Cate Anthony is a Ministry Fellow, and we all benefit

Reckoning practices: a Ministry Fellowship project

In May, the Rev. Cate Anthony was named an Episcopal Church Foundation 2021 Ministry Fellow. Ministry Fellows are engaged in ministries in their communities or congregations that will change individuals, groups, or communities in positive ways, impacting their ability to see and use God’s gifts, bringing them into a closer relationship with God. The Fellowship includes a generous grant to use in the implementation of a new ministry project in the Fellow’s particular context. Here, Cate describes the work she envisions for her fellowship and the St. Stephen’s community.

By Cate Anthony

A quotation by Irenaeus of Lyon sits beautifully rendered in calligraphy above my desk: “The glory of God is the human person fully alive.” As a young person growing up in a wealthy, predominantly white, suburban American community, I thought that being “fully alive” would be a whole lot of fun. I thought that it meant a great job, a partner, a beautiful apartment, dreams realized and come to fruition as shinily as possible. This is, of course, not the case—as I learn more and more each day, the particular gift and burden of being a human fully alive is that it is actually quite tricky, sometimes exquisitely painful, and that it requires a sacrifice of ease in relationship, with oneself, with community, with God. To be fully alive is to commit to honoring that creaturely life is far more complicated and costly than we can imagine as children, and to tell this truth as honestly as possible while also insisting that the changes and chances which weary us are themselves enriching and generative, if we only are able to look at them straight-on. To be fully alive is to reckon.

And reckoning is, I am discovering, essential to the work of Christian community, where we are called to be fully alive and to help others to do the same, all in the name of Christ’s reconciling love. In a world where it is abundantly clear that unity is a rare commodity, reckoning means an ongoing commitment to remain with one another even as we disagree, even as we experience conflict, even as we cause each other pain. We reckon with our humanity, in relationship, with generosity and the belief that Christ’s redemption is for all (even those with whom we do not agree).

This project is a chance for the St. Stephen’s community to parse out the intricacies of the work of reckoning. St. Stephen’s is truly Anglican in its identity as a broad, big-tent parish–we contain the full spectrum of theological, social, and political thought among our many members. In the long-term, this project intends to create space for folks within the broad tent of St. Stephen’s to converse with one another across lines of difference, talking directly about the tensions within the community rather than speaking around them, and seeking reconciliation across these lines. However, there is a vital first step to this work which we need first to address: learning how to speak honestly and openly about that which is challenging and uncomfortable and which causes us pain. This is the work of reckoning.

Our work begins with the following events: • What needs our reckoning? Community Listening Sessions:

September: 9/16 at 10 a.m., 9/22 at 2 p.m., and 9/28 at 6 p.m.

These will be town-hall/house-meeting style opportunities for folks to name for themselves and to one another what’s on our hearts. • On October 2, the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center (https:// lmpeacecenter.org/) will present a version of its Conflict

Transformation Skills workshop, offering us a shared vocabulary for reckoning practices.

Stay tuned for registration. For more information, please contact me at canthony@ststephensRVA.org.