Gay Christian Feed by IPC

Now, this is a classy mix.

I HAVE FEELINGS TOO - DENITA JAMES (Above middle)I'VE GONE TOO FAR - ETTA JAMES
SOMETHING'S GOT A HOLD ON ME - JEANETTE WILLIAMS GALOPE - JOYCE
MAJUNCHE - LOS AMIGOS INVISIBLES (Below)
DON'T KNOCK MY LOVE - WILLIS JACKSON
HEADS UP - WHATNAUTS
IT'S YOUR BABY - BENNY JOHNSON
ONE MORE DAY - KENNY SMITH WITH THE LOVELITERS THEY DON'T KNOW MY HEART - THE BLEU LIGHTS

From Episcopal News Service

By Pat McCaughan

A discussion of same-gender relationships will be on the agenda when more than 115 bishops of the Episcopal Church gather March 19-24 for their spring retreat meeting in Camp Allen, Texas.

Bishop Henry Parsley of the Diocese of Alabama, who chairs the House of Bishops' Theology Committee, said two major papers will be
presented from the study "Same Sex Relationships in the Life of the Church."


"One paper represents the church's traditional view and the other a
proposal to revise the tradition, and there's a response to each
paper," Parsley said in a March 16 telephone interview from his
Birmingham office.

"We'll have a discussion of the paper and see what questions it raises and what we can learn from each other and how this kind of theological dialogue can be advanced," Parsley said. "The purpose was to prepare theological papers by academic theologians so they focus on the classical theological approach to the question."

The study was commissioned in 2008 and authored by a diverse group of theologians to represent a wide range of views. Included in that group are:

• Dr. John Goldingay, the David Allan Hubbard professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California;

• Dr. Deirdre Good, professor of New Testament at the General Theological Seminary in New York;

• Dr. Willis Jenkins, Margaret A. Farley assistant professor of social ethics, Yale Divinity School;

• The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Kittredge, Ernest J. Villavaso Jr. chair of New Testament and dean of community life at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin;

• The Rev. Dr. Grant LeMarquand, academic dean and associate professor of biblical studies at McGill University in Toronto;

• Dr. Eugene Rogers, professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro;

• The Rev. Dr. George Sumner, principal and Helliwell professor of world mission, Wycliffe College, Toronto; and

• The Rev. Dr. Daniel Westberg, research professor of ethics and moral theology, Nashotah House, Nashotah, Wisconsin.

Parsley said that Dr. Ellen Charry, associate professor of systematic and historical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and editor of Theology Today, served as editor.

Read the rest of the story here:

ATTENTION SEMINARY STUDENTS, INTEGRITY MEMBERS, FRIENDS & ALLIES: Every now and then something comes along that you don't want to miss: 


On March 4, 2010, the Rev. David Norgard was invited to address the students and faculty of Virginia Theological Seminary. Norgard is the President of Integrity USA. His topic was "THE FUTURE OF INCLUSION." Integrity USA has been an advocate for full inclusion in the Episcopal Church for 35 years. Norgard's historic address focuses on how far we have come and where Integrity and the Episcopal Church are heading. This address was published in two parts. It is a must-read for anyone who believes that nothing short of full inclusion is good enough for Jesus or for the church.
 
Read PART ONE here.
 
Read PART TWO here.
 
Open up the conversation about the future of inclusion at your school. If you are a faculty member, administrator, student, or alum of any one of the Episcopal seminaries, Integrity President David Norgard is available to speak at your school. To inquire about this possibility, please contact him at president@integrityusa.org

I've finally tracked down the Rhode Island Troll. I always wondered what he did for a job. I knew he couldn't be very good at it whatever it was because he spends so much time annoying bloggers by sending the same comment over and over again. This recording proves that I was right. I doubt that he gets many repeat bookings.





One man band? I'm not at all surprised.

I understand this is a parody. I wouldn't know because I've never listened to a Lady Gaga record in my life. But it's good to see young Megan having some fun after the long, shit awful childhood she must have suffered. And let's face it, she's probably right. If I don't like this contemporary R&B stuff and hip hop then obviously God doesn't like it either. So, I'm with the Phelps babe - GOD HATES RAP.

