As we gather together for the 211th Convention of the Diocese of South Carolina, in the midst of both extraordinary opportunities for the mission of the Gospel and extraordinary threats both within and outside the Church, I am led again and again to the concluding words of the Gospel for the first Sunday in Lent:

"And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time."

Jesus works in the midst of a battlefield. Satan opposes him from the first, and by the gift of the Holy Spirit Jesus triumphs.

The key to the devil's temptations is that they were promises of good gifts, not lust or greed or some dirty thing. The second temptation of Satan was to offer Jesus power. Power is a good thing, isn't it? Look what we can do with it. Look how we can straighten things out. We can do noble things and save the Church. We admire power, we have contempt for leaders who are powerless. Isn't that why we have resolutions about issues at church conventions? If power politics works in Congress, why not to further the Gospel by the same means? We may actually believe that we can find the truth in majority votes.

Michael Ramsey in his book The Gospel and the Catholic Church writes as follows: "The relevance of the Church of the Apostles consisted not in the provision of outward peace for the nations, nor in any direct removal of social distress, not yet in any outward beauty of the church itself, but in pointing to the death of Jesus the Messiah, and to the deeper issues of sin and judgment--sin in which the Christians had shared, and judgment under which they stood togther with the rest of mankind."

We want to ignore God's judgment on us all. We want to ignore the hard work of forgiveness, reconciliation, and self-emptying that create a climate that is prerequisite to all graceful dealing with issues. Satan offered Jesus all the power one could want, power over every kingdom in the world. Jesus refused and replied, "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve." Jesus healed the ear of the servant of the High Priest cut off by one of his disciples, and then after his trial, he rejected all coercive power and mounted the arms of the cross for you and me and the sins of the whole world. God is glorified by that act and in his cross and resurrection all death is routed, and a new power is unleashed in the battleground between the world's way and God's way--the power of the cross.

I experienced that truth in a deeper way on February 10th. After celebrating the eucharist at St. Philip's Chapel, Voorhees College, on Absalom Jones Day, I was sitting in the bishop's chair while several of the clergy were administering the sacrament to the congregation. I was singing along with the choir and congregation. Several of the hymns were from the alternative hymnal Lift Every Voice. As we sang along I was suddenly struck by the ethos of the hymns, different from most of the hymns in the 1982 Hymnal, possibly with the exception of hymns for Lent and Holy Week. The hymns were about suffering, and pain, and travail. They spoke of a faithful burden that resolutely stood up to social and political oppression. They expressed the belief that God would vindicate those who suffer: sufferers who did not inflict pain and suffering on others in retaliation, who did not try to control the world but who simply by God's grace walked the way of the cross, the way of nonviolent civil disobedience, knowing that God once wrought victory through the cross on Calvary, he would also transform and redeem their suffering in his way, in his time. That meant that for many the vindication would come only to their grandchildren and great-grandchildren but that they themselves would not taste it. As Christians, they like the saints and martyrs before them were content by God's grace to be faithful and to leave God in charge. They were blessed to be a part of his purposes even though, for them, what they cherished and hoped for would not be their lot.

I thought of the letter I had received the day before from a reader of the Anglican Digest from Virginia who had written me to say, "Because of the hurt I have received at my Episcopal church I used to attend and the current state of the church, I am no longer active. I have become so disillusioned that I have become a Buddhist." I had immediately penned him a note: "Dear Friend, please know that I will add you and your hurts to my daily prayers. My prayer is that one day you will find Christ again, as he is always searching and seeking you. You might reflect on his embracing the pain of the cross for you and me and be thankful that he did not go in the direction of disillusionment and abandon us."

