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[Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs press release] Episcopal Church President of the House of Deputies the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings presented the following remarks at the opening of the Executive Council meeting at the Conference Center at the Maritime Institute in Linthicum Heights, MD (Diocese of Maryland).

Executive Council Opening Remarks
June 7, 2013

The Rev. Gay Clark Jennings
President of the House of Deputies
Episcopal Church

In her 1998 book Amazing Grace, Kathleen Norris writes about learning to believe:

Perhaps my most important breakthrough with regard to belief came when I learned to be as consciously skeptical and questioning of my disbelief and my doubts as I was of my burgeoning faith. This new perspective also helped me to deal with my anger over the fact that churches, as institutions, so often behave in polarized and polarizing ways. I found an unexpected ally in Fr. Martin Smith, an Anglican monk, who wrote in an issue of Cowley, his monastery’s newsletter, that ambivalence is a sacred emotion. Restating in spiritual terms Keats’s definition of ‘negative capability,’ he wrote that he finds

“a widespread need in contemporary spirituality to find ways of praying and engaging with God, our selves, and one another that have room for simultaneous contradictions, the experience of opposite emotions. We need to find the sacredness in living the tensions and to admit how unsacred, how disconnecting and profane, are the attempts at praying and living while suppressing half of the stuff that fascinates or plagues us…We can connect our own fear of death and the unknown,’ Smith writes, ‘with the institution’s dread of the new.”[1]

Ambivalence is a sacred emotion. Let’s remember that as we continue what I proposed last year we call the “something else” triennium. We have a lot of change to provoke and manage, and sometimes we are going to feel ambivalent about it. We’re going to need to live with simultaneous and contradictory emotions as change happens. Ambivalence is okay. But paralysis is not.

We have right here among us some great examples of how to live in this tension of ambivalence and get the work done. FFM (the Executive Council Joint Standing Committee on Finances for Mission) is picking up the pieces from last triennium’s budget process, which was a pretty spectacular example of the institutional church behaving in polarized and polarizing ways. Through their new budget visioning process, FFM is charting a better course for us all. My thanks to Susan Snook and Mark Hollingsworth for leading the work, and to all who are participating.

We’re also trying new ways of carrying out the work of General Convention by establishing coordinating committees for resolutions that cross our old boundaries of departments and commissions. At our last meeting (February 2013), we created a coordinating committee for Resolution B019, “Israeli-Palestinian Peace and Support for the Diocese of Jerusalem.” That committee has been appointed and, in one case, reappointed when Deputy Chip Stokes went off and got himself elected bishop of New Jersey.

The committee will begin work later this summer. Given that faithful people have different and strong beliefs about the plight of the Palestinian people and how the church is called to respond, I expect that this work will give us many opportunities to practice finding the sacredness of living the tension.

At this meeting, we’ll consider another such resolution from GAM (Executive Council Joint Standing Committee on Governance and Administration for Mission) with endorsement from A&N (Executive Council Joint Standing Committee on Advocacy and Networking) and LMM (Executive Council Joint Standing Committee on Local Ministry and Mission). The proposed resolution will create a coordinating committee for resolution A135, titled “Focus Mission Funding on Alleviating Poverty and Injustice.” I’m particularly excited about this work because I believe it will help the church learn more about how community organizing and asset based community development can call us away from the comfortable models of charity we have too often built to protect ourselves and toward the heart of Christ’s mission with those who are poor.

Here’s a new development that many of us who have served the church for decades feel deeply ambivalent about:  While some standing commissions and Executive Council committees are working productively, others are floundering in the new virtual ways of working that we have adopted. Some, too, had little or no work referred to them by General Convention and are struggling to interpret their mandates in light of changing priorities and structures. This may be hard for some of us to accept, but I think that we are in the death throes of the current standing commission and committee structure. Both those who are on TREC (the Task Force for Reimagining the Episcopal Church) and those of us who aren’t need to begin imagining new ways of bringing together laypeople, clergy and bishops to accomplish the work of General Convention.

Thanks to the work of GAM (Executive Council Joint Standing Committee on Governance and Administration for Mission) in the last triennium leading to a canonical change made by General Convention last summer, Executive Council may now sunset committees. What needs to go so that new structures can emerge? At our last meeting, a number of committees were sunsetted and a few were extended to the end of this triennium We have two years left in this triennium—enough time to do some serious reshaping.

Last, I want us – I hope we will each – recommit to faithfully and actively executing our corporate and fiduciary responsibilities as members of Executive Council and the DFMS Board of Directors.  The church has entrusted us with this work, and it is especially important as we continue to examine our corporate structures, the location of the Church Center, and the relationship of staff and elected leaders. You might feel skeptical about your ability to ask questions or ambivalent about what you might risk by participating actively, but remember—ambivalence is a sacred emotion. Let’s stick with it and let it lead us toward greater belief in each other, in the work we have been called to do, and in the promise of the risen Christ that new life awaits us.

[The Episcopal News, Diocese of Los Angeles] These days, the Rev. Canon Malcolm Boyd prefers quiet revolutions to the public upheavals that have distinguished his life and times for decades.

The Hollywood executive turned Episcopal priest, Freedom Rider, anti-war and gay rights activist, author, playwright, social critic and church revivalist will be 90 on June 8 and has been busy being filmed for a documentary about his life.

“This is the first time anyone has made a film of my life,” he chuckled during a recent telephone interview from his Los Angeles-area home, adding: “I just show up and I’m filmed.”

On April 27, Los Angeles filmmaker Andrew Thomas was on hand to document the Lambda Literary Foundation’s 25th annual benefit event OUTWRITE! honoring Boyd and other celebrated West Hollywood LGBT literary pioneers.

