tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91758611756464325572024-03-14T02:44:21.615-05:00ONEJobOnly - My seminary journey and beyond!bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-71840705102990711532011-09-09T15:40:00.007-05:002011-09-09T16:32:24.282-05:00September 11, 2001Ten years ago and so much has changed! We all, unless we weren't born, remember where we on September 11, 2001 when we heard the horrific news about the plane crashes into the World Trade Center, Pentagon and field in Shanksville, PA. At the time I worked at a non-profit organization in Southeast DC. From the front doors of the building the staff gathered to look across the Potomac River where we could see the flames and smoke rising from the Pentagon. We heard reports on the radio about a plane heading to the Capitol Building just blocks away. There were also reports that a plane was heading to the White House. Everyone struggled to comprehend what we were seeing and hearing. It was impossible to process the gravity of the attacks happening in NY, DC and PA.<br /><br />When I was finally able to head home late in the afternoon it was as if Washington DC had become a ghost town. Streets were empty of cars and there were virtually no pedestrians. Everyone had fled by foot or by Metro or by car earlier in the day. When I crossed the threshold to my home I cried as I held my beloved and our dog in my arms. The pain, shock, grief and fear of the day was absorbed in our embrace, if only for a moment.<br /><br />We emerged from the condo and walked to our nearby church. The silence was deafening. No air traffic, car traffic or people. We sat on a bench by the labyrinth and prayed. In the stillness we offered our questions, our fears, our grief and our pain to God. <br /><br />In those first few hours there was silence. Not long after, however, National Guard troops and tanks arrived and were positioned on street corners in the city. Fighter jets routinely flew overhead. And the war began. <br /><br />Stories of courageous people, parents, children, firefighters, police men and women, and loved ones began to be told. The country gathered to remember the heroes in NY, DC and PA. We tried to go on - to find a way to live each day in a new and different world. <br /><br />We were suddenly vulnerable as individuals, as cities, as a country. Life would never be the same. <br /><br />Since September 11, 2001, we have choices to make as individuals. Are we going to live our lives in fear or love? Are we going to seek to understand or seek to be understood? Are we going to love our neighbors as ourselves? Are we going to seek and serve the light and love of the Holy One in every person?<br /><br />I pray we will choose to live our lives in love, seeking to understand, and loving our neighbors as ourselves. And I pray we, with God's help, will seek and serve the light and love of the Holy One in every person. <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">Amen.</span></span>bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-63610205995313629752011-08-22T14:01:00.005-05:002011-08-22T14:14:24.230-05:00God' Providence and Steadfast LoveTenth Sunday after Pentecost - Romans 12:1-8, Psalm 138, Matthew 16:13-20
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<br /> Psalm 138 has been described as one of the happiest psalms in the Hebrew Bible. It is a psalm of endless praise to God. Many psalms are songs of lament asking where God is amidst the pain and suffering. But Psalm 138 is a happy psalm – a psalm that begins with thanks, gratitude and praise to God.
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<br /> This psalm primarily teaches us about what God does and how we should respond to God. The author of the psalm praises God for steadfast love and faithfulness, answering humans, increasing strength, speaking, regarding the lowly, preserving, reaching out, delivering, and fulfilling God’s purpose for humans.
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<br /> One of the main themes flowing through this psalm is what Christian theologians refer to as the doctrine of God’s providence. God’s providence is about God’s ordering of creation and how God acts in the world. The author of this psalm has no doubt that God is the creator who intervenes in the world, the history of Israel and the lives of individuals.1
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<br /> We may question or wonder whether God continues to intervene in the world today. In the Hebrew Bible we read about God’s conversations with Abraham, Moses and Saul, and to the prophets, just to name a few. God leads and guides them. But we might wonder about the intimacy of God’s communication and action with God’s people in this day and age.
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<br /> Christian theologian Paul Tillich wrote insightfully about God’s active relationship with creation and described how God continually works through history in a way that preserves human freedom. “Providence is a permanent activity of God. God is never a spectator; God always directs everything toward its fulfillment…through the freedom of human beings and through the spontaneity and structural wholeness of all creatures.” 2
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<br /> Both Tillich and the psalmist seem to be saying the same thing about the Divine. God is holy, high, and eternal AND God is responsive, loving and intimately involved with creation and its creatures. This is a paradox of omnipotence and intimacy. God is beyond what we can comprehend and yet God is present and involved in our lives. God is so vast that all the kings of the earth will praise God, and yet God has a specific vocation for individual human beings. God is forever, and yet God will stretch out God’s hand and will strengthen the believer.
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<br /> This paradox of omnipotence and intimacy is an expression of God’s loving faithfulness. In Hebrew the word <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">hesed</span></span> is translated as “steadfast love,” “amazing grace,” or “loyal love,” and in this psalm as in other places in Scripture, <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">hesed</span></span> expresses God’s passionate, faithful love for creation. The God who is beyond time intervenes in history on account of this steadfast love and amazing grace.
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<br />Like the psalmist, our response to God’s <span style="font-weight:bold;"><span style="font-style:italic;">hesed</span></span>, God’s steadfast love and amazing grace is our thankfulness, gratitude and praise. However, it would be a mistake if we consider that our thankfulness, gratitude and praise are enough. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that we should all live lives full of thankfulness, gratitude and praise to God; however, there’s more that God requires of us.
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<br /> To paraphrase St. Paul’s appeal to the Romans, ‘Because of God’s amazing grace and steadfast love, we each have unique gifts whether they be prophecy, ministry, teaching, speaking, giving, leading, welcoming, healing, and caring. Each gift is unique and necessary and valuable. And one is not more valuable than another. As the Body of Christ we need everyone’s gift in order to thrive.’
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<br /> So do we wonder about the intimacy of God’s communication and action with God’s people in this day and age? I believe God continues to communicate with us through God’s word, prayer, worship, and one another. And I believe that God acts in the world today through us, through our thankfulness, gratitude and praise and – most importantly – through our use of the unique gifts God has blessed each and every one of us with.
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<br /> I invite all of us to consider how we might use our gifts to the building up of God’s kingdom here at Church of the Ascension and in our daily life and work. In three weeks we will hold our annual Ministry Fair which highlights various opportunities and ministries for each of us to sign-up to use our God-given talents and gifts. Each gift is unique and necessary and valuable, and Ascension needs everyone’s gift in order to thrive.
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<br /> We are God’s hands and feet and heart in the world today. Respond to God’s hesed, God’s steadfast love and amazing grace, by using the gifts God has give you with thankfulness, gratitude and praise. Then like the psalmist we will sing “The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.” Amen.
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<br />1. Mary Elise Lowe, Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 3 from Proper 16 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011) p. 369.
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<br />2. Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951) 1:266-67; quoted in Peter C. Hodgson and Robert H. King, Readings in Christian Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1985) p. 146 as found in Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 3.
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<br />3. Mary Elise Lowe, Feasting on the Word: Year A, Volume 3 from Proper 16 (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011) p. 370.
