Dear Friends,

As Americans, we hate to wait. Here instantaneous is the desired action, not waiting. We have instant mashed potatoes along with many other packaged foods of which we just add a liquid then put it in our microwaves and voila! We have food to eat. We have fast food restaurants where we don't even get out of our cars. We drive up to a window and someone hands us our meal. We have satellite television on which 'breaking news' no longer means local news, but anywhere around the globe. Even better, we can go to chat rooms and web sites all over the world with a click of the mouse on our computers. Want to talk to someone on the phone? We no longer have to go to a phone, now phones travel with us wherever we go.

So why in the world would any of us want to participate in a season that is all about waiting? We who have become so use to having what we want at our finger tips are called by the Church to slow down and wait. Wait for a baby that was born over 2000 years ago to be born again? Wait to sing Christmas carols? None of this makes any sense in our world where faster is better.

In fact, waiting is usually seen as a sign of incompetence. Whenever we have to stand in line to go to a movie, have our purchases rung up at the cash register, sitting in the waiting room at a doctor's office or in traffic jams; our first thoughts usually are "Why is this taking so long? Someone must not be doing their job right or we wouldn't have to wait." The idea of waiting can actually drive up some people's blood pressure to the point of anger. Where do you think the term 'road rage' got its name?

Being in a hurry all the time can mean that we live our lives at such a rapid pace that we miss out on the most salient meanings of life. For example, most babies take nine months to be ready to be born. A woman doesn't get pregnant in the morning and give birth at noon. No, it takes time for the human body to grow and form into an independent being that no longer needs the protection and nurture of the mother's womb. It also usually takes that long for the parent or parents to get ready to receive a new member into the family. As the commercial says, "A baby changes everything."

For Mary of Nazareth, her baby changed the world. Just think about it. Mary the Mother of God had nine months to prepare for the birth of the Son of God. She had nine months to contemplate the arrival of God literally into her life. Not only that - she had nine months to ponder being the Mother of God and all that would entail. The responsibility of nurturing, teaching, and loving the soon coming Messiah must have weighed heavily on her young mind, while at the same time having to defray the mocks and looks given to unwed mothers in those days.

The sheer fact that a young woman barely in her teens carried the Son of God within her own body and was chosen to be the Mother of God is awesome indeed. How many of us could have gone through what this young Jewish woman did on a daily basis? Yet, scripture tells us that Mary did it gladly! Mary waited upon the Lord and the Lord blessed her. It is Mary's example of waiting that we follow in four weeks, instead of nine months.

This is why Advent for many of us traditionalists is so wonderful, because Advent is all about waiting. It is a time set aside to be still and remember that God is God. It is a time to wait upon the Lord for the revealing of His Son Jesus in the vulnerable form of a baby. It is a time when waiting is looked upon as a good thing. So in this time of waiting, may we who so easily get caught up in the rush of life; take time out to stop and wait upon the Lord. Perhaps He will reveal Himself to us in a deeper way this Advent if we will but be still and know that God is God.

Have a Blessed Advent!

Alice Marcrum+, Rector

Bishop Lipscomb requests release from vows

November 21, 2007 - 

Bishop John B. Lipscomb announced Tuesday his intention to leave the Episcopal Church to join the Roman Catholic Church.

In a letter to the diocese, Lipscomb said he has written to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, asking "to be released from my ordination vows and the obligations and responsibilities of a member of the House of Bishops. I have taken this step in order to be received into the Catholic Church.

"Through a long season of prayer and reflection Marcie and I have come to believe this is the leading of the Holy Spirit and God's call for us for the next chapter of our lives," he wrote.

Lipscomb stepped down Sept. 15 after a decade as bishop of Southwest Florida. Lipscomb told his successor, Bishop Dabney Smith, about his actions Tuesday at a meeting at the diocesan office in Sarasota. "On Tuesday, Bishop Lipscomb informed me of a personal decision he and Marcie have made regarding the expression of their Christian faith," Smith said after the meeting. "I am pleased that he and Marcie have found their place of spiritual solace.

"I value his friendship and wish them well," Bishop Smith said.

--Jim DeLa

Open letter to the diocese from Bishop John Lipscomb

Dear Friends in Christ,

I have communicated to the Presiding Bishop my request to be released from my ordination vows and the obligations and responsibilities of a member of the House of Bishops. I have taken this step in order to be received into the Catholic Church. Through a long season of prayer and reflection Marcie and I have come to believe this is the leading of the Holy Spirit and God's call to us for the next chapter of our lives. We are grateful to our brother in Christ, the Most Rev. Robert N. Lynch, the Bishop of St. Petersburg, for his openness to our request and for his prayerful support.

I was blessed to grow up in a Christian home where I was given the gift of a deep love for the Lord Jesus Christ and a reverence for God's revelation of his love and redemptive purpose in the Word written, as well as the Word made Flesh. I was blessed to be brought into the family of the Episcopal Church 40 years ago. I have a deep love for the sacramental life, most especially the Eucharistic sacrifice through which God continues to pour his grace into our lives in the Word that needs no words.

I will be forever grateful for the opportunities I had to serve this faith community as a deacon and priest. I am most grateful for the opportunity you, the people of the Diocese of Southwest Florida, gave me to serve as your bishop and to participate in the life of the Anglican Communion. You made it possible for me to share in the mission of God that can never be bound by geographical or political barriers.

I believe God is now calling us to continue our ministry to serve in the healing of the visible Body of Christ in the world. I am convinced our Lord's deepest desire is for the unity of the Church.

Marcie and I will never have the words to express to you the depth of our gratitude for the support you gave us during my medical leave and for the joyous celebration of the ministry you allowed us to share with you that brings to a close my ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church. We will pray for the continued health and vitality of the Diocese of Southwest Florida.

The following prayer by Thomas Merton speaks more eloquently than we can find possible at this moment. Marcie and I have experienced an abundance of God's grace throughout our lives, and we continue to trust God in the future, which continues to unfold for us:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

John B. Lipscomb, D.D.

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