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54th ANNUAL DIOCESAN CONVENTION BISHOP’S ADDRESS
THE EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF THE CENTRAL GULF COAST
THE RT. REV. J. RUSSELL KENDRICK
21 February 2025
Opening Prayer
Gracious God, thank you for gathering us here this da,y in your presence, where we may be still. That we might know again that you are God. And we remember who we are, and who you're calling us to be. Amen.
Good morning. I stand before you [This is the Bishop’s Dddress by the way, so get settled in for a little while.] I stand before you as one who has no one to blame but himself. I do not know if there is a divine convergence going on, a simple coincidence, or it is God's sense of humor at work, and I am the joke. No, I'm not having an existential crisis in front of you, but I am wondering, and even a bit perplexed about how the theme of our convention coincides with this particular gospel appointed by the lectionary on this particular Sunday.
Yes, I know I could have picked another reading. I could have changed the theme. [Jenn would have never forgiven me.] To be honest, I did think about that, but I made a commitment a few years ago to play by the upcoming lectionary with the simple hope that someone might want to try to connect what we do here to what we preach and teach on Sunday back home. So here we are.
Before I launch into my address, welcome to the 54th annual Convention in the Diocese of the Central Coast. It is good to be here. It is good to be here, and I mean that, and I hope you feel the same way too. I'm always aware that there are many paths to get here. Some of you love to be at Convention. We are your tribe, so to speak, and you've been coming to this event a lot longer than anybody expects of you. Thank you. Some of you are here because you were not paying attention during the vestry meeting or you missed the annual meeting, or you are the last one confirmed by the Bishop or the most recent one. Thank you. And an extra word thanks to the clergy of our diocese. Thank you for all that you do to nourish your people with God's riches, the riches of God's grace. And the challenges and the costs and the choices that you make that work requires you.
However you got here, I'm also aware that you've come here with a big bag on your soul called life. I don't know what is in your bag, and I'm not going to burden you with what's in mine, but we all have a bag and for some of you, this is a heavy time. You know who you are. Peace be with you.
Each year I start in the fall to ponder a theme for our annual convention. Sometimes the theme is pithy phrase, sometimes it's a Bible verse. This year it's a line from a hymn that I heard sung by the choir of Nativity, Dothan. I have to tell you that when I heard it, I actually started being lifted off of my chair. I was so moved that, afterwards, I googled this song. “Oh. God Beyond All Praising.” And the tune was originally set to a patriotic text in the United Kingdom. The author of the version that we just sang loved the tune so much, but he wanted a text that focused less on politics and more on God. Imagine that. The more I learned about this hymn, the more I felt drawn to use this, specifically this line “Sing the Love Amazing”. The reason for that particular verse is that I think that this may be our very moment in time to do what this text beckons us to do. To turn away from all the politics of this world and of our time. To focus on God and to “Sing the Love Amazing”.
“What will it take to shift us out of this culture of anger and disconnection?” That question was asked of the columnist David Brooks in a recent interview that we will watch a brief portion of later today. Brooks answers by pointing to a book from 1981 entitled “The Politics of Disharmony”. In that book, the author points out a weird pattern in our country's history that every 60 years or so, our country moves through what he calls a moral convulsion. People get disgusted with established power and a passionate young generation comes on the scene. New forms of communication technology emerge and it feels like everything is falling apart. In the 1770s, it was a revolution. 1830s there was the Jacksonian period. 1890s it was the Industrial Revolution moving into Progressive. Then there were the 1960s that some of us still remember. Brooks points to pictures in the high school yearbook in 1964. All the guys have the same crew cut haircut and a white shirt. Then around 1968 you begin to see that about half of them still have the crew cut, but half of them have long hair and different shirts. And too, the pictures included the first results of integration. By 1974 they all had long hair and all kinds of clothes. Brooks points out how that was a sign of our move from a culture of conformity to a culture of individuality. Another 60 years and here we are.
Brooks goes on to say that we are moving from an individualistic culture to a more communal one, and we are fighting over what kind of community we want to be in the future. The social justice, or woke movement as he calls it, is a community story. The MAGA movement is another community story. These two community stories contradict each other and we do not know yet who we will be on the other side of this. And it's hard.
I shared all of that to share this - What if this is our moment and our time to offer again into our culture an alternative way to be community? Via media, if you will. Lived out that is called the body of Christ. It is the kind of community that is messy, values the dignity of every human being; a community that revels in joy and wonder, and is built on the values we find in the shared meal that is available to all people, a community, of people bound together to live by the values that we see in Jesus Christ. Sound familiar? Thank you.
Again, I say to you, “Sing the Love Amazing”. Yes, we have work to do, reports to make, a budget to pass. But this is also our time together to celebrate and to sing of God's amazing love. And I want you to know this. You are singing. One of the best parts of being a Bishop is I get to go around and see and hear the songs that you are singing. After all, contrary to popular belief, I'm not the diocese. You are!