Malcolm Boyd, photographed for an interview after the 1965 publication of Are You Running With Me, Jesus? a book of unconventional but deeply devout prayers that made Boyd an international celebrity.

Perhaps best known for Are You Running with Me, Jesus? “a little book of prayers” he wrote in 1965, Boyd still is working, both as writer-in-residence of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles and as a regular columnist for the Huffington Post, exploring issues of life, death and aging gracefully, with his characteristic sense of humor.

Like a recent column about attempts to renew his driver’s license that ultimately yielded the desired result.

“Let’s just say I’m legal now,” he laughed.

Despite his advanced age, “Retirement wasn’t a reality, obviously. It’s kind of a process,” Boyd said. So is reflection, and the documentary undertaking by the award-winning Thomas has offered ample opportunity for that.

“Malcolm and Mark (Thompson, an author and Boyd’s partner of 30 years) and I went to Grace Cathedral and walked the labyrinth. He spoke at some events,” Thomas said during a recent telephone interview. “We’ve done four interviews with Malcolm so far; we just sit in a room quietly and we don’t deal with questions; we deal with themes and see where it takes us.

“Malcolm has forgotten more than I’ll ever learn,” added Thomas, who hopes to complete the film in time for a fall release. Thomas has written, produced and/or directed highly acclaimed episodes of such TV series as “COPS” and “Modern Marvels.” He has received several Emmy award nominations for work on the History Channel, A&E, Discovery and the Sci-Fi Channel. His 2009 film “The Anatomy of Vince Guaraldi” about the jazz great has accumulated five film festival Best Documentary awards.

Ironically, it was that film which led him to Boyd, he said.

“Guaraldi composed ‘Cast Your Fate to the Wind’ and the music for ‘Peanuts’ and I realized that Malcolm worked with Vince twice in his life,” Thomas recalled. “[Vince] composed all the music for the very first jazz mass at Grace Cathedral and Malcolm did the sermon and then a month later, Malcolm did a series of performances at the hungry i [a café in San Francisco],” he recalled.

After some initial checking, Thomas discovered Boyd was alive and well and “living about two miles from me,” the filmmaker recalled. “It was a wonderful, serendipitous moment to know that one of your heroes is still alive.”

Even more serendipitous has been his discovery of historical “reel to reel” film footage of Boyd and other unpublished materials, along with interviews of people from seminal moments in Boyd’s life.

Like a conversation with Penny Liuzzo, daughter of Detroit homemaker Viola Liuzzo, who was part of a group that met weekly at Boyd’s apartment during his Wayne State University chaplaincy days. Viola Liuzzo was so inspired by Boyd’s civil rights activism she left home and family to work for voter rights. She was murdered on March 25, 1965, the last night of the Selma, Alabama, voting rights march.

And like Woody King Jr., “the great actor who worked with Malcolm on ‘A Study in Color’ and ‘Boy’ and a lot of those somewhat subversive plays Malcolm did about racism back in the early 1960s,” Thomas said.

“[King] said Malcolm would never bring up religion or Christianity … but after working with him for a few weeks, they all realized they were inspired to go back to the word.

“[Malcolm] inspires people to go on their own journey,” Thomas said. “It reminded me of the time we were taking a walk and Malcolm said, ‘the point here is not to spend your life looking for God but to allow God to find you.’ It’s typical of his way of twisting the traditional mundane approach to life and trying on a different hat and looking at it from a new perspective.

“It’s part of his incredible deep well of empathy. That’s just who Malcolm is.”

‘Trailblazer, truth-teller, courageous witness,’ reluctant hero

Boyd was born in Buffalo, New York on June 8, 1923 to fashion model Beatrice Lowrie and financier Melville Boyd, “an alcoholic and womanizer. I later understood him and conducted his burial service. His father was an Episcopal priest, but he died so young,” Boyd said.

After his parents divorced in the 1930s, Boyd and his mother moved to Colorado. He survived bouts of atheism during his undergraduate college years, and made his way to Hollywood where he worked as a junior producer before entering seminary in 1951.

He was ordained to the priesthood in 1955 and after extended studies, became Colorado State University chaplain four years later. There he was dubbed the “espresso priest” for his talks given in coffee houses and bars.

He has written more than 30 books and is considered an icon for righteous social struggle and a hero to many, including author Nora Gallagher and gay rights activist the Rev. Susan Russell.

“There are so many things I could say about Malcolm Boyd as a trailblazer, truth-teller, and courageous witness to the power of God’s inclusive love,” said Russell, a blogger, Huffington Post contributor and senior associate at All Saints Church in Pasadena.

“It is no exaggeration to say that his Are You Running With Me, Jesus? fed the hunger of a generation of people who had given up on the church or anyone connected with it having anything relevant to say. His willingness to put his faith into action by marching in Selma to end segregation was a powerful witness to what former Presiding Bishop John Hines called ‘justice as the corporate face of God’s love,’” Russell said via e-mail.

“And his example as an out-gay priest in a time when such a thing was practically unimaginable was – and continues to be – an inspiration to all who work for the full inclusion of LGBT people in this church and in this country,” added Russell, a gay rights activist.

Gallagher, a parishioner at Trinity Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara and author of “Moonlight Sonata at the Mayo Clinic” (Alfred P. Knopf, 2013) said in the foreword of a reprinted version of Running that Boyd’s famous book of prayers “made it possible for me to imagine a church that had something to do with what was happening in the world, to see that the work of the faithful is to expose injustice.”

Yet, Boyd is reluctant to take credit for being an icon for social justice for many, or even a hero to some.

He does acknowledge sacrificing personal privacy for public persona, for “belonging to the church” even as early on as 1951, when he dissolved his partnership with Hollywood stars Mary Pickford and Buddy Rogers to enter the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California.

In the 1940s, Malcolm Boyd was a business partner of film star Mary Pickford before he departed the Hollywood scene in 1951 to attend Church Divinity School of the Pacific.

