Interim Rector's Corner

In light of the atrocities committed in Charlottesville, I pass on to you the statement by the Episcopal Bishops of Virginia and comments by our own Bishop Wayne Smith.
 
Virginia Bishops on Charlottesville: What We Saw, What You Can Do
On Saturday our hearts were broken.  An angry group of neo-Nazi and fascist protesters came into Charlottesville, Virginia, armed and armored, looking for trouble.  The violence and loss of life suffered in their wake signaled yet another escalation of the hate-filled divisions of our time.  The peace of a beautiful university town was shattered.  The images that some had of America were broken.    
The echoes of the heartbreaking tragedy that was Charlottesville will remain with us for a long time to come.  We have every indication that we will be seeing more of this.  Angry white supremacists seem already to be organizing to bring their ugly and racist rhetoric to other towns and cities across our Commonwealth and across the United States.   Angry resisters are more than ready to meet their violence with violence.
It’s hard to imagine a time when the Church is more needed in the public square.  It’s hard to imagine a time when our need would be greater for God to take our broken hearts and break them open for wise, loving and faithful witness in Christ’s name. 
As followers of Jesus Christ, we are admonished to heed God’s call to love our neighbors through prayer, through speaking out and through other concrete action for the sake of all, particularly the poor, the oppressed, the judged, the demonized.  That witness was on display Saturday in Charlottesville in the peaceful march by hundreds of clergy leaders from Charlottesville, from our Diocese, and from other religious traditions in Virginia and beyond.  Such witness must continue. 
There will be more rallies and more divisions. We must be prepared to meet those challenges, not with violent confrontation, but by exemplifying the power of love made known in concrete action.  As your bishops, we commit ourselves to action of the kinds we list below.  We invite you to join us and to share your actions with us so that we can grow together in wisdom, faithfulness and love. 
Whatever we do we may not, we must not, be quiet in the face of evil during this violent era of our lives together.
Faithfully yours,
The Rt. Rev. Shannon S. Johnston
The Rt. Rev. Susan E. Goff
The Rt. Rev. Edwin F. Gulick
8/14/2017
 
A Word from the Bishop about Charlottesville and Racism
Only a few days ago I had meant merely to point the people and clergy of the Diocese of Missouri to the statement from the Bishops of the Diocese of Virginia. Charlottesville, after all, lies in the geography of their pastoral concern, not mine. My desire was then, and still remains, to support ministry and faithful witness on the ground, where the wound actually occurred.
 
The President's news conference on August 15, however, has broadened the reach of some deeply troubling issues and made them pertinent to every citizen, everywhere in this country. I thus have no conscientious option left but to speak out. And I do so primarily from a moral and theological perspective, not a political one.
 
A foundation of Biblical faith requires belief in the One True God and a corresponding renunciation of all others, who are but idols. Idolatry is a cagier, more insidious matter than we often realize. It certainly includes all the false gods made of sticks, stones, or metal, yes. At base, however, an idol is just something that is no god at all-but still demands the allegiance which belongs to the true God. Ideology, for example, can therefore become such an idol. So can any particular manner of life. And the pursuit of wealth-another likely suspect. Notably, a nation may also turn idolatrous, and thus the so-called Confessing Christians in 1930s Germany had to renounce the false claims of the state over the lives of its citizens, claims about ultimate, unbending, and unquestioned authority. Only God rightly makes such claims. Psalm 115 solemnly mocks both the false gods and those who follow them. Idols are ridiculous, the psalmist says, and those who make and worship them are like them; idols and idol-worshippers are both alarmingly ridiculous! The Confessing Church added its voice to this chorus of sober mockery. 
 
There is therefore no ultimate supremacy except that belonging to God. Claims to any other supremacy, including racial supremacy, are idolatrous-and, frankly, ridiculous. Believers are obliged to recognize these claims for what they are, to call them out, and to renounce them. Racism is caustic to our national life, beyond a doubt, and it erodes our morale and the social character of all that we share, all that would make us good. As such, there is a political aspect to this great wrong. But there is more. Racism, especially in its vilest claims about white supremacy, is also a sin against God, and it is evil. Within this idolatry lies a moral and theological nature that believers do well to recognize: Racism is deeply, deeply sinful.
 
Racism is also sneaky, and it is persistent. Its structures are everywhere in American life, and thus faithful people need to examine and re-examine our lives, personal and social, for racism's lingering presence. New levels of awareness can be shocking and humbling, especially for people of privilege, people with power. New awareness also deserves a renewed renunciation-seeing the false power, the false god, implicit in racism's allure, and saying a resounding No! to it, all over again.
 
During the past days, our nation has witnessed racism in its rawest, most recognizable form, laid bare for everyone to see and to renounce. Not everyone has seen, and not everyone has renounced. I call upon you, dear brothers and sisters, to see this sin for what it is, and to renounce it.
 
For the sake of saying a more profound Yes! to the One True God, made flesh in Jesus Christ.       
 
Wayne Smith
Bishop of Missouri
                                          ~ Fr. Al Jewson