Bishop Charles vonRosenberg's
address to the 21st Annual Diocesan Convention

Mr. President and fellow colleagues in ordained ministry, all lay delegates who are colleagues in baptismal ministry, and honored guests who grace us by your presence: I greet you on the occasion of this twenty-first Annual Convention of the Diocese of East Tennessee. It is my honor and privilege to address you today - this being the seventh time I have done so in this setting.

On behalf of us all, I thank the clergy, vestry, and congregation of St. Joseph the Carpenter for hosting us this year. Thanks, also, to the other congregations of the Middle East Area who have helped St. Joseph's in planning and preparing for this event.

I will provide to the Secretary a record of my 2004 official acts, and that information will be published in the Journal of this Convention.

We gather this year, mindful of many of God's children who suffer incredible trials and travails. I think, in particular, of the people of South Asia who have had their world shattered and who continue to mourn, to struggle to survive, and to rebuild their lives following the devastation of the December tsunami. I think, also, of the soldiers from this country who serve in Iraq and of the people of that land so wrecked by the war there. Please join me in a moment of silence as we remember those who are in danger and who suffer, even as we gather in peace and plenitude.

Thanks for Diocesan Staff
As is my custom, I want to give thanks for fellow workers with me on our diocesan staff. I am blessed by their commitment and their dedication. I give thanks to God for their gifts and talents. I am awed by their patience, perseverance, and faithfulness.

Will staff members present please stand when I call your name, and remain standing. Lynn Lazlo, Receptionist and Staff Administrative Assistant; Beth Anderson, Manager of Chapter & Verse Bookshop; Alex Haralson, Youth Coordinator; Rosemary Davenport, Staff Executive Assistant and Insurance Administrator; Bo Lewis, Vicar of Grace Point; Alice Clayton, Canon to the Ordinary; Chris Chase, Canon for Higher Education; Rick Govan, Ministry Development Facilitator; Sharon Rasmussen, Communication Director; Mary Berl, Diocesan Administrator; and Tami Dyke, Bishop's Executive Secretary. Please join me in thanking these folks, not only for what they do but also for who they are!

Introduction
As a way to prepare for writing this Annual Address, I did some work with my former addresses - examining them and rereading them. And, as a result of that effort, I have a couple of observations to make. First, I have found a wonderful way to deal with sleeplessness at night … and this aid to sleep offers absolutely no threat of becoming habit forming! Secondly, I came to realize, from a different perspective, that in six short years a great deal has changed in the Diocese of East Tennessee.

For instance, the diocesan staff that we have just recognized has undergone significant changes. During my first year as bishop, there were twelve members of the staff. Today, though, we have eight people whose job descriptions correspond to those former twelve. Also, we now have three entirely new positions, and the people filling them have offices outside the Diocesan House. By the way, of our current staff, only three were present when I became bishop. Therefore, we are a smaller and a different group than we were six years ago … addressing new needs but with limited financial resources.

In addition, another change in our diocesan life involves our ownership of two hundred and sixty nine acres of beautiful property on Watts Bar Lake - property that we know as "Grace Point." I will have more to say about our camp and retreat center later in this address.

Also, the Diocesan House has changed locations - to a lovely spot adjacent to the Episcopal School of Knoxville. Our current building is entirely paid for, and the loan on the former building has been paid off as well.

Therefore, in several particular ways, the Diocese of East Tennessee has changed rather dramatically in the past six years or so. As diocesan staff, we have tried to do our jobs at a consistently high level of performance, but the settings for those ministries - and the ministries themselves - have certainly changed.

General Context
Now, the context for what I want to consider for the remainder of this Address is larger than those specific changes. Further, this context is more recent in time … and, in particular, it involves the experience of the Episcopal Church during the last eighteen months - since General Convention, 2003.

As I reflect on this time in history, I am quite aware of the limitations of my particular perspective. Indeed, history eventually will judge our time in retrospect, and that point of view will surely be interesting and instructive, as well as more authoritative than any current one. Then, ultimately it is God whose judgment finally is the one that matters. Of that we may be certain - with gratitude and with much relief.

