Lenten Message from Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley

A transcript of the message is below:

Greetings, beloved Episcopalians of the Diocese of South Carolina. As we prepare to begin the season of Lent, I wanted to offer some reflections to you about our call in the season in which we find ourselves in our country. As I've traveled the diocese, particularly since the New Year, I've had an opportunity to listen and to talk with many of you. And I've heard a lot of concerns about the things we've seen unfolding. Many of you have asked questions about what we ought to be doing. I've heard others express a desire to learn more about what has led to this moment in our country, which for some of us is experienced as an unprecedented moment and for others, seems all too familiar with notes from the past.

I've talked with people of different political persuasions and people who voted differently, and people who have different thoughts about policies. I've had some conversations with folks who wonder if we ought to remain completely apolitical as a church. So I thought it would be helpful if I would simply, tell you about where I am in this discernment. You know, as I think about first and the question of, ought we be speaking at all about the events that are unfolding in our country?

I'm reminded that the scriptures are set inside of stories from start to finish of political struggle. The stories that we hear in the Bible are not in a vacuum. You can begin by looking at the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt and then, their wandering in their sojourn in the wilderness, having escaped that bondage. You can look at all of the prophets of the Old Testament set inside of, various conquests by different nation states and oppression of one people against or by another.

And the question and the longings and the desire for liberation at the heart of those stories, the prophet's cry for reform, particularly, performed for the poor economic reform and the treatment of those who are most at risk is always, always the central question that's raised in the prophets of the Old Testament, coming in to the New Testament.

You can see that the story of Jesus life is set against the oppression of the Roman Empire, and is set against questions of religious authority and the right use of that authority with respect to the Jewish leadership of his time. So the scriptures do not suggest to us that our call is ever to be a political. Those notions are much more, recent, and come to us from a spiritualized concept of Christianity that doesn't take into account the full context of the biblical narrative.

We have always been called as the people of God to speak into political times, not from a partisan point of view, but from the point of view of the justice and the mercy, the righteousness, the love, the forgiveness, the compassion of our God and the biblical witness. There's this out more than any other topic. The one topic that is most frequently raised in the scriptures is the treatment of those who are poor, the treatment of those who are oppressed.

So in these days, I do believe that we have a calling to bear witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ in the context of our political landscape. This is not a Partisan statement. People from both of our political parties, as well as independents, can come together around principles that we know to be central to the life of a Christian. The challenging thing about that is that we find ourselves in a landscape in which the term Christian is bandied about and at times co-opted and used in ways that do not align with the values we see so pervasive in the Christian narrative. And the scriptures do not align with the values that we see in the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

So I think part of our call in these days is indeed to become conversant with the context that has led to this current moment. To that end, I am working my way through several books and I want to commend them to you. And I have begun conversations with two authors of these books who I think can be a great resource to us in this diocese.

The first book I want to commend to you is. The 7 Deadly Sins of White Christian Nationalism by Carter Heyward. Many of you will remember Carter Heyward as one of the Philadelphia 11 first ordained women to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church. She is a feminist theologian and an activist, our neighbor to the North in North Carolina, and she has recently published this book, which explores the background, the fabric, and the history of a constellation of ideas and concepts that we have come to refer to as white Christian nationalism, which truly is a set of principles that neither reflects Christ nor the strongest ideals of our country. However, this constellation of ideas has a grip on this country that is dangerous and important for us to understand.

In her book, Carter Heyward identifies seven interlocking or related principles that she identifies as the sins of white Christian nationalism, and then seven Calls to action for us. It's challenging. There are parts of the book with which you likely will take issue or want to argue. That's good. That's part of what we're about as Episcopalians. I invite you to take up this book and engage it.

The second is a book also on the same topic, Christians Against Christianity by Obery Hendricks, who is an African Methodist Episcopal ordained elder, a scholar, a former seminary president, and who currently teaches at Columbia University and is a visiting professor at the Union Theological Seminary.

And then thirdly, I called your attention a book which would have us engage in spiritual practices that will help us continue the work we've identified as core to us building beloved community. This book is called Hope Is Here, and it is by Luther Smith, who is a professor emeritus of Church and community at Candler School of Theology at Emory University, author of many books and scholar on Howard Thurman. I have begun conversation with both Carter Heyward and Luther Smith about how we might deepen our practices here in this diocese to be a people capable and engaging the challenging times in which we find ourselves. I know you may have already chosen reading material for Lent at this point in time, but I wanted to offer these to you.

Now, in case you haven't, or in case you'd like to pick these up, in addition to other works you might be reading presently, and knowing that we are beginning a long arc which will span, I anticipate. Through Lent and Easter and beyond through this year, as we work together to take counsel, to learn about the moment we are in, and then in all of the local context in which we find ourselves to take right action, to stand for those who are most marginalized, who are most oppressed.

In this moment, particularly, I call our attention to those who are new to our land, those immigrants who need us to stand with them. Particularly, I call our attention to our transgender siblings, whose rights are being stripped even as we speak. And particularly, I call our attention to all of those who continue to experience the violence and the disrespect of systemic and structural racism in all of its myriad of forms. We must walk alongside. We must be with those who are the most vulnerable, the most oppressed among us. For, as our Presiding Bishop recently reminded us, they are not at the margins of our lives. They are in the center of our life and of the story of Jesus working among us. So I call us as Bishop Mariann Budde called us all recently to courage, to be brave and to be a people of mercy.

I thank you for the work you are doing and all of the various places where you are. And I want to invite conversation that is courageous, that honors our real differences where we are not afraid to explore those, but always centering the lives of those who are most vulnerable and always understanding our responsibility to be true to the deepest part of the gospel. The love of Jesus for all people, and the lifting up of those who have the greatest need among us. God bless you. I look forward to being with you in the days to come. Blessed Lent.