Dear Friends in Christ,

During a break from the clergy retreat at Chapel Rock, I write to you from Gypsy’s Bakery and Coffee in Prescott, Arizona.

Bishop Craig Loya, age 48, gave his initial presentation to deacons and priests of this diocese. He focused us on Jeremiah 29:4-13. He likes to begin all meetings with a brief consideration of a biblical passage. In this passage, the prophet speaks to displaced and uprooted exiles.

In spite of disorientation and catastrophic loss, those who search for God will find God. He counsels them to beware of “prophets and diviners” who will deceive. He is referring to false prophets who appear and reappear in every generation.

The bishop seizes on the Old Testament concept of the “remnant,” the minority who remain faithful to Yahweh. The bishop believes that we are living in a remnant moment characterized by this crisis of disruption, which occurs and reoccurs over the long arc of history.

In this context, remnant people and the remnant church live through crisis and disruption by remaining in covenant and communion with God. A stubborn hope emerges in resistance to that which is profane, inhumane, and self-serving for a few at the expense of the common good.

The former broad, robust, and cultural support of the American church is a thing of the past.

What will emerge in its place is unknown. The bishop says that many of us will not live to see what develops, just as many of the Babylonian captives would not live to see the return to Jerusalem.

His recommendations?

Settle into being unsettled. Make peace with messiness and uncertainty.
Invest in strengthening the heart and core of the congregation.
Look to the past to harvest wisdom instead of trying to recreate or reclaim the way things used to be.
Embrace gifts of the small. He gave examples of small parishes in Minnesota. In larger parishes, “the small” would be the little communities within the larger community.
Launch small efforts that reach out to needs of the community. Partner with others whose efforts mirror gospel values.

He took on the prophetic role when he said that many Episcopalians live as functional atheists. When we (and I include myself) live this way, we have no real expectation of God showing up.

In the last session with Bishop Craig Loya, he will share what the last month has been like in Minneapolis, which he says feels like six months.

Your fellow traveler,

—Richard Mallory