The 2007 Commencement Sermon

The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori

May 15 - St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, Austin

Abundant congratulations to all of you who have finished your studies in this place and are about to depart for new and challenging ministries – whether you know where that will be or not. You will give thanks in the coming years for what you have learned here. You will also quickly discover that you haven’t learned it all. There are lessons that can only be learned by doing, and most of them have to do with loving the folks God sets before you, and loving them and yourself with the expectation that each one is meant to grow up into the full stature of Christ.

You are being sent out into a mission field that is as ripe for harvest as any ever has been, and maybe even more so. It is an ever-expanding field, not just in numbers of human beings, but in the ever-increasing rates of change in the society around us. There is an accompanying and increasing hunger for good news that is understandable in the context where you are called to serve – a context that is likely to change frequently. In the midst of all of that change and complexity, you are called to lead, and the quality of your leadership will have a good deal to do with the success of your ministry, whatever the context.

Leadership is about motivating change, whether that means inviting people into livelier worship, a more engaged life of prayer, greater awareness of God’s activity in our own lives, or a community that treats its members with greater dignity. You may have a vocation to lead others into greater care for the earth, or to pastor those living with the changes that disease brings. Each one of us, as a consequence of our baptism, is a leader somewhere. Those who are ordained have a focus for leadership that is about equipping the rest of the baptized for their daily ministries of leadership. All of us are meant to be about the work of building the reign of God, and since it does not yet seem to be here in its fullness, we are not likely to work ourselves out of a job any time soon.

I was in Honduras this last week to visit the diocese and some of the development work being carried out in partnership between ERD and the diocesan development agency, AANGLIDESH. It was a remarkable experience to see the ways in which lives are being transformed, and it was an abundant example of what both of today’s lessons hold up – that the seeds planted by one grow and produce fruit which another will harvest, sometimes a very long time later. Leadership at different times involves all parts of that cycle – planting seeds, fertilizing, trimming the tree, harvesting the fruit.

The Diocese of Honduras had its origins in a ministry of chaplaincy to the employers and employees of various U.S. fruit companies, outfits like Dole and United Fruit. The Episcopal Church has been in Honduras for a very long time – more than 150 years. Yet it was not until the 1960s that worship services were first held in Spanish, and the first native and Spanish speaking clergy were ordained only about 30 years ago. It took an exceedingly long time for the gospel to begin to bear native fruit there – probably because the local establishment really only wanted to grow bananas, and most of them left Honduras. Only the small ones, not meant for export, remained – what are called minimos.

While the last three bishops have been Spanish speakers, Bp. Lloyd Allen, who was consecrated in 2001, is the first native Honduran. He is a living representative of the mestizo reality of Honduras. If you were to hear him speak or know his name, you might assume he is Anglo, and indeed his grandmother was British and wouldn’t let her grandchildren speak Spanish at home. If you were to meet him you would recognize his Afro-Caribbean heritage. And you would soon learn of his remarkable ability to build on the history, context, and mission priorities of this nation of 8 million. He is an entrepreneur, un obispo-emprendador of the first order. If you want to learn about evangelism and mission in action, go and learn about the mission efforts of the Diocese of Honduras, and expect to be transformed yourself. You will hear about the native gifts of the diocese, and you will hear the refrain, “si, se puede.” “Yes, we can.” Honduras is about more than minimos.

The ministry of leadership can be public and vocal, broadcasting seeds everywhere, or it can grow almost in secret. Siempre Unidos is a ministry of, to, and with people in San Pedro Sula who are HIV positive. The discrimination against those with positive HIV status is incredible. Many employers require frequent HIV testing, even though it is technically illegal, and a worker is fired the instant a positive diagnosis is known. Those with positive status are often rejected by their families and friends. One person told of being asked by his family to live in a tent in the yard. Siempre Unidos is a one-stop ministry of self-help and support – medical exams and ongoing case management, health counseling, and just basic community building. They also train and employ their clients in a small sewing operation which does contract work for various NGOs, churches, hospitals, and commercial enterprises in this country. They do first rate work using organic fabrics, they are working toward Fair Trade status, and they provide a living wage. Even more importantly, they offer the basic human dignity that begins to speak more loudly than words about God’s love for each one of God’s children. Out of this grows a Christian community that is highly reminiscent of the early church. The most rejected and isolated in society have become a home and a family where God’s love is truly known – the two or three or twenty gathered together have discovered Christ is in their midst.

