What Would You Ask?

"What people think of as the moment of discovery is really the discovery of the question." - Jonas Salk

The steering team met this week to continue our work. We are a group of people passionate about the Gospel and the Episcopal Church. We came together to reach out to our communities and gather information to help discern a vital mission for our diocese into the future. This sounded straightforward at the beginning.

Yet, we have found this endeavor to be complicated. We have encountered uncertainty and frustration. Like many in the larger church, we are wrestling with many issues – how should the church respond to a changing culture, what is the proper role of the diocese in supporting churches, how do we hear and respond to the voices of those who are not part of the church, how do we act as Jesus' hands and feet in the world, how do we help address the needs of the poor and hurting?

Our group has different answers to these questions. Yet we are united in our determination to find out how God is calling us, the people of the Diocese of Olympia, to live out the Gospel in this time and place. We know those in our group do not have the answers, and we need to hear from many within and outside the church. We know this period of exploration is part of the journey, and trust that with God's help, we will discover how to join in the future God is already preparing for us.

We talked at our meeting this week about the importance of asking the right question. As Jonas Salk says, the moment of discovery is often when the right question is identified. What is the question our diocese should be asking of those outside the church walls? What question will help us reach out, engage, and learn? What would you ask?