Monthly Archives: December 2012
Glory to God In the Highest!
It was the Christmas Pageant at Gravesend, New Hampshire.
The Episcopal church was packed with worshipers, well wishers and relatives of the cast. Attendance was up, thanks to a positive preview in the local newspaper. The drama critic had reported, the quintessential Christmas tale, the luster of which has been dulled by its annual repetition, has been given new sparkle. One reason for the excitement was the presence of a small boy named Owen Meany. For many years his diminutive size had made him a natural for the role of the Announcing Angel.
The pastor’s wife would hoist him on a rope, where he could swing out of the stage and announce the good news. This year, a much larger boy named Harold Crosby has been assigned the angelic role, and Owen, who was the smallest young boy anybody had ever seen, had assumed the role of Baby Jesus.
The moment came when it was time for Harold the Angel to descend from the darkness. “Be not afraid!,” he said in a quaking voice. Then he repeated it again. “Be not afraid!” When he said those words a third time, it was obvious he had forgotten the rest of his lines. He spun around and faced the back of the stage, and said, “Be not afraid,” in an indistinct mumble.
Suddenly another voice spoke up. It came from below, in the hay. The child in the manger knew the forgotten lines, and in a cracked falsetto, his voice rang out:
“FOR BEHOLD, I BRING YOU GOOD NEW OF A GREAT JOY WHICH WILL COME TO ALL THE PEOPLE!”
Prompted by the Christ Child, the angel repeated the announcement. And when the spot light fell on the crèche, the congregation was also prepared to adore him—whatever special Christ this was who not only knew his role but also knew all the other, vital parts of the story. (A PRAYER FOR OWEN MEANY by John Irving)
This Christmas I invite you to be just such angels announcing the Good News of Jesus Christ! The first angels, prompted by the birth of Jesus, announce, that something decisive has happened. God has broken through the darkness!
As Tom Ehrich has so aptly written:
Tonight, some will gather with family in the glow of candles and some will sit alone in the flicker of a television set.
Tonight, some will worship God in cheerful places and some will taste the acid of their alienation from church or God.
Tonight, some children will go to bed excited and some will listen to gunfire and shouting outside their bedrooms.
Tonight, some will turn off the lights of home in anticipation of a merry Christmas and some will stand guard far from home in anticipation of warfare’s unceasing mayhem.
What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
- Today I am offering prayers for the families of Newtown, Connecticut who are struggling to piece their lives back together after innocent children laid down their lives.
- Today I am offering prayers for the families across the Nashville Area who are facing Christmas this year for the first time without loved ones.
- Today I am offering prayers for the men and women of the armed forces who are the 1% of our population whose lives have been forever altered by wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, whose scars are unseen but carry horrific images with them every day.
- Today I am offering prayers for Ivy Bluff United Methodist Church whose church building was destroyed by fire this fall.
- Today I am offering prayers for the victims of Hurricane Sandy and the many, many families and congregations across the Northeast who are displaced and discouraged, unclear about a way forward.
As difficult as it is to sometimes hear, it is necessary that we know all that is going on.
God surely knows. And knowing the world as it is, God chose to come. Into our human experience, God came in the person of Jesus…
To redeem,
To those exiled in loneliness,
Or addiction,
Or alienation,
Or warfare.
Jesus was light shining in the darkness. A Messiah sent to lead God’s people out of bondage and home across a fearsome desert, as Luke put it. A shepherd for lost sheep, as Matthew put it.
Apart from the darkness, the birth of Jesus makes no sense. All of us, in one way or another long to escape the darkness…to drive away the fear, the loneliness, the anxiety that creeps into our psyche uninvited.
The way we do Christmas is madness if we fail to acknowledge the darkness we are trying to overcome. There are no good tidings unless we can acknowledge the darkness and ourselves as people who walk in darkness. Jesus was light in the darkness, not a cheerleader for the pious. And no matter how dark the world may become, the light, which Jesus brings, will not vanquish.
Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth, peace among those whom he favors.
Merry Christmas!
Bill and Lynn McAlilly
The ‘FACTS’ are in
Over the last three months both the Memphis Conference and the Tennessee Conference have been working with the Financial Advisory Consulting Team (FACT) from the General Board of Finance and Administration and the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits. This is a process that started under Bishop Ben Chamness and one which was continued when I arrived. As a result, we now have quantifiable data with regard to our trends over the last decade or so. The reports are comprehensive and in many ways daunting to consider.
TN Conference representatives meeting with FACT Team at West End UMC on Dec. 11 (click image to read the TN UMC FACT report on TNUMC.org)
A summary of the reports is on the respective websites for each conference (Memphis | Tennessee). In the TN Conference there is no clearly stated vision; in the Memphis Conference there is no clearly stated mission. A common denominator in both conferences is a lack of trust. The themes of missional, pastoral and congregational excellence emerge in each conference and a desire to clearly articulate a vision around these is evident. There is sufficient data to rattle even the most optimistic of us to the core. Most of all, it is clear that the adaptive challenge before us is that we cannot continue doing business as usual. We must continue to see the Nashville Area as a mission field and unite, articulate, and execute a clear plan for mission and evangelism.
