The Three-Legged Stool

Requiescat in Pace, Göran

2011-07-29T11:56:00.000-07:00

Fr. Göran Koch-Swahne (1954-2011)

I dina händer, o barmhärtige Frälsare, vi berömmer din tjänare Göran. Erkänn, bönfaller vi ödmjukt dig, ett får av din egen vik, ett lamm av din egen flock, en syndare av dina egna försonande. Emot honom i armarna på din nåd, i den välsignade resten av evig fred, och i det härliga sällskap med de heliga i ljuset. Amen.

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Göran. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.

Eternal Rest Grant Unto Him O Lord,

And Light Perpetual Shine Upon Him.

Evig vila låta honom o Herre,
Och ljus Perpetual lysa för honom.

For his long time friends who may not know, Goran was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive and fast moving form of prostate cancer. It spread to his bones. He was placed in Hospice care on 26 June.

An anniversary for Terry Martin

2011-07-25T08:35:00.001-07:00

On this day in 1991 Terry Martin was ordained to the priesthood. Congratulations, Fr. Martin!

News of our brother Göran.

2011-06-28T14:20:00.000-07:00

Our very beloved brother, Gören, has been on hospice for a week. He has an aggressive form of prostate cancer. According to his niece, the does not have a lot of time before he joins the Communion of Saints. Please keep him in your prayers as he graduates from mortality. And remember his blood family and his adopted family one of whom I am privileged to be.

Growing up in the shadow of a Swedish Lutheran Church, I learned Children of the Heavenly Father at a very young age. It was always sung in times of distress and for funerals. The last verse of the English translation says:

Neither life nor death shall ever

From the Lord, His children sever.

His the loving purpose solely,

To preserve them, pure and holy.

Bishop Shimpfky at rest

2011-02-28T08:04:00.000-08:00

It is with great sadness that I report the death of the Rt. Rev'd Richard L. Shimpfky, D.D.. Bishop Shimpfky graduated from this life into that life of perfect freedom at 6 a.m. today, 28 February 2011.

I no words to express my sorrow.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4.13-18

Requiescat in Pace.

Et lux perpetuia eis, Domine.

For Armstrong, crime does pay

2011-02-26T06:47:00.000-08:00

Former priest, Donald Armstrong, who defrauded his Colorado parish of more than two-hundred-thousand dollars and led the same parish out of The Episcopal Church has been sentenced in the case. For Armstrong, crime paid to the une of a little over $300,000.

Armstrong has been ordered to repay $99,000 of the $$392000+ and placed on four year's probation. Armstrong has, as of yet, not acknowledged any misconduct in the matter.

As readers will recall, Armstrong used church funds to pay for the education of his children and other personal expenses. Trust funds were raided for his personal profit.

Read it all here.

For additional background, see here and here.

More depressing news for the Calvinist arm of the AC

2011-02-16T08:23:00.000-08:00

This interesting bit of news made me laugh aloud. Some days, God sends just enough "tickle factor" to make getting out of a sick bed worth while.

The following Primates were elected as members of the Primates' Standing Committee at the recent Primates' Meeting in Dublin, Ireland and have agreed to serve:
Africa
Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul Yak (Sudan) - alternate Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi (Burundi)

Central, North, South Americas and the Caribbean
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori (The Episcopal Church)
- alternate Archbishop John Holder (West Indies)

Europe
Bishop David Chillingworth (Scotland)
- alternate Archbishop Alan Harper (Ireland)

Middle East and West Asia
Bishop Samuel Azariah (Pakistan)
- alternate Bishop Paul Sarker (Bangladesh)

South East Asia and Oceania
Archbishop Paul Kwong (Hong Kong)
- alternate Archbishop Winston Halapua (Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia)

Each Primate serves for a period of three years, and thereafter until the next Primates’ Meeting. Also membership ceases when a member ceases to be a Primate.

What great news for our Presiding Bishop!

Poor Rowan, what will he do?

2011-02-13T10:07:00.000-08:00

Things just keep getting worse for the right wingers in the Angican Communion and its chief fence sitter, The Most Rev'd and Right Honourable Rowan Williams.

Parliament is going to allow same-gender marriages to take place in the church, and male couples will refer to the other partner as "husband" and lesbian couples will refer to their partner as "wife."

In a major concession to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's Lib Dems, the Government will announce that for the first time, such ceremonies will be allowed to have a religious element, including hymns and Bible readings. They could be carried out by priests or other religious officials.

The Archbishop of York has stated the is all for equal rights as long as someone else's rights don't offend him.

'I, who believes in a liberal democracy, and actually wants equality with everybody, cannot say 'the Quakers should not do it' nor do I want somebody to tell me 'but the church of England must do it, but the Roman Catholic church must do it' because actually that's not what equality is about. You mustn't have rights that trump other rights.

Isn't that sporting of him. And poor Rowan. Well, when one refuses to have a position on any matter, the ground is always quaking.

Read more here.

Duncan loses, again.

2011-02-03T10:00:00.000-08:00

The Commonwealth Court of appeals affirmed the lower court ruling awarding diocesan property to the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh.

For more, visit the diocesean website.

Prayers requested for Bishop Richard Shimpfky

2011-02-02T15:39:00.000-08:00

TTLS bids your prayers for our brother, the Rt. Rev'd Richard Shimpfky, past bishop of the Diocese of El Camino Real, who is seriously ill and transitioning into Eternal Life.

He is under hospice care ailing with pneumonia, ulcerative colitis and blood clots in the lung and elsewhere. He's looking to the end and wanted me to pray with him for a "Holy Death"

I am greatly saddened by this news. Bishop Shimpfky was a truly holy bishop and a great Shepherd for our troubled diocese. And, it is an honour to have him as a friend.

Iker 0 : TEC 10

2011-01-21T17:16:00.000-08:00

In a decision that I must admit surprises me, we learned this afternoon that former bishop Jack L. Iker has been dealt a hefty slap in the face by the legal system in a summary judgment.

Episcopal Cafe reports that:

On Friday, January 21, 2011, the Hon. John P. Chupp of the 141st District Court, Tarrant County, Texas, granted the Local Episcopal Parties’ and The Episcopal Church’s Motions for Summary Judgments. He denied the Southern Cone parties Motion for a Partial Summary Judgment

The Court orders provide in part that the defendants, including Bishop Jack L. Iker, “surrender all Diocesan property, as well as control of the Diocesan Corporation, to the Diocesan plaintiffs and to provide an accounting of all Diocesan assets within 60 days of this order.”

Additionally, “the Court hereby orders the Defendants not to hold themselves out as leaders of the Diocese.

A PDF of the order is here.

News from Turo

2011-01-07T11:40:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post reports that The Rev'd Marshall Brown, who was instrumental in leading fourteen Virginia parishes into schism, has been relieved of his duties in Fairfax.

A longtime priest at one of the country's largest and most prominent conservative Anglican churches has been fired for repeatedly using a church computer to surf for pornography, an official at the Fairfax City church said.

Read about it here and then say a prayer for Mr. Brown.

Episcopal Cafe has more on the development.

The Christmas Message from The Primate of TEC

2010-12-20T18:02:00.000-08:00

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light - Isaiah 9:2

That's how the first lesson of Christmas Eve opens. It's familiar and comforting, as the familiar words go on to say that light has shined on those who live in deep darkness, that God has brought joy to people living under oppression, for a child has been borne to us. The name of that child is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace -- and God is bringing an endless peace through an heir to the throne of David (vv 3, 4, 6, 7).


The Most Rev'd Katharine Jefferts Shori

This year we're going to hear a bit we haven't heard in Episcopal churches before, in that missing verse 5. It's pretty shocking but it helps explain why the hunger for light is so intense, and the joy so great when it comes: "For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire." The coming of this prince of peace will mean the end of all signs of war and violence. An occupied people will finally live in peace, without anxiety about who or what will confront them the next time they go out their front doors.

People in many parts of this world still live with the echo of tramping boots and the memory of bloody clothing. Many Episcopalians are living with that anxiety right now, particularly in Haiti and Sudan. Americans know it through the ongoing anxiety after September 11 and in the wounded soldiers returning to their families and communities, grievously changed by their experience of war. Remember the terror of war when you hear those words about light on Christmas Eve. Remember the hunger for peace and light when you hear the shocking promise that a poor child born in a stable will ead us all into a world without war. Remember the power of light when you go out into the darkness after hearing those words -- and pray that you and those around you may become instruments of peace.

Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace among those whom he favors! - Luke 2:14

- The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori

What General Synod really said

2010-11-24T08:47:00.000-08:00

Anglican cyber-land has been ablaze this morning with the news that the General Synod of the Church of England, the Mother Church, has "voted to approve the covenant." It was stated that the vote was by a large majority in favour. Well, that's hogwash as they say in the Southern United States.

Rowan changed his opening address to bully the first form school children that he thinks they are, into a vote of confidence for his reign as the worst archbishop of Canterbury in the history of the world. Being obedient, the naughty first formers gave him what he told them to give him. But, just barely. The vote was a "simple majority" not an overwhelming majority.

The delegates to General Synod knew that the vote would postpone any action on the dreadful document forced on the sane Anglicans by the insane and power greedy primates who want to be queens. General Synod send the whole covenant idea to the dioceses where it will be "discussed in a gentlemanly fashion" in the deaneries, which is, in my opinion, where it should be discussed. This will allow the sane voices to be heard.

Life or death of the Covenant in England is in the hands of the local Anglicans who are, thankfully, more sane than most of the bishops and primates in the Church of England.

Recognizing this, the Deatheaters issued a statement which says, in effect, "we aren't interested in anything the rest of you do because we aren't playing cricket with you. We have our own court now, and we have our own balls, wickets, and bats, and more important, we have our own umpires. So sod off, the lot of you." The name of deposed, former bishop Bob Duncan on the document as one of their leaders proves that they are not Anglican nor wish to be Anglican.

What this statement did is not what it intended to do. I think it will be used against the covenant in the deaneries of the Church of England. Sane Anglicans can say, "It's impossible to be cricket with these people. We have given them just about everything they demanded and they still won't play a gentlemanly game."

But what can one expect from a bunch of lying malcontents bent on world domination and a theocracy where people are murdered for disagreeing with them or their Neanderthal moral code.

One thing is certain: The Anglican Communion is dead as of today. It's been gasping for breath ever since Rowan allowed the stormtroopers free reign. Requescat in Pace, Communio Anglicana. we can only put our hand into the hand of God and go forth into the unknown.

Counterlight has a post that very much agrees with me. You'll find it here. The Lead's commentary is here.

UPDATE: Brother Tobias has a good commentary here.

Remembrance Day

2010-11-11T03:00:00.000-08:00

The eleventh hour of the eleventh month of the eleventh day. Where ever you are at 11 a.m., please take two minutes to remember the sacrifice that ended the First World War and all the military who have died in times of war.

Chauvinistic bishops to flee contaminated sect

2010-11-08T04:00:00.000-08:00

According to reports, five Church of England bishops will make their submission to Rome to avoid contaminating themselves by being in a church that recognizes the existence of women in the ordained ministry.

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales said Bishop of Ebbsfleet Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Richborough Keith Newton, Bishop of Fulham John Broadhurst and retired bishops Edwin Barnes and David Silk have decided "to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church.

This is, of course, utter nonsense and it's all about misogyny. The Apostle Paul plainly taught the church that there is no distinction between males and females in God's eyes. Therefore, the distinction is purely an Old Testament patrimonial relic of a bygone millennium and the vestiges of dying old white men.

All Saints' Day and the Electrician

2010-11-01T02:00:00.000-07:00

All Saints' Day
BCP Service II

The Lectionary

Homiliy:

I could talk about a lot of people today - very holy women and men who did great things. But today I want to talk about a holy electrician who taught me about the Communion of Saints.

A year ago, my cousin Bernie died. Well, actually, Bernie wasn't my cousin; his wife is my cousin. But in our family, after an arbitrary number of years, the "by marriage" label dissolves and the person magically becomes blood family. So much so that the family tends to side with the "by marriage" partner in disagreements. It's funny how some families function, you know?

As we approached All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, I thought of Bernie a lot. He certainly qualifies for sainthood: He put up with my cousin for more than 50 years; he was an absolutely stellar parent to three children living in mental darkness as our former Book of Common Prayer used to phrase it; he was an ardent supporter of our parish for 68 years' he was honest and upright at all times. But all of that isn't why I've been thinking of him so much.

I've been thinking of Bernie because of the experience of the Viaticuum.

Our former rector was asked to come when Bernie's wife, and sister thought "it" was getting close. He is having some problems with his memory but he managed to do a proper liturgy for Bernie. But, at the time of Holy Communion he added something. (You need to know that Father is of African ancestry and there is more than just a little Baptist in him.) Before he placed the Body of Christ on Bernie's tongue and spoke the works we all know, he added, with a voice and 'authority' I had not heard him use before:

Bernie, my brother, the next time we all do this with you we're goin' to be doin' it in heaven with Jesus.

It wasn't a comment, it was a fait accompli. That is the moment I a actually realized Bernie really was going to die. But it was also the moment I fully understood what the Communion of Saints really is: mystic, sweet fellowship and connection with those whose rest is won.

I stayed with his wife and his sister for several more hours and then I went home. I somehow new Bernie didn't want me there when the chariot came.

But before I left, I had the opportunity to thank Bernie for being such a good husband to Zela and a a good father to his children. And, for loving me when I was pretty unlovable. And I told him I was glad he was my cousin and my brother in the Lord.

What I should have thanked him for was teaching me what "The Communion of Saints" means.

As we approach All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, I sing, "I Sing a Song of the Saints of God..." but I add one wee bit, "and one was an electrician named Bernie who taught me more in his death than he did by his 'good life long'."

O blest communion, fellowship divine!

We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;

All are one in Thee, for all are Thine.

Alleluia, Alleluia!

Pentecost XXIII

2010-10-31T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 26

The Lectionary

Homily:

Hookworm. Largely eradicated in the U.S. for nearly a century, these tiny parasites are one of the leading causes of maternal and child mortality in the tropics and subtropics. Debilitating the immune system, they are a known cause of anemia, and hookworm infections can make the body more susceptible to malaria and HIV.

But in 2004, David Pritchard, a British immunologist, applied a bandage to his arm covered in hookworm larva, intentionally infecting himself. This wasn’t an act of self-destruction but was the beginning of years of study into the possible benefits of the tiny parasites.

The hookworm, like all of our earthly co-habitants, evolved alongside us, and in this case, within us, in an intricate balance. As it turns out, hookworms, in small amounts, can work to keep our sometimes overactive immune system in check. A small hookworm infection can serve to prevent certain allergic reactions in humans, to reduce asthma, and eradicate hay fever. Allergies, in their modern ubiquitous array of manifestations, may be, in part, a result of our attempt to sanitize our world and rid ourselves of this and other tiny parasites.

In our culture, we are obsessed with sanitation and control. For many of us, our vision of the reign of God, whether we call it that or not, is one of simplification, where there exist no unknowns, where the world is a mechanical, predictable, responsive, finite network, and where justice is a system of equal give and take.

The signs of this vision are all around us, as are the signs of its destructiveness. In our attempt to groom God’s creation into a controlled environment, we’ve cleared millions of acres of forestland, prairie, and meadows for single cash crops. We’ve dramatically reduced the biodiversity of our most populated areas in order to make them safe for a handful of domesticated species. We’ve developed simplistic systems of labor, talent, and currency equivalences. We’ve envisioned a world as white as individually plastic-wrapped disposable cutlery; the whiteness of a single-use fork to accompany our individually packaged organic spinach salad.

But today’s readings remind us that the world is a complex, messy place. Consider the reading from Isaiah. The Jewish people of the prophet’s time had a vision similar to ours: a world where simple exchanges could right the spiritual disorder, where quick cures would undo long-term spiritual decline and disease. Their hands were bloodied with their burnt offerings, their schedules were filled with church-stuff without really engaging the broken world surrounding them. But the justice of God asks more: “Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”

One would think that these commands would be clear enough. Stop doing bad; do good. But God, speaking through Isaiah, admits to the fallacy of any system of symbols, even language. Isaiah, interpreting God’s revelation, speaks the beautiful line: “Come now, let us argue it out.” Or in other translations “Sit down. Let us reason together.” In an invitation, God, through Isaiah, admits to humankind that even God’s commandments, when written in human language, are insufficient to know and envision the reign of God.

God calls us into conversation, even argument, over what it is to follow God’s will, to resist, to listen, to adapt, to contest, to move forward in relationship with God. God speaks to the continuing revelation of God’s will in the world, a revelation dependent on relationship, on placed-ness, on the past and the present realities of human life from which we speak, and read, and act. It is in this “arguing out” of justice that God offers us the possibility of redemption, of the cleansing that makes us “like snow.”

But the whiteness of snow can be a slippery slope into the vision of a dry-erase world, where the past is forgotten in an attempt to not be bound to it. Who has not heard or sang of the cleansing power of the blood of the lamb? We are to be washed as white as snow by the blood of the lamb, by claiming him as our personal Lord and Savior. Sometimes we imagine that Jesus is the ultimate re-start button, that to find and be found by Jesus is to forget the past and simply live by love into the future. But that is not the Jesus we encounter in today’s gospel reading.

There’s a fun children’s song to tell the story:

Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he.

He climbed up in a sycamore tree, for the Lord he wanted to see.

And as the Savior passed that way, He looked up in the tree,

And he said, “Zacchaeus, you come down;

“For I'm going to your house today, for I'm going to your house today.”

But the story is not quite so simple. Zaccheus is a tax-collector and a rich man. His money had been made through the extortion of the people by the ruling empire, and by his own wickedness, as he tells it, in “defrauding” others. Having welcomed Jesus into his house, having come into personal relationship with him, having not only seen Jesus, but having been seen by and recognized by Jesus, he was transformed. As a result, Zacchaeus took it upon himself to make restitution for his past.

This is not a case of “Go and sin no more.” Zaccheus had to confront those he has wronged, paying them back four times what he has wrongfully taken. The restitution, the resurrection, is in the confrontation with God that results in a confrontation with ourselves, our pasts, and our world. The “arguing out” of God’s justice is a complex invitation.

“Cease to do evil.” What is the evil we turn from?

“Learn to do good.” Who will teach us the good?

“Seek justice.” How will we know justice when we find it?

“Rescue the oppressed.” Who, indeed, are the oppressed and how are we called to rescue them?

“Come now, let us argue it out.”

As a faith community, we have often found it sufficient to say we are “open and affirming” or tolerant or inclusive. We have hung banners and said, “All are welcome.”

But have we truly wrestled with the reality of the experience of people who are oppressed? What might it look like to pay back fourfold what we have wrongfully taken in terms of dignity, social place, relationship, and of life? Not just to this community at this time in this place, but to all those we have wronged and continue to wrong? What might this type of justice look like? We must “argue it out,” with God, with each other, and ultimately with God present in those we have wronged.

The question is not whether we should stop trying to eradicate hookworm or move forward into more inclusive communities. The issue at hand is confronting the reality that we are not operating in the artificial whiteness of a lab, or in the mansions of an imagined hereafter. The vision that we share with the ancient Hebrews, that vision of a sanitized and simple world that can become a productive, predictable, controllable machine operating within the confines of human logic, will always be a violent and destructive dream. At the end of the day, we will always be called from real lives with real relationships to make real sacrifices for the sake of real justice.

The crumbs will always fall to the linen, the wine will always drip from the chalice, and, by grace, the body will always be broken open and shared. Come, let us argue it out.

-- Jason Sierra is a member of the Office for Young Adult and Campus Ministries at the Episcopal Church Center. He resides in Seattle, Washington, and holds a BA in American Studies from Stanford University.

Pentecost XXII

2010-10-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 25 RCL

The Lectionary

Homily:

In the early years of our country, one Southern family stood out in offering leadership to a fledgling nation. Most renowned among the first families of Virginia, the Lees were wealthy, capable, intelligent, and dedicated patriots.

Using the legend of this family and what some consider a bit of overexposure, lyricist Sherman Edwards crafted a clever song for his Broadway musical “1776.” In a classic scene, John Adams asks fellow Continental Congress member Richard Henry Lee to help the cause for independence. He challenges the Virginia representative to get his colony’s House of Burgesses to pass a resolution calling for independence from England. In the course of their conversation, Adams prays, “God help us.”

Lee replies confidently, “He will John. He will.” Then, as if to prove his statement, Lee launches into a delightful song that includes this wonderful stanza:

They say that God in heaven is everybody's God,
I'll admit that God in heaven is everybody's God,
But I tell you, John, with pride, God leans,
A little on the side of the Lees, the Lees of old Virginia!

This humorous song rings true because it is so natural to think that since we are faithful, we must be special, and that God must be on our side. It’s a good example of what Jesus was getting at when he told the parable in today’s gospel reading.

The Pharisee in today’s parable was basically a good guy – a member of what might be considered one of the first families of the faith. But like Lee in the play, he lost sight of his place in God’s world. He knew that thanking God was a good way to pray, but he allowed his prayer to degenerate into prideful boasting.

And he forgot about the need for repentance. As a human being, he had a dark side, but he tried to hide it. He made the mistake of choosing to look on his good side. He attempted to boost himself by comparing his good qualities with what he perceived as the negative attributes of others. He set himself up as the judge of his behavior over against the actions of others.

We can imagine the details of his thought process, because we are tempted to engage in the same delusion:

I may have told a white lie, but I thank God I don’t cheat on my income tax.

I may be a thief, but I thank God I’m not a murderer.

I may have turned aside when the poor family asked me for help, but I thank God I’m not responsible for the starvation in Africa.

I may hold back on my pledge, but I thank God I’m not one of those reprobates who never gives.

I may not get to church as often as I might, but I thank God I belong to a church.

I may not study the Bible as much as I should, but I thank God I’m not an atheist.

These examples may be a little over the top, but Jesus was using the self-aggrandizing statements by the Pharisee in comparison with the prayer by the truly faithful man who asked simply, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Jesus makes it clear that it is dangerous to compare our relative goodness, whether real or imagined, with that of others. This is because such moral manipulation drives a wedge between us and God. It is especially tragic in its use of religion as a divisive element between us and our brothers and sisters. Such action works against us all by inevitably separating rather than unifying the human family.

