July 2018 - OE - lists.wedgeblade.net

Re: [Oe List ...] 7/12/18, Progressing Spirit: Irene Monroe: Moving Toward Radical Inclusion- Part 1; Spong revisited
by Sharry Lachman 12 Jul '18

12 Jul '18

On Jul 12, 2018, at 5:32 AM, Sharry Lachman via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: > > > On Jul 12, 2018, at 4:38 AM, Ellie Stock via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> wrote: > > > > > View this email in your browser > > > Moving Toward Radical Inclusion- Part 1 > > > Column by Rev. Irene Monroe on > July 12, 2018 > Radical inclusion must not be intellectualized but instead connected deeply with our need for personal healing which requires us to heal our “isms.” > Since September 11 America has changed radically. We have become a country where partisan politics rule the day, that we can no longer agree to disagree and shouting matches laced with expletives has taken the place of civil discourse. And this ugliness has imploded on us. > To build a huge tent of radical inclusion, we must challenge ourselves to hear each other and to understand not just our oppressions but those of others. Understanding the intersections of oppression allows us to develop relationships and allies. > “We don’t socialize together. There are very few places where black and white socialize together, which is the basis of relationships and friendships, the basis of understanding,” Earl Fowlkes told the Washington Blade last year, explaining why Pride events are segregated. Fowlkes is executive director of the Center for Black Equity, a national D.C.-based group that advocates for African-American LGBT people and helps organize Black Pride events in the U.S. and abroad. > “And until we start doing that and creating those spaces to do that we’re going to have misunderstandings and a lack of sensitivity toward issues of race.” > We must address deep-seated biases that impede authentic, respectful and enriching relationships as a Christian body. I am reminded of Paul’s letter to the Galatians in chapter 3 verse 28 where he wrote: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female for we are all one in Christ Jesus.” > But the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., reminds us that “it is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” We see that still in 2018. > Segregated churches began in the 1800’s. Richard Allen, born in 1760 in Philadelphia, was the slave of a Quaker master. As a free black in the 1780’s, he converted to Methodism and became an itinerant Methodist preacher. Allen could not sit in the all-white historic St. George’s Methodist Church. In 1797 Richard Allen founded Mother Bethel African Methodist Church, the first black Methodist Church in Philadelphia, and in 1816 Richard Allen led African Methodists into a separate denomination after many years of struggle against white control. The African Methodist Episcopal Church is now the oldest black denomination in this country. > Radical inclusion is an ongoing process that allows us to see, along this troubling human timeline, those faces and to hear those voices in society of the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected, and the dispossessed. And radical inclusion can only begin to work when those relegated to the fringes of society can begin to sample what those in society take for granted as their inalienable right. And sometimes for that to happen, it must start with Christians who understand the biblical mandate in Matthew 25:35 where Jesus said: “For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in.” > With today’s nativist spirit of patriotism and isolationist rhetoric to “Make America Great Again,” we close our doors and heart to refugees. Evangelical Christians, in particular, fail to see Jesus and his parents, Mary and Joseph, were Middle Eastern refugees. Soon after Jesus’s birth Mary and Joseph fled with their newborn to Egypt as refugees fleeing from violence, as undocumented immigrants crossing the border from Mexico into the U. S. are today. And oddly, this isolationist rhetoric fails to recognize that the first group of settlers in America were refugees- the Pilgrims > In “Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center,” African American cultural critic bell hooks states that she begins her analysis at the margin because it is a space of radical openness, and it gives you an oppositional gaze from which to see the world, unknown to the oppressor. It is at the margin where you can see injustice being done. It is not only a site where you can honestly critique the oppressive structures in society that keeps us wounded as a people, but it is also a site that can heal us as a people — both the oppressed and the oppressor. > In other words, it is not enough only to look outside ourselves to see the places where society is broken. It is not enough to talk about institutions, churches, and workplaces that fracture and separate people based on race, religion, gender and sexual orientation, to name a few. > We must also look at the ways we as an individual and a community are both the oppressed and the oppressor. We must look at ways that we manifest these bigotries, how we are the very ones who uphold and are part of these institutions and workplaces. Often, we find that these institutions and workplaces are broken, dysfunctional and wounded in the very same ways that we are. And the structures we have created are mirrors not of who we want to be, but who we sadly really are. > We cannot heal the world if we have not healed ourselves. So perhaps the most significant task, and the most challenging work we must do first, is to improve ourselves. And this work must be done in relationship with our justice work in the world. > In “The Old Man and the Sea,” Ernest Hemingway said that the world breaks us all, but some of us grow strong in those broken places. Jesus invites us to become strong in our broken places – not only to mend the sin-sick world in which we live in, but also to mend the sin-sick world that we carry around within us. And we can only do that if we are willing to look both inward and outward, healing ourselves of the bigotry, biases and the demons that chip away at our efforts to work toward justice and diversity in our churches. > I know that the struggle against racism is only legitimate if I am also fighting anti-Semitism, homophobia, sexism, and classism – not only out in the world but also in myself. Otherwise, I am creating an ongoing cycle of abuse that goes on unexamined and unaccounted. > When suffering is understood as an ongoing cycle of abuse that goes on unexamined and unaccounted for, we can then begin to see its manifestation in systems of racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism in our everyday lives. With a new understanding about suffering and how it victimizes the innocent and its aborts the Christian mission of inclusiveness, Jesus’ death at Calvary invites a different hermeneutic than its classically held one. > As an instrument for execution by Roman officials during Jesus’ time, the cross’s symbolic nature and its symbolic value can both be seen as the valorization of suffering and abuse, especially in the lives of the oppressed. > For those of us on the margins, a Christology mounted on the belief that “Jesus died on the cross for our sins” instead of “Jesus died on the cross because of our sins” not only exalts Jesus as the suffering servant, but it also ritualizes suffering as redemptive. While suffering points to the need for redemption, suffering in and of itself is not redemptive, and it does not always correlate to one’s sinfulness. For example, the belief that undeserved suffering is endured by faith, and that it has a morally educative component to it makes the powerful insensitive to the plight of others, and it forces the less powerful to be complacent to their suffering – therefore, maintaining the status quo. > Trans issues in our churches are not addressed enough. However, trans activism is taking afoot in DignityUSA, an organization that focuses on LGBTQ rights and the Catholic Church. And their voices want to be heard in Catholic dioceses across the country that will eventually inform and impact the Vatican. They must be heard in our Protestant churches, too. Of the many breakout sessions at the DignityUSA conference in 2017, I wished Pope Francis could have sat in on “Trans Catholic Voices,” because his transphobic pronouncements have been hurtful. Francis compared transgender people to nuclear weapons. His reason is that transgender people destroy and desecrate God’s holy and ordained order of creation. > “Let’s think of the nuclear arms, of the possibility to annihilate in a few instants a very high number of human beings,” Francis stated in 2015 in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter “Let’s think also of genetic manipulation, of the manipulation of life, or of the gender theory, that does not recognize the order of creation.” > During the “Trans Catholic Voices” breakout season an African American transwoman pointed out that Francis statements about transpeople deny them of basic human dignity and perpetuates violence against them. The life expectancy for black trans is 32 years old. > In her closing remarks, the African American transwoman in “Trans Catholic Voices” asked for help from advocates and allies in the room that nearly brought me to tears. > “Trans lives are real lives. Trans deaths are real deaths. God works through other people. Maybe you can be those other people.” > As Christians, we fail to realize that our gift and our struggle are that we are a diverse community within ourselves, and our diversity should not dilute our commitment and love toward one another, but rather our diversity should teach us more about its gift of complexity, and by extension teach the larger society. > The Kwanzaa principle of Umoja- unity-must take root in our self-understanding of who we are and what we decide to be as both a people and a Christian community. In understanding the interconnectedness between himself as the individual and himself as the community, African historian John Mbuti said, “I am because we are; and since we are, therefore, I am.” > We must cure ourselves of our indifference to each others’ oppressions. As a community, we must all pitch in. The belief among us that one oppression – ours – is more significant than another persecution sets up a hierarchy of oppression and keeps us fighting. The moral and spiritual challenge before us is that united we can stand as a Christian community or divided we can fall as a petty people. > Our job, therefore, is to remember that our longing for social justice and radical inclusion is also inextricably tied to our longing for personal healing. > ~ Rev. Irene Monroe > > Click here to read online and to share your thoughts > > About the Author > The Reverend Monroe is an ordained minister. She does a weekly Monday segment, “All Revved Up!” on WGBH (89.7 FM), a Boston member station of National Public Radio (NPR), that is now a podcast, and a weekly Friday commentator on New England Channel NEWS (NECN). Monroe is the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail, Guided Walking Tour of Beacon Hill: Boston’s Black Women Abolitionists (Boston) – Detour > Monroe’s a Huffington Post blogger and a syndicated religion columnist. Her columns appear in cities across the country and in the U.K, Ireland, Canada. Monroe writes a column in the Boston home LGBTQ newspaper Baywindows, Cambridge Chronicle, and Opinion pieces for the Boston Globe. > Monroe stated that her “columns are an interdisciplinary approach drawing on critical race theory, African American, queer and religious studies. As an religion columnist I try to inform the public of the role religion plays in discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. Because homophobia is both a hatred of the “other ” and it’s usually acted upon ‘in the name of religion,” by reporting religion in the news I aim to highlight how religious intolerance and fundamentalism not only shatters the goal of American democracy, but also aids in perpetuating other forms of oppression such as racism, sexism, classism and anti-Semitism.” Her papers are at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College’s research library on the history of women in America. Click here to visit her website. > > Question & Answer > > Q: By Kevin > > Has humankind invented God to look after life after death? One can say this in connection with many of the Gods in the Bible and elsewhere in man’s evolution, but is there a Creator of the Universe? If so, after studying the cosmos, one must conclude that it must be entirely different from what we have assumed, so far. If so, this might explain why we have produced such a cruel world with most of us thinking only of our own survival. But, again, there are so many examples of selflessness and good! > > A: By Toni Reynolds > > > Dear Kevin, > I think there is something of a God vs. Science question beneath the ones you’ve posed. > I do think that humans created stories, and rituals to articulate their experiences of/with God. All in attempt to better understand their relationship to their experiences. I am not convinced that humans invented God, most definitely not just so that God could oversee the afterlife. Through those rituals and applications of the stories, I think the civilizations before ours were deciding about the intricate ways in which God works here and out there in the cosmos you speak of. In these ways we got many of the stories found in the Bible as recorded observations from generations as they studied their relationship to God and the people around them. Today, we are more comfortable using the framework of science to explain and relate to phenomena. Experientially, I think the authors of religious