From THE GUARDIAN:

The Church of England has criticised the relaxation on restrictions condom advertising on TV, arguing that regulators should not confuse educational goals on sexual health with opening the door to companies looking to make a profit.

COMMENT: Now I understand. The Church Commissioners were obviously using our pension funds for educational purposes only.

An OpEd from the Washington Post
By Desmond Tutu
Friday, March 12, 2010


Hate has no place in the house of God. No one should be excluded from our love, our compassion or our concern because of race or gender, faith or ethnicity -- or because of their sexual orientation. Nor should anyone be excluded from health care on any of these grounds. In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights. We knew this was wrong. Thankfully, the world supported us in our struggle for freedom and dignity.

It is time to stand up against another wrong.

Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are part of so many families. They are part of the human family. They are part of God's family. And of course they are part of the African family. But a wave of hate is spreading across my beloved continent. People are again being denied their fundamental rights and freedoms. Men have been falsely charged and imprisoned in Senegal, and health services for these men and their community have suffered. In Malawi, men have been jailed and humiliated for expressing their partnerships with other men. Just this month, mobs in Mtwapa Township, Kenya, attacked men they suspected of being gay. Kenyan religious leaders, I am ashamed to say, threatened an HIV clinic there for providing counseling services to all members of that community, because the clerics wanted gay men excluded.

Uganda's parliament is debating legislation that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment, and more discriminatory legislation has been debated in Rwanda and Burundi.

These are terrible backward steps for human rights in Africa.

Our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters across Africa are living in fear.

And they are living in hiding -- away from care, away from the protection the state should offer to every citizen and away from health care in the AIDS era, when all of us, especially Africans, need access to essential HIV services. That this pandering to intolerance is being done by politicians looking for scapegoats for their failures is not surprising. But it is a great wrong. An even larger offense is that it is being done in the name of God. Show me where Christ said "Love thy fellow man, except for the gay ones." Gay people, too, are made in my God's image. I would never worship a homophobic God.

Read the rest of the Op Ed here.


The writer is archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

From THE LOCAL (Germany):

Once every 10 years, the Bavarian village of Oberammergau crucifies Jesus all over again and local hairdressers nearly go out of business. That's because nearly half the 5,300-strong village lets their hair and beards grow for over a year to better resemble the Jews they will interpret in the Passion play which has been running there for nearly 375 years.

"A lot of people, including some 600 children, stop having their hair cut from Ash Wednesday (February 25) 2009 to October 3, 2010" when the play packs up for nine years, says Doris Renner, 51, who runs one of the village's three salons.

"That means a tremendous loss of business and shorter working hours for some employees," she adds.

Renner's hairdressing shop plans to open late Sunday on October 3.

"They'll be coming in droves and we'll be working flat out from 10 am to 10 pm for days," she says with relish.

From THE LOCAL (Germany):

The Catholic priest at the centre of a paedophilia scandal that has embroiled Pope Benedict XVI was suspended from duty late Monday amid revelations he was still working with children 25 years after he was convicted of sexual abuse. Another priest who had the job of overseeing convicted paedophile Peter H., resigned in response to the latest information was made public.

Priest Peter H. was accused of sexually abusing boys in the Diocese of Essen in 1980, including forcing an 11-year-old to perform oral sex. Pope Benedict XVI, who was then Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger of Munich and Freising, approved Peter H.’s transfer to Munich for therapy. Peter H. was soon approved for return to full pastoral duties and continued to serve in a series of Bavarian parishes but six years later was convicted of sexually abusing children in the Bavarian town of Grafing.

According to daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, Peter H. had conducted several youth church activities, including a camping trip as recently as last summer, though there were no indications of further abuse.

Rupert Frania, the priest in charge of the congregation in Bad Tölz, where Peter H. spent the last year and a half, said in an interview on Sunday that his superiors did not tell them about the priest’s history of sexual abuse. The Archbishopric of Munich and Freising has however distanced itself from this claim.

COMMENT: You know, I'm really looking forward to Benny's little chat to us about morality. I shall certainly be going to his seminar on avoidance strategies.

From TYPICALLY SPANISH:

The Spanish Supreme Court has overturned a nine year prison sentence handed down on a woman who took drugs to her son in prison It has considered the difficulty which being a mother represents is reason enough to keep her out of prison.