Sometimes we can get into trouble even if we use the standard of today’s gospel, “God be merciful to me, a sinner,” as a way to compare ourselves to others. For example, Rabbi Joshua Davidson tells a wonderful old story from the Jewish faith that illustrates the danger:

A rabbi decides to model repentance for his congregation. Humbly he beseeches the Almighty for forgiveness, and he beats his breast proclaiming, “Before You, God, I am nothing. I am nothing.”

The cantor sees him and joins in: “I am nothing. I am nothing,” she cries.

The temple president, sensing that he too must get in on the act, now comes up. “I am nothing. I am nothing,” he sobs.

In the silence that follows, the rabbi turns to the cantor and whispers, “Look who thinks he’s nothing.”

In truth, our measure is not one of comparison with others but rather against the values of the gospel, against the Ten Commandments, against the summary of the Law. How well do we compare with these standards? In doing so, we can stand to our full height, whatever it may be.

But then we take the test of the truest measure. How high do we stand when comparing ourselves against the final, and only, model of our faith – Jesus himself? The ultimate comparison can only be between ourselves and God’s perfect desires for us. Of course, such a test leads us to only one conclusion. We fail, and can only offer the tax collector’s prayer: “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Only in this way can we move forward in the right kind of humility, asking for forgiveness after darkness invades us, the darkness that we have given into through our sin. Such repentance can renew us as we listen to Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. We will become humbled, cut down to size, and this will lead us to the exhalation that comes from a life in Christ.

Standing in the knowledge of our need for God’s forgiveness and love, we can become not only the prayerful people Jesus calls us to be, but we can also act in the faith that despite our sin, God will empower us as children. We can pray, finally, “Lord use us sinners to do your work. Use us as instruments of your peace and grace and love and active concern for your children, our brothers and sisters in Christ.”

-- The Rev. Ken Kesselus, author of "John E. Hines: Granite on Fire" (Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, 1995), is retired from full-time, active ministry and lives with his wife, Toni, in his native home, Bastrop, Texas.

San Joaquin back in court

2010-10-20T04:17:00.000-07:00

From the Fresno Bee:

Who is the legitimate bishop in the San Joaquin Diocese, and who owns the diocese's property, including its headquarters in Fresno and parishes from Stockton to Bakersfield?

Those questions are at the heart of the next round in the legal battle between local Episcopalians and Anglicans. The two groups face off today in the 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno. The justices will hear oral arguments in the lawsuit, filed by Bishop Jerry Lamb against Bishop John-David Schofield.

After an overwhelming vote of its clergy and lay representatives in December 2007, Schofield led the diocese away from the national Episcopal Church and to the temporary oversight of an Anglican archbishop in South America. The Episcopal Church responded by deposing Schofield and installing Lamb as its diocesan bishop.
Schofield and the departing parishes hold a conservative theology that opposes the Episcopal Church's increasingly liberal stance on biblical issues, including the 2003 ordination of a gay bishop and whether Jesus is the only way to salvation [and the biblical second class status of women].

[Many in] The worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is a part, largely supports the conservative view; Archbishop Rowan Williams, who is the nominal head of the Anglican Communion with headquarters in England, earlier this year banned Episcopal representatives from casting votes on global committees. Schism may result, and the San Joaquin Diocese is a mirror of that larger split.

Written arguments in the local case were filed months ago. "We have a seasoned panel of justices. They'll give us a full and fair hearing," said Rusty VanRozeboom, attorney for Schofield.

Michael Glass, attorney for Lamb, issued a statement Monday refusing comment until after the justices release their ruling, which is expected in about a month. Lamb, who also refused comment, said the diocese "may" have a brief statement after today's oral arguments, depending on the way the hearing goes.

It will be interesting to hear what VanRozeboom has to say about those "seasoned panel of justices" when they rule against Schofield.

Schofield's attorneys will argue that a lower court's ruling naming Lamb as the true Bishop of San Joaquin and owner of all of the diocesan property was in error. Yet, remember, sisters and brothers, the schismatic sect keep saying they don't care about property. Their actions certainly prove them to be liars.

When the justices will issue a ruling, probably in about a month the case will go back to the Superior Court, where it eventually will be heard by a jury.

The schismatic sect has a plan and part of that plan is to bankrupt The Episcopal Church though legal fees. The schismatics are funded by a group of extremely wealthy men who are part of a move to return the United States to Old Testament Law as the legal means by which the US is governed. If the schismatics lose, they will try to get their case all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Crystal cathedral in bankruptcy

2010-10-18T18:47:00.001-07:00

Ever since Robert Schuller (Jr) was forced out of the family business by his brothers in law, the so-called Crystal Cathedral has been in a downward spiral. Too many members and supporters saw the ouster as not a Christian Act. well, the chickens have come home to roost for Schuller Sr and his daughter who was appointed by her husband and brothers in law to be the pastor.

The "ministry" filed for bankruptcy Monday in Southern California after struggling to emerge from debt that exceeds $43 million.

In addition to a $36 million mortgage, the Orange County-based church owes $7.5 million to several hundred vendors for services ranging from advertising to the use of live animals in Easter and Christmas services.

The church had been negotiating a repayment plan with vendors, but several filed lawsuits seeking quicker payment, which prompted a coalition formed by creditors to fall apart.

"Tough times never last, every storm comes to an end. Right now, people need to hear that message more than ever," Sheila Schuller Coleman (daughter), the Cathedral's senior pastor and daughter of the founder, told reporters outside the worship hall decked with a soaring glass spire.

"Everybody is hurting today. We are no exception," she said.

The church, founded in the mid-1950s by the Rev. Robert H. Schuller Sr., has already ordered major layoffs, cut the number of stations airing the "Hour of Power" and sold property to stay afloat.

In addition, the 10,000-member church canceled this year's "Glory of Easter" pageant, which attracts thousands of visitors and is a regional holiday staple.

The church was founded at a drive-in theater and attracted congregants with its sermons on the power of positive thinking. Its worship hall opened in 1970.

The "Hour of Power" telecast, filmed in the cathedral's main sanctuary, at one point attracted 1.3 million viewers in 156 countries.

According to reports, the Crystal Cathedral's Sunday services and weekly-telecast "Hour of Power" will continue while in bankruptcy.

Other megachurches have also suffered from the downturn and reduced charitable giving.

Crystal Cathedral saw revenue drop roughly 30 percent in 2009 and simply couldn't slash expenses quickly enough to avoid accruing the debt, said Jim Penner executive producer of the "Hour of Power."

Vendors owed money by the church formed a committee in April and agreed to a moratorium to negotiate a repayment plan with the Crystal Cathedral. But after several filed lawsuits and obtained writs of attachment to try to collect their cash, it was difficult to keep the group together, Penner said.

Now, the church is avoiding credit entirely and spends only the roughly $2 million it receives each month in donations and revenue, Penner said. The church still hopes to pay all of the vendors back in full, he said.

I bet Schuller Sr's "Be Happy Attitudes" are drooping today. I'm feeling some schadenfreude right now. Sorry about that. I go to confession this week.

Pentecost XX!

2010-10-17T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 24 Year C

The Lectionary

Homily:
Psalm 119 calls for the kind of continued learning Paul commends in his letter to Timothy. As a subject of our recitation and meditation, it offers an entrance into a life of continued, endless prayer. So Jesus tells a story to underscore our need to pray always and not lose heart. It is what Paul elsewhere commends: "pray without ceasing."

And note the forceful summary by Jesus: for those chosen ones who pray day and night, justice shall come and come quickly.

Are we even aware of this linkage? That our prayers are to be linked to justice?

Don't we often tend to be rather selfish in our prayers? We would always like immediate results – but would like those results to be centered on what we want rather than what we need.

And what Jesus says we need is to pray always and not to lose heart.

There is no better place to begin to pray always than with Psalm 119. One hundred and seventy-six verses reminding us to have Torah, God's law, in our minds all day long. The word "Torah" or one of its synonyms appears in almost every one of the 176 verses: Torah, law decrees, precepts, statutes, commandments, ordinances.

A rabbi was once asked, "What does a rabbi do?" He replied, "A rabbi is to lead God's people to study Torah so that one day everyone will know Torah. On that day when everyone knows Torah, everyone will be a rabbi so that there will no longer be any need for rabbis."

This is the dream of God as revealed to the prophet Jeremiah, "I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts." God wants us to become experts in loving the law and living the law.

We in the church tend to suffer grave misunderstandings about this word law. These misunderstandings come from misreading of Paul, compounded by particular Christian theologians throughout the ages. The word "law" sounds static with the sole purpose of convicting us of sin and misdoings.

Whereas a regular reading of all 176 verses of Psalm 119 would reveal a much richer range of meaning. The "law" is a treasure, a gift, really, that makes one wise and happy. The psalm is written in the first-person narrative voice, making the words of the psalm personal, words that belong to us, words that are given by God to be ours. Torah is not a static set of rules, but a map that provides a personal way of life, a guiding force, a pathway from which it is all too easy to stray but is sweeter than all alternative paths available.

At its core, Psalm 119 as a source of our daily prayer and meditation directs us to endlessly reflect on the Decalogue – the fancy theological name for the Ten Commandments. The first "table" or "tablet" of the Ten Commandments focuses on our love of God; the second "table" or "tablet" focuses on our love of neighbor.

Jesus spent much of his time discussing the law, Torah, with any and all persons he could. Jesus demonstrates that continual focus, discussion, and meditation on God's law is what leads one in the way of life that is really life, and offers justice for all people. Torah, as understood at the time of Jesus, was a continual unfolding of God's will, new each day, new in each age. Torah, or law, was not confining, but empowering, and necessary to being God's people in the world.

And meditating on the law day and night, as Jesus lives and instructs us to do ourselves, reminds us of our God-given responsibilities to love and care for our neighbors, especially those in greatest need.

It turns out God does have a plan to care for those in greatest need: we are that plan.

How wonderful it would be if all of us, every day, would read all of Psalm 119. How might the world be different if our love of God's law was something we treasured in our hearts all day long? For Jesus this is faith: Torah in action every day.

The Rev. Kirk Alan Kubicek is rector of St. Peter's Church in Ellicott City, MD, a parish in the Anglo-Catholic tradition.

Blessed Samuel Schereschewsky

2010-10-13T03:00:00.000-07:00

“How shall I repay the Lord for all the good things he has done for me?” - Psalm 116.12

Some homilies practically write themselves. Others are like are like having a baby. The idea is rather appealing, but in the end, the baby arrives only after pain, screaming and vows of “never again.” This is one of those homilies.

The epistle is filled with doom and gloom and in the gospel Jesus reminds his followers that he had suffer in order to bring the Kingdom. It is only after knowing the story of the Rt. Rev’d Samuel Schereschewsky, that one sees the logic in the lectionary.

Samuel was born in Lithuania, orphaned at a very young age, raised as an orthodox Jew, and headed for rabbinical fame. Everyone said so. In rabbinical school he was given a copy of the New Testament in Hebrew, and, as he read it, he became convinced that Jesus was the promised messiah.

In 1854, he immigrated to the United States to lead a synagogue. However, he made contact with a group of Jewish believers in Christ. That was the end of Samuel. Everyone said so. But it wasn’t – it was merely the first step to a remarkable service for God in Asia. He was baptized in 1855 in the Baptist Church and he enrolled in Western Theological Seminary (Presbyterian). Two years later he transferred to General Theological Seminary (Episcopal).

While still in seminary he was appointed a missionary to China so he was ordained to the deaconate while he was still a seminarian. During the voyage to China, he taught himself Cantonese – an extremely difficult language for Westerners to learn. He was priested on 28 October 1860 and began his life’s work.

As a man to whom learning languages came almost effortlessly, he quickly learned the local Shanghai dialect and translated the Book of the Psalms from the original Hebrew. When that translation was completed, he translated the Book of Common Prayer into the Mandarin dialect. In 1877 he was elected Bishop of Shanghai, founded St John's University, and began a translation of the Bible into the Wenli dialect.

Tragically, he was diagnosed with the early onset of Parkinson's disease. He lived with the disease for twenty-nine years, the last twenty of which he was almost completely paralyzed. That was the end of Samuel. Everyone said so. But, in spite of almost unimaginable suffering, Bishop Schereschewsky had a work to finish for God – completing his translation of the bible. He typed the final 2000 pages with the one finger that he could still move.

But, he continually assured all those around him of the goodness of God in that God left him able to move that one finger – he saw it as a gift. Like the solitary man with Leprosy in the gospel last Sunday, Samuel was thankful. He was thankful the Parkinson’s disease. You know, I will never be a saint!

In the epistle today we read, “While we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh.” That’s a nice, tidy statement containing heavy theology. But the question is, “what does it mean and how do we do it.”

During my long illness, I have repeatedly reflected upon the baptismal office in the Book of Common Prayer. I’ve discovered that everything we need is found there. It is a road map for us with the path clearly marked.

One small part of that office dovetails with the life of Bishop Schereschewsky and with us. “Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?” That’s what Paul means.

But that doesn’t mean wearing Jesus on our sleeves. Paul doesn’t mean ending every sentence with “praise the Lord” or quoting scripture in every conversation. Those things actually turn people “off” Christianity.

What Paul and the Prayer Book mean is that we must live our lives in such a manner that people will notice something different about us. They will see God.

St. Francis of Assisi allegedly put it this way, “Preach the gospel at all times – use words if absolutely necessary.” He was correct: If we need to use words, our lives are not reflecting God’s love to the world.

Those who met Blessed Samuel Schereschewsky stated it was evident that God was working though him.

But, “They lived not only in ages past…” We at St. James’ knew a woman who was also the embodiment of Paul’s charge. Her name was Jane Yeats. Like Blessed Samuel Schereschewsky, when one was in Jane’s presence, there was no doubt that she was abiding in Him for one could feel the love of God emanating from her.

Can people say that about us?

Pentecost XIX

2010-10-03T02:00:00.000-07:00

The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 22

The Lectionary

Collect of the Day: Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Homily:

Even listening attentively to Paul’s second letter to Timothy, we are probably not going to want to go the distance with Paul when he invites Timothy to “join with me in suffering for the gospel ... relying on the power of God.”

It’s really easy to hear “Join with me in suffering” and then just zone out. “Suffering” is an unappealing sound bite, even for those of us who listen without Bible Attention Deficit Disorder. We do not want to suffer any more than we already do; indeed, have we not come to church precisely because we need to get away from suffering, or at least hand it over to Jesus, who can do something about it?

Perhaps this is why we do not ordinarily find the Book of Lamentations in Hebrew scripture very useful, either in church or at home. The book is a series of five lengthy poems of inexpressible sadness, raw pain, and deep sorrow. The poets put into words our ancestors’ experience of living through enormous public and personal suffering as their home city of Jerusalem was destroyed in 587 B.C. For our ancestors, that city was the focus of dreams and hopes, the sign of God’s presence, the promise of God’s fidelity to them; its hills, its Temple, its walls and gates all spoke to travelers and residents alike of what they treasured. And now the place was gone, and they wept. They wept for being invaded, for their national identity and security damaged; they wept for abandonment by their kings; they wept for old ones killed and unburied; they wept for children dead in the streets. They wept for all the questions shouted, sighed, and whispered to God that the heavens did not answer.

We can, each of us, relate to that; but we would much rather not.

Yet it is there, in the five long poems of lament, there for us in the Bible, the living word of God. And the lamentations are there because the loss, the weeping, the suffering, and the pain goes on.

As it says in the opening verses of Lamentations:

“How lonely sits the city that was once so full of people!
How like a widow she has become
she weeps bitterly in the night,
her cheeks wet with tears
and she has no one to comfort her.”

The ancient poet imagined the city as a lonely, abused woman, grieving. At best, we apply the scenes of Lamentations to Good Friday, Jesus on the Cross. We transpose the lament from Hebrew scriptures to the women who stayed with Jesus to the end, and grieved at the foot of the cross as they watched their friend and Lord dying.

But when Paul invited Timothy – and by extension, us – to join him “in suffering for the gospel,” Paul was not asking Timothy or us to be observers. Paul knows what we also know: that Jesus repeatedly told his followers to take up their cross and follow him, not to sit somewhere watching his cross and weeping for him. For the sake of the gospel, for witness to the good news, we have somehow to engage the suffering, enter the lament.

“Join me in suffering for the gospel ... relying upon the power of God.”

Like our ancestors who watched their beloved Jerusalem invaded, ravaged, desecrated, and devastated, we have been watching so much of our world and our planet suffer before our eyes. The power of God seems a bit ambiguous and even flimsy when we see the arctic ice mass retreating or that in Africa there is almost no snow left atop Kilimanjaro. The landscapes and languages of all our cities have been invaded by “others.” Un-finish-able wars are being waged with new weapons and even newer peacekeeping goals, yet men and women still suffer and die for a cause, a name, or a flag. These are losses as surely as Babylon invading Jerusalem was a loss, and pogroms and holocausts are loss. Yet the suffering has brought forth into the public arena not the poetic cadences of lamentation, but uncharted depths of anxiety and resentment, rage and fear.

“Join me in suffering for the gospel ... relying upon the power of God.”

We are the ones who share bread and wine at a common table of thanks-giving. We are the ones covenanted to honor God in worship, study and prayer. We are the ones who promise to repent of indifference, brutality and greed, and return to the God of engagement, compassion, and generosity. We hold in our hearts and in our minds’ eyes the raw and bleak edges of violence, and at the same time the glorious vision of God at work in the world about us. Where certain talk shows, tabloids, tweets, and blogs daily degrade the realities of poverty, injustice, and oppression by manipulating the media bites, we are the ones who notice and resist such manipulations. We resist because we are called to live, notice, pray, act, and share in a context where, in Christ, our lives are made one with those who suffer such realities and the consequences of such manipulation. In our time and place, this is what it means to be the ones called to “rely upon the power of God.”

The poets of Lamentations look fearlessly at the consequences of the loss of Jerusalem. They speak terrible things, such as “The Lord has broken my teeth on gravel and ground me into the dust. My life was bereft of peace, and I forgot what happiness was.” The voice of lamentation is fierce and strong – and it is followed almost in the same breath by “But this do I call to mind, and therefore have hope: the kindness of the Lord has not ended, his mercy is not spent.”

It is only by remembering the acts of God in the past and by engaging the living word of God in the present that we can also engage wholeheartedly in both fierce lamentation and in boundless hope.

-- The Rev. Angela V. Askew lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Michaelmas

2010-09-29T02:00:00.000-07:00

The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels
Michalmas

The Lectionary

Collect of the Day: Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals: Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may help and defend us here on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Homily:

We've got angels. Boy, do we. There are angels of the month, birthstone angels, dashboard charms that say, "Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly." Bumper stickers that proclaim, "Angels on board." There are gardening angels, Mother's Day angels, Hallmark angels holding everything from Thanksgiving turkeys to St. Patrick's Day shamrocks.

Fat blonde babies with wings cavort on every possible item. Chubby cherubs, swathed in Victorian chintz drapery, halos charmingly askew, look more like spun-sugar dumplings than anything that would cry, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty!" Greeting cards, wallpaper, candy bars, movies like "Angels in America"— feathered wings joined with human fallibilities are just everywhere these days!

>But then there's this:

Rank on rank the host of heaven spreads its vanguard on the way
As the Lord of light descending from the realms of endless day
Comes, the pow'rs of hell to vanquish
As the darkness clears away.

Set them side by side, the post-modern depiction of angels as a pleasant remnant of myth, made in our image, bent to our will, filling desire for spirituality and a crass marketing niche all at once —and then the Scriptural image of the vanguard of the army of heaven, the praises of God in their throats and a two-edged sword in their hands, a choir in battle formation, with captains and princes, standards and banners arrayed around the throne of the Lord of Light.

>Singers with shields, messengers, bringers of the divine Word, some appointed to ceaseless praise, some appointed to help us on earth: these are the angels of the Lord.

The cosmology of the ancient world is not ours—or so we think. We no longer see angels behind every physical force of nature, every unexplained scientific phenomenon. Except for the Left Behind crowd and the devotees of Frank Peretti and those who tend to see the world in terms of Star Wars, anyway—most Christians, and certainly most Lutherans, don't describe our reality with reference to a cosmic battleground between the evenly-matched forces of good and evil. We already know what battle standard the Host of heaven carries, what device is blazoned on every shield and breastplate, in what sign they conquer.

>Whether our modern sensibilities accept it or not, the holy angels are not incidental to, or independent from, the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ. In the might of the Messiah and under the banner of the cross, the host of heaven continues to do God's will and bring his Word despite the death throes of the dragon. The war is over, Satan is finished. Cast down. But still he fights on, mortally wounded, utterly defeated. His time is short.

And that's where we live. In the now and the not yet. Satan defeated but not yet destroyed. In the time where Paul can claim that our struggle is not against blood and flesh but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Where the reality is that Satan accuses our brothers—and us—day and night, and assails the church of Christ at every opportunity. We can smell the dragon's scaly stink in our denominations and parishes, in our seminaries and colleges—and in the kitchens of our parsonages. The devil dogs us through the holy work God has set our hands to, sin deadens our testimony and witness, unbelief is rampant, apostasy common.

Though with a scornful wonder / the world sees her oppressed;
By schisms rent asunder / by heresies distressed,
Yet saints their watch are keeping / Their cry goes up, "How long?"
And soon the night of weeping / Shall be the morn of song.

How long, O Lord? How long will our cry mingle with that of the saints and angels? Many of you come here year after year, wounded and angry and sick in body and spirit, dried up like a potsherd, shrunken like a leather flask hung in the smoke, weary of putting your hand to the plowshare, desperate to look back. Some of you are tired of taking up the cross, sick to death of the command to follow, exhausted by always being last with no glimmer of first in sight, suspicious that "servant of all" entails a lot more dying than you first thought. Other of you come to weep over the Church and our Lutheran communions, and to rejoice for a brief time with brothers and sisters with whom you do not have to measure your words so carefully. For all of you there is this word: in the middle of the scornful wonder of the world and the laments of saints and angels joined with our night of weeping, a single loud voice sounds forth. Michael, the great prince, whose name is all we need to know: Who Is Like God.

Who is like God? Not you. Not me. Not even the Holy Angels, whose archangel names have the murmur of distant, ceaseless prayer: God is my strength. God is my healer. Who is like God? It is the Lamb alone who conquers, gives strength, brings healing. Sustains the weary with a word. Jesus only.

