The annual diocesan Clergy Conference followed the theme of this year’s guest speaker, The Rt. Rev. Dr. Jo Bailey Wells, who urged participants toward the challenge of “going deeper” in faith and fellowship amid the peaceful setting of Canterbury Conference Center in Oviedo.
Held Monday afternoon, Oct. 24, through Wednesday noon, Oct. 26, the conference brought together 123 in-person participants and another 37 interacting online through the Hopin platform, with mandatory in-person attendance for all clergy-in-charge (rectors, vicars, missioners, priests-in-charge and priests who oversee diocesan facilities or serve as full-time chaplains). Worship was led by The Rev. Canon Josh Bales, canon for family ministry at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando. The powerful work of the Holy Spirit in melding conference themes, emphases and collegiality among clergy was evident throughout the conference.
Brewer: ‘Be a Little Braver’
This was the final Clergy Conference as diocesan bishop for The Rt. Rev. Gregory O. Brewer, who gave a special update Tuesday morning on the 2022 Lambeth Conference at the University of Kent and Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, England. He spoke of having in-depth conversations with bishops from all parts of the world, especially those who serve in “places where people are in peril” because of their faith in Christ. Those conversations moved Brewer to urge other bishops to focus attention and resources on those areas of the world as well as to consider them in Communion-wide decisions.
Bishop Brewer delivers his Lambeth report during the 2022 Diocesan Clergy Conference at Canterbury Conference Center.
“What happened at Lambeth was a reframing and a re-relational connection for us as a Communion,” the bishop said. He also reviewed the 10 Lambeth Calls considered before, during and after the conference, noting that “The reshaping of the Communion is just getting started, and I have a lot of hope for the future.”
Brewer’s conference sermon, given at the celebration of the Holy Eucharist on Tuesday evening, focused on the story of Tabitha in Acts 9:26-43. After sharing of the Holy Spirit’s work in his life and those of others, he repeated a line learned from Catherine Meeks of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing in Atlanta, who urged people to “be a little braver” as they stepped out in their faith.
“Do not read the story of Tabitha as mere history,” Brewer urged his listeners. “See the story of Tabitha as an invitation and know that the ministry of the Holy Spirit is as available to you as anyone in the history of the church: ‘For you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses.’
“If you want to just be a caretaker in the house of the Lord, you can do that,” Brewer said. “But if you want to see lives changed for the gospel, be a little braver.”
Wells: ‘Going Deeper’
Only a week before the conference began, Wells, the current suffragan bishop of Dorking in the Church of England’s Diocese of Guildford, was appointed to a newly created position in the Anglican Communion designed to build on the outcomes of Lambeth ’22 and enhance the renewed relationships it inspired among the bishops across the Communion. Beginning in January 2023, she will serve as the bishop for Episcopal Ministry. Read more about her new position at this link.
In her three Clergy Conference teaching sessions plus an overview, Wells gave participants exegetical insights into Ephesians 3:14-21, also allowing time for questions and interaction. Her first teaching session, covering verses 14-18, explored concepts including the fatherhood of God as well as what she called his “radical” inclusivity. She pointed to both Old and New Testament references to God as Father, inviting those who avoid that language to consider returning to it someday, recognizing that the concept of God as Father is much more comprehensive than any earthly father can provide.
“It’s not a gender statement,” Wells said. “It’s an ontological statement. Without the first person of the Trinity, there is no human family.” She urged all parents to derive their identity from Christ alone: “Make sure your kids don’t come to understand what God is like on the basis of what you are like, but the other way around; they understand that your identity comes from God’s identity. … The prototype is God.”
Bishop Wells guides clergy through Ephesians 3:14-21 during the 2022 Diocesan Clergy Conference at Canterbury Conference Center.
Her Tuesday afternoon message explored what she said was Paul’s emphasis in Ephesians 3:17-19 on “going deep with quality,” or as verse 17 says, “being rooted and grounded in love.”
“It turns out that deeper means safer, deeper means stronger, deeper means higher depth; it’s the counter to superficiality,” Wells said. Like a building with a firm foundation or a tree with strong, secure roots, “depth is vital for strength and durability,” she explained, adding that believers are not passive in the process and that the gospel itself is reconciliation.
“When Paul longs that we may know the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ, this is it,” she said. “The reconciling love of Christ is the first word and the last word.”
Wells’ final message, given near the close of the conference on Wednesday, centered on the doxology for this passage, Ephesians 3:20-21. In a world focused on scarcity, Wells said, this section of scripture reveals that “God is a God of abundance.”
She extended a challenge to all clergy to live out that God-given capacity to “imagine beyond what we think is possible,” encouraging them to support one another in pushing outside their comfort zones and giving each other permission to dream.
Wells also emphasized the vast extent of God’s empowering of his servants to do his work, noting that “We can’t say our church or our fellowship is too poor, or too small, or too sad or too confused. Because it’s not about our power or capacity. It is about God’s.”
“Our task is not to rule the world, or even heal the world,” she reminded listeners. “It is Christ who rules, who reconciles, who heals, not us. We’re not God, and we’re not in charge.” The calling for clergy, Wells said, is “to be faithful rather than to be successful” and to keep their eyes on God as they persevere.
View videos of all the conference messages on the diocesan YouTube channel:
Bishop Gregory O. Brewer – Lambeth Report
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Jo Bailey Wells – Overview
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Jo Bailey Wells – Session 1
The Rt. Rev. Dr. Jo Bailey Wells – Session 2