Kind words from friends who study and uphold diocese from afar

Kind words from friends who study

and uphold diocese from afar

By Ana Watts

Synod 2011 may have been of short duration, just a day and a half, but it was packed full of important information, especially as it relates to the Nicodemus Project. It was an opportunity to assess our progress Bishop Pitman with Archbishop Miller as we seek to embrace our Anglicanism, support our struggling parishes, and prepare to transform and strengthen our church as well as our own spirituality. It was also an opportunity to look at our efforts through fresh eyes, through the eyes of two friends of the diocese who study and uphold us from afar — Bishop Cyrus Pittman of the Diocese of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador, and Bishop Matthias Meduadues-Badohu of our Companion Diocese of Ho in Ghana, Africa. As chaplain of synod, Bishop Pittman supported and guided us through reflection, prayer and silence. Bishop Matthias brought the thanks of his people for our companionship and hopes that it will be renewed.

As a bishop in the Ecclesiastical Province of Canada, Bishop Pittman is a close colleague of our Archbishop Claude Miller who is metropolitan. He says the province looks to the Diocese of Fredericton for leadership and he looks at our Nicodemus Project the way he looks at his own home Bishop Matthias renovation project. “We are renovating an old house and I have to strip back far enough to get rid of flaws in order to rebuild properly. I tried to cover up some things in the beginning but that doesn’t work. The Diocese of Fredericton has stripped back several times already in order to do the mission of the church. You have done these things in your history and you are doing it again. You are in an exciting place.”

He praised our embrace of Anglicanism, support of struggling parishes, and our goals of strengthening our numbers, our finances and our own spirituality. “Anglicans don’t leave people alone, we come alongside them. That’s why you find us in little communities where we have gone because no one else went there.”

Archdeacon David Edwards led a Bible study on the women at the tomb. Bishop Pitman had marked that passage for the day as well. The women were both frightened and full of joy. Jesus told them to tell his disciples to go to Galilee and he would meet them there. “That’s what we have to do, go back to our Galilee,” says Bishop Pitman. “We most often see Jesus in the places where God has planted us, where we met him for the first time, where we see him in the hearts and minds of the people to whom we minister.”

The theme of synod was Celebrating the First Fruits of the Nicodemus Project, and Bishop Pitman underscored the value of pruning the vine to strengthen the yield. “A few years ago I decided to grow tomato plants in my greenhouse. I showed my neighbour what I was doing and she offered to help me produce more fruit. One evening I came home and everything was cut back. She had pruned the branches much farther than I would have, but the crop was amazing. I would never have had as many tomatoes if I had done the pruning. That is what you are doing here, doing some pruning, cutting back the branches so your ministries will be more fruitful. Instead of Little Bo Peep churches you are building Good Shepherd churches. The lost sheep will not come home if we leave them alone. The diocese of Fredericton is serious about growing Good Shepherd churches, making disciples and informed pastors, lay and ordained, to take the Good News into culture of today.”

Bishop Matthias told synod he had come here for a rest. He is extremely busy in his own diocese and as a presiding bishop (similar to an archbishop) is involved in indaba conversations in his region of Africa. These efforts take so much of his time and energy his health is suffering and he nearly collapsed while preaching before he left home to come to New Brunswick.

“I was talking to Phyllis in your Synod Office on the telephone and told her I was very tired. She advised me to take a rest. I said I couldn’t find rest in dictionary. She said she would show me what it is.” As a result, time for rest and reflection was built into his schedule here. “When I leave here I have to have a meeting with Church in Ghana then I must go on to Kenya, so thank you for creating the space and time for me to rest.”

The indaba conversations he mentioned are named for the Zulu word for careful listening. “This is a gift to the Anglican Communion,” he said. “Without it, the church will split. Last year five bishops, five friends of mine, left the Anglican Communion. They wanted me to come too. I said no, I would not leave. The Indaba conversations make this unnecessary. I urge you all to learn about this process, become involved, it is important.”

But his main message to New Brunswick Anglicans was thanks for the wonderful companion relationship the dioceses have enjoyed, and especially for the corn mills for the parishes of Ho bought with money sent from the parishes of Fredericton. “The corn mills are something my people will never forget. We have installed some and they work well, they are generating income for our parishes. Some are not installed yet because of land issues, but they will be soon. For the next group that comes from here to visit us, we will grind the corn, prepare a meal and they will come back here and say to you ‘We have eaten a meal from the corn mill and the casava crusher.’

“We have learned a lot from you and we have gained a lot from you. It is a pity my people are not here to thank you – to tell you how happy we are for this companionship link and to plead that when five years is over next year that we must do something to renew it.”