And who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus who died, yes, who was raised who is at the right hand of God who intercedes for us. He did not count equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself and was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Christ Jesus did not cling to life even in the face of death, giving his back to those who struck him, his cheeks to those who pulled out the beard, and his life as the high priestly sacrifice for sin. Your names are found written in his blood in the book of life

And that is your starting point. Your only foundation. That you have been bought with a price, redeemed from hell, and the one who has begun a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is God's vineyard to tend, God's responsibility. Any authority you have been given, just like that of the angels, is only given by the Lord God. Any triumph over the power of the enemy is through the blood of the Lamb alone.

You are promised that nothing will hurt you. This could also be translated "in nothing will he hurt you." Clearly, you and I can be wounded, downtrodden, despairing. Clearly we bear in our own bodies the effects of sin. Our whole ministry is marked by dying and failing. But God through the cross has defeated the eternal power of the unholy trinity: sin, death and the power of the devil. God continues to guard and protect you, not through the sentimentalized and demythologized angelic spirits, reduced to inane caregivers cast in ceramic—but through the muscular and vivifying power of the cross—the incongruity of life come from death, the slain Lamb victorious, God's power given form in the heavenly host of angels. He shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. All his ways. He forgives all your sins and heals all your infirmities, and causes you to stand, upheld by his righteous, omnipotent hand.

With such strength, even though you are weak, with the knowledge that your angels are always before the face of the Father in heaven, and are given to you for help on earth, you go out of here and back to the tasks at hand, back to the feeding of the flock entrusted to you, back to the struggle against the short-timer Satan, secure, if not settled, in the trust that Jesus is Lord.

And at the last, one more angel there will be for you. Not with sword or shield or choir book—but with the simple white robe of resurrection and the trumpet and the archangel's voice that will call you out of sleep in the dust of the earth for God to redeem your life from the grave, crowning you with mercy and lovingkindness and making you to shine like the brightness of the stars forever. And then, what was proclaimed from the beginning will be at last completely fulfilled: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah." And then, we will sing. What else is there left for us but singing?

Weeping, be gone, sorrow be silent,
Death put asunder and Easter is bright.
Cherubim sing, "O grave, be open!"
Clothe us in wonder, adorn us in light.
Jesus is risen and we shall arise, give God the glory! Alleluia!
City of God, Easter forever
Golden Jerusalem, Jesus the Lamb.
River of Life, saints and archangels
Sing with creation to God the I AM.
Jesus is risen and we shall arise, give God the glory! Alleluia!

Virginia Supreme Court refuses to hear ACNA case

2010-09-28T02:19:00.000-07:00

This one slipped by me, folks.

On 24 September, the Supreme Court of Virginia declined a request by the CANA congregations to reargue the decision of June 10, 2010. The Court's original, unanimous ruling in favor of the Diocese stands, and the case will return to the Fairfax Circuit Court.

The Diocese is gratified by the Supreme Court's decision," said Henry D.W. Burt, secretary of the Diocese. "This is another positive step on the path toward preserving Episcopal property for future generations. We are ready to return to the Circuit Court and hope that today's announcement brings us one step closer to concluding this litigation and bringing our faithful Episcopalians back to their church homes."

The Diocese will post scheduling information on the upcoming Fairfax Circuit Court case online at www.thediocese.net as soon as it is made available.

1785 - 2010

2010-09-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

Two hundred, twenty-five years. Celebrate the Journey, friends!

Pentecost XVIII

2010-09-26T02:00:00.000-07:00

The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 21

The Lectionary

Collect of the Day: O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Homily:
What do you think heaven is?

A man told this story of his experience just before his father died. The man and his sister were taking care of their father who was in the last stages of cancer, the man staying with their bed-ridden father during the day and his sister staying with their father through the night.

It had been a hard day. The man and his father had not always gotten along well, and on this particular day his father was especially irritable and giving him a hard time. The man was impatient, waiting for his sister to come for the night shift. He had his coat and shoes on so he could leave as quickly as possible when she arrived. But he heard his father call to him from the other room. He went in, and his father asked, “What do you think happens to us after this life?”

A big question. A serious question. The man didn’t have many words, but he thought he could show his father his answer. He got into the bed and lay down beside his father. He asked him, “Dad, do you love me?”

“You know I love you,” his father said.

The man touched his own chest and then touched his father’s, right above his heart. The man asked, “How much of our ability to love do you think we use during our lives? Ten percent?”

“Fifteen,” said his father.

“Okay,” said the man. “In heaven,” he said, touching his own chest and then his father’s, “100 percent.”

The next day the man got a call from his sister, telling him his father had died, quite peacefully. But before he died, he made a gesture she didn’t understand. Just before he died, he looked at her, and he touched his chest – his heart – and then reached up and touched hers.

In heaven, 100 percent: true connectedness, true love, right relationship, no chasms between us.

We were made for relationship. We were made to be in right relationship with God and one another, 100 percent. But we don’t live that way. We always have a relationship with something else, something that takes up part of that heart space so we don’t use all 100 percent for loving God and loving our neighbor. Sometimes that something is money or seeking our own comfort over the needs of others.

In our reading today from 1 Timothy, Paul exhorts the faithful not to get too close to the uncertainty of riches, but instead draw close to “God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” If you live in right relationship with God, it will show in this way, says Paul: doing good, being rich in good works, being generous and ready to share. And living this way will allow us to “take hold of the life that really is life.” Not the appearance of life – what this world trumpets as the good life – material comforts – but the life that really is life, the abundance that comes from living heart to heart, 100 percent now.

The story Jesus tells in the gospel could be an elaboration on this reading. It is easy to talk about righteousness in general, as a concept, in the abstract. It is quite another matter to deal with it in the particular.

“Poverty” doesn’t lie outside the rich man’s gate; a poor, starving human being does. He is covered with sores, willing to eat scraps; a man, with a name: Lazarus.

The rich man, although his sumptuous lifestyle would have him deny it, has a need too. The rich man needs to serve Lazarus as a brother. Together they could help each other experience “the life that really is life.” But during this life, the rich man does not notice Lazarus, much less care for him. It’s as if Lazarus doesn’t exist for him. A great chasm separates the two men, a chasm of the rich man’s making.

The scene shifts to heaven. All is reversed. Lazarus is content. The rich man is in torment. The rich man longs for even a drop of water to cool the tongue that had tasted so many pleasing foods during his life.

And yet, the rich man still does not care about Lazarus. In his torment, he wants to use Lazarus as a servant. “Send him to put a drop of water to cool my tongue,” he asks.

“No,” says Abraham. The chasm between you that you dug during your life has become impassable. The gulf by which you were comforted in life has become un-crossable.

The truth of this parable is that the rich man needs Lazarus as much as Lazarus needs the rich man. The independence that riches seem to bring is only an illusion. The rich man thinks he can afford not to see Lazarus lying outside his gate. The rich man lives under the illusion that we are islands, contrary to John Donne’s wisdom, entire of ourselves. We are separated by gulfs, and we can only build so many bridges. The rich man lives with the illusion that we are intrinsically separate beings, our own possessions, and that to be responsible only for ourselves is enough.

Like Cain in Genesis, the rich man shrugs, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” assuming it is a rhetorical question, not dreaming that the answer may be “yes.” Yes, you are responsible, and your choices – to see, to notice, to serve, to love, or not – matter.

Perhaps for the rich man the gulf between himself and the beggar with his sores brings him a sense of safety. Perhaps he feels there is little he can do, little difference he can make. Perhaps he sees the gulf as a necessary evil. Perhaps the rich man is afraid of really being seen – of being revealed as inept or powerless or empty despite his material success.

Jesus’ parable points to something better for us, something better and more real – the reality that we were created not to be alone, but to be loved; not to be users of one another, but to be partners in the world. We were created not to dig chasms and let gulfs separate us, but to build bridges.

Who are we in this parable? We are not Lazarus, although we may be longing for something. We are not the rich man, although we may have more than we need of material possessions. We are the five brothers, the brothers and sisters of the rich man, still living, whom the rich man wishes to warn, to save from the torment of being on one side of a chasm; the torment of being separated from God; the torment of being able to envision only using people, not loving them, and ignoring the poor, not serving them. We are the five brothers, in danger of waiting for some spectacular sign from God before we will take the message seriously.

No, says Abraham, you have all the sign you need.

And we do. We have the Word, we have the prophets, we even have a man risen from the dead.

All of us have someone sitting by our gates – someone who gives us the opportunity to fulfill the promises of our baptismal covenant, promises to seek and serve Christ in all people, to respect the dignity of every person. We have a choice: to build bridges or dig chasms. And we can choose to use 100 percent of our capacity to love now and not wait for heaven.

-- The Rev. Dr. Amy Richter serves as rector of St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Annapolis, Maryland, along with her husband, associate, and fellow Sermons That Work contributing writer, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Pagano.

Bennison: "I have suffered"

2010-09-23T00:04:00.000-07:00

In one of the biggest acts of arrogance since Dick Cheney said he's saved the world, Bennison stepped up to the place and told the Episcopal Church, it's House of Bishops, and his own employers to go to hell.

Saying that he has "always been innocent of the charges" Benison announced that he would not honor his colleagues' request that he resign his position.

And get this, his publicist released the statement. His publicist? The statement also makes this claim: "the suffering I have endured during the past three years has strengthened me and will enable me to work for reconciliation within the diocese." What about the suffering he caused the victim?

;I have deep compassion for the young woman who was abused. If I could have prevented that abuse, I would certainly have done so.>blockquote>. That is a lie. He knew and he did all he could to protect the perpetrator, his brother.

This is the most revealing bit.

However, they have no cause to be worried. I am, and have always been, innocent of the charges against me. And now the Court of Review of the Episcopal Church has reversed the erroneous decision of the Trial Court, and I have been restored to my position as Bishop of Pennsylvania.

Bennison needs to reread the document by the Court of Review They said that he was guilty but the time limit for charging him had expired.

For the reasons stated herein, we find that Appellant committed conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy. Because the statute of limitations has run on that offense, we have no choice under the canons of the Church but to reverse the judgment of the Trial Court finding that Appellant is guilty of conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy under the First Offense.

Prosecution is bared by the applicable statute of limitations and, for that reason, alone, we are compelled to order and we hereby order that the judgment of the Trial Cour is reversed and judgment is rendered here in favor of the Appellant on the First Offense.

The Judgment of the Trial Court finding that Appellant is guilty of conduct unbecoming to a member of the clergy under the Second Offense is reversed and judgment is rendered here in favor of the Appellant on the Second Offense.

I don't see how "I am innocent" can be supported by the Court of Appeals pronouncement.

Is it possible to bring presentment for mental incompetence? The man is clearly delusional.

UPDATE: Episcopal Life has an article on Bennison's lunacy here.

2010-09-22T23:50:00.000-07:00

For those of you who missed the now removed statement of defense of Don Armstrong on his parish's website, here it is.

Parish Response to Father Armstrong’s Plea Agreement

Today our Rector, The Rev. Donald Armstrong, accepted a plea agreement offered by the Pueblo District Attorney which precludes the pending trial and begins to bring to conclusion this long and torturous ordeal for our congregation and the larger Christian Community.

Specifically, Father Armstrong made an Alford plea, which is a special plea used when there is no admission of guilt or basis of fact for the charge, but the charge, in this case a misdemeanor, is accepted to take advantage of an offer, in this case to reduce the original 20 Felony counts to a single misdemeanor.
We are grateful to Don and Jessie for their courage, strength, and witness during this time of personal persecution. Over these last years God has blessed us greatly as individuals and as a congregation.

In preparation for the now canceled trial we have become convinced even more strongly that controversies within the larger denominational church were the catalyst for the Diocese's investigation and complaint, for the purpose of silencing our bod and successful defense of orthodoxy though our parish's life, discipline, and teaching ministry.

We believe that the courts are not the place to deal with theological differences, and that to have allowed this dispute to continue to be played out in the news by going to trial would have served only to diminish all Christian witness. With this plea offer now in place such further harm to the entire church in this already difficult age for Christianity will be prevented.

We further believe the disparity between the magnitude of charges made against Father Armstrong by the Episcopal Diocese and the final content of the plea agreement vindicates not only Father Armstrong, but also clearly affirms our confidence that we ran an effective and well managed church in our days at the helm of Grace & St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, and continue to do so at St. George’s Anglican Church.

With only a restitution hearing to be held in the distant future, this essentially concludes this long and expensive attempt to silence orthodox resistance to theological innovations in the Episcopal Church. We are thankful we can now move forward under our Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns, into a future productive for the Kingdom of God. [END]

This entry was posted in Rector Recommends. The statement has disappeared since the local newspaper exposed the deliberately dishonest statement.

It's important to take note of this: Armstrong pleaded "no contest" to a third-degree felony theft charge with a deferred sentence. If he violates his four years of probation, he could face massive fines and up to 12 years in prison. That doesn't sound like "exonerated" to me.

Thoughts on the election of Dan Martins

2010-09-21T08:50:00.000-07:00

Blog-friend Doxy has written an excellent post on the election of Dan Martins as bishop of the Diocese of Springfield. Towards the end of her post we find this:

IMO, if Fr. Martins cannot do those things, he has no business being a bishop in TEC. Because to make him one otherwise is to do something doubly violent. It is to consign this church to having yet another bishop who is not prepared to honor his consecration vows, [by] some misguided attempt to show how "inclusive" we are.

Including conservatives in our church is what we must do for the gospel and the church is, to use the tired phrase, "a large tent." However, giving "friends-of-the-fox" the keys to the chicken coop is shear insanity. The church, and especially the bishops, have a responsibility to be good stewards. That means saying no to those who have actively supported the theft of church property.

PENTECOST XVII

2010-09-19T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

The Lectionary

Collect of the Day: Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Homily:

“Make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth.” Jesus didn’t really say that, did he?

Imagine the disciples hearing this story. They probably ask Jesus to repeat himself, clean the wax out of their ears, and look at each other for verification: did he really just say that?

It seems he did. Someone remembered this story, and Jesus has demonstrated a knack throughout Luke’s gospel for telling memorable stories. Most of them are parables, which invite us to remember the story and mull on it. It is always a mistake to treat parables in the same way we treat allegories, and this story in particular could represent real trouble for the interpreter who treats it as allegory. Who is God in the story? Who is the dishonest manager supposed to represent?

That’s not what Jesus is doing. It’s difficult to know precisely what he is doing, but he hasn’t stopped believing in and demonstrating the kingdom of God, a reality that includes perfect justice and mercy; so we assume that the dishonest manager, who operates entirely out of self-interest, isn’t a direct stand-in for God, or for us.

This story highlights our need to take great care in interpreting pieces of scripture in light of their context. If we were to read this passage under the rubric that we are to take everything in the Bible literally, we’d find ourselves in real trouble, and probably in jail.

Clearly, the startling image of the dishonest manager as the “hero” of Jesus’ story will help us to remember it. But if it’s not literal, what are we supposed to make of it?

The story in Luke that comes immediately before today’s story is the much-beloved story of the prodigal son, the cranky older brother, and the ridiculously forgiving father. Today’s story may well highlight the same situation: someone in trouble stumbles into grace practically by accident. In the story of the prodigal, the younger son does not acquit himself well. He makes some very selfish choices that offend nearly everyone, and only comes to his senses to the degree that he realizes something must change so that he can survive. Continuing to act in his own self-interest, he returns home to discover that grace and forgiveness have been waiting for him the whole time, and we have a sense that he may finally get what it means to be loved.

In today’s story, the dishonest manager is in an equally bad situation, and for the same reason: he has acted entirely selfishly without concern for how his actions will affect others, just so he can slip some money into his pocket that doesn’t belong to him. When his employer figures out what he’s done, he figures his goose is cooked, and so he continues to act in his own self-interest by cutting deals with his employer’s debtors. What he wants is for these people to owe him something, because he is sure that manual labor is beneath him, and begging is so embarrassing. What’s disturbing to those of us listening to his story is that it works! It works even better than he had planned; not only do the people who owe money to his boss get a better deal, the manager himself has regained some status in the eyes of his employer because of his shrewdness.

This is just crazy, upside-down grace. We who hear his story want him to pay for his dishonesty, not to get out of a sticky situation smelling like a rose. What kind of moral example is this?

Well, it isn’t one. What Jesus seems to be highlighting in this story, which we can perhaps see more clearly by comparing it to the story of the prodigal son, is the ridiculous nature of God’s grace, and our call to live in it.

This foxy manager and self-serving younger son sound a lot like Jacob, whose name became Israel; he connived and manipulated, wrestled and argued, when God’s blessing was available to him from the beginning.

Jesus commends the shrewd – and shady – manager as an example, not for his dishonest dealings, but for his clever solution. But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He says this manager – who is “of this world,” meaning someone whose values are entirely plebian and self-oriented – has managed to scratch and claw his way into a better situation; what can Jesus’ followers do, he asks, with the grace of God behind them?

What Jesus thinks his followers are capable of is what he himself has been busy doing: healing, reconciling, truth-telling, and proclaiming the kingdom. We must be as clever as the manager in today’s gospel, with a different goal: serving our self-interest, alongside the best interests of the world that God loves, by building the kingdom of God.

Today’s collect contrasts being “anxious about earthly things” with “loving things heavenly.” It would be simple to imagine that “loving things heavenly” means some kind of ethereal, spiritual experience, bathed in light, with some harp music playing in the background. However, the stories Jesus has been telling in this long narrative of his journey to Jerusalem don’t sound ethereal at all. They are earthy, everyday stories that connect right into regular human lives. It’s once of the central ironies of the Christian life that in order to “love things heavenly,” we must turn toward the dust and dirt of which we are made, and try to envision and build the reign of God.

Today’ gospel is a reminder of a couple of things: when we get anxious about money, status, power, what letters come before or after our name, what kind of car we drive, what brand of clothes we wear; when we get anxious about those things, we end up using our best skills for ourselves alone. It’s also a reminder that in spite of ourselves, we are bathed in grace and forgiveness.

We are called to be shrewd about recognizing grace and sharing it. We are called to love things heavenly, by loving God’s creation, seeking justice for everyone,

Perhaps most importantly, today’s gospel is centered on one action: forgiveness. The manager intends to make his own situation better when he forgives his master’s debtors, but the more he thinks about it, the better it gets: the people who have owed his master more than they’ll ever be able to repay are suddenly going to have their burden lightened, and that’s going to make the master look good, and that’s going to make the master happy, and that means the manager won’t lose his job. Everybody wins. Forgiveness – which is an act, not a feeling – has positive consequences for everyone.

We can get hung up on the undeniable fact that the person in the story who forgives is acting dishonestly and manipulatively, and we’d like to distance ourselves from that kind of behavior. But Jesus chooses his story illustrations carefully, and this one sticks in the memory precisely because it’s outside the boundaries of any conventional morality tale.

Forgiveness and its consequences are central in this gospel and in the story of the prodigal that precedes it. No matter who does the forgiving, it’s going to create ever-widening circles of positive consequences. Forgiveness, Jesus seems to be saying, is the starting point for building the kingdom of God, and of course, this cycle begins with God’s grace toward us. If God kept score, we would be in some serious debt, like the people who owed more than they could pay in today’s gospel. But God’s grace precedes our entire existence, and if we choose to be kingdom-builders, we begin by accepting God’s grace, and extending our own forgiveness to others. There is really no other way to transform our limited sense of tit-for-tat justice into an expansive sense of God’s justice and mercy.

The Good News is today’s gospel isn’t immediately obvious, but it’s there; forgiveness is the engine that drives our journey toward the kingdom, and we who receive it gladly are called to share it freely.

-- The Rev. Kay Sylvester is the assistant rector at St. Paul's in Tustin, California. She is a teacher, trainer, retreat leader, and preschool chaplain. Her prior experience includes teaching piano and guitar, and selling volleyball and wrestling equipment.

A spin better than a twister

2010-09-18T18:12:00.000-07:00

As you probably know by now, Mr Armgstrong has pleaded "no contest" to a charge of grand theft. Armstrong is one of the favourites of the schismatics in ACNA. As soon as the deal was announced, the spin started over on a virtueless site. Even I startled by their hybris and unmitigated bravado this time.

We believe that the courts are not the place to deal with theological differences, and that to have allowed this dispute to continue to be played out in the news by going to trial would have served only to diminish all Christian witness. With this plea offer now in place such further harm to the entire church in this already difficult age for Christianity will be prevented. [Emphasis added]

Even now , after the favored son has admitted he stole the money ("no contest" is an admission of guilt without having to say the words) they are still portraying him as the martyr maximus of the "theologically persecuted."

The truth is, of course, they don't want the courts to deal with the matter. The scrutiny of the legal system will cause their church of cards to collapse and expose them as the deceitful pirates that they are. They would have been tarred and feathered in the public eye and their martyr card would be revoked.

Now, be sitting down before you read this next quote:

We further believe the disparity between the magnitude of charges made against Father Armstrong by the Episcopal Diocese and the final content of the plea agreement vindicates not only Father Armstrong, but also clearly affirms our confidence that we ran an effective and well managed church in our days at the helm of Grace & St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, and continue to do so at St. George's Anglican Church.

So, if we believe the spin, Armstrong sacrificed himself (but only .00001 percent) to keep the judicial system from dealing with the theology of the schismatics and to prove he and the schismatic thieves were really honest?

I tell you, Walt Disney on LSD couldn't have created fantasy as good as this. I had decided not to comment on Armstrong's admission of theft, but the spin wouldn't let me remain silent.

Dan Martins elected bishop of Springfield

2010-09-18T14:06:00.000-07:00

Dan Martins has beenelected bishop of Springfield. I wonder how long before we hear that they are preparing to steal the silver and flee to ACNA? I wonder, will he get the necessary consents? If I were a bishop, I'd not consent to his election.

Armstrong pleads "No contest" to theft charges.

2010-09-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I sit on a story because I just don't want to post it. This is one such story. Thanks to the Lead for reporting it so I can just comment and send you over there for the read.

One of ACNA's poster boys has pleaded no contest to felony theft charges. The Rev. Don Arrnstrong had long contended he would be proven innocent of charges. That has not proven to be the case.

Armstrong had claimed the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado had trumped up the charges and the true nature of the dispute was rooted in theological differences. Martyn Minns and Peter Akinola immediately accepted Armstrong and his congregation into CANA even while threat of state criminal prosecution hung over Armstrong.

