"Thank You for Supporting the Mission in the Dominican Republic"

I want to say thank you for the wonderful retirement celebration on the eve of the Electing Convention, and for the money that was collected for the mission work in the Dominican Republic – $8,500. This money will be used for the building of San Simon Church and School – a mission project we share with the Episcopal Dioceses of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan (click here to go to the D.R.E.A.M. website).

I’ve seen in some of our own communications that the San Simón mission is described as being located in “a suburb of Puerto Plata called San Marcos.”

To describe it as a suburb doesn’t do it justice. The people there are very poor. The church they’re using now is a small cinder block garage that they’ve converted. The area is a pocket of extreme poverty, and the church and school that’s being build will provide a better education for the children than the Dominican Republic schools can. 

All the children will be required to study English. The church and school will serve as a hurricane shelter that will be sturdy against the inevitable winds and floods that come each year.

The main thing I want to say about the electing convention is that I trust the work of the Holy Spirit as the People of God gather in community to worship, pray and vote. I trust that the Holy Spirit is already at work forming Bishop-elect Hougland and the Diocese of Western Michigan, and that great contributions to the kingdom of God are waiting to unfold as Bishop and Diocese work together.

Saturday at the convention, I could watch the movement of the Spirit, as the votes began to change. 

It is now time for me to decrease my presence with you, and for Bishop-elect Hougland to increase as he prepares to lead the diocese into the waiting future. You have elected well.

I talked to him on the phone late Saturday afternoon and offered my prayers and my support, as well as my assistance in any way that will help benefit him in the transition.


I’m happy to begin to welcome Whayne and Dana Hougland to the Diocese of Western Michigan because I am sure there are great things in store, and I look forward to watching them unfold.

Bishop's Book Recommendation:Wisdom from the Monastery: a Program of Spiritual Healing, by Peter Sewald

My Prayer for the Electing Convention

I’ve heard from several people who attended the Walkabouts last weekend say that they were taken aback by the quality of the candidates for ninth bishop of the Diocese of Western Michigan. Some of them said they had gone in thinking they knew which candidate would get their vote, only to leave with their mind changed, or not sure anymore! This is good. It says that many of you are open to hearing and weighing … and open to the kind of discernment that is paying attention to the movement of the Holy Spirit.

My prayer is that everyone will do the same, to discern what this diocese needs, what the Church’s mission needs, rather than what is wanted.


The Catechism in the Book of Common Prayer reminds us of the mission of the Church:

“The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” Also, “the Church pursues its mission as it prays and worships, proclaims the Gospel, and promotes justice, peace and love.” (p. 855)

So, the church needs the vision, resources and people to accomplish the mission. The work of the electing convention has already begun and will be fulfilled on May 18th when the bishop who will lead you more fully into this mission is elected. The work, which has already begun, is the work of Scripture study, prayer and listening to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

As Christian community, we are called to be in the world but not of the world. The world’s values are not shared by the Church. In fact, what we value is often in direct opposition to what the world (secular society) values. The most emotionally- and spiritually-mature among us are able to distinguish between these two opposing sets of values. They are able to sacrifice wants for needs, individual good for common good, ego for the humility of following a poor and enlightened Messiah. As we mature in our faith and spiritual life, self-interest fades away. We begin to see more clearly God’s plan – God’s will. In short, we can see beyond ourselves.

You may have read about my swimming pool analogy in a previous blog post, where I said that a church is like a swimming pool. All the noise is at the shallow end. It’s where you will find an abundance of self-interest, inflated ego, secular politics, and all the values that go with these. I believe that as a Church, we need to be in the deep end of the pool, which is a more challenging place to be. It’s a place where we find the maturity and depth to which God constantly invites us.

It is my intention not take part in the voting May 18th. This is your decision about the mission of the Church and the future of the diocese. My prayer is that all will be in mature discernment before and during the election process.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And you will renew the face of the earth. Amen.

The Rt. Rev. Robert R. Gepert, VIII, Western Michigan

Bishop's Book Recommendation:"Falling Up" by Richard Rohr

"Introducing Sister Linda-Susan and Sister Diane"

My last confirmation service was Saturday, April 27th. The liturgy was just glorious and worshipful – it felt like a glimpse of what the kingdom can be like. We had a very mature group of people who were making promises they intend to keep. It wasn’t about making ceremonial promises – the stuff you stand up and say because it’s written in the book. It felt like the promises were being made from the heart. I commend the clergy of the diocese for sending a mature class of people, and for continuing to help people in the work of making mature commitments, which I know they will do.

We confirmed people. We received people from other denominations, while others reaffirmed their baptismal vows.

Also that day, we received the sisters of the Emmaus Community and Monastery into the Episcopal Church from the Roman Catholic Church.
Sisters Linda-Susan and Diane were received into the church, and took their vows as well. I know many people in the congregation that day had questions about the only sisters in the Episcopal Church in Michigan. Sister Linda-Susan has written an eloquent essay about their journey.