Barcelona Provincial Court sentenced the woman to nine years in prison in February 2009 after she admitted that she had taken two grams of hashish and nine of cocaine to her son in prison ‘because he had been having a hard time for days’.

The Supreme Court has now reduced the sentence to 18 months, basing their decision on ‘how difficult it is to be a mother’, and denying something from a son, in this case drugs knowing that your son is an addict. The upper court considered enforcing prison time on the mother would ‘damage the principle of proportionality’.

COMMENT: Unfortunately Mad Mum doesn't buy it and simply refuses to rob her local bank because MadPriest is a bit hard up at the moment. She is such a bad mother.

From THE TIMES:



Perhaps they will let Peter Sutcliffe out of prison so that he can be Benny's warm up act.

I misplaced my appointment book sometime this past weekend.

I'm not ready to slit my wrists. Yet.

So far, I've made it through the first day without getting a nasty phone call ("We were supposed to meet an hour ago. Where the hell ARE you?") or a worried phone call ("Are you okay?").

Neither have I missed an important meeting - at least, not that I know of.

I suspect, before the week is out, I will. It's bound to happen.

Daylight Savings Time has also whipped my butt this year. This time, we didn't "save" time. We "lost" an hour. We'll "save" it again in the Fall.

You remember It's "Spring ahead, Fall back."

As I recall the explanation from my grammar school days, DST was conceived as a way not to save time but candles. It lengthened the hours of day light, thereby reducing the time spent in the dark and the need for 'artificial light'.

I seem to remember Ben Franklin having something to do with it all, he of the old adage, "Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise".

It's an interesting idea to "save time". Except, we haven't lost or saved anything. It's the same hour, just moved to different places on the Ledger of Time. The Balance Sheet stays the same.

So far, the one thing that has actually "saved time" has been misplacing my appointment book. I suddenly have the whole week ahead of me with nothing planned. Or, at least, that's the illusion.

I was able to remember an important lunch date today, which tickled my memory into yet another appointment which follows that luncheon meeting. I know that Vestry meeting is Wednesday because I've been working on the Agenda.

But, I think I have some lab appointments this Thursday because I believe I have my annual physical next week. Sometime. I think it was Wednesday. If memory serves. Which it does less and less these days.

So, I'm spending lots of time calling places to confirm possible appointments. It's very embarrassing and humbling, but everyone seems to understand.

Indeed, I posted something on my FaceBook page and so far about 50 people have made comments. My lament has obvious struck a familiar note with lots of people.

It's been fascinating. Basically, there have been three types of responses.

I've been scolded or chided for not keeping my calendar on my iPhone, and to "back up, back up, back up" everything on my computer.

Some have registered surprise that I don't already do this. I don't. I like my paper calendar. It tells me who's on the Calendar of Saints and there's lots of room to write little notes to myself. I suppose I may have to start using my iPhone, too. But, I'll always keep my appointment book. Always.

I've also been consoled. "We're not supposed to spend time in Purgatory before we die" wrote one understanding soul.

That's a good description of the anxiety and worry I've been feeling, worrying about whether or not I'm pissing someone off or disappointing someone else.

Others have written, "You're FREE. Allow the mystery of life to take you where it will. Enjoy the adventure."

Lovely thought. Oh, how I wish I could. See also Purgatory above.

This idea of mystery has also given rise to the former Roman Catholics on the list who have encouraged me to pray to St. Anthony.

"St. Anthony, St. Anthony, look around. Something's lost and can't be found."

And you thought the 'lost and found department' beyond the Pearly Gates was all about Souls. Apparently, St. Anthony is kept quite busy helping us retrieve things here on earth as it is in heaven.

I personally like the prayer to 'find' a parking space. Our kids taught it to us years ago. "Hail Mary full of grace, help me find a parking space."

Funny, right? What's really funny is that it often works.

Ms. Conroy doesn't keep an appointment book. She also doesn't keep a check register. But, she can tell you - to the penny - how much she has in her checking account and she never misses an appointment.

Can you hear my envy?

We've had this discussion long ago. I once missed a meeting and, upon hearing about it after the fact, got out my appointment book, wrote in the meeting and then promptly crossed it out writing a note beside it "Missed."