Again, with characteristic humor, he quipped that at his going-away party “with a lot of celebrities, gossip columnist Hedda Hopper said that everyone, including the bartender, bowed their heads for the Lord’s Prayer.”

But “it was all new ground,” he said recalling tumultuous decades of his life. “I had no textbook. What happened came out of a very strong sense of responsibility because I realized that I was speaking for a number of other people who did not have a voice.”

It meant frequently running afoul of authorities, both church and civic. While Boyd was serving as Colorado State University chaplain, students flocked to his coffeehouse campus ministry but “the bishop, without coming to look at the work, characterized it as “beatnik” and said, “you can’t call yourself a beloved child of God if you have matted hair, smell badly or wear black underwear.”

“To me, this was blasphemy,” Boyd recalled.

“I thought, if this was the church, then to hell with the church because it wasn’t the church of Jesus Christ. And if it wasn’t the church of Jesus Christ, then let me get out where I could breathe fresh air. Then, I answered him, that yes, you can call yourself a beloved child of God if you have matted hair, smell badly or wear black underwear.”

He moved on, invited by then-bishop of Michigan Richard Emrich to serve as Wayne State University chaplain in Detroit. His activism in full swing, he demonstrated with the likes of Martin Luther King Jr. and Stokely Carmichael and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee as well as Jonathan Daniels, an Episcopal seminarian who was murdered in Selma, Alabama in August 1965 by white supremacists.

“I was involved in an enveloping process,” Boyd said.

“The summer of ’65 was the hardest,” he said, recalling his own harrowing close calls with white supremacists and feelings of alienation and fear.

In 1977, he came out as gay. “At this point, you could throw your hands up and scream, because what do you do with a story like this?” he said, laughing. “Here’s Malcolm Boyd, with all of this — terribly controversial — and now on top of everything, he’s a queer?”

Malcolm Boyd and author Mark Thompson have been a couple for 30 years. Photo/Mary Glasspool

Back in Los Angeles, he served local parishes, continued writing and public speaking engagements and met author and photographer Mark Thompson, his life partner of 30 years.

He now considers himself an elder and his life “an odd story, to put it mildly. It was quite a lot to live through, so I’m grateful to anybody who helped — and a number of people did.”

Aging and the prospect of turning 90 brings yet new “surprises. It’s like being on the Titanic. You’re out there on the ocean and somebody spots an iceberg. It ain’t going away.”

He added that: “Wouldn’t it be great if all of us — you and I, for instance — might take ourselves a wee bit less seriously?

All kidding aside, he still accepts occasional preaching and speaking engagements and is spiritual director to about a dozen people. Always the activist, he adds: “I accept myself as an elder. I think elders need to analyze their own position in society and in some cases argue with society about what their position is because I think there’s all sorts of stereotypes about elderly people right now.”

Perhaps his own experiences could still serve as a primer for the church: “There’s too much talk about the future of the church and meetings and discussions,” he said. “If you have faith, the main thing now is to move, one foot ahead of another, and to trust in God.”

As always, Boyd looks to the future with hope, adding: “Let’s do this again in 10 years.”

[Trinity Episcopal Church] The Rev. Andrew Wright has been called to serve as the new Associate Rector for Families, Children and Young Adults at Trinity Episcopal Church, Fort Worth, Texas.

Father Andrew was raised in the Episcopal Church, growing up in the North Panhandle town of Borger, Texas. He met his wife, Melanie, while a student at TCU and was part of Trinity’s own campus ministry throughout college.

Shortly after college and their wedding, the Wrights moved to Sewanee, Tenn., for Andrew to begin his seminary studies. He graduated with a Master of Divinity from Sewanee in 1995 and was ordained by Bishop Sam Hulsey on June 4th that year. Andrew has since worked in Tennessee, Nebraska, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and, home at last, in Texas, serving parishes along the way as Assistant, Rector, Priest-in-charge, and most currently as Rector of Saint Anne Episcopal Church in DeSoto, Texas.

Andrew received a Master of Sacred Theology degree in 2003 from the General Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Theology degree in Liturgical Theology in 2012 from General as well. His wife, Melanie, is also an Episcopal priest, ordained in 2006, and serves St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Arlington as priest-in-charge.

The Wrights have three children, Aidan (19 at UTA), Benjamin (17), and Macrina (13). Aside from youth, children, family, and campus ministry, Andrew has an abiding interest in theater, science, and storytelling in all its forms.

Father Andrew’s first day in the Trinity Church office will be Tuesday, July 9. His first Sunday at Trinity will be July 14.

[Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs - Press Release] Bishops, clergy and laity from throughout the Episcopal Church are invited to gather April 9 – 11, 2014, to explore one of the major issues in today’s society – violence in all its forms.

Reclaiming the Gospel of Peace: An Episcopal gathering to challenge the epidemic of violence will be held at the Reed Center and Sheraton in Oklahoma City, OK (Diocese of Oklahoma).

“With Our Lord’s gospel of peace as the basis of our work, the Episcopal Church will look closely at the violence that surrounds our lives today,” noted Bishop Eugene Sutton of the Diocese of Maryland.

Bishop Edward J. Konieczny of the Diocese of Oklahoma added, “It is significant that Oklahoma City was selected as it was the site of one of the most violent and devastating events in our history.”

The conference will include worship, plenary sessions, workshops and visits to theOklahoma City National Memorial and Museum.

Schedule details, speakers, workshop titles and registration information will be available in the fall of 2013.

In addition to staff members of the Domestic & Foreign Missionary Society including Federal Ministries, the Offices of Communication and Government Relations, participating in the planning of this major event are representatives from the Dioceses of Atlanta, Chicago, Connecticut, Louisiana, Los Angeles, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Southeast Florida, Washington, West Texas, and Wyoming as well as other groups.

