Facing Challenges

Beloved in Christ,

I spent most of the day yesterday visiting the cathedral in Faribault. I had lunch and conversation with the congregation, celebrated Eucharist with them, got a tour of some of the repairs they are working on, and attended the community meal they have been serving on Tuesday evenings for many years now. 

In the midst of a busy day, I took a few minutes, as I always do when I’m there, to sit quietly and pray in the crypt where Bishop Whipple is buried. I like to sit and feel the presence, not just of our first bishop, but all those disciples, known and unknown, who have worked, prayed, struggled, worried, cried, rejoiced, and grieved to shape the diocese we all know and love today. 

Bishop Whipple, and all of the early Minnesota Episcopalians, lived at a time when the state and the nation were deeply divided by conflict across lines of difference, and where the church faced, at best, a challenging and uncertain future. They were far from perfect. They met the challenges of their days as best and as faithfully as they could, given the limitations of history and human brokenness both they and we live with.  

I like to sit in that crypt and remember that, in the midst of all the challenges our nation, our church, and our world face in this moment, we’ve been here before. God’s people have, over and over again, faced uncertain futures in challenging days, and over and over again that God is faithful. 

We are, at our very best, broken lights refracting imperfectly the perfect light of God’s love. As we endeavor to be as faithful to the way of Jesus as best as we can, it is helpful to look to our past, not with a naive nostalgia, but drawing strength from the example of how our ancestors met the almighty power of God in their own day. We look to the past to feed on its wisdom and repent of its shortcomings, knowing there’s a whole host of the church triumphant walking with us, cheering us on, until we are all joined perfectly in God’s one light. 

Grace and Peace,

The Right Reverend Craig Loya