Within the first hour of the election as the bishop of Idaho, I received a call from the canon to the presiding bishop, the Rev. Mark Stevenson, congratulating me and giving me a little insight into what was coming.
This call was followed by a call from the Bishop for Pastoral care in the episcopal church, Todd Ousley. Since then the phone calls, emails, and texts have continued to flow from people I never heard of before that.
My Facebook until that day was about 800 “friends.” I used to get a friend request from someone once a month and lots of spammers. I was careful about whom I accept due to security concerns. But on February 19th I received over 100 friend requests from people I never met or heard of. That included people from the diocese of Idaho to the bishops and clergy from the Anglican Churches around the world.
I remember phone calls from reporters and freelance writers wanting to talk to me and hear my perspectives on things. Until that moment I shared without fear but then I grew anxious as to what I can and can not share or talk about.
My family watched me from distance not knowing how to take it or what to think of it. They moved along without any clarity of what is going on or how to help or what to say. Anxieties of moving, finding new friends, and saying goodbyes to families and friends again were hard on our kids. Nothing is anyone’s mistake. This is the experience of a clergyperson called to a new church and what their families go through and what expectations do to them and their families, except this is a little more than that of s clergy moving into a community of people.
The adrenaline rush was real and kept us moving. Maybe that’s why we have adrenaline in our system to get through these kinds of life-altering situations.
I struggled to balance the second job I landed after six months of intense conversations that were confidential for four months and then in public scrutiny for three more months until the 19th of February.
All of a sudden I am dealing with the cares, concerns, joys, excitements, and fears of two communities around me: my parish St. James went into sadness and my new church the Diocese of Idaho, seemed happy for their choice. My church in Springfield didn’t know how to take the result of the election. They were happy for me and they were sad for themselves. I am happy for the diocese and sad for my people at St. James. I was happy and afraid, excited for the potential, and having feelings of inadequacy compounded by unending phone calls, and emails I couldn’t keep track of, and totally humbling experience of why me? How did this happen? Yes. I went through it knowingly and willingly feeling God called me, but did I do the right thing?
I looked back into my schedule to see the number of phone calls and meetings that populated my calendar since February 19th. Zoom meetings with the transition committee and phone calls from clergy in Idaho and the diocese of west Missouri flooded my voicemail and email inbox.
I got about an hour between the time I spoke to the people of Idaho and the phone call from Rev. Mark Stevenson to talk to my wife, kids, my family in India, and a few seconds to breathe.
The work of a bishop began an hour after the election to that role not in the traditional role of looking through papers and signing off documents. But in the sense of knowing new people, building relationships, understanding different procedures, reading history, listening to hopes, dreams, and expectations, networking, and studying the new roles and responsibilities which nobody is prepared for.
So my job as bishop started with the new title: the bishop-elect while getting paid only for one job and doing two full-time and a half jobs. If it was not with the transition committee it was with the bishop or treasurer or national church or seeking help from someone who can support the diocese or me.
If none of the above then it was preparing for consecration. Getting the documents for a smooth transition saying goodbye to people while establishing new connections over zoom. I took two flights to Boise and back and one to Chicago and back related to being the bishop of Idaho before I came to Idaho. There were over 500 phone calls, zoom meetings and hundreds of emails responded to between February and June 1st and all of which were before I was enrolled in the payroll as an employee of the diocese of Idaho.
Haven’t you heard that nobody knows the life of the other until they walk in their shoes? I thought I knew what the world of a bishop was. I promise you not a person who is not a bishop knows what a bishop does. Of course, there are textbooks explaining. I wish that’s all it is. Because then you can check the box when you are done with them. But sadly there are no checkboxes to check. There are no full stops. Most of what we deal with is a coma or a semicolon and occasional full stops.
The life of a bishop is something like a complex sentence joined by different clauses sometimes hard to find where it began, who, when, and how one thing affects another all the while wondering how it is all going to end.
If the work of a bishop is defined by the events on the calendar alone it’s easy. It may be easy but still will give someone a concussion because it’s a lot more for the pay he or she receives if the salary is in the equation. That’s why a bishop has an executive assistant to help with that one piece. But sadly that’s only a portion of what he or she does.
To top it all I hadn’t taken my vacation in 2022 or taken a day off between February 19th and May 29th. Was any of these bad? Not at all. I signed up for it. Right? So, why complain? No complaints here, but rather a look back into the days rolling up to that day when one receives the call stating the election result to the rest of what is unfolding.
While it may look like it’s all work with no pleasure in it, I believe the life of clergy is a 24/7/365 job and lifestyle with great joy when one is in it for the right reason. For me even though it is a lot of work, day and night, evening and early morning, it’s worth every second of it. I don’t regret a split second of what I do, and therefore, most of what I say or do would sound like it is fun, because it is fun for me to serve.
I have come to the conclusion long ago that if you enjoy what you do, you won’t work a single day in your life. If work doesn’t give you joy, then find work that gives you joy, and not money. Money, of course, is important, but not as important as the joy you draw from what you do to make your world a better place.
World is a better place because you are in it. You have heard that a thousand times. But not because you are in it as a blob, but because you make it a better place by your very presence, however small that is. The drop of water that is in the sea may be a drop in the sea, but the sea without that drop in it is not full.
May God bless you abundantly on this day.
Love
+Jos
