Restoration and Hope

We had a tremendous resurrection in the diocese of Pittsburgh last Saturday when The Rev. Dorsey Winter Marsden McConnell was consecrated as the eighth diocesan bishop of Pittsburgh.   Resurrection, however doesn’t happen without a death.  For Jesus it was the terrible event of Calvary when he was crucified and died.  It was his resurrection three days later that we celebrate as Easter.  Last Saturday, it felt very much like an Easter experience when I watched that magnificent three hour service that brought us out of the gloom of depression and night into the brightness of a new day.  When we left Calvary Church, I felt that something wonderful had happened and that we were on a new path.

It all began, of course with the schism that was brought to us by our previous bishop, the now deposed Robert Duncan who took a majority of our parishes with him into what he described as The Anglican Church of North America, a loose confederation of churches that have felt alienated from the Episcopal Church from the days of the 1928 Prayer book, through the conflict around the ordination of women and ultimately women as bishops to the anger generated by Bishop Gene Robinson’s election as Bishop of New Hampshire and the inclusion of gay people not only in our parishes, but a members of our clergy.  We had some profound struggles around all of this.  The leadership of our diocese didn’t help us to get through the arguments and get on with our mission.  They instead intensified the arguments and created the final schism that took us far from each other.

It was fitting that the consecration on Saturday took place at Calvary church in Shadyside.  It was at their rector, Dr. Harold Lewis’ behest that a lawsuit was filed that secured the property of the Episcopal Diocese from being taken by the churches who chose to leave for the Anglican diocese.  Parenthetically, it is certainly notable that our provisional bishop, The Rt. Rev. Kenneth Price has always held out an olive branch to those who have left, offering to include them back into their old diocese at any time.  I think that the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh has done wonders in terms of keeping the Gospel at the forefront of what we have done.

Restoration is the theme of the Book of Job.  In the final chapters, Job cries out to God for an answer to his question, Why me?  Why has all of this happened to me?  God never gives Job an answer to his question.  Job has endured not only the horrible things that have happened to him, the loss of his family and his wealth, but also the constant abuse by his friends who have told him over and over again that he must be a horrible sinner to have had all of these things put upon him by God.  At the end, Job confesses to God that he doesn’t understand anything of why these things have happened to him, but he prays for his friends.  And God does a wonderful thing:  God restores the fortunes of Job and gives him not only family but untold riches.  Restoration is what happens to Job.

Restoration is what has happened to the Diocese of Pittsburgh.  The God to whom we have been faithful through all of this turmoil has given us back our mission and our hope.  With Bishop McConnell, we will move forward and reclaim the mission that we had before all of the difficulties began.  Thank God for restoration and hope!