. Romans didn’t know what to do with us. The Empire didn’t mind if we had our own God. They just needed us to also worship the Empire. Early Christians would sing hymns praising God and pray for those killing them when they were dragged into the Coliseums and threatened with death if they would not deny Jesus and worship the emperor. In every time, in every culture, Christians at their best have provided a leaven of love. Like the yeast that transforms the bread dough, that love has been transformative. 

We the Diocese of Georgia embark on this new episcopacy in a time unlike any other. For while we faced pandemic in 1918 that shuttered out churches as the Spanish Flu raged, we now have the ability to stay connected in ways unimaginable a century ago. This is challenging I know. I am concerned about those who can’t take part in our online worship, and even for those of us who do, as wonderful as it can be, this way of worshipping is still not the same as our familiar gatherings. 

But I see this is a very fruitful time, for I know that the same Spirit that hovered over creation turned Jesus’ not exactly all-star team of fisherfolk, a tax collector, and the like into witnesses who changed the world. That same Spirit was with us yesterday in the ordination and consecration. 

The Reverend Julia Sierra Reyes brought the word as told me that the Bishop is to keep the main thing the main thing, knowing that the main thing is love that we put in action. She was so very right that my becoming Bishop of Georgia is not about me.

One of the things I discovered from the election until now, is that though three bishops laid hands on me, bishops do not make a bishop. You chose to make me a bishop through an election. Parishioners of the diocese, represented through their delegates and clergy at the convention, trusted that they were doing God’s will in voting for me to become your bishop. Those votes endorsed by the whole church in a consent process are why I am preaching to you online this Pentecost. Yes, the sacrament yesterday mattered as the Bishops asked God to make me a Bishop and the Holy Spirit showed up. Like every sacrament, ordination is not something we do, but something we ask God to do for us and God is faithful.

Paul in writing about the Body of Christ captures a theological truth that is central to how I see leadership. God never ever gives the answer to one person. Not once. As we are created to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves, we were literally made for each other, even as we were made for God. And so I am not the one with all the answers. Leading the church is not about that sort of omnicompetent expertise. Instead, we as a body have what we need and as new people are drawn to follow Jesus alongside us, they will bring new gifts. 

Nothing has taught me that we don’t know what lies ahead like the changes that we have faced in these first months of 2020. And nothing has taught me about God’s faithfulness like the ways the Spirit has shown up again and again in these months. 

I don’t have a carefully crafted plan to roll out. I just have a deep commitment to following Jesus ever more faithfully. And I know that together, the challenges we face are not insurmountable because we are keeping Jesus at the center. 

I want you to know that I do not aspire to being a great bishop. The church has suffered enough from those who sought greatness in this call. I intend to follow Sierra’s counsel yesterday to be a faithful bishop. And as a faithful bishop it can’t be about me and it can’t even be about you. 

For if we get loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves right, then what we do together will be for the sake of those who are still stumbling around in the dark needing the light of the love of God shining in the hearts of ordinary people like me and you. Just like on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is ready to turn followers of Jesus into people who make the love of God real, putting love in action. I can’t wait to see what God does with our faithfulness to transform lives and communities. 

We are off the map—out in uncharted territory—
but fear not for God is with us and it is gonna be fun.

Fasten your seatbelts we are in for a wild and wonderful ride. 

Being a Faithful Bishop

The Reverend J. Sierra Reyes preached this sermon via video for the livestreamed ordination and consecration of Frank Sullivan Logue as the 11th Bishop of Georgia.  The Rev. Reyes is Rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Denver, CO.

It is an absolute joy to preach on this occasion. 

Before we engage with today’s text and the call before us in Frank Logue as the 11th Bishop of Georgia, I ask for a point of personal privilege. 

I want to acknowledge two people whose faithful witness has brought us to this moment in time. 

First, I want to offer gratitude to the 9th Bishop of Georgia, Henry Louttit, and his wife Jan. Bishop Louttit not only had a vision for an Episcopal church in Kingsland, GA, but provided loving oversight and pastoral care to the church’s founding priest, Frank Logue. Church planting is difficult work. And yet Frank and the people of King of Peace benefited from Bishop Louttit’s leadership. We are here today reaping the fruits of your service among us, Bishop Louttit. As your father did before as Bishop, you have mentored an entire generation of clergy. Thank you.

