What is a bishop? - St. Stephen's Episcopal Church

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2 Photo courtesy of SSJE Photo courtesy of SSJE Photo by Sarah Bartenstein Living intentionally What is a ‘rule of life,’ and what does it have to do with you? Both the Rule of Life and the workbook are available in St. Stephen’s bookstore. Top to bottom: ■ The refectory and an exterior shot from the Society of St. John the Evangelist’s monastery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ■ St. Stephen’s regularly takes groups of women and men to SSJE for weekend retreats, and the monks come to St. Stephen’s to lead retreats here. ■ A spring 2012 retreat in Cambridge included Sandy Roney, Lacey Tadlock, Weezie Blanchard, Abigail Whorley, Alice Meadows and Josie Howren. ■ David Vryhof speaks to a group at St. Stephen’s. What do you think of when you hear the word ‘rule’? For many of us, the word has negative connotations. We are likely to think of rules as boundaries that forbid us from doing something. But a rule of life is something else. Rather than being a set of laws that forbid us to do certain things, a rule of life is a set of guidelines that support and enable us to do the things we want and need to do. The word ‘rule’ used in this sense comes from the Latin word regula, which suggests not so much a code of legislation (lex or ‘law’) but a means of regularizing and regulating our lives that can help us focus our time and attention on the things that are most important to us. A rule of life expresses choices we have made about our values and priorities and about how we want to use our time, energy and resources. Its importance is that it helps us to live more intentionally, by bringing order and discipline to our daily existence. Monastic rules of life originated in the deserts of Egypt in the 3rd and 4th centuries as desert hermits began to live in proximity to one another in order to share food and other resources and to offer one another support in living the ascetical life. Although St. Anthony the Great (251-356) is generally recognized as the father of Christian Monasticism, St. Pachomius (292-346) is regarded as the founder of cenobitic monasticism; that is, monastic life lived in community with others. Pachomius was converted and baptized in the year 314 and established his first monastery in the Egyptian desert between 318 and 323. By the time of his death he had established nine monasteries, some with over 100 members. When these desert dwellers began to live together in communities, they found that they needed some way to regularize and regulate their common life. Rules of life were developed that laid out the community’s values and standards and gave direction and purpose to its life. In the Introduction of the Rule of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, we suggest four purposes for a monastic rule of life: A rule (1) sustains the identity of the community by mandating rhythms of worship, spiritual discipline, prayer and rest, work and ministry; (2) sets the patterns by which authority is distributed and where accountability is expected; (3) delineates the bounds of the community and describes the process of initiation; and (4) connects the ideals of the particular community or order with the gospel and the Christian mystery. Several ancient monastic rules are still in use today. The Rule of Saint Basil (4th century) is the most widely-used rule in the Eastern Churches. Rather than being a rule in the standard sense, it is a collection of St. Basil’s responses to questions about the ascetical life. The Rule of Saint Benedict (6th century) has been the most widely-used rule in the Western Church since the 8th century. It is a book of precepts written by St. Benedict of Nursia for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. Modern-day communities that choose to follow an ancient rule do so because of the time-tested wisdom these rules contain. St. Benedict’s rule, for example, is known for its moderation and balance and has proved to be a helpful guide for countless monastic communities for nearly 1500 years. It contains instruction on aspects of monastic life such as how to say the Divine Office, how sick brethren should be cared for, how silence is to be observed, what kind of man the abbot ought to be, how a monk can grow in humility, and so on. It recommends a balance in work and study and prayer. Many people today are rediscovering the importance of finding a balance in their lives between work and play, between time spent in groups and time spent alone, etc. The chief disadvantage of an ancient rule is that as times change, certain parts of it become outdated. The rule then needs to be re-interpreted by each generation and by each community that adopts it. The Rule of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist is a modern rule, written specifically by and for our community in the late 1980s and early 1990s. During these years we undertook a lengthy process which involved thinking, praying and talking