stories had a similar project to yours and simply used a different toolbox to work out potential answers. > I don’t quite know what to conclude about the Creator after a study of the cosmos. It seems to me that even among the specialists there is quite a range of conclusions to be drawn about such divine architecture…I would love to know more about what you conclude yourself, as well as how that conclusion informs the way you see the world at work on any given day. > The unknown details of the Creator don’t shift my thoughts when it comes to your final piece about the production of cruelty in our world. When bad things happen it can be easy to say, “what a cruel world we live in” without interrogating the ways we are organized and, therefore, enabling or altogether creating the catastrophes we recognize as “cruel”. Though God has made this world, and us in it, I do not think God should get credit for making or even allowing the evils we experience and perpetuate. We are creators here too. We are not separate from God; blame can’t go on one side and us, blameless on the other. Our decisions have consequences and we can no longer shove the responsibility into the hands of God and fain ignorance. God cannot force us to act in accordance with the rest of nature--partnering with other organisms to live symbiotically. As humans we get to choose to do that, it is no fault of the Creator when we don’t. We can make a better world than this. > If there is a creator God, and I truly think there is, I imagine that creator God is wondering how we could stray so far off the pattern of creation, blame God for the woes, and seriously expect tomorrow to be better without changing our bad habits. > You are right, there are so many examples of selflessness and goodness. I hope we can grow those examples so that they become general traits of society, instead of just fringe examples. > With you in making more examples of goodness, > ~ Toni Reynolds > > Click here to read and share online > About the Author > Minister Toni Anne Reynolds is committed to singing flesh onto the bones of the Christian tradition by incorporating recently found texts of the ancient world into liturgy, sermons, and poetry. Toni’s Christianity forms a holy trinity with the psychological medicine of Tibetan Buddhism and the eternal Life found in Yoruba traditions. Balanced in an eclectic faith and focused in theology, Toni’s ministry offers a unique perspective on life, theology, and spirituality. > > Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited > > Troy D. Perry - One of God's Original Saints > > > Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong > November 9, 2005 > > It all began on October 6, 1968. On that day, twelve people gathered in a house in Los Angeles in response to an advertisement in a four-page magazine for homosexuals called “The Advocate.” This ad was addressed to gay men and lesbians who might want to be a part of a Christian Church in which they did not have to hide. The advertisement, signed by the Rev. Troy D. Perry, gave a specific address where this first service of worship would take place. Of the twelve who gathered on that date, two were a heterosexual couple, the other ten were homosexuals. One was African American, one Hispanic; seven were males and five were females. That was the founding moment for what came to be called The Metropolitan Community Church, which now has 330 congregations located in 22 countries. Troy D. Perry, then a 28-year old Pentecostal preacher, is now a world figure, the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, a person from whom presidents and presidential candidates have sought advice, a friend of Desmond Tutu and a religious leader invited to meet with John Paul II on one of his visits to the United States. > > On October 30, 2005 in the National Cathedral of the Episcopal Church in Washington. D.C., the place from which presidents have been buried, Troy Perry’s successor, The Rev. Nancy Wilson, was installed as the second Moderator of the Worldwide Fellowship of The Metropolitan Community Church. That setting and transition was in itself symbolic of the remarkable journey made by this incredible man, whose story needs to be told and whose contribution to the life of the Christian Church needs to be recognized. > Troy Perry was born in Tallahassee, Florida, in 1940, the oldest in what was to be a family of five children. His mother was a Southern Baptist; his father a member of the Pentecostal Church of God, though that membership might have been compromised by his father’s profession. He was, what we called in the South in those days, ‘a bootlegger,’ one who made illegal whisky available to those who were willing to pay for this service. Even as a young child, Troy was deeply drawn to the church and yearned to be a preacher. In Southern evangelical circles, the call to preach was far more important than any academic preparation designed to equip one for that duty. It was quite enough to be “open to the Spirit.” Troy was a gifted boy who spoke well and by the age of 13 he had achieved a reputation of some significance. He preached to his classmates before school every Wednesday with more than a little interest being expressed by the crowds of students and faculty that gathered. Soon, he was given a preaching license by the Southern Baptists and became known in his expanding Bible Belt orbit of North Florida, Alabama and South Georgia as “the Teen-Aged Evangelist.” > Like so many people of that era in the South, Troy had no idea what a homosexual was but he knew he had attractions toward other males his age. Fearing that there was something wrong with him, he consulted a written source provided by his church, which informed him that homosexuals were “sick people who wore dresses and molested children.” Since neither was true of him, he breathed a sigh of relief. Later when his fears did not go away, he turned to a Pentecostal preacher and was told that all he had to do was to get married and his fantasies would disappear. Troy responded by marrying that man’s 18-year-old daughter. It lasted five years and produced two sons. When the marriage ended, Troy went into the army. Vietnam was to be his destiny. As part of his medical examination, he was asked to check whether or not he had “any homosexual tendencies.” The question, he said, came right after cancer and tuberculosis. He checked ‘yes.’ Nonetheless, he was taken in, given top security clearance and became a computer expert. He served well, was given an honorable discharge and began to work for Sears. In time, he became a division manager. However, his heart still drew him toward his pastor’s calling, so back to being a Pentecostal preacher he went. By this time, however, he was quite sure he was a homosexual and had had gay liaisons. The church he was serving, however, was quite sure that homosexuality was sinful, depraved behavior. One survived in that atmosphere only by being dishonest. Hiding never works and Troy was discovered, banished from that church and his license to preach revoked. It was for him a moment of great despair. With the help of his first partner he coped with that rejection. When that relationship broke up, his depression was so deep that he slashed his wrists in a suicide attempt that failed. From somewhere, he says, in that moment of darkness, he found an overwhelming sense of God’s love for him. That, he concluded, was the heart of the Gospel – God loves me. He noticed when he read the Bible that even those who forsook, denied, betrayed, tortured and crucified Jesus were still the beloved of God. Aided by this conviction he began to form a new consciousness. His logic went like this: God loves me. I am gay. Therefore God must love gays. “The Lord is my shepherd, he knows I’m gay” became his theme. He still felt a great desire to preach but the churches with which he was familiar were not open to him in his new found honesty. Their fear and hostility toward homosexual people expressed itself in mistaken attempts to turn them into heterosexuals and, if that failed, to assure them that hell was their destiny. Troy understood that sexual orientation is not a choice for anyone; it is part of our identity to which we awaken. Mental health begins, he believed, in self-acceptance not self-rejection. So coming to the conclusion that there must be others just like himself who yearned to practice the faith in which they had been reared, Troy asked himself the question that would change his life: Could there be a worship community in the Christian tradition for those who are honest about their homosexuality? That was the moment when he placed the advertisement in “The Advocate.” > To issue a public call for homosexuals to gather at a specific address was a bold act in 1968. Hate crimes were quite normal in that day. To sign that advertisement with one’s real name and to provide one’s telephone number was thought foolhardy even by Troy’s friends. Having no idea what a vast audience was waiting for this catalyst, he accepted the risk. There are today MCC churches in every major city in America and Canada; some of them bulging at the seams with members. Interestingly enough, their strength is primarily in the South, by which I mean that stretch of states that once constituted the heart of Dixie, from Texas to Florida. The MCC conducts an annual conference each year to which as many as ten thousand are in attendance. Today their pastors are trained in accredited seminaries like The Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Union in New York City, Harvard Divinity School, the Divinity School of the University of Chicago and the Vancouver School of Theology among others. This Church continues to grow and is beginning to attract young gay people who feel alienated from those churches that condemn what they know they are. > I first met Troy Perry in 1991 when the Episcopal National Convention and the MCC National Conference were both meeting in Phoenix. My book, “Living in Sin?” had come out in 1988 and had placed me in the national eye since in that book I called for the State to make homosexual unions legal and for the Church to give these unions the blessing we bestow in marriage. I also challenged the Church to be honest about its gay clergy whose name was and is legion. Acting on this conviction, I ordained to the priesthood in December of 1989 America’s first openly homosexual person living in a publicly acknowledged, committed relationship. The hostility I absorbed was overwhelming. Hate mail poured in; abusive telephone calls, even death threats, were plentiful. The House of Bishops in September of 2000 had voted to disassociate themselves from me for this action by a slender 78-74 margin, with two abstentions, one of which was my own. I honestly did not know how to vote on whether or not I wanted to associate with myself! Prior to this vote, I had carried this battle to the airways of this nation with appearances on CBS This Morning, the Phil Donahue Show, the Oprah Winfrey Show, and even Bill Buckley’s Firing Line. Despite the rejecting anger that engulfed me, I felt compelled to see this battle through. When I prepared to go to the General Convention of my Church in1991 in Phoenix, I was sure the debate would be intense and that I would be abused again in speech after speech. When Troy heard that I was in town, he invited me to speak to his National Conference. Christine and I had dinner with him prior to my talk, at which time I could not help but be aware of the heavy security around him. One manifestation of this was his insistence that we ride in separate cars to the hall where his delegates gathered. When we arrived Troy led Chris and me onto the stage, but before any word of introduction had been spoken, the entire assembly rose as one and gave us a sustained, indeed a thunderous, ovation that lasted for ten literal minutes. It was like having all of our wounds bathed with healing love. We stood there teary eyed, taking it all in. If what we had done meant that much to this many, it was worth all the hostility we had absorbed. From that day to this, Troy has been a close friend. We have dinner with him when in Los Angeles. We consult on the phone on various strategies and opportunities and I have spoken in MCC churches in five countries. I was touched when he asked me to speak at his retirement. > Troy Perry made the Church more whole, inclusive and yes more Christian. MCC had to be formed to show the rest of us how unwelcoming we had been to some of God’s children. Troy knew full well that when Christians sang, “Just as I am without a plea, O Lamb of God, I come,” they had to mean it. He knew that Jesus had said: “Come unto me all of ye,” not “some of ye.” I will always be grateful for the existence of The Metropolitan Community Church and for Troy D. Perry, its enormously talented founder and first moderator. > ~ John Shelby Spong > > Announcements > > > > Beloved Festival > > Beloved is a 4-day sacred art, music, and movement festival on the Oregon Coast from August 10th -14th. > > > Beloved is a healing event. Beloved is a model for a culture that understands the depth of our connection with each other, to the planet, and to our souls. Beloved is all of the names and forms of the Divine, affirming their Unity. > > Click here for more information/registration. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > OE mailing list > OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net > _______________________________________________ > OE mailing list > OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net > http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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7/12/18, Progressing Spirit: Irene Monroe: Moving Toward Radical Inclusion- Part 1; Spong revisited
by Ellie Stock 12 Jul '18