This is a sad day for the church universal. So many people have been wounded because of this man's actions. Read more at the Lead.

South Carolina prepares to fire first shot

2010-09-15T04:01:00.000-07:00

The Diocese of South Carolina is preparing the road to thinking they can leave The Episcopal Church (TEC). Are we surprised? Bishop Lawrence has long been known as a person of suspect integrity who has repeatedly obfuscated his plans to lead the diocese out of TEC.

Resolved that Article I of the Diocese of South Carolina is hereby amended to read as follows: The Church in the Diocese of South Carolina accedes to ~~and adopts~~ the Constitution ~~and Canons~~ of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America. ~~and acknowledges this authority accordingly~~.

Here is an interesting bit that is added in the resolution explanation.

In the event that any provision of the Constitution of the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America is inconsistent with, or contradictory to, the Constitution and Canons of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, the Constitution and Canons of this Diocese shall prevail..

Read the whole resolution here.

Pentecost XVI

2010-09-12T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 19

The Lectionary

Collect of the Day: Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen..

Homily:

Throughout Pentecost we have been hearing readings that tell us about the nature of God. Today’s readings follow that theme with an in-depth look at God’s merciful nature. A closer reading reveals to us how God works in a covenant relationship with His people.

In the Exodus passage we find God’s initial anger with the people whom he has led to deliverance from slavery in Egypt. They have become bored and disillusioned and have returned to the worship of other gods and have built a golden calf as an image. Like anyone who has done something good only to be rebuffed, God is angered by this repudiation and threatens violent wrath until Moses intervenes.

A teenage boy recently was caught joy riding, having stolen a car from family friends. His father confronted him and told him how ashamed he was, how their friends had done so much for them, "And this is how you repay them?" But later the friends sat down with the enraged father and reminded him how they had all once been young and done foolish things. They then told him they were not going to press charges.

God is persuaded by Moses in the Exodus story to remember, to remember the covenant and promise to Abraham, and how that promise needs to be fulfilled. The family friends reminded the wrathful father that all of us do stupid things, and that while there are consequences, there is also mercy and forgiveness. It is in God’s nature to be merciful. We worship a merciful God.

Paul, writing to Timothy underscores the mercy of God as he recounts his own conversion from being a persecutor of the gospel to its promoter. He knows from experience that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Paul makes this powerful witness out of experience as well as a faithful conviction that God is merciful and prefers that all be drawn to the message of salvation and eternal life.

The most powerful witnesses of God’s mercy and renewal come from people who are recovering addicts. They can tell with absolute conviction of their redemption through God’s mercy. They know their depravity and the depths of despair, and as they begin to move to a life of sobriety, they witness to how much God has done for them. Their stories continue to move others and save many who are lost and who only imagine God is punishing them or determined to destroy them. For many it has been a long road, but they have learned to find God mighty to save.

The gospel lesson summarizes the basic teaching of Jesus about the nature of God. We are not dealing with a God of whimsy or one subject to influence by expensive gifts or sacrifices. Rather, we are in relationship with God who is most concerned about each of us, wanting to find us when we are lost, and yearning to bring us home.

An older couple despaired for their son who was an alcoholic. They had tried tough love, and they prayed for his deliverance. The addiction had been a problem since high school, when he wasn’t able to receive his diploma because he was in jail for underage drinking. Now in his thirties he was in the hospital; this time the doctor told them he wasn’t sure he could save their son.

Now, a year later he is at work, attending daily AA meetings, and dating a woman who is also a recovering person. He has a job and is becoming very involved in his church. God sought him, when he was most lost, and found him through friends and AA, who led him back to sobriety. And God does this over and over, sending people to us when we need them, putting us in the places where we can get help even when we would rather reject it.

The Good News is not that God is going to make us successful or rich. The Good News is that God is loving, merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. If you ask anyone who has been through the pain of addiction or felt lost and alone and then been found, they will tell you without any doubt there is a God who is mighty to save, and that God is found at work in the world today.

-- The Rev. Ben Helmer is vicar of St. James’ Episcopal Church in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. He lives in nearby Holiday Island.

ACNA: Anglican or amalgamation of mismatch?

2010-09-11T00:01:00.000-07:00

Things in Anglican-land have been relatively quiet for some time. Yes, the usual suspects are going about the world seeking whom they may deceive, but on the whole, nothing new has happened. They are in cruse control.

There is an excellent article that I would like you to take the time to read over on Anglicans Ablaze. Robin G. Jordan writes for a virtueless site run by a practicing adulterer, so you know that the article doesn't present The Episcopal Church (TEC) in stellar light. But, the article needs to be read. How really Anglican is ACNA does an excellent job showing that ACNA is a well planned sham. Here is a quote:

Some people may argue that it does not matter how Anglican the ACNA is, as long as it is Catholic or Christian or Spirit-filled. It does, however, matter if the ACNA is going to represent itself as “the” Anglican Church in North America. As long as the ACNA seeks to speak for “orthodox North American Anglicans” in the councils of the Anglican Communion and the global South Anglican provinces, then it needs to be a genuine specimen of authentic historic Anglicanism, to uphold the authority of its historic formularies, and embody its beliefs and practices. If, however, the ACNA sees its mission as a charismatic Catholic umbrella church for independent Catholic and charismatic Convergence groups, then it needs to drop the pretense of being Anglican and leave the formation of a new orthodox Anglican province in North America to those who are committed to the maintenance of a genuine Anglican witness on the North American subcontinent, a witness grounded in the Bible and the Reformation. North America does not need another Episcopal Church, a church that long ago abandoned authentic historic Anglicanism but continues to masquerade as Anglican.

Jordan does an excellent joy presenting his case. Included in his argument is the sham of the 1662 Book Of Common Prayer being ACNA's standard.

Take a few minutes to read, mark and inwardly digest Jordan's post. It's worth the read. In fact, Jordan's blog is worth reading. He doesn't mince words about TEC or ACNA. And, let's face it, friends, TEC has its faults and although it hurts to have one's faults pointed out. At least Mr. Jordan does so in a gentlemanly fashion.

Pentecost XV

2010-09-05T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 18

The Lectionary

Collect of the Day: Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, as you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so you never forsake those who make their boast of your mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever Amen.

Homily:

Somebody once made the remark, “Friends are God's way of apologizing to us for our families.”

One might ask, How shall we see our way through such a curmudgeonly statement into something edifying? However irritating the attitude, there is a grain of truth in this grouchy remark.

Today’s gospel reading is tough, but a tough gospel lesson is the only kind that can really do what it is supposed to do – proclaim the release of captives from a particularly formidable prison, the prison of a destructive family system.

So here it is once again, in not so many words: “If you don't hate all your old family members, and even life itself, you can't be my disciple.”

If we do that, what will we have left? Do we like the direction this is taking us? What good does it do to ridicule our traditional aspirations of being thankful for all that we have received from our mothers, fathers, their relatives, and the people they married? Why isn't Jesus encouraging us, instead, to help and love our relatives?

We must patiently wrestle with these questions as we consider today’s gospel, and not run around them like an impetuous Ferrari driver behind a string of eighteen wheelers that happen to be blocking the view of our destination.

Often in the gospel, the prospect of discipleship or a commitment to follow Jesus as Lord involves requirements that are a little scary. Here we are being told to abandon our relatives – after all they've done for us. Does that seem like the right thing to do? Let's be patient with ourselves and pray for the grace to be open to the surprising ways of God, so that God can move us ahead with our spiritual development into realms greater than what our past has equipped us to imagine.

Consider the family relationships of two people. Let’s call them Elsie and George. You probably know people just like them. Both Elsie and George came from backgrounds that were very limited spiritually. They assumed that their present and their futures would really not be much different from their pasts. They knew no angels. Their gift of faith had not been delivered to them.

Elsie was the daughter of a very depressed mother, a woman who medicated her depression with alcohol and then would spend days at a time in bed. Her mother's husband abandoned the family before Elsie was in her teens. She had a younger brother and a little sister whom she loved and looked after. Very typically of the adult child of an alcoholic, Elsie felt she was the cause of everything that went wrong in her midst. In fact, she believed that she was the cause of her mother's depression.

Similar in some ways was George. George was a gentle spirit who led a tragic life. He felt obliged to step up and expand on his father's very profitable business as a consultant for factory plant managers. George hoped that if he took on his father’s vocation, his father would finally show George that he approved of him and would give him his blessing. George wanted desperately to have that. But George’s talents were quite different from those of his father. George was miserable for many years, and eventually the business failed and his marriage ended in divorce.

There were churches and ministries in the neighborhoods of both of these people. They sometimes even attended services. But neither Elsie nor George ever realized how God calls all people to understand themselves by a greater instrument than the familiar experiences of their pasts.

We, the human beings that we are, are a people who understand ourselves by the way we experienced and remember the support of, or betrayal of, our critically important relationships in the past. The late British psychoanalyst John Bowlby developed a theory that adult personalities are best understood by the quality of attachments they had in their childhoods. Bowlby believed that adults who, as children, experienced traumatic betrayal of their early attachments, needed healing in order to form the bonds of affection that are generally understood as necessary for healthy living in maturity.

Most of us were fed, clothed, and sheltered in the critical first decade of life by our families of origin. This can even be said of the people in Elsie's and George's pasts. We owe our physical survival to the people who raised us.

With that affirmation, though, we must realistically acknowledge that no family of origin is without flaws. Even in the Bible, we see examples of these flawed family relationships: chemical abuse, obsessive-compulsive behavior, domestic violence, pathological behaviors stemming from the hopelessness of unresolved grief, and destructive sibling rivalries are all there, along with their confessions and redemptions.

These flawed relationships are a part of our spiritual histories. Many of us have been guilt-tripped and otherwise manipulated by our family members. We may also have done the same to them. To get relief or perspective, some of us have sought out therapy. Others may attend twelve-step meetings.

Others may prefer to seek support from friends or blow off steam with drinking buddies. Because we seek relief by such activities, we find a grain of truth in that impious remark, “Friends are God's way of apologizing to us for our families.”

There are friends who, in some ways, act like the Good Samaritan, who bind up our wounds and leave us prepared to think a little more clearly. And by the grace of God, there are other friends who are even more fully like the Good Samaritan, who stay with the broken ones, people like Elsie or George, so that their wholeness can be restored by discovering or recovering the baptismal way, the commitment to Christ’s way, and by understanding the true purpose of his or her existence.

We, as either the ministering, or the ministered to, as we begin our journey through the wilderness of life's challenges, come to know what is really meant by Jesus' tough language. As we travel with him, we learn that the flaws and sins in our histories, along with the destructive patterns of behavior they generate, are the things we are called upon to hate, not the souls of the ones who were victimized by them.

In the compassion that comes to us in our new life, we come to understand the spiritual blindness that infected both our relatives and ourselves. That is a far better thing than to let them do what they may have once done: define who we are.

-- The Rev. David Somerville is a retired U. S. Army Chaplain with credentials in hospital work and the pastoral care of people with the issues of recovery and adaptation after a life-changing diagnosis. He has been in the priesthood for more than forty years, is currently interim priest in charge of Saint Athanasius Church in Brunswick Georgia in the diocese of his canonical residence. He enjoys model railroading, traveling, and tandem bicycle riding with his wife Sherry.

The Pictures don't lie

2010-09-02T16:12:00.000-07:00

They say that a photograph is worth one-thousand words. In this case, the photo encapsulates the so-called Anglican schism.

These are the "Anglicans" who are telling The Episcopal Church (TEC) and the wider Anglican Communion what authentic, orthodox Anglicanism is. I'm tired of this bunch of snotty, judgmental, sanctimonious, lying thieving Pentecostals posing as Anglicans. What these clerics are doing is not "orthodox" Anglicanism in action. It is pentecostalism. (I'll excuse Rowan who may be praising one of his Druid deities.)

Photo: ANGLICAN TV. Obtained via the WWW.

Pentecost XIV

2010-08-29T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 17

The Lectionary Jeremiah 2:4-13; Psalm 81:1, 10-16; Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16; Luke 14:1, 7-14

Collect of the Day: Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen..

Homily:
Get a group of Episcopal clergy talking, and sooner or later the conversation will turn to their experiences officiating at weddings. Someone in the group will no doubt relate a moving story of an estranged family reconciled and reunited at the wedding of a son or daughter. Before long, another cleric will begin reminiscing about a great-grandmother’s tears of joy as she watched the next generation of her family grow to adulthood and wed. But then – inevitably – someone else in the group will bring up with a sigh of resignation the difficult bride with unrealistic expectations and demands or the tipsy best man who barely made it through the service.

Truth is, no wedding ceremony ever seems to go exactly according to plan. Weddings just seem somehow to bring out the best – and sometimes the worst – in people. Clergy know that. Indeed, we all know it. And apparently, so does Jesus if our gospel account today is any indication. It is probably not for nothing that he sets his parable lesson today at a wedding feast where everyone is already anxious – trying their hardest to look and act their best – and vying for the best seats and places.

At first glance, this story appears to be nothing more than a straightforward, practical lesson in the twin virtues of courtesy and hospitality – among the most esteemed in the ancient world. “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,” our Lord begins, “do not sit down at the place of honor.” After all, there may well be other, more distinguished, guests who outrank you. Choose instead the lower places at table, he continues, “so that when your host comes, he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher.’”

Common sense, we might rightly say, nodding our heads in agreement. Just good manners.

But Jesus is, of course, no first-century Miss Manners, and he has far more important things on his mind than table etiquette and protocol. Our selfish instincts, he knows, are not confined to wedding banquets and the dinner table. In every age and culture, it has been part of human nature for folks to act in their own self-interest – sometimes even while seemingly acquiescing to the needs and wants of others. We do it all the time, often without even thinking about it.

Whole economies are based on the principle of rugged individualism and self-reliance, the notion that, without interference from others, we are all better off depending on our own initiative and enterprise – acting in our own self-interest. Social scientists might even tell us that this is unavoidable and simply part of human evolution. After all, all creatures have a natural propensity to foster and advance their own survival. We are no exception. As one bumper sticker popular in California puts it: “It’s About Me.” That pretty much says it all.

At a certain level, of course, some might argue that there is nothing inherently wrong with this. Flight attendants warn us to secure our own oxygen masks first before assisting others – and for fairly obvious reasons. Therapists urge clients to be sure they are “getting their own needs met” before trying to reach out to others when already psychically exhausted. And we are all learning anew the importance of self-care – taking responsibility for our own health and well-being every day.

But what takes place at the wedding banquet in Jesus’ parable is emblematic of different and much deeper truths.

“All who exalt themselves will be humbled,” our Lord concludes, “and those who humble themselves will be exalted." This is not the practical experience of the workaday world we know so well. And if we are to believe Jesus, the ordinary rules of human self-aggrandizement, greed, and pride suddenly no longer apply. In the upside-down, topsy-turvy world of the gospel, everything is turned around. The humble are the exalted ones. The poor are the rich. The crippled and lame are the well. And the blind are the ones who see.

And it is not about me after all.

The world turns out to be not as solid and real as we had believed. Ultimately, our self-reliance turns out to be an illusion. For we all depend upon one another whether we recognize it or not. And whether we like it or not, we all depend on God. More than that, our Lord insists, it is only in emptying ourselves of our selfish impulses and accepting our sheer dependence upon God and others that we truly come to realize our own worth and value. Only by humbling ourselves can we approach the One who humbled himself on the cross.

This is the paradox – and the challenge – of the gospel. The kingdom, of which our Lord so often speaks, is a realm at odds with this everyday world of ours and its values. In the spiritual realm of God’s kingdom, survival of the fittest takes on a whole new meaning. And the second law of thermodynamics no longer applies: there is no limit – no end – to the energy of God’s love; it goes on forever. The “resurrection of the righteous,” as Jesus calls it here, reveals our true and genuine nature. And we will be repaid – not in ever higher salaries and exalted titles – but in the only currency that counts, the love God has for us and which we share with one another.

Any bride and groom who survive the wedding and go on to a happy married and family life soon enough learn first hand the important lesson of Jesus’ parable today; they soon enough come to know the meaning of selfless giving; they soon enough glimpse the kingdom at play in spouse and children. But you do not have to be married to find God and his “angels” masquerading as “strangers” in your midst. The kingdom, after all, is close at hand.

We pray today with the author of our reading from Hebrews, “Let mutual love continue.”

Now, that would make a nifty bumper sticker.

-- The Rev. Dr. Frank Hegedus serves as locum tennens of “The Episcopal Church in Almaden” (www.eca-sj.org) in San Jose, California.

Intersting comment from the All African Bishops' Conference

2010-08-24T12:32:00.000-07:00

Well, first, it's not "All African Bishops" because a certain former cleric is present. Why, one must wonder, is Bob Duncan at a conference on African Anglicanism?

But this is what caught my eye while reading reports of the conference:

Archbishop of Uganda Henry Orombi the Primate of the country hosting the CAPA-run conference, said now was the time for African Anglicanism to “rise up”, that it was time for representatives of the continent to be able to go to other places in the Communion with “fresh wine from new wine skins”.

That sounds like border crossing is high on their "to do" list. Are we surprised? I didn't think so.

The cultural centre near "Ground Zero"

2010-08-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

The following was posted to the House of Bishops/Deputies list. I asked and received permission to post it here. This is the first time I've heard a perspective from someone who nearly died in the terrorism.

I [am] responding to a post that spoke to the anguish those at “ground zero” might feel at hearing the call to prayers at the “mosque” and also referred to the ADL’s agreement with those protesting. Besides the point that this center is no more a mosque than a Knights of Columbus hall is a “church” there is already one other Muslim prayer facility nearby that has been there since the ‘70’s. There are no minarets and no call to prayers.

I was there that day (9-11-01). I was saved from death because the subway train I was on had been delayed by a train ahead of us with brake trouble. I arrived shortly after the first plane hit. I saw people leaping from the top floors of tower one, choosing that death over the death from the heat and flames. Two co-workers of mine did die that day.

Unlike many I do not blame Islam for that attack. I blame a man who has a particular axe to grind and who managed to get 19 deluded souls to do the dirty work for him and has used an extreme and distorted interpretation of Islam to justify the act. Let us not forget that our own Christian hands are not unsullied by atrocities committed in Christ’s name over the past several centuries.

Today those who will misuse the teachings of Mohammad to radicalize young impressionable Muslims are only helped by those of us who condemn out of hand such projects as this Center (which, by the way is not at “Ground Zero,” but some distance away). They tell these deluded young men and women that we are their enemies; that we want to destroy Islam; that we have no respect for them, and attitudes like those expressed by the opposition of this Center only serve to confirm these lies in their minds.

I personally am tired of the exploitation of the events of that day (9/11/01) by those who were not there and experienced it second hand.

Our Lord told us that we are to love our enemies; that we are to do good to those who have hurt us. But many ignore those teachings of the Gospel because they would rather have revenge. They would rather sit in judgment than reach out in love.

The ADL, of all people, should understand this kind of prejudice and where it can lead. But unfortunately history shows us that those who have been oppressed, rather than have empathy for all the oppressed are far too ready to oppress others when given the opportunity.

Shame on all of us for our lack of love, the love we were commanded to practice by Christ himself.

Charlie
Diocese of Long Island

TTLS thanks Charlie for granting permission to post his comments.

Now please go over to Episcopal Life Online and read an excellent opinion by the Rev'd Anne Mallonee who is Vicar of Trinity, Wall Street, across the lane from "Ground Zero."

Pentecost XIII

2010-08-22T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 16

The Lectionary Jeremiah 1.4-10; Psalm 71.1-6; Hebrews 12.18-29; Luke 10.13-17

Collect of the Day: Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Homily:

It is a wonder, why, in their infinite wisdom, the compilers of the Revised Common Lectionary chose to begin this week’s epistle where they did. The syntax and cadence are difficult enough, without even beginning to look at the content and context thereof. The reading seems to drop right into the middle of an ongoing discussion and retelling of the history of the Hebrew people – referring to the awe-inspiring display of God’s power and presence as Yahweh descended on Mt. Sinai in the fourth and fifth chapters of Deuteronomy. And yet, when we look to the immediately preceding verses, we realize that today’s reading is the beginning of a new thought pattern in the epistle.

The author expects that his audience is well enough acquainted with the history of the Hebrews that there is no explanation or context needed. It is simply necessary to remind the people of how God appeared to their ancestors on Mt. Sinai, in order to contrast with God’s arrival on Mt. Zion. A warning is not, however, far behind, for if they decide to reject the voice of God, now mediated through the blood of Jesus, they will be removed with those created things that will be shaken.

The question might now be asked, How then does Jesus’ rather terse discussion the synagogue leader in the passage from Luke, correlate with the cautionary note that pervades our reading from the Epistle to the Hebrews? Let’s look, briefly, at exactly what actually transpires as a result of Jesus’ healing of the crippled woman.

As the fourth of the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath (or Shabbat) is sacred for the observant Jew and strict rules govern the acceptable activities performed on the Sabbath. The twenty-four hour period – from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday – is marked by the cessation of anything considered work by the religious authorities. The crux of the Sabbath prohibition of work can be found in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5. In her book, Mudhouse Sabbath, Lauren Winner, an Orthodox Jewish convert to Christianity, mentions that:

“Over time, the rabbis teased out of the text just what the prohibition on work meant, first indentifying thirty-nine categories of activities to be avoided on Shabbat, and then fleshing out the implication of those thirty-nine (if one is not to light a fire, for example, one also ought not handle matches or kindling.)”

So this prohibition was not some flip or casual expectation. The sacred nature of the Sabbath was expected to be preserved, at all costs. And yet, as Jesus heals, yet again, on the Sabbath, a distinction is drawn between the accepted view of the religious officials, and millennia of theological interpretation.

One of the things that observant Jews are required to do on the Sabbath is attend worship at the synagogue. It must have taken a herculean effort for the woman in today’s gospel, clearly struggling with a debilitating physical condition, to make it to worship on this day. How difficult would it be for her to follow the synagogue leader’s directive to come back on another day to be healed – which, incidentally, makes the case that we must be very careful to remove as many of the possible obstacles that we can, so that we do not deter those now among us who are struggling with issues of mobility.

