One of the great blessings of meetings of the House of Bishops is the worship. We worship three times a day – morning prayer, eucharist at midday, and evening prayer. The worship is designed and led by our chaplains which allows the bishops to participate without having to lead. Both our chaplains are excellent preachers, and we have wonderful music led by Dent Davidson, musician to the House of Bishops.
Chapel of the Transfiguration at Kanuga Conference Center in North Carolina where the House of Bishops is meeting. (Photo courtesy of www.kanuga.org)
There is a bishops’ choir, and I sing in it. We rehearse briefly twice a day and then lead singing at all the services. It really feeds my soul to be part of the choir (and it also provides me with lots of ideas for music to use in the diocese).
We bishops normally preside at worship, often daily, in a variety of contexts. It’s always necessary to pay attention to the particular customs and habits of the community one is in. Consequently it’s hard to truly worship. Not so at the House of Bishops. You can see the bishops really settling in to worship and prayer. I realized today that worship is probably the thing I like best about the House of Bishops.
I’m also getting to know and enjoy my fellow bishops. There are always new bishops coming into the House and so the House is wonderfully welcoming. New bishops are drawn into their table groups and quickly invited to take part in worship or sing in the choir or join into the nightly card game, or what have you. And the College for Bishops provides opportunities to learn some of the new skills needed for the life of a bishop and to share experiences with other new bishops.
The spring meeting is always a longer meeting of the House of Bishops because at this meeting we have time for continuing education for all the bishops. The past two days we’ve been reflecting on our roles as bishops in this time of recession when we are very divided politically about what do to. Friday we heard from OT scholar Walter Bruggeman and from author Bill Bishop about The Great Sort, the self-imposed segregation of communities into like-minded cultural ghettos that are coming to dominate our political landscape. Saturday we heard from Harvard Business School professor Warren McFarland about the state of the economy, and North Carolina Congressman David Price about the political process of addressing the recession and President Obama’s proposals for our future. Very good stuff and very hard work.
We’ll continue to discuss these matters and turn our attention to some of our regular business, including the election of a new bishop for Ecuador Central in the coming days.
+Steve
