2013 10 04 dio n mi opening presentation

Episcopal Dioceseof Northern Michigan

118TH ANNUAL CONVENTION

October 4th, 2013

1Saturday, October 5, 13

The Parable of the Crude LittleLife-Saving Station

by Reverend Doctor Theodore Wedel


On a dangerous sea coastwhere shipwrecks often occur,

there was once acrude little life-saving station.


The building was just a hut,

and there was only one boat…


but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea and, with no thought for themselves, went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost.


Some of those who were saved and various others in the surrounding area wanted to become associated with the station

and gaveof their

time and money and effortfor the support of its work.


New boats were bought and new crews trained.

The little life-saving station grew.


Some of the members of the life-saving stationwere unhappy

that the buildingwas so crude and poorly equipped.


They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea.

They replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building.


Now the life-saving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they

decorated itbeautifully

becausethey used

it as a sortof club.


Fewer members were now interestedin going to sea on life-saving missions,

so they hired professional lifeboat crewsto do this work.


The life-saving motif still prevailed in the club’s decorations, and there was a liturgical life-boat in the room where the club’s initiations were held.


About this time a large ship wrecked off the coast and the hired crews brought in boat loads of cold, wet and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick. The beautiful new club was in chaos.


So the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned up before coming inside.


At the next meeting, there was a split among the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’slife-savingactivities as beingunpleasantand a hindranceto the normalsocial life ofthe club.


Some members insisted upon life-saving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a life-saving station.


But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all the various kinds of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own life-saving station.


So they did.


As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It

evolved into a club, and yet another life-saving station was founded.


History continued to repeat itself and if you visit that sea coast today, you will find a number of

exclusive clubs along that shore.


Shipwrecks are frequent…

…in those waters,


but most of the people…

…drown.


At what point do you think that thislifesaving station first began moving away

from its original identity and purpose?


Where would you haveintervened in this story?


What language does your local congregation use to talk about terms like "rocky sea coasts,"

"shipwrecks," being "lost," "tirelessly searching" and "saved"?


Guidelines for follow-up conversations:

• How would you describe the purposes of the original life-saving station?• Why do you think that volunteers signed up to help with those purposes?• At what point do you think that this lifesaving station first began moving away from its original identity and

purpose?• What might an outsider have noticed as a first sign of this move from Station to Club?• What might have been the underlying reasons that caused the earliest volunteers to commit to the station's

mission?• Once the station began functioning as a club, what was the primary benefit of membership?• Whose taste and needs were represented in the decor of the new clubhouse?• What makes it easier to start a new station down that proverbial coast, rather than turn the existing club around?• At what point in the evolution from station to club would it be easier to turn the trend around?• If you were to start a new crude little Lifesaving Station today, what would you do to prevent this shift from

eventually happening?• Who would you imagine to be the most motivated volunteers in your newly forming station?• What are the parallels you see between this parable and your own congregation's history?• If you think of the crude little lifesaving station as being one place on a continuum of possibilities and the

exclusive club as occupying another spot on that continuum, where do you think your ministry is located?• What is the significance of decommissioning one of the lifeboats and placing it on a liturgical stand as symbol of

identity?• Do you know of any other "means of grace" that have been decommissioned and then turned into symbols in our

churches?• What language does your local congregation use to talk about terms like "rocky sea coasts," "shipwrecks," being

"lost," "tirelessly searching" and "saved"?


REFERENCES:

The Rev. Dr. Canon Theodore O. Wedel, son of a Mennonite minister, was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1931. He served as canon of the Washington National Cathedral and warden of the College of Preachers from 1939 until 1960. President of the House of Deputies of the Church's General Convention from 1952 to 1961, he was active in the ecumenical movement and served as chairman of evangelism for the World Council of Churches.

For the Birds is a 2000 animated short film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Ralph Eggleston. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 2001. It premiered on June 5, 2000, at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France.

Reverend Tom BrackettMissioner, New Church Starts & Missional InitiativesEpiscopal Church Center815 2nd Ave.New York, NY [email protected]


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2013 10 04 dio n mi opening presentation

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