From the Bishop's Desk

Although we know very little about Nicholas, the Bishop of Myra, there is no disputing the fact that he has become one of the most popular saints of the Christian calendar. Certainly, he is the most imitated! For countless centuries, in Christian countries around the world, people have dressed up with white beards and variations of red garb to play at being St. Nicholas or Santa Claus for a group of delighted children. Indeed, every parent or grandparent who puts a gift under a tree is, in part, imitating a man who is remembered for no other reason than the fact that he knew what it is to love!

Of the many legends concerning Nicholas, most detail his many acts of generosity and mercy.  This was a man committed to the Scriptural mandate to love our neighbour. It’s a task more easily spoken of than done. It’s easy to talk of loving but much more difficult to do it. Loving is more an act of the will than of the heart. It involves making hard choices, making commitment. It means choosing to function and act with no motivation other than the desire to benefit another.

The Scriptures call us to be imitators of Christ, to quite literally pretend that you are Jesus.  We are invited to participate in a faithful act of pretence! I like that idea!  For although there are dishonest kinds of pretending where we pretend to be something that we have no intention of truly becoming, there is also, I think, a good kind of pretence where the act of pretence can lead us to the real thing.

In the same way, as we pretend to be more Christ-like, as we put on the face of Christ, we grow into the fullness of his grace and love. What begins as pretence, becomes a reality. To use Scriptural terms, we are talking about putting on Christ, about Christ being formed in us. But regardless of the terminology, the reality of what occurs is the same. As we seek to be more Christ-like, the true Christ honours our faithful act of pretence by turning it into a reality.

So what does all that have to do with St. Nick? As the reigning symbol of the modern, secular holiday season, poor old Santa has become a symbol of all the elements in our modern, consumer driven Christmas that are offensive to us. As such, he gets more than his fair share of bad press from cranky church people at this time of the year.

But not all of it’s deserved. Yes, Christmas is overly hyped and overly commercialized. Yes, there are things we would rather do with a little less of and others we would want to see given a higher profile.  But at the same time, as flawed and imperfect as our annual imitations of old Nicholas might be, on one level they represent a striving for something good and something right. It’s not the real thing by a longshot, but it is informed by the real thing and can still point toward the real thing. And that, in my mind, is something to be thankful for.

So this year, as you dodge through the mall, quietly cursing the muzak Christmas carols and the too-early “holiday” decorations, see if you can’t squeeze out a smile and a prayer for St. Nick. He may be more of a friend than you think!

At the end of May, my assistants and I had the opportunity to meet with a group of pastors, and one deacon, who are called to serve in specialized ministries of spiritual care within the wider community. Some serve in long term care or hospitals. Others serve as chaplains within the Canadian Armed Forces or within the correctional system. Others serve in social service and community counselling ages or hospices. One is called to minister to seafarers on the Great Lakes. Their ministries are unique and represent an amazing breadth of contexts and situations. Regrettably, this work is relatively unheralded within the life of our church and these gifted colleagues engage their ministries in relative anonymity.

The testimonies they shared regarding their particular experiences of ministering within this time of pandemic were poignant and profound. Some spoke of the challenges of ministering to overwhelmed staff colleagues struggling to do their work in times of outbreak. Others referenced their experiences of accompanying the dying in circumstances where family members were not allowed to be present. We heard about escalating mental health challenges and ministering to victims of sexual misconduct within the Canadian Armed Forces. We heard a lot of pain.

We also, however, consistently heard profound words of grace, hope and love. Our colleagues consistently referenced how blessed they feel to be able to do the work that they do. They spoke of the privilege of accompanying people in circumstances that; while fraught with much pain, distress and anxiety; were also profoundly holy and sacred.   

Many have had to change the ways and means by which they serve. One colleague now does shopping runs for seafarers that are locked on board and has been known to carry a balance of up to 20k on his personal credit card in order to do that. “You are a very trusting man,” I said! “It’s all based on trust, bishop!” “It’s all based on trust.”

Each of these colleagues is sharing and living out the Gospel in places and contexts that congregational ministries are unable of unlikely to reach. They extend the breadth and scope of the church’s ministry efforts. They are agents of grace and blessing who are at work at the margins, with people and communities with whom the church would otherwise have no, or very limited, contact.

Their calls to ministry are issued by a synod, or by the ELCIC, on behalf of the whole church. They are our agents of grace and blessing to the world! At the same time, each of them has made a commitment to make themselves available to support congregational ministries as they are able beyond the work they do in their own specialized ministry context. And I can tell you that they honour that commitment by providing supply and interim ministry support to our congregations on top of the significant responsibilities they carry under the terms of their primary calls.

Thank-you, my dear colleagues, for carrying our church’s ministry to places and people to whom we might otherwise not go! You bless us all by your services and we are deeply grateful!

The theme of this past summer’s Synod Assembly was drawn from the words of Isaiah 43:19. “Behold I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it?’”  I think that many of us, have perceived that God is doing something new with us and we welcome it!

A lot of us feel like some cobwebs have been blown off and that we don’t have quite so strong a whiff of mothballs hanging over us. Of course, the pandemic has identified some very significant challenges for us; but its also identified some new opportunities that many of us are inspired to engage.

