Michael Durning's BlogSpot

Want a New Rector? Ask a New Question!

2011-04-03T19:02:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day to visit a parish and drop off a list of candidates for the Search Committee. The OT reading 1 Samuel 16:1-13 was especially helpful. Poor Samuel just could not get over Saul's bankrupt leadership. The Lord "compels" him to get going to Bethlehem. Jesse and sons await the visit where an anointing is to take place and a new kingship begun. Samuel goes from son to son without success. Seven of them.

Had Samuel acted like the typical Search Committee at this point, there would be trouble. It is not easy to be a Search Committee. There is pressure to get the job done right and quickly. People are watching. What a temptation to rationalize! Many a Call gets botched by assuming that all the candidates are in the room. This in turn leads to the cardinal error of comparing the candidates to one another, a practice unwarranted in Scripture, whether we talk about David, Stephen, Matthias or anyone else in the Bible. Having seen the seventh son and having heard seven times to withhold the anointing, Samuel asks a question:

"Are all your sons here?"

Good question! The seven sons of Jesse simply did not compare to God's criteria-- the right heart.

I hope this particular Search Committee is able to do its work without having to go outside the room. But should they come up short, my prayer for them is for the courage to ask God the same question that Samuel put to Jesse.

The Three Temptations of a New Ministry

2011-03-20T07:28:00.000-07:00

I preached at a parish-in-transition last Sunday, the First Sunday in Lent. A newly-called priest will arrive there soon. As the First Sunday in Lent begins with a consideration of the three temptations of Christ, I spoke about three temptations that could be encountered by clergy and congregations as they move toward one another in a new ministry.

The first temptation: Perfectionism. At its best, the search process is two liars talking about the future. A more charitable way of putting it is to say that we tend toward idealism as we envision a new ministry. In this idealized ether, perfectionism is a real possibility.

A survey is a part of any transition. Inevitably, the congregation's leadership needs to deal with survey results. And inevitably, an averaging of the results will sound something like, "The Rector should be able to preach with conviction without offending anyone" or "The Rector should be 30 years of age with 20 years of experience". The smart Interim (serving by whatever title) will work to lead the congregation away from such craziness.

Clergy are just as capable of such wild projections, lost in fond daydreams of the perfect congregation where all tithe and the only problem is sorting out all the volunteers for election at the Annual Meeting. Clergy as well as congregations will be well-advised to consider Jesus, hungry in the desert, disabused of any notions of perfectionism.

The second Temptation: Isolation. An effective transition will find leaders opening out into the larger community for help, whether this is the congregation next door, the Diocese, or whatever. Our Diocese uses a program called Fresh Start where leaders on a Saturday have an opportunity to gather and to share with one another. It is consistently reported that this sharing is a very important part of a good transition. Likewise, clergy new to our Diocese have an opportunity to meet with one another in order to get to know one another and to share their experiences regarding their new parish.

Isolation is backdrop par excellence for any temptation, whether those of Jesus or those that might come our way through a timeshare "vacation" offer. The congregation and the new rector need the courage to stay open to the Convocation, Diocesan Convention, Clericus meetings and other gatherings. Just as angels administered to Jesus, the tempted Christian Community will find itself administered as it works against the temptation to cut itself off from other members of the Body.

The third Temptation: Narcissism. Once the Celebration of New Ministry is part of the past, the new rector and congregation need to be very aware of the temptation of falling in love with themselves. Self-preoccupation not only leads to the isolation as listed above. Left unnoticed, corporate narcissism corrupts the very mission of a parish. Once corrupted, all ministry tends to be ministry to its members, all service tends to benefit givers, and deacons are expected to be behind the Altar rail, and not leading the community into servant ministry to the world.

I recall a time where I helped to preside over the closing of a parish church. On the last day of that parish, as we we were walking out to our cars, we encountered over 40 young people playing soccer in the churchyard. Those whose parish just died shook their heads in contempt, a tragic commentary on the deadliness of self-preoccupation.

The 40 days of Lent are an excellent time for any congregation to do a temptation audit! How is Perfection, Isolation and Narcissism affecting your temptation PIN number?

