But when we talked to the people at St. Thomas’s, they had a complaint. They said their church was growing too fast. They said if it kept on like this, they were going to ask Bishop Chang for permission to start another mission. I said, “I’m sorry it’s getting so big! How many people are coming to church?”
Seventy, they said. They told us if Sunday attendance gets to be 100, they’re going to say to Bishop Chang enough is enough. He needs to start another church! Because in busy Taiwan society, where the pace of life can be as isolating and anxiety producing as anywhere else in the world, Taiwan Episcopalians want to go to a church that feels like a family. They want to go where everyone knows their name.
As I think we all know, in the United States, we make an idol out of church growth. A rector, vicar, or priest in charge sometimes hangs their head in shame when they have to say only 60 or 70 are coming to church of a Sunday. It’s hard to give ourselves permission to say, if we’re doing everything we can to welcome people, if we’re not putting any stumbling blocks in their way, that maybe the people coming to church are the people our God in Christ sent to church.
And that may be the way for The Episcopal Church in these times, proclaiming what it does about God’s justice and mercy. Being the church that says all are in without regard to race and nation, orientation and identification. Being the church that says it’s not OK with Jesus — it absolutely can’t be OK with Jesus — to round up our immigrant worker neighbors without due process or representation. Being the church that insists it’s not OK with the Lord to scapegoat trans and nonbinary people for political profit.
These not popular positions in United States Christianity. Our society is isolating and polarizing. As it becomes more secular, it is becoming more selfish. Some churches are going in that direction.
But not us. We can find all kinds of ways to sustain our congregations. We own all our own real estate. LA Episcopalians will have glorious work to do with their next bishop. But perhaps for the glory of God and the sake of God’s people, a good start is that at most of our 133 missions and parishes, there’s a family waiting where everyone knows our name.
These last ten days, we’ve learned many more things from our forever friends on the Taiwan mission team.
We’ve learned that we serve Jesus Christ best when we’re having fun. The mission team’s statement is “be the light.” You hear the light in their laughter and see it in their eyes.
We’ve learned that Taiwan people and Los Angeles people have in common a fear that leaders in distant capitals are making decisions that will injure the people of God.
We’ve been reminded that hope is always alive for those who share the gospel, who have our shared mission of reconciliation, and who have the support of friends, colleagues, and community.
We’ve been reminded, watching Bishop Chang and his fellow missionaries, not to be afraid of the movement of the Holy Spirit. Taiwan Episcopalians are not the frozen chosen. They are the saints afire.
And I’ve been affirmed in my belief that the Holy Spirit has brought our dioceses together in this unique moment in history to make common cause in the face of powers and principalities – by exchanges of youth and young adults, seminarians and language students, recently ordained clergy, retired clergy, maybe even soon to be retired bishops.
To come to know one another better, that we might know better God’s purposes for us. God’s purposes for us as co-architects of God’s realm of freedom and peace, love and justice. Whatever it takes, whatever we need to do. No matter how dark it gets, whenever and however we can, to be the light.
[My closing remarks at Sunday evening’s farewell dinner for the Taiwan mission team. Our guests included the Rt. Revs. Gerry Engnan, Naudal Alves Gomes, and Ed Little, Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles Secretary of Convention Canon Steve Nishibayashi, diocesan treasurer Canon Andy Tomat, and Kim Ericson, chair of the Program Group on Global Partnership. The team departed St. Paul’s Commons, Echo Park Monday morning for LAX and their 13-hour return flight. We will meet again!]