Ms. Conroy chuckled. "What are you doing?" she asked, with that amused tone in her voice that wasn't so amusing to me.

"Well, if I write this down, I can keep track of my time."

She chuckled that annoying superior chuckle again. "What are you laughing about?" I retorted. "You don't even keep an appointment book."

"That's right," she said, she of the alcoholic parents who often "forgot" to pick her up after school or celebrate her birthday. "That way, I don't have to be disappointed."

That's when it came to me. It's all about the illusion of being in control, isn't it? I write things down and then cross them out. She doesn't write them down at all, so if it didn't happen, it wasn't supposed to anyway.

"Oh, the games people play now. Every night and every day now."

We don't save time. We can't. Oh, we try, but as the popular saying goes, "It is what it is." We all have the same number of hours in the day - in darkness or in light - and we make choices all the time about how to "spend" that time.

An appointment calendar simply allows me to "keep track" of the time I have. Which I do with some success. Until I misplace my appointment book - which I've only done one other time in twenty-four years of ordained ministry - and then everything seems out of control.

One person wrote on my FB page, "You didn't lose your appointment book. It lost you. Now you need to go find it."

I like that idea. Gives me the illusion of still retaining some semblance of my dignity in the face of constant humbling apologies.

So, if I have an appointment with you in the next few weeks, would you write to me and let me know? And, if I've missed an appointment with you, please accept my sincere apologies.

I've now got to spend some time with my iCalendar, filling in as many dates as I can remember, so I can upload it to my iPhone so I will regain my sense of control and composure.

I've got to spend time to save time - and face! Until my appointment calendar finds me again. Which, I have a feeling, it will. I think I remember where I left it. I would know for sure if I had written it down. In my appointment calendar. Which has left me.

What silly, silly creatures we are! I suppose this is why God created us in the first place.

The amusement value of the human enterprise alone is priceless.

From THE HENDERSONVILLE STAR NEWS:

Last Tuesday, John Paul II High School marked the fifth anniversary of the late Pontiff’s death by unveiling the Vatican’s gift – a black ski jacket worn by the leader. The jacket, along with some biographical information, will be on display permanently at the school.

“This is a momentous occasion for our high school, which has always felt a special bond with Pope John Paul II and is so proud to have his spirit as our inspiration,” said Faustin Weber, Headmaster at JPII. “

The gift was received shortly after the school opened in 2002. When the pope passed away in 2005, the school held on to the item, waiting for an appropriate time to display it.

The jacket will become a second-class relic should the pope be canonized a saint. The pope’s beatification, a first step toward sainthood, is expected by many on April 2, the fifth anniversary of his passing.

Jake, The Wiener, would like to thank his international prayer partners for their faithful support.



What a brave little man!

THIS IS NOT A SPOOF
From THE TELEGRAPH:

Germany hatched a plan during World War Two to infiltrate the Vatican with spies disguised as monks, according to secret MI5 intelligence reports. A Nazi sympathiser living in Rome came up with the idea and it was quickly seized upon by officials in Berlin who saw it as the ideal opportunity to keep up with Allied activity in the city.

Six agents were sent to a cloister near St. Peter's to pose as monks and seminarians but they aroused the suspicion of Vatican officials for their lack of knoweldge on Catholic doctrine - and their interest in women.

The plan is revealed in MI5 reports held at the National Archives in Kew and which have now been declassified - and it comes just days after other files revealed how Germany had also tried to infiltrate the Boy Scouts.

On March 4, 2010, the Rev. David Norgard was invited to address the students and faculty of Virginia Theological Seminary. Norgard is the President of Integrity USA. His topic was "THE FUTURE OF INCLUSION." Integrity USA has been an advocate for full inclusion in the Episcopal Church for 35 years. Norgard's historic address focuses on how far we have come and where Integrity and the Episcopal Church are heading. This address will be published in two parts. It is a must-read for anyone who believes that nothing short of full inclusion is good enough for Jesus or for the church.


Part One posted yesterday is here.

Virginia Theological SeminarAlexandria, VirginiaMarch 4, 2010The Rev. David NorgardPresident, Integrity USA

PART TWO begins after John Spong's Statement of Koinonia caused a turning point in the church's history of inclusion.