Throughout the gospels, Jesus manages to get himself into considerable trouble by healing on the Sabbath. Jesus draws the line in the proverbial sand, confronting the leader’s rebuke of him and laying claim to a higher commandment, that of the two great commandments, of which Jesus speaks in the twenty-second chapter of Matthew: to love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. By indicating the care taken to unbind livestock so that they may continue to live, he pointed to the care that God has taken for this woman, by unbinding her so that she might fully live.

It is clear how easily many in Jesus’ time might become overzealous in their observance of the Sabbath, but today, we see evidence of Jesus leading the people of his time, and ours also, to lay claim to and stand firmly on those things that cannot be shaken, of which our Hebrews reading spoke. For many, the Sabbath might be thought of as one of the things that cannot be shaken, and very truly it is. But Jesus’ healing of the crippled woman and admonition of the synagogue leader indicates that those things done in the service of others for God’s Glory and Purpose are to be done whenever and wherever needed, even on the Sabbath. Jesus seems to be saying with each incident of this Sabbath “work” that when we have the opportunity, regardless of when or where it is, we must do the work that we are given to do – heal, welcome, love, encourage, serve.

The author of Hebrews warns, in verse 25, not to “refuse the one who is speaking,” for that One is about to shake heaven and earth and those things will be removed that are able to be shaken. But we are also reminded that followers of Christ are the inheritors of a kingdom that is unshakable.

That unshakable kingdom is built on the foundation of Jesus, his establishment of the new covenant that is based, not simply on obedience to a set of rules, but on engaged and inspired reactions to the great love of the One God. It is to this God that we are invited to come and join in the celebration of the angels in the heavenly Jerusalem, it is to this God that we give thanks and worship and honor and glory.

We are called into relationship with the God who shows power in loving acts of healing that break the bounds of our understanding and comprehension. It is, founded upon the unshakeable love of God, made accessible through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

The collect for this Sunday prays that we might be able to show God’s power to all people. It also reminds us that we can only be gathered together in unity, by the power of the Holy Spirit. In our prayer and praise this day, we have reconnected ourselves to the power that God makes available to us. Having received this gift, we are asked to give it away in loving and healing acts of service to those whom God sends to us. Look around and see the people that God has sent to be present with us on this day. Take note of those, who for whatever reason, are not with us today. Use the power granted by God’s Grace and make sure that those folks are made to feel the healing love that God has for them, through you. Take care to move with the joy that comes through our relationship with Christ and allow ourselves to be consumed by the fire of God’s love and join with the crowd that witnessed Jesus’ Sabbath work of healing and rejoice at all the wonderful things Jesus is doing still.

-- The Rev. Lawrence Womack currently serves as associate rector at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and has served parishes in Baltimore, Maryland; and Buffalo, New York (as a seminarian). He is active in HIV-AIDS ministry and advocacy and proudly serves as a husband and father of three children.

El Camino Real mourns Gordon Gritter

2010-08-20T06:45:00.000-07:00

The Diocese of El Camino Real is in mourning today. Yesterday 19 August, Dr. Gordon Gritter graduated from this life to the life of larger freedom.

Gordon was so many things to so many people, but for our diocese he was "Mr. El Camino Real" He was a guiding influence in the diocese for more than thirty years including serving as the president of the standing committee. He was usually calm and always reliable. Although I frequently disagreed with him, he was at all times a gentleman and was living proof that disagreements do not mean one must break communion with one's brothers and sisters. Gordon was also a long-term deputy to General Convention.

In the Name of God the Father Almighty who created you;

In the Name of Jesus Christ who redeemed you;

In the Name of the Holy Spirit who sanctifies you.

May your rest be this day in peace,

and your dwelling place in the Paradise of God,

Here I am, Lord, send me - Jonathan Daniels

2010-08-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

Last week I posted a brief biography of Jonathan Daniels, Seminarian and Martyr. Today over at the Episcopal Online, part of our great Episcopal Cafe, there is a preview of a video on Jonathan. Please watch it; you will be glad you did.

Tip of the beretta to John at The Lead.

Father Terry accepts call

2010-08-17T17:26:00.000-07:00

Our friend Terry Martin has accepted a call to parish ministry in New Jersey. Take time to read his post today at Fr. Jake Stops the World. Pay particular attention to why he accepted the call to this particular parish.

Little things, like a homeless shelter on the grounds, a food pantry which fed 100 families a week, the parish hall functioning as a community center Monday through Friday, a worship space which seats 200, but doesn't have airline seating, so still feels intimate and a group of people passionate about proclaiming the Good News of God's redemptive love in both word and deed. Minor things, to most folks, perhaps. But they called out to me.

Congratulations to Fr. Martin. Congratulations to the parish, too!

Adoptive familes are defective

2010-08-17T03:00:00.000-07:00

I admit that I enjoy watching EWTN, the Roman Catholic network founded by Mother Angelica. I am thankful for the really wonderful shows they have and for the "old" shows from days gone by.

One of their weekly features is "The World Over" a news programme where reporting is from a solidly conservative Roman point of view. This past week there was a segment on Judge Walker's decision in the California Prop 8 (Prop H8). Raymond Arroyo, the solitary host opined on and lamented the "activist judge" and the revision of American history. But that wasn't the shocking part.

As part of the report an "expert" in Constitutional Law, I think he was from Harvard, was interviewed. I believe the man must be Roman Catholic. He had some very logical points and one was that Walker's thoughts on "grounds" for appeal was spot on as we have now seen. He also went on to repeat all the propaganda of what marriage equality will lead to.

But what shocked me to my toenails was his statement about raising "normal, healthy children." On the official news of the EWTN, officially recognized and sanctioned Roman Catholic Church, we heard this statement.

The only means to raise emotionally and spiritually healthy children is in a home where the biological mother and biological father raise the child together.

The expert went on to say that adoptive families are abnormal and cannot raise healthy children. That's right, folks, he said that.

I was raised by my biological parents. Each and every day we (my brothers and I) were emotionally and physically abused by them. We knew that between sunrise and sun set, we would be beaten. Not disciplined - beaten. Often leaving bruises that would last for weeks. The emotional abuse was even worse. I would be much more healthy physically and emotionally had I been raised by adoptive parented.

Here is a list of some people who were raised in abnormal, inferior adoptive families.

Art Linkletter
Charlotte Anne Lopez - Miss Teen USA
Crazy Horse - Lakota war chief
Dan O'Brien - decathlete
Daunte Culpepper - football player
Dave Thomas - entrepreneur: founder of Wendy's
Edgar Allan Poe - poet, writer
Eleanor Roosevelt - First Lady
Eric Dickerson - athlete
Faith Daniels - news anchor
Faith Hill - country singer
George Washington Carver - inventor
Greg Louganis - athlete
James Michener - author
Jean Jacques Rousseau - philosopher
Lee Majors - actor
Leo Tolstoy - writer
Lynnette Cole - Miss USA 2000
Matthew Laborteaux - actor
Melissa Gilbert - actress
Nat King Cole - singer
Nelson Mandela - politician
Peter and Kitty Carruthers - figure skaters
President Gerald Ford - politician
President William Clinton - politician
Sen. Paull H. Shin - politician
Sen. Robert Byrd - politician
Steve Jobs - entrepreneur: co-founder of Apple computer
Tim Green - football player/commentator
Tim McGraw - country singer

Notice that there is not a single healthy person in that list.

Here are some people who've adopted children and raised them in a second class, defective families:

Al Roker - news anchor
Alexander the Great - King of Macedonia, 356-323 B.C.
Angelina Jolie - actress
Barbara Walters - journalist
Bob (and Delores) Hope - entertainer
Burt Reynolds - actor
Cecil B. De Mille - film director
Connie Chung - news anchor
Dale Evans - singer
Dan Marino - athlete
Dan Wilson - athlete
Ed McMahon - entertainer
Erma Bombeck - author
Estelle Parsons - actress
Eve Arden - actress
Father George Clements -priest
George Burns - comedian
George Lucas - film director
Gloria Swanson - actress
Gracie Allen - comedian
Harry Belafonte - singer
Hedy Lamarr - actress
Helen Hayes - actress
Henry Fonda - actor
Jane Wyman - actress
Jill Ireland - actress
Joan Fontaine - actress
John Denver - singer
Julie Andrews - actress
Kate Jackson - actress
Kurt Vonnegut - author
Loni Anderson - actress
Louis Gossett, Jr - actor
Marie Osmond - singer
Maury Povich - news anchor
Meg Ryan - actress
Paul Newman - actor
Pearl Bailey - singer
Peter Falk - actor
President Ronald Reagan - politician
Roy Rogers - entertainer
Sammy Davis, Jr. - entertainer
Sen. Jesse Helms - politician
Sen. John McCain - politician
Sen. Lloyd Bentsen - politician
Sen. Paul Simon - politician
Sen. Paull H. Shin - politician
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson - Texas
Sharon Stone - actresss
Walt (and Lily) Disney - founder of Disneyland

Now, that is a bunch of defective parents if you ask me!

But, I've saved for last the two most famous adopted children in history

Moses

Jesus

So, according to the EWTN news' logic, both Moses and Jesus were emotionally and spiritually damaged because they were raised in adoptive families. Why is it that any time we hear a statement from an official Roman Catholic agency, nine times out of ten it is not only absurd but completely disprovable?

St. Mary, the Virgin

2010-08-15T03:00:00.000-07:00

St. Mary the Virgin
The Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Lectionary

Collect of the Day:O God, you have taken to yourself the blessed Virgin Mary, mother of your incarnate Son: Grant that we, who have been redeemed by his blood, may share with her the glory of your eternal kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Homily
Today is the feast of Mary. Generally, Protestants call her Mary, the mother of Jesus, while Roman Catholics refer to her as the Blessed Virgin, and Greek Orthodox Christians call Mary the God bearer. In Episcopal circles, all these titles are used along with others: Mary of Nazareth; Mary, the Mother of God; the Virgin Mary and Mary, Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ are but a few examples. Mary's many titles both reflect her significance to Christians and our various perceptions about the impact her life and ministry have on our faith. As a means of celebrating this feast, let us meditate on the facts, fiction and faith surrounding Mary.

By facts I refer to what is actually recorded in Scripture. There are, of course lots of facts about Mary that are not contained in Scripture. For instance, we do not know who her mother and father were or what her life was like before she met the Angel Gabriel. The last textual reference to her comes from the story of Pentecost. The missing pieces are too numerous to recount. There may be an undiscovered text out there, but until God leads someone to it the only witness we have about Mary is in the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and Epistles.

Mary, according to these witnesses: was a native of Nazareth; a faithful and observant Jew; engaged and married to Joseph; she gave birth to a son with God's aid and without Joseph's biological contribution; was a cousin to Elizabeth who, with God's help, gave birth to a son after many barren years; was present for and participated in most of Jesus' ministry; witnessed Jesus' death; and received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The Gospel text for today is Mary's verbal praise and prophecy. Aside from Mary's cousin, Elizabeth, this is the only surviving text in Luke's Gospel where a woman declares God's mercy and announces God's justice in Jesus Christ.

What high praise Mary offers, "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my savior;" (BCP version Luke 1:46). Vacation Bible school participation or Sunday school training or Evening and Morning Prayer services helped many of us commit this glorious text to memory. The God who stirred life in Mary's womb is "...holy ...showing (sic) mercy on those who fear God (sic) in every generation." (BCP version Luke 1:49-50). The mercy, Mary proclaims, is also God's justice. God "...has cast down the might from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly." (BCP version Luke 1:52). The Mary of Scripture is a courageous prophet in both word and in deed. Mary counts her blessings, "...Almighty has done great things for me..." (BCP version Luke 1:49). God saved Mary from death by stoning, the punishment prescribed by Jewish law for women who pursue sex outside. God invited and empowered Mary's discipleship. Courageous and blessed is Mary.

We are meditating on the Mary of fact, fiction and faith. The Mary of fiction is not radically different from the Mary of Scripture. Fiction here refers to things we claim about Mary that are not recorded in the Bible. The legends or traditions, that is tradition with a small t not Traditions with a capital T that are our official Church teachings, add pieces to what we have heard about Mary.

Mary is not only supposed to have been a virgin when Jesus was born, but Mary is thought to have remained a virgin through her marriage to Joseph until her death. Mary's perpetual virginity has been claimed in spite of Scripture's testimony to the existence of her other children. It is also claimed in disregard for the Judaic affirmation of marital sex which Mary and Joseph, as observant and faithful Jews, must be honored. For our Jewish mothers and fathers virginity was a quality admired and required of unmarried females. Married Jews engage in loving sexual activity not simply for procreation, but to facilitate their relationship with God. Another interesting claim is that Mary did not die, but ascended bodily into heaven. Of course this is not in the Bible, but is taught by some Christians.

Did Mary's role in our salvation seem so important that we assumed God would threat her differently than Jesus and the disciples? Certainly, Mary is worthy of honor, but did her merit exempt her from experiencing death?

Finally, Mary is held up as a model mother and wife. Scripture demonstrates that Mary is a model Christian and an exemplary disciple. Further extrapolations might lead one to admire some of Mary and Joseph's parenting skills. Mary let an angel convince her to conceive a child out of wedlock. Joseph kept his commitment to marry Mary. Mary with Joseph fed, housed, educated and protected Jesus. Like all good parents and guardians they released Jesus so that he could live his own life and follow his own calling. They tried to support, advise and observe without interfering.

Sadly, Mary like far too many people witnessed the untimely death of a loved one. Lifting Mary up as a model for all mothers and wives can do unintended harm. Ought a mother silently permit the murder of her child? Of course not. Can all women find life partners who will love them and their child born to another. Sadly, not. We can and should claim God's presence guiding and guarding Mary and affirm God's similar interventions in the lives of women and men yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Facts and fiction point to a woman who well deserves to be remembered and honored on this day. Our faith in what God did through Mary has at times, inspired us to make her "larger, than life." God does not object to the ways in which we venerate saints as long as we do not denigrate God's children (potential saints) in the process. After all, in the prayer that Jesus taught us we ask God to "...forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us..." God upholds us and we are to do the same for others.

In our meditation on Mary we find so many gifts to nurture our faith. Scripture records show that Mary was an ordinary person like you and me. God challenged and empowered her and she counted each as blessings from God. Mary, already faithful and observant, is called to do more for God. Her yes to the angel grants us a legacy of courage, the example of a prophet in word and deed. Claims from outside Scripture even lend some aid to our faith. Mary's legendary trails and triumphs remind us that everyone who loves God receives God's mercy. Mercy that lifting us up when we are low and brings us down to size when we "get to big for our breeches." Amen.

Jonathan Daniels, seminarian and martyr

2010-08-13T03:00:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Myrick Daniels was born in Keene, New Hampshire in 1939, one of two offspring of a Congregationalist physician. When in high school, he had a bad fall which put him in the hospital for about a month. It was a time of reflection. Soon after, he joined the Episcopal Church and also began to take his studies seriously, and to consider the possibility of entering the priesthood.

After high school, he enrolled at Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in Lexington, Virginia , where at first he seemed a misfit, but managed to stick it out, and was elected Valedictorian of his graduating class. During his sophomore year at VMI, however, he began to experience uncertainties about his religious faith and his vocation to the priesthood that continued for several years, and were probably influenced by the death of his father and the prolonged illness of his younger sister Emily. In the fall of 1961 he entered Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston, to study English literature, and in the spring of 1962, while attending Easter services at the Church of the Advent in Boston, he underwent a conversion experience and renewal of grace. Soon after, he made a definite decision to study for the priesthood, and after a year of work to repair the family finances, he enrolled at Episcopal Theological Seminary in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the fall of 1963, expecting to graduate in the spring of 1966.

In March 1965 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, asked students and others to join him in Selma, Alabama, for a march to the state capital in Montgomery demonstrating support for his civil rights program. News of the request reached the campus of ETS on Monday 8 March (my sources are a bit confused on the chronology of that week, but I think this is correct), and during Evening Prayer at the chapel, Jon Daniels decided that he ought to go. Later he wrote:

"My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." I had come to Evening Prayer as usual that evening, and as usual I was singing the Magnificat with the special love and reverence I have always felt for Mary's glad song. "He hath showed strength with his arm." As the lovely hymn of the God-bearer continued, I found myself peculiarly alert, suddenly straining toward the decisive, luminous, Spirit-filled "moment" that would, in retrospect, remind me of others--particularly one at Easter three years ago. Then it came. "He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things." I knew then that I must go to Selma. The Virgin's song was to grow more and more dear in the weeks ahead.

He and others left on Thursday for Selma, intending to stay only that weekend; but he and a friend missed the bus back, and began to reflect on how an in-and-out visit like theirs looked to those living in Selma, and decided that they must stay longer. They went home to request permission to spend the rest of the term in Selma, studying on their own and returning to take their examinations. In Selma, many proposed marches were blocked by rows of policemen. Jon describes one such meeting (ellipses not marked).

After a week-long, rain-soaked vigil, we still stood face to face with the Selma police. I stood, for a change, in the front rank, ankle-deep in an enormous puddle. To my immediate right were high school students, for the most part, and further to the right were a swarm of clergymen. My end of the line surged forward at one point, led by a militant Episcopal priest whose temper (as usual) was at combustion-point. Thus I found myself only inches from a young policeman. The air crackled with tension and open hostility. Emma Jean, a sophomore in the Negro high school, called my name from behind. I reached back for her hand to bring her up to the front rank, but she did not see. Again she asked me to come back. My determination had become infectiously savage, and I insisted that she come forward--I would not retreat! Again I reached for her hand and pulled her forward. The young policeman spoke: "You're dragging her through the puddle. You ought to be ashamed for treating a girl like that." Flushing--I had forgotten the puddle--I snarled something at him about whose-fault-it-really-was, that managed to be both defensive and self-righteous. We matched baleful glances and then both looked away. And then came a moment of shattering internal quiet, in which I felt shame, indeed, and a kind of reluctant love for the young policeman. I apologized to Emma Jean. And then it occurred to me to apologize to him and to thank him. Though he looked away in contempt--I was not altogether sure I blamed him--I had received a blessing I would not forget. Before long the kids were singing, "I love ---." One of my friends asked [the young policeman] for his name. His name was Charlie. When we sang for him, he blushed and then smiled in a truly sacramental mixture of embarrassment and pleasure and shyness. Soon the young policeman looked relaxed, we all lit cigarettes (in a couple of instances, from a common match, and small groups of kids and policemen clustered to joke or talk cautiously about the situation. It was thus a shock later to look across the rank at the clergymen and their opposites, who glared across a still unbroken "Wall" in what appeared to be silent hatred. Had I been freely arranging the order for Evening Prayer that night, I think I might have followed the General Confession directly with the General Thanksgiving--or perhaps the Te Deum.

Jon devoted many of his Sundays in Selma to bringing small groups of Negroes, mostly high school students, to church with him in an effort to integrate the local Episcopal church. They were seated but scowled at. Many parishioners openly resented their presence, and put their pastor squarely in the middle. (He was integrationist enough to risk his job by accommodating Jon's group as far as he did, but not integrationist enough to satisfy Jon.)

In May, Jon went back to ETS to take examinations and complete other requirements, and in July he returned to Alabama, where he helped to produce a listing of local, state, and federal agencies and other resources legally available to persons in need of assistance. On Friday 13 August Jon and others went to the town of Fort Deposit to join in picketing three local businesses. On Saturday they were arrested and held in the county jail in Hayneville for six days until they were bailed out. (They had agreed that none would accept bail until there was bail money for all.) After their release on Friday 20 August, four of them undertook to enter a local shop, and were met at the door by a man with a shotgun who told them to leave or be shot. After a brief confrontation, he aimed the gun at a young girl in the party, and Jon pushed her out of the way and took the blast of the shotgun himself. (Whether he stepped between her and the shotgun is not clear.) He was killed instantly. Not long before his death he wrote:

I lost fear in the black belt when I began to know in my bones and sinews that I had been truly baptized into the Lord's death and Resurrection, that in the only sense that really matters I am already dead, and my life is hid with Christ in God. I began to lose self-righteousness when I discovered the extent to which my behavior was motivated by worldly desires and by the self-seeking messianism of Yankee deliverance! The point is simply, of course, that one's motives are usually mixed, and one had better know it. As Judy and I said the daily offices day by day, we became more and more aware of the living reality of the invisible "communion of saints"--of the beloved comunity in Cambridge who were saying the offices too, of the ones gathered around a near-distant throne in heaven--who blend with theirs our faltering songs of prayer and praise. With them, with black men and white men, with all of life, in Him Whose Name is above all the names that the races and nations shout, whose Name is Itself the Song Which fulfils and "ends" all songs, we are indelibly, unspeakably ONE.

O God of justice and compassion, who put down the proud and the mighty from their place, and lift up the poor and afflicted: We give you thanks for your faithful witness Jonathan Myrick Daniels, who, in the midst of injustice and violence, risked and gave his life for another; and we pray that we, following his example, may make no peace with oppression; through Jesus Christ the just one: who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Ed Kropp 1957 - 2010

2010-08-11T07:19:00.000-07:00

This is a personal reflection and has nothing to do with the general nature of posts on TTLS.

I learned early this morning that my life-long friend Ed Kropp died unexpectedly of a massive heart attach yesterday. He was 52-years old. To say that I am shocked is certainly an understatement. His death diminishes our class, and leaves a large hole in our lives.

Ed was always a fun guy. He was always the start of May Day celebrations (that gives away my age!) because he could literally turn himself into a tire and somersault across the football field without so much as a milli-second pause. He could always turn our stomachs by his ability to turn his eyelids inside out. It was gross, but we laughed each and every time he did it. He was short and small of stature, but he was a star athlete.

After graduation, Ed fell into the drug culture and we rarely saw him, but that did not mean we forgot him. His birthday was just a few days ago on 1 August. When we had our reunions one of the first questions classmates asked is, "Is Ed coming this time?"

Please take a moment today to say a prayers for the repose of Ed's soul and for his wife and children who are even more shocked that we, his classmates are.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,

And light perpetual shine upon him.

So long, old friend. I send you blessing on this the greatest journey of your existence.

Ramadan blessings

2010-08-10T20:47:00.000-07:00

To my friends who follow the path of Mohammed, PBUH, I wish you a blessed and holy Ramadan.

The Angelus

2010-08-10T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Angelus is an ancient practice of marking the hours of the day. It is said at 6 a.m., noon, and 6 p.m. One of the western world's most famous paintings is of an elderly couple standing in a field, hands folded, praying. The painting is the Angelus although Protestants have renamed it.

