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Kansas Bishop Dean Wolfe (left) and Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold share a moment of quiet before the start of Evening Prayer at St. Michael's, Mission, on May 8. Photo by Melodie Woerman

Presiding Bishop visits the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas

By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest

Nearly a thousand people from across the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas gathered for services in Topeka and Mission to welcome Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold to the diocese during his official visit to Kansas May 8 and 9.

This was the Presiding Bishop’s first official visit to the Diocese of Kansas since his election in 1997, and it preceded by only months the conclusion of his term in November of this year.

He participated in Evening Prayer at St. Michael’s, Mission, just hours after his arrival on May 8, with about 400 people attending that service. A special invitation to attend was extended to former members of Christ Church, Overland Park, a parish that had been part of the Diocese of Kansas until its vote to leave the Episcopal Church in the spring of 2005, and they were among those attending. Afterward a festive reception in the parish hall gave him the opportunity to greet well-wishers.

Grounded in Christ
The next day Bishop Griswold participated in a service of Morning Prayer for the clergy of the diocese. That service also featured the official installation of the Rev. Mary Siegmund as canon to the ordinary for the diocese, the chief administrative position under the bishop.

After the service he spent about an hour offering remarks to the more than 100 people present. He acknowledged the challenges faced by clergy, saying those in ordained ministry need to stay grounded as disciples of Christ and ministers of the gospel, especially “in this particular season of the life of the church.”

As clergy, he said, they “must be grounded in the mystery of Christ and enjoy the companionship of Christ, or you will become technicians of the sacred and victims of l’eglise mechanique, a mechanical church,” in which liturgy can become mere performance.

Noting that Jesus’ ministry began after his baptism, in which he was declared by God to be God’s beloved Son, he reminded the clergy, “You are called to ordained ministry not because you are useful, but because God loves you.”

Church and chaos
More than 400 people filled Grace Cathedral in Topeka for the festal Eucharist the evening of May 9, at which Bishop Griswold was celebrant and preacher. Noting that the day was the feast of Gregory of Nazianzus, Bishop Griswold described the 4th century church during Gregory’s time as Bishop of Constantinople as a period of chaos, with fractious debates about the nature of Christ. Some bishops denied the divinity of Christ, and other denied Jesus’ humanity.

Bishop Griswold said, “The gospel is paradoxical. Heresy in the early church was about those who couldn’t accept the paradox of Christ’s nature, both human and divine.” He noted that the Anglican tradition has always been able to find room for differences, but “we come together in worship.”

He pointed out that the motto of the Anglican Communion is from John 8:32: The truth will make you free. But he noted the Archbishop of Canterbury has quipped, “The truth makes things difficult.” That is because, Bishop Griswold said, “God’s way with me isn’t the same as God’s way with you. How do we make room for what God has been up to in people who are very different from us?”

The church does that, he said, by seeking the truth in each other in communion. He noted he has been asked frequently in recent weeks what he thinks is going to happen at this summer’s General Convention. He said, “I think we are going to discover truth together. We are called to be faithful to the truth of Christ as it finds a place in us.”

Issues of Communion
In an interview with The Harvest during his visit, Presiding Bishop Griswold was asked what impact being a part of the Anglican Communion might have on the average Episcopalian.

He said, “I think it is so important for us Episcopalians to realize that we do not exist in isolation from a worldwide, global community known as the Anglican Communion. Here I think of Paul’s understanding of the church as limbs and members who cannot say to one another, ‘I have no need of you.’”

He said, “I think we should have a greater sensitivity to the fact that we are part of a global community, particularly in a world where division is so rampant and hostility is so strong.”

When asked what he has experienced in other parts of the Communion since the 2003 actions of the Episcopal Church to consecrate an openly-gay bishop, Bishop Griswold said, “My experience as I have traveled and met annually with Primates from other parts of the world is that there is no monochrome to the Anglican Communion. The ‘global south’ is just as diverse as the north, and there are bishops and lay people of all points of view and perspectives.”

He said he has seen that throughout the global Anglican community “there is a tremendous commitment to living together in one Communion, even when we disagree.”

He said he has been approached by some bishops in Africa who have said to him, “We don’t understand what you have done, but that won’t stop us from being together in mission for the sake of Christ.”

Bishop Griswold said the controversy over sexuality has had the positive result of making Episcopalians more aware of their part in the worldwide Anglican Communion, and he believes that knowledge will be helpful as deputies and bishops at General Convention consider resolutions in response to the Windsor Report. “It is very clear that we have no desire to be separate from the larger Communion, and our only desire is to be more faithful partners,” he said.

Handled with grace
The Presiding Bishop also praised the work of those involved in last year’s settlement between the diocese and Christ Church, Overland Park, calling it ‘as graceful a conclusion as it possibly could be.”

He said, “I think the diocese and those involved with the settlement have done a very fine, graceful and compassionate job.”