Likewise, I thought about any number of people who have said to me, "What is the line in the sand at which point I will leave the church?" That question is like a pre-nuptial agreement to our baptism. When I was a parish priest, I would not marry people with pre-nuptial agreements unless they signed them after the ceremony. If they could not trust each other that much, the marriage was already compromised. So too with discipleship that draws imaginary lines in the sand which alter our commitments of discipleship so that we can then abandon them. We live in a culture of divorce where individuality reigns supreme and we easily abandon our covenants when we feel like it. Those words of the hymns "King of My Life" and "Blessed Absalom" were ringing in my ear that Saturday morning:

King of my life I crown thee now, Thine shall the glory be; Lest I forget thy thorn crowned brow. Lead me to Calvary. Show me the tomb where thou wast laid. Tenderly mourned and wept; Angels in robes of light arrayed guarded whilst Thou slept. Let me, like Mary, through the gloom, Come with a gift to thee; Show me now the empty tomb; Lead me to Calvary. May I be willing Lord to bear daily my cross for thee; Even thy cup of grief to share--Thou hast born all for me. (Chorus): Lest I forget Gethsemane, Lest I forget thine agony Lest I forget thy love for me, lead me to Calvary. (Blessed Absalom, v. 1 and 7) Born in bondage, born in shackles, born stripped of all dignity, Absalom Jones was bounded, determined, that he would one day be free. Blessed Absalom, leads us, guides us, in the bonds of unity. Praise to Christ the Liberator, Praise Creator ever blest; Praise the Spirit, source of comfort north to south and east to west Blessed Absalom, priest, exemplar, in God's bosom now at rest.

In a predominantly white American church, we have no history of suffering. We only know how to win--to outvote each other to settle issues, to hire lawyers and go to court. We have immense resources, and we seem determined to use them to prevail, believing that God's will is served, even though the scripture warns us to the contrary.

We in the Episcopal Church look like the American Christianity described in Philip D. Kenneson's book, Life on the Vine. He writes of Christianity in America, "The church in the United States is seriously ill. The church has allowed its life and ministry to be shaped by dominant culture. This approach is wrong-headed because American culture bears so little resemblance to the reign of God inaugurated in Jesus Christ. Therefore mimicking its values and attitudes has the practical effect of inhibiting the witness of the Church because it has forgotten its true mission--to bear the fruit of the spirit as testimony to God's continued presence and work in the world." "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control" (Galatians 5:22).

The scripture tells us that the Devil is the father of lies. He wants us to believe that evil is about to prevail and that we need to withdraw into our righteous ghettos, and then we and God will be safe. I don't believe it for a minute. I am, however, not naive about the problems we face in the church today. The Anglican Communion itself is involved in our dispute, and the primates meeting in Kanuga have engaged this dispute this very week. I am absolutely convinced that as the cross was transformed by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God's truth will prevail in our troubles. You and I in this diocese only need to stand resolutely with clarity where we are called to stand and to be as faithful as we can, subject to God's connection, and know that in the end God will prevail. I don't expect to see it, I only know it. But let me be clear about where I stand on the issues so troubling our church today: I stand now where for eleven years I have stood and there is no change. For reiteration you have available a two-page sheet containing quotations from my every convention address and which in detail have spoken to all the pressing issues. Bishop Skilton embraces these positions, and we believe that these positions clearly are those of the people of this diocese.

As I have just stated, I do not know how in the end God will prevail. I may not even like the answer. I use Athanasius as an example. Athanasius himself was exiled from Alexandria five times and did not live to see the vindication of the Nicene Creed finally settled in his lifetime. In the end, God vindicated his struggles.

With various struggles in the church notwithstanding, in contrast let me hold up for you some blessings that God has bestowed upon us. In our twelfth year together I believe that the Diocese of South Carolina is stronger than it has ever been in our whole history. The net disposable income in our congregations for the year 2001 is over 21.6 million dollars, having been 9.2 million when we started together. A high percentage of our congregations not only support world mission, but are sending teams of young people, adults, doctors, nurses, dentists for hands-on mission to care for others and to be blessed by their witness as well. Our partnership with the Dominican Republic is growing ever stronger and making a real difference. Over seventy percent of our congregations have completed, are beginning, or are about to begin significant programs of capital expansion. We have 32 full time youth workers, eight part time, and three congregations are searching for youth workers. Our youth and our congregations have been greatly blessed by this ministry.

