Standing on one’s head: the view from here

It never ceases to surprise me, how the Holy Spirit continues to ambush us with aah-ha moments of insight or understanding, unexpected gifts of renewal or affirmation, or deep, often tearful reminders of our interconnectedness- and what’s fun about these gifts is the unexpected places one often finds them waiting for us.

Case in point, the current online edition of The Anglican Journal.

As those closest to me know, I bare real psychic wounds in which our local Anglican Church was very complicit, in addition to regularly having to wrestle with my gay-man-of-faith frustration and pain over much of what goes on in the name of ‘officially Anglican.’ That said, I am, as one ‘recovering Catholic’ friend said recently ‘up to your proverbials in this Anglican soup.’ At the time I suggested it might more interestingly be considered a ‘transformative brew.’

Which brings me back to the current edition of The Anglican Journal. Yes, the coverage mentioned the recent national synod without any mention of the cowardly side-step which effectively left our American brothers-and-sisters-in-Christ out to dry. But the nugget which figuratively, if not literally had me standing on my head was in another story- the special report on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Something truly sacred is going on in my country at present, and happily I am able to say that our Anglican Church is not only participating, but led by our primate ++Fred Hiltz, they are playing an active & visionary role in its realization. I’m referring to the current exercise which sees representation from government and the historically complicit Christian denominations meeting with the survivors of what is still shamefully referred to as the ‘Indian Residential Schools’ to recognize their stories of physical, sexual, emotional and mental abuse. With no concrete information to support it, I personally give a lot of credit to the current primate ++Fred Hiltz for our Church’s remarkable openness; all the while mourning the fact that he has failed to be equally visionary in leading our Church towards full LGBT inclusion (another story for another day.)

The ‘nugget’ is to be found in:

http://www.anglicanjournal.com/nc/news-items/article/special-report-truth-and-reconciliation-commission-trc-9238.html and is a comment by a First Nation Roman Catholic nun, Sister Eva Solomon:

“One of the most pervasive forms of violence is colonialism…It destroys our psyche, spirit, mind and body. It’s the root we really have to work at,” she said. “What colonialism did was to impose a different identity on us.”
"The European colonizers that came to Canada “made us believe that our political spiritual system wasn’t good enough,” said Sr. Solomon. “Our own original sin is that we personalized that and we felt we weren’t good enough.”

Our own original sin is that we personalized that and we felt we weren’t good enough- you see why I used the term ‘ambush’ earlier- how about being literally stopped in my tracks?

As several of my partners in prayer and practice know, ‘original sin’ has been a burr under my personal saddle of practice for some time- for a number of reasons- not the least being the its Imperial imposition in the second century CE; the damaging predictability of its propagation and the selective amnesia much of the Church appears to be currently practicing on the consequences of such teaching.


Elsewhere, I’ve written of elements of the necessary ground work I feel we have to embrace in we are truly to join the Holy Spirit in becoming the Church we are continually being called to be. High on the list would be the origins and effects of the Church’s propagation of this toxic doctrine.

It doesn’t take an ‘A’ in Psych 101 to see it for the degrading self-fulfilling prophesy it is, or to tease out the dualism, objectification of patriarchy within and the essential insult it is to God.

It is my understanding that one of the early terms for this doctrine, still in use within the Orthodox Church is ‘ancestral sin’ ; which, I would suggest, in the light of current understanding of the human creature and the long trail of suffering, self-wounding and exploitation the result of this Imperialistic doctrine could more aptly described as the propagation of ancestral sin.

To only state the obvious: you tell a kid they’re sinful, vile or even an abomination often enough- all words found in our earlier BoCP, and the outcome’s almost inevitable.

“Our own original sin is that we personalized that and we felt we weren’t good enough.”

They weren’t perfect- none of us are- they were children, kidnapped from the world they knew, treated little better than animals, by a bunch of bossy, at times violent strangers.

They were frightened and often alone- with concepts, rules and a language imposed on them that not only denied their God given uniqueness, their beauty and humanity, but which insisted that who they were- the Indian in them- had to be killed and be remade into something else.

Could the paralells with the newborn human state be any clearer

They were kids- like us all, when the Church’s reign of original sin was imposed on us.

Imperfect, frightened, alone- hardly ground for the invention of a self-fulfilling, exploitive, wounding & degrading doctrine in the name of God.

