BISHOP JOHN PALMER CRONEBERGER’S CONVENTION ADDRESS
TO THE
133RD DIOCESAN CONVENTION – DIOCESE OF NEWARK
JANUARY 20, 2007

And he said good-bye to them in parables….

1.) As the missionary approached the village, he saw the villagers running toward him, fear written across their faces, screaming, “There’s a monster in the field !!! There’s a monster in the field !!!” Looking about, the missionary spied a giant watermelon. Laughing, he called the villagers to stop – pulled out his knife, hacked the watermelon in two, and prepared to eat it. The villagers looked horrified, and screamed ever more loudly – “He’s killed the monster, and now he’s going to kill us !!” They set upon the missionary – beat him….and killed him.

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2.) As the missionary approached the village, he saw the villagers running toward him, fear written across their faces, screaming, “There’s a monster in the field !! There’s a monster in the field !!!”… Looking about, the missionary spied a giant watermelon, and he began to run with the villagers. After some time, the missionary said to the villagers, “I think we are safe – I think we can stop running now.” He invited the villagers to sit with him, to engage in conversation, to tell each other their stories, to care, and to love. In the midst of all of that, the missionary was given the opportunity to share the experience of the rich, sweet, juicy taste of the watermelon.

More than eight years ago, I told that parable in the walk-abouts when we were then in the process of discerning who God might be calling to be Bishop. As we approached the last group to be visited that day, the person who was shepherding me through the schedule said, “Jack, why don’t you sit this one out?" (You’ve been really working hard today.) “I’ll go in and tell your stories.”

Well, you see the thing is… at the end of the day you can’t really tell anybody else’s story. You can only tell your own. Over the years, I have discovered that telling our stories requires at least the following:

1. A place of trust - Sometimes that happens very quickly; sometimes it takes a long time and a lot of effort.
2. A person or people ready to listen – The challenge here is that oft times those of us who have learned how to speak may not have learned how to listen; and those of us who have learned how to listen have significant difficulty finding our voices to speak.
3. A willingness for the storyteller to become a story-listener – as noted above.
4. A climate which encourages the celebration of one’s story far more than the critical analysis of that story - Parts of the world seem to have gotten better at negativity and destructive criticism than affirmation and praise.
5. A place where our stories might find similar stories even though each might have unique circumstances.
6. A possibility for the emergence of a common story which honors the uniqueness of each, yet celebrates the weaving of the separate threads into something stronger and larger and more life-giving.

I believe that during my time as your Bishop we have been developing a safer place for us to tell our stories to each other. Much of our recent life as a diocese has been ordered not so much around a particular issue or program but around a call from deep within the Baptismal covenant…a call to listen...a call to love…a call to develop relationships…a call to trust…a call to experience shared leadership…a call to build healthy, life-giving communities of faith. All of this describes the need we have experienced for some time to imagine and discover new ways to live together.

Some of the results of our living together deeply within the Baptismal covenant include the following:

A.) A focus on life-giving, healthy, growing, ministries complete with expectations for local congregations. The transformation beginning here is due to a wonderful combination of finding the right person to lead the charge for congregational development; together with a sum of money made available by the Trustees to encourage congregational initiatives; and a very hard- working committee of the Diocesan Council to provide leadership. There is so much more to be done, but some key ingredients for success are in place.

B.) A second result of our living together within the covenant has included an ongoing conversation about the meaning of Confirmation, its appropriate setting and its relationship to Episcopal visitations. Here I must confess to you that I will walk away from this one as an unrepentant child of God. I believe I am right about this one…..and I will take with me the vivid memory of faces standing before me, faces of young and old, faces filled with excitement and wonder, (and, yes, a few faces which seemed to be bored to tears;) faces with unique persons attached; faces complete with stories: Thelonius Monk, bling bling, “Are you going to slap me today?” ….and my face…wide-eyed in awe and wonder and frequently in tears at the privilege which has been mine.

C.) A focus on the four orders of ministry in the Episcopal Church, (lay persons, Bishops, Deacons, Priests) with special attention to the revival of a distinctly diaconal ministry within these four orders. Twenty-five (25) deacons are now among us with more to come, expanding our capacity for ministry, calling us to a renewal of our servanthood ministry, bestowed on us at Baptism. Here I want to pay special attention to one among us who has served the diocese with untold hours of work, to assist us in a process of recovering a real diaconal ministry… the Archdeacon of Newark for the past three years, The Venerable Herb Tinning. Herb, please come forward to receive the well- deserved thanks of the Diocese of Newark. In most dioceses today, archdeacon is not an honorific title, but a working one. Archdeacon Tinning will soon become Deacon Herb Tinning as he relinquishes the position of archdeacon. Thank you, Herb, for assisting us through our infancy in diaconal ministry. Please accept this stole, created by Carol Homer, and offered with the love and gratitude of Newark.

After consultation with Bishop-elect Beckwith, I am pleased to announce to you today that The Rev. Nancy Read, Deacon, will become the next Archdeacon of Newark, serving with Bishop Beckwith. Nancy will be installed and seated at the Cathedral with Bishop Beckwith in February.

In our journey of shared leadership, lay ministry has been raised up and celebrated…thanks in part to the very long and much-revered tradition of lay ministry in the Diocese of Newark; thanks also in part to the establishment of a subcommittee of the Commission on Ministry on Lay Ministries.

D.) Over the past months and years, this diocese has stood firmly and spoken clearly for (a.) the abolition of the death penalty, which, as we speak, is closer and closer to a reality in the State of New Jersey – Praise God!; (b.) support for the blessing of same sex unions – now legally possible in the State of New Jersey; and (c.) support for the position taken by our Presiding Bishop calling upon our President and our country to bring an end to the war in Iraq and to be thoroughly engaged in the work of peacemaking. All of these are matters of justice and speak to concerns raised out of the heart of the Baptismal covenant. Perhaps I might leave just two concerns with you. Somehow we must not allow the Anglican Communion to determine that one description of human sexuality will be the Litmus Test for inclusion in the Communion. We ought to be concerned about our participation in a new covenant to be developed by the Communion (or, more likely, by a selected part of the Communion) if that covenant makes unreasonable demands upon us for uniformity rather than unity in the midst of recognized diversity. That would be too great a price to pay for some kind of artificial union, and it would be a betrayal of who we are.

Having noted some of the ministries we have been about, I renew my belief that our lives are not so much a matter of issues or causes, but rather relationships and shared visions. It is about the Baptismal covenant calling us to be such a people committed deeply to Jesus Christ.

Please allow me to share a rather strange personal story that might illustrate what I am seeking to describe. Some years ago, I attended a Friday/Saturday conference at a retreat center. I awakened early Saturday morning, and wandered down to the chapel. As I walked about, I noticed above the wall of the Baptismal font, these words: God’s promise; Roots and Wings. Several years later, I attended another conference at what I thought was the same retreat center. When I entered the chapel this time, I noticed that there was no inscription over the font. When I asked the sisters what happened to the inscription, they told me that there never was such an inscription. Explanation – I don’t know. Several possibilities, but none really make sense. Whatever the truth, I believe the inscription was for me… God’s Promise; Roots and Wings. At your baptism and at mine, God’s promise has been made and kept: Roots and Wings. Certainly, the Biblical prophecy speaks repeatedly of a root springing forth, a root of Jesse, a root of David, for us, a new strength, a new beginning, Jesus. This root from which new branches blossom. Paul wrote, “…if the root is holy, so are the branches.” Remember, it is not you that supports the root, but the root that supports you.

I remember a particular wedding at the Church of the Atonement in Tenafly. An eager mother of the bride wanted so much to be helpful. She also wanted the Church to look beautiful for her daughter’s wedding. She asked if she could adorn the rood-screen with branches of dogwood blossoms. They really did look beautiful. After the liturgy when everyone was gone, the sexton asked me what to do with the dogwood branches and I said, well, since they are so pretty, let’s enjoy them at the Sunday morning services, and then you can take them down. The next morning I arrived at the Church to find the dogwood blossoms on the floor and the ugly sticks attached to the rood-screen. As branches, we do not support the root, it is the root that supports the branches. So, at our Baptism, we are called to be rooted and grounded in Christ. It is important in life to be rooted and grounded. It’s also important to know in whom you are being rooted and grounded. Sometimes, in fact, we seek to be rooted and grounded in ourselves.

Our Baptism calls us to be rooted and grounded in Christ, established in the faith, welcomed into this huge family, this glorious communion of saints on earth, not lost, not alone, not blown away, rooted, grounded in Christ and then, just when we think we figured that part out, the inscription reminds us of God’s promise, roots and wings. Here we find imagery in the Scriptures of being held and comforted in the shadow of God’s wings. Here we hear Jesus weeping over Jerusalem… How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you would not? “Baptism offers us the security of a source and place of comfort beneath the wings of God, but the imagery also becomes more expansive. Not long ago, we sang Hark the Herald Angels Sing and the words from Malachai, “Risen with healing in his wings.” Added to that are numerous Biblical passages which speak of being born on angels’ wings. My favorite which comes from Isaiah is: “They who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up- with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” You see, it is the promise of wings at Baptism that we shall have our strength renewed, that we shall mount up with wings like eagles, and be empowered to undertake whatever tasks God places before us, as part of the Baptized community.

Our work in the Baptismal covenant has been to claim both our rootedness on the one hand and our wings on the other. I believe it has been faithful to the Gospel and faithful to God’s call to us for the work that is now before us.

Let me close with one last parable. The story comes from West Africa. It is the legend of the Sky Maiden:

The members of a certain West African tribe tell the legend of the Sky Maiden. It happened once that the people of the tribe noticed their cows were giving less milk than they used to. They could not understand why. One young man volunteered to stay up all night to see what might be happening. After several hours of waiting in the darkness, hiding in a bush, he saw something extraordinary. A young woman of astonishing beauty rode a moonbeam down from heaven to earth, carrying a large pail. She milked the cows, filled her pail, and climbed back up the moonbeam to the sky. The man could not believe what he had seen. The next night, he set a trap near where the cows were kept, and when the maiden came down to milk the cows, he sprang the trap and caught her. “Who are you?” he demanded.

She explained that she was a Sky Maiden, a member of a tribe that lived in the sky and had no food of their own. It was her job to come to earth at night and find food. She pleaded with him to let her out of the net and she would do anything he asked. The man said he would release her only if she agreed to marry him. “I will marry you,” she said, “but first you must let me go home for three days to prepare myself. Then I will return and be your wife.” He agreed.

Three days later she returned, carrying a large box. “I will be your wife and make you very happy,” she told him, “but you must promise me never to look inside this box.”

For several weeks, they were very happy together. Then one day while his wife was out, the man was overcome with curiosity and opened the box. He saw nothing in it. When the woman came back, she saw her husband looking strangely at her and said, “You looked in the box, didn’t you? I can’t live with you anymore.” “Why?” the man asked. “What’s so terrible about my peeking into an empty box?” She said, “I’m not leaving you because you opened the box. I thought you probably would. I’m leaving you because you said it was empty. It wasn’t empty; it was full of sky. It contained the light and the air and the smells of my home. When I went home for the last time, I filled that box with everything that was most precious to me to remind me of where I came from. How can I be your wife if what is most precious to me is emptiness to you?”

I have come among you for a time, carrying my box, offering to open it and share some of myself with you. My intent has been to encourage each of you to open your boxes, sharing some of the important stuff of your life with one another and especially with the one who is always eager to listen, inquisitively concerned for each of us. You have blessed me by allowing me to open my box and share my stuff with you. It has been a wondrous experience, but now I invite you to look over the horizon…Here comes Mark Beckwith and he is carrying a large box. You have invited him to open that box and share his story with you, as he listens to yours, and together bear witness of God’s love to a world desperately needing to hear of that love and to see it in action. What great joy!