The Church is God's

by Lisa Hunt

One of the most memorable moments in my ministry as a priest came after a tornado destroyed the nave of the church I serve. The workers were excavating the foundation of the Victorian Gothic structure when they came to the cornerstone which was set in 1892. In the hollowed granite was a metal box. The workers brought me out to the site, and I opened it, my curiosity palpable.

Lovingly placed in this box was a time capsule, a gift for us in our grief, given by the faithful a century earlier. It contained the treasures and identifying artifacts of that first St Ann's congregation. A Book of Common Prayer, the Journal of the Diocese of Tennessee, the Annual of the Episcopal Churchwomen, some Confederate money, and a scroll containing the names of everyone who had given money for the construction of the Church along with the amounts. This is who we are, these items declared. Understand these, and you have a sense of us.

Holding these gifts was overwhelming. The tender foresight of our ancestors comforted us as we deconstructed their and our pride and joy. These tokens also shaped the consciousness of our congregation. We had enjoyed the legacy of their sacrifices and stewardship. Now, sharing their identity, it was our turn to construct in our generation what the future parishioners would enjoy. Ours was a gift for the future of unknown generations. We knew they would come after us.

The Church is not ours. The Church is God's. The People of God have historically built buildings as tools for worship and ministry. These assets are God's, not our own. We are merely dedicating to God that which already belongs to the Creator. Of course, we recognize this as the most basic articulation of Christian stewardship. All that we are and all that we have comes from God's generosity. Our lives and our ministries are our response.

Moreover, while we may think that our life and our buildings belong to us now, in God's economy these resources are fluid. Our identities and property now grow out of the saints who have come before us. Our choices affect the saints who will follow us. All is eternally connected in God's ecojustice.

What are we to make of those in our Church who now clamor for "their" property, claiming that the Episcopal Church is apostate? How are we to understand talk of "amicable divorce" and property settlements, as if courts could create identity or adjudicate that which is God's? There are among us now in the Diocese of Tennessee clergy and laity who claim that if General Convention does not change its ways, they are leaving the Episcopal Church and hinting not so subtly of taking property with them. Conversely, others follow a strategy of driving up their debt and leaving the Diocese holding the bag once they depart from the Body because of "heresy." We are merely aping a secular divorce-ridden culture when we conceive of our common life in such terms.

All of our property belongs to God. We are merely trustees of it in our generation.

A century ago, when the first parishioners of St Ann's put those documents in the time capsule, they saw themselves as continuing a tradition and creating a future. Both the past and the future were grounded in worship and polity -- the Prayer Book and the Diocesan Journal. The tradition of the Church by its institutional structure was maintained into the future. It is no different today.

The Diocese of Tennessee has been able to exercise and expand its mission today because of the sacrifices of our ancestors. It is up to us to maintain and continue that mission for our great grandchildren and for theirs. Through prayer and discipline, we have come thus far. May these treasures sustain us for God's future, especially in the face of those who would break the tradition.

[COVENANT, Number 22, January 2006]

The Revd Lisa Hunt is rector of St Ann's Church, Nashville.