For more information about the event, contact Mary Getz, Episcopal Church Office of Government Relations Grassroots and Online Communications, mgetz@episcopalchurch.org.

El Consejo Latinoamericano de Iglesias (CLAI) reunido en La Habana a fines de mayo celebró su asamblea regular bregando con una extensa agenda que fue desde un llamado a la unidad de las iglesias hasta los problemas sociales de América Latina. En una larga declaración afirma su lucha contra “la violencia de género y la violencia sexual” y además de sugerir “la educación de la sexualidad, la prevención y atención de las personas que viven con sida y el respeto del cuerpo y la planificación familiar”. La declaración dice además que “deploramos el inhumano bloqueo económico que por más de cincuenta años mantiene el gobierno de los Estados Unidos contra el pueblo de Cuba”. El CLAI reúne a iglesias y movimientos cristianos de tradición protestante o evangélica, y fue fundado en 1982, con el objeto de promover la unidad entre los cristianos del continente.

Guy Erwin, 55, pastor luterano y profesor de seminario, fue electo el 31 de mayo obispo del Sínodo del Suroeste de California de la Iglesia Luterana en América (ELCA) durante una asamblea sinodal en Woodland Hills, California. El nuevo obispo, nativo de Oklahoma, tiene compañero sentimental y es miembro activo de la Nación Osage, una comunidad indígena. ELCA es la denominación luterana más numerosa de Estados Unidos.

Marco Feliciano, pastor evangélico y diputado federal de Brasil, ha dicho que no renunciará a su cargo en el congreso pese a la presión de sus colegas por declaraciones suyas consideradas anti-gay. “La Biblia es mi modelo de fe y conducta”, dijo en una entrevista.

Daniel Gutiérrez, auxiliar del obispo Michael Vono de la diócesis de Río Grande, en Estados Unidos, ha sido electo presidente nacional de la Asociación de Ejecutivos Diocesanos que comparte programas y entrenamiento para el mejor funcionamiento de las diócesis del país.

La Corte Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos acaba de emitir medidas provisionales en favor de “Beatriz” una joven salvadoreña de 22 años obligada a mantener el embarazo de un feto inviable que pone en riesgo su vida. La joven que sufre de lupus y problemas renales serios, ha hecho un video rogándole al presidente Mauricio Funes que acceda a su petición. El Salvador no permite el aborto ni aun en casos terapéuticos.

Aviso desde Cartagena, Colombia: Radio Episcopal está nuevamente en el aire después de reparar el computador. Nuestra dirección: www.episcopalradio.com y en la radio FM 93.7 en Cartagena de Indias. Esperamos su visita. Rafael Abuchar Curi

La rama Norte Americana de la orden irlandesa de los Hermanos Cristianos ha dicho que pagará $16.5 millones de dólares a más de 400 hombres y mujeres que fueron sexual o físicamente abusados cuando eran niños. La orden opera escuelas y orfanatos alrededor del mundo. Su primera escuela fue fundada en 1802 en un establo abandonado.

La guerra civil de Siria se está extendiendo según observadores internacionales y se puede convertir en un conflicto regional. Se vislumbra un encontronazo entre potencias y mayor lucha entre los mismos musulmanes. Los muertos de la población civil llegan ya a casi 100 mil. El número de refugiados ni se puede calcular.

Según una encuesta de la firma Gallup la religión está perdiendo fuerzas en Estados Unidos y el número de ateos está creciendo. El 75 por ciento de los encuestados opina que si los estadounidenses fuesen más religiosos eso tendría un impacto positivo en la sociedad, mientras que el 17 por ciento cree que el efecto sería negativo.

El Centro Anglicano de Estudios Teológicos Superiores ha comenzado en San José, Costa Rica, su curso lectivo para este año. El programa incluye cinco cursos bíblicos tratando de profundizar el estudio de las Escrituras desde una perspectiva latinoamericana, con el fin de responder a los desafíos pastorales de cada lugar. Las clases son impartidas por profesores de la Universidad Bíblica Latinoamericana con sede en San José. Eduardo Chinchilla es el director del centro.

Muchos peregrinos acudieron a fines de mayo a una calurosa y polvorienta extensión de la reserva india de Pine Ridge, South Dakota, para aprender acerca de la confianza y la reconciliación y su práctica, así como sobreponerse a los estereotipos, a crear amistades y a crecer en la fe. El evento trajo a la Comunidad Ecuménica de Taizé que se trasladó hasta acá. Cantaban música armonizada por alondras de la pradera y el ritmo de los grillos. Uno de los participantes dijo que todo fue una experiencia inolvidable: “No teníamos duchas, ni electricidad y había que tener cuidado con las serpientes cascabel, las espinas de los cactus o pisar una plasta de vaca”.

VERDAD. Las dificultades son puentes y peldaños que nos ayudan a triunfar.

[Anglican Communion News Service] The leader of Kenya’s Anglican Church has reprimanded the country’s parliamentarians for demanding a pay increase 100 times the minimum wage.

In a statement, Archbishop Eliud Wabukala of the Anglican Church of Kenya expressed his disappointment over the MPs’ demands. He said, “We are aggrieved that MPs on both sides of the house found common ground to overwhelmingly vote for the salary increment, yet positions on national priorities like security, health, education and poverty alleviation are not assured of such prompt response.

“The MPs’ move to determine their pay is unconstitutional and is a direct conflict of interest,” said the archbishop. “We urge [them] to pursue dialogue with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission as opposed to [engaging in such] rebellious acts as attempting to repeal acts of parliament to work in their favor.”

Kenyan MPs are already among the world’s best-paid politicians in a country where the majority only earn under US$1 a day. Yet last month they voted to raise their salaries in defiance of government plans to cut them as part of spending reforms. According to the government, the pay cuts are needed help free up cash to create jobs.

