Rector's Rambling - July 15, 2012 - Yes, but....

I am writing (out of necessity) this column 10 days before you read it because I will have spent the past 7 days at the St. Michael’s Conference for Youth in Bloomfield Hills. If the past is a reliable predictor of the future, I am exhausted, sleep deprived, sore-throated, and overwhelmed with joy at the experience of having spent a week in a wonderful community of young people and faithful adults who have spent time worshipping, learning, and having fun being together in Christ. I have also been a part of this intentional Christian Community while the General Convention of the Episcopal Church has met in Indianapolis. Since I am writing this so far in advance, I cannot predict the outcome of the many resolutions being discussed and voted upon at Convention. I am pretty sure there will be some I have liked, and many that will leave me disappointed. And, my guess is the mainstream media has mostly covered those items with which I am disappointed! On Sunday, July 1st, I spoke a bit about the upcoming General Convention. I read a portion of the letter deposited in our cornerstone in 1860 by our first Rector, William Armitage (a portion of which is reproduced in today’s Teaching Notes). Let me reiterate what I said on July 1st, and have said since I have become your rector nearly 11 1/2 years ago. The Faith has not, and will not change! Jesus is still Lord, the Bible is still the Word of God and contains all things necessary for salvation, and we strive to be changed into His likeness through conversion of the person by Grace. We probably will spend much time for a few weeks explaining to our friends, “yes, my Church is Episcopalian, BUT we are not like what you heard on TV or read in the newspaper…” and I am sorry that you have to do this. But God is still in charge, and we are still His. And as Yolanda Adams says in her smash single, “The Battle is not yours, it is the Lord’s”.