Unintentionally, I apparently stopped a friend in her tracks some time ago with my suggestion that it was more than overdue- the time when we as a Church began behaving as a redeemed people.

‘Literally, you’ve got me consciously questioning- no, consciously stepping outside the dualistic assumptions of patriarchy and looking at the backside of the great tapestry we call Christianity,’ she told me, using one of the images from our earlier conversation.

And that, I would suggest, is what we have to be doing collectively as a Church. Simply disarming, or avoiding the embarrassment of earlier teachings is not enough. From all that’s been going on in our Church of late it should be only too clear that what the Holy Spirit is calling is to- yet again- is radical & complete renewal outside the necessarily dualistic objectification of both God’s people & all creation. A process which requires us to name, own and deconstruct the articles and artefacts of the patriarchal monolith men-largely straight white men- have so shamefully made of the Good News of Jesus Christ and of our vocation to be the living Body of Christ .

Happily there was a second story in the current Anglican Journal on the Commission. A poetic reflection on the first days of the Commission http://www.anglicanjournal.com/nc/news-items/article/a-writers-notebook-9240.html which, when I discovered it, I personally took as a reminder that no matter how silly and disheartening the antics of certain purple shirts and other ‘official Anglicans’ might have been of late, the Holy Spirit is very much alive and among us, and SHE hasn’t given up on us either- Thanks be to God!

But there was also another nugget in the first story, and I wonder if it might have had the same effect on others- literally moving me to tears. It’s in the witness of the Rev. Margaret Mullen, ‘I have to remember that I’m accepted by the Creator.”

This post was written out of deep and abiding gratitude to our First Nations People- for their generosity of spirit, their very real grace and patience - for the lessons they are offering us, and out of love and gratitude of one particular cherished sibling in Christ who could well share Ms. Mullen’s native name ‘Thundering Eagle Woman’ and whose First Native ancestry brings much to the passionate gift of her priesthood.

Namaste.

The Ridiculous and yes, The Sublime: Pentecost 2010

Yes, I know, I’ve reversed the usual order ‘sublime and the ridiculous,’ but it’s only to reflect the unfortunate reality of how things too often happen within our Communion; when the cowardly, divisive pontificating of one of our most visible purple shirts receives wider visibility and audience than the prophetic voice of one said purple shirt would most probably be incapable of even hearing- inspite of all his degrees (honary & earned), the numerous books he’s published, the company he keeps and the rather excessive real estate he occupies.

Visitors to this space will know who and what I’m referring to, though thankfully we have keener minds than mine to give ‘Rowan the Irrelevant’s’ Pentecostal pronouncement more attention that it really merits. It particular, I’d draw your attention to

http://frjakestopstheworld.blogspot.com/2010/05/canteburys-pentecost-punishments.html where Terry+ comes to his own prophetic conclusions. Thank-you Terry+

http://anglicanfuture.blogspot.com/2010/05/thoughts-on-abcs-pentecost-letter.html where Mark+ Harris, another shining gift of the Episcopal Church to our Communion takes 'R the I' apart, stands him on his head and reminds us of what our calling to be the Body of Christ is really all about. Thank-you Mark+

http://telling-secrets.blogspot.com/2010/05/just-say-no.html where Elizabeth+ reminds of some of the reason she's loved and appreciated by so many of us with her dismissal of Rowan's latest for the impotent foolishness that it realy is. Love you Mother Elizabeth+

Poor Rowan, every time I see his name he's either posturing or postificating- from either one of his palaces, as the rest of the world waits for him to activate the listening exercise our Church has been promising/proposing for decades now.


But Praise God! this Pentecost, among other blessings saw another gift to the Church- one which unfortunately will probably not get the distribution it deserves.

Ironicaly, the post got written because its author, unlike most Sundays was unable to attend his parish-and I can't help but wonder if there's not something wonderful in that simple detail, because, at knees in his parish Church, or at home this brother waxed posatively prophetic asking quesitons our Church in all its orders needs to hear.

I'm referring to Counterlight's 'Something to Ponder for Pentecost Sunday' http://counterlightsrantsandblather1.blogspot.com/2010/05/something-to-ponder-for-sunday.html written by a member of the Episcopal Church who is not only an articulate academic, an art historian of some note, but also an accomplished artist whose work I appreciated and wrestled with long before blogging came along.

Yet another time that one of my on-line siblings-in-Christ sent blessing my way via her post on Counterlight's post- merci milles fois Chere Mimi.