together about all aspects of our common life. Drafts were written and tested, reviewed and modified. In the end we produced a rule of 49 chapters, which is for us both descriptive of how we live and prescriptive when we fall short of our ideals. It is our practice to read and discuss together one chapter each day. Many other individuals and groups have found it profitable to read and study our Rule, in order to adapt its principles to their own lives. Both ancient and modern rules can provide guidance for living well in our contemporary world. But a growing number of people are finding it helpful to design their own personal rule of life, in which they set out their values and priorities, and describe the spiritual disciplines they will take on in order to live a life that reflects their values. For those interested in designing their own rule, SSJE offers a workbook to guide your thinking. A rule must be realistic. Its expectations should not be so high that we are consistently failing to realize them, nor should they be so low that they require little or no discipline or effort on our part to keep them. The rule should challenge and stretch us, but not overwhelm us. Its chief importance is to support us in living the new life we have been given in Christ. If it accomplishes that, it can be an instrument of divine grace in our lives. –David Vryhof, SSJE This article was originally published in the Summer 2011 issue of Cowley, the quarterly magazine of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, and is reprinted here with permission. More information about SSJE is available at www.ssje.org. SEASONS OF THE SPIRIT Photos by Stacia Schoeffler, Sarah Bartenstein
Photos by Stacia Schoeffler, Sarah Bartenstein Photo by Whitney Bender Bishop Johnston confirms 78 in the Episcopal Church Bishop Johnston, Weezie Blanchard and Leigh Preston are shown with youth and adults presented for confirmation at the 9 a.m. service (left) and the 11:15 a.m. service (right). On Sunday, May 13, the Rt. Rev. Shannon Johnston, the Bishop of Virginia, visited St. Stephen’s for our annual bishop’s visit. During the 9 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. services, Bishop Johnston confirmed, received and reaffirmed 78 youth and adults. Confirmation is a mature commitment to Christ and an affirmation of the promises which may have been made by one’s parents and godparents when one is an infant or a child. Our youth are prepared for confirmation through the Sunday morning, youth group and weekend components of the Journey to Adulthood program. Adults take part in a seven-week Inquirers Class led by St. Stephen’s clergy. The candidates had an opportunity to spend informal time with Bishop Johnston the evening before the services: the bishop had dinner with youth confirmands, and adult candidates joined them afterwards for dessert. We have a new bishop-elect! On Saturday, April 21, clergy and lay representatives of each of the parishes in the Diocese of Virginia, including St. Stephen’s, gathered at St. George’s Church in Fredericksburg to select a new bishop who will work with the Rt. Rev. Shannon Johnston, our diocesan (head) bishop. This election came after a lengthy process of deliberation during which six men and women were nominated for the office of suffragan bishop, a kind of assisting bishop. Delegates chose the Rev. Canon Susan Goff, 58, who is known to many at St. Stephen’s, since she and her husband, the Rev. Tom Holliday, regularly attend the Celtic service and other offerings here. Canon Goff also recently led, with the Rev. Weezie Blanchard, a retreat for our vestry. The bishop-elect has extensive experience in parish and school settings, including at St. Catherine’s School. Most recently, she has served Bishop Johnston as “canon to the ordinary,” his chief clergy assistant. She is the first woman elected to serve as a bishop in the Diocese of Virginia. In many parts of the Anglican Communion, bishops are appointed, but in the American church, we elect bishops through a democratic process which includes receiving the consent of the entire Episcopal Church before the person elected is ordained as a bishop. This recognizes that we are in relationship to one another, and that while a bishop may be elected to serve in a particular diocese, she or he is a bishop for the whole church. Canon Goff’s ordination as a bishop is scheduled for Saturday, July 28, at St. Paul’s Church in Richmond. Our spiritual formation program for youth in grades 6-12 includes a special experience that will take place this summer for eight of our 9th and 10th graders, a spiritual pilgrimage that is a life-changing journey for them and their adult chaperones. The pilgrimage takes place every other summer, and this will be the third such pilgrimage for St. Stephen’s youth since the program began. In 2008, the first group to go on a pilgrimage from St. Stephen’s traveled to Italy to walk in the footsteps of St. Francis and St. Clare. Their leaders were Sarah Morris (then our youth director), parishioner