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<br />bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-39315640571708154952011-08-21T18:50:00.000-05:002011-08-21T18:51:08.780-05:00LISTEN FOR GOD* The question is not whether the things that happen to you are chance things or God’s things because, of course, they are both at once. There is no chance thing through which God cannot speak – even the walk from the house to the garage that you have walked ten thousand times before, even the moments when you cannot believe there is a god who speaks at all anywhere. God speaks, I believe, and the words God speaks are incarnate in the flesh and blood of our selves and of our won footsore and sacred journeys. We cannot live our lives constantly looking back, listening back, lest we be turned to pillars of longing and regret, but to live without listening at all is to live deaf to the fullness of the music. Sometimes we avoid listening for fear of what we may hear, sometimes for fear that we may hear nothing at all but the empty rattle of our own feet on the pavement. But be not affeard, as Cailbgan, nor is he the only one to say it. “Be not afraid,” says another, “for lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” He says he is with us on our journeys. He says he has been with us since each of our journeys began. Listen for God. Listen to the sweet and bitter airs of your present and your past for the sound of God.
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<br />*changed “him/he” to “God”
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<br />From Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner
<br />bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-86208523419163658672011-07-24T18:44:00.004-05:002011-07-24T18:53:09.274-05:00The Greatest TruthSixth Sunday after Pentecost - July 24, 2011 <br />Romans 8:26-39, Psalm 119:126-136 <br />Gospel of Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 <br /><br />In his best-selling book, The Road Less Traveled, M. Scott Peck, begins with these words: “Life is difficult.”<br /><br />He continues, “This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult – once we truly understand and accept it – then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”1 <br /><br />If, according to M. Scott Peck, “Life is difficult is a great truth,” than an even greater truth – in fact, the GREATEST TRUTH – is found in Paul’s letter to the Romans:<br /><br />“For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”2<br /><br />Nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate us from the love of God.<br /><br />This lesson, this Greatest Truth, was taught to the children at our Vacation Bible School. They learned that “God loves us no matter what.” God loves me no matter what. God loves you no matter what. GOD LOVES US NO MATTER WHAT! <br />Life is difficult. God loves us no matter what.<br /><br />As individuals we may have regrets, guilt, anger, fear and frustration over what we’ve done and left undone, things we’ve said, ways we’ve hurt others, relationships that have failed, disappointments over not being or doing enough. The list could go on and on. <br /><br />Life is difficult. God loves us no matter what.<br /><br />As Americans we are challenged by rising gas prices, high unemployment rates, poverty and hunger, and a government that <br />cannot seem to find a way forward to deal with the debt ceiling and the economy. It seems that the rich – corporations and people – are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.<br /><br />Did you know that thirty-seven million Americans, one in eight, rely on food programs for meals and groceries? This includes more than 14 million children!<br /><br />Life is difficult. God loves us no matter what.<br /><br />Internationally, people are dying because of the drought in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. Norway is mourning the senseless deaths of 85 people. Southern Sudan is struggling to become its own country independent from Northern Sudan. Japan is recovering from the devastating earthquake and tsunami. Haiti is still rebuilding from the January 2010 earthquake. And wars rage in Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq and other parts of the world. <br /><br />Life is difficult. God loves us no matter what.<br /><br />Three years ago, the summer before my senior year at seminary, I had the great fortune to travel to South Africa. I spent two weeks traveling through the Diocese of Christ the King, south of Johannesburg, with clergy and the Diocesan HIV and AIDS Coordinator. I visited villages that bordered main highways to and from Jo-burg where houses were built of cardboard walls and tin roofs. The water supply was a communal faucet system in the center of the village where people, often children, filled large plastic containers and used wheelbarrows to transport the water back to their homes. Extension cords were strung from the electric poles and provided some power for hot plates for cooking. Grandmothers walked everywhere with babies tied with blankets to their backs. I learned that many of the mothers had died because of AIDS so the babies were being cared for by the grandmothers. I visited orphanages where babies, toddlers and infants, often children who were infected with HIV, lived twenty to a room. And I saw churches that were bursting at the seams, even with cardboard walls and tin roofs, because in spite of all the poverty, hardships and difficulty, people still gather together every Sunday to worship and celebrate the Greatest Truth that nothing separates them from the love of God. <br /><br />Jim Wallis, the head of Sojourners, reflects on the Romans passage and says:<br /><br />‘Paul assumes that weakness, conflict and hardship are normal for the Christian life, and for that matter, human life’. The promise of this passage in Paul’s letter to the Romans is not that God will remove the difficulties in life, but that God will continue to love us through them. People who accept the difficulties of life and find God’s love in the midst of them become wise, healed, joyful and whole people. 3 <br /><br />And isn’t that what we want? To become wise, healed, joyful and whole people. I certainly want to become wise, healed, joyful and whole. But I am imperfect and I fall short and I get caught up in the difficulties of life. <br />When regrets, guilt, anger, fear, frustration, failed relationships and disappointments threaten to overwhelm us, remember God loves you no matter what. There is nothing, absolutely nothing that can ever stop God from loving you. This is the greatest truth. <br /><br />The question is do you believe it?<br /><br />1. M. Scott Peck, MD, The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987. <br />2. Romans 8:38-39.<br />3. Jim Wallis, The Unshakable Promise of God. Preaching the Word: an online resource for preparing sermons and scripture reflections based on the Revised Common Lectionary for Sundays. <br /><br />bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-75050216685100061012011-07-07T17:30:00.000-05:002011-07-07T17:31:30.829-05:00CONGRATULATIONS, IT’S A …I’m writing this on Wednesday, July 6, the first day South Summit Avenue and the high school parking lot is closed. In a way, I feel excited. After all, this is what we’ve been preparing for and waiting to happen since the end of the school year a few weeks ago. In a way, although I’ve never been pregnant, it feels like we’ve been through a first pregnancy and have finally given birth. We think we’re ready for this new, unknown experience, and while we’ve done our best to prepare we are certain that there will be challenges and missteps, and yet, there will also be exciting opportunities and joys that we can hardly imagine.<br /> <br />Yes, I believe there will be exciting opportunities and joys through this time of great transition and parking challenges. But like anything else, we must be attentive to the possibilities that good will come out of this time of transition. And we must be patient. The high school renovation project and our Ascension House parking lot project are going to take time. There is nothing we can do to rush either of these projects. We cannot wave a magic wand and be transported into the future when construction is completed.<br /> <br />No, we are going to have to adjust during this time of transition. Like having a newborn, our ways of doing things are going to be adjusted whether or not we’re ready for them or like them! We may lose some sleep and discover muscles we haven’t used in a while as we leave earlier to get to church and walk from remote parking lots on Sundays.<br /> <br />But we have the power within ourselves and among ourselves to use this time as an opportunity to strengthen our community. We might use this time to get to know one another on our walks to/from the parking lots to church and as we carpool together from our neighborhoods. We have a great advertisement program for Ascension in the construction that is happening! Why not invite your friends and neighbors to experience this vital and diverse parish community?<br /> <br />We can either look at this time as a time of growth and opportunity or a time of loss and insurmountable challenge. The choice is yours. I, for one, hope you celebrate with me this time of new birth, of exciting opportunities and of joys that we can hardly imagine.