Meeting +John-David

And how I learned something about Church politics.

As some California bishops begin presentment proceedings against another California bishop, I thought I might tell a story about +John-David of San Joaquin. He's been in the Episcopal news lately because he's being charged with abandoning communion. In all honesty I'm not sure why, but according to these sources it has something to do with diocesan canons, and what some think he might do in the future. But the story is unfolding, and there is much more to this story than what we see in the news. It's an important story as any in the battle over who is genuinely Anglican in the United States. It's worth following.

It's worth following because the Diocese of San Joaquin is on the shortlist of dioceses disliked by the liberal establishment of the Episcopal Church, and will tell us much about how those on the edges of the Episcopal Church are treated by those closer to the centre of power. My own relationships in the Episcopal Church have developed within the perifery of the liberal establishment (though Presiding Bishop elect, +Katherine Jefferts-Schori, is a graduate of my seminary), and most of the voices I know here are fully consonant with the power-voices within the Episcopal Church, like that of presiding bishop ++Frank Griswold and the national church bureaucracy. All that is to say that I had never heard many good things about +John-David, until a conservative friend came under his wing after this friend came into some conflict with his own diocese over some familiar theological and ecclesial issues.

I went to Howard's diaconal ordination, but with some trepidation. As uncomfortable as I am with much of the politicking and theology of the Diocese of California, San Joaquin also has positions and policies that are at variance with those of my own diocese. I wondered to myself, should I insist on processing in the clerical procession? Should I even wear my clericals? I wasn't sure that my orders were recognised in San Joaquin. I was licensed in the Diocese of California, a diocese as different from San Joaquin as you can get. In the end I decided not to process, but I did wear my clericals. I'm sure of the validity of my orders, even if I wasn't sure that this diocese would recognise them.

At the end of the ordination I entered the receiving line along with everyone else. I was anxious to meet the bishop, as most of the bishops I've met (though not all, to be sure) have more serpentine wisdom than dove-like gentleness. Here I was, a crippled deacon from the Diocese of California, meeting one of the most conservative bishops in the Episcopal Church. I didn't know how this bishop would receive me.

As it turns out, I had nothing to worry about. +John-David held my hand tightly and smiled broadly when I met him. He was radiant, and genuinely interested in me and how I was doing. He spoke lovingly of his own time in the Diocese of California, and of some of the people we both knew. He was curious about me being a Canadian in California. He wanted to learn about my ministry in Marin County. In short, +John-David won me over with his gentleness and pastoral presence.

Are meetings like this a solution to our deep divisions? No. I'm not that naive. But the opportunity to meet, face-to-face, someone as demonised as +John-David, certainly revealed some things that I have a hard time remembering: There are a lot of good men and women on both sides of this chasm. Don't believe the demonisers. And above all, reach out to all those you meet with love, affection, and charity, just as +John-David did with me. If he had relied on his own preconceptions, he would have had every reason to look another way.

Instead, he reached out his hand, and taught me something about Christian charity and hospitality.