Siempre Unidos moved frequently in its early years, because as soon as the neighbors learned who was being served, they forced the ministry out. A local business owner heard about the work, and offered a building rent free, where they have been the last five years. Leadership comes in many fo rms.

We visited a couple of rural communities in another part of the diocese, where the work of the church again centers around basic human dignity. In this mountainous area, communities of campesinos, often indigenous descendants of the Maya, live in hovels and survive by subsistence agriculture. The development work begins with a village assessment, done by the villagers themselves with training from the diocesan group, to evaluate what is most needed. The basic priorities usually have to do with clean water, adequate sanitation, and houses that can be kept clean. The villagers do the work themselves, usually with locally constructed adobe blocks as the basic building material. The development partnership provides training and assistance with metal roofs for those who agree to participate. The partnership is founded on a belief that all the participants are capable, and have gifts and talents to contribute. God has already planted the seeds for this work. The diocesan development partners provide training and a minimal investment. What emerges is truly miraculous.

We visited one village, several miles up a deeply rutted dirt track that is largely inaccessible during the rainy season. AANGLIDESH has been working in this Mayan village for a year, and is nearly ready to move on to another. We were invited to visit some of the evidence of progress in the last year – new adobe houses with metal roofs and concrete floors, new and sustainable latrines, concrete wash stations that allow basic hygiene and direct gray water into catchments, doorways with gates to keep the animals out of the house. (Those wash stations are called by very same name the church uses for a baptismal font – pila). The joy that this work brings shows up in decorations painted on the walls of the new houses. We visited a room in one home where the new congregation meets regularly for worship. A young woman invited us to another home to hear some singing. In the last year she has taught a growing group of young children simple but remarkably insightful gospel songs. Not only has this young mother of six begun and led what is effectively a Sunday school, she has herself learned and taught her neighbors about the importance of a more varied diet, including a number of different of vegetables and fruits they are growing nearby, and in the process she has become a gifted public speaker in this little community. Any of you would have recognized the address she offered when we sat outside her home as a pretty fine sermon. This woman has a third grade education, and she understands the gospel. The people from the diocese who have been working in this village for the last year told us that when they first went there she was so shy and withdrawn that she would not come out of her home. She has been given basic human dignity, she has discovered that she, too, is God’s beloved, and she is sharing that good news with all around her, both in word and practical deed.

One other piece to this story. When we arrived, we heard that the diocese has title to a small triangular plot in this village, for the eventual building of a church. The diocesan development workers told the bishop that they wanted to buy an adjacent piece of land so that they would have enough room to build a rectangular building. The bishop agreed on the spot to buy it, but he told everyone within earshot, repeatedly, that if he found no evidence of building when he returned, he would sell the land instantly. In another community we visited, part of the day’s work was to dedicate the new church, built by villagers from the same materials they are using to build their own houses. You might recognize the pattern. When farmers or settlers have begun to enjoy a harvest that fills basic needs, gratitude follows, and then follows an urgent need to gather the community in prayer. I have no doubt that there will be a village church in six months.

Each of you leaving this place will have multiple opportunities to share in harvests like these. You will discover opportunities that look as bleak as the AIDS community in San Pedro or the rural slums near Copan. You will find them in the wealthiest parts of this nation as well as the poorest. Perhaps the most essential reminder is that God is already at work, and that our primary task may be to help others discover and name the good gifts God has already given. That is a ministry of blessing, it is about equipping the saints, and it is having enough confidence to believe that God will give the growth.

You have what you need. No minimos in this class. Si, se puede.

View all photos of Honduran village

photos by the Rev. Canon Anthony Guillén -- Episcopal Church Missioner for Latino/Hispanic Ministries and a 1990 ETSS graduate