12 Jul '18

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.aolmail_mcnTextContent,.aolReplacedBody #aolmail_templateHeader .aolmail_mcnTextContent p{ font-size:16px !important; line-height:150% !important; }} @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .aolReplacedBody #aolmail_templateBody .aolmail_mcnTextContent,.aolReplacedBody #aolmail_templateBody .aolmail_mcnTextContent p{ font-size:14px !important; line-height:150% !important; }} @media only screen and (max-width: 480px){ .aolReplacedBody #aolmail_templateFooter .aolmail_mcnTextContent,.aolReplacedBody #aolmail_templateFooter .aolmail_mcnTextContent p{ font-size:12px !important; line-height:150% !important; }}</style><div style="height: 100%;margin: 0;padding: 0;width: 100%;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;background-color: #78a3b4;" class="aolReplacedBody"> <span class="aolmail_mcnPreviewText" style="display:none; font-size:0px; line-height:0px; max-height:0px; max-width:0px; opacity:0; overflow:hidden; visibility:hidden; mso-hide:all;">Radical inclusion must not be intellectualized but instead connected deeply with our need for personal healing...</span> <center> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="100%" width="100%" id="aolmail_bodyTable" style="border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;height: 100%;margin: 0;padding: 0;width: 100%;background-color: #78a3b4;"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center" valign="top" id="aolmail_bodyCell" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;height: 100%;margin: 0;padding: 10px;width: 100%;border-top: 0;"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_templateContainer" style="border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;border: 5px solid #363232;max-width: 600px !important;"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" 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href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…"> <img align="center" alt="" width="595" style="max-width: 600px;padding-bottom: 0;display: inline !important;vertical-align: bottom;border: 0;height: auto;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" class="aolmail_mcnImage" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/8dff27ce-c4d…"> </a> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" id="aolmail_templateBody" style="background:#FFFFFF none no-repeat center/cover;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;background-color: #FFFFFF;background-image: none;background-repeat: no-repeat;background-position: center;background-size: cover;border-top: 0;border-bottom: 2px solid #EAEAEA;padding-top: 0;padding-bottom: 9px;"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockOuter"> <tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockInner" style="padding-top: 9px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextContentContainer"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextContent" style="padding-top: 0;padding-right: 18px;padding-bottom: 9px;padding-left: 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;word-break: break-word;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> <h1 style="display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 26px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;text-align: left;">Moving Toward Radical Inclusion- Part 1</h1> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><img align="left" height="108" style="border: 0px;width: 125px;height: 108px;margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" width="125" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/c5ed3e3e-57d…">Column by Rev. Irene Monroe on July 12, 2018</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Radical inclusion must not be intellectualized but instead connected deeply with our need for personal healing which requires us to heal our “isms.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Since September 11 America has changed radically. We have become a country where partisan politics rule the day, that we can no longer agree to disagree and shouting matches laced with expletives has taken the place of civil discourse. And this ugliness has imploded on us.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">To build a huge tent of radical inclusion, we must challenge ourselves to hear each other and to understand not just our oppressions but those of others. Understanding the intersections of oppression allows us to develop relationships and allies.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">“We don’t socialize together. There are very few places where black and white socialize together, which is the basis of relationships and friendships, the basis of understanding,” Earl Fowlkes told the Washington Blade last year, explaining why Pride events are segregated. Fowlkes is executive director of the Center for Black Equity, a national D.C.-based group that advocates for African-American LGBT people and helps organize Black Pride events in the U.S. and abroad.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">“And until we start doing that and creating those spaces to do that we’re going to have misunderstandings and a lack of sensitivity toward issues of race.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">We must address deep-seated biases that impede authentic, respectful and enriching relationships as a Christian body. I am reminded of Paul’s letter to the Galatians in chapter 3 verse 28 where he wrote: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female for we are all one in Christ Jesus.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">But the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., reminds us that “it is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is eleven o’clock on Sunday morning.” We see that still in 2018.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Segregated churches began in the 1800’s. Richard Allen, born in 1760 in Philadelphia, was the slave of a Quaker master. As a free black in the 1780’s, he converted to Methodism and became an itinerant Methodist preacher. Allen could not sit in the all-white historic St. George’s Methodist Church. In 1797 Richard Allen founded Mother Bethel African Methodist Church, the first black Methodist Church in Philadelphia, and in 1816 Richard Allen led African Methodists into a separate denomination after many years of struggle against white control. The African Methodist Episcopal Church is now the oldest black denomination in this country.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Radical inclusion is an ongoing process that allows us to see, along this troubling human timeline, those faces and to hear those voices in society of the damned, the disinherited, the disrespected, and the dispossessed. And radical inclusion can only begin to work when those relegated to the fringes of society can begin to sample what those in society take for granted as their inalienable right. And sometimes for that to happen, it must start with Christians who understand the biblical mandate in Matthew 25:35 where Jesus said: “For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">With today’s nativist spirit of patriotism and isolationist rhetoric to “Make America Great Again,” we close our doors and heart to refugees. Evangelical Christians, in particular, fail to see Jesus and his parents, Mary and Joseph, were Middle Eastern refugees. Soon after Jesus’s birth Mary and Joseph fled with their newborn to Egypt as refugees fleeing from violence, as undocumented immigrants crossing the border from Mexico into the U. S. are today. And oddly, this isolationist rhetoric fails to recognize that the first group of settlers in America were refugees- the Pilgrims</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">In “Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center,” African American cultural critic bell hooks states that she begins her analysis at the margin because it is a space of radical openness, and it gives you an oppositional gaze from which to see the world, unknown to the oppressor. It is at the margin where you can see injustice being done. It is not only a site where you can honestly critique the oppressive structures in society that keeps us wounded as a people, but it is also a site that can heal us as a people — both the oppressed and the oppressor.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">In other words, it is not enough only to look outside ourselves to see the places where society is broken. It is not enough to talk about institutions, churches, and workplaces that fracture and separate people based on race, religion, gender and sexual orientation, to name a few.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">We must also look at the ways we as an individual and a community are both the oppressed and the oppressor. We must look at ways that we manifest these bigotries, how we are the very ones who uphold and are part of these institutions and workplaces. Often, we find that these institutions and workplaces are broken, dysfunctional and wounded in the very same ways that we are. And the structures we have created are mirrors not of who we want to be, but who we sadly really are.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">We cannot heal the world if we have not healed ourselves. So perhaps the most significant task, and the most challenging work we must do first, is to improve ourselves. And this work must be done in relationship with our justice work in the world.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">In “The Old Man and the Sea,” Ernest Hemingway said that the world breaks us all, but some of us grow strong in those broken places. Jesus invites us to become strong in our broken places – not only to mend the sin-sick world in which we live in, but also to mend the sin-sick world that we carry around within us. And we can only do that if we are willing to look both inward and outward, healing ourselves of the bigotry, biases and the demons that chip away at our efforts to work toward justice and diversity in our churches.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">I know that the struggle against racism is only legitimate if I am also fighting anti-Semitism, homophobia, sexism, and classism – not only out in the world but also in myself. Otherwise, I am creating an ongoing cycle of abuse that goes on unexamined and unaccounted.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">When suffering is understood as an ongoing cycle of abuse that goes on unexamined and unaccounted for, we can then begin to see its manifestation in systems of racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism in our everyday lives. With a new understanding about suffering and how it victimizes the innocent and its aborts the Christian mission of inclusiveness, Jesus’ death at Calvary invites a different hermeneutic than its classically held one.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">As an instrument for execution by Roman officials during Jesus’ time, the cross’s symbolic nature and its symbolic value can both be seen as the valorization of suffering and abuse, especially in the lives of the oppressed.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">For those of us on the margins, a Christology mounted on the belief that “Jesus died on the cross for our sins” instead of “Jesus died on the cross because of our sins” not only exalts Jesus as the suffering servant, but it also ritualizes suffering as redemptive. While suffering points to the need for redemption, suffering in and of itself is not redemptive, and it does not always correlate to one’s sinfulness. For example, the belief that undeserved suffering is endured by faith, and that it has a morally educative component to it makes the powerful insensitive to the plight of others, and it forces the less powerful to be complacent to their suffering – therefore, maintaining the status quo.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Trans issues in our churches are not addressed enough. However, trans activism is taking afoot in DignityUSA, an organization that focuses on LGBTQ rights and the Catholic Church. And their voices want to be heard in Catholic dioceses across the country that will eventually inform and impact the Vatican. They must be heard in our Protestant churches, too. Of the many breakout sessions at the DignityUSA conference in 2017, I wished Pope Francis could have sat in on “Trans Catholic Voices,” because his transphobic pronouncements have been hurtful. Francis compared transgender people to nuclear weapons. His reason is that transgender people destroy and desecrate God’s holy and ordained order of creation.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">“Let’s think of the nuclear arms, of the possibility to annihilate in a few instants a very high number of human beings,” Francis stated in 2015 in an interview with the National Catholic Reporter “Let’s think also of genetic manipulation, of the manipulation of life, or of the gender theory, that does not recognize the order of creation.