To the People of the Diocese of Western Michigan,
As we make final preparations for the 144th Diocesan Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan, I request your fervent prayers for our diocese, for the communities we serve, and for our nation. We need God’s help – and your support – to expand and energize our work of healing and reconciliation to address the growing divisions in our American life.
A little less than 3 days after the gavel closes on our 144th Diocesan Convention, America’s polls will open for the 2018 midterm election. When the polls finally close, Americans could end up more bitterly divided than we are already. No matter who “wins” all of us might end up losing.
I am concerned about thisgrowing chasm of distrust and fear amongst us and the increasing hostility being expressed towards entire segments of our varied communities. This distrust and fear is the opposite of the spirit of reconciliation embodied in the work of the Episcopal Church. As Episcopalians, our mission is, “to restore all people to unity with God and each other, as we pray and worship, proclaim the Gospel, and promote justice, peace and love.” (BCP p. 855)
The challenges facing the Jesus Movement in Western Michigan are enormous and among the most urgentis the need for racial reconciliation.
This is also an area where we are well positioned to take important new steps toward effective action.In 2017, our Diocesan Convention passed a resolution calling for the development of a policy and procedure requiring that, “persons running for any elected diocesan position must have completed an approved course of study on racial reconciliation.” Our Diocesan Commission on Dismantling Racism has done great work. Working in conjunction with your bishop, they have developed a policy and procedure that was passed unanimously by your diocesan council at its September 2018 meeting.
Regardless of who you are – your background or your beliefs – we are all shaped by systems, including within the Church, in which attitudes, social practices, and power dynamics intentionally and unintentionally create unfair advantages or disadvantages for groups of people based on race.
Simply put, racism is prejudice coupled with power. Racism in all its varietiesexists to help those holding power and control to maintain power and control.
It is only when we see and recognize the overarching role of racism as a systemthat we can begin to examine its consequences and seek ways to change. Our sincere engagement in dismantling racism is a necessary step toward making visible God’s likeness and goodness in every person.
As your Bishop, I now call upon us to take up our mission – to seek restoration and unity by fully giving ourselves to the work of dismantling racism in our lives.
The new policy and procedure for Dismantling Racism in the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan outlines a course of study on racism awareness and reconciliation.
Phase One – Understanding the history of racism: US origins of racism, institutional racism, awareness of personal bias.
Phase Two – Committing to intentional personal and public change.
Phase Three – Creating a parish plan and determining outcomes to be measured and follow-up activities to maintain momentum.
This will not be easy work. It will require humility, vulnerability, honesty and courage. It will take graceful listening with gentle responses. It will require patience and prayer, lots of prayer, as we seek to shift our awareness and our actions, so we might become agents of healing and reconciliation in our communities and in our time.
I look forward to taking up this work with you and moving deeper into our relationship with God as we move deeper intorelationship with one another.
I am honored to be your bishop.
May the blessing of God Almighty be with us now and always,
The Rt. Rev. Whayne M. Hougland, Jr.
IX Bishop,
The Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan
Click here to download this letter as a PDF.
Click here to download the new Policy and Proceedure for Dismantling Racism Training.
My dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
I write to you in the aftermath of the great evil manifested on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville last weekend. I am deeply troubled by the images coming from the scene; angry young white men carrying torches like the Klu Klux Klan, heavily-armed uniformed militia roaming unregulated while mobs of white supremacists waving Nazi flags openly marched with the expressed intention to incite violence, hatred and fear. They succeeded.
Let me be clear, racism, in any form, along with the tenets of white supremacy, white nationalism, Nazism and other similar ideologies of hate and divisiveness, cannot be reconciled with the teachings of Jesus Christ or the Christian faith. Anyone who proclaims these ideologies and claims to be a Christian is mistaken and in error. As Episcopalians, our mission is to constantly pursue unity and reconciliation with God and each other. Our baptismal covenant commands us to love ALL our neighbors and it commands us to respect the dignity of EVERY human being. All means all and every means every. There can be no compromise, equivocation or rationalizing of these.
Perhaps this horrifying incident will move us all to reflect more deeply on how we understand ourselves as members of the Body of Christ while considering how to more fully be children of light. Are we not called to proclaim hope, certain hope, in the resurrection to eternal life with Jesus or to proclaim ourselves? Are we not to live selflessly serving the least, the last, the lost and the losers amongst us or to serve our own special interests? Are we not to give our lives for the world as Christ did for us, or are we just hedging our bets?
