While grabbing my books for class this morning the evidence of travel was rampant in my bag: hotel pens, conference center note-pads, single serving snacks, a bottle of ibuprofen to take when the reality of carrying around a satchel full of books and sleeping in a bed that isn't mine finally takes its toll on my shoulders. I just returned from Duke University, and a visit to the Duke Divinity School Anglican Episcopal House of Studies for an Episcopal Relief and Development Seminary Network Coordinators meeting - wow that was entirely too many proper nouns in one sentence.
I made it out of the weekend with a belly full of biscuits and gravy, southern hospitality, and a bag full of good ideas about expanding our imagination regarding the work of Episcopal Relief and Development. The changing color of the leaves at Duke reminded me that with the coming of each fall a new class walks through the doors of each seminary around the country. Just as each fall the leaves change and fall from the limbs we find that our papers and assignments begin to overwhelm and take over almost without us noticing. In the midst of all this time we become acutely aware that those things which don't include our studies seem to fall by the wayside, even those things such as our participation in groups like Episcopal Relief and Development.
Luke Fodor - the network coordinator - had a brain-storming session with one of the diocesan coordinators on how we as seminarians can incorporate our work with the diocesan community. We all emphasized the importance of how none of us have all the time we wished, but if we work together we can enrich our programs and use our time together more wisely. The emphasis on working together with people who are peripheral to the seminary community made me realize how lucky CDSP really is in the fact that it has strong faculty and staff support, especially in the form of our director of Alumuni/ae and Church Relations person - Ann Coburn. Her willingness to sit in on meetings, be a sounding board, and remind us of what has worked in the past gives a great continuity to the presence of Episcopal Relief and Development at CDSP.
In addition to providing a continuity to our work at CDSP the idea of working together, and our life as a whole church was very present in the reminders of those things that bring all the seminaries together. The presence of representatives from every seminary except General made for a great variety in the voices we heard. The reminder to me that what brings the Episcopal church together is not politics but the liturgical life that we all enter into as part of a communion recognizing that we can argue about whether presiders should be east facing, or how many candles should be on the altar, but the fact of the matter is that we all care enough about our communion to share in that conversation. As soon as you leave the conversation you have given up on the aspects that connect the Episcopal Church with its work in the world.
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I am left with a few questions that are not easily grasped and because of that I am excited. We heard a brief address from theologian
Stanley Hauerwas who spoke to the question of development and the greater body of the Church. Hauerwas brought up the fact that he had recently given thought the question of 'eliminating poverty' and that the usage of the word
eliminating gave him pause because if we eliminate an aspect of a persons life, are we essentially eliminating their existence. Even if we - as residents in an extremely wealthy nation - find the idea of living in poverty unthinkable a huge portion of the world exists in exactly that state. This notion brought me to the question of replacement rather than elimination as our prime activity in the work of relief and development. The existence of corporate sponsors for faith based NGO development efforts - a much needed financial and public partnership in this modern world - brings up the question of whether giving professional entities that act unethically in many aspects of their work a hall pass for those acts. Are we providing a buy in for a modern day indulgence; is this really just a zero-sum game?
Questions, answers, ideas, connections, and imaginations were all expanded this past weekend in Durham. As the leaves change color and fall to the ground; the skies fill with grey and rain runs through gutters; our imaginations must be broadened constantly to embrace our brothers in communion and further expand our understanding of the work of the Church on Earth.
-Jonathan Potter
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