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Dressing for Christmas

What should I wear for Christmas?

That’s an easy question for a man to answer. There are just a few limited options that we have: Choose this or that suit, decide which color shirt and maybe grab a matching tie. If we really want to be impressive, we make sure to shine our shoes and put on our favorite–and only–cologne.

That’s not the case for women. Most women have been working on their choice for quite some time, definitely more than the seven minutes that a man uses to make his decision.

For most women it starts with what dress is the appropriate one–what length, what color, what style—and involves finding what shoes will go with the outfit and what jewelry will add the right touch. Then one more glance in the mirror–is this a good color or not?

Of course I’m sure that there are many more details that have not yet been revealed to me on how a woman decides what to wear.

The Gospel story doesn’t bother to tell us what Mary, Joseph or the adoring shepherds were wearing, but it does tell us exactly what Jesus wore. St. Luke tells us that after giving birth to her firstborn, Mary wrapped him in bands of cloth. That was Jesus’ first outfit, just simple bands of cloth.

I think that this is a very appropriate reminder that Christmas should be a very simple holiday. We have added so much hype to our celebration and turned it into such a commercial extravaganza that we worry about feeling underdressed if we don’t manage to wear a proper outfit to honor the birth of this baby–who wore simple bands of cloth.

We come to church dressed in our best, and that is fine. It is natural that we should want to look our best when we welcome our Lord, our Savior and King, but at the same time we need to remember that the true spirit of Christmas can be found only if we look for its simplicity. The warning I want us to heed is this: Do not mistake the wrapping of Christmas for the actual gift. Unless we can put aside the wrapping, we will not find the gift that God has given us—God’s own self in Christ Jesus our Lord.

If someone brings you a gift wrapped in the most exquisite and colorful wrapping, you don’t toss the gift aside and put the paper and ribbons in a place of honor as if these were the actual gift. You may be delighted with the beauty of the gift paper wrapping, but you know that it is not the gift.

All the hype, and even all the stories of Christmas, with the shepherds in their field by night and later on the visit of the Magi, even the celestial choir, are just signs that point to the real gift.

And that gift is from God, the gift of his presence in our midst that allows us to look more joyfully at life, a life with hopeful possibilities, where people can be different, where peace may reign, a life full of love, optimism and open-hearted generosity.
You see, I sincerely believe that the proper outfit for Christmas Day is pajamas and bathrobes. We may begin by wearing our best outfits to parties and receptions and then at last to Midnight Mass, where we hear the familiar and awesome Gospel story and sing all the familiar hymns that we love. But the reality is that all of our dressing-up leads us to the simplicity of a morning on which we greet baby Jesus with the joy of children.

Oh, my God, I still remember that wonderful feeling of going to bed at night full of hope and excitement for what the morning would bring. Those long nights of the season always seemed to be longer than usual just before Christmas Day; but morning finally came, and my sister and I rushed to our Christmas tree and searched for our gifts.

There are two things that I remember about such Christmas mornings. The first image embedded in my mind is the look of joy on the faces of my mother and father, who stood there enjoying themselves watching my sister and me as we opened those gifts and began to play with them.

The second is the memory of seeing my own children, full of joy, opening their gifts, maybe not fully realizing how they got there, but understanding that someone loved and cared for them.

I can tell you that at neither of those times did my parents, or I as a father, think or care about the appropriate outfit to wear. In our pajamas and bathrobes, rejoicing in our children and their excitement, we were in the presence of Love.

We dress ourselves, our homes, our churches in great splendor to celebrate the coming of our King, but it is in simplicity that we come closest to the Child who always moves among us in humility, who at his birth was dressed in simple bands of cloth.

My prayer is that not only on Christmas morning, but at every morning of our lives, we may wake up eager and joyful to be in the company of Christ our Lord.

December 5, 2008

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

It is unfortunate, but not surprising, that a group that vehemently disagrees with actions and policies of The Episcopal Church has announced its intention to form a new province of the Anglican Communion in North America. They have been moving toward this decision for years.

But I cannot accept this group as an Anglican Church. Its leaders are challenging the position of the Archbishop of Canterbury as a unique focus of Anglican unity, and they have indicated that they do not feel bound by the accepted process of the Anglican Communion for forming a new province.