While there is significant growth and expansion all over the diocese, I want to hold up the Orangeburg Deanery for you as an example of significant fruits of the Spirit. It is our smallest deanery and should be our weakest. It has only one large congregation, the Church of the Redeemer, Orangeburg. But the Spirit is moving there. Most of the congregations are in rural areas, yet significant witness has been made on racial issues. For instance, Redeemer and St. Paul's in Orangeburg and St. Matthew's, Fort Motte have a common Lenten program and have been able to cross barriers long in place in both worship and fellowship. St. Matthew's, Fort Motte is planning to expand their parish hall, attendance has increased dramatically, and their budget has reached $95,000. They tithe to the diocese, thereby doubling their support of the diocese and enabling us to invest in other congregations. John Scott and the congregation at Epiphany, Eutawville have been leaders in establishing Fishers of Men, an organization of black and white laymen in that area who fellowship, pray, and share a meal together on a regular basis.

The congregation in Eutawville is a witness in numerous ways to the power of the Holy Spirit to enliven and transform. In December we dedicated a new Mission Center connected to the historic church building. It was called a Mission Center rather than a parish hall, in keeping with the heritage of the church, since the church itself was not consecrated for one hundred years so that it could be used by all in the community as a place of worship and mission. This small congregation raised over $100,000 and the diocese contributed $75,000. A Baptist family in Santee gave property worth slightly over $100,000 and the congregation was content to borrow the remaining $40,000. The week before the dedication, an Episcopalian from out of state came to Eutawville to bury his mother and was so impressed with what he saw, he wrote them a check for the remaining debt. The Holy Spirit blessed faithful risk and we can all see the miracle. We blessed a debt free building which at the beginning seemed a remote possibility.

There is an exciting new life in Holy Apostles', Barnwell. They have recently completed a capital funds campaign to build a new parish hall connected to the old church and then to completely restore Holy Apostles' church itself, which is one of the beautiful carpenter gothic churches in the diocese. They have raised $300,000 which is the fruit of a new life and vitality in this congregation. In response the diocese is contributing $150,000 over three years from the diocesan budget and from Builders for Christ for this project.

In St. Matthias', Summerton we have purchased a beautiful and spacious new rectory. This congregation and vestry have rallied around the leadership of their vicar, Keith Burns, and have made decisions about issues in the congregation that will insure an even brighter future. With renewed energy in Kingstree and St. Stephen we have been able to hire a secretary for the vicar, Jamie Stutler, and to free him to make disciples who make disciples. The clergy of this deanery make it a priority to worship, pray, and fellowship together. Their ministries and their congregations are blessed.

I praise God that what I have said of the Orangeburg Deanery is true of our other five deaneries as well. Blessings abound. One would only have to look at the stunning renovation of the bank building next to the Church of the Holy Comforter, Sumter, recently appraised at 2.9 million dollars not including land. Consider the new church being built in Conway, the expansions at both St. Luke's and All Saints' on Hilton Head Island, the Church of the Cross in Bluffton, St. Helena's in Beaufort, St. John's in Florence--the list goes on and on.

The Diocesan Council in partnership with the Department of Congregational Development are working closely to set in place strategies which will empower our vision of building up the congregations for the work of the Gospel. The budget which we will receive today will begin to fund these strategies.

For the past eleven years we have sought to build up all of our congregations across the diocese. Some of our strategies were:

1. Making the diocesan bishop an itinerant presence--preaching, teaching, connecting, leading.
2. Replacing the 20-25% giving to the diocese with the 10-10-10 solution.
3. Adding 45 youth workers in the diocese.
4. Developing leadership training for clergy and laity.
5. Reducing the size of the diocesan staff and electing a suffragan bishop to work with the diocesan bishop in the field.
6. Using the deaneries and the deans to move as many as possible of our smaller congregations from maintenance to mission.
7. Raising up a younger priesthood from within the diocese.

In the last eleven years we have ordained 51 priests, 35 transitional deacons, and 9 vocational deacons. Of this number, 35 (67%) still serve in the diocese. We have fifteen postulants in seminary or read to enter seminary, and three in the vocational deacons' training program.

