Column by Mary Lee Talbot
The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde finished her week as chaplain by initiating a new format for morning worship — a service in the Hall of Philosophy.
Bishop Sutton and Bishop Budde shared a conversation about Budde’s faith journey. Sutton praised Budde for living up to her ordination vow to be a voice for those who have no helper. Budde’s mother was an immigrant from Sweden, and her father was adopted by a “very Yankee family,” and “the family fit him like a scratchy sweater.” When her parents divorced, Budde, her mother and her sister attended an Episcopal church in New Jersey because her mother found another divorced woman with two girls in the congregation. As a late teen, she went to live with her father in Colorado, and she came to faith through friends who were part of an independent Baptist church.
“After the altar call, I felt something, but whatever was supposed to happen did not happen; I was not sure that ‘it took.’ And that church was very clear that there was only a very narrow path to salvation and we were on it and others were not,” she said.
Returning to live with her mother, Budde found the priest at her mother’s Episcopal church listened to her questions and gave her a foundation for what it meant to follow Jesus. “My faith was wrapped up in coming into adulthood,” Budde said. “I have lots of doubts, not about God, but about my ability to follow Jesus, to be good enough.”
Sutton asked Budde what the central Christian message is. She stated, “I believe God is a god of unconditional love and compassion and the universe is intended for good. We have been offered an invitation to follow a particular way of love in a world that is not as good as God would desire. Growing in love is the path of personal faith. Love in communal life is ‘manifest justice’ because justice pays attention to our corporate life.”
One of Budde’s favorite scriptures is John 6: 1–14, feeding the crowd following Jesus. It shows us, she said, “God has the power to take what we have to offer and use it. These verses taught me to make an offering, leave it in Jesus’ hands and let the power of God do what God does.”
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, senior pastor of Chautauqua, presided. Carolyn Snider, the Department of Religion office manager and a tri-athlete, read the scripture, John 6: 1–14. Sonya Subbayya Sutton, interim director of Sacred Music, provided piano accompaniment. Sutton and flutist Reva Youngstein played movements from “Flute Sonata, Op.64,” by Mel Bonis. The congregation joined in singing music from the Taizé community.
