Annual Convention Address See, I Make All Things New The Rt. Rev. Dabney T. Smith, Fifth Bishop October 16, 2021 53rd Annual Convention The following is a transcript of Bishop Dabney Smith’s Annual Convention Address at the 53rd Annual Convention of the Diocese of Southwest Florida. For 2021, the diocese met virtually at DaySpring Episcopal Center, with congregations attending via Zoom.
G
ood morning my brothers and sisters in Christ in the Diocese of Southwest Florida. I am sorry that we are not assembled together in a great hall for our 53rd convention. Due to the wide variety of logistics involved, planning for a diocesan convention takes months, not weeks. When the renting of a convention center is involved, it is done a year or two in advance, and when the uncertainties of the Coronavirus are added in, holy guesswork becomes part of the work of the Diocesan Council. Our desire is to maintain the safety of our people and to perform the necessary work of the required annual convention. So, here we are again thanking God for technology. We pray, we smile, we Zoom. It is probably not the most important action that I perform and I am certain that no one really even considers it. Most years, though, when it comes to the early stages of Diocesan Convention planning this question comes up, “What is this year’s convention theme?” I noted a couple of conventions ago that it seems to be a modern approach to give a diocesan convention a marketing theme and yet, that is what we do. Over the past 15 years we have considered: Live in the Spirit, Honor Our Tradition~Build for the Future~Mercy in Mission, The Five Marks of Mission, Walk in Love, Come, Holy Spirit, Christ is Made the Sure Foundation, We Have This Treasure, Transformed by Reconciliation, You are the Light of the World. For me, this is a wonderful trip down memory lane. For this 53rd Diocesan Convention I put forward a handful of ideas, and the one that the planning committee galvanized around was God’s statement in the Revelation to John in the 21st chapter, “See, I make all things new.” It is a statement of authority, of plan, of power, of purpose, of promise. I must admit that the more I thought about it the more perplexed I became as I considered this passage as a convention theme, “See, I make all things new.” Perplexed because I have graduated to senior status as a human being, as a bishop, and as the current diocesan bishop and because the new bishop… the next one is coming. The new things are in the next generation. And yet, “See, I make all things new” is not about me or even us. Praise and thank God! Contextually, this Biblical statement is based upon the vision of the Seer seeing a new Heaven and a new Earth, for the old had passed away and the voice from the throne declared, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more.” And then the one seated on the throne said, “See, I make all things new.” There is no question as to why this remains a favorite text of Holy Scripture for funeral liturgies. And yet in the Bible it is not a funeral liturgy. It is a statement of Hope for Christians who are living. And the Hope is discovered here as God goes on, “It is done! I
232
Annual Convention
