AN OPEN LETTER IN GRATITUDE

TO THE MOST REVEREND MICHAEL CURRY,

PRESIDING BISHOP OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH

"I do not want the Church to support animals simply to conform to secular pressure, rather I want the Church to see that its own Gospel requires opposition to cruelty."

                                                  ~Andrew Linzey, Creatures of the Same God 

Dear Bishop Curry:

               I do not mind telling you that as someone who tries to work for justice and compassion within the Christian community in general and the Episcopal Church in particular, I am often discouraged.  But on the eve of Easter this year, I was blessed to be in attendance at the Washington National Cathedral to take part in the Easter Vigil and to hear your wonderful and heartening sermon.  Your words have refreshed me and offered me encouragement, and for that I am grateful.  

               You spoke of us, a followers of Jesus, being Why Not People in a Why Weary World; of Christians – even Episcopalians – needing to press on with new ideas in both the Christian and secular communities to make the world a better place.  In world beaten down and made weary by seemingly intractable injustice, we, as followers of the risen Lord, are to hold on to hope, to continue to ask “why not” for a better world. You asked, and recalled others who asked:

•        Why not a world where children do not go to bed hungry?

•        Why not a world where we are all the children of God and we treat each other as God’s human family?

•        Why not scientific truth and knowledge instead of intractable fundamentalism?

•         Why not an empire that is better and more noble instead of one trading in human flesh?[1]

•         Why not a world where women and girls are given equal access to education?

Why Not People dream of new possibilities and know that all things are possible with God, despite all evidence to the contrary in a Why Weary World.  So, refreshed and encouraged, I will ask: