A Diverse Wisdom

Consider Synod as a blind delegate—a 670 page convening circular, countless handouts, complex motions and amendments on the screen, faces and expressions in the room. It all depends on sight. The opening Gospel reading of Matt. 6:22-23 taught us that the eyes are the way to the soul. If they see, the soul is full of light. If the eyes do not see, the soul is full of darkness. However, what I felt and learned at Synod is that I might lack sight, but certainly do not lack vision and voice.

National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop Chris Harper, recommended that as Christians, we walk up to someone we have never met before and scare them with a declaration of love. God’s love is a shocking and glorious miracle for us each day. It is the wonder of creation and the heart for our mission of Creation Care. Frightening and overwhelming as is the wondrous love, inclusive power, capable of bringing into one family as Christians and as a church. The Sacred Circle of the Indigenous Church and the parliamentary form of governance of Synod may be different, but they lead to the same truth.

We met with our Lutheran colleagues, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and they too are different. And yet, we are one Communion. We learn from each other and our different traditions. We welcomed the Moravian Church to our one communion with joy and learning of their mission, to fill the world with Christianity and joy but not build churches and maintain them, just form faithful Christians. They welcomed us to a love feast.

Creation Care was a constant presence—all creatures of our world are God’s creatures. This world is not just about human beings, but about the whole, marvelous and miraculously diverse expression of what God has made and is still creating. In this, we are co-creators and have much to do to be worthy and fulfill our Christian mission to protect and share our threatened garden of the earth.

We learned about the ways that our colonial past, culture, and structure pose barriers to those of other cultures, races, and faiths. We are not a smug Christian club, but a wonderfully chorus of diverse voice and stories, each of which must be heard and each of whom loved as one of the same family with God. We are one church with a diverse wisdom.