– The Rt. Rev. Robert R. Gepert, VIII, Western Michigan


A History of the Emmaus Community

Sr. Diane Stier and I met in 1979 at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.  I was an English professor and she was completing her doctorate in developmental psychology.  Both of us were planning on entering contemplative monasteries and were introduced to one another by the Carmelite Monastery of Indianapolis, Indiana, where Diane planned to enter.  I was headed to another Carmelite house.  The Indianapolis nuns were so taken by the “coincidence” of two women – both bound for the cloistered life – sharing the same space that they suggested we come together for prayer and daily Mass, which we did.  As time passed, the novice mistress of the Indianapolis Carmel came to believe that there was more than happenstance in our shared vocations.  Sr. Joanne suggested to us individually that God might be calling us to find a way to live contemplative life outside the walls.  When that idea was seconded by two other nuns, independently of Sr. Joanne or one another, we knew providence was in process, though our reactions were like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: broken hearts and excruciating disappointment.  Each of us had felt called to the convent from very early years – Diane at the age of 12 and me at the age of 8.  What were we supposed to do with such long years of vocational discernment and the request to reconfigure how to live as contemplatives-in-the-world without the structural support of established tradition?  There was no blueprint and we were completely at the mercy of God.

Thus began Emmaus Monastery while we were still resident in South Bend.  We discerned each component of what this new community might look like with prayerful and direct advice from the Carmelites in Indianapolis.  We thought that the community would need a religious rule with the flexibility for the experiment ahead and decided on the Rule of Saint Benedict.  Then Emmaus needed to find its home on a farm in a small, rural community.  Neither of us had financial resources for the purchase (or lease) of farm property – and bit-by-bit providence made money available to us through loans from family and friends so that we could make a down payment on a 40-acre farm in Vestaburg, Michigan.  I was offered a teaching position at Michigan State University to help support the new endeavor and we asked the Diocese of Grand Rapids to assist us in moving toward our goal of becoming a monastic community.

It took 17 years for us to work through the necessary processes to become a private community with judicial person and a canonical part of the Diocese of Grand Rapids.  In all that time we made first vows, with permission, in April 1983.  We made the Benedictine vows of stability, conversion of life, and obedience for three years according to the Rule of Saint Benedict and the Constitution of the Emmaus Community. Shortly thereafter we began an Associates Program for “lay contemplatives” who felt called to live contemplative lives in the world.  In 1987 we made permanent vows, with permission, promising to be faithful to contemplative prayer and to the fruit of that prayer lived out in service in unusual settings, focused particularly on those outside the usual reach of church ministry.  As members of Emmaus we were particularly attuned to the workings of the God of the unexpected, the Stranger of the Emmaus account in Luke’s telling.  For Sr. Diane, that unusual location was the state bureaucracy where she serves as a licensing consultant for adult foster care homes.  Her responsibility is to protect the needs of the vulnerable adults who live in such circumstances.  For me, that location was the world of higher education, particularly in the privileged sector of elite liberal arts colleges. I have been an English professor at Bryn Mawr College for 20 years now, going back and forth between the College and the monastery such that I spend about half the year in one place and half in the other.  Sr. Diane has been a consultant for about the same time during which she survived the challenge of two breast cancers and two mastectomies.

With the help of two very generous Episcopalian benefactors, we were able to add to the original acreage about 15 years ago so that Emmaus Monastery (click here for map) is an 80-acre complex with a convent (called Marcella), two guest houses – one cottage and a second 3-bedroom home (Bartimaeus and Elizabeth), and a 3-bedroom hermitage.  People come to Emmaus for retreats, days of recollection, workshops, reading groups, prayer groups, and parish meetings.  We have always wanted our facilities to be available in the spirit of Benedictine hospitality and have never charged fees for use of the property, but accepted donations and stipends.  We have lived in this way in the corner of Montcalm County for 30 years during which we have helped support ourselves as music ministers for the two nearby Roman Catholic parishes, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque and Saint Bernadette of Lourdes.  I have also participated in training as a spiritual director and I offer the directed retreats for individuals and groups.

Our discernment to seek a home in the Episcopal communion has been a long eight-year process set in motion by a number of factors: the silencing of conversation about women’s ordination, the responses to the pedophilia scandal, the Catholic Church’s teachings about birth control and homosexuality, and the gradual erasure of the liturgical, ecclesial, and spirituality changes wrought by Vatican II.   Sr. Diane has felt a lifetime call to priestly ministry and she was able to function pastorally in our area for 30 years in her roles as chaplain and president of Hospice and in the request by area families, churched and unchurched, to help them through the dying, death, and bereavement processes.  Just as a dying patient was about to make a confession, however, after an intimate conversation with Sr. Diane, however, she would have to stop the exchange and find a sacramental minister who could actually perform the sacrament of reconciliation.  This was often a disruption of the trust established, especially if the priest available was a stranger.  Such encounters reminded her of her own call to priesthood and the final irrevocable teaching that women’s ordination was as serious a moral evil as pedophilia.

We remained convinced of our monastic calls and sought guidance from a number of sources (including long term spiritual guides and directors) about a new home where we would be able to continue our sacramental theology and our liturgical lives while opening up spaces for the free exchange of ideas, for honest and respectful dissent, and for growth in the Spirit.  Sr. Diane also hoped to test her vocation as a priest.  Never in our lives had we imagined making the journey from Rome to Canterbury, but we found ourselves increasingly in a crisis of conscience about following the call of the Spirit in the straightened circumstances of an increasingly silencing and repressive ecclesiology.  We discovered a way to become more “catholic” by attaching ourselves to another part of the Christian communion, one that could be home, familiar, and welcoming of the gifts of soul and intellect God had given us.