The archbishop reminded parliamentarians that Kenya is undergoing a transition process and that “resources should be channeled towards the stabilization of the various decentralization structures and not be derailed by MPs’ demands.”

“State officers must recognize that the authority bestowed to them is a public trust that needs to be respected and any exploitation is translated as abuse of power,” he said. “Parliamentarians should note that a public officer is elected for public service and not personal gain.”

The archbishop added that the country’s public sector wage bill constitutes 50% of the annual government wage revenue and that this push for even higher salaries, “is selfish, inconsiderate and uncalled for.”

The archbishop also reminded the people of Kenya that all state officers, including MPs, are not exempt from the rule of law and that the constitution as the supreme law binds everyone.

Bishop Julius Kalu of Mombasa agreed that it is wrong for MPs to fight for a pay rise “at the expense of the more than 50 percent of Kenyans who are living below the poverty line.”

“If MPs went to parliament to enrich themselves, then they are in the wrong place,” he said. “Those who are dissatisfied with the salary should immediately resign and give the opportunities to other Kenyans.”

[Anglican Communion News Service] Thousands of pilgrims from Zimbabwe and beyond are expected to gather in Harare next week to commemorate the life of Bernard Mizeki, a lay African catechist and missionary martyred in 1896.

The celebrations, between June 14-16, will be the first ones held at the martyr’s shrine in more than five years. Previously Anglican pilgrims had been barred from the site by excommunicated and former bishop Nolbert Kunonga.

Bishop Chad Gandiya of Harare told ACNS, “After having been in exile for five years and failing to host these celebrations at the shrine, this years’ celebrations are indeed special and the theme God is faithful could not be more timely.

“This time we are back at our churches, and all other church properties including the shrine are back in our hands,” he said. “Going by last year’s numbers which were estimated at over 10,000 people, we do not expect anything less this year,”

Last year Kunonga, with backing from the police, stopped members of the Church of the Province of Central Africa (CPCA) from worshipping at the shrine. Pilgrims instead went ahead and celebrated the event at the Marondera show grounds, an area located about 11 kilometers from the shrine.

Commenting on this year’s event, the Most Rev. Albert Chama, CPCA primate and bishop of Northern Zambia, said he was grateful to God that the festival will be held at the shrine.

He also explained the relevance of the event to Christians in Africa and how they can learn from a life guided by Bernard Mizeki. “[African] Christians should know that the route they have chosen is not without challenges or hurdles,” he said. “Christianity is about actions, some of which can lead to death. All pilgrims should remember that death in Christ is in fact a gain.

“The event itself shows the importance of Christianity among Africans,” said Chama. “Bernard Mizeki was an African who was martyred for propagating the Good News to fellow Africans at a time when they did not understand the Christian faith.”

Gandiya said Bernard Mizeki’s life had been one of deep commitment to God and his people. “Even after being warned, he decided to preserve the lives of others at the expense of his own.”

“As a shepherd, you don’t desert people that have been put under your care,” the Bishop said. “Having been in exile for a long time, we understand and find a lot of relevance and comfort from his life.”

Gandiya also revealed that the preparations for the celebrations are in the final stages and that they are ready and happy to host the event freely for the first time in more than five years.

He concluded, “This is the first time that we won’t be looking over our shoulders as we celebrate this special day.”

[World Council of Churches] “A new framework for negotiation for peace and unification of the Korean peninsula is the need of the hour…especially in the context that the armistice agreement declared 60 years ago lost its effect,” said Dr. Lee Jae-joung, former minister of the Ministry of Unification of the Republic of Korea at an international consultation on Asian peace and security being held in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong, 3 to 6 June.

The international ecumenical consultation, “Asia’s Human Security Challenges: Towards Peace with Justice in North East Asia” was organized by the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Christian Conference of Asia as an opportunity to reflect on the theme of the upcoming WCC 10th assembly which is being held in Busan, Republic of Korea 30 October to 8 November this year.

The consultation allowed the participants to explore the theme of the assembly “God of life, lead us to justice and peace” within the Asian context and with a specific focus on the situation on the Korean peninsula.

“The armistice agreement never brought peace in the Korean peninsula” Lee who was unification minister from 2006-2008 said. “There were constant violent conflicts at the truce line, as well as military infiltrations in the past years which affect peace and security.” Lee’s presentation was titled “From the Armistice Agreement to Peace Treaty in Korea.

“The international ecumenical community has to perform the important task of mobilizing the international community to ensure lasting peace in the divided country of Korea,” he added.

In a presentation on “Resumption of the Six Party Talks or Third Nuclear Test, the Future Prospects for US- North Korea Relations,” Prof. Sachio Nakato of Ritsumeikan University in Japan said, “The framework of the six-party talks should play a key role. The U.S focuses more on managing the North Korean nuclear issues rather than solving the problems through the framework of the six-party talks.”

During a biblical and theological reflection on the Korean situation the general secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Korea, Rev. Dr Hong Jung Lee, said, “Healing and reconciliation sustain the integration between justice and peace and their coexistence for life. Healing and reconciliation are both the spirituality and the strategy of God’s salvation and liberation and the way of witnessing the wholeness of the Gospel at all dimensions. In today’s complex situation of Korean peninsula, God’s liberation will show the way of sustaining peace and justice in the region.”

The consultation has also been addressing various other Asian issues threatening peace and security in the region.

“The increase in defence spending has now become a wider Asian phenomenon,” said Dr Mathews George Chunakara, director of the CCIA in a thematic address.  “A  variety of factors explains the new wave of increased military budgets in Asian countries.”.