Next, I want to offer gratitude for the 10th Bishop of Georgia Scott Benhase and his wife, Kelly. On behalf of the Church in Georgia, thank you for your faithfulness as our Bishop over the past decade. You, also, have mentored a generation of clergy, and I am grateful to be among the clergy ordained by your hands. Thank you for equipping us with the tools of congregational leadership and development. Thank you for being a model of courage leadership. And at every turn, teaching us the importance and the necessity of grace. Thank you. 

Georgia is a good strong, and healthy Diocese because of these two Bishops and their predecessors and because of you, the people of God in the Diocese of Georgia. To God be the glory. Thank you. 

And now to Bishop-elect Frank Sullivan Logue. 

Let’s start by stating the obvious.
This is not how I imagined your ordination as Bishop. 
It is beautiful to see how many people are participating in today’s liturgy from every corner of our church. 
But I believe we were all supposed to be physically together to witness this historic day. 

The church would have descended upon Savannah in droves. 

This entire ordination weekend would have been filled of amazing people gathered around tables of hospitality and good Southern food. 

I don’t live in the South anymore, so I was so eager about the food – when I heard Chef John Benhase was cooking, I wanted to look up what was the allowed size of Tupperware one could take upon an airplane, because oh, I was bringing a plate back to Colorado. 

The food would have been that good. 

But that is not how today unfolded. Instead, we huddled over our computer screens and phones to be a witness to God’s work in the church—and the calling forth of Frank Logue as the newest Bishop in Christendom. 

But I’m left with a lingering question. 

I am curious with myself about the emotion that I’m feeling on this day. 

And it hit me. 

I am feeling confident sadness. 
A double consciousness of grief and the healing power of God’s love. Sadness when people or circumstances disappoint us 
and hope in a God that restores, redeems, and renews. 

Confident sadness. 
And this emotion is familiar. 

My childhood summers are marked with the feelings felt leaving Honey Creek.
The sadness at the loss of security, radical acceptance. And not knowing when it would be the next time I’ll see those people circled around the bell tower, sing these songs of joy. 

But the sadness was always accompanied by a sense of hope and anticipatory joy for when I would return to the Creek.  

And confident sadness is where we find the disciples in our Gospel text from the final chapter of the Gospel of Luke. 

Before you dive into any passage from Luke, you have to remember two things:
First, Jesus was poor. Luke more than any other Gospel makes a point of unfolding the origin story of Jesus – that he was born in a manger and that his parents couldn’t afford the suggested animal sacrifice – and qualified for the temple’s equivalent for temporary assistance for needy families. 

And the second thing you need to know about the Lucan Jesus is that his message from day one is that God loves all people – even those who are deemed inferior because of the status quo. 

In Luke, we have an emphasis of Jesus’ ministry being to those who are oppressed, excluded, living on thin ice – those who are on the margins of society. 

Luke describes a God in Jesus Christ that is found in the very places and among the very people who were deemed outside of God’s love and favor. It is as though Luke is saying, “Imagine the farthest place you would expect to find holiness or beauty or power, and there is where Jesus is to be found.”

My favorite verse in all of scripture – is verse 41 found in our Gospel – while in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, Jesus said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”

That’s my Jesus. Keeping the main thing the main thing. Focusing the disciples.
The disciples were getting all caught up in their joy and disbelief that they needed to be reminded of hospitality, generosity and service. 

We can easily get caught up in the sadness of this time, 
but Jesus needs us to focus on the main thing. 

And this is where our Bishop comes in because the role of Bishop is that focusing leadership. In ensuring that we as the church, keep the main thing the main thing. 

And the main thing is love. 
Love not just a feeling – but love in action.
An action that gives us the strength and courage to continue the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, 
to preserve in resisting evil and asking for repentance when we turn away from God, 
to proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ. 
To seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself. 
To strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being. 

It could be somewhat intimidating preaching the ordination sermon of someone notorious for their ability to preach on such occasions. 
Frank served as the preacher for my ordination to the diaconate and priesthood, 
and as the preacher of my marriage. 
Preaching is a gift God has given Frank.
And there is a generation of clergy who have had Frank preach at their ordinations, 
including his incoming Canon to the Ordinary. 

And what Frank reminds us at every sermon is what I will remind him. Frank, this is not about you. 

We are not here because of your charisma and ability to connect with people from various walks of life. 
Today is not about you. 
This day is about a world in desperate need of hearing the Good News, the life-saving Gospel – the redemptive power of God found in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

All that we do and say and pray and sing during this service and beyond as the Church – 
This is not about Frank, or about us, but what God is doing.

And that is why my sadness is grounded in the confidence of God. 

Bishop-Elect Frank—here is my prayer. 

I pray that you receive the power of the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel boldly. 
Using words when necessary. 
I pray that the same grace you preach for others, you receive for yourself. That you come to know that your worth and value to God is not tied to your position in the church. 
I pray that you enjoy this calling. 
Take pleasure in this next chapter and delight in God’s presence. 
And I pray for the same delight for Victoria and Griffin to experience.

The funny thing Frank is if all these prayers are answered,
 I don’t know if you’ll be a good Bishop. Whatever that means. 
So, my prayer isn’t that you are a good Bishop. 
But that you’ll be a faithful bishop. 

And a being a faithful Bishop is the calling the people of God in South Georgia have affirmed in you. Thank you for saying yes. 

Amen. 

SBA Reporting and Guidance Webinar

Canon Easterlin conducted a webinar for those churches who have received the Paycheck Protection Plan funding. Easterlin was a review of the policy along with advice and guidance on next steps to prepare for the forgiveness of the loan.

To review the PowerPoint presentation with links, click here.

To hear Canon Easterlin’s voiceover for the presentation, click here.

For any additional questions, contact Canon Easterlin.

The Rev. Canon Loren Lasch Named Canon to the Ordinary

Bishop-Elect Frank Logue is pleased to announce the Rev. Canon Loren Lasch has accepted the call to serve the Diocese of Georgia as Canon to the Ordinary.

Logue states, “The process was not an easy one as we considered excellent candidates who could have served well in this role. Each priest considered was someone who I respected highly as the Canon to the Ordinary is the bishop’s deputy, acting on behalf of the bishop in many situations. 

Loren brings a deep love of the Diocese of Georgia together with the fresh perspective of having worked in two other dioceses since she last served here. Loren and I worked together 15 years ago when she interned at King of Peace, Kingsland. I discovered then that she has a heart for serving Jesus matched with an array of gifts that have made her a fine priest. In the years since, she has added experiences that make her perfect to serve as my chief counselor and the number two person in leading our Diocese.”

The Rev. Canon Loren Lasch grew up an Episcopalian in the small town of Gordonsville in central Virginia. In high school she moved to Savannah, where she attended the Collegiate Church of St. Paul the Apostle and was very active in Youth Programs in the Diocese of Georgia. She first felt her call to the priesthood as a Candidate at Happening #52, and her time in Youth Programs and serving as a camp counselor at Honey Creek was incredibly formative. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!), where she was active with the Episcopal campus ministry.  Sponsored and supported by St. Paul’s, Savannah, she received her MDiv from the Virginia Theological Seminary and was ordained a priest by Bishop Louttit in 2008. She then spent five years serving at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Augusta, Georgia, during which time she met and married her husband, Ian. They moved to Northern Virginia a few years later, where Loren served at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Washington, DC while Ian attended the Virginia Theological Seminary (sponsored by St. Augustine’s, Augusta). From there they moved to Missouri, where Loren has been serving in the Offices of the Bishop since 2016, first as Youth Missioner and then as Canon for Christian Formation.  Loren and Ian have two adorable sons, Elias (5) and Ezra (3).  

“I am thrilled to be returning home to the Diocese of Georgia!  So much of my formation has taken place among the wonderful people of this diocese, and I am so thankful to be able to be in ministry with you all as Canon to the Ordinary.  I am really looking forward to working with Bishop-elect Logue and the incredible team at Diocesan House, and my husband, Ian, is so excited to serve as Rector of St. Francis of the Islands. My family and I can’t wait to join you all very soon!”  

Canon Lasch starts her new call on July 1, 2020. 

A Different Kind of Summer

,

The Rev. Joshua Varner, Canon Missioner for Children and Youth

Way back a long time ago, in March, I remember wishing that by April things would be back to normal and we could forge ahead and hold our beloved Summer Camp at Honey Creek, just like always!  

