Greeting Brothers--I have included a letter in this email that I have shared with my rector at Grace Episcopal in Georgetown last week. I initially wrote this letter as a result of our Austin Assembly meeting this past November. I felt called to do this and I wanted to share my thoughts and call to service that our assembly rector had challenged us. The letter speaks to our role and our calling in our local parishes and in our daily life. I hope that my thoughts will be of some benefit to you as you provide leadership to your parish rectors and Brotherhood Chapters. Yours in Christ. Roy Benavides
December 23, 2010
LETTER TO ALL MEN OF GRACE—Thoughts of a Brother of St. Andrew
Recently, a man in our parish asked me if you had to attend Brotherhood of St. Andrew meetings to be a member of the Brotherhood. At first, I thought selfishly that “yes,” you should but then I recalled a comment by a BStA member at another chapter that said “they wanted men that were willing to be “Brother” like and active in the mission and disciplines of the Brotherhood.” These disciplines are the discipline of Pray, Study, and Service. Think about this comment for just a moment while I share the following narrative.
We now understand that membership in church organizations was an expectation in the 60’s but it is not so today. In addition, our rector has indicated during several sermons that we, as Episcopalians, are but one or two decades away from extinction because we are not leaving a religious (Episcopal) legacy to our children. Added to this, we know that the vast numbers of our communities are “unchurched.” Yet, we are certain that we are predominately a nation of Christianity? We are in name and association perhaps but are we in daily practice? Then I get messages from friends that we should worry about this religion and that religion because they are extreme and they are radical—just what are we going to do about this wave to “take us over?” I started to wonder how all this this fits into our Brotherhood mission of Evangelism? How do we reach out and how do we really need to talk and do about the E word? How do we leave a legacy and a church to our child that is relevant?
I recently attended an area assembly sponsored by the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. The conversation, discussions and over-all tone during the assembly was honest, thoughtful and focused around the sharing of how each chapter was doing out-reach and ministries. In the mist of this back and forth conversation a rector attending our assembly suggested that the issue was really one of RELEVANCE… What is this organization’s Relevance to the congregation and relevance to you? It was about my RELEVANCE as an individual’s practice of the disciplines of prayer, service, and study…. relevance to evangelism or inviting others to be part of our Christian Community of Episcopalians. It was our RELEVANCE to our community a group of Christian Men. Relevance to many people today includes forums involving social media, sharing, and doing something meaningful—making things better. In my view the activity must be relevant to them and they will only give us permission to be part of their very busy worlds when the issue or organization is relevant to their lives regardless of what we now believe.
As a personal journey, my success in these areas of relevance has not been stellar and is usually conflicted with feelings of shortcomings and denial. It is a battle to maintain a focus on my disciplines and like all of us I can certainly use the support to be a more Christ like person. Yes, in my day-to-day actions. I have been to Cursillo and I have a Rule of Life and I am involved in as many church programs and ministries that I can work into my schedule but I am not really relevant to the success of Grace and our legacy. That will be the dilemma until I consider what I have recently done and what the disciplines of service, prayer, and study mean to me…
As a man of Grace Episcopal Church, it is important that I measure my discipline not just by intentions but I must nurture daily my discipline of prayer—so that I pray daily for others needs and for myself. It is also imperative that I take the time to invite others to pray, that I witness this prayer life to others and that I take courage in leading others in prayer…Prayer is not a weakness or shameful characteristic of man—it is a call to God’s commission. I find in my Brotherhood activity and life that I gain peace by this discipline of prayer. I suggest that this is and should be an easier task for all men if we devote our lives to the service of God daily.
Relevant—what are the men of our church doing to assist the congregation in our ministries of service? How am I meeting the call to make our church better for the youth and young adults of this parish? These daunting issues make me more aware that to become relevant we have to do more for the leadership of this parish and we have to provide the support and strength to become relevant—to be instrumental in the success of our congregation…
As a Brother of St. Andrew and a man of Grace Episcopal Church, I want to support our Rector and our Parish. We, as Brothers, must reach out to other men and invite them to serve, to pray, and to study…No you don’t have to attend meetings but you realize the benefits of serving others in our church and in our community.
I listened to the rector addressing the Assembly and realized that I was practicing a religion of convenience and not one of service. What does it mean to serve and how can we as brothers proceed in this service, prayer, and study…it begins with a realization that our obligation is to invite, recruit, and induct men into service for the greater glory of Christ. That rector challenged that if we wanted to grow spiritually, we should proceed with our agendas of service, prayer, and study in an inclusive way. The first step as I recall from this conversation was one of simply asking our Rector, our Clergy, what can we do to serve our local institution…. Grace Episcopal Church? Then, Brothers, we serve and as we serve…the rest of the disciplines will come easily.
Yours in Christ,
Roy C. Benavides