A Pink Jesse Tree for Advent

2010-12-06T19:08:00.000-08:00

Last year, my side yard was full of bright, pink hibiscus plants - imagine a row of these flowers running in a 50-foot line. Last year's hard frost killed the whole row, leaving behind nothing but a long gray line of deadness and some fond memories. Being the kind of person who would rather do something myself than pay someone to do it, I began trimming this long gray line and pulling up the roots.

Hibiscus does uproot lightly. Their roots are deep and wide and they cling to the earth with tenacity. Providentially, the local arborist was driving by and he stopped by long enough to give some expert advice: "The life is in the roots- you'd be a fool to dig all this up. Let me trim the branches. Then wait for better weather."

30 minutes and two-hundred dollars later, Advent happened. With no visible reason to believe otherwise, I awaited beneficial rains and warmer weather and in time, a leaf or two assured me that my beloved pink hibuscus would return.

The second Sunday of Advent, with its image of the shoot springing forth from the root of Jesse, bears a blessing whether we await Christmas, welcome a new priest, or say goodbye to a beloved pastor. We are called by God to work hard at putting the past into the past so that we might greet emerging growth with generosity and joy.

Orange we glad you visited!

2010-11-27T10:23:00.001-08:00

Cooper and Owen came by for a Thanksgiving visit. Cooper and Grandad took some oranges and squeezed fresh orange juice. All of us went to the Mixon Fruit Farm to see how orange juice was bottled. Then Grandma worked with us to make a gingerbread train.

A Grateful Heart

2009-10-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

(Photo- My sister Cathy and I with Aunt Peggy Buckley)

We've just returned from a very full, very meaningful time up north. My wife's brother Tom had a daughter getting married (yikes!) the day after our Diocesan Convention. We were not going to miss the wedding. After some consideration we figured, so long as we were up north, we would go to General Theological Seminary in NYC to visit one of our seminarians and we would also squeeze some time in to see the remaining two survivors of our parent's generation. Both are named Peggy.

I'm writing today about Peggy Buckley. She was born Margaret Healy in 1925, second daughter of an Irishman named James and his wife Violet Thackerer. She is my late mother's younger sister and I write to honor her and to thank God for the opportunity to see her once more.

Peggy Healy was appointed chaperon at the time when my parents were dating. My grandfather's well-intended plans backfired in August of 1940 when Peggy accompanied my mother and father to their runaway wedding in Maryland. She served as maid of honor and I suppose there was a lot of 'splainin' to do when they all got home.

From that time forward Peggy has been the consummate accompanist. Long before I had a memory, she made Baptismal promises on my behalf at Our Lady of Victory Church in West Philadelphia. When cars were rare, my mother dragged my sister and me from our house to hers so my mother and she could visit. They spoke every day on the phone. When I graduated high school and college I could look out and see her looking back. The family joked about my mother's obervation that almost anyone one could refer to "lived out back of Aunt Peggy's house". We reasoned that, when the doors of a balcony swung open at the Vatican, the Pope stepped out to bless all the people who lived behind Aunt Peggy's house.

Aunt Peggy now lives a diminished life, the victim of advanced age. She recieves excellent care and her caregivers comment that she must have been a very kind person. My wife, my sister and I made the one-hour drive from Delaware County, PA to Lancaster County for what will likely be a last visit. Words are not needed-- being there and feeling profound love for one whose witness is so self-evident makes speech seem pale.

I suppose we all have an Aunt Peggy, one whose life teaches that faithful being, faithful remaining, is its own vocation and its own reward.

Another look at Bishop Gray

2009-09-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

I visited Bishop's Gray's journal again, this time with our Cathedral in mind. The same 1893 visit that brought him to Dade City also brought him to Pinellas, a town that is the predecessor of modern day Pinellas County. His morning visit took him to a location where he confirmed a small group of people. That evening, he visited Dunedin, where he worshipped in the "beautiful church there". He refers to the Church of the Good Shepherd (see below).

Impressed by Bishop Gray's stamina, my thoughts turn to how the faith of someone who lived 117 years ago can still ignite imaginations today. The cliche is that people built churches for lots of bad reasons, like the display of wealth, a guilty conscience, or influence peddling.

