And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Matthew 25:40

Thomas Friedman in his book The World Is Flat showed convincingly how interrelated and interconnected we are in the world of internet, cyberspace and emerging technologies. News, information, events and actions occurring in one part of the planet can be communicated all over the planet in a matter of seconds. The present economic distress is not limited to one country or one part of the world. The impact is global. The words of the 17th century poet and preacher John Donne have never been truer: “No man is an island, entire of itself.”

The theme of our upcoming General Convention is Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a traditional African understanding of being human in community. Simply put, Ubuntu means, “I am, because we are.” It means that no one is an island. It means that to be fully and truly human, I need you in order to be me, and you need me in order to be you. Ubuntu means that to be a person is to be a person in relationship and in community with others. That is how God has created us, for each other. Though we too often act as though we are the human race, we are in fact meant to be the human family of God. We were made for God and for each other. That is the wisdom of the tradition of Ubuntu as Desmond Tutu and others like him have taught us.

In the parable of the Last Judgment, Jesus taught us that the practical work of loving, serving, caring and doing justice for one another is the standard of God’s judgment. And the reason for that is that God has created us to be God’s human family. “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40). In the teachings of Jesus, in his life and in his Spirit, Jesus has shown us the way to become the human family of God. The theme of Ubuntu is intended in part to help us as a Church claim anew that high calling.

My prayer is that this issue of The Disciple, focusing in part on the upcoming General Convention, will assist the people of our Diocese in understanding the work of the General Convention, and in praying for the work of the Convention as it seeks to help us become the human family of God. Ubuntu!

Keep the faith,
+Michael