Not wanting to deprive anyone of the experience of the original I'd only quote:

Is homosexuality the issue that we really want to define the Christian faith? Already, when people are asked what the Christian faith is all about, opposition to abortion and homosexuality immediately comes to their minds, not the Incarnation or the Resurrection, or salvation, still less anything that could be called "Love." Are those who are breaking up the Anglican Communion solely over this issue prepared to shoe-horn opposition to homosexuality into the Nicene and Apostle's Creeds? Do they really see it up there with belief in the Resurrection and the Trinity

I would argue that what's really in peril are not gays and lesbians. We'll always be around no matter how many of us get killed.What's really in danger is the Christian religion. If it wants to be taken seriously by the rest of the world as anything other than institutionalized bigotry and superstition, then it must take the lead on a major human rights issue. As I've argued repeatedly before, what the institutionalized homophobia of the churches offends is not people's sense of permission (as the right argues), but their moral sense, their deepest sense of what is right and fair. That's why there are so many heteros out there willing to go to bat over this issue on behalf of gays and lesbians

Did the Savior who forgave His murderers from the Cross without their asking limit His Love and Mercy to those who meet membership requirements, or to those who could pass a catechism exam? Did God put another asterisk beside His pronouncement that His creation is good? Did God make anything that was not good?

Long after reading, and re-reading Counterlight's prophetic call one question kept haunting me:

Is homosexuality the issue that we really want to define the Christian faith?

As if Rowan's Pentecostal posturing weren't enough there was also a story online about a plan to organize international pulpit swapping between those formerly known as the Anglican purity police. Does this appear to anyone else to smack of Christian imperialism? Next thing we know they'll be organizing their own 'theologically pure' travel agency.

In the meantime, I'm waiting for an honest answer to Counterlight's question- from someone other than any of my 'usual, beloved suspects.' Most any bishop will do.

I'm waiting.

“Because God is bigger than the church.”

What a Saturday!

Even at this remove- here in Montreal, I was so very aware of just what wonder was taking place in Long Beach CA that day. A mixed weather day here, with several visitations of rain which were perfect for the garden and keeping me centered on the practice as I sat in prayer and solidarity with the siblings in Christ assembling in the Long Beach convention centre.

I’ve written elsewhere and often of what an enormous blessing and privilege it is- this new collegial solidarity- being able to uphold each other in prayer and practice because of the sharing and connection made possible by the internet, and never more so than on Saturday when so many of the individuals I love and admire, and yes regularly uphold in prayer were assembled for the consecration of Diane and Mary to the episcopacy of the Church of God.

Starting perhaps with the obvious: ‘The Great ++Katherine’, the Giant of New Hampshire, ‘+Barbara the bleloved Harris’, +Jon Bruno, Ed+ Bacon, Susan+, Elizabeth+ and all those other wonderful brothers and sisters willing to leave themselves open to the sheer wonder of the Holy Spirit doing something truly awesome & breathtakingly wonderful in our time- the priests, the laity- all that praise and celebration. But in the three hours of my practice of solidarity there was so much more- a certain young man Tommy Braveheart fighting for his life with the love, support, presence and prayers of his two wonderful parents- which I’d never have known about but for our dear Margaret- another young man Declan in the same situation for another reason placed on my heart by another treasured brother, Paul,

Which brings me to where I am this morning, as the early morning sun streams in through the doorway after having blessed my emerging garden- Thanks.

Not too often of late we’ve heard thanks within the councils and halls of our Church, so this morning I get to strike my own list:

To our brothers and sisters in the Episcopal Church for their prophetic courage, faithfulness and openness to the working of the Holy Spirit in the raw and confusing reality of our times; for your embodied love not only of our tradition but your passionate conviction that the Good News of the Gospel and the working of the Holy Spirit Herself are more relevant than ever, and for the audacious ways in which you embody this certainty. Thank-you.

To many of the articulate, passionate and visionary voices you have given to the current..... ‘discussions.’ Thank-you. This morning, among others Mark+ Harris, Terry+ Martin, Barbara+ the beloved Harris, Elizabeth+, Susan+, +Jon Bruno, Ed+ Bacon, Katie Sherrod, our own Barbi Click, Thank-you.

To the Giant of New Hampshire- living blessing, beloved brother and prophetic witness that he is- God alone knows how heartfelt and real my personal thanks- Thank-you +Gene.

