Bishop Scott Mayer preached at the Sunday Eucharist at the spring meeting of the House of Bishops at Camp Allen in the Diocese of Texas. As is the custom, the spring gathering was a retreat for the bishops..
The meeting began Friday, March 11 and ended Tuesday, March 15. It is the first meeting of the bishops chaired by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry since his election at General Convention last summer. During the course of the meeting, the bishops discussed racial reconciliation and evangelism and issued a statement about heated political rhetoric.
The daily briefing on the meeting for Sunday said, “The Episcopal Church bishops as a community have embraced the Lenten spirit of transformation. Bishop Mayer’s sermon focused on the idea of being willing, not to win with Jesus, but do you have what it takes to lose with Jesus – associating with those our world so often dismisses as losers but are really the poor and marginalized. Bishop Mayer’s sermon continued a pattern evident during this retreat time in which bishops have explored the integral relationship of personal-story telling, including of individual brokenness with the church’s call to reconciliation. This, as our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry urges, is evangelism and results in new life. The post-communion song caught the tenor of this time: “O take me as I am, summon out what I shall be.”
Read Bishop Mayer’s sermon at the House of Bishops on March 13, 2016
See a video recap of the meeting here.