We have been very discrete about the journey from Rome to Canterbury because it is not our intention to make any commentary on our Roman Catholic inheritance.  We also wish to be deeply respectful of those who disagree with this phase of our Emmaus “on the road” movement or who feel betrayed or wounded by our departure.  We make this journey in faith and in trust and we carry in our hearts all those relationships of the past 30 years.  We are praying that, in time, any ruptures experienced by those heartbroken, as were the first Emmaus disciples, will experience resurrection healing.

– Sr. Linda-Susan Beard, EC

My Last Annual Convention

The EDWM’s 139th Convention is upon us – my last annual convention as your bishop.

When you know you’re leaving, you begin to note all the events that are last events. As I look around me at these last events, I see so many friendly and supportive faces – people I will miss. Believe it or not, I will actually miss additional conventions.

At the same time, I’m looking forward to the lasts, because there’s something calling me for the future.

On Saturday at convention, I will elaborate a little bit about what the diocese has done for me, how it has changed me, and how it has been a part of my formation and development.

Even though these are the final months of my episcopacy, they are greeted with expectation and hope for the future, not just for me, but for the diocese.

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone this weekend, and hearing Margaret Marcuson’s presentation. Like me, she was a student of the great Edwin Friedman. She speaks and writes on leadership and works with faith leaders across the nation. She is both the leading Diocesan Formation Day at the Dominican Conference Center on Friday, and is our keynote speaker at the convention on Saturday. She is the author of Leaders Who Last: Sustaining Yourself and Your Ministry.

With the business of the 139th convention behind us by the end of the day Saturday, I, like many of you, look toward the Special Electing Convention to follow on May 18th, where a choice about the future of the diocese will be in the hands of the delegates elected by all the parishes in the diocese.

My hope is that it will be a spiritual event, with careful discernment about selecting your new leader, your new bishop, based on needs rather than wants, thinking and praying about how the church in western Michigan can move solidly into future mission.

I think we are on a solid ground to be able to do that.

The schedule for that day will begin with a Mass of the Holy Spirit in which our prayers and hymns will focus on awareness of the Holy Spirit within us and among us
.
The electing convention will be structured in such a way that we will continue in both silent and public prayer, calling upon the Holy Spirit to help us select the person God would want as bishop in this diocese.
We will trust the decision we are making is the decision prompted by the Holy Spirit.

The Mass of the Holy Spirit will include a confession by the bishop and absolution from the people, and a confession by the people with absolution from the bishop.

The end of the Mass of the Holy Spirit will include a symbolic and liturgical ending of my episcopacy (even though I am fully aware that I have Episcopal duties that need to continue). I really want the focus of the electing convention to be on welcoming your bishop-elect, not additional good-byes to me.

The night before electing convention is a retirement celebration with hors d’oeuvres where Anne and I will greet people at 7:00 p.m. at Grace Church in Grand Rapids. In lieu of gifts, we have requested that donations be made to the Michigan tri-diocesan Dominican mission project, for the building of San Simon church and school.

The Rt. Rev. Robert R. Gepert, VIII, Western Michigan

"Knowing resurrection: God's redemption in our own lives"

March 29, 2013 At 64 years old, I’m still figuring out the living words of our liturgy and scripture. It speaks something different to me at 64 than it did at 32.

Last Saturday, the diocese hosted Spirituality Day in Newaygo, and I had the opportunity to go deeper into my own understanding of the resurrection as I listened to Marilee Roth’s presentation on the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. She asked us to ponder the meaning of the Memorial Acclamation “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.” She asked, “Why do we say Christ will come again?”

The new insight that I found was that Christ comes in the bread and wine, and in the community gathered, again and again.  Whenever we gather as Christian community we are the Body of Christ.  As the Body of Christ we are part of that Memorial Acclamation.

  People are often afraid to ask questions about resurrection. They shouldn’t be. I believe the most important question is how do we see resurrection in our own lives, in what ways have we suffered, in what ways have we died, and in what ways have we been raised to new life?

As a priest, I’ve had the sacred privilege of being with dying people who see their relatives. My own grandmother said to me on her deathbed, “There’s Grandpap by the window.” My grandfather – her husband – had been dead for years.

I stupidly said to her, “Where?” And she looked at me like are you nuts, he’s right there! She said, “There he is by the window.”

John Shea, one of my favorite theologians, says death is the way that we join those who have gone before us and resurrection is the ability to be present everywhere at all times.

I love the resurrection because it means Jesus is present everywhere, for all people, at all times.

I say often that the only thing we have to preach is death and resurrection, and God’s redeeming power. We all experience resurrection when we’re able to connect our story with THE STORY, and we’re able to see God’s redemption at work in our own lives. We begin to understand that God has turned something disastrous into something that provides new life.  That is THE STORY of the gospels and OUR STORY as well.

Understanding the ways in which OUR STORY can be overlaid on THE STORY and how THE STORY can be overlaid on OUR STORY, we are able to become gospel witnesses. We can then talk about how we use our experiences, and our knowledge of what God has done for us in our darkest hours, to bring hope to others who have yet to know God’s redeeming power.
At Spirituality Day last Saturday, we talked a lot about connecting OUR STORY to THE STORY.

When you’re older, you think more about your life because you’re closer to your death. When I look back on my life, I see how I was prepared for just about everything. I recalled my own experience at the Spirituality Retreat when I told the students that being the oldest and only boy in my family, with five years distance between me and my oldest sister, actually prepared me for the task of being a single dad to girls, even though I remembered my mother telling me “a man can’t raise children.”