As a statement from the office of our Presiding Bishop has reminded us this week, “The Episcopal Church, along with the Anglican Church of Canada and La Iglesia Anglicana de Mexico, comprise the official, recognized presence of the Anglican Communion in North America.”

I want to be clear: In Southeast Florida, our Episcopal churches are the only Anglican churches. Episcopalians—Anglicans–in our diocese value deeply our close relationships with our sister and brother Anglicans in this hemisphere and around the world. Our mission is to make known to all people the transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, including ALL, excluding none; and our doors continue to be open to everyone.

The Rt. Rev. Leo Frade
Bishop of Southeast Florida
The Episcopal Church

Address by Bishop Leo Frade to the 39th Diocesan Convention, Nov. 7, 2008

First of all I want to extend a warm welcome and our appreciation to Bishop Robert Thompson, the Bishop of Kingston, for accepting my invitation to preach at our Convention Eucharist. Bishop Thompson and I have been good friends since we met in the previous century at the 11th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council in Dundee, Scotland. I also had the privilege of being invited by him to preach at St. Andrew’s Parish in Kingston when he was the Rector. Diana and I have continued our friendship throughout the years with Bishop Robert and his wife, Charmaine.

And of course, another warm welcome to someone who is actually part of our Diocesan family–the Bishop Coadjutor of our Companion Diocese of Nassau and the Bahamas and Turk and Caicos Islands. We are blessed by the presence of Bishop Laish Boyd and his wife, Joanne, at our Convention.
Thank you for being here.

Another bishop whom I met in the last century is also with us at this convention–Bishop Julio Holguin, bishop of the Dominican Republic. Many of you who have been in the Dominican Republic know the rapid growth and the strength of the Church there. Thank you, Julio, for being here with us.

And a warm welcome back to his diocese to Bishop John Said, who continues serving this diocese, even though he now lives across the border in that other diocese north of us. Our love to him and to his wife, Ann, who accompanies him.

Welcome also to Bishop Onell Soto and his wife, Nina, who are present with us today. With Bishop Said and our retired diocesan Bishop Cal Schofield, Bishop Soto is also helping us with the confirmations around this diocese. Thank you so much for your help.

Bishop Schofield is traveling at this time, and asked me to bring you his greetings.

And to you all here present, thank you for coming and being part of our 39th Diocesan Convention.

This past September 16 I completed 8 years as your bishop, I am now in the 9th year of my translation to this diocese from my previous diocese and next January 25th I will be celebrating 25 years as a bishop of our Church. It’s amazing how time flies: Now I am the Senior Bishop with jurisdiction of the House of Bishops. (This is easier than it sounds—all you have to do is not die.) I have discovered that all of these great honors come accompanied with more work and more chances of getting into trouble. As they say, getting old is only for the brave ones.

Let me use this opportunity to extend an invitation to all of you to the celebration of the anniversary of my consecration to the episcopacy 25 years ago in Tegucigalpa, Honduras by the Presiding Bishop at that time, John Maury Allin. This celebration will take place in your Cathedral, Trinity Cathedral, at 4 PM on Sunday, January 25, 2009. The preacher for that occasion will be our present Presiding Bishop, the Most Reverend Katherine Jefferts Schori. Hope to see you all there.

Watch for more information about this event to be posted on our diocesan website, diosef.org. And speaking of our website, if you haven’t visited it in the past two days, you are in for a surprise: This convention marks the launch of a completely updated and redesigned site that we hope will be much more user-friendly and welcoming. Thanks to our Electronic Communications Committee and our new webmaster, Donna Holdsworth of Pickme, Inc., for their good work.

It’s good to know that I begin my address to this Diocesan Convention after the national elections have been completed. I know that some of you are very happy with the selection that voters made, and others are not that happy. But I want to say this to all of you: I rejoice in the fact that I am a citizen of this great country where democracy is one of our greatest treasures. Four years from now we will have another presidential election, so let’s put aside whatever ideological issues that may have divided us in the recent past and work together for the good of the country. United we stand, divided we fall. No matter which candidate got your vote, let us all keep in our prayers our president, George W. Bush, our president-elect, Barack Obama, his family and those who will work with him, as he prepares for the enormous challenges he will face as the leader of our nation in these difficult times.

