Thirteen years with Bishop Paul
By Bill Lewellis
Well-kneaded, God-baked, God-broken, God-made
Thirteen years ago, June 29, 1996, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, bishops laid hands on Paul V. Marshall, consecrating him eighth bishop of the 14-county Diocese of Bethlehem.
Many of us who were there remember snippets of the sermon preached by Bishop Catherine Roskam, a former student in Bishop Paul’s homiletics class at Yale. One part, where she recited a poem, Bakerwoman God, seems to me to have been especially prophetic: “Bakerwoman God, I am your living bread … I am your rising bread, well-kneaded … Put me in fire, Bakerwoman God … Break me, Bakerwoman God … Bakerwoman God, remake me.”
Upon returning from a 2005 mission trip to southern Sudan, Bishop Paul told a story about the impetus for the New Hope Campaign which has now raised more than $3.8 million for the people of Kajo Keji and the needy of northeastern Pennsylvania. “At the end of a week in that bomb-torn country, Diana and I baked in a bus for 14 hours in the Ugandan sun. Finally you give up wiping your face. As we became increasingly caked with red dirt and the overcrowded bus grew hotter and hotter, I found myself baking in a creative and holy sense: I knew God wanted my attention. Genesis says humans began our existence as kind of mud pies, and the red dust of the earth baking into my pores helped me have a new beginning of insight: Here were sisters and brothers with almost nothing to their names trying to build a life and a country — how could I go on as usual? In addition to altering how I live personally, I have had to abandon some of my bricks-and-mortar dreams for our own diocese, particularly regarding a conference center, in order to see what God would have us do for others. The question that intrigued me was, Could we dare to have a capital fund drive where we didn’t get the money?”
From my perspective, Bishop Paul's well-kneaded, God-baked, God-broken and God-made ministry among us has been broad and deep: teacher, pastor, preacher, administrator, author, advocate and participant in ministry with people in the developing world, children and youth, the poor and the marginalized, advocate and reconciler with those within the church who consider themselves progressive as well as those who consider themselves traditionalists, interpreter of family systems theory, communicator within and beyond the diocesan community, a leader who consults with colleagues, and a person whose ministry as bishop proceeds from prayer and a contemplative vision of God's kingdom.
Please pray for our bishop, especially on his 13th anniversary among us, not only as he experiences these days the continuing pain of good recovery from surgery but also the questions of the day and the challenges from the gospel passage about loving God and being taken to difficult places (John 21:15-19) proclaimed on the day of his consecration.