In February  of 2021, we invited congregations and rostered leaders to participate in a survey to help us assesses the impact of Covid-19 on congregational ministries. And according to your survey responses, you discern further change on the horizon; change that many of you welcome.

We asked you to identify “what elements of your congregation’s ministry you believe will change, post-pandemic vs. pre-pandemic.” This is some of what you told us.

With regard to “missional clarity” or “knowing what business you are in,” 53% anticipate experiencing some change and 12% predict extreme change. One of you wrote, “Post-pandemic realities will reinforce sense of urgency to sharpen missional energy.”  Another wrote, “We’ve made of an effort to reach more people than we did before. We have more volunteers to connect with others via phone, personal deliveries. It’s been a huge learning curve to figure out that we can get out of our building and be the voice of Jesus.”

With regard to the provision of pastoral care, 60% see some change on the horizon and 15% expect to experience extreme change.

One of you reported that, “Pastoral care and pastoral interaction with members increased significantly throughout the pandemic and will likely continue in post pandemic.”  Another wrote, “This time of pandemic has now guided us to use technology to its fullest. We plan to use these resources as well as the traditional means of pastoral care to reach out to people and allow for what is most helpful and needed. We also have now incorporated a “care-team” – a group of people reaching out and being there for their congregation and extended community as needed and helpful.”

And it seems that most of you anticipate that significant changes will continue to impact our worship life – 60% in some ways and 27% in extreme ways. One of you wrote, “The pandemic has opened up possibilities for us and has shifted the posture of the community.  A more missional posture and multiple access points.”  Many of you anticipate going into a hybrid worship model with both face to face and online worship, but have very real anxieties about how that can be done effectively.

I am gratified to see us become more courageous and generous in our support of emerging forms of ministry. Many of us are coming to realize that we can’t solely rely upon status quo models for ministry which, in many contexts, are unlikely to advance God’s mission in the ways that they once did. I applaud our church’s increased willingness to engage in experimentation, learn from the experience of others, and overcome our debilitating fear of failing.

During “covid-tide,” we have opened some windows and doors that we had long assumed were painted shut and immovable. That has proven to not be the case. I hope and pray we will withstand the temptation to shut them up again. I can feel the Spirit’s breeze blowing and it is oh so refreshing!

The following is an excerpt from Bishop Michael Pryse’s reflection during the Opening Service of Synod Assembly 2021, June 25-26, 2021

Over the course of my ministry, I’ve often been asked “why it is that things have to change within the church.”” Worship books, hymns, practices, policies, theology. Why can’t you people just leave things the way they are!”

Surprisingly, or not, nobody has asked me that question in the last 16 months, in spite of the monumental changes that have taken place within our life as church! Interesting!

“Behold I am doing a new thing says the Lord; even now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it?” I think maybe we have. And that’s even more interesting!

Over the past year and a bit, I think that many – not all – of us have experienced a heightened spiritual sensitivity. In the midst of circumstances that, for the most part, have been just plain awful, many of us have experienced a renewed awareness of God’s gracious presence within our individual lives and within the life of our church.  And that’s really interesting!

It’s been a gift of God’s grace and the parables included in today’s Gospel lesson are pictures that describe a reign of grace. The tiny mustard seed grows into a tree that becomes a nesting place for the birds of the air! The birds didn’t and couldn’t do anything to make it happen. The seed – the reign of God – grew of its own volition and nature!  It’s pure grace!

Likewise the yeast – “God’s activating grace” – is mixed by a baker – “God” –  into three measures of flour – “the world.” Keep in mind that those three biblical measures are the equivalent of a bushel basket; 128 cups or 16 five pound bags of flour! And when the baker adds the 42 or so cups of water needed to make it come together, you are talking about 100 pounds of dough through which she needs to disburse the yeast!  Can you imagine?

But she does it. God kneads that dough until the yeast  – God’s grace – is disbursed throughout; until its everywhere! That’s the only way dough can become bread. The yeast breathes life into the loaf.  It is a gift of the baker; a gift of grace.

Do you feel like you’ve been getting kneaded – k-n-e-a-d- kneaded – for the past 15 months? I know that I have. It’s rarely felt good or even comfortable! But I also know that that’s the way that yeast gets disbursed so it can breathe life and growth into the loaf.  I’d like to believe that that has happened for me, for you, and for our beloved church.  I’d like to believe that in significant ways, we are being made new by gifts of grace that were always present, but have been re-discovered and newly revealed!

Ecclesia reformata, sed semper reformanda.

The Church reformed, but always in the process of being reformed. This was the rallying motto of the reformation; a motto that could have been written as much for us today as it was for our reforming forebears of old.

I welcome the animating presence of these seeds and grains of grace in the life of our church. In the heightened levels of collaboration we’ve experienced within and between congregations! In the adaptation and renewal of our worship life whether high tech, low tech or no tech! I welcome it in our heightened attentiveness to maintaining connection with one another and to questions of inclusion and exclusion.

Behold I am doing a new thing says the Lord; even now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it?  Praise God! I think we have and I pray we will! AMEN