Thus, our current reflections on the state of the Episcopal Church are subject to modification as time progresses, and our reflections also are subject to reaction from others. For instance, the Windsor Report of the Lambeth Commission on Communion has become a catalyst for reflection throughout the world-wide Anglican Communion. The Episcopal House of Bishops met three weeks ago to begin responding to the Report. Primates from around the world - presiding bishops of the various national churches - will meet later this month to receive the Report officially, and they likely will modify it somewhat. The Anglican Consultative Council likewise plans to meet - and consult - about the Windsor Report this spring. And, at some point, the Archbishop of Canterbury will respond in some way that will surely have consequences for the Episcopal Church in the US. These perspectives and reactions help define part of the context in which we live out our faith in our day.

Meanwhile, though, the Episcopal Church - and, in particular, the Diocese of East Tennessee - has work to do. We are called to be the church … to live into the reality of being the Body of Christ in the world; to respond to what our Prayer Book identifies as "the duty of all Christians: to follow Christ; to come together week by week for corporate worship; and to work, pray, and give for the spread of the kingdom of God" (p856).

We have this call in our day … even in these confusing and uncertain times. In our day, it is a fact that most of our churches in East Tennessee have experienced some loss of membership during recent months. We may have gained other members, but some former Episcopalians have left most every church in the diocese. In addition, we have known some financial strains - from General Convention, or from the economy, or from both. This has not been true of all our churches, but for most of us, a recent financial trauma has been our experience.

Remnant Community
Considering these factors, then, I suggest to you that we need to reclaim a certain biblical perspective to understand and appreciate our current circumstances. For the purpose of this Address, I suggest that an appropriate biblical perspective is that of a remnant, a remnant community of faith.

The Interpreters' Dictionary of the Bible offers this definition of "remnant": "The portion of a community which is left, in the case of a devastating calamity; the portion upon which the possible future existence of the community depends" (vol.4, p.32). That definition may overstate the case a bit for us in terms of "calamity", but I submit that it is not far off the mark. In particular, these words seem appropriate: "The portion of a community which is left …the portion upon which the possible future existence of the community depends."

It is important to recognize that the biblical concept of remnant possesses both a judgmental, negative meaning and a constructive, hopeful one as well. It is that second meaning - the constructive, hopeful one - which I intend to emphasize in this address. In a daily office reading just prior to Christmas, the prophet Isaiah wrote of the remnant church that would be prepared for the Messiah. "A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. … The root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples. … There shall be a highway from Assyria for the remnant that is left of his people, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt" (11:1-3, 10a, 16).

Isaiah promised that the faithful remnant would come out of the land of captivity, the place of dispersion, and return to the Promised Land. Therefore, the journey of the faithful remnant of Isaiah's day would replicate another journey of long before. The remnant people of God - captured and enslaved in Egypt - had fled that land in Exodus on their way back to the Promised Land. We Christians point to those experiences of faithful remnants in former days as windows into the meaning of Jesus the Christ. A remnant people continued to await the Messiah in the first century. And this remnant anticipated the fulfillment of Isaiah's wonderful prophecy: "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, those who lived in a land of deep darkness - on them has light shined. … For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (9:2b,6).

Therefore, we understand the biblical remnant community as being "that portion of a community which is left … the portion upon which the possible future existence of the community depends." I suggest to you that the Episcopal Church in East Tennessee resembles those biblical remnant communities in some significant ways.

If our community of faith in East Tennessee bears some likeness to a biblical remnant community, how then are we to live? What characteristics should our life exemplify if indeed we are to be faithful to our calling as followers of Jesus Christ in our day? At this point, I want to suggest four characteristics of life within a remnant community of faithful people - characteristics that seem appropriate for us. Further, I will point out particular means of living faithful lives in this diocese during these times. Thus, it is to a consideration of four characteristics of East Tennessee as a remnant community that we now turn.

Missionary Emphasis
First, it seems to me that a remnant community must be committed to mission beyond itself. It is important to recognize that this commitment runs completely counter to the prevailing temptation for such a community. That is, a community that experiences a degree of abandonment and senses a threat to its very existence will tend to concentrate its attention and energy internally. In times of threat, any group will tend to value self preservation above everything else. However, my friends, that preoccupation with self is not responsive to the call of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Indeed, we cannot be faithful to Jesus without concentrating on mission beyond ourselves.