But the south Florida churches of Gray's day were wooden structures whose windows were topped off by equilateral triangles, a trim that Architect Ralph Adams Cram sneeringly called "Carpenter Gothic". Gray's parishes were not monuments to pride. They were built in the rollercoaster of Florida ecomomics, in small communities with land donated by local farmers. These were the mission churches of a missionary diocese. People invested in them because of a robust faith that future generations would pick us where they left off. They invested heavily in the faith of their children.

Structures of wood or steel or stone are made possible because of organizational structures like the General Convention and Dioceses where vision is cast and shared on behalf of others.

Our Diocese (SWFL) has a "2020"Fund where a tithe of funds from one parish's capital campaigns are used to fund those of another parish. I hope that this sense of a shared investment is an ideal still good enough for the 21st century.

Making the most of time...

2009-08-14T08:27:00.001-07:00

Ephesians 5:15-20: Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time...

Back in 1892, the people of the Church of the Advent, Nashville TN, received some bittersweet news. Their beloved rector of 20 years, William Crane Gray, would be leaving them-- he was elected first Bishop of the new Missionary Jurisdiction of Southern Florida.

Gray soon boarded a train to make the two-day journey to Orlando. He immediately undertook a walkabout of his new territory. Within his first eight weeks Gray visited Orlando, Jacksonville, Titusville, Miami, Key West, Bradenton, Tampa, Brooksville, Ocala and Sanford. During this journey, Gray writes that he visited "Lake Buddy" in eastern Pasco County. Some say that the lake recieved its name from an ox (Buddy) who regularly wandered into its waters. The lake also attracted those who would become the spiritual ancestors of St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Dade City. Bishop Gray celebrated Sunday evening services and confirmed a small group of local disciples near the lake.

Throughout his walkabout the new bishop encountered hardy settlers accustomed to the bipolar Florida economy. The years following the War between the States almost destroyed Florida, where real estate was made available for 50 cents an acre in order to pay off war bonds. Cheap land enabled railways and farms to be established. Pasco County was touted throughout Europe as an inexpensive place to be a farmer and it attracted hopeful people from Great Britain with an interest in things Anglican. St. Mary's thrived until the Great Freeze decimated the economy once more. The spiritual ancestors of St. Mary's were wise people who made the most of the time, boom or bust. What can we learn from them?

We need help from others. Floridia Episcopalians did not elect Bishop Gray nor did they pay his compensation. In 1893, all of the costs of administering the new diocese were paid for by the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. There would be no St. Mary's apart from the love of Episcopalians throughout the United States of America who gave generously of their time and talent and treasure on our behalf.
We help others. The stewardship and the generosity of the members of St. Mary's parish causes resources to flow to the Diocese of Southwest Florida and because of this, the children of incarcerated parents can attend summer camp at DaySpring. Team ministry takes place in Lee County where one home in 26 is in foreclosure. Other
Parishes can take a good priest and make a great priest. On the walls of St. Mary's parish house there is a plaque which reads:

In memoriam, The Rev. F. Barnby Leach, 1868-1948, Vicar of St. Mary's Church 1930-1940, Friend and Leader, sympathetic and understanding, by whose aid and encouragement this parish house was built.

What gives a 62 to 72 year-old priest the energy to lead a congregation to build a parish house?

Over the past 12 years I have encountered wise and unwise moments in the lives of congregations of this Diocese. Among these moments, I have seen wise people making the most of the time in successful congregations. They are congregations dedicated to enhancing their priest's likelihood of success. As St. Mary's welcomes a new priest, my prayer is that they will encounter the advice of the Letter to the Ephesians and that of Bishop Gray to be wise and to make the most of the ime that God has given us.

The awaiting room...

2009-07-21T09:06:00.001-07:00

O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

This Sunday follows the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. I go to the General Convention in a support capacity. I use the time to interview people for possible placement in the Diocese and to do those things that the Deputation is simply too busy to do. Their schedule is trying, sometimes beginning at 7:00 AM and going on until 9 or 10 o'clock at night.

