FrankTalk 2024 – Setting our Sea Anchor to Face the Waves
Closing Remarks to the 203rd Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia
The Rt. Rev. Frank S. Logue

“I really believe that God is in our lives. Every day. Every single day. When we walk outside, anything can happen, but if you have faith and believe in God, you’ll be all right.” 

The wisdom that Standing Committee member Toni Blue brings is not that nothing bad will happen, but that with God with us, God will work in and through whatever happens. The Apostle Paul told the Christians in Rome, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” Not that all things are good. That wouldn’t be realistic. It is not that God created the loss of a job, the end of a relationship, or a terminal diagnosis. This wisdom is about how God can take every bad thing that happens and weave it together into something good. Our Triune God is in the redemption business.

We see this in the Acts of the Apostles as in the first seven chapters of this story of what happened to Jesus’ followers after his resurrection we see how they preach with boldness and thousands come to faith. Then as that seventh chapter is ending, the Deacon Stephen is stoned to death. A persecutation breaks out against the Jesus Movement and the community scatters. Then in Acts 8, we see how God uses this tragedy to spread the Gospel. Disciples who would have stayed together in Jerusalem are soon spreading the grace, mercy, and forgiveness they have found to people who would have remained lost and left out if the faith had stayed within that small geographic area.

We don’t believe that God willed that persecution, but God did what God does and used the hatred as an opportunity for more love, as the darkness can never overcome the light. How did they withstand the backlash against their faith in Jesus? They could continue to love others because of the presence and power of the Holy One in their hearts and minds through the power of the Holy Spirit. This was not reserved for the early church alone.

Toni reminding us that “God is in our lives. Every day. Every single day” is the sure and certain knowledge that because of this, it is reasonable and right to pause and despair. You gotta feel your feelings. But then, recall that God is present with you and that is how we move from despair to hope. As I named in my sermon that started us off yesterday, “Despair is what arises in our spirits when we look realistically at this situation but do so without the hope in a God who acts in human history.”

Toni is talking about the hope we can have in a situation that could lead to despair, because we worship a living God who gives us a Living Hope. This image has framed our strategic planning process as we depend not on what we could accomplish through our own might or ingenuity alone. We count on the guidance of the Holy Spirit through whom we can do more than we could ever ask for or imagine. In this process of listening, what I have heard most clearly is the ways in which we long for greater connection and mutual support and many in this room and around the Diocese, are ready to step forward to make that a reality that does not depend on me and my staff alone. The challenges we face are being worked together for the good, so we have sound reasons to be hopeful. 

During my first months as your bishop, Victoria and I spent most mornings walking in Savannah’s cemeteries. This was during the lockdown phase of the pandemic and the graveyards offered for a lovely place to walk without anyone else around as we would arrive at dawn. We would vary which of the beautiful old burial grounds we would walk in and so took in lots of tombstones. 

Hope features on a lot of Victorian markers, often as the word inscribed on an anchor, sometimes just the anchor itself. Like an anchor chain connecting a ship to sea floor, hope connects us to something sure and certain. 

Our hope is not based on something that is passing. Our hope is connected to the eternal as we are grounded in God and rooted in Jesus. But don’t let me mix my metaphors too much. Let’s stay with the anchor. When a storm hits, if you can’t secure your boat in a marina, you have to anchor it or ride the storm out. If the water is shallow, you better drop the anchor off the bow to prevent drifting into rocks or out to sea. But I believe we are in deep waters and there is another way and that is the image I want to offer for what we are doing in this coming year. Deploying a sea anchor off the bow can be the best way for a smaller craft to weather a storm. Rather than the solid anchor found on Victorian graves, a sea anchor looks like a parachute.