<br /> <br />~ Rev. Bethbethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-85694929516247486662011-06-21T19:13:00.005-05:002011-06-21T19:21:17.641-05:009th BishopOn Saturday, the Diocese of Washington elected our Ninth Bishop, The Reverend Dr. Mariann Edgar Budde. She is the first female diocesan Bishop in the Diocese of Washington. She nearly won on the first ballot, lacking only 6 lay votes. She will be installed on November 12 pending the consents from Standing Committees and Bishops throughout The Episcopal Church. What an exciting day and exciting future for the Diocese!bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-87716380246633060722011-06-15T19:20:00.003-05:002011-06-15T19:32:48.573-05:00Time Flies When You're Doing What You Love!Two years ago, on June 13, I was ordained to the Sacred Order of Deacons. On July 1, 2009 I joined the ministry team at Church of the Ascension in Gaithersburg, MD. These two years have flown by and I am having a wonderful time serving as a priest and pastor among the people at Ascension. We are a very diverse community who are faithful to the Gospel in upper Montgomery County. As I look at the congregation from the altar on Sundays I am continually amazed at this Kingdom of God on the corner of Summit and Frederick Avenues in Gaithersburg! <br /><br />My ministry areas include Christian Formation for Children which encompasses Godly Play - which we started last year, Vacation Bible School - ReNew in 2010 and PandaMania in 2011, the Epiphany Pageant and other children's activities, and Pastoral Care which includes our Pastoral Partners ministry and other pastoral care. A talented and committed corps of lay people dedicate countless hours to Christian Formation for Children and Pastoral Care. I'm fortunate to help recruit, train and lead these amazing people.<br /><br />I love what I do and I can't believe it's been two years since my last post! Hopefully I'll be posting more often. It's great to be back.bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-66558773571765491442009-06-28T20:29:00.004-05:002009-06-28T20:46:45.456-05:00Gratefulness<strong>On July 1st I officially begin my ministry as the Assistant Rector at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Gaithersburg, Maryland in the Diocese of Washington. I am so grateful! This is a large and diverse parish, and I am certain that I will learn a lot and hope that I will contribute much! <br /><br />I am grateful to so many people, especially to Church of the Redeemer, Bethesda, MD., and to Church of the Resurrection, Alexandria, VA., for their support during my ordination process including my time at seminary. I was grateful that representatives from these parishes and a respresentative from my original sponsoring parish, St. Thomas' Dupont Circle, were my presenters at my Ordination to the Sacred Order of Deacons on June 13th. A glorious and wonderful service! The sermon was especially wonderful thanks to preacher Judy Fentress-Williams! <br /><br />I am grateful for the opportunity to attend the ordinations of friends and classmates in the Diocese of Virginia, the Diocese of Texas and the Diocese of Delaware. While in Texas it was wonderful to attend a Sunday service at St. Mark's Houston and to reconnect with so many friends from years ago. Likewise, at the ordination in Delaware I reconnected with a friend, now priest, from Arkansas who is serving a parish in Delaware. Small world! A wonderful reunion!!<br /><br />I am so very, very grateful! </strong>bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-23602395805727863802009-06-09T12:02:00.002-05:002009-06-09T12:15:43.756-05:00Liminal Time<strong>The word 'liminal' is defined as "of, or relating to, an intermediate state, phase, or condition." Synonyms are 'in-between, transitional.' I am in liminal time - a transitional and in-between time.<br /><br />On May 21st I received a Master of Divinity degree from seminary. It was a wonderful and joyfilled day. Bishop Barbara Harris was our commencement speaker and she, not surprisingly, gave a wonderful address. <br /><br />This Saturday I will be ordained to the Sacred Order of Deacons in the Episcopal Church. I am eager to begin my formal ordained ministry and look forward to the Holy Spirit's movement on Saturday! <br /><br />However, for the moment, I am in liminal time. I suppose, given the stress of finishing three years of graduate education or seminary, which included a full summer of hospital chaplaincy, a three-week immersion in Honduras to learn Spanish, and an immersion in South Africa last summer, that I should not be surprised that during this liminal time my body decided it could afford to get a bad cold because it needed rest. So during this liminal time I am resting, staying at home, drinking lots of fluids and trying to get rid of this cold. </strong>bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-32286019604776330362009-04-14T20:32:00.002-05:002009-04-14T20:42:10.225-05:00Blessed Eastertide<strong>He is Risen!! He is Risen Indeed!! Alleluia!!<br /><br />Wishing you Easter Joy in the Risen, Living Christ!</strong>bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-64844810231253450022009-04-07T20:15:00.003-05:002009-04-07T20:21:03.494-05:00Why Gay Marriage MattersGreat <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123906051568695003.html">article</a> by MICHAEL JUDGE in Iowa City, Iowa<br /><br />I often tell friends that a part of me is gay, even though I've been happily married to my wife for 12 years. What I mean is that in April 2003 I donated a kidney to my older brother David, who is gay. The transplant took place at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics -- and it was, in a very real sense, a miraculous event for our entire family.<br /><br />So when David called me last Friday excited about the Iowa Supreme Court decision making same-sex marriage legal, I wasn't surprised. "You know what this means, don't you?" he asked. "It means we can visit those we love when they're dying in the hospital; it means we're finally treated like family."<br /><br />Most hospitals in America only allow spouses and immediate family members to visit a patient during a medical emergency, when a patient is unconscious or in critical condition after a car accident, heart attack or kidney failure, for example. These are the moments when our spouses are most needed, the moments when life and death decisions are made -- and, if necessary, goodbyes are said. My brother, whose kidneys failed when he was in his 30s, understands these moments.<br /><br />Of course, this is just one example of how Friday's decision changes the lives of gay and lesbian couples in Iowa. As the court wrote in its unanimous decision, the 12 plaintiffs (six couples) expressed "the disadvantages and fears they face each day due to the inability to obtain a civil marriage in Iowa." These include: "the legal inability to make many life and death decisions affecting their partner, including decisions related to health care . . . the inability to share in their partners' state-provided health insurance, public employee pension benefits, and many private-employer-provided benefits and protections," and the denial of "several tax benefits."<br /><br />"Yet, perhaps the ultimate disadvantage expressed in the testimony of the plaintiffs," the court continued, "is the inability to obtain for themselves and for their children the personal and public affirmation that accompanies marriage." In other words, they desire to be recognized as married couples, as a "family" to use my brother's word.<br /><br />With Friday's ruling -- which upheld a lower-court ruling that rejected a state law restricting marriage to a union between a man and woman -- that desire has become law. As early as April 24, gays and lesbians will be able to exchange vows in civil services.<br /><br />As for religious attitudes toward same-sex marriage, the court respectfully, and in typically plain-spoken manner, explains that "the sanctity of all religious marriages celebrated in the future will have the same meaning as those celebrated in the past. The only difference is civil marriage will now take on a new meaning that reflects a more complete understanding of equal protection of the law."<br /><br />My brother and I and millions of Iowans are proud of our state at this moment. Others aren't. There are many (some of them beloved family members) who believe marriage, civil or otherwise, should only be between a man and woman; others aren't opposed to same-sex marriage but don't think the courts should mandate it. Indeed, there's a movement here in Iowa as in other states to amend the state constitution to define marriage as a union solely between a man and woman. (Such an amendment couldn't get on the ballot here until 2012 at the earliest.)<br /><br />To this, I would simply ask why? Why blemish our constitution and narrow our definition of equal protection when our state has been a leader on such historic civil-rights issues as slavery, interracial marriage, women's rights, and desegregation?<br /><br />As the court wrote in its decision: "We are firmly convinced the exclusion of gay and lesbian people from the institution of civil marriage does not substantially further any important governmental objective. The legislature has excluded a historically disfavored class of persons from a supremely important civil institution without a constitutionally sufficient justification."<br /><br />Here's to marriage, a "supremely important civil institution." And here's to including, not excluding, kind-hearted people like my brother David, who want nothing more than to find the right person, settle down, and one day perhaps get married.