Please take a few minuets of your day to say the Angelus using this clip. The artwork is by our brother Luiz. Our thanks to Luiz for sharing.

The painting I menioned is by Jean Francois Millet.

Mexico moves forward

2010-08-06T00:07:00.000-07:00

While the religious right wing in California is busy filing an appeal to remove civil rights from some Californians, Mexico, that "backwards nation" has moved forward on the issue of same gender marriages.

Mexico's supreme court has ruled that gay marriage is legal in the country's capital city. Yesterday's ruling goes against a challenge from President Felipe Calderon's conservative government. Calderon's lawyers had argued that Mexico City's laws were unconstitutional and would be destructive to families.

Now the United Sates is book-ended by nations that grant full civil rights to all their citizens while the US, the land of Liberty and Justice for All, fights to remove liberty and justice from its citizens. Will wonders never cease? It boggles the mind.

Not surprising, the Roman Catholic Church has condemned the decision. I'm sure a statement from Salt Lake City will be issued also condemning the Mexico supreme court.

For more information, read today's Huffington Post.

Prop 8 Update

2010-08-04T15:12:00.000-07:00

I think it's important to post these parts of the decision on Prop 8 issued today:

Moral disapproval alone is an improper basis on which to deny rights to gay men and lesbians. The evidence shows conclusively that Proposition 8 enacts, without reason, a private moral view that same-sex couples are inferior to opposite-sex couples. FF 76, 79-80; Romer, 517 US at 634 ("[L]aws of the kind now before us raise the inevitable inference that the disadvantage imposed is born of animosity toward the class of persons affected."). Because Proposition 8 disadvantages gays and lesbians without any rational justification, Proposition 8 violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

CONCLUSION
Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license.

Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that oppositesex couples are superior to same-sex couples. Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.

REMEDIES
Plaintiffs have demonstrated by overwhelming evidence that Proposition 8 violates their due process and equal protection rights and that they will continue to suffer these constitutional violations until state officials cease enforcement of Proposition 8. California is able to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, as it has already issued 18,000 marriage licenses to samesex couples and has not suffered any demonstrated harm as a result, see FF 64-66; moreover, California officials have chosen not to defend Proposition 8 in these proceedings.

Because Proposition 8 is unconstitutional under both the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses, the court orders entry of judgment permanently enjoining its enforcement; prohibiting the official defendants from applying or enforcing Proposition 8 and directing the official defendants that all persons under their control or supervision shall not apply or enforce Proposition 8.

The clerk is DIRECTED to enter judgment without bond in favor of plaintiffs and plaintiff-intervenors and against defendants and defendant-intervenors pursuant to FRCP 58.

IT IS SO ORDERED.

VAUGHN R WALKER
United States District Chief Judge

California Prop 8 Unconstitutional

2010-08-04T14:02:00.000-07:00

CNN has announced that Justice Walker of the Federal Court has ruled that the ban on same-gender marriage is unconstitutional.

Prasie God from whom all blessing flow, alleluia!

Praise God all creatures here below, alleluia!

Praise God above ye heavely host, alleluia!

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Alleluia!

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Justice Walkers is being vilified. Pray for him!

A first for Argentina

2010-07-30T17:01:00.000-07:00

According to the BBC America news cast today, the first same-gender couple married in Argentina today under the nation's new marriage equality laws. The men have been partners for 27-years. Congratulations, guys!

"You've come a long way, baby"

2010-07-29T03:00:00.000-07:00

Those words ended a cigarette commercial when I was much younger. It was to celebrate the new brand that was marketed specifically for women. Its name was a southern state and the opposite of fat.

I use that chauvinist term today because it really is the best way to comment on today's date in the history of The Episcopal Church (TEC). It was on this day in 1974 that eleven women were ordained to the priesthood of this church. The ordinations caused a tempest in a teacup and it is still one of the reasons some have followed the Duncanites into schism.

When I was young, it never entered my min that there would be priests whose gender was not male. It was simply "not the done thing." I would never have believed I would live to see the day when not only would there by women ordained to the priesthood, but the the Episcopate, and, indeed, our Presiding Bishop would be a woman. Had someone suggested that to me back then, I'd have quoted the Cowardly Lion: "Not no way, not no how!" But God's ways are not our ways. And ain't we glad!

In our current tempest in the tea cup, there is no other person in TEC who could lead us. ++Katharine was truly chosen by God for this church and for this time.

So, here is a cheer for the Philadelphia Eleven, as they were called who became the first, and lived with the hatred for two years until in 1976 the General Convention approved the ordination of women.

Merrill Bittner

Alison Cheek
Alla Bozarth (Campell)
Emily C Hewitt
Carter Heyward
Suzanne R. Hiatt (+2002)
Marie Moorefield
Jeanette Piccard (+1981)
Betty Bone Schiess
Katrina Welles Swanson (+2006)
Nancy Hatch Witting

And here is the the brave and foresighted bishops who made the decision to act for justice

Daniel Corrigan
Robert L DeWitt
Edward R Welles

Antonio Ramos (Assisting)

Here are my comments from last year's 35th Anniversary of their ordinations.

The Feast of St. James, the Apostle (Transferred)

2010-07-26T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Feast of St. James, the Apostle and Martyr

The Lectionary

The Collect: Gracious God, we remember before you today your servant and apostle James, first among the Twelve to suffer martyrdom for the Name of Jesus Christ; and we pray that you will pour out upon the leaders of your Church that spirit of self-denying service by which alone they may have true authority among your people; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Homily:

Today we keep the festival of St. James, Apostle and Martyr. This St. James is sometimes referred to as St. James the Greater, as distinguished from the other Apostle named St. James, the author of the Epistle, whom we celebrate along with St. Philip on May 1st.

Of St. James the Greater, we know really very little from Holy Scripture, except that, called with his brother St. John, and with St. Andrew and St. Peter, he became one of the specially chosen three, who were particularly close to Jesus, the three who were present with Jesus on many crucial occasions, for instance, at the raising of Jairus' daughter, on the mount of the Transfiguration, and in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of Jesus' agony.

St. James and his brother St. John were nicknamed Boanerges - Sons of Thunder - implying an ardent and impulsive zeal, such as they showed by their indignation against the inhospitable Samaritan village. The people would not receive Jesus: "[A]nd when James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord do you want us to bid fire come down from heaven and consume them?'". But he turned and rebuked them (St. Luke 12.51-56)

Perhaps because of his evident zeal, St. James was singled out by Herod Agrippa to be the first martyr among the twelve apostles, thus obtaining one of those places of honour in the kingdom of God which he and his brother had desired and hoped for; drinking the cup of Christ's suffering and being baptized with the baptism of Christ's death.

The Apostles are princes of the Church, princes in the kingdom of God - enthroned as judges in the reconstituted Israel of God:

For they the Church's princes are, Triumphant leaders in the war, In heavenly courts a warrior band, True lights to lighten every land. (from the hymn Aeterna Christi munera)

And it is about the character of their Princedom, their warfare and their triumph, that I particularly want to speak today, especially in terms of the incident recorded in the Gospel for today, from the 10th chapter of St. Mark (verses 32-40). In that lesson, Jesus announces to the twelve the final journey to Jerusalem and foretells his passion and resurrection.

And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came unto him saying, "Master we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire....Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in the glory.".

"You do not know what you are asking" says Jesus. "Can you drink of the cup of my suffering, and be baptized with the baptism of my blood?" Their answer is confident - "We can." They are ready and even zealous to pay the price of glory. [And Jesus' answer?] "Ye know not what ye ask."

They are zealous to pay the price of glory, and indeed they are destined to pay it: but they do not understand what that glory is. The assumptions behind their request are wrong, as Jesus explains in the passage which follows immediately upon this lesson in the 10th chapter of St. Mark. The disciples had begun to argue about precedence in the kingdom of God.

"And Jesus called them unto him, and said to them: "You know that the Princes of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be the slave of all. For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. (Mark 10.42-45).

"The princes of the Gentiles lord it over them....But it shall not be so among you." The ways of God's kingdom are very different - its princedom and authority are of a very different kind. Its kingship is the kingship of a servant: its liberty is found in willing obedience. Its warfare is not with clash of arms and noise of battle. Its struggles and its conflicts are much deeper and more crucial than that, for its battles are the battles of the human spirit; and its enemies are the subtle and deadly demons of greed and vain ambition, and pride and envy, and hypocrisy and all such perversities of spirit. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who took upon himself the form of a servant, and became obedient even unto death." Its triumphs are e the souls of its saints. Its triumph is a renewal of spirit - a renewal of mind: "Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind", "for you have not received the spirit of servitude."

In his words, and in his passion, Jesus proclaims that liberty is not to be found in worldly power, worldly pride and ambition and the satiety of worldly desires - but rather, in the denial of all these. "My kingdom", he says, "is not from hence". The signs of his glory are the signs of his humility, of his suffering, of his passion.

The signs of his glory are the signs of body broken and blood poured out. "He reigns and triumphs from the tree." And that is the glory which we set forth day by day in the liturgy of the Church, as we break the bread and drink the cup, showing forth his death until he come. "Imitate what you celebrate" says the ancient wisdom of the Church. We break the bread and drink the cup, imitate what you celebrate. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?"

What a hard lesson that is! - and how hardly do we learn it! At the font of our baptism we are pledged to renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil: we are pledged to renounce the vain pomps and glories of this wicked world. And surely it is evident enough that those pomps and glories are vain, and that our trust in them is ruinous. Yet over and over again, every day - in a thousand little ways, in our relations with one another; in the things that we wish for; and the things we rebel against - we are tempted, and deluded, and taken in by them. Over and over again we must be recalled by the passion of our Saviour and the witness of the saints: "it shall not be so among you....Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."

Our being born again - not from this world, but from above - is an ongoing travail; and our place for the coming of God's kingdom in us must be new every morning. Thy kingdom come, in me, here and now, in this particular situation , in this particular moment. And thus is our salvation worked out in fear and trembling.... The natural man, by a strange perversity, finds it so easy to trust the powers that ruin - so hard to trust the powers that bless.

Today we keep the festival of an Apostle and Martyr. An Apostle is one who is sent; and a Martyr is one who witnessed: "As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you", and "Ye shall be my witnesses". To celebrate such a festival is to recall that we too have our apostleship and our martyrdom - for we too are sent - sent to witness to that new life which is God's kingdom within us. Sent to contradict this world in which the Princes of the Gentiles lord is over them.

It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant; and whoever would be first among you must be the slave of all. For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.

By Dr. Robert Crouse.

An Anniversary of Importance

2010-07-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

Today is the Feast of St. James the Apostle. It is also the anniversary of the ordination to the priesthood of Rev'd Terry Martin, aka Fr. Jake.

The Rev'd Terry Martin

Fr. Martin was priested in 1990 in Fond du Lac (aka Fond of Lace) by the Rt. Rev'd William Stevens, Ordinary.

I take the liberty of speaking for all of us,

Happy anniversary, Fr. Terry. May your day be particularly blessed.

Fr. Martin's priesthood has enriched all who know him, and all those in The Episcopal Church. It's an honour to cal him friend.

It's nice to share this day with him (it's my Name Day).

Pentecost IX - St. James' Day

2010-07-25T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Ninth Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 12

Today is the Feast of

St. James, the Elder.

It is was on this day that

Terry Martin

was ordained to the priesthood.

The Lectionary

Collect of the Day: O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Homily:

There was a little girl who lived on a street right next to a cemetery. Her school was straight across, on the other side of the cemetery. That cemetery frightened all the children who lived on her street. In fact, they took great pains to avoid the cemetery, walking all the way around it to get to the school, and then all the way around it to come home.

But not so our little girl. Every morning she would just head straight through the cemetery, and at the end of the day she would walk back, straight through, to come home, usually whistling all the way.

An elderly neighbor sat on her porch each day and watched and wondered. One afternoon, she called the little girl over as she returned from school and said to her, “My little friend, I notice that every day, all the children on our block walk around the cemetery to go to school and back, but you just walk right through. How can you do that? Doesn’t it frighten you to walk so close to death?”

And the little girl replied, “Why, no. I’m not frightened, because I know that I’m only passing through.”

Our Collect for today bids us pray for an abundance of God’s mercy, that with God as our ruler and guide, “we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal.” Living faithfully has everything to do with how we pass through our daily lives. Living faithfully means always being connected with God as our ruler and guide, as with one another.

The way we pass through life each day – the way we walk – matters.

One of the riches of our Episcopal hymnal supplement, Wonder, Love and Praise, is hymn number 791, “Peace before us”:

Peace before us, peace behind us, peace under our feet.
Peace within us, peace over us, let all around us be peace.

This beautiful prayer is, in fact, based upon a traditional Navajo prayer used regularly in congregations of the Episcopal Church in Navojoland. In part, that prayer can be translated:

Jesus Christ, just as I pray, you do it; guard me,
In my defense, stand, reach out,
Plead in my defense.
Let peace come to me from the forest stream,
Let there be peace from the lowly grass,
Let there be peace from the wind’s way,
Let peace come to me from passing rain,
Let passing thunder bring peace to me.
Just by me let the dew fall,
Just by me let corn pollen form.
Beauty before me,
Beauty behind me,
Into fullness of life I have come,
Into beauty I have come.
All is peace again.
All is peace again.
All is peace again.
All is peace again.

How we walk through life, day by day, matters. Moving from a state of anxiety and restlessness into a way of harmony and balance is a blessing of grace that keeps us centered through whatever challenges rise to face us.

Watching children grow, from shaky first steps into the ability to dart here and there, intent on escaping their anxious parents’ grasp for as long as possible, we know that it is human nature to try to cast out on our own, to make our own way. The playfulness of children is engaging, and – usually! – we smile to see their sport. Children yearn to be able to “do it all by themselves.” Doesn’t being “grown up” mean taking care of ourselves – all by ourselves?

This relentless drama certainly makes life interesting for the parents of any toddler, and often for the rest of us as well.

“Doing it all by yourself” is part of growing up. But being fully grown up involves more than moving from dependence into independence. Our lessons today teach that to be fully alive means to embrace an interdependence with one another and with God, in a faith-filled confidence that leads us from life driven by anxiety and angst into life blessed by harmony and balance.

“Grant that as we pass through things temporal, we lose not things eternal.”

The first step in embracing a healthy interdependence, is to chose to turn back from the initial exhilaration of striking out on our own, to return to right relationship with those whose love formed us to begin with. Like the toddler squirming away from the embrace of her ever-loving parents, there must be a moment – God willing, before damage is done! – when the child turns and recognizes a need deeper than the need to assert her independence: a need to reconnect with her parents. What happens in that moment is a gift of grace, a seed which, with God’s love and in God’s time, will germinate and then blossom.

That turning point, which opens the door to right relationship restored, is grounded in the abiding, steadfast love of God, which is a constant, no matter what we have chosen to do. God chooses to include us in the dance of reconciliation, waiting for us to turn and open our hearts in some way to return and receive God’s ready embrace in that steadfast love.

Consider the exchange between Jesus and his disciples in our gospel reading as just such a moment. Jesus has gone apart to pray, and upon his return, the disciples greet him with a question, a request, which is just such a turning with an opening heart: “Lord, teach us to pray.”

It is significant, first, that the request is made at all. To ask for help is a deeply spiritual action – and not one that we are often prepared to do gracefully. To ask for help requires that we acknowledge our need of one another. It is to confess faith, confidence in the one we are asking for help. To receive and respond to that help leads to growth in our relationship with one another. It involves, at some level, healing; for to receive help from another heals us, and in that action, we become healers ourselves. So, what seems a simple request from the disciples is profound: “Lord, teach us to pray.”

What follows, of course, is the prayer loved and used by so many, so regularly, down through the centuries. The Lord’s Prayer transforms those who pray it, teaching us to walk through life in a harmonious and balanced way. Let go of what makes you anxious and restless, and trust in what God is doing around and through you, that as you pass through your daily life, you may lose not the things eternal, which is your birthright by baptism.

Our Father: “Abba,” “Father,” “Daddy,” whose love for us is so certain, it cannot be broken,
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come: may your way of justice be followed by all the people of the world.
Give us each day our daily bread: confidence that you will provide for our basic needs, each day,
And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us: the way of healing is within reach.
And do not bring us to the time of trial: grant that as we pass through things temporal, we lose not things eternal.

Yes, the way we walk through life matters. Give us the blessing of a harmonious and balanced life together. And thank you for the gift of a prayer to be offered daily to keep us on that way:

Peace before us, peace behind us, peace under our feet.
Peace within us, peace over us, let all around us be peace.

-- The Rev. Steve Kelsey is a retired Episcopal priest, living with his family in Arizona. He is currently serving part time with a team of ministry developers among the Diné (Navajo people) in the Navajo Nation.

Counterlight's Peculiars: Looks Like I'm Back Outta Business

2010-07-24T21:24:00.000-07:00

Mine is all messed up too, Counterlight.

The Twittering Communion

2010-07-24T09:45:00.000-07:00

Too busy to attend church? Well, not anymore thanks to Twitter and an enterprising Methodist cleric in the UK who is offering the Holy Communion to the electronic generation. Consider the following:

Churches usually require a priest to take the Eucharist, but the Rev Tim Ross, a Methodist minister, will send out a prayer in a series of Tweets – messages of up to 140 characters – to users of Twitter.

Those following the service are asked to read each tweet out loud before typing Amen as a reply at the end.

The move is likely to upset traditionalists, but the Rev Mr Ross argues that it is an important step in uniting Christians around the world and reaching those who might not normally go to church.

Hundreds of people have already registered to follow the service and Mr Ross hopes that thousands will have signed up by the time he sends out the groundbreaking tweets next month.

One must wonder, 'What next?' - seminary via twitter?

Read it here .

On another topic, Happy Pioneer Days to my LDS friends. Today marks the arrival of the first party, including Brighman Young, into the Salt Lake Valley. He is reported to have said, "This is the right place." (Most people misquote that as "This is the place."

California's changing view of the Golden Rule

2010-07-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

I rarely plunge into the political realm but today I'd like to draw your attention to a post in today's Huffington Post by Diana Butler Bass. In addition to being a respected journalist/author, Bass is an active Episcopalian having converted a few years ago.

I draw your attention to her article, which is actually political rather than religious, because it deals with the changing attitude of Californians regarding marriage equality and equality in general which is both a religious issue and a Christian issue. (Please note that I differentiate between 'religious' and 'Christian'.)

A survey released today in California reveals change in voters' attitudes toward marriage for gay and lesbian couples. Less than two years after Proposition 8 restricted marriage to heterosexual couples, only one person in five now says that Proposition 8 was a "good thing" for California, and 51 percent would vote to allow same-sex couples to marry.

That is remarkable, but not that remarkable. I still believe many people who supported marriage equality voted incorrectly due to the confusion of "yes = no" and "no = yes" issues. I have acquaintances who said, after the election, that they'd voted for "gay marriage." When questioned about the vote itself, they said they voted yes on Prop. 8 - meaning, they voted against their intent. They were dismayed to learn they'd cast a vote opposite of their intention.

This is the bit I found most interesting in Bass' article:

Conducted by Public Religion Research, the poll took special note of voters' religious affiliations and attitudes. According to their findings, religiously unaffiliated voters, Latino Catholics, white mainline Protestants, and white Catholics are most supportive of same-sex marriage; while black Protestants, white evangelicals, and most especially Latino Protestants are most opposed. The biggest shift of religious support for same-sex marriage came among Latino Catholics, where many respondents said that their opinion had changed since Proposition 8 passed. Across all religious categories, ethnic minorities and young voters (both white and minority) moved to become "more supportive" of marriage for homosexual Californians.

It always amazes me that any group that has been the target of overt discrimination (Blacks and Latinos) are against equality for other groups and see no connection between the discrimination they have experienced and that in which they are engaging.

Bass believes the theological dimensions are the most telling aspect of the poll.

Particularly striking, however, are the theological dimensions of the poll. If Californians voted again tomorrow on same-sex marriage, they would vote in favor of same-sex marriage by a margin of 51%-45% -- an almost mirror reversal of the 2008 vote of 52%-48% percent against same-sex marriage. Interestingly enough, the new margin of 51 percent matches the fact that 51 percent of Californians now believe that sexual orientation is not a moral choice; instead it is an innate characteristic determined by birth. Only 41 percent think that sexual orientation is something other than biological.

That's interesting and it appears to reveal the loss of control the religious right wing have over their respective flocks. Gone are the days when the faithful are not only expected to toe the party line, but actually do toe the party line.

Pentecost VIII

2010-07-18T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Eighth Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 11

The Lectionary: Genesis 18:1-10a(10b-14); Psalm 15; Colossians 1:21-29; Luke 10:38-42

Collect of the Day: Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Homily:
There is an old vaudeville joke about a man and woman dancing in the Catskills, at a singles resort. “I’m only here for the weekend,” the man says. “I’m dancing as fast as I can,” responds the woman.

Martha is that kind of a woman, dancing around her house as fast as she can, trying to get things ready for her honored guest, and trying in her own way to make the most of their time together.

Our natural sympathies are with Martha. We recognize her condition. Were he expected, the visit of Jesus would probably have sent Martha and Mary scurrying ahead of time in preparation. And that may have been the case. But note also, this text does not give us reason to believe that Jesus was expected when he came to call: “She received him,” it says, which may mean little more than that she opened the door to his knock, not necessarily expecting to see him standing there. If that were the case, then there was much to be done post haste, as hospitality was always the rule of the day and the more unexpected the guest, the more lavish and bountiful the hospitality typically was. Such hospitality is the hallmark of the Jewish home, where even at Passover a spare chair is left for Elijah, should he come to call and partake of the family’s meal.

Martha is a sympathetic sister for our time because she is in the business of activity and anxiety: two chief preoccupations of our age. The Marthas of this world are intent upon doing the right and good thing at the right and good time. We all recognize them because we all have at least some of Martha in us.

Yet, look again, and you will see that Jesus does not deny the value of what Martha is or of what she is doing. He does not say to her that everything is all right and that there is nothing to do or to worry about. He says to her, in essence, that she has her priorities wrong. He recognizes that Mary knows that she has something to learn from Jesus. He would like Martha to know that as well. He seems to be saying to Martha: “Don’t just do something, sit here, at least for a moment. Listen to me.” He seems to want to slow her dance, to let her mind and soul catch up with her body.

