Sean Major-Campbell | Light coming from Washington

WASHINGTON NATIONAL Cathedral, the site of Bishop Marrian Budde’s humble call for mercy, was yet again the platform for yet another prophetic word; this time coming from Bishop Sean Rowe, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States (ECUSA). The Anglican Church in the USA is known by the name ‘Episcopal’.

On February 2, 2025, the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord and the Purification of Mary, Bishop Sean, aptly noted, “We’re told by the kings and the rulers of the day that the rich shall be first. That somehow, compassion is weakness. That fealty to political parties – and here I mean either one, or all of them – is somehow paramount. That differences of race, class, gender identity, human sexuality are all divisions that must somehow separate us, and that we should regard migrants and strangers and those among us whom we don’t understand, with fear and contempt.”

Too many Christians are now invested in selling the tickets of xenophobia, misogyny, racism, homophobia, and transphobia, for a place in heaven. Sadly, even those outside of the church are assuming that these elements of selfishness and not Christlike behaviour is Christian. Too many Christians now live under the burden of bigotry and prejudicial ways of being as they seek to seek the state’s help in criminalising those who think differently from them. Neither Jesus not his disciples operated in these ways.

Who is offended by Bishop Sean’s reminder? He said, “But those divisions are not of God. Those are not the divisions of a kingdom about which Jesus speaks, of a kind of reversal, the one that Simeon and Anna foretell. In that kingdom of God, the meek shall inherit the earth. The last will be first. The merciful shall receive mercy, and the captives go free.”

Too much of Jamaican Christianity has been focused on denominational quarrels about what women should wear or not wear. How women should be controlled. How women should be kept silent. And yes, how women should acquiesce to the authority of men! In the gospel story, men and women work together. In the work of ministry, gender does not determine qualification to respond to God’s call.

The bishop’s admonition that those divisions are not of God is timely. The Church is still a space where praying, Bible-loving folks feel justified in promoting divisions. This is the risk of being a praying person. You may be at risk of assuming that just because you are in communication with God, then all your thoughts are correct!

The prophetic preaching continued with a pastoral note, “In this world order, falling comes before rising. In God’s kingdom, immigrants and refugees, transgender people, the poor and the marginalised are not at the edges fearful and alone. They are at the centre of the Gospel story. So, the boundaries are not just extended, the story just isn’t extended to include all people. Those who have been considered at the margins are at the centre. They are the bearers of the salvation of the world. Their struggles reveal to us the kingdom of God.”

We do not often hear this kind of preaching. The loudest and most popular mega church preaching tends to be full of stigma, discrimination, condemnation, and huge doses of hell-fire damnation. Even this column and the writer will not be spared the venom of the self-righteous.

I could not help wondering ­– how many people will use this opportunity to discuss the bishop’s message at their Bible study? How many will make the effort to understand what it means to set the captives free? And who will pause to embrace and embody the messages of peace, love, and mercy?

Bishop Rowe was on point as he declared, “This kingdom about which Jesus speaks is upside down. It’s reverse. It’s inverted. It’s countercultural. It’s another way of being and living in a world. In this new kingdom, the power of God is manifest in parents making a modest offering for their tiny child. In the woman at the well. In the leper who comes to be healed. In the women at the tomb. These are the very people Jesus points to as icons of the holy.”

If ever there was a time that Christians needed to remember these words from the Presiding Bishop of ECUSA it is now: “Friends, we live in a world in which the enemy is bound and determined to sow division among us, to make us forget who we are and to what kingdom we belong. God did not come among us as a strongman. God came among us first as a child.”

The wider context of Church may learn from Bishop Rowe’s reflection: “The point of this institution – this magnificent cathedral of ours; our modest country churches back home; the famous Episcopal Church A – frame with the blond furniture; our office in midtown Manhattan, which I call mid-century mediocre architecture – we need these places to remind us that we are first citizens of the kingdom of God. The point of the community, particularly in these fractious times, is to turn away from the evil we have done and the evil done on our behalf. And back toward the one Jesus brought from the margins to the centre, back to one another, back to the risen Christ.”

Fr Sean Major-Campbell is an Anglican priest and advocate for human rights and dignity. Please send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and seanmajorcampbell@yahoo.com