Reflections for the New Year: Real People. Real Hope. Real Life.

When Bishop Bainbridge called me eight years ago and asked me to consider joining the board of Episcopal Relief & Development, I could not have been more pleased.

When any of us signs on as a new bishop, we understand that part of the deal means pitching in to do our part to support the work of various committees, commissions and organizations that serve the wider Church. But the opportunity to contribute in some small way to the work of Episcopal Relief & Development struck me as something more than simply “doing my part.” It seemed more like a calling that was deeply connected to my own heart – that innate desire, which I believe is actually hard-wired into every human heart, simply to give ourselves away, to serve others in ways that give life and bring hope to this world.

That’s the work of Episcopal Relief & Development. Think about it – food, clean water, health care, economic development, done well, done thoughtfully, engaged responsibly, all of it accomplished through the amazing partnership that we share with our sisters and brothers in Christ around the world.

Real people. Real need. Real opportunity. Real relationships. Real hope. Real life.

The fact is that the work of Episcopal Relief & Development is a great treasure of our Church – not simply because of what “we” do for “others” but even more significantly by virtue of what this work does for us.

It is simply too easy for those of us who live with the privilege, the power, and the wealth that is ours – even as faithful and committed Church people – to allow ourselves to be carried along by the inertia of our lives. In spite of our best intentions, efforts, and aspirations, it is just all too easy to be lulled into a kind of complacency and indifference to the suffering of our world by our own routines and concerns. You know how it goes. One day follows another. The pattern is set. Everything looks familiar. It is all quite ordinary and unremarkable. The pattern repeats itself, and if we are not careful, without even realizing it, there we are again – sleep walking through life.

If we really want to see and know and experience the presence of the Christ among us – Emmanuel, God-With-Us – then we have no choice. If we wish to bring new hope into this world during this New Year, then we have no choice. We must wake up. We must open our eyes. We must look. We must pay attention.

As I complete my term chairing the board of Episcopal Relief & Development, I find that I am grateful beyond measure for the ways in which this work has opened my eyes and has continued to crack open my heart. I have been so inspired by the many people I have met during the past eight years – lay and ordained, men and women, of different languages, different races, different cultures, in Africa, Central America, the Caribbean and Asia. These, our sisters and brothers, bear witness to the true love that is God under circumstances we cannot begin to imagine, and with a faithfulness, a commitment and a courage that we would all do well to receive.

What a gift. Real people. Real need. Real opportunity. Real relationship. Real hope. Real life – for us

Would that every member of every congregation in every diocese of The Episcopal Church would come to know about, and find ways to become engaged in, and be transformed by this work, our collective treasure.

Wouldn’t that be a great 75th Anniversary Present to us all?

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The Rt. Rev Robert O’Neill is the 10th Bishop of the Diocese of Colorado.

 

 

 

Images: Photos from Episcopal Relief & Development programs around the world including the Philippines, Kenya, Burma-Myanmar and Ghana.