So let's have some fun and sing. We asked you to send in your lyrics, so to speak, of when you saw God working and God's amazing love and work in your church. Some of you responded so I've come up with a little exercise [I'm not gonna sing y'all - Thank you.] But we are going to sing this: If you did your homework and you hear one of these stanzas and it sounds like a song that you've heard in your church, then stand up as I call these out. This is like calisthenics. Just stand up. Pop up fast so we can move through this.
Alright, so we sang a song that's serving Christ by serving meals to anyone who showed up in our church. Come on, somebody, I know y'all have done this. There you go, now you get the hang of it. Alright good, we’ll keep moving.
We sang a song by partnering with a nearby school and helped out the children in that school. Wow there you go. If you see one and it intrigues you, go have a conversation and find out more about it.
We sang a song of generosity. Like collecting and giving money for the relief of natural disasters. A bunch of y'all better stand up. Well now, there you go. Good.
So we sang a song of compassion to the elders in our town by way of our senior citizen center. Where's Gulf Breeze? There you there, you’re singing. There you go.
We sang a song of repentance by taking ashes from our church out into places in our town. There you go.
We sang a song called The Live Last Supper in our local theater during Holy Week that over 300 people attended and 2000 watched online.
We sang a song of love and health and recovery for a family whose home burned down and they lost everything.
We sang a song through our Hagars Closet that provides personal hygiene products to families.
We sang a song of fellowship when we celebrated 170 years as a church.
We sang a song with compassion by opening our church up during the recent snowstorm.
We sang a song of packing meals for people on Sunday that we delivered during the week. I know a lot of y'all do that. There you go.
We sang a song when we blessed backpacks. You all love doing that.
We blessed the animals. . . we blessed golf carts. We sang a song of service when we went on a mission trip to another place.
We sang a song of helping a family of immigrants in our neighborhood.
We sang a song giving away 58,000 lbs of food and we have only 50 people in church on a Sunday. There you go.
We sang a song of restoration and respect in our relationship with the local AME church.
We sang the song of discipleship in a small group ministry using a curriculum that engaged over 250 people in places all over the city.
We sang a song of justice and advocacy in our monthly discussion called “Wade in the Water”.
We sang a song in a local bar where we sang, shared food, and sang hymns. One man showed up, asked if we knew “Will the Circle be Unbroken? His father had just died the night before and it was his favorite song. We played the song we prayed too.
We sang a song of hospitality in August when we had two visitors in church. One was a pregnant woman from the Philippines. Her husband was still overseas in the Navy. Being new in the area, they knew no one. So the next Sunday we had a baby shower for her. When her baby was born, we baptized Elio. It's the first time we've heard a baby cry in our church in a long time. He sent us all when we held Trunk or Treat that connected us to our community and each other in a deeper way.
We sang a song of celebration and a series of programs that remembered Black History Month.
We sang a song of kindness and generosity by giving away food from our food pantry. There's gotta be a bunch of you on that one. Good, thank y'all.
So here's the amazing thing about your song. Apparently it's a catchy tune. And I say that because in 2024 I confirmed and received significantly more people in our churches than any other year as your Bishop. That wasn’t me. Something good is going on y'all; Something good is going on. People are hearing the sound of love in you in a way that connects to them. Might we dare to keep on and dare to sing even louder and grow even more in 2025? I wonder what would happen if you went home and took up the challenge to your people to grow your church by just 5% this year? Ever heard a Bishop say that? It's been a while. That's not an audacious goal. Last year I confirmed three people in Wewahitchka. On that day, they grew 300%.
And for all these communal songs, there are some personal solos. Each of you has a song to sing. Don't stand up now. There is a teacher in one of our smaller communities who teaches English as a second language to the children of immigrants. She organized meetings with the parents of their students and an attorney who gave them advice on how to keep their work visas updated and navigate immigration issues. There is a counselor I know who's giving away free counseling to any federal worker who has lost their job. I could go on… but y'all are singing.
So the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast thanks you for your song. Keep on singing.
But now comes the shift in the tune of our song, so to speak, and we come to a stanza that we might want to skip. Like we sometimes skip on some hymns on Sunday. Yep, we're back to the gospel. I did not forget it. This is from Eugene Peterson's paraphrase “The Message”.
“To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it.No more payback. Live generously. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Giving, not getting, is the way.”
Love your enemies. Don’t pick on people. Give your life away. What are we to make of this?
So let me just say out loud what some of you are thinking. Jesus has got to be kidding. This kind of talk is weak. Turn the other cheek. That’s not what my Dad told me on the day when I was bullied at school. And what about terrorists or mass murderers? Love the guy who cuts you off on the road and then flips you off as he goes by? Love the relative who has insulted you every time your family is together? And I am sure for a few of you, the face of your enemy is far more personal & painful than my tongue in cheek examples.