Riker Purcell, and Bill Campbell and Whitney Bender (our youth interns at that time). In 2010, Whitney – who had become youth director – was joined by associate for Christian formation and education Gene LeCouteur to lead a group to Ireland to follow the paths of St. Patrick and St. Kevin. This year, our 9th and 10th graders have chosen Italy, and will be led by Gene and parishioner Ruthie Burke as they study and visit places that were important in the lives of St. Francis and St. Benedict. They will lead daily worship, keep an account of their experiences on a blog, and will stay for part of their trip at the Monastery of St. Scholastica (named for St. Benedict’s sister), in the shadow of the Monastery of St. Benedict. Their itinerary includes visits to Rome, Assisi, Greccio, and other locations. Both of the saints that our youth have been studying were founders of monastic communities. St. Benedict, in particular, is known for What is a bishop? Bishops as we know them in the Episcopal Church emerged in New Testament times. They were called by the title “episkopos,” a Greek word that means “overseer.” The Anglican Communion today teaches that we can trace a direct line from these earliest overseers of the Church to today’s bishops. The original overseers in the church were the Apostles chosen by Jesus, whom he called to follow him, to whom he taught his message, and whom he prepared for leadership. As we know, the earliest followers of Jesus were his fellow Jews. But as the Gospel message quickly began to touch more and more lives, especially through the ministry of St. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, people from a variety of backgrounds and expanding geographical areas became attracted to the new faith. This growth not only added organizational problems and theological complexity, it also expanded the responsibilities of the Christian community and created a need for more leadership. Persons deemed worthy of leadership positions were chosen to assist the Apostles and their successors in passing on the faith to new generations. By the 2nd century, however, fewer women were being ordained to positions of leadership in the Church. That exclusion lasted in the Episcopal Church until the late 20th century, but women are now welcomed to all orders of the clergy in our church, including the office of bishop. This description was provided by the education subcommittee of the Bishop Suffragan Nominating Committee. This subcommittee created a series on the role of bishops, available on the diocesan Web site at http://www.thediocese.net/BishopSuffraganSearchProcess/. Our bookstore carries several books on the Episcopal Church and what it means to be an Episcopalian: Did you know that a mitre—the hat worn by some bishops during worship—is meant to symbolize the tongues of fire at Pentecost (Acts 2:3)? The Book of Common Prayer is also a rich resource, both in the Catechism (page 845), the Historical Documents (page 863), and in the introductions to the Sacraments (Holy Baptism, page 299, Holy Eucharist, page 323) and pastoral offices such as Confirmation, Marriage and Burial. Young pilgrims to walk in the paths of Benedict and Francis St. Stephen’s youth on pilgrimage in Ireland, 2010. Photo by Sarah Bartenstein • A People Called Episcopalians by John Westerhoff • Those Episkopols by Dennis Maynard • The Episcopal Handbook • A Dictionary for Episcopalians by John N. Wall his “rule,” from which many other monastic communities developed their own rule of life. (You can read about “rule of life” on page 2.) St. Benedict is, appropriately, the patron saint of students. St. Francis is well known as the patron saint of animals, the environment and as one of the two patrons of Italy (with Catherine of Siena). It is customary for Episcopal churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on or near his feast day of October 4, as we do here at St. Stephen’s. St. Francis is also remembered for having been brought up in privileged circumstances before renouncing his wealth to begin a religious order. Our group of pilgrims includes Colby Bedell, John Davis, Caroline Jones, Hannah Krudys, Brice Martin, William Mayer, Hallie Reichel and Catherine Simpson. These young people have faithfully participated in Sunday morning, evening and weekend-long events in preparation for the pilgrimage, and all have taken part in various fundraisers to defray the costs of the trip. Please hold these young people and their adult guides in your prayers as they embark on their pilgrimage, June 22-July 1. We will post photos and accounts of their experiences in a future edition of Seasons of the Spirit. To visit the pilgrimage blog during their trip, go to our Web site, saintstephensrichmond.net/youth, where there will be a link to the blog. SAINT STEPHEN’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH PENTECOST 1 | SUmmER 2012 3
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What is a bishop? - St. Stephen's Episcopal Church

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