The William Scarlett Award: Douglas Theuner

Let me say, first of all, that however many years ago it was that I was first elected to the board of The Episcopal Church Publishing Company (from which I have since retired -- contrary to what some of you heard on the floor of the House of Deputies, it is Frank Turner of Philadelphia that is retiring, not Doug Theuner of New Hampshire!), the very first action I took as a member of that board was to vote for Jeanie Wylie-Kellermann to become our Editor and Publisher. That vote helped to change my life, the life of this magazine, and the life of our church. And I just need to say that, Jeanie.

The second thing that I want to say to you is that there is a place in this land which nourishes and nurtures people who understand ordinary human beings -- and Betty LaDuke and I are both from the Bronx! YES!! We people from the Bronx understand.

Finally, let me say that I am humbled and I kind of hate to use that term because it's a term that comes very easily to the lips of church people. It's a wonderful term, but it's overused and it's hackneyed. So let me use a more secular variant of it: I am really embarrassed to accept this award, because I and my church have so much and have done so little. There is probably not anybody in this room who is truly a poor person in body, mind or spirit. There are very few people in the Episcopal Church who are poor people. We are among a tiny fraction of the wealthiest people who have ever lived on the face of the earth in the whole history of humankind. And we have not yet begun. Those of us, who like me, still save money for a rainy day, when every day God's bounty rains upon us materially, spiritually. We have not even begun to realize the enormous potential of this church. In the small state and Diocese of New Hampshire alone, I estimate that there is one-third of a billion dollars of Episcopal Church-related institutional money invested in endowment funds. That has nothing to do with any property owned by church institutions, which is additional. It has nothing to do with any money owned or property owned individually by Episcopalians.

Do you have any idea how much wealth we control? And we sat in the House of Bishops yesterday afternoon and argued for a half an hour over whether or not to give two million dollars to the historic black colleges. Now there wasn't anybody in that house, I don't think, who didn't want to do it. Everybody agreed on the principle of it, but we all knew we didn't have the money! We don't have the money?! We don't have the money.

We HAVE the money!

There is an expression among clergy that when we hear something that particularly strikes us as being of interest and value, we say "that'll preach." Well I've had that'll preaches today. One of them was in a sermon. The second one was when Jim Kelsey and I were standing outside the Holiday Inn waiting to come here, wondering if indeed a bus would show up. And when a bus showed up that said "the people's choice" we knew that was the bus for The Witness magazine. That'll preach!

But the other thing that will preach has been preached today when Simon Chuwanga, this morning, quoted Oliver Cromwell -- that damn Presbyterian -- who said, "Let us take the silver of the saints and melt it down and put it into circulation for the people. God's people. All God's people, especially God's people who don't have any of it while we have so much.