To ‘The Great ++Katherine’ (that’s how we pray for her in our home) - for your visionary calm, your articulate intelligence, for your courage and passionate love of our Church, for your long-suffering grace and fortitude in the face of much of what you’ve suffered at the hands of smaller, frightened minds- Thank-you.

To get very personal for a moment- to two radiant priests (P.S. & M.W.), each of them very real & blessed leaven in my life, and along with dear Grandmère, the source of much of the privilege of intercessory connection I mentioned earlier- a heartfelt Thank-you.

To the whole wonderful mix of the American Church, and most particularly those I have not mentioned by name- Thank-you. In your process and praise you continue to serve as a reminder that our Church is part of the living Body of Christ and not a liturgical museum, participants in the sacred dance of Life with the Holy Spirit Herself and not an accidental collection of quirky misfits.

Which brings me to one of the two most recent gifts from the American Church to the world- our +Mary Glasspool. Through the good offices of IT- another gift of the American Church- at http://friends-of-jake.blogspot.com/ I learned that Mary’s favourite passage of Scripture are the same two verses which have kept me going through the thick and thin of the last couple of decades Romans 8:38 – 39:

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I learned this, and much else thanks to the link IT had posted to The Advocate profile on our newest bishop at http://advocate.com/Print_Issue/Features/A_Woman_of_Faith/ Thank-you IT.

Rumbling and rattling of Episcopal staffs, threats and dire predictions, waffling and wiggling that there might be within ‘certain,’ too predictable quarters of the Communion this Monday morning; I think it is only right and proper to give the first & last word of this post to our newest bishop- a word which resonates with those of a passage of Scripture we both treasure:

“Because God is bigger than the church.”

Bishop Mary Glasspool, http://advocate.com/Print_Issue/Features/A_Woman_of_Faith/

For almost a week now I have been living and practicing with some pretty serious physical pain- the result of a reoccurrence of a double Charlie-horse which first occurred the summer following the death of my dear Louis. The third reoccurrence since then, this has been the worst pain ever from this, which could be a reflection of my age as much as anything.
Almost a week now, there is still some pain, but the primary issue is now getting some strength back into the muscles of my left calf muscles. All to say, though the post I refer to here appeared a week ago now, I have been in no shape until now to complete this entry. In the meantime, practicing with pain has been incredibly insightful and the opportunity for all sorts of intercessory/metta practice.

Amazing how the Holy Spirit is continually reaching out to engage us, especially when we leave ourselves open to wrestling with the great questions and ambiguities of living a life of faith in such complex times. Recently, it was a post by a wonderful priest who is not only a cherished sister but also a powerfully prophetic voice in our process of becoming the Church we are called to be.

In one post http://leaveitlay.blogspot.com/2010/04/o-god-laced-with-finest-cuss-words-i.html 'It’s Margaret' managed to not only blast me wide open, leaving me aching and in tears with the tragedy of Julie & John; she also echoed my own continual struggles with the violence in Scripture; she waxed positively prophetic, calling the American House of Bishops/House of Deputies on their indiscriminate use of such problematic scriptures in our liturgies- a call I would suggest which is long overdue.

I will not presume to either parse or extract Margaret’s powerful post found here http://leaveitlay.blogspot.com/2010/04/o-god-laced-with-finest-cuss-words-i.html however I would urge you to not only read it, but to seriously consider enrolling Margaret’s blog in your favorties or whatever it is more technically savvy people do. Not only is Margaret’s online ministry one of the most gloriously human and prophetic out there, she also contextualizes her posts with extracts from our daily lectionary.

And of course, as if the prophetic challenge of Margaret’s post weren’t enough there were personal resonances to my reading Margaret’s post.

Essentially, Margaret’s challenge to the HoB/D was:

A reminder that while we believe that Scripture contains all things necessary for salvation, not everything in Scripture is either necessary or conducive to salvation.

A witness to the perils and human consequences of idolatry- and never more so than when it is practiced towards a document with multiple authors, a staggering diversity of cultural contexts and written over a span of more than a thousand years.

A call to those responsible for the design and organization of our liturgical calendar to resort to that third medium of Anglican practice- intelligence- in their use & selection of Scripture for our liturgies.

All of which, of course mirrors some of my own issues with certain practices within our Church at this time.

Sitting with ‘the Margaret effect’ also brought to mind a recent conversation with another cherished online contact ‘P’ who, like myself, was a recipient of Bart Ehrman’s ‘’Jesus Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and why we don’t know about them)” from a mutual contact with her wishes for a challenging Lent.

Ehrman, a Biblical scholar of some repute and a successful popularizer of contemporary Biblical scholarship, teaches at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and I have read and appreciated several of his earlier books. I would be the last person on earth to feel qualified to either critique or review Ehrman’s work; I would however suggest that it deserves serious consideration and reflection on the part of people of faith.

‘P,’ a recovering Roman-Catholic and ‘joyous newbie Episcopalian’ (to use his term) had never read Ehrman before, and was seriously shaken but much of what he read for its implications for our current Church practice. During his reading we ended up speaking several times on the phone, and not surprisingly the questions ‘P’ raised went right to the heart of the matter.

Having discovered that Ehrman now identifies as an atheist, P wanted to know if Ehrman’s interpretation of contemporary scholarship was either erroneous or skewed, where was the response of the academic community within our Church, challenging or dialoguing with this very successful author? Where was the rethinking of our current use of the Scriptural canon in our liturgies? And where were the teaching opportunities being developed to explore the implications of the historical/critical method of Scriptural study?

Basically, if Ehrman’s work is indeed ‘correct’ why is our Church not reflecting the contradictions and ambiguities of Scripture in its teaching and liturgical practices?


Which brings to mind another conversation of more than two years ago with an Anglican academic who has contacted me about getting together during her visit to Montreal.

This was our second meeting, our first alone and we were having coffee at a café across from the university building where I worked. I no longer even remember the Scriptural passage we were discussing, but my visitor had heard it the previous Sunday in the St. James Cathedral in Toronto which she had been visiting for a conference. Whatever it was, as a feminist scholar my visitor was taking well-deserved issue with it.

When I reminded her that the bad theology expressed in that particular passage was a reflection of the cultural context at the time of the book’s creation, my friend frothed more richly than her cappuccino. ‘Exactly! So why was this misogynist embarrassment even included in liturgy... And to make matters worse, it wasn’t even referenced in the sermon. What sort of subliminal message does this send to the person in the pew.’

Who knows, perhaps we even coined a term that afternoon- ‘lazy liturgy’ but there was also ‘sleepwalking through the Scriptural canon.’

‘You know what really pisses me off is that once again it’s being left to the laity to rock this particular boat.’ That’s a money quote, and I’ve recalled it verbatim.

My friend went on at great length about her experiences of too many clergy just ‘going through the motions’ and what an insult it is to both their congregation and the liturgy.

Trying to put a positive spin on things I commented on what a challenging and necessary gift she was to the Church and reminded her of many of the incredible engaged Anglicans we both know from their online ministries (you know who you are Beloved Giants).

‘That’s just it,’ she reminded me. ‘I have my own fulltime job, a house to run, two children and a husband, to say nothing of the new program I’m putting together... Besides which, I’m not even a theologian!’

We eventually went on to my work on ‘A Church Unafraid,’ creating transformational models and how the Church must to come clean on several fronts in order to free itself from its self-made straightjacket of patriarchal dualism in order to meet the Holy Spirit and embrace Her vision of the Church we are called to be. But sitting here tonight, thinking of http://leaveitlay.blogspot.com/2010/04/o-god-laced-with-finest-cuss-words-i.html and my cherished friend and her prophetic priesthood, another ‘money quote’ came to mind. It’s Matthew Fox, quoting M.D. Chenu, the French theologian who not only participated in Vatican II, but also played a key role in the worker priest movement:

M.D. Chenu used to insist that the New Testament priesthood was not about cult but about prophecy. Priests were to be prophetic.

And in the same essay:

Worship ought to be the energy source from which a people heals itself and lets go and starts over.

and of course, being dear Father Fox there’s more to this quote:

The postmodern worship makes all this possible and even fun.

No lines ( or line-ups) in the Kingdom of God

It is our Christian duty not to draw lines around who is in and who is out, who is welcome and who is not. It is a Christian discipline to care, and act in abundance, because all things we have, are not ours, but are from the One who made all things and holds all things in being

It's Margaret http://leaveitlay.blogspot.com/2010/04/extranjeros.html

How about a little prophetic leadership please?

(Knocking of the door of the American HOB) Hello... Anybody awake in there?

(Knocking at 815) C’mon folks, doesn’t anyone have something to say on this matter? Katherine? Bonnie? Please?