Still, skirmishes continued through the rest of the decade. Between General Conventions, the Episcopal Church caught the attention of our nation’s secular media by the novelty of conducting a heresy trial, namely that of the Rt. Rev. Walter Righter for ordaining a gay man named Barry Stopfel. As anachronistic – can I say medieval? – as it appeared to many reporters, several were nonetheless kind enough to note how the Episcopal Church maintained its sensibility throughout the ordeal. The Wall Street Journal, for example, noted that afternoon tea was served to the journalists and from a proper silver service.


The new century and the new millennium arrived…but not the end of the conflict. The story picks up in Minneapolis in 2003. That bastion of radical liberalism, New Hampshire, had the audacity to elect Gene Robinson, a gay man with a partner, as its bishop and, because of the timing; it was up to the General Convention to consent to the election. The line of people rising to speak their mind, pro and con and sometimes both in truly Anglican fashion, stretched all the way to the back of the huge hall. The testimony was variously emotional, logical, political, personal, and theological. Frankly, it was probably also unnecessary. Most people knew how they were going to vote before they ever entered the room. Nevertheless, the debate ran its full allotted time and then the House of Deputies voted. With a majority that was neither vast nor slim, it confirmed the election of the church’s first openly gay bishop in the church of God and the bishops did likewise, with the added dramatic flourish of a score of them abruptly walking out upon announcement of the results. Eventually, Gene tied with Desmond Tutu as the most recognized Anglican bishop in the world. (Sorry, Rowan.)


With the advent of a gay bishop, a reasonable outside observer might have expected the Episcopal Church finally to get on to other business. It had now been debating essentially the same subject for three decades. The Nicene Creed had been produced more quickly. Yet in 2006, at the proverbial eleventh hour, the same Presiding Bishop who had presided at Gene’s consecration pushed through a resolution designed to ensure that what had happened in New Hampshire stayed in New Hampshire. Although couched in sober and pious phrasing such as “exercising restraint,” Resolution BO33 basically called for a moratorium on the consecration of any more gay bishops.


That brings us close to the present moment and to Disneyland, or, I suppose I should say, to the 2009 General Convention in Anaheim, California. The passage of two resolutions by the convention brought the saga that had lasted nearly as long as “Days of our Lives” to its long-awaited conclusion. The resolution finally came.


Resolution #C056, originating from the Diocese of Missouri (whose Standing Committee just consented to the election of Mary Glasspool), moved the Episcopal Church decisively toward recognizing – and solemnizing – same-sex unions. Specifically, it acknowledged the changing legal landscape with respect to marriage and called upon our bishops to provide for generous pastoral response, especially in those places where civil unions of one sort or another are now permitted. Furthermore, it mandated the Standing Liturgical Commission “to collect and develop theological and liturgical resources for the blessing of same-gender relationships” while, it added, “honoring the theological diversity of this Church in regard to matters of human sexuality.” In other words, we recognized that not everyone is happy about the emerging reality but it is what it is and we are moving forward.


The other landmark resolution, #D025, unequivocally affirmed that God has called and may call LGBT individuals to any ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church. In other words, the de facto moratorium of 2006 on gay and lesbian bishops was lifted and what was characterized as “inappropriate” and untimely back in 1979 was at last found to be entirely appropriate and indeed timely.


That brings us to 2010, to the present day, which is by definition of course, the threshold of the future. Looking across the ecclesiastical landscape now from the perspective of the history I have just recounted, I believe the direction that this church is headed is clear. Collectively, we are now moving in the direction of transforming the legislative victories attained at the national level into living realities at the diocesan and congregational levels. We have decided, finally and unabashedly, in favor of being the kind of faith community in which lesbian and gay people are truly part of the family. We have become a “Modern Family,” to borrow another TV show title, and Mother Church, if you will, has come out. She has come out as a “P-FLAGer.” As an individual Episcopalian and as President of Integrity, my outlook is both hopeful and optimistic because once you have come out of the closet, friends, it really is not all that easy to go back in.


