The Diocesan Dialogue
Current Issue
May 2008

Bishop's Reflections

The theme running through my presentations outside the Diocese in recent weeks is "Advocacy." I have used this word (its root—'voc'—meaning ‘voice') to encourage retired professors, graduating college students and other community leaders to "give voice to people and creatures that have no voice, or whose voices are not heard."

One needn't be a Christian or a religious person to recognize the moral importance which certain forms of advocacy signify. Sometimes we rightly speak only for ourselves—in giving our opinions or interpretations of something. Advocacy can also be a negative expression of the individualism so characteristic of our culture. "Every man for himself," (wherever that motto came from) is poor moral counsel for people of any age, occupation or affiliation.

Advocacy in general is deeply embedded in our legal system, and it is associated with the Christian tradition of praying through the saints and Christ himself. Even here, however, it can have the selfish purpose of asking that only our cause be put forward.

But the advocacy I have had in mind rests on broadly religious values such as freedom, equality, justice—even life itself.

From an environmental perspective, many of God's creatures and species have no voice of their own. Knowing when they are being damaged or put at risk obliges us to speak on their behalf— often for the health and balance of the whole system in which they participate.

On a human level, many people and groups of people are also needful of the advocacy of others in order that their cause be heard—immigrants and minorities, the very young and old, those who injured or ill, the poor, the well-being of civic communities, future generations and global causes. Often it is difficult to know where to start or how to proceed, but we can discover these things when we hold to our desire to do so, and listen ourselves to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Faithfully, The Rt. Rev. Carolyn Tanner Irish

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