The Season of Refinement
The Rev. Ranjit K. Mathews
My name is Ranjit Matthews, and I serve as your Canon for Mission Advocacy, Racial Justice, & Reconciliation, I’m here with Bishop Jeff Mello and delighted really to have this conversation. Bishop Jeff, one of the things that you shared in our most recent Racial Healing Justice and Reconciliation Gathering was the fact that you look at this work of racial justice not as a program, but really as a lens. And I wondered if you just shared a little bit more about that with our community?
The Rt. Rev. Jeffrey W. Mello
Yeah, thanks. And thanks for inviting me to be here. For me, when I approached the work of racial justice, I think it’s all too often easy to silo it and push it as a program. Just another thing that we’re supposed to be doing as a church like we do worship, or we do Sunday school, or we do outreach. And then you know, we had this other like, what are we doing about racial justice? For me, what’s been really helpful and transformative in my own life and my own work around racial justice, is to really see the work of racial justice as a lens through which I see all the work that we are called to do as a church. So we look at our liturgy through the lens of racial justice, our Sunday school, our outreach, all the ways we are of being community, we take on a lens of racial justice work to ask important questions as we engage in all of the different ministries and programs that we offer. But it’s not another thing we tack on. It’s something central to sort of who we are as a gathered community.
The Rev. Ranjit K. Mathews
Bishop Jeff, you said central and so what is specifically different between having a program and seeing this as a lens?
The Rt. Rev. Jeffrey W. Mello
I think it comes down to why it is we think we’re about this work, is it we’re doing it because it’s something we can check off and say, we’ve done that, or is it about our transformation, and, you know, we’re called to be need more and more into the likeness of Christ. And so for me, by moving it from a program that I participate in, to a lens that I take on, it becomes more about being central to who I am, and who I’m longing and trying to become as a follower of Jesus Christ.
The Rev. Ranjit K. Mathews
That’s so moving and really connected, I think, Bishop Jeff, with your leadership, around, you know, what we’re doing here in Connecticut, and one of the ways in which we can take that lens to everything that we’re doing, right, and in this work and untether from spaces in which we might be more addicted to spaces that are not of the Gospel, and more tethered to the ways of the Gospel, I think we can only do that through a lens, in particular racial justice as a lens.
The Rt. Rev. Jeffrey W. Mello
And the great thing about our tradition is that we’re constantly given opportunities to try new things, right, to renew ourselves. To turn again, the season of Lent is a great example of this entire season, where we really pay attention to turning ourselves away from the things which distract us from the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and turning toward Jesus as the center of our lives. And so it all sort of comes together as this ongoing opportunity to renew and transform and refine ourselves more and more into the likeness of Christ.
The Rev. Ranjit K. Mathews
Yeah, and if I wonder if I can, I can just close this with a prayer:
Good and gracious God, thank you so much for the gift of calling us to this day, and the work that you have given us to do. And following more closely, Jesus the Christ. God will you help us lead us into a space where we’re more untether from systems that would have us addicted to other things that are not of you. And help us to turn away from those and be more connected to your gospel, to see this work of racial justice as a way of who we are and not as something to be done, but that Your Holy Spirit would lead us with strength and with new eyes. And all this we ask in Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.