Having said that, I hasten to add that, as it is with the stock market, so it is in politics: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Even the freshman student of history knows that human progress is not inexorably linear. History is littered, in fact, with examples of progress not merely coming to a halt but taking a violent u-turn. The “war to end all wars,” World War I was followed by World War II. In China, the move toward a free market was followed by the brutal clampdown of free expression in Tiananmen Square.


Nevertheless, there are multiple sound reasons for optimism. Let me cite just a few. Just recently, the Attorney General of Maryland announced his official opinion that his state should recognize same-sex unions performed elsewhere. The nearby District of Columbia, of course, just became the latest civil jurisdiction to allow such unions and even though the city has long been regarded as a bastion of liberalism (like New Hampshire), the symbolic value of the nation’s capital city doing so is potent. Likewise with Iowa: Today, in the Midwestern heartland, same-gender marriage is the law of the land and a fact of life. Looking northward from here, the Bishop of Massachusetts, Tom Shaw, has granted his clergy permission to perform marriages for same-sex couples in the churches of that diocese, C056 being his justification. And across the country in my new home diocese of Los Angeles, the convention elected the Rev. Canon Mary Glasspool, a partnered lesbian, to serve as one of its two bishops suffragan. As of yesterday, 55 of 56 required Standing Committee consents have been received and her consecration is tentatively scheduled for May 15th.


Why all this movement in a forward direction? Fundamentally, I believe it is because nearly everyone today knows someone who is dear to them and lesbian or gay: a brother, sister, son, daughter, father, mother, neighbor, teacher, student, judge on “American Idol.” This increasing familiarity has brought contempt some places, to be sure, but mostly, to know us has been to love us.


My primary ministry these days is as an organizational development consultant to churches and nonprofits. In that work, I spend a fair amount of time helping leaders articulate mission and vision statements for their organizations and communities. A vision statement is essentially an articulation of what you want to be true when you have succeeded in your mission. It implies a commitment to do whatever is possible toward making that preferred future the reality. If I were to draft the de facto vision statement of the Episcopal Church, it might read, in part, something like this: “The community and its leadership are diverse in age, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and familial constellations. This fact is a great blessing and is nurtured in the way we live together.” If this phrasing sounds familiar to you, it should be. I adapted it from the student body section of the VTS website.


As with any great cultural shift, this one will too will continue to meet resistance. A review of the national church’s website illustrates the point. There is an extensive section on diversity that includes a, b, c, d, x, y, and z…but not l, g, b, or t. Thinking historically again, just consider the Ordination of women or the adoption of the current Book of Common Prayer. Years after the formal actions were taken at General Convention moving the church forward on these matters, battles still raged on. Every great struggle, it seems, is defined by and motivated in part by the resistance with which it must continue to contend. And in this vein, I see the struggle for a diverse faith community as no exception to that historical rule. Three challenges in particular are possible and substantial enough to merit specific mention.


First is the desire for a scapegoat, a common temptation in community life. Whenever some crisis occurs or some unforeseen disaster descends upon the scene, it can seem expedient or advantageous to cast blame upon a vulnerable target. Jerry Falwell blamed AIDS on gay men, for instance. Never mind HIV. The only necessary ingredients for combustion are some inflammable scandal or incendiary economic friction coupled with invidious rhetoric.


Another viable force of resistance to a diverse church is the temptation of political expediency. It is well within the realm of possibility that the Episcopal Church might persuade itself to do the wrong thing (in my view) for the right reason. For instance, it is not implausible to imagine a scenario in which our church moves toward a recognition of global interdependence and, in the process, negotiates away aspects of its own identity or polity.


The third challenge I would name is perhaps the most worrisome of all because it pertains to our very viability as a community. I speak of the challenge of our own apparent irrelevance in the sight of the world around us. What if we Episcopalians finally do invite all the gays and lesbians in our neighborhood to our party…and they don’t to show up? What if what we have to offer is just not seen as being all that appealing? I do wonder: Have we fought for two generations to be included in a community that our younger gay brothers and lesbian sisters will simply regard as unimportant?


This question, it seems to me, leads to an even larger one: In an increasingly complicated world…one in which individuals are at once bowling alone and inextricably interdependent…one in which many doubt the primacy of any one theological narrative just as others defend their one true faith ever more militantly…one in which the strongest trend is identifying as “spiritual” and not “religious”…in such a world as this, is what we have to offer sufficiently authentic and compelling to appeal to those we would welcome?