(Knocking at the doors of The Trinity Institute, The Alban Institute, The Consultation)

C’mon folks, where’s your voice?

What I’m trying to muster in the above scenario is an effective response to is the latest bit of flimlammery and blatant misrepresentation from the schismatic voices of the radical right. In this case from David Bena, the retired Suffragan Bishop of Albany N.Y. who has also chosen to leave TEC for his own reasons.

It may not have made national headlines; the only reason I know of Mr. Bena’s recent public misrepresentations up here in Montreal is due to the good services of a treasured friend and living gift to our Church- Grandmère Mimi http://thewoundedbird.blogspot.com/2010/04/is-tec-on-wayward-path.html who posted on a recent opinion piece by the former Amercian suffragan bishop in the Richmond Times Dispatch. An opinion piece which has, far as I can tell, gone unchallenged in the public discourse except for Mimi’s post and the great work of Openly Episcopal in Albany http://drbones.typepad.com/openly_episcopal_in_alban/2010/04/tec-formally-rejected-the-authority-of-scripture-the-painful-irony-is-that-tecs-decision-to-reject-the-authority-of-gods.html

Not that I’d want to do anything to further Mr. Bena’s personal confusion- I mean, he has apparently continued to preach and celebrate at times within venues of the Episcopal Church, inspite of his very public departure and his equally public opinions. But a lie is still a lie, and I can’t help but ask where is the prophetic rebuttal from any quarter within our Church- other than the faithful Grandmère Mimi and the folks at Openly Episcopal in Albany.


I mean brother David did choose to make this public. And in such a situation I think it is more than obvious that his misrepresentation must be engaged in a similar quarter.

The first two sentences from his piece would suffice:

The painful irony is that TEC's decision to reject the authority of God's Word has been gravely injurious, and has itself caused the very division that TEC's leaders claimed they sought to avoid. Once someone rejects Scripture, then they reject Jesus Christ and Christianity as a whole.

Either former suffragan Bena has been suffering from a serious medical condition which has kept him painfully unaware of the last several decades of events both within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, or he is intentionally, and I would suggest maliciously misrepresenting the current reality.

And surely our Church can do better than yours truly for publicly rebutting these misrepresentations; but for the record:

Neither the people or the leadership of The Episcopal Church has at any time rejected either the authority of God’s Word, the lordship of our saviour Jesus Christ- or the implications of either articles of our living faith.

It is not the leadership of the Episcopal Church, but rather individuals such as yourself, Mr. Bena, who have chosen this ‘very division’ which has resulted from your personal opinions and actions, and resulted in the gravely injurious damage our Church has undergone. It is you sir who have chosen the path of schism, litigation, and if your most recent public utterance is any example, also chosen the path of wilful misrepresentation.

In addition, I would suggest that your objectification of Holy Scripture as a static, inerrant record not only denies decades of important Scriptural scholarship; it also suggests idolatry to be the standard of faithful Christian practice in your personal opinion.

Contrary to Mr. Bena's recent public misrepresentation of the current reality, I would suggest that of all of the provinces of our beloved Church, it is The Episcopal Church who has most prophetically, faithfully and courageously embodied our vocation to meet and engage the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of our redeemed lives and our vocation to be the living Body of Christ.

One need look no further than the methodology and practice at the recent Anaheim General Convention:

It was prayerfully transparent- one has only to ask any delegate about the weight of documentation provided in advance for their study, prayer and reflection.

It was intentionally structured, in both its public liturgies and collegial reflections to be open to the working of the Holy Spirit in that time and place.

It actively referenced all three principles of Anglican practice- Holy Scripture, Tradition & Intelligence, in its practice, and determinations.

And I might add, it was incarnational when our priests and bishops left their councils to march in solidarity with the exploited workers of the Disney corporation.


Which brings me to my real point- which for lack of a better term I might call the Palin effect- hopefully without giving that poor, misguided individual too much credit.

As patently obvious as Mr. Bena’s misrepresentations might be to many of us, the fact is he has made them in a very public venue. They have been read and resonated with some who may not have taken the time and effort to follow and prayerfully, critically evaluate recent events within our Church. Individuals who, for a variety of other personal reasons, may feel Mr. Bena’s misrepresentations speaks to or confirms their own feelings of powerlessness, isolation or personal frustration.