This sea anchor stops the craft from drifting downwind. The sea anchor keeps the bow pointing windward, facing the waves head on. The reason this image speaks to me is that it shows that we are not being blown about by the winds of the culture or doing what the open water equivalent is of an ostrich burying its head. A sea anchor offers real stability, keeping a boat from being tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind. Anchored to the sea itself, the boat is not pushed off course, but turned into the storm in what could otherwise be an overcoming sea, we can not only endure, but in the words of the hymn Joyful, Joyful, we can experience the “Wellspring of the joy of living,​ ocean-depth of happy rest​.”

As a Diocese, we do see the challenges we face and we will face them head on. We want to look directly at the problems in sustainability that have plagued Honey Creek since the pandemic, some of which came, of course, long before. We need to consider the challenges facing congregations of every size as we are all experiencing the impact of the loss of generations of parishioners who gave generously to their church. For some, this has meant fewer priests on a staff, when that support is still very much needed by the congregation. For others, it means difficulty having a full-time priest, or finding a priest who can serve part-time, or not currently having a priest who routinely serves the congregation.

As I have said before, from my vantage point, I see that we do face serious threats to business as usual, yet I also see that there is no existential threat to our church. The threat is to the church we became in the boom years following the Second World War. In 1925, 35 priests served the 60 congregations of the Diocese of Georgia, which by that point had the same boundary with the Diocese of Atlanta to the north for 18 years, so this was the same size Diocese. Bishop F.F. Reese reported that year that the 414 confirmations were the most in a year since the state was divided into two dioceses in 1907. 35 priests for 60 congregations was considered to be a priest for every church as the norm was lay led Morning Prayer for many congregations on most Sundays. I am not saying that is exactly where we are headed, but I want to point out that when we had fewer clergy by far serving fewer congregations, this Diocese had the sense that we were thriving, because we were. Lives were being changed for the better by the Gospel of Jesus Christ from Augusta and Albany to Brunswick and Savannah. They were also being transformed by the presence of the living God in Sandersville and Cordele, Quitman and St. Marys.

We have a living hope in a risen savior. We need not manage decline as there are ways we can do more. We have seen that in the church’s in Augusta. When the vestry of Christ Church in the Harrisburg voted to close, we could see the vital ministry still ongoing in that place and we kept the doors open and have birthed the Byllesby Center there, named for Deaconess Ruth Byllesby who ministered there for years. We are doing more there than ever. In Glynn County, our congregations formed Glynn Episcopal Ministries that has more impact as they work together for the good. And in Savannah, St. John’s Church reached out to other congregations as they are starting a respite ministry for care givers, Hope Haven, as that is also something we can do better together than as a single parish. So the new Episcopal Center that will house the diocesan offices while ministry continues alongside us is following that lead. There is more than we can do when we work together.

And the great news within our strategic planning process is how you want to bring more of the gifts God has given you to enrich the life of this community. I see this process as unlocking untapped potential already present in our midst. This is not about working harder. That is not the Gospel. This is about sharing the load. When more of us bring what we can joyfully offer, we will find that God can, does, and will bless what we bring to bear and will do more than we could ask for or imagine. This is not making something happen by our own might or power, but through the Spirit of the living God. 

So, we can face the challenges we see head on knowing that God has not brought us this far to leave us. Whatever causes us to despair, when we tap into the certainty that God can, does, and will show up, we have a reason to hope. We set our anchor not on the sea floor, but on the sea itself, knowing that God is with us, guiding us. We need not fear as the one who could calm the storm is with us. Even more than that, the one who walked upon the waters is with us. We don’t have to shrink back, managing decline. The one who the cosmos could not contain is with us, our transcendent God is with us, and neighbors still need to experience the joy that we have found in Jesus. 

This convention has been so helpful for me. This job is, of course, a blast. Victoria and I get so much joy from crisscrossing backroads to get to worship with you, which makes it all the more wonderful to be able to be together in this way. As you go back to your congregation, please let them know that we are being realistic, and the reason we are not in despair about all we see, is because we are anchored to the sea itself, facing what comes knowing that the Spirit of the living God is working all things together for the good.

Amen.