<br /><br />Mr. Judge, a fifth generation Iowan, is a freelance journalist and a contributing editor of The Far Eastern Economic Review.bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-47006615977772360262009-04-03T15:38:00.006-05:002009-04-03T15:51:58.583-05:00Racial Reconciliation and Enlarged Hearts<strong>These past two days at the seminary have been rich with lectures and music and discussion on the subjects of African American Spirituality, the Black Church and Music. The culminating event was a celebratory Eucharist today at Noon. All this in honor and remembrance of the Martrydom of The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Having visited the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN, I was able to picture exactly what Dean Pollard described in his opening address yesterday afternoon. We all must tell our own stories and listen to each others stories in truth and love, because only then will reconcilation happen and our hearts will be enlarged!<br /><br />This <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/02/AR2009040203286.html">editorial</a> from the Washington Post provides some hope that we are on our way to that glorious day about which Martin Luther King Jr. spoke when "we will not be judged by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character." Thanks be to God!</strong>bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-3916594754806198702009-03-13T20:36:00.002-05:002009-03-13T20:41:13.512-05:00Human Rights in South AfricaThe world is in such pain. I fear for the safety of lesbians who are living their lives with integrity in South Africa. <br /><br /><strong>Raped and killed for being a lesbian: South Africa ignores 'corrective' attacks• Women living in fear of brutal assaults by male gangs</strong>• Country's 'macho politics' lead to lack of action<br />Annie Kelly<br /><br />Interviews with South African victims of 'corrective rape' Link to this video The partially clothed body of Eudy Simelane, former star of South Africa's acclaimed Banyana Banyana national female football squad, was found in a creek in a park in Kwa Thema, on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Simelane had been gang-raped and brutally beaten before being stabbed 25 times in the face, chest and legs. As well as being one of South Africa's best-known female footballers, Simelane was a voracious equality rights campaigner and one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian in Kwa Thema.<br /><br />Her brutal murder took place last April, and since then a tide of violence against lesbian women in South Africa has continued to rise. Human rights campaigners say it is characterised by what they call "corrective rape" committed by men behind the guise of trying to "cure" lesbian women of their sexual orientation.<br /><br />Now, a report by the international NGO ActionAid, backed by the South African Human Rights Commission, condemns the culture of impunity around these crimes, which it says are going unrecognised by the state and unpunished by the legal system.<br /><br />The report calls for South Africa's criminal justice system to recognise hate crimes, including corrective rape, as a separate crime category. It argues this will force police to take action over the rising violence and ensure the resources and support is provided to those trying to bring perpetrators to justice.<br /><br />The ferocity and brutality of Simelane's murder sent shockwaves through Kwa Thema, where she was much known and loved for bringing sports fame to the sprawling township.<br /><br />Her mother, Mally Simelane, said she always feared for her daughter's safety but never imagined her life would be taken in such a way.<br /><br />"I'm scared of these people that they are going to come and kill me too because I don't know what happened," she said. "Why did they do this horrible thing? Because of who she was? She was a sweet lady, she never fought with anyone, but why would they kill her like this? She was stabbed, 25 holes in her. The whole body, even under the feet."<br /><br />The Guardian talked to lesbian women in townships in Johannesburg and Cape Town who said they were being deliberately targeted for rape and that the threat of violence had become an everyday ordeal.<br /><br />"Every day I am told that they are going to kill me, that they are going to rape me and after they rape me I'll become a girl," said Zakhe Sowello from Soweto, Johannesburg. "When you are raped you have a lot of evidence on your body. But when we try and report these crimes nothing happens, and then you see the boys who raped you walking free on the street."<br /><br />Research released last year by Triangle, a leading South African gay rights organisation, revealed that a staggering 86% of black lesbians from the Western Cape said they lived in fear of sexual assault. The group says it is dealing with up to 10 new cases of "corrective rape" every week.<br /><br />"What we're seeing is a spike in the numbers of women coming to us having been raped and who have been told throughout the attack that being a lesbian was to blame for what was happening to them," said Vanessa Ludwig, the chief executive at Triangle.<br /><br />Support groups claim an increasingly aggressive and macho political environment is contributing to the inaction of the police over attacks on lesbian women and is part of a growing cultural lethargy towards the high levels of gender-based violence in South Africa.<br /><br />"When asking why lesbian women are being targeted you have to look at why all women are being raped and murdered in such high numbers in South Africa," said Carrie Shelver, of women's rights group Powa, a South African NGO. "So you have to look at the increasingly macho culture, which seeks to oppress women and sees them as merely sexual beings. So when there is a lesbian woman she is an absolute affront to this kind of masculinity."<br /><br />A statement released by South Africa's national prosecuting authority said: "While hate crimes – especially of a sexual nature – are rife, it is not something that the South African government has prioritised as a specific project."<br /><br />The failure of police to follow up eyewitness statements and continue their investigation into another brutal double rape and murder of lesbian couple Sizakele Sigasa and Salome Massooa in July 2007 has led to the formation of the 07-07-07 campaign, a coalition of human rights and equality groups calling for justice for women targeted in these attacks.<br /><br />Sigasa and Massooa were tortured, gang raped and shot near their homes in Meadowland, Soweto in July 2007, shortly after being verbally abused outside a bar.<br /><br />Human rights and equality campaigners are hoping that the public outrage and disgust at Simelane's death and the July trial of the three men accused of her rape and murder will help put an end to the spiralling violence increasingly faced by lesbian women across South Africa.<br /><br />Despite more than 30 reported murders of lesbian women in the last decade, Simelane's trial has produced the first conviction, when one man who pleaded guilty to her rape and murder was jailed last month.<br /><br />On sentencing, the judge said that Simelane's sexual orientation had "no significance" in her killing. The trial of a further three men pleading not guilty to rape, burglary and murder will start in July.<br /><br />In Soweto and Kwa Thema, women seem unconvinced that Simelane's case will change anything for the better.<br /><br />Phumla talks of her experience of being taught a "classic lesson" by a group of men who abducted and raped her when she was returning from football training in 2003. She says that "practically every" lesbian in her community has suffered some form of violence in the past year and that it will take more than one trial to stop this happening.<br /><br />"Every day you feel like its a time bomb waiting to go off," she said. "You don't have freedom of movement, you don't have space to do as you please. You are always scared and your life always feels restricted. As women and as lesbians we need to be very aware that it is a fact of life that we are always in danger."<br /><br />guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 March 2009 17.49 GMT Article history<br />http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/12/eudy-simelane-corrective-rape-south-africabethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-53301708139068482472009-02-28T10:38:00.005-06:002009-02-28T10:44:41.638-06:00Happy Anniversary Bishop Barbara Harris!Bishop Barbara Harris celebrates her 20th Anniversary as Bishop: the first woman Bishop in The Episcopal Church (USA). She is also going to be our graduation speaker this year at the Seminary! <br /><br />From The Episcopal Cafe:<br /><br />Bishop Barbara C. Harris, who recently celebrated the 20th anniversay of her consecration as the first female bishop in the Anglican Communion rates a passing mention and a nifty photo in this television review from The New York Times. Writer Ginia Bellafante points out that Bishop Harris' great-grandmother "was a slave who wound up in a confrontation with Gen. Ulysses S. Grant." <br /><br />That the bishop had fiery ancestors will surprise no one who knows her. <br /><br />The bishop also sat for an interview with Tracy J. Sukraw of the Diocese of Massachusetts. Of the troubles currently roiling the Communion she said:<br /><br />I think the whole Windsor process is an overreaction, which leads me to talk about the covenant, which I don't believe we need. I think our baptismal covenant is sufficient. We certainly do not need a juridical covenant; but rather, if we must have one, then it ought to be more relational in nature than designed to punish. I think that the pastoral council that is being suggested is an added layer of ecclesiastical bureaucracy that we do not need. We need to simply trust each other that we are acting in the best interests of our respective provinces. Interventions and crossing provincial boundaries need to stop. That is not a solution to controversies within a province. <br /><br />The controversies of the day are not anything new. Controversy has always been present in the life of the church from her earliest, earliest days. There is an introductory comment on Paul's letter to the Colossians in which it says: the unity, stability and survival of the church was threatened by doctrinal diversity. This is nothing new. I think of the centuries that it took to reach agreement on the doctrine of the Trinity. Some folk want us to settle complex issues without even delving into them in any meaningful depth. And I think that schism is real, because we have competing claims of orthodoxy and other claims that are cause for hostility and division. A covenant or a Windsor Report [is] not going to quell controversy.