It has often been observed that the church is a community that exists primarily for those who are not members of it. At its best, therefore, the church lives its life on behalf of others. May we in East Tennessee continue to claim this call, this mission beyond ourselves, for that attention is fundamental to our very existence.

We are blessed as a diocese with two particular objects of mission - and, obviously, local churches have many others as well. Our diocese is committed to missionary efforts to and with the people of Appalachia and the native Americans of South Dakota. As we live faithful lives, responsive to our Lord's call to this remnant community, may our minds and hearts be open to opportunities to engage God's world in mission. Further, may we resist the temptation of self preoccupation, and, instead, may we be driven by God's love into the world for which our Lord gave his life.

Signs of Incarnation
Secondly, a remnant community claims no less a distinction than living as a sign of the Incarnation. God became a human being in one person. Jesus worked primarily with only twelve people. The repeated biblical witness is that God becomes known in the world in small, particular ways and that through such remnants, God's mighty work is accomplished, for the sake of the whole world.

In our diocese, we have identified the development of our ministries as a primary goal for our attention and our resources. The theological rationale for this goal includes the Baptismal Covenant that we have with God - the Covenant that calls us into the ministry of Christ, empowered - through baptism - by the Spirit of Christ. Therefore, in a most profound way, we focus on ministry development because we believe in the Incarnation - that God became a human being and that Christ's Spirit continues to be the presence of God in the world, even now.

A remnant community claims the distinctive reality of providing signs of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. In East Tennessee, we believe that our Lords' Incarnation is known in and through the ministries we exercise by virtue of our baptism.

Lives of Gratitude
The third characteristic of a remnant community is that such a community lives with a conscious sense of gratitude. Once again, temptations of the world encourage different matters for attention. In our day, it becomes easy, for instance, to focus on scarcity rather than abundance, on shortcomings rather than occasions for thanksgiving, on problems rather than mission opportunities, and on a sense of being persecuted rather than the awareness of being blessed.

However, in a fundamental, basic sense, ours is a community of gratitude. We believe in a God who created the world in love, who joined the human experience in love, and who empowers and enriches life with the Spirit of love. Our appropriate response to these manifestations of God's love is thanksgiving, gratitude, and care for all that we have been given in sacred trust.

Grace Point Camp and Retreat Center surely is a blessing from God, for which we give thanks. As a remnant community, living with gratitude as an intention, we recognize Grace Point as God's gift. Further, we acknowledge and accept the responsibility of stewardship for that wonderful part of God's creation. May we, therefore, be grateful and responsible stewards of the gracious gift of God that is Grace Point.

Focus on Relationships
Finally, the remnant community focuses on relationships. Indeed, the significance of relationships far outweighs any concern about organized religion. Thus, for us who are a remnant community of faith, our priority must be relationships over religion.

As the incentive for this focus, we point to the Great Commandment of Jesus himself, who instructed us to love God with all our hearts and souls and minds … and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus had little to say about organized religion - at least, little that was positive. Rather, his primary instruction to those who would follow him involved relationships - to love God and to love our neighbors.

This command to love - and, therefore, to focus on relationships - provides the foundation for the diocesan ministries I have already mentioned. Our mission work with the people of Appalachia and South Dakota finds its incentive in the relationships we develop with fellow children of God. Our commitment to ministry development for all the baptized becomes incarnate in the relationships that emerge as we do the work of our baptismal calling. And the care and stewardship of Grace Point brings to life the relationships of gratitude to God and to each other that are, in turn, so wonderfully enriched by that holy place.

Conclusion
In summary, then, I call on all of us to live into the possibility that God has great things in mind for the remnant community that is the Diocese of East Tennessee. In the weeks and months to come, may we emphasize mission as a community of faith. May we recognize signs of the Incarnation of Jesus in our very midst. May we live lives of gratitude for all that God has given us. And, may we focus on relationships with God and with the fellow human beings with whom we are blessed to walk the way of this life, along with Jesus himself.

Amen … and may God bless you and the Diocese of East Tennessee always!

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

Copyright © 2005 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee