Episcopal Church Foundation Vital Practices - Vestry Papers - Vestries: Listen to God's Call

January 2014
Vestries: Listen to God's Call

Stirrings of the Spirit

Tom Ely and Susan Ohlindal

“One of my favorite characters in the theatre is Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof. Nearly fifteen years ago I performed as Tevye in a ten week run at a community dinner theatre in Connecticut. Every Friday and Saturday night I was Tevye. Every Sunday morning I was Father Tom.

“If you are familiar with Fiddler on the Roof, you know that Tevye was challenged (pushed, cajoled, forced?) to look at things in new ways by his daughters and the changing realities of the world in which he lived. What I came to appreciate most about Tevye was the way he struggled with his grounding in the traditions of the past and his awareness that something new was emerging that meant he had to pay attention.”

Routine problem solving for Tevye usually meant doing things the way they had always been done – “Tradition!” But as life unfolds and changes come to his village, Tevye’s “ways” stop working for him. Throughout the play Tevye “tries on” new ideas, new ways, new concepts, and new “traditions,” even as his three oldest daughters move him further and further away from the customs of his culture and faith by their marriage choices.

There is deep struggle in all of this for Tevye, often expressed in his ‘conversations’ with God. At the end of the day, it is the love for his daughters, his abiding faith in God, and his own mindfulness about the changing times and the reality in which he is living that makes all the difference.

We think the Episcopal Church, indeed all so called mainline Christian denominations, are experiencing a Tevye moment, and it is not a brief moment. It is a watershed moment. And, like Tevye we are challenged to do our adaptive work around those three challenging human tasks: figure out what to conserve from past practices, figure out what to discard from past practices, and invent new ways that build from the best of the past.

How are our traditions (indeed, everything about us) being questioned, and challenged to speak a word of hope and new life to a world that is so rapidly changing? Will we have the courage of Tevye to struggle with these new realities and find the possibility of something good there?

In Vermont, the Episcopal Church has embarked on a three-year initiative to discern where the Spirit is calling us through exploring new understandings and expressions of what it means to follow Jesus in a rapidly changing world. We call this initiative Stirrings of the Spirit.

Stirrings is about creating exciting and innovative models of church, of “trying on” new ways of being and, as followers of Jesus, focusing on both the established church as we know it and the communities beyond our doors:

Strengthened formation of lay leadership;
New expressions of clergy partnership;
Experimentations and innovations within liturgy;
Exploration of the church’s role in neighborhoods and communities;
Enhanced understandings of what mission, and discipleship, and baptismal ministry look like for Vermont Episcopalians in the 21st century.

Growing out of the desire and efforts of lay and clergy leaders in Vermont to try new things, this initiative began to take shape as diocesan leaders sought other voices for conversations. We invited into our gatherings people who were already doing innovative and risky ministry and mission initiatives. This intentional importing of people and ideas helped to spark local leaders with similar or other innovative ideas.

These formational efforts along with creative ideas and new expressions of ministry already underway led to the passing of a diocesan resolution in late 2012. The resolution tells us, “To be faithful to our calling in a rapidly changing world, we must strengthen our spiritual lives, and at the same time, open ourselves to new understandings and expressions of what it means to be spiritual beings.” Further, “…the Episcopal Church in Vermont will support our congregations with few, if any, limits on how they want to do God’s work and carry out God’s mission.” Vestry members, clergy, and ministry teams were encouraged to apply what they were learning and what they were inspired to do in their local contexts.

In the first year of Stirrings, 2013, new forms of liturgies have been “tried on” and reflected upon. Partnerships have been formed between non-profit groups and congregations wanting to transform communities, more than just serving a need. Interdenominational and ecumenical partnerships are being explored and built. New ministry projects and missional initiatives will soon be given support from Stirrings grants using diocesan funds.

Leadership for Stirrings now resides with a team of lay and clergy members. As year two of the three-year experiment unfolds, the Leadership Team is speaking from a position that allows possibilities to exist. Our posture in this initiative is one of trying to be open to being disturbed by the Spirit, of being vulnerable to the Spirit, of acknowledging the chaos, and of finding ways of inserting / bringing/ offering/ displaying the sacramental to the sacred outside of our Church. Our leadership in these high heat moments of change requires us to be confident yet to hold things loosely. We also must be prepared for and welcome failure as opportunity to reflect and to keep practicing.

In this “New Advent” or “New Pentecost,” happening in our Church and the societies in which we find ourselves, Stirrings of the Spirit calls us to grant greater freedom in particular areas in our Church in Vermont, areas which challenge us in worship, in ways to invite and support new spiritual communities to form, and in ways that we minister outside of our doors. To nurture and support spiritual health in our existing congregations and in new initiatives for ministry and mission that emerge will mean developing the generative structures that offer life and resources while not encircling the new expressions with program or top-down limits and expectations.

In this work to which we believe God is calling us, we are moving between chaos and order. Things are messy and unclear at times. There are tensions between the ways we have done things for many years—and love! —and new ways into which we are being invited. There are tensions. There are failures and things left undone. And there is also joy and satisfaction. As leaders, whether local or church-wide, we must hold all these and be willing to stand in the midst. The Spirit is stirring!

For more information about Stirrings of the Spirit and the Church in Vermont, visit here.

Tom Ely is bishop and Susan Ohlidal the canon for ministry development for The Episcopal Church in Vermont.

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