When leaving for a dinner break, one of our Deputies fell and twisted her ankle. My wife sent me a text message to let me know. Soon, Bonnie Jean and I were sitting in the waiting room of the Emergency Department of the UC Irvine Medical Center, Orange County, CA. My wife went in to see the patient first, leaving me to survey a place I had no plans to visit.

All pastors have spent time in waiting rooms and this one was unexceptional: droning TV, receptionist behind a glass wall, aging plastic furniture. I'm sure you get the picture. However, the people in the room told another story:

A young Asian couple anxiously reading a book together, their faces telling a story of quiet, suppressed anxiety.
A very large man, there with his aging mother, snoring loudly and carelessly, suffering from untold gastric ailment. He drove his cab to the hospital.
A wedding party stood outside. Evidently, a member of the wedding party suffered some type of injury. I assume it was a minor one as no one saw a reason to stop the celebration.
A young man, trembling, obviously suffering from drug withdrawal.

There was a good chance that I was the only person in the room that spoke English as a native language and, thanks to the generosity of the Diocese of Southwest Florida and the Episcopal Church Medical Trust, I was probably the only one to have an insurance card as well. This is a teaching hospital in a tough neighborhood. Unlike the attendees of the General Convention, these people were not policy makers or leaders. They were here because they had no other place to be. They were sick and suffering. Their 12-hour days were laid upon them by others.

The irony of this is that a few hours previously, I was praying for God to use me in a way that was pleasing to Him. I puzzled as to how my presence in an emergency room might be pleasing to God as I was unable to be of much help, I could not relieve anyone's suffering and as my Spanish, Vietnamese and Russian is almost non-existent, my prayers would be unknown to any of these people. Like those newly-freed Hebrews of the Exodus, I longed for the fleshpots of Egypt, or at least, the lobby of the Hilton where the important people were.

It then occurred to me that this had nothing to do with me at all. I was just like the rest of the folks there in the waiting room, needing help, looking for health, standing in the need of prayer. I thanked God for placing me there, thanked God for the snoring cab driver and his worried mother, for the ushers smoking cigarettes outside, for the worried Asian couple and for the junkie trembling nearby. This was another type of General Convention, delegates from a world that God loved so much that he gave his only begotten Son to the end that all that believe in Him should not perish.

The Gospel reading for this day has Jesus departing from the spectacular feeding of the 5,000 and going off to be alone to pray. During those times when our church gathers for big meetings, hears from world leaders, and sets policy, my trip to UC Irvine reminds me that it is important to put the spectacular in its place. Our vocation involves a retreat from the spectacular and a headlong charge to those places where God awaits.

The Carpenter's Son Comes Home

2009-07-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

"Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary..." (Mark 3:17)

Today we attended the first service of a friend who was chosen as Priest-in-Charge in one of our congregations. Both she and her new congregation have been through a lot. Their respective transitions have seen loss, pain, and grief. Yet here they are together, with high hopes. Her sermon was captivating, drawing upon people's memories of their children coming home from college as changed people. Jesus could not avoid the doubtful eye of neighbors, who may have felt a pang of sympathy for Joseph, left to mind the carpenter's shop alone.

My friend wisely and appropriately framed this conversation toward the future, sharing her hope that this will be a long and stable pastoral relationship. While both pastor and people bear scars, both believe in Jesus as risen from the carpenter's shop and free to frame a new future for all who believe in Him.

I have been managing pastoral transitons for over a decade now, and I do come to such meetings with a certain "patina". Nevertheless, I am moved by the wide-eyed optimism of a new pastoral relationship. It gives me hope and it gives me strength to speak of what I do with integrity. Maybe even the neighbors at my old neighborhood might come to see me with new eyes.

The Generosity of Christ

2009-06-30T15:48:00.000-07:00

A friend asked me to preach and celebrate last Sunday. He and his family took some time off. As with many in this recession, his parish is challenged to meet expenses. I found the readings to be most helpful. (This parish uses readings from the Book of Common Prayer):

Deuteronomy 15:7-11: (do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor)
Psalm 112: (They have given freely to the poor, and their righteousness stands fast for ever)
2 Corinthians 8: (For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means)

I found the culmination in 2 Corinthians 8, "For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich."

