A Fair Debate

The No Anglican Covenant Coalition, an international group of bloggers including yours truly, is calling on the leadership in the Anglican Communion to play fair and allow for an honest debate on a document that will greatly change the way Churches in the Communion go forward with living into their call to serve Christ in all persons. You can read the whole release HERE on the No Anglican Covenant Coalition website. Some might think we're being unreasonable in saying that the process has not been "fair" or "honest", but consider the following timeline:

• November 2010 — When the Church of England debated the Anglican Covenant, official materials prepared for General Synod members made no reference to the concerns of critics or to the case against the Covenant. This was in marked contrast to what happened in 2007, when the House of Bishops agreed that an additional briefing document presenting opposing arguments should be circulated to all General Synod members in advance of the debate.

• November 2010 — When Modern Church and Inclusive Church placed advertisements critical of the proposed Covenant in the church press, and when the No Anglican Covenant Coalition was launched, Covenant sceptics were criticized by senior church officials for going public and “campaigning” instead of remaining silent.

• December 2010 — When the draft Covenant was formally referred to English dioceses, the referral document provided a random list of quotations from the last General Synod debate, with pro‐ and anti‐Covenant remarks mixed up together, followed by a purely pro‐Covenant presentation.

• January 2011 — A request by Covenant opponents to the Business Committee of General Synod to circulate material setting out the case against the Covenant was rejected.

• February 2011 — The Anglican Communion Office issued an official study guide and list of questions and answers for international use that neither provide a balanced look at the issues nor fairly represent the views of those critical of the Covenant.

This last bit about the study guide is a real kick in the pants. One of our Coalition members, Rev. Alan Perry of the Anglican Church of Canada, has an excellent post on the proposed study guide being pushed for Lenten reflection this year. I will not be joining the Anglican Communion Office in this practice especially since it's skewed toward us "rejoicing" in the proposed covenant.

Now, what was it I was just saying about the Church's ability to find ways to block the sun from the Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

Casting off Fear

Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for
all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all
our care on you who care for us: Preserve us from faithless
fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life
may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal,
and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ
our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the
Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

This is the perfect collect to be paired with the reading out of Matthew's gospel where we are told in the last line, ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.' So true, and yet so hard to remember, especially in these trying times. How does one tell the state worker who has gone into combat mode in fear of losing his or her job, "Don't worry about what might happen; live in the present!" It is true, of course. But it is also true that they may not be able to hear that right now. The threats are too imminent, in some cases.

Life, the world, the machinations of humans in "the Church" all can contribute to the "fears and worldly anxieties" that make us lose sight of God. The Church has done a fine job over the centuries to blot out the sun that shines from the Son and the Father and the Holy Spirit, all at once. (Can you tell that I'm immersed in reading about the Reformation?) Even today in the Anglican Communion, we are sometimes too caught up in those things which separate us rather than focusing on our common bond as believers in God made manifest in Christ, and what his death and resurrection tells us about our own ability to cycle out of the depths of hell and get back to living again. Perhaps there is comfort in living inside the prison of fear rather than living as liberated from that prison. We know the walls of fear; quite often, we are the ones who built them so well in the first place. Getting outside of those walls creates new fears: how will I live without my prison?

When I went through my transformation from public radio reporter/producer to licensed massage therapist, I had tremendous fears. Public radio was providing me with a steady paycheck and health insurance. My days and nights were moderately predictable during the legislative session. It also gave me status. I was "known". I would have complete strangers approach me in restaurants as if I were a movie star, and tell me how much they admired my work. And I had access to those with power, and I could ask them questions. Sure, the reporter's life was soul-sucking, and my superiors at the public radio station were back-stabbing nutjobs. But I had fame. I had a salary with benefits. What more could I want? As a massage therapist, nobody was going to recognize me or care what I said. I could feel the presence of those prison walls that were trapping me in an otherwise miserable job, just because I thought I would be losing something too great. "The public needs me!" my ego would cry. I remember waking up in the middle of the night, a few weeks before I was going to resign. I was sweating, and my mind was racing with the recurring thought: "If I'm not Susan Gage of Florida Public Radio, then who the hell am I?"

Lying there in bed, I realized just how much my identity as me, the real me, had become entangled and confused with what I did. "Doing" had replaced "being". And this was another revelation which made me see how right it was for me to make this transformation, and learn, again, who the hell I am.

