That We All May Be One

Bishop Jim Kelsey’s funeral in Marquette, Michigan on Friday was not only testimony to a valued colleague, but a gathering of many of us who would consider ourselves advocates of “total ministry.” I put the last words in quotation marks because they have become somewhat controversial in recent years.  They refer, loosely, to a comparatively non-hierarchical approach to ministry  which celebrates the collaborative, mutually supportive exercize of the ministry of lay persons, bishops, priests, and deacons in the church and in the world.

One of those who shared reflections about Jim said that he was a product, in many ways, of the Episcopal Church’s current Book of Common Prayer, authorized about the same time he was ordained. Three aspects of that liturgical document which he embraced — and which shaped his ministry in many ways — were the Peace, the centrality of the Eucharist, and the Baptismal Covenant.

Over the next several days, I thought I might reflect upon those things as they pertain to the central concern of this web log — the desire “that we all may be one.”  I hope you’ll check it out.

This entry was posted on June 9, 2007 at 9:59 pm and is filed under Church Life, Ecumenical, Emergent Church, Religion, Scripture, The Episcopal Church, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.