What do we make of this? I'm reminded of something Bishop Rob Wright, the Bishop of Atlanta, told me in a meeting. Very recently he said this: “The problem with Christianity is Jesus.” That is a quote worthy of a banner.
Let's remember the context. First of all, Jesus has been preaching for a while, and you may recall the kinder, gentler version called the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew. This is the blunt version from Luke. If you were in church last Sunday, it started with those blessings and woes. Without getting stuck in the details, think of it this way. This is Jesus's vision for the way that God wants the world to be. A vision of a different reality that Jesus repeatedly calls the Kingdom of heaven.
Here's a vision of how the Kingdom of heaven will be. Those who are persecuted will be exalted; those who are cursed will be blessed. It is a reality where there is no war, grudges, or despair. It is a reality in which everyone has enough, everyone is at peace, and God's perfect love will be all that there is. This is God's reality. And then Jesus says, “so get to work building this reality today. Here are a few practical ways to do that. Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.
Apparently for Jesus, no one is disposable. Think of it this way, John Wesley once wrote: “There is no such thing as a solitary Christian.” We need each other to truly know God. For me, this is one of the most demanding parts when I say I follow Jesus ----and all the other people I get with the deal. And living with other people is not easy, especially “those people”, whoever they are for you.
Howard Thurman once preached “If you love somebody, you never give that person up. He goes on to say this: “Isn't it interesting how Jesus always insisted upon this, and how completely we have missed it in our doctrine?”
The underlying point of all that Jesus is saying is that our life with God is meant to affect the values by which we live with each other. We cannot promise to love people in church on Sunday and be a bully to everyone on Monday.
Jesus is not calling us to be Christian doormats or deny evil. He's telling us that there is a more powerful way to conquer all that is wrong and in the ways of rage, retribution, and revenge. And that way involves values like forgiveness, compassion, mercy, and grace. See, the thing is, Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. Jesus knows how we hurt and how we hurt each other. Jesus knows how the cycle of rage and revenge can consume us. Jesus knows this experienced in his own skin and bones.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote this: “Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end, all his disciples deserted him. On the cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evil doers and mockers. For this cause he came to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life, but in the thick of foes. There is his commission, his work.
And friends, that is now our work. It's the call to relationship. It is the call of our mission as the Church that's in the Prayer Book of restoration and reconciliation.
Again, the story from David Brooks. In an article from a few years ago, he wrote that he interviewed some young people about their fears and hopes. The article closes with these words by Brooks: I was struck by the pervasive but subtle hunger for change in the emotional tenor of life. ‘We’re more connected but we’re more apart,’ one student lamented. Again and again, students expressed a hunger for social and emotional bonding, for a shift from guilt and accusation towards empathy. ‘How do you create relationship?’ one student asked. That may be the longing that undergirds all others.”
How do you create relationship? That may be our greatest work right now. And there are those who are singing this song too. Later today you will hear an update on the work of our commissions that focuses on prison ministry and racial justice. I know there's a lot being said about the words like diversity, equality, and inclusion. Before we get entranced by what the world is saying about such things for us who follow Jesus., our commitment and our work on the topic of racism is not about diversity. It is about dignity. It is about the dignity to respect every human being, it’s about the dignity that we promise every time we do the baptismal covenant. That work has been going on a long time in the Episcopal Church, and it will continue to go on. There are also those of you who have employed table talk, hard table talk using curriculum, small groups and studies that actually engage people who disagree, and conversation building relationships across divides. This is incredible work and I encourage that work. This is why we published our own study called Project Neighbor back in the fall.
Building relationships, the mission of restoration is not easy work. The tempter will try to convince us that it's not worth our effort and energy. That's the power of sin.
It is the sin of presuming that the future is fixed. That people cannot change. There's no hope. It is a sin because it puts us in place of God. We presume to know what's going to happen. And that leaves very little room for God to happen----to shape and move us.
Yes, there's those who follow Jesus. We say God can create something out of nothing. We trust that God can even make dead things come alive again. We believe that even at the grave we will sing our song. And if we believe those things about God, then there is no situation beyond the reach of the power of God's mercy and love. As difficult as it is, let's do our best to remain open to the reality of God's future, the work of restoration, building and creating relationships, and daring to “Sing the Love Amazing”.
Frederick Buechner put it this way. “The love for equals is a human thing, of friend for friend, it is to love what is loving and lovable. The world smiles. The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing. The love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world. The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing, to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich. The world has always been bewildered by its saints. And then there is the love for the enemy, love for the one who does not love you but mocks you, threatens and inflicts pain, the tortured’s love for the torturer. This is God’s love. It conquers the world.”
This is our moment and this is our time. May we remember who we are meant to be, and may we remember God's vision for this world that we are called to build. May we be found again by the strength and courage of God to stand up, clear our weary throats, and sing of the love amazing.
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