I would not trade the experiences I have had coming out of journalism and into massage school for anything. Living on a goat farm, having to depend upon the kindness of friends to cook me food in exchange for being massage guinea pigs, and coming into touch with my body were all so much more important than reporting on Jeb! Bush or following the twists and turns of Florida's death penalty laws. Massage school also began the steps toward returning to God, and finding God in the simple, experiencing God's presence on the walk of the school's labyrinth. Overcoming my fear of the uncertainty of a career change and going into the unknown was all part of the necessary changes I needed to make to move back toward God, and an understanding of who I am in God.

Thanks be to God that I passed through fear. Thanks be to God that I trusted the new path for my life. And thanks be to God for all the changes in my life.

Do It In Love

This week, I've been praying the following collect with the Anonymous Peggins as we do Morning Prayer:

O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we
do is worth nothing; Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our
hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace
and of all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted
dead before you. Grant this for the sake of your only Son
Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

We don't get to hear this particular one very often because we don't usually get a full eight weeks of "ordinary time" before Lent. So, I have taken pleasure in hearing this one again and again. It reminds me of the song I've mentioned before here on the blog, "Love is my Religion" by Ziggy Marley.

I don't condemn, I don't convert.

This is the calling have you heard.

Bring all the lovers to the fold.

Nobody's gonna lose their soul.

Love is my religion.

All you need is love.

I heard that song every time I went to Gainesville for my continuing education training in working with those who had been through trauma. One of my classmates would play it during our breaks at lunch, and it was a great reminder of the work we were embarking on as healers. The "religion" of massage therapy is one grounded in love. The love we show through our touch is one that gently makes contact and connection with the person on our table in places where our clients may be unaware that they are hurting. Or possibly they are holding pain in their body. We make contact with people in the areas of their body where they hurt or have gone numb.

This is what I imagine is a very "God-like" approach. The love poured into the heart, and flowing out through the fingertips to meet people where they are feeling pain, or even where they may feel joy. The closer I move to God, the more I believe God moves through me, in my hands to bring love to the world. The more I can stay "in love" the more I can share it with clients and others with whom I run across during the day.

Pour it into my heart, so I can do all that I do in love.

Good News in the Good News Place

Today was one of those crazy busy days in a crazy busy week. So, it took me a couple hours to flip open my phone and check the text message that had been delivered:

Obama administration announces it will stop defending DOMA in court! We did it!

This I read as I was sitting in the parish hall at St. John's. I did a fist pump, and then shared the message with the Anonymous Peggins who is visiting from New Hampshire. And then, I just looked up at the ceiling so as to not start crying. Not out of fear, but out of amazement and joy!

And it couldn't have come at a more providentially perfect time. We were at St. John's for a lecture on Julian of Norwich by Fr. William Meninger, a Trappist monk and a leader in centering prayer. This seemed like the perfect backdrop for news that the U.S. Justice Department has found parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional. Fr. Meninger painted a picture of the recluse Julian who had divine visions as she survived the Black Plague for a third time. He said she had a simple message that she lived and breathed as she had her being grounded in the Trinity.

"For Julian, love is the overwhelming and dominant thing in her life. And it's about time we Christians learn that. There is one foundation for the Church and that is Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is love. We are made to love, and that means the Church was made to make love possible."

So often, those who claim the mantle of Christ have been the very ones to push for laws that divide us, such as the Defense of Marriage Act. In fact, the reason I've heard so many argue for laws to "defend" marriage goes back to the fear that somehow same-sex couples getting married are a violation of "God's law". "God's law" usually means Adam and Eve, which is oft-cited as the first "married" couple (do I bother to mention that they weren't really married?). To have Fr. Meninger, a man in monastic garb, hint at the need to make real love the center of our being, especially the being of the Church, was refreshing and felt like the perfect complement to this amazing news.

"We were made to love, and everything else was made to make love possible!"

What good news to hear on a good news day! May this love continue to grow.

StoryPeople Story of the Day:Slumber Party

I don't know if I really believe in all the saints, she said, but I pray to them anyway. It makes every night feel more like a slumber party.