Things happen in life, and later we can see how life prepared us, however uncomfortably.

I have also known people who bleed their whole lives, unable to accept the gifts of healing and new life, perhaps because no one has witnessed to them that new life follows suffering and death – perhaps no one has taken the time to help them connect their story to THE STORY.

In Holy Week, we get to see the courage and the serenity of Jesus, as an example for our Christian life. When we exhibit courage and serenity, it’s infectious.

Again, I ask how do you see resurrection in your own life, in what ways have you suffered, in what ways have you died, and in what ways have you been resurrected to new life?

When we connect OUR STORY with THE STORY, our faith is strengthened.  And it’s so much easier to move on in life, after experiencing difficulty and despair, knowing that new life awaits and will unfold for us.

On the Sunday of the Resurrection we celebrate that Jesus joined those who had gone before, – that Jesus is risen and present to all at all times and in all places, -  and that Jesus will be present with you as you gather with Christian community.  We celebrate all this with the hope that it is the same for you and me.  Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.  And to that we add a joyful, Alleluia, Alleluia!

Below are some comments from students at the Bishop’s Spirituality Day:
“I was impacted by the discussion as well as the comfort of being around fellow Episcopalian people.  Since I am being received, I was able to be surrounded with my new spiritual family and to participate in conversation with them.  I felt blessed to be there with them.  In addition, I was impacted by the Stations of the Cross activity as well as the new knowledge of resources for daily prayer.  I think one of the most lovely experiences for me, however, was the Lighting Ceremony.  It was very peaceful and full of meaning.  It was wonderful to watch others light their candles and to light my own candle as well.  What a wonderful day!” Angie Leuchtmann
“I have been Episcopalian from birth - baptized and confirmed - and am now a candidate for reaffirmation. If I had to pick one thing I came away with, it is the information given to us about Daily Office. We learned many different ways to access Daily Office, as well as how to navigate it. The reason this is significant to me is because the tradition in which worship is accessible everyday now. Devotions and contemplative prayer are now the supplements as opposed to the daily prayer for me.” – Scott Leuchtmann

Recommended Reading:
The Dishonest Church by Jack Good

A very happy Easter to you from the Bishop’s staff at the Episcopal Center!
The Rt. Rev. Robert R. Gepert, VIII, Western Michigan
The Rev. Canon William J. Spaid
Mary McGuire
Molly Ettwein
Genevieve Callard
Tammy Mazure
Cathy Rhodes
The Rev. Karen McDonald
Karmel Puzzuoli

Understanding the Church's Dark Night: A Reflection on Owens and Robinson

At the last Province V Bishop’s Meeting, the Rt. Rev. Todd Ousley, Bishop of Eastern Michigan, shared an article he obtained from the ecumenical magazine The Christian Century. The article, titled “Dark Night of the Church,” by L. Roger Owens and Anthony B. Robinson, expressed my own beliefs so well that it became the inspiration for my presentation for Leadership Days in Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Traverse City.

Owens and Robinson compare the message of the poem “The Dark Night of the Soul,” written by the monk St. John of the Cross in the 16th century, with the current declines in the church. They ask, “Is there a dark night of the church? Are we experiencing it? Is God at work wrenching our alluring memories of social prominence and significance from our minds, ripping dreams of fame and fortune from our imaginations?”

The Episcopal Church was once characterized as a church of status, with a disproportionate number of members with wealth or political position. Even President Gerald Ford was a member of Grace Church in Grand Rapids.  The elaborate buildings and stained glass windows in our churches point to a time of past affluence. Prominent figures, such as Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Thurgood Marshall were Episcopalians. But the question that Owens and Robinson ask, however, is whether the trappings of prominence, significance and affluence have separated us from God and the mission of the Church? 

In my travels around the diocese, I’ve been to churches in which I’m the youngest person there. That doesn’t bode well for the community of faith! High numbers of aging members is one piece of the “lexicon of decline” identified by Owens and Robinson, in addition to an absence of young adults, financial crises and a rise in conflict in our congregations – all of which I have seen myself.

But St. John of the Cross said in “Dark Night of the Soul” that we should rejoice, even as he sat locked in the monastery basement for accusing his brothers of not honoring their promises to the Benedictine rule of life.

St. John of the Cross identified the Dark Night we experience in our lives as the journey our soul takes from its bodily home to its union with God in love.

Think about your own dark night, a time in your life when you were confused, scared, and there was chaos all around you.  You wondered how you would make it through.

But at the end of your dark night, you got a new life. That new life may not have been better or worse, but it was different. You now think differently than you did before that dark night.

Jesus too had a dark night. First there was a betrayal, then the passion, crucifixion and death. But after, there was new life. Telling that good news is, if anything, our primary responsibility – to help people understand that suffering and death happen, but the end result is new life. It happens over and over again in the journey toward the end of our own mortal lives.

Because we are an individualistic society, we often mistake the purpose of the church to be for our comfort. I once asked the junior warden of one of our downtown churches where she envisioned their church in five years’ time.

Her response? “Everything has changed,” she said. “I want things back the way they were.”

A leader in another church asked me what they could do about their decline. He said, “We need more members because we need seven more pledging units to make our budget.”

