November 8, 2006
PB
Katherine’s got the con. And there’s little doubt about the pilgrimage she’s planning.
Our new Presiding Bishop’s a mover and a shaker is she, and in spite of all the liturgical theater and whoop-de-doo at the National Cathedral this past weekend, her pastoral and prophetic presence turned us once again back into the Way.
The church is our home, she assured us, and home is the place from which we can never be turned away from seeking our rest in God. And we are the saints, she affirmed, who live and discover ourselves there to be sent out on fire to “get lit” and preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to free the oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. One could sense deeply there our Lord’s own awareness of those words from Isaiah being fulfilled and of our new PB’s intention to follow his lead.
Calling her fellow nominees for presiding bishop to join her, they together blessed the waters of baptism as we all renewed our Baptismal Covenant, the profound and inclusive Gospel brevity of it, and once again were commissioned into its service. A veritable spiritual ground swell moved through the thousands of us there as we burst into applause and cheers on her departure.