<br /><br />Posted Jim Naughton on February 26, 2009 http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/bishops/happy_anniversary_bishop_harri.htmbethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-79161519361579532642009-02-26T15:27:00.007-06:002009-02-26T15:40:18.785-06:00Ash Wednesday Quiet DayThe seminary community observed a Quiet Day on Ash Wednesday which included two powerful meditations by The Reverend Mpho Tutu. I invite you to listen to them as you begin an observance of a Holy Lent. Cut and paste this link into your browser:<br /><br />https://www.vts.edu/podium/tools/AudioPlay.aspx?a=67448&ttl=Quiet+Day+Meditations+2009%3a+The+Rev.+Mpho+Tutubethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-73636249285015925042009-02-16T16:22:00.004-06:002009-02-16T16:28:01.626-06:00Hymn's Power As Black Anthem Endures<span style="font-family:arial;">by Adelle M. Banks Religion News Service Saturday, February 14, 2009</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">When the Rev. Joseph Lowery was chosen to offer the closing prayer at President Obama's swearing-in ceremony, he knew which hymn he would borrow to start his prayer.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br />"God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, Thou who has brought us thus far along the way," he prayed, invoking the third verse from "Lift Every Voice and Sing," the hymn that's long been considered the unofficial black national anthem.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">"Thou who has by Thy might, Led us into the light, Keep us forever in the path, we pray."<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The words rang out across the Mall that day, and again the next day at the Washington National Cathedral in the sermon preached to the new president. For more than a century, they have been used to mark special occasions, including the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and have become a staple for Black History Month each February.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Lowery, a retired United Methodist minister who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with King, said he thought the song was entirely appropriate for the inaugural of the nation's first African American president.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">"It had historicity; it had the religious context," said Lowery, who has used the third stanza as a regular hymn of praise in his worship services for 25 years. "The black experience is sort of wrapped up in that hymn."<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Although Lowery has always called it a "national hymn" because he didn't think the nation should have two separate anthems, many African Americans give it the same honor as the traditional national anthem: They stand when it is sung.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">"It is our 'Star-Spangled Banner,' " said Jackie Dupont-Walker, social action director of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which is why many African Americans respectfully stand when the hymn is played.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">"Lift every voice and sing, 'til Earth and heaven ring," the song begins. "Ring with the harmonies of liberty." Its words include echoes of slavery and triumphs of freedom, moving from the "dark past" to a present hope and looking toward the "new day" ahead.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The song traces its roots to a 1900 celebration of Lincoln's birthday in Jacksonville, Fla., according to a 2000 book, "Lift Every Voice and Sing: A Celebration of the Negro National Anthem." James Weldon Johnson penned the words for the occasion and his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, set them to music.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">"Our New York publisher, Edward P. Marks, made mimeographed copies for us and the song was taught to and sung by a chorus of five hundred colored schoolchildren," he wrote in 1935.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The song that would catch on across the country initially "passed out of our minds," Johnson wrote. But children kept singing it, he said, passing it on to other children. Soon the song was pasted into the back of hymnals, Bibles and schoolbooks.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The song grew in popularity when Johnson became an executive of the NAACP.<br />"It was sung at the opening of every meeting," said Roland Carter, who arranged the popular concert version of the song and is a professor of American music at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. "And 'We Shall Overcome' would be the closing anthem."<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">In one sign of how popular the song became, Carter's arrangement was played in space to awaken astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 2006.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Now that a black man presides at the White House, some have wondered whether the country still needs Black History Month, much less a black national anthem. The Rev. Vinton Anderson, a retired bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, sees a future for the hymn.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">"I think we should continue the tradition of singing it," said Anderson, who helped place the song in the AME Church's bicentennial hymnal in 1984. "It reminds us of where we are, where we've come from and where we hope to go."<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The Rev. Bernard Richardson, dean of the chapel at Howard University, believes the hymn isn't just for black Americans. "I think it speaks to the hopes of, particularly, African Americans throughout our history," he said. "But also I think the song is one that not only gives hope but it also challenges to stay the path and to recognize the importance and significance of God in the struggle for freedom."<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Though the hymn is a staple at African American gatherings -- from church services to convocations at black universities -- it has been embraced by people of a range of backgrounds. The song is included in Methodist, Lutheran and Episcopal hymnals, among others.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The Rev. Sharon Watkins, president of the predominantly white Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), chose the same stanza of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" as Lowery did when she preached at the National Prayer Service the day after Obama's inauguration.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">For a moment, when she heard the civil rights veteran use those same words in his prayer, she had second thoughts about using them.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">"But I just thought, no, this belongs to everybody," Watkins said. "Those James Weldon Johnson words, they're just powerful."</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=51894404013&h=IFvpP&u=156et">http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=51894404013&h=IFvpP&u=156et</a>bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-75234859829123206812009-01-18T15:40:00.001-06:002009-01-18T15:42:34.225-06:00Prayer at the Inaugural Concert<a href="http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/faith_and_politics/gene_robinsons_prayer_for_pres.html">+Gene Robinson's Prayer for President-elect Barack Obama</a><br />A Prayer for the Nation and Our Next President, Barack Obama<br />By The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire<br />Opening Inaugural EventLincoln Memorial, Washington, DCJanuary 18, 2009<br /><br /><em>Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.<br /></em><br />O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…<br />Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.<br /><br />Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.<br /><br />Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.<br /><br />Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.<br /><br />Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.<br /><br />Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.<br /><br />Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.