Further, churches have conflict over detaching from buildings, music programs, altars, the Prayer Book – things external to Christian community. But I agree with Owens and Robinson; God is doing something in the midst of that anxiety.

“The church is relearning that its essence lies not in its programs and accomplishments, its activities and accolades,” write Owens and Robinson, “but in the truth that ‘she on earth hath union with God the Three in One,’ and that God is enough.”

Most of you know Anne and I will move to Lancaster, Pennsylvania upon my retirement this summer. Lancaster is known for its Amish community, so I’ve become somewhat enamored of the Amish and have been reading a book called The Amish Way.

I’ve learned that the Amish worship for up to three hours every other Sunday. They own no church buildings, but instead worship at each other’s homes where they gather as many as 200 people at a time to hear the Gospel, pray and sing. While some people do join the Amish faith, their goal is not to convert people to the Amish way, but to live into the teachings of Jesus, particularly those set forth in the Sermon on the Mount.

Our church cannot remain the same because God’s mission is not being accomplished. There are way more important things than the building, the bell, or the $3 million organ.

On page 855 of the Book of Common Prayer, we are told: “The mission of the Church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.”

Our denomination is getting smaller, and I don’t think it’s a bad thing. God is speaking to us through the decline, and if the result of that is a deeper commitment to the mission of God, that is a cause to rejoice.

After his dark night, locked in the basement of the monastery, St. John of the Cross reformed the Carmelite order. After his dark  night, Jesus rose from the tomb. What will the church be after its own dark night?

It will rise to new life, become more committed and live into its promise to reconcile people to each other and to God.


– The Rt. Rev. Robert R. Gepert, VIII, Western Michigan.

Bishop's Presentation on the Dark Night of the Church

"Believing Everyone Deserves Dignity, Respect, and Has the Love of God"

In this week's blog, we wanted to highlight one of our most successful ministries as a diocese, our health ministry. The reason it has been such a success can be directly attributed to Deacon Karen McDonald. Karen really embraces what it means to be a deacon. She is not afraid to go into places where others don’t feel safe, which is most often with the very poor and the mentally disabled.

Karen is a shining example of how a deacon can bring the kingdom into existence, not because of what she does as an individual, but because she calls others into action. She has a cadre of lay people who help with blood pressure checks, foot care clinics, exercise classes and vegetable gardens on behalf of the poor. She also empowers the poor who live in low-income apartments and homeless shelters to organize and advocate for their own well-being.

Karen is not assigned to a parish but to a ministry. Ideally, I’d like to see a health ministry in a city of every deanery of our diocese. It’s a successful ministry because it frees us to work with a broader population, both in terms of who we serve, but who we call to serve alongside us. The following is an article about Karen’s ministry by our communications assistant, Karmel Puzzuoli.

The Rev. Karen McDonald, deacon for health ministries, comes into the EDWM offices, sits down at her telephone, and hastily begins making calls.

“Would you be interested in donating flats of tomatoes for our vegetable garden?” she asks someone. “Can you bring your sphygmomanometer for our blood pressure clinic? We just have the one, and I think I need another one” she implores in her second call. Before she takes a breath, she makes another call. “Can the doctor call me back? I’m trying to find a podiatrist who will donate services to a homeless individual.”

These are just some of the things Karen does before we have a chance to say hello.

Karen is EDWM’s deacon for health ministries. It comes naturally to her, ingrained in her since she was a child worrying about the well-being of her elderly neighbors or young friends who lived on the poorer side of her hometown of Buchanan. Nevertheless, becoming a deacon and answering the call to serve has been an uphill battle.

Raised in a time when women were expected to limit their goals to motherhood and domestic life, Karen struggled with restlessness and anxiety. Her husband Jim asked her why she wasn't content as a wife and a mother, but she found it difficult to express why staying home with her children wasn't enough for her. She loved her family, but also wanted more. Many things outside the home called to her.

“My own mother never worked her whole life – her world revolved around her family . . . and knitting and sewing and cooking. But I didn’t enjoy those things, except for cooking,” she said.

While her children were young, Karen worked off and on in nursing jobs or in public health. When the demands of home life forced her to leave a job, she often did her ministry “in the closet,” taking cookies and food to struggling families, buying mattresses for children who had no bed, even when it caused friction in her marriage.

In the early 1990s, Karen became a care manager for people who had HIV/AIDS, in a time when fear over the transmission of the virus still persisted, and HIV-positive and AIDS patients experienced a great deal of marginalization in society. She even lost friends over it.

“That’s when I realized I could have great compassion for people,” she said. “When gay men would tell me their stories, I realized they just needed a listening ear, someone who would help them access the services and care they needed. I guess I found I could be an advocate for people. I learned ways to navigate the system for funds, medication, and the help of infectious disease doctors. It wasn’t a chore for me. I enjoyed it. It helped to make someone else’s life better.”
Karen first heard the call to become a deacon in the 1990s. She was ordained in 2001, and began serving at St. Mark’s in Paw Paw. She later served at St. Barnabas in Portage. In February 2010 she was assigned to the diocesan health ministry, and started working in the EDWM offices regularly in January 2011. She has been married to her husband Jim for 52 years, and they have three grown children. Jim has struggled with dementia for years, and Karen balances her time between her health ministry, family, and advocating for Jim’s needs in the nursing home, which now includes hospice care.
Karen’s health ministry work includes regular clinics at the Skyrise apartment building, which houses low-income elderly and disabled residents. She organizes blood pressure checks, foot care clinics, exercise classes that strengthen and reduce the risk of falls, public safety presentations, healthy-eating (on a budget) classes, and a vegetable-garden in pots for residents during the summer.

