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Absalom Jone Service. Photo by Angela James.

“The revolution has begun.”

That’s how Willie Jennings opens his commentary on the Acts of the Apostles. The Holy Spirit begins a revolution of love. 

The Spirit connects us to each other and carries us out into the world. To borrow the words of another scholar, the Spirit calls us to discover a boundless God.

Blessings on the Feast of Pentecost. We continue the tradition we began last year of writing a pastoral letter to the Diocese of New York on this celebration day.

Through the Easter season our Sunday scriptures trace the Spirit’s movement in us and around us — through Acts and the Gospel of John. Today the passage from John offers the gift of the Spirit to the disciples and Acts describes the Spirit poured out on all flesh.

Both movements occur within communities that are beloved and broken, where something is ending and something is beginning at the same time. There is trauma and there is hope. That is the experience of our communities and neighborhoods right now.

Professor Jennings describes the Holy Spirit as the living incarnation of Jesus Christ — and remind us that we cannot contain the Spirit’s presence or work.

He writes that we have limited our imagination of God through our own isolation and attempts to control where the Spirit moves. Exclusion, oppression, and racism are outward and visible signs of our self-imposed scarcity.

The Holy Spirit calls us to discover — and moves us to change.

We practice discovery and change locally within our congregations, chaplaincies, and schools. The Holy Spirit moves at ground level. Together, we are changing as a Diocese.

• We have set Mission Priorities.
• We have restructured the diocesan budget to care for our clergy and support our local communities.
• We have reformed our financial model to be sustainable — and have begun to broaden our resources for mission beyond congregational giving.

We are following a mission strategy that recognizes how the Holy Spirit is moving right now. All at once, congregations are growing, re-imagining, and closing. Since last fall we have outlined six areas where we are organizing renewal together.

We are also exploring trends and scenarios in the wider church and in the world. We have met with leading researchers inside and outside The Episcopal Church. This fall, we will explore how disruptions like artificial intelligence are shaping our world.

Whatever the social trends of the moment, we are always called to join God’s movement inside and outside our churches.

Whatever our own experience of loss and decline, we are called to discover and grow — and to witness to the extraordinary love of God poured out on all flesh, abiding with us always. A boundless God.

God’s story for us now is the renewal of the Church for the healing of the world. 

The revolution has begun. Happy Pentecost.

Grace and Peace,

Latinx Community Dinner.

Here’s how we’re organizing renewal in the Diocese of New York.

Priests’ Retreat.

The most important thing we do is to care for each another.

We are strengthening our pastoral fabric — caring for our clergy as they care for their communities.

• This year we announced a new Clergy Development Fund that will, for the first time, support post-ordination formation for individuals and small groups.

• Through a long-ago gift from St. Matthew’s in Bedford, we are offering expanded support for clergy sabbaticals.

• We have listened to deacons and priests affected by rising gasoline costs and are providing gas cards for pastoral visits.

Cursillo Spring 2023

We are always in formation for God’s mission.

• We are continuing to reform the ordination process for deacons and priests to be caring, clear, equitable, nimble, and Spirit-led. There are now 75 people in the ordination process — more than any other diocese in The Episcopal Church.

• We are committed to provide lay formation resources for congregations, including support for confirmation and reception in English and Spanish and for persons of all abilities as well offering an inclusive-language Daily Office liturgy.

St. Peter’s Chelsea Installation of new rector.

We are learning what it means to re-plant congregations within our neighborhoods.

• We are committed to implement the Moses Commission report on reparations for slavery, including planting a new Black community within the Diocese.

• The Church Planting Task Force is learning from church planters around the country. A team ministry is re-imagining community at All Saints Manhattan. We expect to re-plant communities at St. Augustine’s Manhattan and St. Peter’s Port Chester as well.

• Each of these communities has resources to fund the re-planting. For the first time, we are using Canon 28 — for congregations in strategic settings — to support this initiative.

Christ Church Warwick Building Rededication.

Congregations are growing in every region of the Diocese.

• The College for Congregational Development has engaged 109 of our congregations and more than 200 clergy and lay leaders.

• This year we are piloting a new CCD weekend program and translating the curriculum into Spanish through a $1 million Lilly Endowment grant.

• We are continuing collaborative conversations with leaders in Harlem and the Bronx, and expect to name a Harlem Missioner later this year.

• We are supporting parish collaborations and mergers in Westchester, Dutchess, and Ulster Counties.

Gathering of Canon 29 Administrative Authority members.

The cost of running churches continues to rise — in time and in money. Even our growing congregations are navigating fixed-cost challenges.

• The reformed Common Mission Share means our assessment rate is now the lowest in The Episcopal Church — a commitment to sustainability, fairness, and equity across our communities.

• The Standing Committee has authorized four new regional endowments to fund local ministry in the South Bronx, Yonkers, Dutchess County, and Putnam County. The Reparations Fund receives one percent of all property sales.

• We have launched a Shared Services Task Force to make the basic operations of church life easier for clergy and congregations (Take the survey!) and a Health Care Task Force to maintain strong coverage while reducing costs.

• We are expanding support for local property needs. We will double property grants this year, with new guidelines reflecting current congregational needs expected by July 4.

• The Standing Committee has invoked Canon 29 — the vulnerable parishes canon — ten times in the last two years, appointing Administrative Authorities to help stabilize our most challenged congregations.

Deconsecration of Trinity Church Morrisania.

We grieve with churches that close and celebrate their long faithfulness — and we look toward resurrection and new ministries in those neighborhoods.

• We have closed or deconsecrated nine congregations in the last fifteen months. In Holy Week, we deconsecrated Trinity Morrisania in the South Bronx.

Ash Wednesday Vigil at 26 Federal Plaza.

We witness to God’s grace and join God’s healing in the world.

• We are a sanctuary Diocese. Our congregations welcome everyone — including immigrants — every day.

• Our efforts helped bring Ali, Dylan, and Sarah home from federal detention. The Immigration Legal Fund has is supporting people navigating the immigration process.

• We are speaking out about White Christian nationalism as a heresy.

• We are organizing the diocese for witness and action in the public sphere.