Rev. Molly F. James, PhD
Retired Clergy Gathering
April 16, 2015, Feast Day of Molly Brant
May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the Living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord.
It is 8am on a Wednesday morning. I sit at a table at Effie’s Place in West Hartford, sipping coffee and chatting with friends. We have just come from celebrating the 7:15 Eucharist at Grace Church in Hartford. I was the celebrant on this morning, and am on my way to work, and so I am wearing my clerical collar. There are six others at the table. All men, and most of them have children who are older than I am. Clearly we seem to make an interesting group, because about half way through breakfast an older lady comes up and asks me, “What is this?” I explain that we are sharing breakfast after Church. I come later to learn that a significant portion of the clientele at Effie’s are Roman Catholic, and so I begin to realize why a young, female cleric with a bunch of older men would be such a surprising sight!
In some ways I can understand her surprise. All of the others at the table grew up in a Church that used the 1928 Prayer Book and where only men were priests. Three of the men at the table are retired priests and were all ordained before 1976. In my case, women have been priests longer than I have been alive, and I have only ever known the “new” Prayer Book as our Book of Common Prayer. On the surface it could seem that we have little in common. And yet I cherish these Wednesday morning breakfasts. There is much laughter at that table. The conversations range from the mundane to the sublime. There is talk of church, of politics, of history, of the things of daily life. And I think these Wednesday morning breakfasts have something to offer our gathering and conversation here today.
Today is the feast day of Molly Brant. If you were following Lent Madness then this name will be familiar to you. Molly was a Mohawk woman in pre-Revolutionary America who grew up Anglican and was a remarkable bridge between the Mohawk and British communities. She was a leader in her communities at a time of great political and societal upheaval. As scholars have noted, “Although Molly received an education from Christian missionaries and was a devout Anglican, she retained a respectful devotion to many Mohawk customs, which allowed her to serve as a consensus-builder between two nations.”
This is not unlike where we find ourselves today as the Episcopal Church in CT. We are faced with the challenge of moving forward into a new world, a new century, a new way of being without losing our heritage or our identity. I think the Holy Spirit was up to something that this gathering is held on the feast day of Molly Brant. It has been noted that Molly Brant was “a woman who lived beyond the cultural, political, and religious limitations of her era. She faithfully integrated her Anglican faith with her Mohawk heritage without confusing the two.” She can be a model for us as one who knew how to hold on to one’s heritage, to bring together the best of two seemingly disparate sides to create a more promising future. Re-imagining the Episcopal Church in CT is about thinking outside the box. It is about re-shaping ourselves to best fit the needs of the 21st century, while simultaneously preserving the best of our heritage and traditions.
I am actually very excited about the opportunity that lies before us. One of the things I love about serving as the Dean of Formation is that I have the opportunity to work with folks in discernment, in the ordination process and those who are newly ordained. No matter their chronological age, these folks are full of hope and new ideas. They are passionate about their love for Jesus, for our Church and for God’s people. They are chomping at the bit to get started and to make a difference. They also see things differently. Few of them are anticipating careers in full-time parish ministry. They imagine ministries in prisons, in schools, in hospitals, in coffee shops and art studios. They imagine ministries that take them out into the world to meet people. Their passion is contagious. Their excitement and new ideas have shown me that we need a church structure, locally and across the Episcopal Church that can better serve the leaders of the future.
How radically different the future structure might be from the current or the past remains to be seen. One of the things I love about my Wednesday morning breakfasts is that they are a mix of the old and the new Church. As I have noted, the collective experience of most of those at the table spans a good portion of the mid and late 20th century Episcopal Church. I, on the other hand, was born at the end of the 20th century. I have only been ordained for 10 years. God willing, I have many more decades of ordained ministry ahead of me. From my friends at the breakfast table, I have gained a greater knowledge of and appreciation for the richness of our Anglican heritage. And I have received a deep appreciation of my ministry, as well as the efforts to imagine and create a more nimble Episcopal Church that is even more deeply engaged in God’s mission in the world.
Our readings remind us of our unity and that there is much to be learned from each other. I hope our time together today, and going forward can be one of rich engagement and sharing. You all bring great wisdom and experience, as well as a lived appreciation for the depths and riches of the Anglican tradition. As together we imagine the future, I hope your collective wisdom can be the foundation on which we build a new structure for our common life as faithful Episcopalians in Connecticut.
AMEN.