I would like to offer two suggestions before I close. First, I believe we are perhaps uniquely positioned as a Christian denomination to offer to the spiritual seeker a community where a sense of mystery in life goes hand-in-hand with a respect for reason in the life of faith. As a communion, historically we have welcomed honest inquiry. To borrow words from the VTS website again, “our church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, has been open to new truths discovered by reason and experience.” At the same time, it is a church that has generally also been open to the ineffable, especially through experience of the aesthetic. In short, we are equally comfortable with answers and questions, with art and science. In my personal experience, this perspective on the world resonates with individuals who identify as belonging to a sexual minority. It does so because, in a culture where gender roles are still defined by straight lines, they are outliers on the spectrum of conventional understandings of social reality.


Secondly, I believe we are necessarily yet nonetheless sincerely at last beginning to see ourselves not first and foremost as an institution to which people, if they have enough sense, will just join naturally. In our most vital congregations anyway, I see evidence of a very different self-understanding. Instead of institutions bound by law and dedicated to self-perpetuation, they see themselves as communities bound by love and dedicated to purposes beyond themselves. This also resonates with LGBT persons in my experience for it mirrors the story of LGBT families and communities. No social conventions have brought us together, let me assure you. It has been nothing other than the soulful desire to belong to a family of choice and a community of choice that allows us not only to be ourselves but also to be there for the other.


If we continue along these lines, I believe there is hope not just for the future of inclusion but for the future of our church over all. We will be a community whose appeal to all sorts and conditions of folk is neither a passing fad nor an artifice of political strategy but rather the natural further expression of a catholicity that stretches all the way back to the coming together of Jew and Greek.


Friends, in the first few years after the advent of the Ordination of women, I recall a question arising frequently in conversation: Do you believe in women’s Ordination? It was almost like out of the Baptismal Covenant. Whether it was intended to elicit an affirmation or a renunciation, you couldn’t always be sure. In either case, the most memorable response I ever heard came from a very sincere if somewhat naïve man who said, “Do I believe in them? I have seen them!”


As openly gay and lesbian people become a common and unremarkable aspect of the cultural landscape, I do believe that more bishops will ordain LGBT persons, more vestries will elect them to serve as rectors, more congregations will elect them to vestries, and most importantly of course, Altar Guilds won’t wince at the need to set up a wedding for two grooms or two brides. We are past the turning point. We have crossed the tipping point and the forecast is bright.


There will be resistance. The impulse to respond eagerly and faithfully to the emerging realities of each succeeding age is always met with the opposing impulse to preserve and hold fast to what has been familiar and comfortable. But as I see it, it’s not a matter of acquiescing to a more inclusive future for the sake of those who have been on the outside. It is rather a matter of embracing opportunities that give us all a future as a community – a community of mystery and reason, of determined commitment and unconditional love.


Thank you for your kind attention this evening and your willingness to reflect on these intriguing questions together. I dearly appreciate your hospitality and your openness to this conversation. I invite all of you – lay and ordained, straight and not-so-much, to walk with Integrity in your ministries going forward. It is, after all, by walking with integrity (small “I”) that we have arrived at the threshold of the future we behold, one that is bright precisely because it is blessed with a veritable rainbow of color.

Open up the conversation about the future of inclusion at your school. If you are a faculty member, administrator, student, or alum of any one of the Episcopal seminaries, Integrity President David Norgard is available to speak at your school. To inquire about this possibility, please contact him at president@integrityusa.org

I usually steer clear of choosing Australian records for this ongoing series which highlights the most cringeworthyrecords that the human race has ever been subjected to. The reason for this is that it would be too damn easy. A good 90% of Australian records would qualify and we would all get fed up eventually. Therefore, you will guess that for today's choice, which is from down under, to have been chosen it must be particularly awful. And you would be right.
Slim Dusty was Australia's greatest Country and Western singer who, in his long career at the top, never once made a record that a human being, without profound hearing problems, could listen to without wanting to end it all as quickly as possible. This record is not by Slim Dusty (no, that would be painful but not painful enough for you lot). This is, in fact, a tribute to Slim Dusty.
Now look. I have given enough warning in this spiel to put any reasonably sensible person off clicking on PLAY. So, on your own head be it if you decide to proceed.
However, OCICBW... has always tried to reward the foolhardy because they make life more interesting for the rest of us. So, 500 days off purgatory, for you (unlikely), or your next of kin (very likely) if you manage to get all the way through it. And may the usual gods have the usual mercy on your weird and unusual soul.