It is not that Martha’s work is unimportant, and it is not that Jesus does not appreciate the work. But Jesus is about priorities; first things first. And he is unambiguous about what comes first here. He said it once before, in his sermon when he warned people about being anxious regarding what they would eat and wear. Remember, he concluded that remarkably practical address with the words “Therefore, do not be anxious … But seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.”

What was so important about sitting at Jesus’ feet? It seems certain that he had been a visitor before to the home of Martha and Mary. He was a great friend of the family, and we know of his love for their brother, Lazarus. The answer to the question comes in the words that introduce the story, “Now, as they went on their way…” This is the crucial context in which we understand not only this story but our own as well, for if we read the paragraphs and chapters before this we will find that “they” – Jesus and his followers – are on their way to Jerusalem and to the cross. It was Jesus’ last journey, his final earthly pilgrimage, not a day’s outing or excursion or Sunday drive, but a purposeful procession across the pages of history to the sure and certain death on the cross, and into the future which he would claim for God. Somehow, in some way, Mary had caught on to the fact that Jesus’ message on his visit to their house on this afternoon was of such significance, such urgency, that the routine must be interrupted in order to hear it.

It seems doubtful that it was Mary’s regular custom to entertain visitors by sitting at their feet while her sister did all the work. In fact, Martha’s comments suggest that Mary’s behavior was not her typical behavior. But perhaps, somehow, Mary sensed that this was not an ordinary visit. The Lord was passing by, and after he went, things would never be the same again. Mary sensed that the time he had with them was precious and to be savored.

We learn an important lesson from this story in the example of Mary and Martha. The mark of hospitality is the capacity to give. Martha was doubtless very good at that, and she was busy about that very work, giving Jesus a pleasant time, providing for his needs and comforts, organizing his stay under her roof. It is hard work and should be rewarded, as it usually is, with appreciation and gratitude. But just as Jesus interrupts the routine of the household in Bethany, he also interrupts the role, for he is not “guest,” he is now “host.” He is the Lord, and it is he who gives and others who are now invited to receive.

An ancient custom of hospitality in England holds that when a sovereign comes to your house, while in your home, it is no longer yours but his – or particularly at this point in English history, hers. A sovereign becomes the host under any citizen’s roof. It is said that it is more blessed to give than to receive, but it is infinitely more difficult to receive than it is to give. It makes one beholden to the giver, and it makes one, in some sense, dependent. Try to give someone something and that person will insist upon returning something to you, wanting things to be even, not wanting to feel obligated. Giving is power; receiving implies need and weakness.

The Marthas of the world are so busy doing good and necessary things that sometimes they don’t have time to realize how deeply they themselves stand in need. When Jesus comes, he reminds us that we need the grace and peace he offers. Rather than be distracted by providing service, or being anxious and troubled about many things, we would do well to slow the dance we are doing, to stop, look, and listen.

This, then, is a parable about giving and receiving, doing and being, and about the presence of Jesus in the midst of the ordinary that becomes extraordinary. It is a parable about priorities, first things first, and it is a parable about two women who in their lives and attitudes give our Lord and his Church an opportunity to teach an important lesson for our time. It is also a parable of our worship, for it reminds us that what happens in our churches – our prayer, our praise, our instruction, and our fellowship – is not what we do for Jesus, entertaining him and busying ourselves with some sort of fast dance. But rather, we slow that dance, we come to “sit at Jesus’ feet,” and we come to receive from him the means of grace and hope of glory.

-- The Rev. Dr. Giovan Venable King serves at St. Edmund’s Episcopal Church in San Marino, California, in the Diocese of Los Angeles. Among her other ministries, she serves on the Program Group for World Mission and as a judge on the Ecclesiastical Court.

Prayers for Lisa's friends Janice and John

2010-07-13T02:08:00.000-07:00

I bid your prayers for Janice and John.

Our blog sister, Lisa Fox posted the following concerning a family in her parish.

We've had a fairly intense few days in my wee parish, as one of our own has died too young after too much suffering. Of your mercy, say a prayer for Janice, who has now joined the saints in glory, and for her teenage son John who has lost his only parent.

Remember thy servant, Janice, O Lord, according to the favor which thou bearest unto thy people; and grant that, increasing in knowledge and love of thee,she may go from strength to strength in the life of perfect service in thy heavenly kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Give courage and faith to John, that he may have strength to meet the days ahead in the comfort of a reasonable and holy hope, in the joyful expectation of eternal life with those he loves, especially his mother, Janice. Amen.

Curious comments from Rowan

2010-07-12T07:45:00.000-07:00

At the "presidential address" today, the Most Rev'd and Rt Honourable Rowan Williams, Primate of All England made some curious comments which I believe reveal his plans for the future.

Archbishop Sentamu [Archbishop of York - ABY] and I explained when we moved our amendment on Saturday that we didn’t think a further referral to a revision committee would really help us at all at this stage and we remain of that view. We believe that we now need the dioceses to give their wisdom, their prayer and their thought to this process, and to move on.

This is important because he is going to get the bishops involved in the process. Remember that in the Church off England (CoE) bishops rule the diocese and exercise enormous influence and legislative power. Remember, too, that the bishops passed Rowan's wee amendment. Now Rowan wants the help of the powerful house of bishops. And he's already done it.

The second thing I’d like to say is - and we’ve had a meeting of House of Bishops this morning - the House of Bishops will set in hand promptly the necessary work involved in producing a draft code of practice which will be available for debate in Synod, when legislation returns from the dioceses in about 18 months time. That, of course, is the moment at which we’ll enter the final phase of this long and complex process. That is when all the material will be finally on the table.

In one year and six months, he's bringing this vote back to the Synod for another vote. I predict that next time, however, there will not be a vote by orders.

I’m well aware that proposing an amendment as we did on Saturday, without an illustrative code of practice to accompany it, was asking a great deal of the faith and charity of Synod, but time was not on our side there. Nonetheless, the House of Bishops now wishes to proceed with as much speed as humanly possible to get that work done. That work will include trying to see how a code of practice can enshrine the best possible provision in the light of what we’ve heard and what we’ve discussed, in the light of the votes taken on Saturday.

The beginning should be translated "The bishops and I, realize we got our fingers burned, but we were determined to ram this down your throats and will continue to do so until you do what 'we' tell you to do." I say "bishops" because it was in that house where the amendment was overwhelmingly supported. And why not, what old boys' club wants to be forced to admit uppity wimmin? The presence of women just might expose what goes on after lights out in the house of bishops.

Also, notice that word "enshrine." The dictionary defines it as "Preserve (a right, tradition, or idea) in a form that ensures it will be protected and respected." Rowan and the right wing are determined to protect misogyny in the CoE - by legislation, not by custom.

You’ll also be aware that the next phase of committal to the dioceses, it’s possible for the dioceses to shape following motions. So the point I’m making is quite simply there remains work to be done. The House of Bishops will attempt to do the work that they need to do as swiftly and effectively as possible, and we ask for your prayers and support in what will undoubtedly be a very demanding task.

Here it is again. The patriarchy at work will ensure that no male has to submit to the authority of a woman. It absolutely boggles my mind that there are people with this mindset in the 21st century.

And third and last: obviously Archbishop Sentamu and I would have like our amendment to pass, that’s what you do when you pose amendments, but we would want to encourage those disappointed by the outcome, and also the whole Synod as seeing that not as the end of the road. We are, in the Church of England, in the middle of both a legislative process and a process of discernment, and, I would dare to add, a process of service to one another.

The next phase of the work we try do together, I think has to be very, very closely focused on the service we seek to do one another. And that means of course, working in the interests of those who will be taking different decisions from our own, different paths from our own, so that all may grow up into Christ as best they can.

Again, Rowan is speaking to the right wing who are pissed off that their misogynist selves. Not a word to the women of the church that he is sorry the vote was so close, or that he respects the voice of the Synod that women have a place in the old boys' club called the House of bishops. He is so bloody mined about appeasing the right wing that he is willing to steer the ship onto the reef.

It is bloody difficult to "work together" with a bunch of people who do not to work with the group, but want to rule that group.

I find it interesting that the ABC uses the phrase "a process of discernment." We in The Episcopal Church are painfully aware of that that phrase actually means. The result of "a process of discernment" means only one thing to the right wing / Calvinists - we're out of here unless you give us our way. The title to this presidential address should be "We have only begun to fight."

I feel sorry for the Church of England. They are struggling with difficult times as they try to be relevant to a changed and still changing world. And they are struggling to meat the needs of that changing world while they are ruled by bishops and certain clergy who are both stuck in the middle ages and attempting to hold the whole church hostage to medieval theological irrelevancies.

I'm wondering if all of this huffing and puffing and pleasing the "conservatives" is merely Rowan preparing the way for his submission to Rome when he is finally free to do so. It will certainly look better in the Vatican if Rowan comes with a proven track record of 16th century theology and philosophy.

Pentecost VII

2010-07-11T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Seventh Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 10

The Lectonary

Collect of the Day: O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Homily

Today we have before us what is perhaps the most familiar story Jesus ever told: the parable of the Good Samaritan. Hearing it again might cause us to wonder, Is there anything new in this story that we haven’t already thought about or heard preached about? Hasn’t it been worn smooth?

Hasn’t the parable lost its power to teach us because we know it so well?

After all, hasn’t the parable of the Good Samaritan become a cliché in our culture? We have Good Samaritan laws and Good Samaritan hospitals. We live with a common concept that any charitable act makes us Good Samaritans. But the parable means much more than that, of course.

Sermons on this parable often focus on those who encountered the beaten man on the road to Jericho – the two who passed by and one who stopped to help. Often preachers ask us, “Which one are you like? Which one do you want to be like?”

It would be interesting, however, to look at another character – to see how identifying with him might help us better understand what Jesus means for us to discover. Let us examine the victim – the one who was robbed, stripped, beaten, and left for dead.

For many of us, it might seem difficult or inappropriate to identify with the victim. It’s easy for most Americans to feel too privileged and blessed and lucky to equate themselves with such an unfortunate soul. Looking deeper, though, can’t we all recall times when we have suffered? Life cannot be lived without some difficulty. Some of us have been robbed of possessions when thieves broke into our homes, and others have been robbed of time and energy by those whose irresponsibility forced them to do more than their fair share.

Most of us have been treated unjustly, and all of us have been beaten down by our own sin and failures and disillusionment. We have been left half dead by the knowledge of our own limitations.

We have been stripped bare by rejection and abandonment, and we have been stripped by those who told lies about us and tried to harm our reputations. We may even have been left half dead by rivals seeking to ruin our careers or reputations. And perhaps more devastatingly, we have been left half dead by discovering that there is nothing we can do to change such conditions or relieve the pain they cause.

In greater or lesser ways, aren’t we sometimes as helpless as the victim in Jesus’ parable? Do we not also pray for mercy? Does not each of us come as a beggar to the Lord’s altar with cupped hands seeking the true bread that gives life and saves us from desolation and despair?

So while we are identifying with the victim, what do we make of it? Was the beaten man deserving of help from the Samaritan? What did he do to merit an enemy’s taking a serious risk and sacrificing his time and substance to save him, loving him with no strings attached and with no hope of gaining anything in return? Maybe nothing. Maybe the victim was undeserving. Was he not foolish to have traveled on such a dangerous road alone?

The point is, of course, that it did not matter. The Samaritan helped him unconditionally. He showed mercy as God shows mercy to his children. Are we deserving of the love and forgiveness that God gives us? It doesn’t matter, either. This is the primary message of this parable. It illustrates the truth of God’s mercy – f God’s love poured out for us unconditionally, with no strings attached. Without our being deserving, God cares for us in this extraordinary way.

If we can feel the grace that the beaten man experienced when he was helped by an enemy, we will know what God intends for all his children. Not only will we know how God cares for us when we are hurt, we will see the love that fills us in a new light. As the love continues to flow in us, it can overflow to others as we become the Good Samaritan in response.

This powerful and rich parable reminds us of the essentials of our faith. It is a foundation of Christian ethical and moral values. It includes the familiar themes, that Christians are called to:

avoid the faithless idolatry of those who pass by on the other side
take risks for the sake of the gospel
care for our neighbors
recognize that “neighbor” includes everyone, everywhere
affirm the calling to give ourselves away for the good of others
give with no strings attached
provide for those in need without regard for whether they are deserving or not
love even those different from ourselves, whom we may even despise, and whom we consider unlovable and undeserving

Through the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus takes us into the depths of God’s love. He answers the question “Who is my neighbor?” by giving us an unforgettable example of love in action. He will not let us get away with failing to put our money where our mouths are. Believing and knowing what is right is not enough. Jesus’ model story of the Good Samaritan on the road to Jericho forces us to see ourselves on the roads we travel – the roads that surround us.

Seeing from the perspective of the victim can help us move from belief to action. Jesus’ parable forces us to see that knowing the meaning of “neighbor” is not enough. We can only express adequate gratitude for what God gives us by acting toward everyone – our neighbors – as did the Good Samaritan toward the victim of robbery and beating.

It's Humble pie for Rowan - corrected

2010-07-10T16:21:00.001-07:00

Poor Rowan Williams. First it was those cheeky Amurikans who refused to do what he told them to do. Then it was the African bishops who started mucking about in his self-proclaimed Anglican Fiefdom. And now, well, it's his own surfs who have shafted him.

Almost half of his bishops told him to go soak his head and voted against his amendment which would have given the schismatics in the Church of England right to refuse to recognize any female bishop's authority or the authority of any male bishop who had even participated or consented to the ordination of a woman to any of the three orders of the church.

Fifteen of the forty bishops voted against Rowan. If my math is correct, that is roughly 37 percent of his bishops did not support him. This was not just a vote against the amendment. This was, and don't forget it, a vote against Rowan himself.

My friend who sent me a text message from the General Synod had the numbers backwards in his message, so, to clear up all confusion, the correct votes are:

Bishops: 25 yes; 15 no;
Clergy: 85 yes; 90 no; 5 abstention
Laity: 106 yes; 96 no; 4 abstention

It was the clergy who were responsible for the failure of the amendment.

Some have said the spin is all wrong and this is only a minor defeat. But, they are wrong. It is a significant vote of no confidence in the leadership of Canterbury and York. And the rejection may have been influenced by recent "papal" actions from Lambeth Palace.

Canterbury and York probably saw this defeat coming as they pushed for a simple vote on the so-called "Anglican Covenant." We shall see what transpired in that vote.

I've telephoned the pub nearest the York site and asked them to send round a very large gin and tonic for Rowan with my compliments.

My apologies for having mucked the numbers up three times. And my thanks to those who pointed out those errors.

It's humble pie for Rowan

2010-07-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

Please see the corrected version of this post.

Gledhill predicts a possible Episcopal Revolt

2010-07-09T13:29:00.001-07:00

Ruth Gledhill writes in the 9 July edition of the Times that there may be an inglorious revolution this weekend as the final meeting of the General Synod takes place.

Liberal members of the House of bishops could launch a protest on the floor of the general Synod in York.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is facing and unprecedented rebellion from bishops in the Church of England who are demanding that he and the Archbishop of York withdraw controversial plans to undermine the authority of women bishops.

Liberal members of the House of Bishops at the General Synod in York have privately warned Dr Rowan Williams and Dr John Sentamu that they will try to sabotage the Archbishops' proposal on the floor of the synod if the Archbishops do not withdraw it.

A planned rebellion on something of this order is almost unknown, but Dr Williams detests being put under pressure to act against his conscience. Traditionalists are protected by his amendment because it gives them the chance to opt for a separate episcopal jurisdiction "untainted" by the hands of a woman bishop, thus taking away some of the usual jurisdiction from the woman.

Keep in mind that that "untainted" means the "traditionalists" would not have to accept a bishop who has even participated in the consecration of a female bishop. Williams seems to be much more concerned about those "traditionalists" than about the hundreds of thousands of females who actually keep the church doors open.

Critics of Dr Williams and Dr Sentamu say that the number of women and their supporters who will be offended if the amendment succeds is far greater than those who will be offended if it fails. While women are unlikely to leave the Church, believing still in the possibility of transformative change, the issue threatens to make the Church of England appear so absurdly misogynistic that, combined with the fall-out over the failure to appoint Dr Jeffrey John as Bishop of Southward, any new Christians will be deterred from joining the Anglican Church.

If Dr Williams and Dr Sentamu refuse to withdraw their amendment, which will be debated towards the end of the 19 hours of debate this weekend on legislation to ordain women bishops by 2015, the bishops are threatening to vote against it.

For me, this is the most interesting bit:

If they are successful in defeating the amendment, Dr Williams will be under strong pressure to resin. Even if he clings on, his authority and credibility may never recover from the double debacle of defeat over women bishops and humiliation over Dr John, the Dean of St Albans.

And there you have it. I believe that the book of Proverbs states "Cast your bread upon the water and in many days it shall return to you." It just might be that Dr Williams gets soggy bread. Would he resign? I have tuppence that says not in a million years.

As for losing credibility? He lost that a long time ago.

General Synod delegates are elected to a five-year term that includes yearly General Synods. That means if the measure is defeated the Church of England may not revisit women bishops for decades.

The rest of Gledhill's article deals with the fallout over Jeffreygate which Williams blames on the liberals and the liberals blame on the "traditionalists". I wonder, could it be possible that Dr Williams is the source, giving himself the "out" in a sticky wicket? Just a thought.

Prayers requested for the Church of England

2010-07-09T13:29:00.000-07:00

I bid your prayers for our sister church, The Church of England, meeting in General Synod this weekend. They face a difficult weekend as they seek the way forward. Pray that each delegate is open to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

The Lord be with you.
And with thy Spirit.
Let us Pray:

Amen.

A chilling bit of news from the John nomination

2010-07-07T14:46:00.000-07:00

Changing Attitudes reports that it was the un-honourable Mr. Rowan Willimas who, for a second time, stabbed Jeffrey Johns in the back.

Archbishop Rowan was apparently so furious about the first leak that he unilaterally vetoed Jeffrey’s name, betraying his friend for a second time and handing an apparent victory to the conservatives who seem to be successfully controlling him. Archbishop Rowan would have directed his anger in a more healthy direction if he had targetted the people inside and outside the Commission who have deliberately sabotaged its work.

Why do I say "chilling?" For two reasons. First, it shows that Williams has absolutely no integrity (pun not intended) and second that he, as "spiritual head" of the Church of England (COE) appears to be both morally bankrupt and an excellent hand puppet for the Calvinists infecting the COE and the Anglican Communion with their anti Christian hate. This incident, if correctly reported, also shows that he is a despot in the worse sense of the word. This is the man who wishes to rule the spirituality of the world's Anglicans.

"Jesus wept."

Jeffrey John to receive no mitre

2010-07-07T11:53:00.000-07:00

According to Ruth Gledhill,

In the end he wasn't chosen and it was apparently not direct cause and effect but it still makes Rowan look terrible. Not once but now twice have Jeffrey's hopes been raised, only to be dashed. What a terrible atmosphere there will be as we gather amid the duck poo at General Synod at York university campus this weekend.

The Telegraph.co.uk reports that

Dr Jeffrey John, the openly gay but celibate Dean of St Albans, has been blocked from becoming a bishop once again. He has not been chosen as the next Bishop of Southwark. Liberals will be dismayed that the Church has lost its nerve – but there is no reason for evangelicals to celebrate, either. This is bad news whichever way you look at it:
The Church has missed an opportunity to show that it is inclusive of homosexuals.
Jeffrey John has gained a reputation as a gifted preacher and effective pastor at St Albans cathedral and would have been a popular bishop.
It indicates that the Crown Nominations Commission is afraid of appointing any bishops who might bring a bit of colour.
A dignified and talented cleric has been embarrassed again.
The row over homosexual clergy could have been brought to a head, but will now fester until a gay priest is finally made a bishop.
It is also bad news for Rowan Williams. Although he is only one of 14 members of the Commission, liberals will be perplexed as to why he allowed John’s name to be included on the shortlist if it was only to be rejected at the last minute. To be fair, he didn’t know that this fact would be leaked to me, and he is said to have been livid with the Commission that it was. But, given what happened in 2003 and his apparent distress at forcing his old friend to stand down from becoming Bishop of Reading, it will surprise many that he didn’t use his influence to try and sway the few undecided members who could have secured his selection.

The Archbishop has appeared increasingly resolute and self-assured over recent months, but liberals will be left wondering why he loses his backbone when it comes to fighting their corner. Even conservative evangelicals made clear that there was no reason to object to the dean’s appointment this time round, pointing to the fact that he has stressed that his homosexual relationship is celibate.

The opportunity has gone however, and with it probably John’s hopes of ever being made a bishop. If he can’t get Southwark, the most liberal of all the Church’s dioceses, there is little chance he’ll be promoted elsewhere. It also may represent the Archbishop’s last chance to oversee the appointment of an openly gay bishop and to advance the liberal cause that he championed before moving to Canterbury.

Instead of being remembered as the radical pro-gay archbishop the evangelicals feared, Dr Williams appears far more conservative than anyone could ever have imagined.

A poor substitute for Freedom in Christ

2010-07-06T03:00:00.000-07:00

I'm running several days behind in reading the multitude of online newspapers and blogs that form part of my early morning routine. I've just read the guardian.co.uk for 30 June and finished an excellent article by Savitri Hensman on the troubles in the Anglican Communion. She must have been following the issue for a very long time or she's been poking about Fr.Jake's place.

For those of us in the North Americas, the issue is an old one. But for England, this is fresh blood on the white flag of St. George. They are about to experience what their former American Colonies got face-full of while the ABC sat in his comfy overstuffed chair by the fire drinking sherry silent as the tomb. Now, however, it's about to make mince out of his own church and there is naught that he can do to stop it, now. Had he acted years ago, he would not be about to jump from the frying pan into the flames.

I must admit to having more than a modicum of schadenfreude. (I'll say ten Ave's, Pater's and Gloria's and whacking good Act of Contrition, but I'll be smiling though them all.)

Any road, Savitra Hensman writes in her article The proposed Covenant is the culmination of a conservative and homophobic drive for power in the Anglican Communion that

The Archbishop of Canterbury has been a champion of greater centralism among Anglicans worldwide, supposedly to strengthen unity. But recent events have exposed the tawdry reality behind talk of "interdependence" and "bonds of affection".