As we gather today, I don’t need to remind you of the financial crunch that this country and the world are facing. We indeed have a challenge ahead of us, but this is nothing new for us. Actually, together we have gone through a lot during these past 8 years. A number of things have happened that have severely affected us, and some of those things have been out of our control.

First there was the horrible and despicable terrorist attack that took place on September 11, 2001, with the subsequent decline of our economy that also brought down our markets–hard days and trouble in our lives similar in many ways to the even worse economic situation we are experiencing now. Add to that the 5 hurricanes that took place in just one year, 2004, bringing chaos, panic and misery into our area. We have also been affected by the Iraq War and by the very high prices for fuel that until only a few days ago made going to the gas station like one of those Halloween horror houses. Unfortunately we also have lived these past months with a lack of trust in our government, and that has served to immobilize us.

If you add to all of that the situations that have disrupted the life of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion–the election of the Bishop of New Hampshire and the subsequent controversy that this created, compounded by the irresponsible violation of Diocesan boundaries by foreign bishops, who with a total disregard for the ancient Church councils and basic ethical standards have dedicated themselves to raiding churches and property that belongs to the patrimony of our American Episcopal Church.

Have we been affected by all of this? Of course we have.
But I must also remind you that regardless of all the obstacles that we have found along the way, our diocese remains united–and I dare to say, with hope for our future. I am happy to report that your bishop is in communion with all the priests, parishes and missions that are part of our diocese. As far as I know, no congregation is threatening or planning to leave, or has left during my episcopacy. All the congregations honor their diocesan assessment, and all priests honor their solemn vows and promises to conform to the doctrine, discipline and worship of the Episcopal Church.

Unfortunately, this is not necessarily the case with a few other dioceses of our Church. I believe that the credit for our unity as a diocese should be shared by all. The strong leadership that exists in most of the congregations in our diocese has made it possible to battle all the obstacles and challenges along the way.

Our vision of Bringing them in, Building them up, Sending them out, Tending to their needs and Harvesting God’s fruit continues being a reality in this diocese.

Do we still have obstacles ahead of us? Of course we do.
But we are committed to continue with the Nehemiah Process that faithfully trains our congregations to be stronger and more effective in their ministry.

In recent months we also have been developing a strategy to confront the brutal realities of declining membership that we are facing. There are several things that are out of our direct control. The economy, hurricanes (and fear of them), the war, lack of employment in this area and so on.

But there are other things that we can change and improve–and in some cases there are things that we need to discard, and even individual leaders who may need to move on.

I have asked Archdeacon Tom Bruttell to make a brief presentation of our drive to make every church a viable congregation and to make sure that all of our churches have a strong and able leadership.

I am committed to make this diocese more than a good diocese. I want Southeast Florida to be a great diocese.

(An outline of Archdeacon Bruttell’s presentation will be posted with other convention reports on the diocesan website, www.diosef.org.)

Thank you Archdeacon. I take this initiative very seriously and I am committed to see it through.

On a different note let me thank you all for sending your bishop and his spouse to the 2008 Lambeth Conference for bishops and spouses.

A lot was said in church circles around the world about what was going to happen at this Lambeth Conference of 2008.

Fortunately all the doom prophets and the Chicken Littles that love to predict the end of our Communion were wrong again and had to eat their words.

The Archbishop of Canterbury was able to pull it off, and I can tell you as a bishop who has attended 3 different Lambeth Conferences–1988, 1998 and 2008—that this was the most cordial and the most productive meeting of Bishops that I have attended.

One of the things that you learn when you are part of the Lambeth Conference is the incredible diversity that exists in our Anglican Communion. Let me give you an example: One part of the world considers that the acceptance of polygamy is the only Christian thing to do when a Muslim person who has more than one wife, as that religion allows, converts to Christianity; in another, the main concern is to defend the rights of the untouchables, hoping that some day they will be considered as human beings, equal to the rest of the population of their countries; and another part of the world may propose that persons with different sexual orientations are human beings created and loved by God and deserving of the same rights as heterosexuals.

Of course diversity is nothing new for us in this diocese. I am sure that there are many different ideas and theological positions represented here, just as there are different races and ethnic groups, socio-economic standards, male and female, gay and straight, red and blue and many shades of purple. Of course there are also many countries and languages represented here.

But what unites us? I believe that what unites us is what unites hundreds and hundreds of Anglican bishops around the world who may have different ideas about many things but are united in this: It is our commitment to serve Christ, to bring the message of God’s love to the whole world, our commitment to love our God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. It is a commitment to the belief that we should stand for what is just and right in this world.

That is why as Episcopalians–who, by the way, are the only true Anglicans in this country–we are not guided by any of the popular phobias of this day, like xenophobia and homophobia. That is why we can dare to obey Christ’s call to welcome the stranger in our midst; that is why we can actually care for the immigrants and refugees who arrive at our doorstep, even when some call us to hate and fear those who are newcomers in our land. That is why we refuse to discriminate against people because of the color of their skin or what language they speak, why we will not discriminate against or despise any who have been created by God different from what we may perceive as “normal” or “like us,” even when the forces of hate and discrimination insist on denigrating God’s diverse creation–to the point of actually enshrining bigotry in our state’s constitution.

Now I want to bring to your attention something more immediate and important for us in our own diocesan family. On November 23rd we celebrate Episcopal Charities Sunday, and I am hoping that each priest and lay person of this diocese here present will take notice of this day. Episcopal Charities is you and me–it is us–and the work that Episcopal Charities does makes a difference in alleviating the pain and suffering of those less fortunate in our diocese and beyond. We are sending envelopes for each congregation to distribute to parishioners, and I expect that they will be used to receive an offering on November 23 for the ministries of Episcopal Charities. We will also be sending to rectors a leaflet with information explaining what Episcopal Charities of Southeast Florida does and how parishioners can support its good work throughout the diocese.

I want to finish my address to you by pointing out that I am aware of the fears and doubts many of you may have about the future. The question being asked today is: How will the current economic recession affect the mission of our church? We will have to wait and see. As they say: “It’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future.” The only thing we know for sure is that the future will surprise us.

It’s too early to say that it will be a grim 2009. It could be–but it also it could not be. A recent report by the Christian Research group Empty Tomb, Inc. studied 6 different recessions since 1968 and found that donations by church members declined in three recessions, but increased in the other three. Similar finding were found by another study from Giving USA Foundation that found that religion-related charitable giving fell slightly in six but increased in the other 5 recessions.

I believe that leadership is going to be the key to success. Those who will retreat in fear will go down, but those who will dare will ultimately thrive.

Experts agree that all giving is local– people give all over the world, but when crunch time comes, churches have an advantage because people give locally, and nothing is more local than an individual congregation.

We must remember that we are a mission with a church, and not a church with a mission. We have to avoid the temptation to let our goals and dreams to be held ransom by our insecurities and fears when hard moments come our way.

I remind you that our mission does not depend on Wall Street, or whether the Democrats or Republicans are in power. God’s mission depends on the true power of the Holy Spirit of God. That marvelous working power of God hasn’t faltered in the Body of Christ, not even once since Pentecost Day.

As Episcopalians, sometimes we have trusted more in our investments than in the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s time to change that, and God is helping us to change.

Let’s remember that when you hoist the sail of faith, it is the wind and not the sail that counts. God’s power is going to be there for us if we dare to sail unto the unknown of whatever the future has in store for us, always trusting in God’s promises.

This is a time when we are invited to look forward with faith and recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst. Maybe we are incorporated in the State of Florida, but believe me we are more than a corporation that depends on earthly things. We are the Body of Christ and we depend on God and not on earthly things. Our God has promised us a safe landing and not necessarily a calm passage. His promise is that he will be there with us every step of the way.

In my experience as a Christian, I have learned that it is in the times when things may look bleak that we have to trust the promise our Lord has given us: That he will be there with us as far as we want to dare in his name.

Sometimes when we see ourselves at the edge of a cliff it is imperative to completely trust God. We have to let go and know that with God only one or two things will happen. Either he’ll catch us when we fall, or God will teach us how to fly.

I saw this happen after that horrible and destructive Hurricane Mitch when I was the bishop of Honduras. We lost everything, but in the end we not only recovered every single church, and rectory and school but they came back stronger, bigger and better.

I saw this happen after all the crisis that we faced in this diocese post- September 11. Our church suffered, but in the end we became stronger. We had faith, and faith is the daring of the soul to go farther than anyone of us can see.

As your bishop I want you not to forget that. Do not take your eyes from our mission: To make known to all people the transforming power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, including all, excluding none.

I am challenging each one of you, clergy and laity, all of our vestries, not to start thinking of cutting our work, as if Christ didn’t rise from death—as if we had no more hope. I want to challenge every vestry to implement the strategies that will make a difference in their ministries and their communities.

At times of trouble and challenges I am always reminded of my favorite biblical story. It is found in the 13th chapter of the Book of Numbers, which tells of Moses’ sending 12 spies to check out the land that God had promised the people of Israel. When they came back, the 12 spies agreed that it was indeed a land of milk and honey. But 10 of them considered claiming the land an impossible task–they thought it would be too hard to do battle with the people they would face there. Those 10 scared men influenced Moses and the people not to go further to seek God’s Promised Land. They said: “When we saw the enemy, we realized that we were so small that we saw ourselves like grasshoppers, and the enemy saw us as grasshoppers.”

Only Caleb and Joshua insisted on obeying God and trusting in God’s promises, and Caleb said: “No, we must go over at once and claim God’s promise to us, regardless of the obstacles that exist, because with God’s help we can surely overcome them.”

Today I am reminding you of that cry of obedience and faith in God: Yes, we can surely overcome any obstacles that may exist in our future. We can surely overcome them and make our church grow and be stronger regardless of any obstacle that may come our way.

Why? Because what we do, we do in faithful obedience to Christ’s command to us to go forward. When fear begins to knock at your door, just let faith answer the door and you will find that no one is there anymore.

I invite you to trust and obey, for as the hymn says, “there is no other way.”

I know that you can do it, and I know that you have that inner strength in you. During these 8 years of my episcopacy among you, I have seen how courageous and sacrificial your efforts have been; you have truly sacrificed yourselves, and you have et obstacles and overcome them.You have not ceased to work for God’s kingdom. I consider it a privilege to be your bishop, and I pray that regardless of any difficulties we may face that we may continue working together to fulfill our vision: Bring them in, Build them up, Send them out, Tend to their needs, and then together we will rejoice in “Harvesting God’s fruit.”

Before I close, I want to express our gratitude to Fr. Roger Tobin and his staff at St. Thomas Episcopal Church and School, as well as to Sean Murphy and his staff at Palmer Trinity School for hosting us tonight at the banquet. They, together with the South Dade Deanery under the leadership of Dean Jennie Lou Reid, have worked for many days to insure our welcome and comfort. Thank you so much.

Thanks also to all of the Episcopal Schools of this diocese for making our schools lively centers of sound learning, new discoveries and the pursuit of wisdom. Thank you for uplifting our church and proclaiming our faith to a population that otherwise would never get a chance to experience the Episcopal Church. We rejoice in having this opportunity to lift up all your schools. We pray that all those who teach and those who learn in our Episcopal Schools may find Christ as the source of all truth and salvation. May God bless your work.

And to all of you here present, my wife, Diana, and I give thanks every day for being here serving among you in this diocese. We are blessed to be in this diocese of Southeast Florida.

God bless you.

+Leo Frade

October 27, 2008

A message from Bishop Frade opposing Amendment 2

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

After prayerful consideration, I have decided that it is my duty as a Christian, and as your bishop, to urge the defeat of the proposed Amendment 2 to our Florida Constitution, which would define marriage as only between a man and a woman. It seems to me that if we are to be faithful to our Lord’s commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves, we should not be enshrining in our state’s constitution this discriminatory and potentially harmful language.

Not only would the passage of Amendment 2 infringe upon our religious liberty by imposing a single religious definition of marriage on all Floridians, regardless of their beliefs; but because of its wording, this amendment could also deny many important benefits to all unmarried Floridians.

While the amendment is clearly aimed at same-sex relationships, we know that among our state’s large population of retired persons there are also heterosexual couples who have not married for fear of losing a portion of their individual Social Security or pension benefits. In recent years these persons, as well as partners in committed same-sex relationships, have been able to receive protection for their rights under domestic partnership laws. I cannot see how we can say we love our neighbors if we pass an amendment that could put at risk for these couples such rights as the ability to visit or to participate in medical choices for each other in illness or at the point of death.

Faithful people have a wide range of opinions on the matter of same-sex unions. Like our own Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion, many other branches of Christianity, as well other faiths, are currently engaged in challenging conversations about their own doctrines and policies concerning marriage.

Despite this ongoing disagreement among people of good conscience, Florida has already passed a law that defines marriage as the proposed amendment would. However, some supporters of Amendment 2 have argued that a constitutional amendment is necessary to protect clergy from being forced to perform or recognize marriages that are contrary to their doctrine. I believe this fear is unfounded: Because of the religious freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution, no religious group can be forced to recognize all forms of marriage sanctioned by the civil authorities. (For example, the State allows for and recognizes marriage after divorce; the Roman Catholic Church does not. No Roman Catholic priest is obligated by law to officiate at the marriage of any divorced person.)

Along with clergy from a broad spectrum of religious traditions, with diverse views regarding marriage, I have added my signature to a statement opposing Amendment 2. This statement can be found at www.flclergyforfairness.org.

I believe that Amendment 2 is unnecessary, potentially hurtful, and a threat to our cherished freedom of religion, and I urge you to vote against it on November 4.

Faithfully,

+Leo Frade

September 17, 2008

A pastoral letter from Bishop Frade

Dearly Beloved:

In the past month we have seen a series of hurricanes battering our neighbors in the Caribbean and across the Gulf Coast; and now we are feeling that all of us are in the path of a financial storm. Indeed, these are anxious times, and we may feel like crying with the psalmist, “Lord, how many adversaries I have!”

I know that for many of you the events that unfolded this past Monday brought much anxiety. Many in America who have stakes in the stock market worried as Lehman Brothers announced that their company had filed for bankruptcy and that Merrill Lynch had been acquired in a fire sale by the Bank of America. As your bishop I have been concerned about this crisis produced by an excessive and unregulated expansion of credit that has burst another financial bubble, reminding us of Yogi Berra’s famous comment, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.

As your bishop I want to remind you at this time of turmoil: “Be not afraid.” We serve the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, and we and all human institutions, even the financial markets, are in his hand and cannot ever be beyond the reach of his loving care.

The next thing I want you to know is that our diocesan Investment Committee continues exercising very wise and careful stewardship of the funds that have been entrusted to us. This committee met last Friday and again on Monday with representatives of the firm that currently handles our investments, and has been assured that our investments of diocesan and parish funds—your money, our money, God’s money are secure.

I think that this is also a good time to be reminded of the need to revise our priorities. In recent years I have seen how greed has taken over many of our political and financial institutions. The 1987 movie Wall Street became too much of a reality in our country, blinding and deceiving many to behave in ways that were extremely irresponsible and destructive of both national and international economies. Unlike what some believe, the winner is not the one “who dies with the most toys.” I can assure we will do much better when we meet our maker if we show him how much we have done for others and the world, rather than showing him how well we did for ourselves without caring for others.

We are called to be ministers of the transforming love of Jesus Christ in the midst of all these worrisome circumstances. Let us reach out with our prayers, our material goods, our helping hands and our presence to serve all of our neighbors, near and far, who are overwhelmed by adversity and fear.

I urge you to be aware of those in our midst who have lost a job, or are in danger of losing a house, or are overwhelmed with debt. Be a friend to them in every way you can. I will also remind you of the recent appeal I made to aid those who have been affected by this season’s storms by sending your donation to Episcopal Charities or by making a donation online at www.diosef.org.

Lastly, I ask your prayers also for guidance for the leaders of our nation, our President, our Congress and especially for our Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, as they help us to recover from the present crisis.

Beloved, in this time, as in all times of anxiety, trust in God, be faithful in prayer, be of good courage—and be Christ’s Body in the world!

Blessings,

+Leo Frade
Bishop of Southeast Florida