Poor Australia. First they had to put up with Benny and his boring, young nerd convention rolling up and scaring the sheep. Now, they are have having to play host to an even bigger sheep scarer, the puritanical fundi-atheist, Mister Dicky Dorkins.
From THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:
The creation of saints is "pure Monty Python" and the Family First senator Steve Fielding is more stupid than an earthworm, says the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.
"The whole idea of creating saints is pure Monty Python,'' he said. ''Why do they have to clock up two miracles? These are people we are supposed to take seriously."

Dr Dawkins said he was often criticised for attacking easy targets such as Christian fundamentalists instead of serious theologians such as "Pope Nazi."

Catholic theologians "believe in miracles and get doctors to provide testimony that someone got cured from cancer. It's just surreal and completely gives the lie to the claim that sophisticated theologians should look down on fundamentalist wingnuts. They are all the same," he said.

Sr. Joan Chittister is my hero.

Her spirituality is not only the best of catholic monasticism, it is the best of the remnant of post Vatican II theology - the stuff I cut my religious teeth on when I was a child and a young woman.

She was one of my role models for ordained leadership in the church. Without knowing it, she taught me what it might mean to be a woman and a priest in God's 'one, holy, catholic and apostolic church'.

She continues to provide clear, intelligent, articulate leadership that models what it means to be a Christian and a member of a religious organization - and not just the Roman branch - that is often a barren, dry wasteland of examples of Christian leadership.

My dear friend, Nigel, sent me this article last night in which Sr. Joan takes on Glenn Beck's latest idiotic rant about 'social justice'. Beck is on the record as saying, "I beg you," he said, "look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words (for socialism.) Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!"In Sr. Joan's latest column at NCR, she writes about the work of Sr. Marie Claude Naddaf, a Sister of the Good Shepherd, from Syria.

Sr. Joan reports that Sr. Marie Claude is in this country to receive the U.S. State Department's "International Women of Courage Award." Given to 10 women around the globe who have shown "exceptional courage and leadership in advocating for women's rights and advancement," the awards purpose is to support women who are working for the equality of women everywhere. And any woman who has ever spoken up for women's equality in any arena that counts -- in politics, in business, in law, in the home, in the church -- know exactly how much courage that requires. Even now. Even here.I hope you read the entire article and learn about this woman's incredible work with those who are 'trafficked women' - women and girls who had been sold across national borders into the sex slave trade or seduced into it on the promise of a job or simply abducted into it off the streets as children.

When Sr. Joan told Sr. Marie Claude about Mr. Beck's statement, she reports the following: I heard Marie Claude Naddaf, a Sister of the Good Shepherd, gasp on the other end of the phone. "Noooooooo," she squealed. "This is the work of God. The spiritual life gives us the energy we need to do justice. There is no contradiction! It's a circle!"

Then she said, "Invite this man to come and see me in Syria. I will show him." And one more thing. "Tell your government that it must do something to help the Iraqi refugees in Syria. They need resettlement programs and financial support for widows and children." Her meaning was clear: The United States started the war that put millions of people adrift "but Syria has borne the whole expense of it."

From where I stand, it's clear why the Glenn Becks of the world would not want to hear anything about 'social justice' from a church. Certainly not about women and war. Or about Sister Marie Claude either. Let's hope he takes the invitation.
I do, too. I'd love to hear Mr. Beck's reaction to his visit with Sr. Marie Claude.

Now, that's one time I just might turn my dial to Fox News.

Oh, and about that poster which I nicked off the blog of a Roman Catholic Right Wing nut's blog (Yeah, they got them, too. They're everywhere, it seems.).

One word, sir: The church can make you a nun (or a priest), and it can even make you an impersonator of either role, but there's something about being a follower of Christ that does not make you a 'reasonable person'.

Not when it comes to social injustice.