<br /><br />And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.<br /><br />Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.<br /><br />Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.<br /><br />Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.<br /><br />Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.<br /><br />Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.<br /><br />Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.<br /><br />And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.<br />AMEN.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Posted by </span><a href="http://edow.org/"><span style="font-size:85%;">Jim Naughton</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> on January 18, 2009 2:22 PM</span>bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-60549706547768772872009-01-10T19:50:00.005-06:002009-01-10T20:10:37.142-06:00GOEs - They're Finished!!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiedEyFKEp_7GNpqkmMJO8mYbOvcVlAMWSg3lN4VkIsqu37UCAlQWKrE28DqcWl8NuOssM2FzczvVKxq6yvRj_OVuh93BEuOR1cHUMoBu-wZaF3dQCaJG93K0djTxzg4-8tbGA7rqBCY6g/s1600-h/GOE+I%27m+DONE!.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289852416814489362" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 150px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiedEyFKEp_7GNpqkmMJO8mYbOvcVlAMWSg3lN4VkIsqu37UCAlQWKrE28DqcWl8NuOssM2FzczvVKxq6yvRj_OVuh93BEuOR1cHUMoBu-wZaF3dQCaJG93K0djTxzg4-8tbGA7rqBCY6g/s200/GOE+I%27m+DONE!.JPG" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Here's my window of support and the final card that says "Celebrate. You're Done! I am so grateful for all of the gifts, notes, kindness, thoughts, prayers and support that was shown to me and to all my classmates during our week of GOEs.</span><br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">This was an intense week of writing and answering questions and worship and collegiality among my classmates. I feel good about the work and responses I submitted. Time will tell how the 'readers' evaluate my responses. No matter the grades I was reminded that I am still a beloved child of God.</span><br /></div><div><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Thanks be to God!</span></div>bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-69552100430994606892009-01-08T19:00:00.003-06:002009-01-08T19:24:48.067-06:00GOEs - Six Down, One to Go!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLQElamzRsRE8UlEKuCaeKOclOnCJ35qSrMdy5AsTCZtWj-kLq4vqHq7A111Li3aNZK13SbqxdES8n49eYLPRB_8bmUAmae3SzIv3lrbZlEbAOVYlrVHexHrEOV2WfF_UMLMBDDjQVbGw/s1600-h/GOEs+6+Down.JPG"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289093521838011762" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLQElamzRsRE8UlEKuCaeKOclOnCJ35qSrMdy5AsTCZtWj-kLq4vqHq7A111Li3aNZK13SbqxdES8n49eYLPRB_8bmUAmae3SzIv3lrbZlEbAOVYlrVHexHrEOV2WfF_UMLMBDDjQVbGw/s200/GOEs+6+Down.JPG" border="0" /></span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">By tomorrow at 12:30 PM <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">GOEs</span> will be over! This has been an incredible week and the outpouring of support from so many people has been amazing. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The questions could have been much more difficult and the experience that much more painful. As it was, I feel like the questions were reasonable, at least so far! Church History is tomorrow morning. History is not my strong suit, but I'll do my best as I have with all of my responses. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Time will tell if my responses score a 4, 3, 2 or 1. The top 2 are 'passing grades' and the later 2 are 'not passing grades.' The 'grades' should come out in late February or March. But for now, I'm reveling in the fact that I've almost finished this week of comprehensive examinations! YIPPEE!!</span>bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-49284051156740770982009-01-07T18:43:00.006-06:002009-01-07T19:00:39.047-06:00<span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">This i<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnDEtsQNXVc7vNxd9lnfyHv7nvOse_VDrn089DBUTzc4hyphenhyphenQxm69-CJcxvQEr_iwbQVuPEuRMZFNWWbt9yLW8HhKZkByZeFK7LdZdutb95U8ls8IMpMlc1V-MEJV9bYoq9vku5Cxr4LbsY/s1600-h/GOE+room+at+VTS.JPG"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288720632452088850" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnDEtsQNXVc7vNxd9lnfyHv7nvOse_VDrn089DBUTzc4hyphenhyphenQxm69-CJcxvQEr_iwbQVuPEuRMZFNWWbt9yLW8HhKZkByZeFK7LdZdutb95U8ls8IMpMlc1V-MEJV9bYoq9vku5Cxr4LbsY/s200/GOE+room+at+VTS.JPG" border="0" /></span></a>s my room in the guest house at seminary where I have moved my books in order to take the General Ordination Exams (GOEs). I am pretty comfortable except for the desk chair. It is really not comfortable for a 3 1/2 hour exam, but the pillow makes it a little better. I suppose I could have moved my office chair from home, but it took all my strength to carry my suitcase up to the second floor!! </span><br /><br /><div><div><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span></div><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288720293797526098" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigNc0sW_VRhhdPvZm4z950gs3Nkuyz31PdXN9-nbUdTrtlNxvU5YULD1AhoB_mW3WZ3SDzPbMd0ncQCVvjKt7IDifEGkNxFHC2eAAemsXOW-q4nZUeiOElAEkhQgLsUKxYOv6KvJlgVzQ/s200/GOE+desk.JPG" border="0" /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Today, Weds, is a day of rest from GOEs. I'm more than 1/2 way thru the process of comprehensive exams that every senior seminarian must experience in the United States! On Monday the questions were about 1. Holy Scripture and 2. Theology & Mission. Tuesday's questions were about 3. Contemporary Society and 4. Liturgy. Tomorrow's questions are about 5. Ethics and 6. Practice of Ministry and Friday's question is on 7. Church History. </span></div><div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The most amazing aspect of GOEs is the support that we all have received in terms of emails, notes on Facebook, care packages, baked goods and prayer partners. My prayer partner, who is traveling in Jerusalem with other students from seminary, even put a prayer in the Wall this week. Most awesome!!</span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZtyVNHxWVYKl1YV2KiT6Aru-Cn0FHIvBTMCOJqCfwTaLle0IzBNQD1W1_dBeU0aQmPZVi3fiz10VLAj9sWnaVSzma3K33CjmzFsrz8sMn2hiWw83durpeIEXuzvAGVz5JU87kuxzBd88/s1600-h/GOE+support.JPG"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288720033083316530" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZtyVNHxWVYKl1YV2KiT6Aru-Cn0FHIvBTMCOJqCfwTaLle0IzBNQD1W1_dBeU0aQmPZVi3fiz10VLAj9sWnaVSzma3K33CjmzFsrz8sMn2hiWw83durpeIEXuzvAGVz5JU87kuxzBd88/s200/GOE+support.JPG" border="0" /></span></a><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Speaking of support, here's just a small sample of what I've received! And notice the balloons on the bed (above)!! Thanks everyone!!!!</span></div></div></div>bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-69490353343766519972009-01-05T19:26:00.002-06:002009-01-05T19:41:35.839-06:00General Ordination Exams<span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">For more than 3 years, ever since my Bishop made me a postulant, I have lived in anticipation of GOEs - General Ordination Exams. These are the comprehensive exams every Episcopal seminarian in the United States must take during their senior year. There are 7 sets or exams ranging from Holy Scripture to Church History. For some tests seminarians may only use limited resources, i.e. Bible and Book of Common Prayer, or open resources, i.e. anything your heart desires. For more information check out </span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.episcopalgbec.org/index.php">http://www.episcopalgbec.org/index.php</a></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The 2009 General Ordination Exams started today! The first exam was available at 9AM and was on Holy Scripture with limited resources - Bible & BCP. The 3-page answer to needed to be submitted by 12:30PM. Then at 1:30 PM the second exam was available and was on Christian Theology with open resources due by 5:00 PM. I am taking the exam in a guest room at the seminary where I moved all of my books yesterday. It's comfortable to be on campus and nice to be with my classmates during lunch and our breaks. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">We are also gathering in the chapel after the last exam of the day to share Eucharist together. It's a special time.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The juniors and middlers are taking good care of us, and a whole cloud of witnesses are keeping us in their thoughts and prayers. The GOEs are a requirement that have to be faced, and with the love and support of family and friends and complete strangers I am confident that "All Will Be Well." Thank you everyone!</span>bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-82495112751874031232008-12-18T15:49:00.004-06:002008-12-18T15:53:50.136-06:00Why Rick Warren Should NOT Offer Invocation<span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">From Bishop John Bryson Chane:<br /><br />I am profoundly disappointed by President-elect Barack Obama’s decision to invite Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church to offer the invocation at his inauguration. The president-elect has bestowed a great honor on a man whose recent comments suggest he is both homophobic, xenophobic, and willing to use the machinery of the state to enforce his prejudices—even going so far as to support the assassination of foreign leaders.