Sure, I understand Baptism as immersion in the life of Christ through his death and resurrection... but to understand stewardship in the same way... participation in the generosity of Christ as a means of sharing his wealth given to the world?

I admit that, even with all the training, etc, I can still fall victim to seeing stewardship as fundraising. However, sharing some time with a busy clergy family, the clatter of the kids, the preciousness of the time, thanking God for broken bread, I sometimes see wealth in the things where Jesus sees wealth, but sometimes dimly, as in a mirror.

Pentecost 2: The Mustard Seed

2009-06-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday I visited a congregation whose rector recently retired. The Gospel reading for the day was Luke's Parable of the Mustard Seed, an especially helpful asset when trying to reset the dials.

For many years I took this to be a parable of growth. I distinctly recall a distant religion class where Sister explained how the mustard seed was very small while its tree was huge, a true miracle of God. Later years would come to place the Nun's enthusiastic description in a more reasonable light. Nevertheless, the lesson had its effect.

On one particularly boring stretch of I-75, I had the vision of a mustard seed being planted in the ground and growing... just growing. I had a vision of a mustard seed the size of a Volkswagen out standing in its field. The birds of the air tried to carry it off but could not. The farmer had to plow around it, causing the crops to be difficult to harvest. Villagers suspected that the visitation of the useless seed was God's pronouncement of judgement upon the whole community.

Growth without transformation is just as useless, if I'm readng the lesson correctly.

Trinity Sunday

2009-06-08T10:33:00.000-07:00

Almighty and everlasting God, you have given to us your servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of your divine Majesty to worship the Unity; Keep is steadfast in this faith and worship, and bring us at last to see you in your one and etrnal glory, O Father; who with the Son and the Holy Spirit live and reign, one God, for ever and ever. AMEN.

Trinity Sunday. Seminarians are often called upon to deliver a sermon on this day, and many refer to is as "drawing the short straw". For me, this prayer (called a "Collect") goes a long way toward settling down to a rational approach to what might otherwise be an intimidating experience.

First, I note that the prayer declares that we are given grace. Unmerited, undeserved ability is given to me simply bacause I am beloved by God. Second, I see that this grace is given not to understand the Trinity (yikes!) but to acknowledge its glory.

Long before the Gospel was presented to the Irish, three-sided petroglyphs were etched into the old rocks of Eire. While we can only speculate about their meaning, we know that the Irish were fascinated with three-ness, giving St. Patrick a ready toe-hold when God whispered something about shamrocks into his ear.

Moving from self-reflection to dialogue to conversation, the Glory of the Three in One is readily available to our senses. We see this Glory in everyday discourse, thereby acknowledging God's Trinue Glory as we speak. It is not lost on me that the usual Old Testament reading is Isaiah 6, where the lips of the prophet are made clean.

Good Shepherd Sunday

2009-05-03T19:55:00.000-07:00

This is the Sunday we hear the 23rd Psalm and Jesus as the Good Shepherd. The normal homelitical plot for this day goes something like:

There are lots of "sheep and shepherd" stories in the Bible
While they appear cute on the surface, sheep smell bad and are stupid and hurt themselves
Isn't it nice that we have Jesus to save us from us?

Happily, I did not hear that type of preaching today. The parish I visited invited graduating seniors to witness their stories before they went off to college. While somewhat predictable, these stories reinforced something that God is working within me: If God made us, God does bear some responsibility for who we are, warts and all. Our "sheepness" is the imprint of the divine and our imperfections conceal the eternal.

I've heard jaded pastors say that sheep are good for two things: fleece and mutton. How sad. While not an expert on the topic, I've never heard of a sheep that fleeced its peers out of half of its 403 (b).

The Horse and the Stone

2009-05-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

Mine that Bird, a 50-1 shot, won the Kentucky Derby today. My own random pick, Join the Dance, another 50-1 runner, did not make the top 10. No matter. I love it when an underdog takes the roses.

Millionaires from Dubai, having flown in their courses on private jets, were thwarted. An overlooked horse, trucked in on a trailer from New Mexico finished by a long shot.

So it is with Jesus . The stone that the builders rejected has become the corner. It is marvelous in my eyes. Now, where is that recipe for Mint Juleps?