My dear friends, in moments like these, when evil masked as righteousness rears its ugly head, we must be true to our baptism by unabashedly shining the light of Christ’s love into the world. It is our Christian task and duty to live compassionately, to pursue justice and mercy, to demonstrate grace, to offer forgiveness, to live, move and have our being seeking to bring reconciliation and unity to an ever more broken and divided world. We are built and empowered by our baptism for these challenging moments. If we do not stand up to hate by bravely, selflessly loving ALL people then we are nothing more than a worship club and our faith will make no difference.
I write this while attending our diocesan Episcopal Youth Camp for third, fourth and fifth graders at peaceful Camp Newaygo. I am thankful for this place and for the holy space it provides our children to experience and practice unconditional love. They are beautiful and good. Their future lies ahead of them open and hopeful even while threatening clouds of hate, violence and fear appear on the horizon. What we do now, in this time, affects their future. How we live now affects their prospects. What we teach them now informs their perspective, their faith, and their very souls. So, today, let us renew our commitment to Christ by seeking to love each other selflessly, generously. Let us firmly and resolutely reclaim our loving, liberating, life-giving faith. Let us humbly proclaim the good news of God in Christ which is the assurance there is nothing, not even death, that can separate from us from the love of God.
Everliving God, whose will it is that all should come to through your Son Jesus Christ: Inspire our witness to him, that all may know the power of his forgiveness and the hope of his resurrection; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (For the Mission of the Church, The Book of Common Prayer)
Peace,
+Whayne
My Dear Friends,
Last Thursday evening, a large Grand Rapids Police Department SWAT vehicle stopped in front my house. A dozen officers in full riot gear – helmet, body armor, shields and machine guns – moved with precision up the steps towards Dana and me as we sat on our front porch. At the top of the stairs, they turned right toward the four apartment house across the open lot, taking no notice of us. Immediately behind them followed another dozen or so armed uniformed and plain clothes police officers who took up positions at each corner of the neighboring house.
We quickly went inside, locked the doors and hid behind the curtains timidly peering out on the frightening unfolding scene. Dana downloaded a Police Scanner App to her smart phone so we might figure out what was happening. No luck. We watched and wondered, scared and confused, for a very long fifteen minutes until the tense scene began to break up with officers lowering their weapons moving back down to the street.
One riot gear clad officer came near our house so I went out and asked what he could tell me about what was happening. He very politely and directly said this was not an active scene. He said they were acting on a search warrant. I presume it involved drugs because soon after two police dogs appeared next door. He apologized for using our front steps. “No, no thank you for your service,” I said relieved the incident had ended peacefully and without violence.
Over the last two weeks, we have experienced gut-wrenching violence against police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge. I am very thankful for those who take up the difficult, almost impossible job to protect and serve – police officers, fire departments, emergency medical technicians and our military personnel. To put one’s life in harm’s way for the sake of another is noble and holy. Please continue to pray for these servants and their families.
My recent encounter with our local police force was frightening, to say the least. I was, if only momentarily, very afraid for mine and Dana’s safety as that heavily-armed team moved toward us.
I think I may better understand now why people of color, who experience disproportionately more violence than white people, fear the police. Fear is never a reason to commit violence against another and yet fear is always the root cause of it. Perhaps, our fear of police officers is reflected in their being clad in armor which in turn reflects their own fear of us. It is fear that causes us to distrust each other, fear that leads us to arm ourselves and fear that moves us to acts of violence perpetuating a never ending cycle of violence and fear, fear and violence.
What do you fear? How does fear affect you, your relationships, your actions?
I am so deeply saddened by all the recent violence in our world that I barely know how to respond. The burden of it all bares down on me such that my spirit aches. The only thing I can control in all of this is me. So, when my spirit needs healing I return to my favorite source of comfort and strength I find in the Rule of St. Benedict as presented by John McQuiston in his simple book, Always We Begin Again: The Benedictine Way of Living, Morehouse Publishing, 1996. Listen to what he says about Paramount Goals, p. 21-22:
“What is wanted is not that we should find ultimate truth, nor that we should become secure, nor that we should have ease, nor that we should be without hurt, but that we should live fully. Therefore we should not fear life, nor anything in life, we should not fear death, nor anything in death, we should live our lives in love with life. It is for us to train our hearts to live in grace, to sacrifice our self-centered desires, to find peace without want without seeking it for ourselves, and when we fail, to begin again each day. If we adopt an outlook of confidence and trust and perfect our experience by care for others, if we live in the certainty that we are heirs in providence of the outmost mystery, we will begin to change into the persons that we have the potential to be.”
Go forth into the world in peace; be of good courage, hold fast that which is good, render to no one evil for evil; strengthen the faint-hearted; support the weak; help the afflicted; honor all people; love and serve the Lord rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit. And the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be with you this day and always.
+Whayne M. Hougland, Jr.
IX Western Michigan
