Practicing the Way

Beloved in Christ,

I am spending this week in residence in the Southwest Mission Area. I’ve visited six different congregations, spent time on retreat with clergy, gathered with leaders to learn and dream together, and also had a little time to play and fish along the way. It’s been a gift to have Dean of the South the Very Rev. Cindi Brickson joining me for these visitations. 

The congregations of the southwest, like the majority of congregations in the diocese, are small groups of deeply faithful disciples, sharing their lives together, offering bold witness to God’s wide embrace of love in their communities. The church across time and space has always been most vital when it has consisted primarily of small groups of practicing disciples who are committed to resisting the oppressive forces that surround it. In our own day, any serious attempt to pattern our lives after the teachings of Jesus necessarily means living lives that counter the forces of mass consumerism, distraction, scorn, and systems that privilege the lives and bodies of those at the historic center at the expense of those on the margins. 

In this moment, in our generation, we have a massive opportunity to offer the world—cut by chasmic divisions, where so many live in fear and isolation, and where all the oppressive forces are alive and well—a magnetic vision of Jesus’ better way of liberating love. We can only do this when we are gathering in small communities who practice together, day in and day out, gentleness in a world of scorn, healing in a world of division, silence in a world of noise and distraction, sabbath in a world of ceaseless activity and exploitation. I’m learning and finding renewed strength for this work from the congregations I’m spending time with this week, and I’m reminded again and again of how deeply grateful I am to be walking this way with all of you. 

Grace and Peace,

The Right Reverend Craig Loya