About 500 Episcopalians gathered under one of the bluest of June's skies to sing, pray and give thanks together with Bishop M. Thomas Shaw, SSJE as he prepares to retire after 20 years as the bishop of the Diocese of Massachusetts.
The June 21 celebration at Jamaica Pond in Boston was the culmination of a three-month "Season of Service and Celebration" during which parishes participated in community service projects in Shaw's honor.
The Rt. Rev. Frank T. Griswold III, the former presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal
Tracy J. Sukraw
Bishops Frank Griswold and Tom Shaw following the June 21 liturgy
Church, preached a sermon during the morning liturgy under a big-top tent, and described his brother bishop and friend as a potter, provocateur and, above all, a man of prayer.
Griswold recounted how the announcement of Shaw's unusual first-ballot election on March 12, 1994, had been received by the House of Bishops--on retreat at the time with Shaw, its chaplain, in North Carolina--with a burst of "wild applause and cheers...that someone they knew so well, and appreciated so deeply, would now be among their number."
Griswold went on to acknowledge the difficult circumstances of Shaw's abrupt entry into office following the suicide of his predecessor, Bishop David Johnson, in January 1995, and how the subsequent years have been about both diocese and bishop shaping and molding one another "according to St. Paul's notion of the church as Christ's risen body constituted by the relationship of its diverse limbs one to another."
"All that has happened over these years is the fruit of common effort and a shared vision," Griswold said.
Calling Shaw "a catalyst and at times a provocateur," Griswold highlighted Shaw's success at fundraising, his initiatives focused on young people and his work to build global relationships.
"During these last 20 years he has exercised a ministry of accompaniment in various parts of our Anglican Communion that has both respected and transcended difference," Griswold said. "This sense of being with and being for requires a heart into which the love of God has been poured, and a mind and imagination renewed by the actions of the Holy Spirit."
"The wide-ranging ministries, the ever-deepening sense of being united in Christ as members of his risen body: these bear witness to the power of prayer and are the fruit of abiding in God's love," Griswold said.
Tracy J. Sukraw
Bishop Shaw greets Jessica Lee at the June 21 celebration
"May the boundless love of God, the companioning grace of Christ and the life-giving communion of the Holy Spirit continue to sustain and guide Tom," Griswold said. "As well may they sustain and guide Alan [Gates] in the days ahead as he comes among you to serve as the 16th bishop of Massachusetts. And, may they continue to sustain and guide you, the limbs and members of this faithful and gifted diocese. I pray that each one of us having been baptized into Christ--in all that life sets before us--may continually draw strength and courage from the one who is the true vine, such that we are made more fruitful still in ways that exceed all that we can ask or imagine." [Sermon text available below.]
At the offertory parish representatives presented dozens of memory books filled with hundreds of messages of thanks and farewell to Shaw. The day's offering was designated for the diocese's Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center in Greenfield, N.H., and it was announced that the property's main lodge will be named in Shaw's honor.
Shaw plans to resign his office at the ordination and consecration of his successor, the Rev. Alan M. Gates, on Sept. 13.
--Tracy J. Sukraw
See photos from the celebration here. Gifts designated in Shaw's honor for the Second Decade of the Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center can be made online here.