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">During the “Trans Catholic Voices” breakout season an African American transwoman pointed out that Francis statements about transpeople deny them of basic human dignity and perpetuates violence against them. The life expectancy for black trans is 32 years old.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">In her closing remarks, the African American transwoman in “Trans Catholic Voices” asked for help from advocates and allies in the room that nearly brought me to tears.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">“Trans lives are real lives. Trans deaths are real deaths. God works through other people. Maybe you can be those other people.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">As Christians, we fail to realize that our gift and our struggle are that we are a diverse community within ourselves, and our diversity should not dilute our commitment and love toward one another, but rather our diversity should teach us more about its gift of complexity, and by extension teach the larger society.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">The Kwanzaa principle of Umoja- unity-must take root in our self-understanding of who we are and what we decide to be as both a people and a Christian community. In understanding the interconnectedness between himself as the individual and himself as the community, African historian John Mbuti said, “I am because we are; and since we are, therefore, I am.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">We must cure ourselves of our indifference to each others’ oppressions. As a community, we must all pitch in. The belief among us that one oppression – ours – is more significant than another persecution sets up a hierarchy of oppression and keeps us fighting. The moral and spiritual challenge before us is that united we can stand as a Christian community or divided we can fall as a petty people.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Our job, therefore, is to remember that our longing for social justice and radical inclusion is also inextricably tied to our longing for personal healing.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">~ Rev. Irene Monroe Click <a target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…">here</a> to read online and to share your thoughts </p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><strong>About the Author</strong></p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">The Reverend Monroe is an ordained minister. She does a weekly Monday segment, “All Revved Up!” on WGBH (89.7 FM), a Boston member station of National Public Radio (NPR), that is now a podcast, and a weekly Friday commentator on New England Channel NEWS (NECN). Monroe is the Boston voice for Detour’s African American Heritage Trail, Guided Walking Tour of Beacon Hill: <a style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…">Boston’s Black Women Abolitionists</a> (Boston) – Detour</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Monroe’s a <em>Huffington Post</em> blogger and a syndicated religion columnist. Her columns appear in cities across the country and in the U.K, Ireland, Canada. Monroe writes a column in the Boston home LGBTQ newspaper <em>Baywindows</em>, Cambridge Chronicle, and Opinion pieces for the <em>Boston Globe</em>.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Monroe stated that her “columns are an interdisciplinary approach drawing on critical race theory, African American, queer and religious studies. As an religion columnist I try to inform the public of the role religion plays in discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. Because homophobia is both a hatred of the “other ” and it’s usually acted upon ‘in the name of religion,” by reporting religion in the news I aim to highlight how religious intolerance and fundamentalism not only shatters the goal of American democracy, but also aids in perpetuating other forms of oppression such as racism, sexism, classism and anti-Semitism.” Her papers are at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College’s research library on the history of women in America. Click here to visit her <a style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…">website</a>.</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; !important;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlockOuter"> <tr> <td class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlockInner" style="min-width: 100%;padding: 10px 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table class="aolmail_mcnDividerContent" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="min-width: 100%;border-top: 5px solid #694F0D;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <span></span> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockOuter"> <tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockInner" style="padding-top: 9px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextContentContainer"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextContent" style="padding-top: 0;padding-right: 18px;padding-bottom: 9px;padding-left: 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;word-break: break-word;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> <h1 style="display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 26px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;text-align: left;">Question & Answer</h1> <h3 style="display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 20px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;text-align: left;"> </h3> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><strong><span style="font-size:18px">Q: By Kevin</span></strong> <em>Has humankind invented God to look after life after death? One can say this in connection with many of the Gods in the Bible and elsewhere in man’s evolution, but is there a Creator of the Universe? If so, after studying the cosmos, one must conclude that it must be entirely different from what we have assumed, so far. If so, this might explain why we have produced such a cruel world with most of us thinking only of our own survival. But, again, there are so many examples of selflessness and good!</em></p> <h3 style="display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 20px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;text-align: left;"> <strong><span style="font-size:18px">A: By Toni Reynolds</span></strong></h3> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><img height="156" style="width: 125px;height: 156px;margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;float: left;border: 0;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" width="125" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/_compresseds/273ef4…">Dear Kevin,</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">I think there is something of a God vs. Science question beneath the ones you’ve posed.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">I do think that humans created stories, and rituals to articulate their experiences of/with God. All in attempt to better understand their relationship to their experiences. I am not convinced that humans invented God, most definitely not just so that God could oversee the afterlife. Through those rituals and applications of the stories, I think the civilizations before ours were deciding about the intricate ways in which God works here and out there in the cosmos you speak of. In these ways we got many of the stories found in the Bible as recorded observations from generations as they studied their relationship to God and the people around them. Today, we are more comfortable using the framework of science to explain and relate to phenomena. Experientially, I think the authors of religious stories had a similar project to yours and simply used a different toolbox to work out potential answers.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">I don’t quite know what to conclude about the Creator after a study of the cosmos. It seems to me that even among the specialists there is quite a range of conclusions to be drawn about such divine architecture…I would love to know more about what you conclude yourself, as well as how that conclusion informs the way you see the world at work on any given day.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">The unknown details of the Creator don’t shift my thoughts when it comes to your final piece about the production of cruelty in our world. When bad things happen it can be easy to say, “what a cruel world we live in” without interrogating the ways we are organized and, therefore, enabling or altogether creating the catastrophes we recognize as “cruel”. Though God has made this world, and us in it, I do not think God should get credit for making or even allowing the evils we experience and perpetuate. We are creators here too. We are not separate from God; blame can’t go on one side and us, blameless on the other. Our decisions have consequences and we can no longer shove the responsibility into the hands of God and fain ignorance. God cannot force us to act in accordance with the rest of nature--partnering with other organisms to live symbiotically. As humans we get to choose to do that, it is no fault of the Creator when we don’t. We can make a better world than this.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">If there is a creator God, and I truly think there is, I imagine that creator God is wondering how we could stray so far off the pattern of creation, blame God for the woes, and seriously expect tomorrow to be better without changing our bad habits.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">You are right, there are so many examples of selflessness and goodness. I hope we can grow those examples so that they become general traits of society, instead of just fringe examples.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">With you in making more examples of goodness,</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">~ Toni Reynolds Click <a target="_blank" style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://">here</a> to read and share online</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><strong>About the Author</strong></p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Minister Toni Anne Reynolds is committed to singing flesh onto the bones of the Christian tradition by incorporating recently found texts of the ancient world into liturgy, sermons, and poetry. Toni’s Christianity forms a holy trinity with the psychological medicine of Tibetan Buddhism and the eternal Life found in Yoruba traditions. Balanced in an eclectic faith and focused in theology, Toni’s ministry offers a unique perspective on life, theology, and spirituality.</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; !important;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlockOuter"> <tr> <td class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlockInner" style="min-width: 100%;padding: 10px 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table class="aolmail_mcnDividerContent" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="min-width: 100%;border-top: 5px solid #694F0D;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <span></span> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockOuter"> <tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockInner" style="padding-top: 9px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextContentContainer"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextContent" style="padding-top: 0;padding-right: 18px;padding-bottom: 9px;padding-left: 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;word-break: break-word;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> <h1 style="text-align: center;display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 26px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;">Bishop John Shelby Spong Revisited</h1> <h3 style="text-align: center;display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 20px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;"> Troy D. Perry - One of God's Original Saints</h3> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><img align="left" height="132" style="border: 0px;width: 125px;height: 132px;margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" width="125" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/84fbd945-363…"> Essay by Bishop John Shelby Spong November 9, 2005 It all began on October 6, 1968. On that day, twelve people gathered in a house in Los Angeles in response to an advertisement in a four-page magazine for homosexuals called “The Advocate.” This ad was addressed to gay men and lesbians who might want to be a part of a Christian Church in which they did not have to hide. The advertisement, signed by the Rev. Troy D. Perry, gave a specific address where this first service of worship would take place. Of the twelve who gathered on that date, two were a heterosexual couple, the other ten were homosexuals. One was African American, one Hispanic; seven were males and five were females. That was the founding moment for what came to be called The Metropolitan Community Church, which now has 330 congregations located in 22 countries. Troy D. Perry, then a 28-year old Pentecostal preacher, is now a world figure, the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, a person from whom presidents and presidential candidates have sought advice, a friend of Desmond Tutu and a religious leader invited to meet with John Paul II on one of his visits to the United States. On October 30, 2005 in the National Cathedral of the Episcopal Church in Washington. D.C., the place from which presidents have been buried, Troy Perry’s successor, The Rev. Nancy Wilson, was installed as the second Moderator of the Worldwide Fellowship of The Metropolitan Community Church. That setting and transition was in itself symbolic of the remarkable journey made by this incredible man, whose story needs to be told and whose contribution to the life of the Christian Church needs to be recognized.