<br /><br />In his home state of California, Mr. Warren’s campaigned aggressively to deny gay and lesbian couples equal rights under the law, relying on arguments that are both morally offensive and theologically crude. Christian leaders differ passionately with one another over the morality of same-sex relationships, but only the most extreme liken the loving, lifelong partnerships of their fellow citizens to incest and pedophilia, as Mr. Warren has done. The president-elect’s willingness to associate himself with a man who espouses these views as a means of reaching out to religious conservatives suggests a willingness to use the aspirations of gay and lesbian Americans as bargaining chips, and I find this deeply troubling.<br /><br />Mr. Warren has been rightly praised for his efforts to deepen the engagement of evangelical Christians with impoverished Africans. He has been justifiably lauded for putting the AIDS epidemic and global warming on the political agenda of the Christian right. Yet extravagant compassion toward some of God’s people does not justify the repression of others. Jesus came to save all of humankind, and as Archbishop Desmond Tutu has pointed out, “All means all.” But rather than embrace the wisdom of Archbishop Tutu, Mr. Warren has allied himself with men such as Archbishop Henry Orombi of Uganda who seek to “purify” the Anglican Communion, of which my Church is a member, by driving out gay and lesbian Christians and their supporters.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">In choosing Mr. Warren, the president-elect has sent a distressing message internationally as well. In a recent television interview, Mr. Warren voiced his support for the assassination of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. These bizarre and regrettable remarks come at a time when much of the Muslim world already fears a Christian crusade against Islamic countries. Imagine our justifiable outrage if an Iranian cleric who advocated the assassination of President Bush had been selected to offer prayers when Ahmadinejad was sworn in.<br /><br />I have worked with former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami to improve the relationship between our two countries as hawkish members of the Bush administration pushed for another war. He has spoken at the National Cathedral, which will host the president-elect’s inaugural prayer service, and I have visited with him several times in Iran and elsewhere. Iranian clerics are intensely interested in the religious attitudes of America’s leaders. In choosing Mr. Warren to offer the invocation at his inauguration, the president-elect has sent the chilling, and, I feel certain, unintended message that he is comfortable with Christians who can justify lethal violence against Muslims.<br /><br />I understand that in selecting Mr. Warren, Mr. Obama is signaling a willingness to work with both sides in our country’s culture wars. I appreciate that there is political advantage in elevating the relatively moderate Mr. Warren above some of his brethren on the Religious Right. But in honoring Mr. Warren, the president-elect confers legitimacy on attitudes that are deeply contrary to the all-inclusive love of God. He is courting the powerful at the expense of the marginalized, and in doing so, he stands the Gospel on its head.<br /><br />The Right Reverend John Bryson Chane<br />Eighth Bishop of Washington<br /><br /></span><a href="http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/faith_and_politics/bishop_chane_expresses_concern.html">http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/faith_and_politics/bishop_chane_expresses_concern.html</a>bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-84973140808735509522008-12-10T13:49:00.005-06:002008-12-10T13:58:07.937-06:00Letter from The Right Reverend John Bryson Chane<div align="left"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">This letter was sent to clergy and congregations in the Diocese of Washington (DC). Thank you Bishop Chane!</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">DIOCESE OF WASHINGTON<br />__________________________________________________________<br />The Right Reverend John Bryson Chane<br />Bishop of Washington December 9, 2008</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">To the Clergy and Congregations of the Diocese:<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Last Thursday a front page article appeared in the New York Times, and a smaller article in the Washington Post, about the proposed formation of a new non-geographical province within the jurisdictional boundaries of the Episcopal Church. The proposed archbishop of this envisioned province is Bob Duncan, deposed bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh. </span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />First and foremost, let me assure you that the formation of a non-geographical province within an existing province is highly unlikely. Before the establishment of any such province, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church would have to give her consent, and it is difficult to imagine that she would do so. If consent was given, the Archbishop of Canterbury would then form a committee of primates to discuss the feasibility of forming the new province. If two thirds of the primates felt that such a new province would assist and strengthen the ministry of the Anglican Communion, then the primates would forward their recommendation to the Archbishop of Canterbury who in turn would forward his recommendation to the Anglican Consultative Council for final vote and action. At present, neither two-thirds of the primates, nor the Archbishop seem favorably disposed to this<br />development.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The gathering in Wheaton, Illinois of Duncan, Martyn Minns and several hundred of their supporters who seek the formation of the non-geographical province came as no surprise to most of us in the House of Bishops. But the press it has received, especially in the New York Times, was well beyond what was warranted considering that the proposed province is, at most, about 5 percent of the size of the Episcopal Church and that its chances of recognition are dim. I realize, however, that this most recent installment in the media’s coverage of how the sky is allegedly falling on the Episcopal Church caught many members of our diocese by surprise, and I want to allay their anxieties. We face our share of problems in the Episcopal Church, but wholesale defections to a movement committed to denying gay and lesbian Christians the birthright of their baptism is not one of them.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The Archbishop of Canterbury wisely did not invite any of the bishops consecrated to serve in the Nigerian, Ugandan, Rwandan or Kenyan incursions into the United States to last summer’s Lambeth Conference. Nor did he invite bishops of the Reformed Episcopal Church, which broke from the Anglican Communion almost 130 years ago. Williams seems unlikely to reverse course now. He knows that the leaders of the proposed province have been working, overtly and covertly, to undermine the Episcopal Church for almost a decade, so what was a front page story to the editors of the New York Times was old news to him.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">It would be folly for the Archbishop to even consider recognizing a non-geographical province because it would unleash chaos in the Communion, with theological minorities in every jurisdiction seeking to affiliate with likeminded Anglicans in other provinces. Unfortunately, the Archbishop has contributed to the confusion and anxiety the leaders of the proposed province have sought to foster by meeting on numerous occasions with Duncan and his allies. These meetings have bestowed an unwarranted sense of legitimacy on those who seek to deconstruct the Anglican Communion.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">What Duncan and Minns propose – that Duncan become the Archbishop of a newly minted non-geographical province with the support of GAFCON primates such as Peter Akinola of Nigeria and Henry Orombi of Uganda – is a rejection of the respectful diversity and generous orthodoxy that defines the Communion. It is a repudiation of the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury in our communal life. It flies in the very face of what it truly means to be an Anglican. For Minns to suggest that he is leading a “new reformation” is ludicrous and demeans the historicity and value of the real Reformation as we know it and live it.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The movers of the proposed new province embarrass themselves, the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion by the self-serving media coverage they have worked so hard to achieve. The news of the proposed province appears at a time when more than 28 million Americans are living on food stamps, one out of every 10 new mortgage holders is facing foreclosure, unemployment is at its highest level in decades, the auto industry is “tanking” and the real danger of deflation or a possible depression looms large on the horizon. In the global south, millions live on $1 a day, and wars, ethnic and religious violence, poverty and the AIDS epidemic continue to wrack the African continent. To learn in this context that Duncan, Minns and their allies think that the most important issue facing the church is the sexuality of the Bishop of New Hampshire suggests a level of self-absorption that is difficult to square with the teachings of Christ. And to learn that the New York Times considers the complaints of these deposed, retired and irregularly consecrated bishops to be front page news suggests a fixation on “culture wars” reporting that deprives readers of a true sense of the challenges facing the church in this country.