Sisters and Brothers, I voted for The Way Forward, not because I was happy with it, but because I trusted the Task Force that crafted it, and because I believed that it could give us some much-needed breathing room.
I will vote for Amendment 10-A for the same reason – it will give to all of us breathing room, though we have our preferences for the kind of air we breath.
We have a unique opportunity to show the world that we’re slightly different than the usual squabbling that characterizes so much of our contemporary discourse.
The world is not much interested in what any of us believe, but very interested in how we live.
Our witness to the world is very much a matter of how we love one another. And to love only those who are in agreement with us hardly qualifies as love at all. Love suffers, because it suffers one another.
I don’t have all the answers, and none of us do. Though we’d all like to think otherwise. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus often keeps our eyes closed, and then, when the time is right, opens them up, and we see Jesus, but only for a moment. Then it’s up to us to leave the Table and run back to Jerusalem, as fast as our feet can carry us, to join hands with all the other disciples.
Today, we have a chance to break the logjam … clear the air … and return to the ordaining bodies the rights and responsibilities of ordination.
Will this solve all of our problems? Nothing ever does. But it will help us start moving again, however the Spirit should move us, and however moved we are, may it only be toward one another, with a greater respect for one another’s integrity, sense of mission, and how we do church.
With a final recognition, that we’re all in this together. While we may not see eye-to-eye, it’s Christ who links us together arm-in-arm.
I invite you to join with me in an affirmative vote for Amendment 10-A.
