The summer is winding down now that Labor Day has passed, and like most of you in ministry, the DCOH team is looking ahead to a busy fall of good Kingdom work. Our annual in-person staff retreat is next week. After that, I am personally looking forward to a steady stream of weekend parish visits, with confirmations and ordinations, the fall restart of the deaneries, pastoral ministry to clergy, and a regular rhythm of meetings, Zoom, and phone calls. This busy season leads up to the meetings of the Colleges of Deacons and Presbyters, Convocation, and Synod 2024.
The prospect of a busy fall is one reason the Ordinands’ Retreat, held at the Roslyn Center in Richmond, August 16-18, was such a gift for the staff and (I believe) for the 38 ordinands and deacons who attended.
The two required retreats for ordinands are the Come and See Retreat and the Spiritual Life Retreat. Come and See introduces the DCOH to ordinands, incoming clergy and lay leaders, and others looking at possibly joining the DCOH. We describe the blessing of God in our history and values, and we explain our core strategies, structures, rhythms of life together, and leadership team. It is a highly interactive, dynamic retreat. The Spiritual Life Retreat is generally smaller – some staff plus those people actively in the process of ordination. (Recent ordinands are often there as well.) It is a quieter, more intimate time when we zero in on the essentials of developing and sustaining the spiritual life of a Christian leader. Topics covered this year included an overview of Benedictine spiritual disciplines (the basis of historic Anglican spiritual rhythms); the source, sustenance, and blessings of godly spiritual authority following the model of Jesus; the essential relational and practical commitments of balanced spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical health; and the pursuit and development of a life of Christian virtue, victory over sin, and freedom to love outwardly. Speakers included Canon Jeff Bailey, Bishop Alan Hawkins, Sally Breedlove, and me. In addition, we had a guest speaker – Dr Jason Young – who spoke on being a true, humble, human amid serving as a Christian leader. Jason was particularly good at exposing the false selves leaders are prone to play. Canon Ashley Davis brought a heart-stirring message on Jesus as the Bread of Life from John 6.
Our team had prayed in earnest for the Lord to bless this gathering, sensing that we, and the ordinands, all needed a deep dive into the fertile soil of the spiritual life. The Lord answered. There was a good time for rest, conversation, and prayer. We also had two game nights, full of laughter and camaraderie.
The staff team left deeply encouraged and filled with gratitude. The ordinands and deacons who joined us are quality people, earnest in faith, hungry to grow, and eager to serve the Church. Vulnerability and humility fed a spirit of thanksgiving to be in the Diocese that emphasizes lifelong spiritual health in its leaders. One new aspirant, recently coming from another diocese, remarked that she had never experienced such a sense of spiritual vigor, open-heartedness, and love in a diocesan gathering before. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
In the DCOH, we emphasize that “we have nothing but what we have been given” because we absolutely know that it is true. The history that we rehearse in the Come and See Retreat – the sacrificial love and shepherding care we received from the Anglican Church of Rwanda – is deeply seeded into our story. The wisdom and love of Archbishop Bob Duncan and the stable of ACNA leaders who welcomed and guided us into this new Province are fundamental to our story. Behind and underneath all of this, each of us has a true, living story of Gospel grace in our lives. Recent conversation among our staff has featured our own new discoveries of the power of God’s grace at work NOW in our lives, training us and transforming us to leave behind the passions of the flesh and pursue the glories of God in the face of Jesus: 2 Corinthians 3:18 and Titus 2: 11-12. Retreats such as this rekindle us in the grace of God. We experience that grace for the first time, again.
I have often had occasion to thank God that he keeps me on a very short leash. All too easily, I find myself wandering into the wilderness of pride and presumption, depending on human energy and skills, and driven by responsibilities and the idol of accomplishments. Life loses its joy and flavor. Exhaustion and frustration mounts. Impatience grows. I am face-to-face with my humanity. By God’s grace, I am stopped by his severe mercies. How kind are his corrections!
Further, I rejoice that the promises of God in Christ Jesus are yes and amen. He will keep his word in Colossians 1: 21-22 to present us blameless and above reproach before the throne of grace. Of course, we are warned in that same text we can fail in faith. I will not speculate on where that failure of faith could lead in matters of eternal life. Rather, I settle back into the confidence that Christ will keep his word of promise. In confidence of his powerful grace, I am drawn away from the wilderness, back to the living water of the Spirit. I trust that you, too, could share similar testimonies.
We need retreats for renewal in the spiritual life. If you serve in a local church, build these into the rhythm of your personal life and any ministry you lead. Tie together these intensified moments of renewal with the gift of the Daily Office, where we are trained to major in praise and thanksgiving to God. Receive this wisdom of the Church, knowing that gratitude (note the connection with the word grace, i.e., gratia) is a continental divide of the soul: Romans 1:19-21. Resist cynicism, anger, hopelessness, and all forms of independence from God. Speak to yourself (and one another) in hymns, psalms, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart, always giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the kingdom of light and life.
Friends, I am astonished that I get to serve the Lord – and even more, that I can serve him and know him among the family of faith in this Diocese. May he continue to pour out such grace on the generations of new leaders being raised up among us.
Servus servorum Dei,
Bishop Steve