But as we have learned more and more about this particular virus, including the need for social distancing, the current scarcity of safe and reliable testing, and about how dangerous the virus can be, it has become clear that we cannot safely hold summer camp the way it has always been. In order to get ready for camp to begin in early June we would need to know now that the capacity for testing would definitely be in place and that we would not need to maintain social distancing, to name just two things. Right now, we just can’t promise that.  

Therefore, we are announcing that the Diocese of Georgia will not hold any in-person camps in June 2020. In addition, if it is possible to meet in-person in July 2020, those sessions will look very different from any camp the Diocese of Georgia has ever offered. In the meantime, we are looking at what can be offered in virtual space to foster connections between campers and with Honey Creek. We are trying to think creatively, and hope that you will join us!  

As we move forward we will be asking for feedback from parents about what conditions would need to be in place, both in the outside world and at Honey Creek itself, to help them feel comfortable sending their children to camp. This survey will come out in multiple venues, so be on the lookout starting next week.  

Honey Creek and Diocesan staff will be in direct contact with families who have already registered their children for camp regarding refunds.   

Honey Creek holds a special place in the heart of this Diocese in part because it is a safe place for our children. This decision about camp has been made with that safety in mind. Please know that every current and former and future camper is in our prayers now and in the weeks and months to come. We are all “waiting with eager longing” (Romans 8:19) for the time when we can gather together in person.  

Please contact me at  jvarner@gaepiscopal.org with your questions. 

God’s Vision – A Sermon for March 29

Bishop-Elect Frank Logue gave this sermon for a liturgy from his home live-streamed on March 29, 2020.

Ezekiel 37:1-14 and John 11:1-45

The hand of the Lord came upon the Prophet Ezekiel. And by the spirit, he finds himself in a valley filled with dry bones. It is as if he is set down by God at the site of a great and terrible battle, years after the fighting ended. Everywhere he looks are the long lifeless corpses of the fallen. God asks, “Mortal, can these bones live?” The prophet says, “O Lord God, you know.”

It is as if he says, I know that with you all things are possible, but this looks bleak. It is a gruesome scene ready-made for movie special effects as God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones. Ezekiel does as God commands and he hears suddenly, a noise, a rattling, as bones come together bone to its bone, each finding its accustomed mate as sinews join them together and flesh comes upon them. But there is no breath in them. Then God urges and Ezekiel prophesies again saying, “Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon this slain, that they may live.” And he prophesied as God commanded, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

And as Ezekiel looks over a vast multitude of living breathing humans who had been but dried bones minutes earlier, God tells him the meaning of the vision: “Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.”

We need to recall the context of God’s vision offered to Ezekiel. The prophet writes around 622 years before Jesus. Decades earlier the Assyrians captured the northern kingdom of Israel with its ten of the twelve clans of Israel. As Ezekiel takes up the mantel of prophet five years after the Babylonians took Judah’s king, Jehoiachin, into exile. This is the beginning of perhaps the greatest saga of the Hebrew Bible not to make it into the greatest hits collection. Children’s story Bibles don’t usually set the stage for us. But all of Jewish and Christian history and tradition are marked by this cataclysmic event. Ezekiel and the Prophet Jeremiah will spend years crying out for Israel to turn back to God and live, but the rulers will put their trust in a political alliance with Egypt and remain faithless.

Then 587 years before Christ, Jerusalem falls in a siege. The Babylonians destroy the Temple, leaving only a heap of ruins. Most of the people are taken in exile to Babylon. A remnant of the poor is left in the land, but the nation of Israel is vanquished.

Ezekiel’s dry bones coming to life is God’s vision for people who have lost hope. He shows this impossible scene of long desiccated bodies coming back to life as a sign that God can and will bring his people back to the land of Israel. God says, “O my people. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act.”

This prophecy of the dry bones came to be so significant in Judaism not because the prophet offered a vision of what God might do, but because the miracle happened. Decades more passed and the Persian king Cyrus the Great ruled over what had been Babylon. And 539 before Jesus, the foreign ruler sent the exiles back. Ezra builds the second temple in Jerusalem. The very Temple where Jesus teaches and turns over the tables of the money changers is itself a vast sign that nothing is impossible with God.

