Episcopal Church of Minnesota Convention 2025 – report from delegate Jacob Buchen

My name is Jacob Buchen, I am a member of the vestry and the finance chair here at the cathedral. Though I am not coming to speak from that perspective today.

I am happy to have the opportunity to share some remarks about the Episcopal Church of Minnesota convention that was held on November 7th -9th in Rochester. The remarks I will be sharing are based on the addresses that our Bishop Loya and Bishop Monnot of Iowa made to the convention. This is not my message, these are the bishops’ messages to the people of God. We felt it was important that not only the convention delegates got to hear this message but all of St. Mark’s congregation.

Bishop Loya shared that we need to embrace our limits. We live in a world that constantly tells us we should be able to do everything, be everything, meet every need, please every person. But the truth is—we cannot be all things to all people.

Part of our work in this season is acknowledging that we cannot do everything on our own. That’s why partnerships with other church communities—such as the Sunday night supper work we do to serve a monthly meal—matter so deeply. When we work together, God weaves our gifts into something larger than any one parish could sustain. But embracing limits also means setting some things down. And when we set things down, someone is almost always disappointed. That is hard. Bishop Loya said directly “our job is not to make everyone happy.” Our job is to stay focused on the one thing that matters most:Jesus.

The bridge between Bishop Loya and Monnot’s messages was hope. In Matthew 14, when Peter steps out of the boat, he does it with hope. Not hope in himself, or in the institution around him, but hope in Christ. That hope is what allows him to take the step. And friends, that same hope is what we must carry with us when we step out of our familiar boats—when we worship differently, try new ministries, or make hard decisions. Hope lets us step out not because of who we are, but because of who Jesus is.

I want to share an image with you: the difference between a cornfield and a prairie. This is the image Bishop Monnot shared at the convention.

A cornfield is efficient. It props up an institution. It looks tidy, predictable, manageable. And the structure of church— a vestry, committees, a budget, which I have learned a lot about over the last two years serving on the vestry—was built for cornfield churches. But God is calling us to something wilder, something older, something more resilient.

A church should be a prairie. She talked about how a prairie takes a long time to restore once the land has been cleared. The soil has to rest. The insects—the pollinators—have to find their way back. This work is just as hard as maintaining a cornfield, but it is a different kind of work. A prairie bends with the wind. It flexes with the changing environment. It provides life beyond itself. And here is the beautiful part: we are God’s pollinators. We carry the love of Jesus into the world. We spread hope, hospitality, compassion, forgiveness. When we are filled with the love of Christ, we bring life wherever we go.

Bishop Monnot asked us to start thinking differently. To do that, we have to start asking different questions—not “church questions” about numbers or politics or survival—but Gospel questions.

• Where is Jesus leading us?
• Who is God calling us to welcome?
• How do we make this a place where everyone can truly relax and breathe when they walk through the doors.

We have begun to do this very meaningful work already here at the Cathedral but there is more work to be done.

Because the truth is: God does not need us to be wealthy or impressive or successful by worldly standards. God calls us simply to gather the people God sends, to help transform hearts and minds and bodies, so they can go out and love the world and spread the holy spirit.

Reclaiming the prairie takes all of us, not just the vestry, and clergy at St. Mark’s but everyone who comes to worship at St. Mark’s. It is shared work. We are all called to do this work together. So the question before us is this: How will we practice owning this work together? I pray that God gives us the courage to step out of the boat, that God gives us the hope to trust where Christ is leading, and that God gives us the joy of becoming pollinators in a world hungry for grace.