“Even though the people at Skyrise have some health insurance, like Medicare or Medicaid, they still have difficulty getting into the system in appropriate ways,” she said. “They still think that going to the emergency room is a good way to get care, but they need to see their doctor regularly. Sometimes they just need someone to ask them if they’re seeing their doctor or taking their medication, someone who cares.”
Karen also arranges foot care clinics she calls “Foot Spas” at a drop-in daytime shelter for the homeless called Ministry With Community.

“It’s wonderful to watch Karen and her nurse volunteers help the people at Ministry With Community,” said Anne Gepert, a regular volunteer there. “I was moved when I watched these three nurses helping with calluses, toenails, and massaging lotion into feet that walk the streets all day. I think you have to be a caring person to do that.”

In addition, Karen’s work includes service on the board of directors of the United Interfaith Free Healthcare Clinic, which will with God’s grace open soon in Kalamazoo, providing free care to the uninsured and underinsured. She serves on the board of InterAct of Michigan, an organization helping and advocating for the mentally disabled and those suffering from substance abuse. And she is also a trained facilitator of The Living Compass spirituality program, which promotes a spiritual approach to healthy living. (Some of our parishes participate in The Living Compass). She also facilitates PATH (Personal Action Toward Health) classes for the underserved, which teach vulnerable people how to take responsibility for their health and set goals for themselves. Karen maintains contact regularly with a spiritual director.

If you are interested in learning the ways you or your parish can serve the poor and disenfranchised in your community through a health ministry, email Karen by clicking here now, or call her at the EDWM offices at (269) 381-2710.

Recommended Reading by the Rev. Karen McDonald
The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully by Joan Chittister

– Robert R. Gepert, VIII, Western Michigan

"Listening to EDWM Clergy on the Future of the Church, the Benedictine Way"

In St. Benedict's Rule, Benedict tells us that in the monastery, there is a constant search for truth. The abbot or prioress is to listen to all members of the community, open their hearts, and to allow others to share their perspectives on the things that affect the community.

In particular, Benedict refers to the youngest members, i.e. newest members, of the monastic community as those through whom the Holy Spirit often speaks.

In my presentation at Leadership Days, which was last week in Kalamazoo and will next be at St. Mark’s in Grand Rapids on February 23rd, I talk about the “dark night of the church,” and how our attachment to the external things is a liability to the church’s future.

As an illustration, I used the example of an elderly woman in my first parish. Miss Majorie had a strong attachment to the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. She found worship to be difficult without it. Every Sunday morning, I came to the church to find all the 1928 prayer books back in the pews after I had put them away. Did she worship God? Or the prayer book?

We develop patterns in our lives. I have the same morning routine every day. I get up, stumble out of bed, and go to the kitchen to start the coffee that I have set up the night before. I take my shower while the coffee is brewing. After my shower, I read the news. I do this just about every day.

Churches also develop habitual patterns. Congregations believe they cannot function as a community of faith without stained glass windows, expensive music programs and their historic buildings. But as I outlined in my presentation, which I will continue to develop for the next two Leadership Day workshops in Grand Rapids and Traverse City, none of these things are essential to the mission of the church, which is to proclaim the gospel and work toward the reconciliation of all people to God and each other.

As the church continues to deal with losses in membership (30% since 1960) and losses in revenue ($23 million less in the 2010-2012 than the 2007-2009 triennium), conversations on our future as a denomination persist.

In the tradition of the Benedictine monastery, we asked some of our clergy who are either newly-ordained or have come to this diocese from other places in the nation or world, to share their advice for the future of the church:

• The Rev. Brian Coleman, St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Battle Creek
Churches should provide more opportunities and tools to help individuals engage in deep relationships. This is what people are missing in the world and the church can offer a context where the vulnerability necessary for such relationships can be affirmed and supported. The church should be faithful to its heritage, i.e., liturgical worship, catholic faith, piety without being a slave to convention. The church can be a place for creativity, informality, having fun, taking risks– all within the context of structure and stability. Building extra-denominational alliances and networks around social justice is also a good direction for the church.

• The Rev. Carlton Kelly, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Dowagiac
I hear and feel from others a great deal of anxiety about the future of the church.  One of the foundations of my spiritual life has been from the book of Job: "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord."  This hasn't come from any particular revelation but rather is the result of a difficult childhood in an alcoholic household, becoming an alcoholic and, blessedly, being in recovery, all with the dawning realization as I grow older that God is always God, is always good, and will never, ever leave us. "Lo I am with you always..."  There is nothing we have to fear.  I think that too many evangelism schemes and programs, broadly understood, are born out of institutional desperation and a desire for maintenance.  Instead of looking at this time of declining numbers as perhaps, just perhaps, a gift from the good Lord to be opened carefully and viewed intently, we seem to have gotten caught up in a good deal of self-pity. Everything, even the church, needs pruning, from time to time, to promote healthy growth. We need to be willing to examine everything we do in the light of the Gospel.
 