“The increasing arms build-up in several Asian countries makes this region one of the fastest-growing regions for defence spending in the world, and military spending in Asia for the first time in history overtook that of the European members of NATO,” he said.

“Terrorism and counter-terrorism in South Asia are taking the lives of hundreds of people in South Asia every week. The drone strikes carried out by the U.S military in Pakistan have killed thousands of people,” stated Bishop Samuel Azariah, moderator of the Church of Pakistan and member of the WCC Central Committee and Executive Committee. “The nuclear arms race in South Asia and the ongoing territorial disputes between India and Pakistan pose a perennial problem for peace and security in South Asia.”

In a presentation on peace and security in South East Asia, Rev. Rex R. B. Reyes, Jr, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, said that, “through the implementation of the neoliberal policies of globalization, the opening up of more mountains for mining and logging and the shores for mineral extractions, more lands are being converted as mining fields of multinational companies in the Philippines.”

The consultation is being attended by fifty participants from Asia, Europe and North America representing churches, ecumenical councils, specialized ministries, peace activists and academia.

Read about the consultation

WCC member churches in Korea

Christian Conference of Asia

Korean Ministry of Unification

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, by the end of 2012 the WCC had 345 member churches representing more than 500 million Christians from Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other traditions in over 110 countries. The WCC works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway.

[Church of Ireland -- Press Release] Ahead of the G8 Summit meeting on 17-18 June at the Lough Erne resort, the Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of Ireland extend their welcome to the world leaders and their officials who will be visiting County Fermanagh. They commend the work of civic government as a calling which can lead to blessing, stating that ‘the equitable management of economic affairs has the potential to bring many benefits to a de-moralised world’. The bishops also recognise that journalists from across the world will gather to cover the summit and both welcome and wish them well in the difficult task they perform, saying ‘The demands of insightful reporting and making fair comment are very great as is the responsibility that goes with their vocation.’

In praying for a fruitful series of meetings, the bishops call for a renewed ethical focus on economic life across the globe and, echoing the collective voice of the General Synod in May, express wholehearted support for the IF Campaign which proposes practical ways towards achieving equity in food availability worldwide. They say: ‘It is an unequivocal good that fewer people should have to go to bed each night hungry. We would urge the leaders of the G8 to make this fundamental goal into a reality.’

Concerning Ireland, North and South, the bishops state that ‘ordinary people from both jurisdictions have felt the heavy weight of austerity economics, and are in desperate need of a positive vision to guide them into a secure future’. Specifically regarding Northern Ireland they say, ‘It is beyond doubt that wholesome economic life (and especially useful investment) requires social stability, a regard for the rule of law, and good community relations. Much has been achieved in these areas in recent years and again it is our prayer that the fruits of this work will be clear for all our visitors to see.’ Relating especially but not exclusively to the Republic of Ireland, the bishops call for ‘very open dialogue with both commercial and personal customers’ by the Financial Sector which, in having received special rescue measures, owes to people ‘complementary special responsibilities’. The Archbishops and Bishops also call for a dynamic focus on providing special measures to remedy youth unemployment, as a ‘means to develop both the good of society and the capacity of the individual’.

In closing their statement, the bishops express their support for the PSNI and those involved in the policing operation at the G8 summit and urge practical cooperation and support from all.

The full statement is provided below.

Full Statement by the Church of Ireland Archbishops and Bishops Ahead of the G8 Summit

The Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of Ireland wish to extend a very warm welcome to the leaders of the G8 nations and their officials as they meet in County Fermanagh.

It is our prayer that they will have a fruitful series of meetings and that many people may be blessed in the decisions that they make.

The importance of the task

We are fully aware that the problems which the G8 leaders face are complex and often deep seated, and we acknowledge with thankfulness and humility the work which all involved in government undertake for our well being. We acknowledge also with penitence that as believers we have often sidelined consideration of economic affairs as of little relevance to our vocation. This has led not only to apathy about economic debate, but also to a refusal to face up to our economic responsibilities as individuals.

From our perspective as religious leaders, the work of civil government is a holy task and a calling of the most sacred kind. The equitable management of economic affairs has the potential to bring many benefits to a de-moralised world. As a subject for academic study, economics was first considered as a branch of ethics – the right ordering of human relationships – and we earnestly hope that something of that spirit can re-invigorate national and international discussion of our fiscal and economic affairs.

A faith perspective; the IF Campaign

Speaking as people of faith we wish to emphasise our belief that there is a reality even greater than the realities of the State and the Market, and which stands over both; the reality of the personality of God. Just as God in ancient Israel took notice of the merchant who used unfair weights to gain advantage, so he still takes notice of questionable commercial practice and inequity in economic life today.

It was for this reason that, at its recent meeting in General Synod, the Church of Ireland passed a motion recognising the importance of taxation in developing countries both to provide financial resources to government and to enhance accountability between a State and its citizens.

The Synod also supported the call for a new international accounting standard requiring companies to report on profits made and taxes paid in every country where they operate.

It was also at the meeting of this year’s General Synod that the Church of Ireland expressed a very wholehearted support for the IF Campaign which proposes practical ways by which much greater equity in food availability can be achieved. It is an unequivocal good that fewer people should have to go to bed each night hungry. We would urge the leaders of the G8 to make this fundamental goal into a reality.

Reporting the G8

In the coming days Ireland will play host to an enormous number of journalists from all over the world, and as such we will come under intense, if brief and tangential, worldwide scrutiny. We wish to offer our welcome and prayers to all journalists and wish them well in the difficult task they perform. The demands of insightful reporting and making fair comment are very great as is the responsibility that goes with their vocation.

The suffering of ordinary people

Such demands come at a time when Ireland, North and South, is experiencing extraordinary difficulties. Ordinary people from both jurisdictions have felt the heavy weight of austerity economics, and are in desperate need of a positive vision to guide them into a secure future.