It is my sense that this is how phenomena like Ms. Palin and her ilk gained traction and momentum, and I would suggest that the time is long passed when our Church can afford to allow public spectacles such as Mr. Bena’s misrepresentation to go unchallenged.

It’s called leadership. It’s called accountability-necessarily public accountability only because of the venue Mr.Bena has chosen.

As long as we as a Church remain silent in the face of such misrepresentations we essentially allow individuals such as Mr. Bena to define the current reality within our Church in the public sector.

We need look no further than Ms. Palin’s public visibility, the ‘inches of ink’ she continues to receive, the crowds who turn out to listen to her divisive, skewed take on reality, to see what I am suggesting.

It is my sense that the Democratic Party and the American public made a serious mistake when they settled for mocking and effectively underestimating the former governor of Alaska. And as a result they effectively allowed her the unchallenged airtime and space to create her own version of ‘truth on the ground.’


In the instance of Mr. Bena, I would suggest what is at stake here is our vocation to act as the living Body of Christ. We might individually recognize his recent piece for the misrepresentation for what it is, but as members of the Body of Christ we do have a responsibility towards our brothers and sisters who for whatever reason are not likewise engaged with the current adventure of engaging with the Holy Spirit in the inescapable sacrament of our lives of faith.

I might also suggest that if the best our Church can do in this current instance is the witness of my personal Queen of the South (Grandmère Mimi) and yours truly, we might indeed be in some degree of real difficulty.

What are they so afraid of?

An interesting conversation the other evening with someone calling long-distance in the hope I’d be ready to join her in a point-by-point tussle with the House of Bishops report on what they insist on calling ‘Same Sex Relationships in the Life of the Church’.
‘Haven’t you even read it?’ she asked with some incredulity, a frustrated rustling of her thoroughly notated hardcopy version in the background.

‘Skimmed it,’ I admitted. ‘It’s really doesn’t interest me-‘

‘-What.... wait a minute, what’s going on here? When you and I first connected online it was just how much you obviously care and the standard you hold our Church to which had me sending you that first e-mail.’


‘That was before Lambeth,’ I reminded my friend.


‘So how about answering the question then... what’s going on that you’ve only skimmed what just might be the most prophetic challenge to date to the Anglican purity police?’

‘Hardly prophetic, and you’re forgetting ‘Claiming the Blessing’ and a lot of other great work by Integrity USA; to say nothing of the witness of The Chicago Consultation- now that’s living into a new day for our Church.’

‘O.K.... So tell me.’

‘You could start with the title- ‘Same Sex Relationships in the Life of the Church,’ not only is it implicitly hetero-centric in its methodology; our church is once again objectifying my people according to their genital combination. Likewise the title completely overlooks the fact that the vast majority of LGBT people are still outside the Church because of the hurt, discrimination, objectification and rejection they have experienced at the hands of that same Church. Talk about a convenient omission.’

‘Mmmm.’

‘This title is not only an insulting & dishonest representation of the current reality, it suggests the whole exercise really isn’t going anywhere.’

‘Same-old, same old you mean?’

‘Exactly- where’s even the slightest suggestion of something new- of a prophetic possibility?’

‘Well it is meant to be a discussion paper?’

‘Without any real methodology it’s meaningless. If you just throw it out there without either a supported context or the accountability of a timeline nothing really has to happen- no consequences.’

‘Such as?’

‘Where’s the website for people to register their life experience and their insights from reading the report, to share their sense of where our Church is being led? And just exactly where is this paper supposed to be heading? Without an open frank engagement which is able to benefit from the insights and experience of all the faithful it’s essentially an empty exercise. Even worse would be if it were simply voted on by the House of Bishops- talk about curia syndrome.’

‘Curia syndrome?’

‘When certain quarters within our Church forget themselves and start acting like some outpost of the Vatican.’

‘Wow... so how would you have cast the exercise?’

‘How about calling it exactly what it is supposed to be- ‘A New Thing’?’

‘Open-ended enough for.... prophetic possibilities.’

‘And the recognition of the hurtful and exclusionary experiences of the Church by too many LGBT people.’


‘No hetero-centric objectification there... so why d’you think they settled for what they did?’

‘Because maybe, just maybe in some quarters, certain individuals still don’t really get what’s going on in our Church?’

‘Sounds like our old conversation about magisterial or experiential theology- patriarchy or the people of God.’

