Reflects on ministry in times of low church attendance, secular challenges to church teachings.
SPRINGFIELD - The Right Rev. Douglas J. Fisher became bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts on Dec. 1, 2012. He and his wife, the Rev. Elizabeth Fisher, who is rector of a church in Dutchess County, N.Y., live in the Berkshires, and the bishop is based in the diocese's headquarters at Christ Church Cathedral on Chestnut Street.
His determination to walk his diocese, which includes Worcester County, as well as the counties of Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden and Hampshire, has made him his boyish, lanky figure a not uncommon sight, and his opposition to legalized gambling, the need for tighter gun control laws and opposition to the death penalty have earned him headlines.
He also participated as a member of the House of Bishops in the recent Episcopal General Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. The convention, the Church's governing body, gave approval to allow religious weddings for same sex couples, and voted the Right Rev. Michael Curry, bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina, the first African American presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.
Fisher, who is in Alabama for the annual pilgrimage for slain civil rights worker and Episcopal seminarian Jonathan Daniels, was asked in the following intervene to reflect on being bishop at a time when fewer Americans claim a religious affiliation and when secular laws, such as the legalization of same sex marriage, challenge the teaching of many religious institutions.
According to the Pew Research Center, there are 5 million fewer mainline Protestants adults today than in 2007. The reason is said to be generational with fewer young people affiliated with churches. How much do you think about this in terms of why you would like to share your faith with younger people, and what aspects of your faith do you think a young person might find of value?
Although young people are not joining churches in large numbers anymore, as a generation they are outstanding in "love of neighbor." Studies indicate that this generation volunteers more hours than any other generation in U.S. history.
As followers of Jesus we are called to "love God and love our neighbor." Young people get the second half of the "great commandment." Churches need to help them see how loving neighbor and loving God flow together.
I recently went to North Carolina with youth from Western Massachusetts where we joined 70 other young Episcopalians from throughout the U.S., South Africa and Botswana for a program called "Lift Every Voice" Freedom Ride. We spent a week studying the Civil Rights Movement and going to places where key events happened - like the lunch counter in Greensboro where students had a peaceful sit-in 55 years ago to protest the store policy of serving whites only.
A key dimension to the week was prayer and reflection. They came away inspired by God's great dream for a world where mercy, compassion and hope reigns. How do we connect with our youth? Meet them at their desire for a better world and let them know that the God we meet in the Scriptures, in tradition and in prayers longs for the same thing.
You recently completed a 170-mile pilgrimage of your diocese. What prompted this, and who and what did you encounter along the way?
The pilgrimage (170 miles in three separate trips of four days each) was one of the most fun things I have done as bishop. The idea came to me while running in the summer of 2014. My wife and I had just completed a pilgrimage to Iona, an island off the coast of Scotland that has been a place of prayer for centuries.
A pilgrimage traditionally is a journey to a holy place. For me, all of Western and Central Massachusetts is a holy place. To walk through the diocese is to walk on holy ground. It also serves to emphasize my message (which is really Jesus' message) to take the faith to the streets.
My intention was not to visit churches. Rather it was to gather people in prayer on street corners and parking lots. My staff then expanded the idea for me to meet people at jails and hospitals and schools and halfway houses. People go to where I work all the time. This pilgrimage gave me the opportunity to go where they work.
The walk had numerous highlights. Here are just three. I was blessed to walk through West Springfield with Wissam Abdul Baki, the Imam of the Islamic Society of Western Massachusetts. After his warm welcome at the mosque we were able to share thoughts and prayers about our faith traditions.
In Pittsfield, I blessed a laundromat where the members of St. Stephen's have a ministry called "Laundry Love." They pay for the laundry that is done there, knowing that some folks who use the laundry have financial challenges, and engage them in conversation while the washers and dryers run. It is a way for the Church to be in contact with people we may not see in our church buildings.
Another highlight was the prayer service we had at Congregation Ahavath Sholom in Great Barrington. Jews and Episcopalians came together in worship of the one God and united in working for a better world.
