Preliminaries

The word "preliminary" means "just before the threshold"; and here's a thought just before the threshold of our Honduras trip.

This past weekend was the annual Diocesan Council of the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, and Lee and I spent the weekend in Roanoke, doing diocesan business, seeing diocesan friends, participating in diocesan workshops--and also being away from home, shaken a bit out of the usual routine. Council was good; but at times I found myself questioning the wisdom of spending a weekend being busy away from home, just two days before leaving for Honduras, to spend a week being busy away from home. Isn't that crowding the calendar just a little too much?

Perhaps. We'll see if I feel a powerful urge to nap more than usual in the days to come.

But there is an upside to going to Council just before the mission trip, as well. Gathering as the diocese is a significant reminder that none of us does ministry all alone. As individuals we have our peculiar gifts and talents; as congregations we have our particular programs and partnerships; and all of these are set in wider and wider contexts, widening circles of connection and importance; so that what we do, we always do with others. At Council we heard about ministry and mission relationships our diocese has with the Sudan, with the diocese of Bradford in England, and with Episcopal Relief and Development for earthquake relief in Haiti and malaria prevention in Africa. We heard about various Haiti relief projects going forward in convocations and congregations within the diocese. We heard about--and actively engaged in--ministry and mission involving children, youth, young adults, middle-adults, and senior adults, all in a seamless garment, woven from top to bottom, of mission in Christ. We worked and learned and listened and prayed as members of a Church that transcends and includes all the particular bits of life any given one of us may know.

And that sets a good context for our mission trip to Honduras. This is not something that the seventeen of us are setting out to do all on our own. We go to Honduras as representatives of Trinity (and Emmanuel, and others), carried forth on the prayers and support of so many people of the parish. We go to Honduras as partners with the Diocese of Honduras, whose plans for growth and mission we are honored and happy to assist; we don't just show up in Copan saying "We know what's best for you and we're here to do it," but we develop mission goals and work plans based on local leaders saying "This is what God calls us to do and here's how you can help." We go to Honduras as participants in the Mission of God to bring all creatures into communion with God and each other in Christ--and understanding that helping to build one church building in one community in one Central American country is but one step in that whole emerging communion dance.

Our trip to Honduras is to us a big deal--but it is a big deal in an even bigger context, the context of the always-expanding, all-embracing love of Christ. And attending the gathering of the household of the diocese just before the threshold of our Honduras trip is a good way of being reminded of that larger context.

Even if it does seem to crowd the calendar just a little.

May the Peace of Christ be with you,
Paul+