The evening before her investiture as 26th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori gathered with bishops and spouses in St. Alban’s Church in the shadow of the National Cathedral for Evening Prayer.

It was a quiet time, a time to contemplate the next day’s events, and to pray with and for one another.

The preacher for the service was Curtis Almquist, the Superior of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, often a chaplain for the House of Bishops. His text was the New Testament reading from Revelation 13:1-10, which talks about the “dragon”, identified earlier as “the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world” (12:). He reminded us that dragons are a part of our lore, an example being St. George, the patron saint of England, who did battle with a scary and fierce dragon to save a young maiden.

He also reminded us that dragons are still among us, fierce and scary creatures intimately engaged in our own lives, past and future. The dragons of the past are those things of which we are ashamed, which are unresolved, old defensive habits and patterns growing out of fear and shame that paralyze us and keep us from moving into the future. The dragons of the future are those things we encounter along the journey of life that rush toward us, seeking to bring our journey to a standstill, seeking to fill us with fear so that we will turn away from the goal or turn back to a past that we erroneously think will relieve our fears and provide us safety in the midst of a very scary world. Certainly that is what the Devil and Satan are about, seeking to keep us from becoming what
God wills for us by filling us with fear, by scaring us into maintaining the status quo rather than completing our journey to the Kingdom of God.

As I listened to the preacher in the silence of the moment, I could not help but think of our journey together in this diocese. Particularly I thought about our conversation regarding Paradise Point at our recent Diocesan Convention. Dragons from our past were beckoning us to do nothing or to work harder at doing the same thing we have always done. And dragons from our future were rushing at us trying to scare us into inaction, tempting us to turn aside and abandon God’s future in the safety of doing nothing.

The preacher’s message for the bishops gathered on that late afternoon was that while we do have dragons from our past that bid us stop in our tracks out of fear or shame, nothing has the power to stop us moving into God’s future except our own fear. And not one of the dragons charging out of our future can stop us from getting where God wills us to be – except our own fear. He reminded the bishops gathered, and he reminds us, that we are surrounded by God’s love in
all things, in all places, at all times. As St. Paul writes in the 8th chapter of his Letter to the Romans, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (vs. 35) “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (vvs. 37- 3) – nothing, nothing, nothing! We took a bold step at our convention regarding Paradise Point. And I am convinced that all will be well as we seek to determine together how we will use this great resource to further the ministry of our diocese. In passing the resolution about Paradise Point we walked away from the dragons of our past that sought to hold us in place. It was not an easy decision, nor was it without anxiety. And in gathering for conversation on December th at Ascension Church, Twin Falls, we can together face the dragons of the future that will seek to turn us back or bring us to a standstill. But by God’s Grace we will find our way forward together.

I look forward to the journey with all of you. In our corporate efforts to develop our plans and move into the future the dragons that surround us do not look so scary to me. Thanks for sharing the journey.