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Troy Perry was born in Tallahassee, Florida, in 1940, the oldest in what was to be a family of five children. His mother was a Southern Baptist; his father a member of the Pentecostal Church of God, though that membership might have been compromised by his father’s profession. He was, what we called in the South in those days, ‘a bootlegger,’ one who made illegal whisky available to those who were willing to pay for this service. Even as a young child, Troy was deeply drawn to the church and yearned to be a preacher. In Southern evangelical circles, the call to preach was far more important than any academic preparation designed to equip one for that duty. It was quite enough to be “open to the Spirit.” Troy was a gifted boy who spoke well and by the age of 13 he had achieved a reputation of some significance. He preached to his classmates before school every Wednesday with more than a little interest being expressed by the crowds of students and faculty that gathered. Soon, he was given a preaching license by the Southern Baptists and became known in his expanding Bible Belt orbit of North Florida, Alabama and South Georgia as “the Teen-Aged Evangelist.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Like so many people of that era in the South, Troy had no idea what a homosexual was but he knew he had attractions toward other males his age. Fearing that there was something wrong with him, he consulted a written source provided by his church, which informed him that homosexuals were “sick people who wore dresses and molested children.” Since neither was true of him, he breathed a sigh of relief. Later when his fears did not go away, he turned to a Pentecostal preacher and was told that all he had to do was to get married and his fantasies would disappear. Troy responded by marrying that man’s 18-year-old daughter. It lasted five years and produced two sons. When the marriage ended, Troy went into the army. Vietnam was to be his destiny. As part of his medical examination, he was asked to check whether or not he had “any homosexual tendencies.” The question, he said, came right after cancer and tuberculosis. He checked ‘yes.’ Nonetheless, he was taken in, given top security clearance and became a computer expert. He served well, was given an honorable discharge and began to work for Sears. In time, he became a division manager. However, his heart still drew him toward his pastor’s calling, so back to being a Pentecostal preacher he went. By this time, however, he was quite sure he was a homosexual and had had gay liaisons. The church he was serving, however, was quite sure that homosexuality was sinful, depraved behavior. One survived in that atmosphere only by being dishonest. Hiding never works and Troy was discovered, banished from that church and his license to preach revoked. It was for him a moment of great despair. With the help of his first partner he coped with that rejection. When that relationship broke up, his depression was so deep that he slashed his wrists in a suicide attempt that failed. From somewhere, he says, in that moment of darkness, he found an overwhelming sense of God’s love for him. That, he concluded, was the heart of the Gospel – God loves me. He noticed when he read the Bible that even those who forsook, denied, betrayed, tortured and crucified Jesus were still the beloved of God. Aided by this conviction he began to form a new consciousness. His logic went like this: God loves me. I am gay. Therefore God must love gays. “The Lord is my shepherd, he knows I’m gay” became his theme. He still felt a great desire to preach but the churches with which he was familiar were not open to him in his new found honesty. Their fear and hostility toward homosexual people expressed itself in mistaken attempts to turn them into heterosexuals and, if that failed, to assure them that hell was their destiny. Troy understood that sexual orientation is not a choice for anyone; it is part of our identity to which we awaken. Mental health begins, he believed, in self-acceptance not self-rejection. So coming to the conclusion that there must be others just like himself who yearned to practice the faith in which they had been reared, Troy asked himself the question that would change his life: Could there be a worship community in the Christian tradition for those who are honest about their homosexuality? That was the moment when he placed the advertisement in “The Advocate.”</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">To issue a public call for homosexuals to gather at a specific address was a bold act in 1968. Hate crimes were quite normal in that day. To sign that advertisement with one’s real name and to provide one’s telephone number was thought foolhardy even by Troy’s friends. Having no idea what a vast audience was waiting for this catalyst, he accepted the risk. There are today MCC churches in every major city in America and Canada; some of them bulging at the seams with members. Interestingly enough, their strength is primarily in the South, by which I mean that stretch of states that once constituted the heart of Dixie, from Texas to Florida. The MCC conducts an annual conference each year to which as many as ten thousand are in attendance. Today their pastors are trained in accredited seminaries like The Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Union in New York City, Harvard Divinity School, the Divinity School of the University of Chicago and the Vancouver School of Theology among others. This Church continues to grow and is beginning to attract young gay people who feel alienated from those churches that condemn what they know they are.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">I first met Troy Perry in 1991 when the Episcopal National Convention and the MCC National Conference were both meeting in Phoenix. My book, “<em>Living in Sin?</em>” had come out in 1988 and had placed me in the national eye since in that book I called for the State to make homosexual unions legal and for the Church to give these unions the blessing we bestow in marriage. I also challenged the Church to be honest about its gay clergy whose name was and is legion. Acting on this conviction, I ordained to the priesthood in December of 1989 America’s first openly homosexual person living in a publicly acknowledged, committed relationship. The hostility I absorbed was overwhelming. Hate mail poured in; abusive telephone calls, even death threats, were plentiful. The House of Bishops in September of 2000 had voted to disassociate themselves from me for this action by a slender 78-74 margin, with two abstentions, one of which was my own. I honestly did not know how to vote on whether or not I wanted to associate with myself! Prior to this vote, I had carried this battle to the airways of this nation with appearances on CBS This Morning, the Phil Donahue Show, the Oprah Winfrey Show, and even Bill Buckley’s Firing Line. Despite the rejecting anger that engulfed me, I felt compelled to see this battle through. When I prepared to go to the General Convention of my Church in1991 in Phoenix, I was sure the debate would be intense and that I would be abused again in speech after speech. When Troy heard that I was in town, he invited me to speak to his National Conference. Christine and I had dinner with him prior to my talk, at which time I could not help but be aware of the heavy security around him. One manifestation of this was his insistence that we ride in separate cars to the hall where his delegates gathered. When we arrived Troy led Chris and me onto the stage, but before any word of introduction had been spoken, the entire assembly rose as one and gave us a sustained, indeed a thunderous, ovation that lasted for ten literal minutes. It was like having all of our wounds bathed with healing love. We stood there teary eyed, taking it all in. If what we had done meant that much to this many, it was worth all the hostility we had absorbed. From that day to this, Troy has been a close friend. We have dinner with him when in Los Angeles. We consult on the phone on various strategies and opportunities and I have spoken in MCC churches in five countries. I was touched when he asked me to speak at his retirement.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Troy Perry made the Church more whole, inclusive and yes more Christian. MCC had to be formed to show the rest of us how unwelcoming we had been to some of God’s children. Troy knew full well that when Christians sang, “Just as I am without a plea, O Lamb of God, I come,” they had to mean it. He knew that Jesus had said: “Come unto me all of ye,” not “some of ye.” I will always be grateful for the existence of The Metropolitan Community Church and for Troy D. Perry, its enormously talented founder and first moderator.</p> <p style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">~ John Shelby Spong</p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; !important;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlockOuter"> <tr> <td class="aolmail_mcnDividerBlockInner" style="min-width: 100%;padding: 10px 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table class="aolmail_mcnDividerContent" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="min-width: 100%;border-top: 5px solid #694F0D;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody><tr> <td style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <span></span> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlock" style="min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <tbody class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockOuter"> <tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextBlockInner" style="padding-top: 9px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;"> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="max-width: 100%;min-width: 100%;border-collapse: collapse;mso-table-lspace: 0pt;mso-table-rspace: 0pt;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;" width="100%" class="aolmail_mcnTextContentContainer"> <tbody><tr> <td valign="top" class="aolmail_mcnTextContent" style="padding-top: 0;padding-right: 18px;padding-bottom: 9px;padding-left: 18px;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;word-break: break-word;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> <h1 class="aolmail_null" style="text-align: center;display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 26px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;">Announcements</h1> <h2 class="aolmail_null" style="text-align: center;display: block;margin: 0;padding: 0;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 22px;font-style: normal;font-weight: bold;line-height: 125%;letter-spacing: normal;"><font size="4"><strong><a style="mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #2BAADF;font-weight: normal;text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf44…"><img height="150" style="border: 0px;width: 150px;height: 150px;margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px;float: left;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;" width="150" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/90e0b2c3-84f…"></a> Beloved Festival</strong></font></h2> <strong>Beloved</strong> is a 4-day sacred art, music, and movement festival on the Oregon Coast from August 10th -14th. <strong>Beloved</strong> is a healing event. Beloved is a model for a culture that understands the depth of our connection with each other, to the planet, and to our souls. Beloved is all of the names and forms of the Divine, affirming their Unity. 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Earthrise @ 79
by John Epps 09 Jul '18

09 Jul '18

*Earthrise @ 79* Recently we were returning from a trip to Kansas and stopped for lunch at Denny’s in Limon, Colorado. We’d been watching storm clouds gathering on the horizon and were hoping to make it home before they hit. As we were leaving, I held the door for an obviously elderly couple – both were white-haired, somewhat bent-over, and he had a cane. Walking was a chore and pushing open the door would have taxed their capacities. They could obviously use some help, so I pushed open the door and held it as they struggled through. Then they uttered the words that still jar me: “Thank you, sir.” “Sir?” Coming from them? I was taught to use that term to refer to those older than I. That statement occasioned an interior rainstorm of reflections, including lots of wind, rain, and some hail. Looking back over the last month, I’ve had more “sirs” thrown at me than at my senior year at The Citadel. There it was earned, deserved, and welcomed. Here it’s a surprising address heralding the onset of elder-ness that I didn’t think I had earned (yet) or deserved, and certainly not welcomed. There are plenty of signs, from the number of medications it takes to keep going to the diminishing energy and frequent naps. But I have ignored those as simply the afflictions of a young man with something gone wrong (to use a phrase from JWM). Reality will not be denied. It breaks through our facades. This time it drove me to look at a work I’d heard about but never examined: “On Holy Living and Dying” by Jeremy Taylor published in 1839 (a century before my birth). I turned quickly to the section on Holy Dying. Here’s an excerpt. “A person is a bubble…all the world is a storm, and people rise up in their several generations…like bubbles descending from nature and Providence; and some of these instantly sink into the deluge of their first parent, and are hidden in a sheet of water, having had no other business in the world but to be born, that they may be able to die: others float up and down two or three turns, and suddenly disappear, and give their place to others: and those that live longest in the face of the waters, are in perpetual motion, restless and uneasy; and being crushed with the great drop of a cloud, sink into flatness and a froth; the change not being great, it being hardly possible it should be more a nothing than it was before. So is everyone….” This goes on for 10 pages with powerful images and the same message about our relative insignificance in the cosmic scheme of things. Somehow, and I don’t know how, I found this strangely comforting, and not unsettling as one might assume. You just never know where wonder will break through, but when it does, it’s well worth celebrating. John Epps

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June birthday witness
by cla9ken8＠ecentral.com 09 Jul '18

09 Jul '18

I missed my day on Earthrise, (June 19) but am rejuvenated by the current testimonies on the subject of aging. As a survivor of one new hip and two new knees, I am always stopped at TSA, no matter what country I am in. They also offer me canes, arms, wheelchairs, etc, under the assumption that I can’t possibly stand in the little booth for 10 seconds. There are times when I agree with them, but mostly I am just bemused. We went to Europe this spring to visit our oldest granddaughter in Brussels, interning through her university at the EU. Met up with her mother and we had a great time. Then the best part was joining Paul and Christine Schrijnen in a visit to the people who were instrumental in our 100 town meetings in Flanders in 1979. We had not seen them for 40 years and had such a wonderful time with them, and were treated like royalty. We then went to Glasgow, where we had lived from 1975-1977, and visited movement colleagues in Edinburgh with the same wonderful experience. We traveled to Bristol to see my niece and her family, another terrific experience. We went to Vermont in June to see Peter’s younger daughter graduate from high school as well as visits in Maine and Boston. And I am 79 and Ken 81! Travelling now has its downsides which are hard to take, but visits with grandchildren are worth the effort. My takeaway is that it is my body that has grown old, but my mind and will are still ready to get out of the chair and GO. I would not have it any other way. People leap up when I get on the trams, taxis stop quickly, and I’m refreshed and ready to move forward again. Having learned to live an intentional life has stood me in good stead, as I am able to live my life (with a little help sometimes) as well as ever! Praise the Lord. Clare Whitney

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Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ Retirement
by Del Morrill 08 Jul '18

