Bishop Charles vonRosenberg's address

Mr. President, lay and clergy delegates, and distinguished guests and visitors among us, I greet you on the occasion of the Twenty Sixth Annual Convention of the Diocese of East Tennessee. This represents my twelfth convention address - the first one having occurred on the day prior to my consecration as bishop. I thank you for your indulgence as you have listened patiently to these addresses. I commend you for your perseverance during those times. And, I assure you of my gratitude for the honor of serving as bishop of this diocese for the past eleven years.

As you may have heard, the process of Episcopal transition has begun. I plan to resign as bishop of this diocese once my successor has been consecrated, and we anticipate that will happen in June, 2011. According to plans developed by the Standing Committee, the Search Committee, the Transition Committee, and the bishop, we hope and pray that the election of the next bishop will take place a year from now - at next year's diocesan convention. We will hear more about the process later in this convention.

On behalf of everyone here, I want to thank the people responsible for coordinating our convention this year. Mary LeMense has served as the chair of this year's Convention Planning Committee. Several Knoxville churches are our co-hosts: Good Shepherd, St. Thomas, and Church of the Ascension. At this time, therefore, I invite the convention to join me in expressing our thanks for the good work that has been accomplished on behalf of all of us.

We have introduced two of our guests at this convention already. However, I want to recognize them again at this time. The Rt. Rev. John Tarrant is the new diocesan bishop of our companion diocese, South Dakota. And, the Rev. Dr. Anthony Bailey, from Ottawa, Canada, will be our guest speaker. Welcome to you both.

Also, I want to pay tribute to my colleague, the Rt. Rev. William Sanders, first bishop of East Tennessee. Bishop Sanders is not with us at this convention. However, he continues to offer support and guidance to many of us, and he even makes several visitations in East Tennessee each year, at my request. Currently, Bishop Sanders is doing well, following heart surgery in Nashville, late last year. We wish him well, and we offer him our best wishes and our prayers.

Diocesan Staff

As my custom has been, I want to recognize our diocesan staff for the hard work they do, in preparation for convention and, indeed, all year long. I certainly am blessed to share in ministry with these folks, and I am personally grateful for their efforts. Also, I hope that the people of the diocese realize the good resources that our staff offers, in support of the ministries of us all.

Therefore, at this time I want to recognize and to thank members of our diocesan staff, individually. Lynn Lazlo serves as Receptionist and Administrative Assistant; Alex Haralson, as Youth Ministries Coordinator; Herb Berl, as volunteer Stewardship Officer; Rosemary Davenport, as Insurance Administrator and Administrative Assistant. Jim Powell is the interim Executive Director of Grace Point, and we welcome him to his first convention in that role. Vikki Myers serves as Communications Director; Rick Govan, as Deputy for Ministry and Congregational Development. Mary Berl is our Diocesan Administrator. Laura Nichols serves as the Bishop's Executive Assistant. And, Stephen Askew is the Canon to the Ordinary. Please join me now in offering our thanks to this very fine diocesan staff.

Convention Theme - "Abundance in Scarcity"

For the remainder of this Address, I would like to put on the lens of our convention theme - "Abundance in Scarcity" - in order to look at several aspects of life today and, especially, of our diocesan life. It is important to acknowledge at the outset that the perspective of this convention theme requires faith. That is, with evidence readily available, we may identify realities having little at all to describe as "abundant." However, a perspective informed by faith - along with the experience of faith - leads us to conclude that our time does indeed offer us abundance in scarcity.

Evidence of scarcity in society at large and in the church may be found, quite easily. The loss of wealth during the past two years has been unbelievable. Many people have seen the value of personal assets reduced by thirty or forty percent … or more. Some of that loss has been recovered by some people, but certainly not all of it by everyone. Real estate, whose worth seemed ever-increasing in the past, has experienced a decline unlike anything in our memories. Banks have folded; businesses have closed; money has become tight or unavailable. Unemployment figures exceed ten percent in many parts of our country - a sum that was thought outrageous not very long ago.

Churches are not immune from these troubles, as we know all too well. The Episcopal Church - local, diocesan, and general - has experienced effects similar to those of businesses. Programs and staff have been cut; full-time positions have been reduced to part-time; and some churches have looked seriously at closing their doors.

Biblical Reflections on Abundance

In situations of scarcity, however, signs of abundance do persist. Again, with eyes of faith, we may witness abundance and testify to it. The convention logo reminds us of the loaves and fishes - meager provisions that nevertheless fed five thousand people, from Jesus' hands (Mark 6:35f). Indeed, in the presence of Jesus, over and over again, abundance grows out of scarcity.

Of course, we know that Jesus' perspective often is unique, and such is certainly true in terms of this subject. His observation of the widow's offering in the temple was that "this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury" (Mark 12:43). The gift may have been small in monetary value, but Jesus saw in that gift an unsurpassed abundance of worth, nevertheless.

In addition to the example of Jesus himself, we find other indications of abundance in scarcity in the life of the early church. Among those examples, the Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians seems prominent. There certainly existed examples of scarcity in Corinth and in the church there - scarcity in morals, in faithfulness to the Gospel, in social status, and in financial resources, among other things.