You recently, I believe, participated as a bishop for the first time in the general convention for your Church. It was labeled an historic one as the first African American was elected presiding bishop, and approval was given for same sex couples to have a religious wedding. Why did these two events happen at this point in the Church's history here in the United States? What is their significance both in the Church and in wider society?
In the Episcopal Church we believe in the continuing revelation of God. The Holy Spirit did not retire to Florida after the Bible was written or the Creeds promulgated. The Holy Spirit continues to teach us. I believe that the Holy Spirit has been expanding our consciousness about the dignity and equality of our gay brothers and sisters. That consciousness might well have been developed in society before it was developed in the Church, and now the Church is catching up to the Holy Spirit. The Church is catching up to the broader society.
As to the election of Michael Curry as Presiding Bishop, he was chosen (the first time anyone has been elected on the first ballot) not because he is African-American but because in an outstanding field of four candidates, he is the best person to lead us now. Michael is an inspired preacher and brilliant organizer who passionately invites all to join the "Jesus Movement" - to change the nightmare this world so often is for so many into the dream God has for it.
Although he was not chosen because he is African-American, I do find it holy and good that an African-American was chosen at this time of tremendous racial tension in our country. Our country has a history of racism embedded within it that we have never really faced. Could this be the time to have an honest discussion about that history and move forward as a New Creation?
What is the moral component for you, as bishop, that takes you into the streets to march against gun violence, to speak out against legalizing gambling and to vote for religious wedding to same sex couples?
In his very first sermon, Jesus, quoting the prophetic Isaiah, said "I have come to bring good news to the poor." From the beginning Jesus brought a moral voice to the political order. I am committed to following Jesus in his mission of mercy, compassion and hope. By necessity that means speaking out against that which is bad news for the poor - like casinos.
It means speaking out against that which contributes to violence in our society because Jesus practiced the way of non-violence. It means speaking out against the destruction of God's creation - the human causes of global warming which will hurt the poor more than any other segment of society. These are religious issues that are expressed in our public life together. I love the quote from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel who, after marching alongside Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma said, "I felt my legs praying."
Christian churches are divided here, and elsewhere, over the issue of what is marriage. The argument against it is either biblical or against the natural order of things. How do you see the evolution of churches, or denominations, that define marriage as between a man and a woman?
Although the Episcopal Church has expanded the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples, we understand and respect other voices. Within the Episcopal House of Bishops there are those who disagree with the decision and we supported them in publishing a minority report.
The fact is that our understanding of marriage has evolved over vast expanses of time. Several thousand years ago, a man might have more than one wife at the same time. There was a time when marriages were arranged and had nothing to do with love.
In recent times we have come to understand that same-sex couples can make lifetime commitments united in love and expressing God's love for the world. The gay rights movement has made greater strides in a shorter amount of time than any other civil rights movement in history. Thank God. But that also means that not everyone will agree at this moment in time and that is to be respected.
How do you discuss this issue with young people of faith on both sides of the issue?
My experience is that there are not many young people opposed to same-sex marriage. My three children are all in their 20's, they all identify as straight and they don't understand why this is such a controversial issue. For them same sex marriage is normal and good and holy. Their friends, and other young people I know, all think and believe the same way about this.
If I were to encounter a young person who thought differently based on their faith or their way of seeing the world, I would respect their opinion and offer mine as an alternative way of seeing it.
What, through your marriage to a minister, have you seen women bring to priesthood? How has being married to such a woman of faith influenced you as a bishop?
Betsy, and many women priests, bring a sense of collaboration to ministry. We were both parish priests together (in neighboring churches) for a long time. If something in the church was not getting done, I would just do it. Betsy is more apt to build a team and empower leaders. Betsy and other women priests often have an acute sense of the marginalized, perhaps because of their own experience in society.
Betsy has had a huge influence on me as a bishop. Sometimes the workload is heavy and sometimes particular difficult situations make me anxious. She reminds me to "breathe, just breathe." That wisdom comes from her own contemplative practice. There are some things she and I cannot discuss because of confidentiality, so she prays for me through those. For the things we can discuss, Betsy opens my mind to other possibilities. She can also put issues in perspective by saying "is this just a church thing, or will it make a difference to hurting people in the world?"
Not everyone recognizes that being a bishop's spouse is a sacrificial life. The commitments of this ministry take me away from family time often. But she makes it all work, and with a great sense of humor.
What authors, both secular and spiritual, have helped shape you and in what way?
John Steinbeck has had a big influence on me since high school. "Grapes of Wrath" opened my eyes to a world of oppression that was way beyond my experience of life in suburban Long Island.
Another "author" I turn to all the time, including on my long car rides throughout Western and Central Massachusetts, is song writer Bruce Springsteen. He is a poet and prophet for our time. He recognizes the plight of the working poor but always puts it into a context of hope. Some of his songs are directly influenced by John Steinbeck and many of them are influenced by themes from the Bible. The entire album "The Rising", composed as a response to the events of 9/11, is really a prayer. And, I love his energy.
Karl Rahner, a Jesuit, has had an impact on me since my seminary days in the late 1970's. Some find him to be a dense theologian, hard to understand, but his main theme is simple. To find God, turn to your experience. God is not "out there", living in an abstract world. We all experience God right here, right now, because God has made us with a "supernatural existential" - an existence created for the divine.
Thomas Merton, a monk and author of 63 books, taught me that believers need to make a difference in the world and that the "true self" is only found in God. Richard Rohr writes about the "non-duality" of life. Our life, all of it - the joy and the pain, is lived in God.
And the author Walter Brueggemann, perhaps the greatest Christian scholar of the Hebrew Scriptures of our time, invites us to a "prophetic imagination" in which believers offer the constant "newness" and "aliveness" of God to a world so often stuck in the ways of death and destruction.
These are not authors, but three people who invite me to see life anew - my three children. Even when they were very little, Betsy would refer to them as our "Zen masters." They had a way of asking questions that would help us discover new truth.
How much do you feel you influence people's lives as bishop?
I should probably leave that question up to the Holy Spirit. But I will attempt an answer using the words of a Greek mathematician, philosopher and scientists from 250 B.C. named Archimedes of Syracuse. He studied levers and he famously said, "Give me a lever and a place to stand and I will move the Earth."
Bishops have a lever in society as the public voice of the Church. And we have a place to stand. That place is the Gospel. We can use that lever to move the world toward God's dream for it - a place where mercy and compassion and hope reigns over vengeance, greed and cynicism. "My" influence can only be measured by the embrace of that dream.
How much has being bishop changed you as an individual, and what are ways you would like to strengthen what you and your staff do in the diocese as well as in Springfield?
Being a bishop has strengthened my faith. I have been awed by the goodness of God's people. In my many travels - official and the more informal pilgrimage on foot - I have met so many who have embraced love of God and love of neighbor. I have been amazed by grace. We have a prayer that says "Glory to God, whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine." I have witnessed God's power working in God's people. I am more hopeful than I have ever been. And, I believe in the never-ending creativity of God.
I'm blessed, too, with a wise, prayerful, energetic, imaginative, fun-loving, risk-taking staff. We are very much a team. We, with church leaders throughout the diocese, have begun many new initiatives like the "Building Bridges" Veterans' Ministry.
We have increased and strengthened our street ministries - "Church without Walls," and "Cathedral in the Night". We have intentionally reached out to the Hispanic/Latino communities in Springfield and Holyoke, and embarked on several joint initiatives with the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
We have committed significant resources to a new "urban" ministry in the city of Worcester and we are already seeing results. Springfield is a city likewise faced with challenges. Christ Church Cathedral and local churches are addressing some of those, but we hope to strengthen our mission to this city. Springfield is filled with possibility if we tap into God's imagination. In the near future I hope we can do more campus ministry, too.
John Scattareggia 