This, Hensman points out, is contrary to the "founding documents" of the Communion:

The 1878 Lambeth Conference resolved that "the duly certified action of every national or particular Church, and of each ecclesiastical province (or diocese not included in a province), in the exercise of its own discipline, should be respected by all the other Churches" and "no bishop or other clergyman of any other Church should exercise his functions within that diocese without the consent of the bishop thereof" .

This was, however, "selectively applied." In 1997 a Rwandan bishop declared that he was in charge of a parish in Arkansas (I didnt' remember this). When the diocesan protested, Lambeth responded by explaining that Lambeth's resolutions only had "moral authority" and the attempt to undermine The Episcopal Church (TEC) went unpunished, and largely unnoticed. Keep in mind that this was a year before the 1998 Lambeth Conference.

Ms. Hensman writes that:

Yet the tune changed when in 2003 the Episcopal Church, after decades of theological debate, consecrated a partnered gay man as bishop of New Hampshire. This move was fiercely condemned by leaders such as Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria for damaging Anglican unity. Likewise approval of same-sex unions by a diocese in Canada. was widely condemned. Border-crossing intensified.

And what happened, TEC became the great Satan and the homophobes became the saviours of the world - in their own minds.

It is a telling thing that in any church power and politics trumps Jesus and his love for all creation. As Hensman rightly states, "This is a poor substitute for freedom in Christ."

Correction to John post

2010-07-05T20:50:00.000-07:00

The Rev'd Messrs Sugden and Fraser are not canons to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Frasier is from St. Paul's Cathedral and Sudgen is with Anglican Mainstream.

I tried to correct the error in the previous post but for some reason every time I "touch" a published post, the whole html goes haywire.

I apologize for the error.

More on Jeffrey John's nomination

2010-07-05T05:13:00.000-07:00

There was a very curious wee statement today in the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

As the facilitator, John Humphreys, introduced the programme, he said that the Rowan Williams would like the new bishop of Southward "to be Jeffrey John who is openly gay."

That is quite a remarkable statement but, what is even more remarkable is that The Very Rev'd Chris Sudgen and the Very Rev'd Giles Fraser, cannons to the Archbishop of Canterbury (ABC), did not utter a single protest to that statement.

One may conclude by their silence that Rowan is now advocating for the same man he stabbed in the back just a few years ago.

What I find most interesting about all of this is that the ABC seems to have backed himself it a corner. The two leading candidates are an openly gay man living in a civil partnership and a man married to a divorced woman.

There is a wonderful statement in Be very careful before you object to Dr. John by the Rev'd John Richardson* over at The Ugley Vicar that really sums up the whole schismatic war

We would not be in half the mess we are in today if the Church, during the years in which homosexuality was almost universally regarded as perverse, had acted as a haven for real sinners, rather than a rather choosy hostel for the outwardly saintly.

Well said, in my opinion.

Although I gather The Ugley Vicar is on the "conservative" side of the debate (I believe he is involved in the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans), his post is really worth a read. He is actually defending John's nomination because the only valid objection is homophobia. If Mr. John were straight or married to a nice wee woman to hide his sexuality, he'd have been a bishop long ago - just as many other gay male bishops in the Church of England and throughout the Anglican world.

Anniveraries

2010-07-04T13:04:00.000-07:00

Today is the "birthday" for two blogs - The Friends of Jake (FOJ)and The Three Legged Stool (TTLS, T3LS). Both were born when Fr. Jake felt it necessary to take a break from blogging when he accepted employment by the National Church.

In the past two years TTLS has had almost 461,000 unique visitors. The total number of hits was just over 1,800,000 with 291,728 hits during General Convention 2009.

TTLS has been quoted in a number of places and cited by the likes of The Church Times and Episcopal Cafe. Not bad for an amateur with only a cursory knowledge of The Episcopal Church and the Anglican world.

The Friends of Jake and TTLS owe a big thank you to Fr. Jake for inspiring us and to you, our readers for returning to read our thoughts

Pentecost VI

2010-07-04T03:00:00.001-07:00

The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 9

The Lectionary

Collect of the Day: God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Homily:

Today’s reading from the Second Book of Kings presents us with a strange and complex story. The main characters are the Aramean warrior Naaman, who has what our ancestors called “leprosy”; and the prophet Elisha of Israel, chosen successor to Elijah, who eventually heals Naaman.

The King of Aram and the King of Israel both appear as characters, but they do not drive the plot; the plot is driven by nameless servants, who matter a good deal more in the story than do the pair of kings.

First we are told that Naaman’s wife has a servant girl from the land of Israel. There would be no story if this nameless servant had not suggested that her master really ought to go see the prophet in Samaria who could cure him of his disease.

When Naaman arrives in Samaria, the chief city in the northern kingdom of Israel, he has brought with him all his horses and chariots, a quantity of gold and silver, and “ten changes of clothing.” Clearly he expects that healing his skin disease will be an expensive and elaborate production.

Again we have a nameless servant: a messenger from Elisha meets Naaman and instructs the warrior to bathe seven times in the Jordan River. Naaman is quite offended by this message; he thinks there are rivers back home in Aram that are better than the Jordan. Then we have more nameless servants. Indeed, if it were not for the courage and persuasive abilities of Naaman’s servants, the story would have ended right there, with Naaman “stalking off in a rage.”

The proud warrior listens to his servants, however, and immerses himself seven times in the Jordan, and just as the servant girl had indicated, Naaman is cured. The manner of the healing turns Naaman’s expectations inside out and upside down; the prophet Elisha is not even present, and there are no prayers, incantations, no laying on of hands, nothing one would have associated with healing at that time. But there is a powerful subtext to this story: the God of Israel has very strong powers indeed and can act directly and immediately without power brokers or mediators. Equally clear in this story, as in several instances with Elijah before this, is that God brings healing to foreigners as well as to the people of Israel. As St. Paul says several hundred years later, “neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!”

The scope and reach of God’s authority and healing action is a theme echoed in today’s gospel reading from Luke. Having previously sent “the twelve” out on an exploratory journey, here Jesus sends out seventy of his disciples “to every town and place where he himself intended to go.” The seventy go out as the bearers of God’s power in much the same way that Jesus did. Just as Elisha did not need to be present with Naaman, Jesus does not have to be physically present with his followers when they go out in mission. In both stories, the mighty power of God to heal and save undergirds all the human activities involved.

This immediate presence of God’s power is what Jesus was referring to when he said, “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”

Through the disciples’ activities, God proclaimed his presence and power. And this direct, immediate, self-proclaiming presence of God amazed and excited Jesus’ disciples. They came back from their missionary journeys “full of joy,” and chattering “Lord! In your name even the demons submit to us!” This reaction betrays the fact that they were taking the success of their healings and exorcisms personally rather than as bearers of God’s presence. Jesus’ response to this inflation of their egos gently brings them down to earth: “Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

In the end, these readings are all about the amazing, even shocking capacity of our generous God to hand over holy stuff to human characters while remaining in the background. In the stories of Elijah and Elisha, we begin to understand that prophets do not act according to an instruction manual for blessings, healings, warnings, conversions, or curses. God grants them considerable freedom and initiative. We tend to think of prophets as “great communicators,” but Elijah and Elisha correct our insistent emphasis on the spoken word of God by the way they function as “great connectors.” Prophetic activity breaks through human boundaries, connecting the power of God’s presence to people beyond the land, and outside the covenant, of Israel.

This role of connecting the power of God to the people of the world is supremely and fully embodied in Jesus, but by derivation and gift, the role of connecting is ours as well. We do not all have the gift of being “great communicators,” but we can all be great connectors even if we don’t think of ourselves as prophets.

Like the nameless servants who drive the story of Naaman, our job is to be the connectors of God’s extraordinary, abundant, and life-giving power to those who need it. For love, peace, and justice, and for the repair of the world’s fabric, may the Lord make it so.

-- The Rev. Angela V. Askew is priest-in-charge of St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn, New York.

And can it be? Jeffrey Johns to be a bishop?

2010-07-03T13:48:00.000-07:00

Today's Telegraph is reporting that the Very Rev'd Jeffrey Johns has been nominated to become the Bishop of Southwark. That means that the Most Rev'd Rowan Williams has approved the nomination. Willimas is chair of the Crown Nominations Committee.

The committee is "liberal" but this possible nomination is truly surprising given the recent actions of Williams in retaliation for The Episcopal Church consecrating an openly gay and partnered bishop.

According to today's article,

Promoting him to one of the most senior offices in the Church would trigger a civil war between liberals and conservatives and exacerbate existing divisions within the Anglican Communion.

The appointment of Dr John, who entered a civil partnership with his long term partner the Rev Grant Holmes in 2006, would mark a major victory for the pro-gay lobby in the Church of England, which has been disappointed at the lack of progress under Dr Williams.

Conservatives, on the other hand, would be incensed at the promotion of a cleric who has strongly argued for a more liberal attitude towards sexuality and is in a long-standing, though celibate, homosexual relationship.

Could Rowan have multiple personalities? The whole "mess" just gets stranger and stranger.

UPDATE: From Colin Coward at Changing Attitudes in England

If true, then the implications are huge. The Church of England would gain a bishop of immense intelligence and passion. LGBT Anglicans would gain renewed confidence that the Church of England retains a capacity to be (cautiously) radical, inclusive, broad and generous. It would signal a dramatic change of direction in the Communion. Further resignations by conservative members of the Primates meeting, the Anglican Consultative Council and the Anglican Communion Standing Committee might be expected.

Coward continues:

The balance of power between conservative and radical groups in the Communion might change dramatically given such a huge reversal following the successful campaign by those claiming to be traditional in blocking Jeffrey John’s appointment in 2003. England might at last be able to stand with our Episcopal Church friends in being honest about the numbers of LGBT deacons, priests and lay people (and bishops) who lead exemplary Christian lives in the service of the gospel.

UPDATE 2: Episcopal Cafe has some good information for us.

"I'm Sorry" at Pride Chicago

2010-07-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday the offertory hymn was When Christ Was Lifted From the Earth which has become one of my favourite hymns. And, no, not because of any "of course you do" reasons. The hymn really tells it like it is.

God knows us in that intimate way that we know ourselves, behind the closed door with the curtains drawn. He knows the "us" we are when we are completely alone. He knows if we drink milk from the carton and put it back in the refrigerator. He knows if we really throw away the hot dog that fell on the floor if we pick it up off the floor and eat it without even brushing it off. He knows if we would rob a bank if you knew we would get away with it.

And yet, he loves us anyway. He is reconciled to us and we to him.

There is a large difference between 'acceptance' and 'reconciliation.' The former says 'I'll put up with you.' The latter says, 'You are restored to me.'

I read a wonderful blog entry today by Nathan over at It seems to me ... and I'd like to ask you to go read it. It's called, simply, I hugged a man in his underwear and I am proud. It's about Nathan's experience at Pride Chicao - no, it's not what you think it is going to be. Here is a quote from the post.

Acceptance is one thing. Reconciliation is another. Sure at Pride, everyone is accepted (except perhaps the protestors). There are churches that say they accept all. There are business that say the accept everyone. But acceptance isn’t enough. Reconciliation is.

But there isn’t always reconciliation. And when there isn’t reconciliation, there isn’t full acceptance. Reconciliation is more painful; it’s more difficult. Reconciliation forces one to remember the wrongs committed and relive constant pain. Yet it’s more powerful and transformational because two parties that should not be together and have every right to hate one another come together for the good of one another, for forgiveness, reconciliation, unity.

If we, the Church of God, mean what we profess, and truly wish that all people give God a second chance - including those whom the Church has wounded deeply - then we come practice reconciliation, not just acceptance. God has called us to tear down the wall erected to keep "those people" out. That is our job.

Go read the post; you'll be glad you did. And make sure to read the followup post here.

Photo Credit: Michelle maladjustedmedia.com.

Another homophobic minister exposed

2010-06-30T05:59:00.000-07:00

I usually do not post on post written by a fellow blogger, but today Counterlight points us to an article in the Minneapolis Post about another prominent homophobic minister with a same-gender skeleton in his closet.

Generally, I have a problem with "outting" anyone. The decision to openly acknowledge to one's self and to others that one is a person of same-gender attraction is, for most people, a gut wrenching decision. To be forced "out" is injurious to one's psyche.

I believe that in some cases, "outting" is justified. If one is an active vocal opponent of equal rights for the GLBT community and vilifies them while at the same time one is a member of that community, that hypocrisy needs to be exposed. In this case, Lavender was correct to expose Block.

Block blamed the tornado that destroyed the convention centre on the homosexual community and the ELCA's decision to ordain openly gay ministers

Last year, Brock notoriously linked a tornado that struck the Minneapolis Convention Center and a nearby church to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)’s decision to accept homosexual relationships and ordain gay ministers in monogamous relationships. As the gay-oriented website Queerty put it, “Lutheran Pastor Tom Brock Blamed ELCA's Tornado on Homosexuality. Which, Uh, He Suffers From."

Block is a pastor of the Association of Free Lutheran Congregations. They are, in a nutshell, the Calvinists of the Lutheran world. Here is a brief summary of their doctrines to establish they are, in fact, Calvinists

Recognizes the Bible as the inspired and inerrant authority in all matters of faith and life;Recognizes that the teaching and preaching of God's Word is the main task of the Church, to be conducted in such away that the saints are built up and unbelievers see their need for salvation;
Believes that the congregation is the right form of the Kingdom of God on earth, with no authority above it but the Word and the Spirit of God;
Believes that Christian unity is a spiritual concept, not a man-made organization such as the World Council of Churches or the National Council of Churches;
Believes that Christians are called to be a salt and light, separated from the ways of the world, and that this difference is to be reflected in the life of the congregation as well as in the institutions of the church body.

I believe it is a Christian moral obligation to expose hypocrites hiding behind the name of Jesus, the Christ, to both justify and legally safeguard their bigotry. They embarrass the Church,and give the world the impression that all followers of The Way are homophobic.

A bit of ood news, read SCOTUS: Christian group not excused from anti-discrimnation rules over at Gay Married Californians.

The "Covenant" is off to the races

2010-06-29T05:12:00.000-07:00

And their off!

The first province of the Anglican Communion has accepted the so-called Covenant. No, it's not one of those provinces whose leaders have been creating havoc in the Anglican world for the past ten years. It's Mexico. Who'd have though, eh?

One must wonder why not one of the schismatic leader provinces has adopted the document they've nearly destroyed the Communion to get. Other provinces have considered the document, but none has voted to accept it and its provisions for papal powers. Where, oh where, are the provinces of Nigeria, Uganda, Southern Cone ...... nothing but the "sound of silence" from the ringleaders.

News from Fort Worth

2010-06-28T12:57:00.000-07:00

The Second Court of Appeals issued it's ruling that

Thus the Southern Cone parties failed to achieve their goal of getting the Court of Appeals to declare that Bishop Iker represented the continuing Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and its Diocesan Corporation.

The decision continues:

We are aware of no statute or common law rule allowing attorneys to prosecute a suit in the name of a corporation or other entity on behalf of only one faction or part of that corporation or entity against another part or faction.

The Southern Cone has not responded, yet, and I'm sure they will file an appeal. Remember, the schismatics are not interested in the property, folks, but don't hold your breath.

Read the decision here.

Pentecost V - Trinity IV

2010-06-27T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Fifth Sunday After Pentecost
Proper 8

The Lectionary: 1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21; Psalm 16 or 16:5-11; Galatians 5:1, 13-25; Luke 9:51-62

Collect: Almighty God, you have built your Church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Homily:

Are there many people today who understand "what putting a hand to the plow" means? Does someone operating a machine instead of a hand-held plow understand the meaning of these words? Perhaps. The key seems to be in the concentration and commitment of the one setting the direction -- looking straight ahead, not back. When farmers plowed with the aid of a mule or an ox, they were the ones giving the direction to the plow. During those hours nothing mattered but to cut the furrows through the prepared soil so that none of the seeds would be wasted. It was an act that took the farmer's full concentration. Turning the head back, looking back, might mean disaster for animal, for farmer, for the future of the crop, especially in a land where so many rocks cover the soil.

Against this picture that Jesus paints in the Gospel of Luke with a few stern, spare words, we are given a different picture in the story of the anointing of Elisha in the Old Testament lesson. Here the young man who was chosen by God to follow in Elijah's footsteps is seen plowing his fields. It is a fascinating picture. The twelve yoke of oxen, a very large number, is probably symbolic; this is a number used repeatedly in the Scriptures -- we see it in the twelve tribes of Israel, in the calling of the Twelve to be Jesus' disciples, and in many other instances. Elisha is plowing with the last set of oxen, the twelfth. The strange old prophet, Elijah, who probably looked wild after his sojourn in the wilderness of Damascus, as the story has told us earlier, has heard the voice of God "in the sound of sheer silence," one of the most powerful descriptions in the Old Testament. God tells him to do three things, and the third one is to anoint Elisha as his successor.

Elijah starts with this third command. He sees the young man plowing, walks by him, and throws his mantle over him. And Elisha is ready on the spot. Instead of being terrified of the old man, instead of throwing the mantle back, he leaves the oxen and follows Elijah. But first, he says, "Let me go kiss my father and mother goodbye." And Elijah gives him permission. What he has done to the younger man is very important and Elisha must return to him, he warns him. We are not told if Elisha kissed his parents, but we are told that he offered the oxen as food for the people, a concrete act of mercy before leaving everything known to him and following the prophet.

In today's Gospel, we have some vivid pictures of various other callings. These are mentioned only by Luke and they are startling in their simplicity and spare, laconic quality. The journey begins with the strong words that show us a determined Jesus, prepared to meet his painful death. "He set his face to go to Jerusalem," Luke tells us. These few words, offered without further explanation, without any descriptive phrases, are some of the most powerful in Scripture. We know what awaits Jesus in Jerusalem, for we know the story, and it stirs our hearts. The protagonist in this drama, Jesus himself, knew what awaited him in Jerusalem; he did not choose to go somewhere else instead to avoid the painful cross. He set his face to go to his death.

After this announcement, the statement that "those who set their hand on the plow and look back are not fit for the Kingdom," does not come as a surprise. In the ten verses in between these two sentences we are offered a number of vignettes on how difficult it is for one to enter the Kingdom or, in other words, to follow Christ.

First we encounter the Samaritans. Treated sympathetically elsewhere in Luke by Jesus, these same Samaritans refuse to welcome Jesus and to offer him hospitality. Their excuse is that Jesus is going to Jerusalem; they are sure that it is not the place one should choose for worship. And they reject the one who is the object of their worship. In ignorance and prejudice they don't see the truth. Two of the disciples immediately want revenge. How dare the Samaritans not welcome the Master? Let's burn them, is the solution the disciples offer. But Jesus turns and rebukes them. One of the ancient copies of the Gospel expands on this rebuke; we have the words of Jesus: "You do not know what spirit you are of, for the Son of Man has not come to destroy the lives of human beings but to save them."

How do we react to those who do not welcome the good news of God? These days, we probably ignore them, which in itself is a form of rejection.

The other scenes of discipleship claimed and then rejected are equally brief and dramatic. Here is Jesus walking toward Jerusalem, his disciples following him. They pass through villages and throngs of people who hear of the fame of the prophet and want to see him. How can anyone resist the grace and power of his personality? Some are there because they have heard of the young prophet and want to hear his words; others are there wanting to be healed of disease; there are also those who have a dream of a more meaningful life, so they come to hear him and see him, hoping he will give meaning to their existence. One of these listeners, fascinated by the personality, grace, and power of Jesus, perhaps deeply and honestly moved tells him, " I'll follow you wherever you go." Instead of welcoming him, Jesus looks into the heart of the man and tells him in effect how easy it is to say the words and how difficult it is to put them into action. He is really asking him, "Are you willing to give up everything, including the comfort of a home, a place to lay your head, to follow me?" We are not told what the man's answer is. From the silence we assume that he turned his back and returned to the comforts of home.

In the next instance, it is Jesus who asks another person to follow him. The man says he will, but there are family responsibilities that come first. After I fulfill them, the invited follower says, "after I bury my father," I will follow you. But the call of Jesus is uncompromising. Nothing is allowed to be used as an excuse, even family responsibility. And like most of us, the man turns and leaves also. The demands of Jesus are too hard for him as they are for us.

The third encounter seems, again, to be a most familiar person to all of us. "Yes, I will do the will of God," he says, "I will follow the narrow way of Jesus, but first I must spend time with those I love; I must say farewell to all that has been familiar to me up to now, to all that makes me feel secure, to 'those at home.'" But Jesus knows the human heart. He who set his face toward Jerusalem and the fulfillment of the Father's will, accepts no empty excuses. You don't look back when I call you, he is telling these hopeful disciples. The Christian life is not a life shared by the many other loyalties that take us away from the call to obey the will of God. We cannot be fractured, we cannot be distracted.

It is probable that all those people who thought they wanted to follow an easy Master turned around and went away sorrowfully. How many times do we meet God's invitation with excuses and rejection? Responding to the call to the Kingdom is not easy. When life is comfortable, we don't want to be disturbed.

It seems then as one of the great paradoxes of the Christian faith when we hear St. Paul telling the Galatians that the call of Jesus is the call to perfect freedom. "It is the freedom of the Spirit," he tells them. "Watch out," he tells them. "You have chosen the narrow way, but it is the way of perfect freedom." "Yet, the kingdom of God is not for those who become slaves to other desires and to the idolatry of the flesh," he warns. "Don't let God's freedom lull you into thinking that you can be enslaved to the desires of the flesh, the passions and idolatries that tempt human life." In his injunctions, Paul becomes much more specific than his Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul lists the vices to be avoided by those who walk in the Spirit. Fortunately for us, he doesn't stop there; he lists also the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. What lovely gifts.

We sit here today, hearing the call of God to follow Christ. It commands our unswerving love and commitment -- placing the hand on the plow and not looking back. Not looking back, not longing for what enslaves us, even if that is a relationship to a close person. Jesus Christ asks for our whole person. And when that surrender occurs, all these loyalties and loves fall into place. Then, as St. Paul tells us, we find perfect freedom. Thanks be to God.

--Katerina K. Whitley, who lives in North Carolina, is an active Episcopal layperson with a ministry realized in many parts of the church. She is a writer, a lecturer, and an actress, and makes full use of these gifts in her ministry.