Although Northern Ireland remains a much more settled and stable society than it was prior to the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, it is not a significantly more integrated one. It is very far from clear how substantial progress can be made in this area, and again as a Church we must acknowledge our part in perpetuating the failure to define a common identity for the people of Northern Ireland.

However, it is beyond doubt that wholesome economic life (and especially useful investment) requires social stability, a regard for the rule of law, and good community relations. Much has been achieved in these areas in recent years and again it is our prayer that the fruits of this work will be clear for all our visitors to see.

In the Republic of Ireland perhaps the most widespread demoralising factor in the lives of ordinary people is a grave uncertainty over how mortgage arrears are to be dealt with. Regardless of what technical difficulties it may have involved, citizens can’t help but draw a contrast between the treatment of the Banking Sector compared to the treatment of its clients.

In the case of the banks heaven and earth were moved to secure survival, whereas clients have, by and large, been left to the operation of the market. We acknowledge that the Financial Sector (especially banking) is not the same as other commercial enterprises. It much more closely resembles a blood bank, providing a vital resource without which every other factor in economic and commercial life cannot function.

If that has been the basis for the special treatment which it has received, then a complementary emphasis on its special responsibilities is also needed. Such special responsibilities cannot be worked out without very open dialogue with both commercial and personal customers.

It is perhaps one of the strangest and saddest aspects of the world post 2008 that governments, especially governments of wealthy countries, have not promoted serious discussion of alternative economic models beyond those of a particular form of financial capitalism.

Youth unemployment

The levels of youth unemployment in wealthy countries is not only an economic disaster, it is also a moral tragedy. Useful work is a God-given means to develop both the good of society and the capacity of the individual. Not to have useful paid work is to be deprived of one of the means of developing great virtues.

It is through the world of work that most of us learn the habits of regularity, team working, application, balanced judgement, reliability and toleration. For millions of young people to be deprived of the opportunity to acquire and deepen these virtues, which are as necessary for economic development as much as personal well-being, is to store up enormous personal and societal problems for decades to come.

The pace of economic recovery is so slow that, unless some special measures are made to cater for this generation, they may well be doomed to spending the most creative and productive years of their lives in a sterile no man’s land of economic inactivity.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland

One group of people who most certainly are not underemployed at present are the PSNI, who have had to carry the substantial organisational burden of ensuring that the G8 passes off in peace and good order. That has been an enormous task for a relatively small police service, supplemented by officers from elsewhere. Aside from the ordinary policing difficulties which come with any substantial public event the PSNI are also accommodating constructive lobbying and protest groups who quite rightly wish to make their mark at an important gathering.

It is our hope and prayer that less constructive or downright disruptive groups will not create more difficulties than those which are already facing a hard worked Police Service.

We wish to support those involved in this Policing operation both by our prayers and by urging the practical cooperation and support from all who will be in County Fermanagh during the G8.

The Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of Ireland:

The Most Revd Dr Richard Clarke, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland
The Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, Archbishop of Dublin & Bishop of Glendalough, Primate of Ireland
The Rt Revd Harold Miller, Bishop of Down & Dromore
The Rt Revd Dr Paul Colton, Bishop of Cork, Cloyne & Ross
The Rt Revd Ken Good, Bishop of Derry & Raphoe
The Rt Revd Michael Burrows, Bishop of Cashel & Ossory
The Rt Revd Alan Abernethy, Bishop of Connor
The Rt Revd Trevor Williams, Bishop of Limerick & Killaloe
The Rt Revd Patrick Rooke, Bishop of Tuam, Killala & Achonry
The Rt Revd John McDowell, Bishop of Clogher
The Rt Revd Ferran Glenfield, Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin & Ardagh
(The See of Meath & Kildare is currently vacant)

[Lambeth Palace -- Press Release] Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby gave the following speech on the first day of a two-day peers’ debate on UK government proposals to allow same-sex marriages.

My Lords, this Bill has arrived in your Lordship’s House at great speed. The initial Proposals, when published at the end of the autumn, have needed much work to get them into today’s form. Much of that work has been done through detailed legal effort and discussion, and I am deeply grateful to the DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) teams – and especially to the Secretary of State for the thoughtful way in which she has listened and the degree to which she has been willing to make changes in order to arrive at the stage we’ve reached today.We all know, and it’s been said, that this is a divisive issue. In general the majority of faith groups remain very strongly against the Bill, and have expressed that view in a large number of public statements. The House of Bishops of the Church of England has also expressed a very clear majority view – although not unanimous, as has been seen by the strong and welcome contribution by the Bishop of Salisbury.

The so-called Quadruple Lock may have some chance of withstanding legal scrutiny in Europe, and we are grateful for it, although other faith groups and Christian denominations who’ve written to me remain very hesitant. There have been useful discussions about the position of schools with a religious character and issues of freedom of conscience. And I’ve noted the undertaking of the Noble Baroness the Minister on those subjects, and I’m grateful for what she has said. The Noble Baroness the Minister has also put forward all her views today with great courtesy and persuasive effect, and I join in the remarks of the Noble Baroness, Baroness Royall, in appreciation of that.

And I have to say that personally I regret the necessity of having to deal with the possibility of a division at this stage, on a bill passed by a free vote in the other place.

I was particularly grateful to hear the speech of the Noble Baroness, Baroness Royall, and agreed with the proud record that was established by the last government during the years in which it held office in this area. I also, if I may, will pass on her comments with gratitude to my colleague the Most Revd Prelate the Archbishop of York.

It is clearly essential that stable and faithful same sex relationships should, where those involved want it, be recognised and supported with as much dignity and the same legal effect as marriage. Although the majority of Bishops who voted during the whole passage of the Civil Partnerships Act through your Lordships’ House were in favour of civil partnerships a few years ago, it is also absolutely true that the church has often not served the LGBT communities in the way it should. I must express my sadness and sorrow for that considerable failure. There have been notable exceptions, such as my predecessor Archbishop Ramsey who vigorously supported decriminalisation in the 1960s.