08 Jul '18

Justin and I were there in spirit. From: OE <oe-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> On Behalf Of isobeljimbish--- via OE Sent: Friday, July 6, 2018 11:22 PM To: Order Ecumenical Community <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Cc: isobeljimbish(a)optusnet.com.au Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ Retirement Hello again, Further word about the Service for Garnet: There was a greet cloud of witnesses present. Including colleagues from South Australia, southern New South Wales and other even more remote places. Vale Garnet and remember Lis and her family in our country. xx Isobel Bishop Sent from my iPhone On 7 Jul 2018, at 2:46 pm, Isobel and Jim Bishop via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net <mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> > wrote: Dear colleagues, one and all, Thank you for all these marvellous writings. Each one has a pearl that I have touched and seen within it a pure moment of truth. Words are such an extraordinary medium for enhancing the feelings, diverse emotions, and experiences we are all noticing on our personal spirit journeyings. I can only say from down here in Oz “ journey on, journey on’ I was so privileged to attend the Funeral of Garnet yesterday in Melbourne. We shared in his extraordinary life; from his childhood to his death and all that encompassed his own crimson line. In peace and love, Isobel Bishop. xx Isobel and Jim Bishop isobeljimbish(a)optusnet.com.au <mailto:isobeljimbish@optusnet.com.au> On 7 Jul 2018, at 7:09 am, John Epps via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net <mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> > wrote: Thanks Margaret for a moving and profound statement. John Epps On Fri, Jul 6, 2018 at 2:54 PM, Margaret Aiseayew via OE <oe(a)lists.wedgeblade.net <mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net> > wrote: Since the United Methodist Church was going to kick me out into retirement next year, I decided to beat them to the punch and retire this year instead. This decision was encouraged by the fact that I was experiencing the church as not very united, not particularly Wesleyan, and not reflective of the dynamic of the Church in history these days. Since this decision, I had been praying for a door or window to open that would allow me to focus my next lifetime’s work on death and dying. Just three weeks before the Iowa Annual Conference retirement ceremony I connected with the Death Midwife network and jumped through. Now that might seem like the interference of magical thinking rather than a God Wink, but there is no doubt in my mind that final reality was ultimately engaged. My stepmother, Dorothy Mae Appelgate died the next week. The week after that, I heard that my college roommate and dear friend Dixie Binning had also died. There was almost a weeks “respite” while we did Vacation Bible SchooI (for which I am too old) before learning of the deaths of Garnet Banks, Bev Salmon and Mamie Tucker. I am beginning to wonder if the window I should have gone through may have been about grieving. Not only have these five companions completed their journeys, most of my connections here are in need of reevaluation due to retirement. It has been quite a kick in the seat of the pants. “You want to go in a new direction?” well let me help you take off. I am interstitial space. I have been working my way through a stack of books I want to read. Most incredible has been the Lakota Way. I close by attaching a long quote from it and this quote from Shubert Ogden: “Whatever else may befall us and however long or short may be the span of our lives, we are each embraced in every moment within God’s boundless love and thereby have the ultimate destiny of endless life in and through the eternal.” Blessings, Margaret When all is said and done there is only one truth that is unwavering. It has endured and will always endure because it will stand unabashedly and without apology. That truth is death, and it is the one that is avoided and most feared by American society. But it should be the standard for truth against which all others are measured. And we will find that nothing can compare with its honesty and faithfulness. Death does not kill. Disease, accidents, rage, old age, stupidity, among others are killers. Death is only part of the process of life. The truth about death is simple. It will happen. Nothing is more inevitable, no matter how vigorously we deny it or fight it. Death will come for us regardless of how powerful, famous, rich, beautiful, influential, irreverent or lowly we are. There is no way to fight it. We can fight to live, but we will always lose the fight with death. Thinking of death in those terms creates the illusion that it is an enemy, but it isn’t out enemy; it is, when all is said and done, our truest friend The most profound and reassuring truth about death is that it is a part of life. Life begins with birth and ends with death. With no other journey you travel can you know how it will end. We begin dying the moment we are born, which means living well is dying well. That is the truest measure of any being. The final—and perhaps the greatest—truth about death is that it is the great equalizer; it connects all living beings to its truth. Every form of life shares with us the same journey that begins with birth and ends with death. No one being or species, not the most powerful, nor the most arrogant, nor the wisest will ever alter that truth. Excerpted from pgs. 121-123 of the Lakota Way by Joseph M. Marshall III. _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net <mailto:OE@lists.wedgeblade.net> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net <mailto:OE@lists.wedgeblade.net> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net _______________________________________________ OE mailing list OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net <mailto:OE@lists.wedgeblade.net> http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net

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Global Buzz July Issue
by ICA International 07 Jul '18

07 Jul '18

Enjoy catching up with what is happening in ICAs across the globe.....If you wish to SEND a report...send to your ICA contact person OR...go to the members section on the ICA International website Please click the link below for the latest issue of the Global Buzz Global Buzz Report: July 2018 or copy and paste this URL into your browser's address bar http://globalbuzz.icai-archives.org/7dayreport-18/2018-07-01.php ICAI Communications

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Earthrise @ Retirement
by Margaret Aiseayew 07 Jul '18

07 Jul '18

Since the United Methodist Church was going to kick me out into retirement next year, I decided to beat them to the punch and retire this year instead. This decision was encouraged by the fact that I was experiencing the church as not very united, not particularly Wesleyan, and not reflective of the dynamic of the Church in history these days. Since this decision, I had been praying for a door or window to open that would allow me to focus my next lifetime's work on death and dying. Just three weeks before the Iowa Annual Conference retirement ceremony I connected with the Death Midwife network and jumped through. Now that might seem like the interference of magical thinking rather than a God Wink, but there is no doubt in my mind that final reality was ultimately engaged. My stepmother, Dorothy Mae Appelgate died the next week. The week after that, I heard that my college roommate and dear friend Dixie Binning had also died. There was almost a weeks "respite" while we did Vacation Bible SchooI (for which I am too old) before learning of the deaths of Garnet Banks, Bev Salmon and Mamie Tucker. I am beginning to wonder if the window I should have gone through may have been about grieving. Not only have these five companions completed their journeys, most of my connections here are in need of reevaluation due to retirement. It has been quite a kick in the seat of the pants. "You want to go in a new direction?" well let me help you take off. I am interstitial space. I have been working my way through a stack of books I want to read. Most incredible has been the Lakota Way. I close by attaching a long quote from it and this quote from Shubert Ogden: "Whatever else may befall us and however long or short may be the span of our lives, we are each embraced in every moment within God's boundless love and thereby have the ultimate destiny of endless life in and through the eternal." Blessings, Margaret When all is said and done there is only one truth that is unwavering. It has endured and will always endure because it will stand unabashedly and without apology. That truth is death, and it is the one that is avoided and most feared by American society. But it should be the standard for truth against which all others are measured. And we will find that nothing can compare with its honesty and faithfulness. Death does not kill. Disease, accidents, rage, old age, stupidity, among others are killers. Death is only part of the process of life. The truth about death is simple. It will happen. Nothing is more inevitable, no matter how vigorously we deny it or fight it. Death will come for us regardless of how powerful, famous, rich, beautiful, influential, irreverent or lowly we are. There is no way to fight it. We can fight to live, but we will always lose the fight with death. Thinking of death in those terms creates the illusion that it is an enemy, but it isn't out enemy; it is, when all is said and done, our truest friend The most profound and reassuring truth about death is that it is a part of life. Life begins with birth and ends with death. With no other journey you travel can you know how it will end. We begin dying the moment we are born, which means living well is dying well. That is the truest measure of any being. The final-and perhaps the greatest-truth about death is that it is the great equalizer; it connects all living beings to its truth. Every form of life shares with us the same journey that begins with birth and ends with death. No one being or species, not the most powerful, nor the most arrogant, nor the wisest will ever alter that truth. Excerpted from pgs. 121-123 of the Lakota Way by Joseph M. Marshall III.

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FW: Completed Life of Beverly Salmon-better link
by Lynda C 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