Love Toward Perfection

Check out the gospel assigned for Sunday:

‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. --Matthew 5:43-48

So, in other words, don't go by the words of Anita from West Side Story when she sings in anger to her fellow Puerto Rican Maria: One of your own kind/Stick to your own kind! Anything but that! In fact, it seems Jesus would have been all for the inter-ethnic romance of Maria and Tony.
This portion of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount is another one of those challenges to get outside the comfort of "kinfolk" and get along with people who might not be the ones with whom you'd normally spend an afternoon drinking beer around the grill and swapping stories. In a way, returning to church was possibly one of my steps toward loving my enemy. I had written off Christianity, in general, and the Episcopal Church in Florida, specifically, as irrelevant and not a place or a group of people I wanted to be around. Two of the local churches had been actively speaking out against gays, and none of the other Episcopal groups were offering a counterpoint, so I wasn't exactly running to go attend services. Between the split that took most of the homophobes out of the Episcopal Church to start their own parishes, and the death of my father, I found my way into the pew again after a sixteen-year absence. It was odd coming back. But what was the strangest thing was how I was hearing all those prayers, hymns and Scripture with new ears. I was really hearing them. And I was gleaning from them something that I hadn't known was there; a love that was liberating for me and anyone else who cared to listen.

With my re-entry, I was aware that there were still some who looked at me with suspicion. I imagine that this may have been conditioning from the previous rector, who encouraged the homophobia in people. But, taking a cue off this lesson from Jesus, I persisted in being friendly and meeting their dour facial expressions with a smile and a "Good morning." Slowly, I noticed they changed, and were not nearly as cold toward me. It's hard to remain aloof when somebody smiles at you. And those who have not changed? Well, I just keep smiling. I would rather be happy than looking like I'd just sucked on a lemon.

"...for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous."

Friends or enemies: we're all going to enjoy the good and bad in this life. The sun will shine on the head of the homophobe, and I will be left standing out in the rain without an umbrella. And the reverse is true also. Friend or foe, we are still children of God. Rather than have a food fight with one another, we should be making room at the table so more guests can join us at the banquet. This is an idea that I see spreading in some quarters.

Sadly, there are still places and people who refuse to believe that God's Table has enough elbow room for all. Does that mean I might find myself sitting next to someone such as Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda? Well, in God's seating chart, I suppose anything and everything is possible. If that were to happen, I imagine it might be an Alka-Seltzer moment for both of us! And yet, if I understand God's commandment, we are to sit together, and perhaps not speak. Not at first. But learn to listen in silence and allow God to do the ice breaking. Might take a pick ax to get through the frozen tundra between us, but the only way to perfection would be for both of us to trust in God, and try to find some common denominator for a discussion. This effort does require both of us to try.
This is fantasy, of course. I am never likely to meet Archbishop Orombi... and I'm OK with that. But I may meet someone similar. So it is best for me to remember the better strategy is to deal with an enemy through love rather than to beat the person, screaming expletives. That wouldn't exactly be the thing Jesus would do.

Is Anyone Listening?

O God, whose Son the Good Shepherd laid down his life for the sheep: We give you thanks for your faithful shepherd Janani Luwum, who after his Savior’s example, gave up his life for the people of Uganda. Grant us to be so inspired by his witness that we make no peace with oppression, but live as those who are sealed with the cross of Christ, who died and rose again, and now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Episcopal Church is commemorating the life of martyred Ugandan Archbishop Janani Luwum, who was killed by the Idi Amin government in 1977. You can read the background on ++Luwum at the Holy Women, Holy Men site.

The operative phrase in this collect for me is that "we make no peace with oppression, but live as those who are sealed with the cross of Christ..." Absolutely, and Amen! As I reflect on what is happening in Uganda today, I see these words as the food for the soul of all who are asserting themselves as God's LGBT children. It is sad to think that at one time, it was an Archbishop of Uganda who stood up for his people against a repressive regime, and paid for it with his life. Today, the one holding the office of Archbishop is aiding and abetting in the destruction of some of the flock. It is a corrupt system which has turned away from the gospel message that all are welcome.

When you live as one sealed with the cross of Christ, oppression of any kind becomes a foreign concept. Through Christ, we are liberated and the chains of the oppresssor, both internal and external, are broken. This doesn't mean you go through life with a holier-than-thou approach or "I'm right and you're wrong." But it does mean that you live and move and have your being as a person worthy of love. When that is what you feel in your core, that is what pores out of you as you encounter others and encourage them to also seek freedom from whatever is oppressing them. This, I believe, is the healing work that a Bishop Christopher Senyonjo does. Bishop Christopher, and others like him who are models of Christ's compassion, are encouraging the LGBT people to remain steadfast in their self-worth. His efforts were made evident in the defiant act of the woman who seized the microphone away from the oppressor at David Kato's funeral. That takes a courage that comes from the certainty of self-worth in the face of those who would deny it.

So on this day, when we are remembering Archbishop Luwum, let's all commit to standing against the oppression that denies love and life. Listen deeply for the word that guides us in our various ways, and grant us the strength and courage to persevere and be the people of God that we are called to be.