Perhaps the most significant recommendation was to suspend the Uniting Committee work, which was begun in February 2012. What was recommended was that we vigorously pursue alignment across the Nashville Episcopal Area. Each conference convened the members of the Uniting Team following the FACT Team meeting and each group voted unanimously to suspend their work and affirmed the formation of a Strategic Mapping Team for the Nashville Area as well as a Strategic Mapping Team for both the Memphis and Tennessee Conferences.
The Area Team will meet beginning in mid-January with Gil Rendle, Leadership Consultant with the Texas Methodist Foundation, who will guide our work (The Bishop’s Blog introduced Gil Rendle in the Nov. 6 blog post “Keeping Hope and Closing the Gap”). We will meet for two days in January and two days in February. I have asked each FACT Team participant to submit the names of two clergy and two laity who might be considered for leading the strategy work.
It is my hope that at the Annual Conference Session we will receive a report from the Strategy Teams for consideration.
In the meantime, your thoughts are important to us. Feel free to respond in writing to the FACT Report and make suggestions that will improve our life together. An email address has been established for both Conferences and should be utilized for members to send in their questions, comments, and concerns regarding the FACT Report: [email protected].
This day, I give thanks for your faithfulness the hope that is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord.
May the Peace of Christ be with you always.
Bishop Bill
The Bishop addresses the Memphis Conference representatives at the Dec. 12 FACT meeting (click image to read Memphis’ FACT report on Memphis-UMC.net)
Praying for Sandy Hook victims, families, & community
We are left speechless and any parent who has ever watched a child walk out the door into the world shudders and thinks, “That could have been my daughter, my son.” The tragedy of this moment rests not just in this moment of crisis but in every moment when loss and grief and death visit us without warning.
In the heart of Advent, we listen to John the Baptist who speaks truth this 3rd Sunday in Advent calling those to repentance, a “brood of vipers.” We feel his anger and pain. We identify with the deep need to stare evil and hatred in the face until it is transformed.
I listen today to Advent and Christmas carols that remind me of the Christ child whose purpose is the redemption of all creation. “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” we will pray in worship on Sunday.
May we bow this day trusting more than we know how that in God’s economy we are not alone; trusting that the One who calls us by name is working to transform evil into good. In and of our own strength we are inadequate to make sense out of this and every tragedy that falls upon innocent lives. So we ask for a measure of strength to lift our drooping hands and strengthen our weak knees that somehow, some way, God will redeem even our lives.
O Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray. Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.
All of us.
Today.
Top ‘Leading Ideas’ of 2012
Here’s a suggestion from Bishop McAlilly – another post from the “Leading Ideas” blog from The Lewis Center for Church Leadership. The text blow is an image that will take you straight to the full blog post in another window. Happy reading – and we welcome your additional ideas and comments below!
Live, from Brownsville, TX
The last 24 hours I have been in Brownsville, Texas meeting with the Tennessee Conference and Memphis Conference PACTO Team meeting with Bishop Raul Garcia and Roberto Gomez Reyes. Our purpose was to renew our friendship and relationship regarding the Eastern Mexico Annual Conference. I learned that for the last 7 years the Nashville Area has had an ongoing relationship with our friends south of the border.
The vision of this ministry has always been to strengthen ministry across conference lines both in TN and Mexico. Amazing work has taken place over the last several years even though it has been more challenging in recent years to send mission teams in recent years due to the drug cartel. Yet there are tangible ways that continue to make possible the partnership.
1. Bless the Children: For $250.00 you can supply school uniforms for children who cannot attend without a uniform. We have raised over $70,000 to date for this need.
2. Needs: a passenger van salary support for pastors support for homeless feeding support for children’s ministries completed health kits support for Esperanza Viva Orphanage support for medical outreach through Volunteers in Mission support of Church construction and remodeling food assistance for those living near the city dump.
3. The future conversations include: a joint retreat with the District Superintendents of the Nashville Area and the Eastern Mexico Annual Conference bringing teams from Mexico to Tennessee for evangelistic outreach into the Hispanic communities in our area including children and youth in some of our area retreats at Lakeshore and/or Warmth In Winter/Summer Sizzler Assisting in new church planting in each of the Episcopal Areas.
The decision was made to create a Nashville Area Task Force for the PACTO Covenant which would shepherd our work across conference lines and bring alignment in this important work. Thanks to Jim Clardy, LeNoir Culbertson, Joe Geary and Enrique Hernandez for helping us have a most fruitful conversation with our PACTO sisters and brothers.
Advent Blessings,
Bishop Bill
