"Now you are the Body of Christ and individually members of it."
As I consider the State of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, I believe that over the past year we have lived into this truth and made it our reality. We are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
St. Paul penned these words to the church in Corinth. The church was wracked with controversy on several fronts. First, it divided over theological schools. Some pledged their allegiance to Paul, some to Apollos and some to Peter. Arguments and disputes arose among the factions in the nascent church about whose theology was right and about whom they should be following.
In the face of the controversy, Paul points the church to the Cross.
"For the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being saved it is the power of God."
Over this past year it would have been tempting for us, like the Corinthians, to break ourselves into theological camps and proclaim ourselves to be right when others are wrong, pure when others are tainted, or wiser when others are not. But we did not do this. Instead we chose to live into our differences, listening to each other and working together. We were able to do this because we recognized that what united us was greater than what divided us - the Cross of Christ. Our common belief in Jesus’ salvific work and subsequent resurrection, the acknowledgement that were are all sinners saved by the grace of God, our affirmation that God loved you so much that he sent his son to die for you, put us all in a place where we knew that we needed to treat each other with God’s grace. We did not break into factions but instead chose to gather together – to gather together at the foot of the Cross.
The rest is here-
http://www.episcopalpgh.org/2009-state-of-the-diocese-report/
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