• The Rev. Aaron Evans, Trinity Episcopal Church, Grand Ledge
To me, The Episcopal Church seems stuck in the late 20th century.  For many in the current church, society and the church changed dramatically during that time.  We need to reflect on how much of that change was good and consider the possibility that we threw the baby out with the bathwater during that time of liturgical, theological, political, and structural change.  Perhaps, we could consider the possibility that moving forward means first going back to reclaim some of things that were left behind. I don't know what the church of the future will look like.  TEC and all mainline denominations appear to be having an identity crisis.  The United States, like Europe and Canada, is gradually becoming more secular and skeptical of religious claims.  As this happens, conservative churches will become centers of countercultural rebellion against the dominant secular culture.  Where does that leave more liberal churches who are in many ways as skeptical of traditional Christianity's truth claims as the nonreligious? What is our reason for existence? What meaning does our more liberal theology have for the never-churched?

• The Rev. Daniel Richards, Grace Episcopal Church, Traverse City
The future of the church is in her beginning.  We are to obey Christ and make disciples, not members. We have to get back to the core of our discipleship as a community:  worship, formation, proclamation.  Episcopalians are formed by the reformed lay monastic dream of Cramner, a people shaped by Daily Office and weekly Eucharist, Book of Common Prayer and Bible.  From the core, you can head out into medieval liturgies or evangelical outreach, but we have to put money, time, and structure back into the center.  We are going to close a lot of churches if we keep trying to reform the church through her butlers instead of forming her children.   Follow Christ and the rest will follow.

• The Rev. Mike Wernick, Holy Cross, Kentwood
I would advise the church to promote itself as a national resource for biblical scholarship and scriptural authority, to do truth-telling, and talk in a lively way about how this relates to the political and other concerns facing Americans and humanity today.  We need to talk about the connections between accountability and community, use quantum physics to show our interconnections, and shift the focus from "right and wrong and good and bad" to one about consequences for us and future generations. Internally, in the church, we must prepare and promote more fluid and meaningful liturgical forms that speak to us about timeless values in modern language, demystify the liturgy, and help clergy be spiritual leaders and not CEOs. I think the church needs to take a lead in integrating technology and protecting the environment, foster Community Supported Agriculture and sustainable neighborhoods, as well as support groups of cohorts in doing what they're good at (for ministry and fellowship), and integrating these groups to do the Gospel.

• The Rev. Jared C. Cramer, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Grand Haven
The church as a whole, I believe, needs to continue a conversation about the purpose of our existence. We need to open ourselves to  the problems of the older Christendom model while still grieving the gifts of that model that are going away. Her leaders need to focus on careful listening that moves into a spiritual leadership that expresses the voice of the Spirit as articulated in the community.  I think the future of the church is that TEC will hit a bottom in membership and then it will begin to turn around. I believe TEC of the future will have moved pasts the arguments regarding inclusion and social justice and towards deeper question of the spiritual life and how that can form and transform community.

• The Rev. Anne Schnaare, Trinity Episcopal Church, Marshall
I see the future of the church as continuing to evolve.  We will discern what among the new things (internet, culture on-the-go, the changing family unit, etc.)  are to be absorbed and adapted for the Glory of God, and what foundational things (the Creeds, Scripture, etc.) are to be brought along as the church is brought into the future (and some would say the present!)  Like the transformation of the Winter Solstice into Christmas, some foreign things will be transformed as they become new treasures.  Other things will be jettisoned, as we realize that they are cultural trappings that are no longer benefiting the Gospel Mission.  I really like what Vincent Donovan’s book Christianity Rediscovered has to say on this point.

• The Rev. Nurya Parish, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Grand Rapids
The church exists to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and, through grace, to be transformed by the Holy Spirit into the likeness of Christ. These core purposes of the church will never change: we are here solely and always to serve God's mission in God's world. But so much has changed in the 21st century that to be faithful to God's call, we have to change too. We have to use new media to share the gospel. We have to develop new faith communities, and rethink existing ones, to reach those who need to know God. Most importantly, we have to recognize that our central work is teaching people the purpose of their existence, and leading them into deeply meaningful lives. The church of the future will be focused on making disciples, and will use every effective method to do so, or it will be no church at all.

• The Rev. Bonnie Edwards, St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, Portage
The future of our church centers on the unique gift that we have among us:  the transformative power that Christian community offers. As we encounter God's grace and love among us, we are changed into something new. New people among us and new situations offer ways to experience and embrace those changes. We then take that good to our wider community which in turn will draw more people to our unique gift.


– Robert R. Gepert, VIII, Western Michigan

"Lent: A Time to Listen to God's Voice"

February 8, 2013
When I was a first grader at St. Boniface Catholic School, I had a part in the Ash Wednesday school play. A small group of us performed in all of the classrooms in the building. I played the part of a candy bar, with a group of others called “The Temptations.” My line was to say, “Pick me! Pick me!” As temptations, we represented the things that pious people were instructed to avoid for Lent.

It’s clear to me now that giving up candy bars during Lent is fine for children, but as we grow and mature in our faith, Lent becomes an opportunity to hear again how God would have us live and what God would have us do.  If we have drifted away from awareness of God’s moment to moment presence with us,  if we no longer enter into intentional silence in order to recognize God’s plan and our role in it, then Lent is an opportunity for us to return to the love which surpasses all understanding so that we may love others in return.

Earlier this week in my morning meditation on a reading from the Book of Isaiah, God reminded me, as he was reminding the Israelites, that outward displays of piety are empty and meaningless unless we are in right relationship with God,  understanding God’s will.  We are instructed

    …to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke.