‘Exactly! Either the Holy Spirit is alive and very much at work in our lives and in our Church-‘

‘ – doing a new thing.’

‘ - or the value and meaning of our lives have to be governed by a bunch of pre-Reformation clerics who believed the world was flat.’


‘You know something; you just might be right about that “curia syndrome.” The moment you mentioned ‘magisterial’ the image of the current pope came to mind.’

‘The hot button issues for me were the conservatives resorting to natural law as a standard of any value in a discussion of faith, that and the repeated use of the word ‘normative.’

‘Comparing us to penguins I call it.’

‘Ironic that they published during Lent too.... As if what happened Good Friday and at Easter didn’t once and for all overthrow natural law as a standard for anything in Christian Life... And normative! The term just doesn’t apply if you truly believe in the Incarnation and the crucifixion of the very Son of God-‘

‘and his resurrection!’

‘Exactly... and even penguin colonies include monogamous gay relationships.’


‘They’re really scrambling, aren’t they?’

‘Scared witless, as a certain friend used to say.’

‘Scripture does tell us it’s a terrible and frightening thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’

‘So... what you’re really saying-‘

‘- is more of the same old-same old. Magisterial patriarchy or experiential faith, that's what's going on here. Recognizing and embracing the implicit sacramental nature of the lives we’ve been given, or trying to filter twenty-first century life through cloistered, patriarchal minds of the magisterium. Listening and engaging with the people of God as partners in the Body of Christ or secret committees handing down pronouncements.’


‘There’s Rowan’s old listening exercise again-‘

‘- and just how much has anyone seen of that?’


‘You know, sometimes you really don’t help... I mean, what am I supposed to do with this?’ An audible thump on the other end of the line as she obviously slams down her hardcopy on her table or desk. ‘I mean, I can’t just ignore it. We’re supposed to be discussing the danged thing, and even then, what is any of that ever going to change?’

‘A couple of hearts perhaps, and that would be a start.’

‘So....’

‘How about asking the congregation what they want to do with it, how they want to handle the report?’


‘At least this time we won’t end up with two of the congregation coming out to everyone.’

‘Not those two at least.’

‘You know... that was really a transformative moment- for most of us at least. I mean one of the men was going through a divorce none of us understood. It reminded me of Gene’s story, when his wife stood there beside him, holding his hand as he shared with us.’

‘Talk about a new thing.’

‘I still tear up talking about it.’

‘I can hear your sniffles.’


The conversation didn’t end there. Among other things my friend shared with me the sheer blessedness of her early morning walk with her two dogs at the beach; her and her husband watching the sunrise and sharing a thermos of coffee. We prayed together, celebrated the blessedness of our connection, and our love for our Church, but even now, days later what keeps coming to mind is my friend’s question- ‘what are they so afraid of- the conservatives?’

Oh, and that’s another thing, the two of us have recast our vocabulary for this current discussion in our Church. It’s not even real conservatism- they’re traditionalists. And ‘liberal’ is a complete misrepresentation of our experience and understanding. For a couple of minutes we toyed with ‘experiential Christians;’ my friend, reminding me she was born below the Mason-Dixon Line even floated ‘real-time Anglicans.’ Nothing quite captured the sheer wonder of trying to mindfully step each day into the inescapable sacrament of our lives.

But it will come, as long as we’re open to it. It always does.

UPDATE:
Before originally posting this, as I always do, I’d passed it by my friend who assured me I’d captured the essence of our sharing.

Since then, we’ve spoken twice:

When she called to share her experience of presenting the report without editorial comment to her congregation, asking for a sense of what they might like to do with the opportunity.

‘What was really incredible was at both services the clear sense was people want to engage with it- to study it and then get together to discuss it. A couple of people really pressed for my take on it, but I told them, I wasn’t going to be saying anything until I’d heard from each and every one of them. So we’re distributing it electronically tomorrow- Monday; and hardcopies will be available at the office.’

The second call was just last evening, when among other things she reminded me of just how little real analysis or editorial comment there’s been online about the report.

‘Maybe you were right- it’s really got little or nothing to do with the real transformational process going on.’

‘It’s the old magisterial way of doing things, and just maybe the people of God have essentially gone beyond that- a long time ago.’

‘By their fruits,’ my friend reminded me, resorting to the shorthand of good friends.

And yes, before we closed off we prayed together- for her particular pastoral concern, for many we both love, and for the Church- hard to live with her, but... well you get my drift.