From: Jana Lamb <lamb_jana(a)hotmail.com> Date: Tuesday, July 3, 2018 at 11:47 AM To: Lynda Cock <Lynda860(a)outlook.com> Subject: Re: Completed Life of Beverly Salmon You will probably get the message from dad but my mom's service will be on this link: For streaming the service on Friday this is a link to the church web page. https://www.triumc.org/webcast/ They then click on another link on that page. Or, that can go directly to this link. https://iframe.dacast.com/b/2576/c/56217 [https://images.dacast.com/default-facebook-wall.jpg]<https://iframe.dacast.com/b/2576/c/56217> Trinity UMC Worship<https://iframe.dacast.com/b/2576/c/56217> iframe.dacast.com Trinity UMC, Salina KS Sermons It should start at 1:45. Mom was so well known and had such good connections with professional musicians it will be quite the concert as well. Good for you to help with VBS. That was our theme too this year. This was my first year not to help, but I have been under-the-weather this years. My new dr thinks I have Lupus. I see a new rheumatologist later this month. Hopefully she will have answers. Thank you, Jana ________________________________ From: Lynda C <Lynda860(a)outlook.com> Sent: Monday, June 25, 2018 9:03 PM To: Jana Lamb Subject: Re: Completed Life of Beverly Salmon I’m so glad you received them. They were from Carol Walters who was the founder of Training, Inc. that we all loved so dearly. You have been much in our thoughts and prayers as you go about the tasks of creating a very special final celebration of a wonderful life. We are so blessed to have worked together in 5th City RH, Training, Inc. and to be part of Wes’ long and difficult journey. You have amazing parents, which I know you already know. I’m teaching a 4 year old VBS class this week and our theme is God’s heroes. Our team is named for a Biblical hero, David, and the song about David playing his harp has had me thinking of your dear mom. One of my dear aunts suggested to me that instead of concentrating on Mom’s Absence, that I concentrate on her Presence in new ways. That has helped me to bring the joy of special memories in a new way, and I find myself having little “conversations” with her in her new form with me. We send love and care and will look forward to sharing with you virtually on her Celebration Day. Grace and peace, Lynda and John From: Jana Lamb <lamb_jana(a)hotmail.com> Date: Monday, June 25, 2018 at 5:31 PM To: Lynda Cock <Lynda860(a)outlook.com> Subject: Re: Completed Life of Beverly Salmon Dear Lynda, I found your email today as I am working on a slide presentation to show at the memorial service (and MY computer is not cooperating! So I'm trying a different route.). I will try to add a picture and see about putting the others on mom's facebook.(Thank you for sending them) I appreciate your nice words about my mom. Dad said that he had a long visit with you and that it was very meaningful and appreciated by him. Thank you for that. Jana Lamb ________________________________ From: Lynda C <Lynda860(a)outlook.com> Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2018 6:22 PM To: lamb_jana(a)hotmail.com Cc: B & B Salmon Subject: FW: Completed Life of Beverly Salmon Jana, our care to you. I can’t see if Carol sent this to you all or not, so I’m passing it along to you in case your dad’s computer can’t be opened. I don’t have Julie’s e-mail. Please let me know if you receive this. Our deep care is with you during this sacred time. This note went to some folks that were in the Chicago House with us or worked in Training, Inc. I don’t think the OE list can take photo attachments. It would be wonderful to post some of these on Facebook for others to see. Lynda and John From: M George Walters <carol.walters(a)yahoo.com> Date: Tuesday, June 19, 2018 at 5:56 PM To: Lynda Cock <Lynda860(a)outlook.com> Cc: A Baumbach <abaumbach(a)new.rr.com>, J & B Ames <jbames10(a)aol.com>, Karen Snyder <karen.snyder10(a)gmail.com>, Jim and Karen Troxel <jtroxel49(a)gmail.com>, 'Terry Bergdall' <bergdall(a)gmail.com>, T&P Bergdall <pbergdall(a)yahoo.com>, "Samueller410(a)msn.com" <Samueller410(a)msn.com> Subject: RE: Completed Life of Beverly Salmon Thank you Lynda for letting us know of Bev’s tragic death. I could hardly read through my tears to the end of the description of what she suffered. We don’t have any addresses for those you mentioned. Glenda Long moved to Vermont as I remember. Attached are a few pictures of the staff and some of the Training, Inc. DuPage Class Photos from when Bev taught there. Jan Ames passed these photos along to me when the program closed in Oak Brook. They are now in the Imaginal Education Archives. As you can see from the pictures she was always the role model of professionalism and a beloved teacher with her students. She made a difference in the lives she touched throughout her life. Our prayers and loving memories go to her family and friends. From: Lynda C <Lynda860(a)outlook.com> Sent: Monday, June 18, 2018 9:54 PM To: carol.walters(a)yahoo.com; A Baumbach <abaumbach(a)new.rr.com>; J & B Ames <jbames10(a)aol.com>; Karen Snyder <karen.snyder10(a)gmail.com>; Jim Troxel <jtroxel49(a)gmail.com>; Terry Bergdall <bergdall(a)gmail.com>; T&P Bergdall <pbergdall(a)yahoo.com>; Samueller410(a)msn.com Subject: Completed Life of Beverly Salmon Dear Colleagues, I posted a brief note copied from Julie Salmon’s Facebook page onto the OE list, but I thought a personal message to you all who lived and worked with Bill and Bev in 5th City during the sad time of Wes’ illness and death. would be appropriate, since I’m not sure who all is on the OE list. I spoke briefly to Jean Long and also got the names of Sharon Heiges, Christine Harris and Glenda Long who were in the 5th City House with us, but for whom neither Jean nor I have addresses. Bev was part of the teaching staff of Training, Inc. I’m in hopes that some of you will have some of the other addresses. Also please share this with others that I may have left out. John and I spoke to Bill this evening and he informed us of the tragic situation of Bev’s death. A little over a week ago, Bill and Bev were happily celebrating their 62nd anniversary with a friend who had invited them for a little candlelight dinner with steaks. Tragically, a piece of steak caught in Bev’s throat which they were unable to dislodge for a long while with Heimlich method or even with EMT help , but finally did get it out. However, her breathing was affected and she had to be put on a ventilator for several days, yet her breathing was still very labored and fast. On Wed of this past week they were able to take her off the ventilator and she was talkative and giving instructions. She and Bill were able to share the poetry gifts to each other that were to be part of their aborted anniversary dinner, and she was talking about going home the next day to sleep with her anniversary husband. However, she was struggling again to breath at the end of the day. She slept mostly Thurs and Friday when it was determined that although she was getting adequate oxygen, her body had lost its ability to expel the CO2 which was filling her body. The decision was made not to put her back on the ventilator which would not have dealt with that problem anyway, and she died peacefully on Sat. with the family with her. Our hearts ache with this family. Bill asked us to put a note out to the OE list and he will write a bit of reflection a little later. He would greatly welcome hearing from colleagues, either via the OE list or the old fashioned ways. He’s having a bit of struggle with his computer, but said he could most likely get to the OE list. Their mailing address is still 744 S 10th , Salina, KS 67401. Email: wsalmon(a)cox.net<mailto:wsalmon@cox.net>. Phone: 785-825-1221. Daughters Jana Salmon Lamb and Julie Salmon Gregg are also listed in the Directory. This afternoon the family had a Ritual of Closing with poetry and stories. A community celebration of Beverly’s completed life will be July 6. We celebrate Beverly’s life of service to her family, her community, the world, (I know of Korea and Egypt) and the church. She was a gifted harpist and part of a Pararie Wind Harpist group. Grace and Peace to this dear family, Lynda and John

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Fwd: Mamie Tucker
by Timothy Wegner 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

- From: ML Jones <mljones2022(a)gmail.com> Dear Colleagues, Mamie Tucker died recently in Chicago. She was in hospice at her daughter Brenda's home in Matteson during the past several months. Mamie graduated from the Training Inc. on the West Side in the early 1980s. She interviewed to be the ICA Receptionist on the North Side and served faithfully until she retired in 2005. Mamie was competent, considerate and kind to thousands of people - tenants, agency clients, conference participants and a legion of ICA staff and families entering the 4750 building for 25 years. Mamie will be remembered fondly by many. The funeral service will be held on Saturday, July 7 at A.R. Leak Funeral Home 18400 S. Pulaski Avenue <https://maps.google.com/?q=18400+S.+Pulaski+Avenue+%C2%A0+%C2%A0+%C2%A0+%C2…> Country Club Hills, Illinois <https://maps.google.com/?q=18400+S.+Pulaski+Avenue+%C2%A0+%C2%A0+%C2%A0+%C2…> Flowers or remembrances may be sent to the funeral home in memory of Mamie Tucker - care of her daughter Brenda. Mary Laura Jones Tim, could you please post the above information to the Dialogues? Thank you Mary Laura Jones Grants Resource Development Consultant 1454 W. Fargo Avenue <https://maps.google.com/?q=1454+W.+Fargo+Avenue+%0D%0A+Chicago,+IL+60626&en…> Chicago, IL 60626 <https://maps.google.com/?q=1454+W.+Fargo+Avenue+%0D%0A+Chicago,+IL+60626&en…> cell: 773 636-2022 mljones2022(a)gmail.com

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Three Sacred Gatherings (and Salmon: Address for live streaming of Beverly's Memorial)
by Lynda C 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Sacred gatherings have been planned for three of our colleagues’ completed lives on this day, July 6, 2018. We served with all three of them in Religious Houses. Memorial services for Garnet Banks, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (10:30 Australia Standard Time); services for Rhoda Ertel in Kansas City; services for Beverly Salmon in Salina, Kansas, live streamed at 2 pm Central Time (link below). We remember with gratitude our journeys together in those years and since. We join these families in spirit and care on this their memorial day. Grace and Peace, Lynda and John From: OE <oe-bounces(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> on behalf of OE List <OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Reply-To: B & B Salmon <wsalmon(a)cox.net>, OE List <OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net> Date: Monday, July 2, 2018 at 11:28 PM To: Jana Lamb <jana_lamb(a)hotmail.com>, "gregs2(a)cox.net" <gregs2(a)cox.net>, OE List <OE(a)lists.wedgeblade.net>, "OBA(a)sjms.org" <OBA(a)sjms.org>, Cc: B & B Salmon <wsalmon(a)cox.net> Subject: [Oe List ...] Salmon: Address for live streaming of Beverly's Memorial Live Streaming of Beverly's Memorial Service uses the following link: htt/s://iframe.dacast.com/b/2576/c56217. REMEMBER: The service is this Friday, July 6th at 2p.m. CENTRAL TIME. Thank you for your continued prayers and sending me your spiritual energy. I'm living off it. Please spread the word about this special service. Pastor Bill

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