… to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

Consider this as you think about what you would like Lent to be like for you.

Just like the first week in January when the otherwise-empty exercise room in my apartment building is suddenly filled, Lent can sometimes be a time of trivial commitments which wear off quickly. It is meant to be a time to remember God’s presence, and to consider what we can do to support God’s kingdom in the world.

Fasting and prayer as spiritual disciplines play a role. When we notice our hunger, we are meant to notice our hunger for deep relationship with God and others.  When we are at prayer, we are meant to be mindful of the presence of God, alert and listening for God’s voice urging us to be Divine instruments in the world.

In order to experience the true joy of The Resurrection, we must walk with Jesus toward his death.  It requires our openness to God and our presence in the Community of Faith.  May your Lent be holy and may the Feast of the Resurrection find you growing in your knowledge and love of God.

– Robert R. Gepert, VIII, Western Michigan

People Elected to Diocesan Offices Must Care for the Larger Church

It's no secret that Episcopalians love their parishes. We take great pride in the sanctuaries we maintain and occupy. But as Episcopalians, we are part of a larger church, unified by our commitment to Christ’s mission to bring God’s kingdom to earth. In that sense, there is no Grace Church or St. Augustine’s or Church of the Mediator. We are Christians, simply, who are participants in Christ’s Church.

Many of you will have your annual meetings in the coming month, and in electing your fellow parishioners to positions in the diocese – including delegates to diocesan convention, Standing Committee, and deputies to the General Convention and Province V Synod – I ask that you nominate and elect people who would most likely have a commitment to the larger church. Elect people who have a vision beyond the local parish and a mission which pools our financial and people resources, making us truly the Body of Christ healing a broken world in desperate need of being reconciled to God and to one another.

It is also with a mind toward the arrival of the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Western Michigan that this is important. The newly elected will be able to join the already good lay and clergy leadership serving this diocese and the larger church well.

The new bishop will arrive to find a team of people who will work with, not against, him/her. When individuals in leadership positions bring their own local agendas or serve in order to grind an ax, they are unable to hear the new plan or see the new path laid out before them.

By identifying the best people possible from the vast number of talented individuals already working and serving in our parishes, and inviting them to serve on the diocesan, Province, and The Episcopal Church level, you will be giving your new bishop one of the best gifts possible - a great start to the ministry of oversight (the bishop’s role) and relationship-building in the diocese and beyond. Consider electing people who have never served before. While electing experienced people is important for continuity, it does not give others the opportunity to experience church in a different way and it denies the church the gifts and fresh vision they bring. We need some of each.

A few years ago your Diocesan Council and I compiled a list identifying some of the characteristics the people you elect to diocesan positions should have. (To read it, click here now). Please share or post this list in your parish.

We elect people to diocesan positions to be stewards for the welfare of the whole diocese. They are people who get along well with others, and are concerned for the common good, rather than the needs and wants of their own parish.

All of this is best accomplished when parishes take the time to discern the gifts that exist within their community of faith and then invite those with the appropriate gifts to serve. Just asking who wants volunteer does not accomplish the same results. It requires prayer and observation as well as discussion and invitation. It is a gift your new bishop deserves.

– Robert R. Gepert, VIII, Western Michigan

An Open Letter to my Successor

Dear Successor:

As I approach the end of my episcopacy and as the Diocese of Western Michigan moves toward the electing convention on May 18, 2013, I want to assure you of my support and intention to make as healthy a leadership transition as possible.  I am publishing this letter to you now, before I even know who you are, because I believe with all my heart that the Holy Spirit is at work in our process and that you are the person God has chosen to call here to lead this diocesan community into future mission and ministry for the sake of God’s kingdom.  I only hope that I have laid a sufficient foundation to enable you and the people here to soar to new and exciting highs in proclaiming and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Episcopalians.

Historically, we have not always made the best leadership transitions possible.  It is for this reason and because I have grown to love this diocese that I make the following pledge to you:

•  I will not hang around.  I believe leaders must leave in order for successors to be able to fully claim their leadership.  To that end I will be moving to Pennsylvania.
• After leaving, I will not enter the diocese for any reason without notifying you and gaining your permission, per the canons of The Episcopal Church. 
•  I will review with you current and past cases involving clergy discipline and the progress of parishes with a plan for restoring congregational health.
• I will honestly answer any and all questions you may have with the goal of being as transparent as possible concerning all aspects of diocesan life.
• I will not tolerate any whining or griping or negative talk which may come my way, because it undermines leadership and poisons good work.
•  Following your election, I will see to it that my role in the diocese becomes smaller so that your leadership can begin to grow.
•  I will be present at your consecration liturgy, and it will be my great honor to give you the diocesan crozier, as well as the Prayer Book that our first bishop, Bishop Gillespie, used and left for all of his successors.
• I will make myself available to you at any time following your consecration should you want any additional information.
• As a way of preparing for your episcopacy, I will initiate clergy conversations regarding their role in relationship to you as their bishop.  I will do the same with the people of the diocese as we gather for our annual “Leadership Days” and with staff at our weekly meetings.
• I will hold you before God in prayer each day as I have already begun doing.

I am looking forward to meeting you and welcoming you as you begin your ministry of oversight in Western Michigan.  I know that God has great things in store for you and the diocesan community.  

Sincerely,

Robert R. Gepert

VIII, Western Michigan