A new strategy is being proposed for the next five years in addition to the ones listed. Congregational Development has proposed and the Diocesan Council has agreed to recommend that through January of 2006 the diocese focus on building several major congregations in response to the population explosion in our state, by expanding several existing congregations and by starting several new congregations.

In this 2001 budget there is a line item to pay the interest on one million dollars for St. Paul's, Conway for up to four years. The entire project at St. Paul's for building a new church is 2.5 million dollars. The Council is also setting aside in the next three years from several sources one million dollars to pay outright for the new church building on the 20 acre land gift on Hwy 278 between Bluffton and I-95. In the budget for 2002 there will be an item to pay the interest on two million dollars for four years for Holy Cross, Sullivan's Island. The interest on one million dollars is also allocated for Christ Church, Mt. Pleasant. In addition we are looking at the acquisition of property near Beaufort, on Daniel Island, and several other places.

We celebrate today the admission of West Shore Episcopal Church, Charleston as a mission church. We celebrate the admission of three mission congregations to parish status: St. Peter's in Charleston, St. Stephen's in Charleston, and Holy Cross/Faith Memorial Church in Pawley's Island. Two years ago there was a painful division of St. Peter into two congregations. Today both are vital and growing and St. Peter's again will be a parish with a bright future. I want to congratulate the Rev. Jennie Olbrych and the people of St. Peter's, and the Rev. Chris Huff and the people of West Shore. For years, Holy Cross/Faith Memorial has been a struggling mission. Today it is a strong, integrated congregation with a clear vision and sense of mission. I want to congratulate the Rev. Tommy Tipton and the people of Holy Cross/Faith Memorial and thank God for his blessings upon this congregation. And we celebrate the new strength of St. Stephen's, Charleston, another integrated congregation, under the pastoral leadership of the Rev. Jim Bills.

As we seek to move forward I enlist your help as individuals and congregations. The giving of first fruits witnesses to our acknowledgment of our dependence upon God as the source and giver of all things. I pray that if you are not tithers you move in that direction and realize its blessings. The same is true of our congregations. If all of our congregations tithe, which we have agreed in the past is our standard, we would have the resources to fund the expansion which the diocese is undertaking both in existing and new congregations. Think about that--the resources we need are already here, it only takes a generous heart.

Builders for Christ has made a dramatic difference in the mission of the diocese in congregations of all sizes. We are asking for only $25 a year from adults and $5 from children. The funding objectives for 2001 are in your packets. Why not write a check while you are here at convention?

Our campaign for Camp St. Christopher is only partially done, mainly because of the extensive capital expansion in most of our congregations. Bishop Skilton and I are both committed to see that our wonderful camp, a gift from God through Mrs. Morawetz, is again adequate for the needs of an expanding diocese. Today it is not.

I see the fruits of the Gospel in transformed lives all over the diocese. I talked with a group of children and their mentors in St. Bartholomew's, Hartsville, who are beginning a year's journey to prepare for confirmation. One older lady there was able to talk about the impact of this ministry and how it was deepening her life in Christ in amazing ways. I visited with a young man before Christmas who told me how a prayer group for two years had empowered him to break the power drugs were beginning to have in his life. I heard the story of a group from here on a mission trip whose lives were blessed in giving away the money they had for a particular purpose when they discovered a family whose home had just burned to the ground. God gives us opportunities to be instruments of his grace.

We have tremendous resources, we have the good gift of power, we experience pitfalls in how we use our resources and power, how we decide, how we settle our differences. Our lives are filled with temptations over good things. The devil is always waiting until an opportune time.

Michael Ramsey reminds us that only "in pointing to the death of Jesus the Messiah, and to the deeper issues of sin and judgment, sin in which all Christians share, and judgment under which we stand together with the rest of mankind, can we withstand the lies and warfare of Satan."

And the New Testament letter to the Ephesians closes with this assurance: "Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. . . . Grace be with you all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love undying." (Ephesians 6:13, 24).

Questions or Comments: Fax or e-mail--Bishop Salmon - (fax) 843/723-7628 or (e-mail) elsalmon@dioceseofsc.org.