Saturday, November 17, 2012

New Life

Alas, the Diocese of New York has not yet posted a video of our Bishop Coadjutor Andrew M.L. Dietsche's barn-burner of an address. I hope it will, and will share it here if and when it does. The Bishop, who will be installed as our Diocesan in February 2013, gave a stirring call to abandon fear, institutional thinking and obsession with growth for the sake of growth. He urged us to think less self-consciously on the health of the Church, and to focus on mission--modeling and preaching the Gospel Way. He urged us to think big, not small--declaring that if he can't ask God for the Kingdom of Heaven, what was there worth asking for?

We will continue to be be in good hands, I think, when Bishop Dietsche is installed.

Here's a taste of his style--his humor, his thought for others, and his commitment to the God and our Diocese:

Bishop Coadjutor-Elect the Rev. Canon Andrew Dietsche addresses convention delegates from Episcopal Diocese of New York on Vimeo.


Today we also celebrated Bishop Mark Sisk, who deserves our thanks and applause for his steady, pastoral hand at the tiller. He will be be remembered as a bishop who was confronted with crises that called for real leadership, and who rose to the task. A measure of the affection and respect felt for Bishop Sisk can be seen in the video tribute to him prepared by the Cathedral Staff.

Bishop Sisk impressed me with his sincere and passionate engagement with the problems of the poor and underprivileged, and also with the issues of food production and water availability, and the harm caused by the commodification of both. His gentle good humor is notable. He will be missed. But I firmly believe that Bishop Dietsche is the right bishop to succeed him, and is ready to lead us into the next chapter of the Diocese's already storied history.
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2 comments:

  1. Mr. McgranorNovember 18, 2012 at 8:42 AM

    Every focus suggestion and the call you type of seems cliche. Its as if no one knew they were naive. How about focusing on culture war? Yes the preservation of a fallen Western hemisphere against its Counterculture roots.

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  2. AnglocatNovember 18, 2012 at 7:19 PM

    In fairness to Bishop Dietsche, I should say that the address was not at all cliche as delivered--reduced to a few phrases, it perhaps seems that way. That said, I hope a video of the address is posted, because it was a stirring call to a Christian life as individuals, as parishes, and as a diocese, and was greeted with a real enthusiasm. I'll take the blame as a reporter, here.

    As to the counterculture, it was a mixed bag, playing a part in fighting many cultural evils, such as sexism, racism, militarism, and an unthinking conformity. It also brought about a pernicious drug culture, an absurd valorization of youth qua youth, and a remarkable degree of wooly thinking. (Still, as the Fourth Doctor says in "Logopolis," wooly thinking is "very comforting when worn next to the skin.")

    I think culture wars are futile. Being the leaven within the loaf requires engaging the culture, learning from it where it shows up old errors, and holding fast to what are eternal truths.

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