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I write this to you because our clergy and congregations need to know the current status of the irregularly proposed new province within our church. I also need to share with you my disappointment in the behavior of men who were once bishops in the Episcopal Church. Some of these men have been my friends, but they have now taken their own personal agendas for power and control beyond the limits of common Christian charity and decency. As you may already know, the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church has deposed Duncan and John-David Schofield as bishops and priests in the church, and the Presiding Bishop has recently inhibited Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth and determined that he has renounced his orders. The case of Keith Ackerman, the former Bishop of Quincy, remains to be reviewed.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">During this season of Advent, please keep Rowan our Archbishop in your daily prayers, as I know you will continue to pray for Katharine our Presiding Bishop and primate. Pray for the church, the body of Jesus Christ, that it might be a center of strength and a beacon of light and hope during these very tough economic times for those we serve here in the Diocese of Washington and in the global community.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">In Christ’s Peace, Power and Love,<br />The Rt. Rev. John Bryson Chane, D.D.<br />Bishop of Washington</span></div>bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-10793852648822311412008-12-04T16:27:00.001-06:002008-12-04T16:29:55.941-06:00Same-Sex Marriage<span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">[from the San Diego Tribune]</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Same-sex marriage<br />A question of how we feel about each other After Election 2008<br />By James R. Mathes December 4, 2008 </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">When the Diocese of New Hampshire elected as its bishop a gay man living in a faithful, monogamous relationship, the Episcopal Church became a target. And so did I.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">I received hate mail and even a death threat, so you can imagine that when I went to the Lambeth Conference in July – a conference of all Anglican bishops held every 10 years – it was with a certain degree of anxiety. Human sexuality is a charged issue in the Anglican Communion, so charged that the bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson, was not invited.<br />Although he was not recognized as a participant, Bishop Robinson was permitted to make presentations twice during the two-and-a-half-week conference. Bishops from Africa, India, England, Asia, Australia and South America met Gene. Many of these bishops, who had rejected the very concept of an openly gay leader in the church, came to know the person and their perspectives changed.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">On election night, friends who gathered at our home to watch the returns witnessed another change. When Barack Obama was declared the winner, we all sensed the history of the moment. I felt chills watching the president-elect in Grant Park in Chicago as he addressed the nation he would lead. As he spoke of healing and bringing unity to the United States, I remembered feeling similar chills when I met Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who has taught us so much about healing divisions and reconciliation. Archbishop Tutu often leans on an African understanding called ubuntu, which can be captured in the words: “I am because you are.”<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">As I watched my friends listen to the president-elect, I felt connected to a constellation of people who had the capacity to overcome division and fear. I found myself filled with hope in the same way I had been when Bishop Robinson patiently met face-to-face with people who rejected him as a minister because of his sexuality and life partner.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Later in the evening, when it became clear that Proposition 8 would likely pass, the mood in our home changed again. Another historic moment had come. The state of California was changing its constitution to take away a right. A gay couple, who have been together longer than any of the straight couples present, quietly left our home, but their pain remained.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Many people say they have lots of gay friends, but they just don't approve of their “lifestyle.” In fact, Frank Schubert, the chief strategist who helped raise more than $40 million to pass Proposition 8, says he is not anti-gay, that he has a lesbian sister. I wonder if he celebrated this victory with his sister and her partner?<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">I feel a bit odd as a straight, white man making the case for gay and lesbian rights. It will seem even odder to some that I do so as a church leader. Nearly half of that $40 million war chest was contributed by Mormons, and we now know the Mormon Church was recruited to the cause by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco. But here's the rub. On Election Day, we voted to take away a right, a right that hurt no one and that did not threaten traditional marriage. In taking that right away, we hurt people and demeaned their humanity.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">There are reasonable people who think I am wrong and that the right side prevailed on this issue. However, the ongoing protests so widely criticized by Proposition 8 supporters speak to the level of pain this measure has inflicted. Those who favored the proposition, especially, must own their share of responsibility for that pain.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The solution may be another proposition; but in the meantime, I suggest that we follow the lead of Desmond Tutu and remember that the dignity of each person depends on every other person: “I am because you are.” We need to come to fully understand the other: straight, gay, black, white, brown, disabled, smart, not so smart. History has taught us that when we do, the world is changed because we are changed.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">* The Right Reverend Mathes is bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego. </span><br /><a href="http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20081204/news_lz1e4mathes.html">http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20081204/news_lz1e4mathes.html</a>bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9175861175646432557.post-62777345568631014302008-11-09T16:43:00.006-06:002008-11-10T19:14:22.762-06:00President-Elect Obama and The Hug<span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;">As soon as the announcement was made on CNN that Barack Obama was elected as the next President of the United States of America there was a collective shout of JOY and elation from folks in my neighborhood!! Then the fireworks and honking of car horns started and went on and on and on!!!! What a wonderful and historic evening and a new era for our country!!!!!</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Unfortunately Potter, the cockapoo, was not so thrilled with all of the noise, especially the fireworks. He was shaking so much it was pitiful! I held him close and eventually he calmed down. He stayed close all night long!</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">I think Archibishop Desmond Tutu says is best:</span><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;">"Today Africans walk taller than they did a week ago -- just as they did when </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Nelson+Mandela?tid=informline"><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;">Nelson Mandela</span></a><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"> became South Africa's first black president in 1994. Not only Africans, but people everywhere who have been the victims of discrimination at the hands of white Westerners, have a new pride in who they are. If a dark-skinned person can become the leader of the world's most powerful nation, what is to stop children everywhere from aiming for the stars?"</span><br /><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">On Weds I walked across the seminary campus with one of my classmates who is a mature African American man. I asked him if he ever thought he would see this day, and after a pause he told me that he might cry again. He said that what surprised him was how he welled up with emotion as he walked into his polling place! Then I shared that my impluse is to hug my African American classmates. He said "that would be okay" so in the middle of the road we stopped and exhanged a heartfelt celebratory hug.<br /><br />The challenges that face President-Elect Obama are great. Our prayers and patience will be needed. But our country has spoken and the global community has concurred - "Yes We Can!"</span>bethochttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244634133559341666noreply@blogger.com1