Reflections on Province IV Synod day 2: Rev. Wil Keith

Alright, so I know that I’ve made a big deal about it.  I’ve talked about the need for a monumental change to a unicameral system of governing in our Church.  I’ve defended it in conversation.  I’ve suggested that it might be what all the cool people are doing.  I’ve even said that it might bring a new generation to the church—all of which aren’t  necessarily true.

In truth, I don’t actually support this particular and peculiar change.

So why talk about it?  Because it causes discomfort among my fellow deputies and gets us talking about things like government and structure in ways that we have not talked about them in a long, long time.  For so long, “the way we do things,” hasn’t been up for discussion and the old joke about Episcopalians complaining “but, we’ve never done it that way before!” remains perennially funny because it’s becoming perennially true.

Here at Kanuga, at this Province IV Synod gathering, I was taken aback at the level of discomfort merely suggesting a change of this magnitude.  But, here’s the thing—I believe in the work of the Task Force for Reimagining the Episcopal Church.  I believe they have diligently and prayerfully offered us many new ways of approaching the way we do “church.”  However, I find the value of their work not necessarily in the resolutions they propose, but in the discussion that these proposals have engendered.  These discussions are indeed uncomfortable and to question long standing (read 50-60 years) ways of governance can and will lead us to an “in-between-time,” or “wilderness experience,” or whatever catchy phrase we want to apply.

This transition time is good for our Church, even if it disturbs our comfort.  Actually, it is good because it disturbs our comfort lest we forget how important this time is to our faith.  During these times of searching, longing, and movement, we learn to rely on someone other than ourselves and rest not in our utter changelessness, but in God’s.  We know this in our beloved diocese for we have lived and lived into our current time of transition.

And yet, we know of its fleetingness.  Even now as mission churches in our diocese gain sustainability with the calling of clergy and the gathering of resources for regular worship, they look beyond sustainability in the wilderness to stability in structure, often moving quickly to building plans.  Now, I know I haven’t been here all that long and in may ways cannot begin to understand the comfort and even healing a new building offers many of my fellow Lowcountry women and men, but the move out of the wilderness remains bittersweet.

So, I’ll keep expounding the potential merits of a unicameral governing body, if only just to seek out the merits of the holy discomfort of honest discernment.  Because, in this courage we truly have something to offer The Episcopal Church and share with all whom God puts before us on this path: the faith and trust that we are called to place in our Lord.