St. Paul reminds the Corinthians of the example of Christ, as the one appropriate to follow. He writes to them, "You know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich" (8:9). Again, in the witness of our Lord, we - along with St. Paul - may identify abundance in scarcity. Paul also refers to the remarkable support of certain Christians, on behalf of those in need in Jerusalem, as following Christ's example. The apostle writes, "We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part" (8:1-2). That combination of words really is amazing - "their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity." Or, to use slightly different words, these saints lived their faith in such a way that brought abundance out of scarcity.

Examples of Abundance in Mission

The example of generosity among Macedonian Christians reminds us how important it is, always, to try to view the world through different eyes - and, especially, when times may seem tough to us. Again, this is a matter that requires a faith perspective. The tendency in difficult times, of course, is to become preoccupied with our own problems. But the witness of our faith and the experience of our lives call us to resist that temptation, especially in those tough times and circumstances.

For instance, through the years I have been blessed to learn first-hand a bit about the people of Haiti and about Native Americans on reservations in South Dakota - our informal and formal companion dioceses. On every visit to those places, I have been humbled by how little it takes for such people to live, in contrast to the extravagance of my own life. At the same time, I have witnessed the unlikely combination that St. Paul mentioned - "abundant joy and extreme poverty." From my observations, I would add abundant faith to this mix as well. Surely, among the people of Haiti and the Native Americans of South Dakota, we may see and appreciate abundance in scarcity.

I need to add that we will hear a special report on Haiti relief efforts later in this convention. May we all continue to remember the people of that fragile land in our prayers and in our giving. Efforts to relieve hardship and to rebuild Haiti will require serious long-term commitments, on behalf of our Haitian brothers and sisters in Christ. I pray that we will remain faithful to that task.

Abundance in Time

We begin to notice that the lens of our convention theme offers us a broader view than of financial resources alone. I suggest that we may also consider the subject of time in similar terms. For instance, our tradition is that Jesus' public ministry lasted for only about three years. Yet, out of that brief time, Jesus' ministry transformed the world. Thus, abundance in scarcity applies to time as well as other resources.

Thinking in these terms, I remember a professor from my seminary days - and this memory comes to mind for reasons that will become obvious. I was part of two different classes with this professor, and to tell the truth, the first class was not very good, in my opinion. In fact, I was not happy about being assigned to him for the second time. However, during the initial session of that second class, he reminded us that he was retiring at the end of that year. And, therefore, he said to us, "You are going to get the best I've got." We did … and the experience was wonderful indeed. Abundance may be experienced in scarcity, therefore, in terms of time.

Abundance at Grace Point

Grace Point has not been blessed with all the resources we had hoped for, years ago. As a result, the development of our camp and retreat center has been slower than we had envisioned. We adopted a "pay as we go" policy toward development, which actually has served us well. However, our facility is far from complete.

In our eight years of operation, though, hundreds of campers have had their summers enlivened and their faith, enriched, as a direct result of the people and programs of Grace Point. Vestries and youth groups, Cursillos and women's retreats, and many, many other communities have become aware of God's presence and power at Grace Point. Protestant and Roman Catholic children from Northern Ireland, Appalachian children and youth, Hispanic street people, Camp Billy Johnson for underprivileged kids, children of incarcerated parents, Native American youth from South Dakota - possibilities for outreach at Grace Point only are restricted by the limitation of our vision. Abundance in scarcity is alive and well at Grace Point!

Diocesan Budget Abundance

In recognition of financial challenges, the asking from churches to support diocesan ministries was significantly reduced this year. Bishop and Council made the conscious decision to live within more limited means, in hopes that local mission would be enhanced and that individual churches would cooperate, in support of our common diocesan ministry. For the most part, diocesan churches have cooperated, as they are able, and we are grateful. The scarcity which confronts us provides opportunities for abundant mission and ministry, nevertheless. The abundance of our response will be guided by our Lord, who became poor to serve those in need.

Conclusion

These times present us with tests of many sorts. Surely one test involves stewardship - how we use the resources with which we have been entrusted. To the extent that our convention theme describes reality as we perceive it, then we have before us also a test of faith. As I said earlier, the perspective of our theme does require of us the eyes of faith.

Some questions for our faith at this time might be these. Can we give thanks for examples of abundance, even in times and circumstances of scarcity? Do we understand that the presence of Christ offers gifts of far greater value than we can earn or deserve? Can we accept scarcity as an unlikely means to experience abundance - but a means to that end, nevertheless? Will our commitment to God's world encourage us to share abundantly with those in need?

My friends, such questions of faith nudge us toward the abundance of God Almighty. In God's abundance, we need not fear scarcity. Indeed, God's abundance knows no bounds. Abundance in scarcity may represent our best, most faithful witness today, in our time. However, even as we live our lives of faith now, we can only begin to experience the abundance that God has in store for us all.

The Rt. Rev. Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee
Delivered Feb. 12, 2010
26th Diocesan Convention, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Knoxville

Copyright © 2009 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee