In the wake of the presidential election, leaders in the Episcopal Church exhorted Episcopalians to live by their baptismal covenant and pray for peace amid nationwide political polarization.
“Regardless of our political allegiances, we must remember that God has called us in The Episcopal Church to seek and serve Christ in all persons,” Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe wrote in a letter November 6. “No matter the party in power, we are one church, and we will continue to fulfill our baptismal covenant by proclaiming in word and example the Good News of God in Christ, striving for justice and peace among all people, and protecting the dignity of every human being.”
Acknowledging that some are dismayed and others glad for President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, bishops encouraged those in their dioceses to love across differences and seek to understand one another.
The Rt. Rev. Matthew Gunter, Bishop of Wisconsin (a swing state that has voted for Trump in two of his three presidential runs), implored Christians to not harden their hearts to one another.
“[Refusing to harden your heart] is a radical act and has always been so. It does not conform to this world, which tends to exaggerate divisions and suspicions between people. It is not easy. It opens us to being disappointed and hurt,” Gunter wrote. “Keeping our hearts supple toward neighbors, strangers, and enemies—supple toward those whose political choices baffle or offend us—is hard. But this is at the core of the Christian message and of Christian practice.”
The Rt. Rev. Dr. DeDe Duncan-Probe, Bishop of Central New York, echoed that sentiment.
“[W]hen we’re this divided, no one really wins,” Duncan-Probe said in a live video on Facebook. “Winning is when our country is strong and united behind a purpose. We have lost the ability, somehow, to hear each other and listen, and so we begin today anew, afresh, to be on that journey of listening and hearing and healing together. It is love that will heal us.”
Episcopal leaders also issued the reminder that Christians’ ultimate hope is not found in elected authorities.
“We live in a culture that has been politicized so that we may come to some understanding, falsely, that our vote is our salvation. And, of course, it is not,” said the Very Rev. Tony Pompa, canon for congregational support in the dioceses of Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania, in a video posted to Facebook. “It is in moments like this, my friends, that we have to remember that God is God, and let us remember that our ultimate destiny is wrapped up in the heart of God’s mission to reconcile all things to God’s very heart.”
“The ultimate message … of the Feast of Christ the King that waits for us just a couple of weeks down the road is that God has been, and always will be, our ultimate leader and our companion on the way, the one where our true loyalties are placed,” the Rev. Canon Brad Hinton, canon to the ordinary in the Diocese of Delaware, said in a Facebook video. “So, as Jesus called his first disciples, our spiritual forebears, ‘Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom,’ remember you are always close in heart and in prayer.”
In his letter, Rowe highlighted the work of Episcopal Migration Ministries as an expression of the scriptural command to welcome the stranger. The federally funded program has resettled more than 100,000 refugees since 1988. During Trump’s first term, the Episcopal Church condemned his administration’s decision to reduce the cap on refugee admissions.
“We urge President Trump and members of Congress to exercise compassion toward the immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees we serve and to know that, at every turn, we will stand for the dignity and human rights of all of God’s people,” Rowe said.
In a letter to the Diocese of Virginia, the Rt. Rev. E. Mark Stevenson cited Matthew 25 as a model of how Christians ought to care for the vulnerable.
“Now, more than ever, we need to recognize and live into one of the clearest things Jesus ever said about how we interact with others — that how we treat the impoverished, the imprisoned, the malnourished, the one who differs from us — that how we treat ‘the other’ speaks directly to how we treat the God who is love,” Stevenson wrote. “Every human being is a child of God, and loved by Jesus. Therefore, we can do no less. Whether we are elated this morning over this earthly thing called an election, or in despair over it. We can do no less.”