Israel had been conquered. When the Babylonians destroyed a country, there was no coming back. But the dry bones did live, the people were born anew and lived on their own soil once more. I can’t overstate the importance of Israel’s defeat and later return. The historical fact that Jerusalem fell and the people in exile came back to rebuild the Temple was a central part of the identity and hopes of Israel in Jesus’ lifetime.

Our readings place this powerful vision alongside Jesus raising his friend Lazarus from the dead. By the time Jesus arrives in Bethany, Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. There is no coming back from the grave. Everyone knows that. And yet, like the dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision, we know Lazarus too did rise.

Jesus cries, “Lazarus, come out!” and the dead man came out from his tomb, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

This reading comes the Sunday before Palm Sunday as John’s Gospel shows that this miracle was one too many for those in leadership. John’s Gospel describes the scene a week later when Jesus is in the home of Mary and Martha of Bethany with their brother Lazarus,

“When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.” (John 12:9-11)

The plot to kill Jesus gets serious with the miracle of bringing Lazarus back to life.

Both of these readings offer us God’s vision, the way the Holy Trinity views the world. The way God looks at the world, resurrection is always possible. The wind, breath, spirit of God can always flow through our hearts, offering us hope and healing and new life. Our current situation is not so impossible as that faced captive Israel in Babylon or Lazarus entombed for four days.

Sheltering in place, unable to gather in-person to worship in our churches is not easy. I don’t know about you, but March has been the longest decades I have lived through. Yet, though you and I might not have planned for how we would respond to a pandemic, our faith in Jesus has long prepared us well. We are, after all, a people who have praised God even at the grave at every funeral I have attended. We are an Easter people, even in Lent. But we have never been an Easter people in anything but a Good Friday world. We have always been in a world where hope can be hard to hang on to if what you can see is all there is.

Sheltering in place reveals that what is seen is temporary while what is unseen is eternal. I have watched as lay people in our congregations have supported one another by phone and Facebook alike. I have seen the faithful responses of our deacons, priest, and the bishop as we have found ways to be the Body of Christ even while unable to gather in large groups. I have been overjoyed to see the creative ways we have still offered food to the hungry and hope to the hopeless.

When I was doing the groundwork that would lead to founding King of Peace Episcopal Church, I wanted an image that would illustrate what sort of peace we are talking about when we declare Jesus to be the King of Peace. The swirls in the cross represent the very real chaos in the world, even in our own lives. If you were as small as a period at the end of a sentence on typed page and you were placed in the center of that cross at right, you would swear that everything was out of control. Chaos would be all you could see. But looking at the cross from a distance, you see that none of that chaos extends beyond the outline of the cross. 

The design of the cross looks like that to show what is declared in the Bible and proved by life experience. No matter how bad it gets; your life will not get beyond God. In all situations and circumstances, you are not too far gone for God. You are always in God’s easy reach. Nothing in this world is beyond the love of God as revealed through Jesus’ death on the cross. No, this world does not seem peaceful, but yes, Jesus is the King of Peace. The king of a peace which passes all understanding. Nothing in your life is beyond God’s redeeming, not because you earn or deserve grace, but because God loves you. Everything that needs to be done, God has done.

As we gather online, we show that not only can nothing separate us from the love of God as found in Jesus, but Christian community is real and binding, even when we can’t be together. Yesterday, I gathered online and by phone with a group from Christ Church in Dublin, Georgia. They had a parishioner dying in an assisted living facility and through concerns of spreading the virus, they could not be with her physically. But we knew that God was with her and was with us as we prayed. So we prayed the Litany at the Time of Death. Often called Last Rites, this is a prayer not just for a priest to pray, but any of us can pray it for someone near death. And as we prayed together, each of us in our own homes, but united in prayer, what we experienced was the very real presence of the Triune God who brought back Israel from exile in Babylon, who raised Lazarus to new life, and who never gave up on loving us even when the cost of that love was death on a cross.

Jesus taught us to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are staying in our own homes out of that love for the most vulnerable among us. We are showing love by slowing the spread of this virus out of concern for the heroes in scrubs who are placing their own health at risk in order to alleviate the suffering of those who have contracted the virus. But our physical separation has not closed our churches. The church is the people of God, and the people of God are gonna be fine.

So, wash your hands. Don’t touch your face. Pray for those who are sick and for those caring for them. But be not afraid, for the Spirit that can give life to dry bones will still breathe new life into you and me giving us a peace beyond understanding.

Amen.