It is also necessary to express, as has been done already, total rejection of homophobic language, which is wrong – and more than that, sickening.

However, I and many of my colleagues remain with considerable hesitations about this Bill. My predecessor Lord Williams of Oystermouth showed clearly last summer, in evidence during the consultation period, that it has within it a series of category errors. It confuses marriage and weddings. It assumes that the rightful desire for equality – to which I’ve referred supportively – must mean uniformity, failing to understand that two things may be equal but different. And as a result it does not do what it sets out to do, my Lords. Schedule 4 distinguishes clearly between same gender and opposite gender marriage, thus not achieving true equality.

The result is confusion. Marriage is abolished, redefined and recreated, being different and unequal for different categories. The new marriage of the Bill is an awkward shape with same gender and different gender categories scrunched into it, neither fitting well. The concept of marriage as a normative place for procreation is lost. The idea of marriage as covenant is diminished. The family in its normal sense, predating the state and as our base community of society – as we’ve already heard – is weakened. These points will be expanded on by others in the debate, I’m sure, including those from these benches.

For these and many other reasons, those of us in the churches and faith groups who are extremely hesitant about the Bill in many cases hold that view because we think that traditional marriage is a corner stone of society, and rather than adding a new and valued institution alongside it for same gender relationships, which I would personally strongly support to strengthen us all, this Bill weakens what exists and replaces it with a less good option that is neither equal nor effective. This is not a faith issue, although we are grateful for the attention that government and the other place have paid to issues of religious freedom – deeply grateful. But it is not, at heart, a faith issue; it is about the general social good. And so with much regret but entire conviction, I cannot support the Bill as it stands.

My Lords, this Bill has arrived in your Lordship’s House at great speed. The initial Proposals, when published at the end of the autumn, have needed much work to get them into today’s form. Much of that work has been done through detailed legal effort and discussion, and I am deeply grateful to the DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) teams – and especially to the Secretary of State for the thoughtful way in which she has listened and the degree to which she has been willing to make changes in order to arrive at the stage we’ve reached today.

We all know, and it’s been said, that this is a divisive issue. In general the majority of faith groups remain very strongly against the Bill, and have expressed that view in a large number of public statements. The House of Bishops of the Church of England has also expressed a very clear majority view –  although not unanimous, as has been seen by the strong and welcome contribution by the Bishop of Salisbury.

The so-called Quadruple Lock may have some chance of withstanding legal scrutiny in Europe, and we are grateful for it, although other faith groups and Christian denominations who’ve written to me remain very hesitant. There have been useful discussions about the position of schools with a religious character and issues of freedom of conscience. And I’ve noted the undertaking of the Noble Baroness the Minister on those subjects, and I’m grateful for what she has said. The Noble Baroness the Minister has also put forward all her views today with great courtesy and persuasive effect, and I join in the remarks of the Noble Baroness, Baroness Royall, in appreciation of that.

And I have to say that personally I regret the necessity of having to deal with the possibility of a division at this stage, on a bill passed by a free vote in the other place.

I was particularly grateful to hear the speech of the Noble Baroness, Baroness Royall, and agreed with the proud record that was established by the last government during the years in which it held office in this area. I also, if I may, will pass on her comments with gratitude to my colleague the Most Revd Prelate the Archbishop of York.

It is clearly essential that stable and faithful same sex relationships should, where those involved want it, be recognised and supported with as much dignity and the same legal effect as marriage. Although the majority of Bishops who voted during the whole passage of the Civil Partnerships Act through your Lordships’ House were in favour of civil partnerships a few years ago, it is also absolutely true that the church has often not served the LGBT communities in the way it should. I must express my sadness and sorrow for that considerable failure. There have been notable exceptions, such as my predecessor Archbishop Ramsey who vigorously supported decriminalisation in the 1960s.

It is also necessary to express, as has been done already, total rejection of homophobic language, which is wrong – and more than that, sickening.

However, I and many of my colleagues remain with considerable hesitations about this Bill. My predecessor Lord Williams of Oystermouth showed clearly last summer, in evidence during the consultation period, that it has within it a series of category errors. It confuses marriage and weddings. It assumes that the rightful desire for equality – to which I’ve referred supportively – must mean uniformity, failing to understand that two things may be equal but different. And as a result it does not do what it sets out to do, my Lords. Schedule 4 distinguishes clearly between same gender and opposite gender marriage, thus not achieving true equality.

The result is confusion. Marriage is abolished, redefined and recreated, being different and unequal for different categories. The new marriage of the Bill is an awkward shape with same gender and different gender categories scrunched into it, neither fitting well. The concept of marriage as a normative place for procreation is lost. The idea of marriage as covenant is diminished. The family in its normal sense, predating the state and as our base community of society – as we’ve already heard – is weakened. These points will be expanded on by others in the debate, I’m sure, including those from these benches.

For these and many other reasons, those of us in the churches and faith groups who are extremely hesitant about the Bill in many cases hold that view because we think that traditional marriage is a corner stone of society, and rather than adding a new and valued institution alongside it for same gender relationships, which I would personally strongly support to strengthen us all, this Bill weakens what exists and replaces it with a less good option that is neither equal nor effective. This is not a faith issue, although we are grateful for the attention that government and the other place have paid to issues of religious freedom – deeply grateful. But it is not, at heart, a faith issue; it is about the general social good. And so with much regret but entire conviction, I cannot support the Bill as it stands.

[Episcopal News Service] Apenas una semana en las tareas de limpieza de escombros, luego que una serie de tornados causaran la muerte de docenas de personas y devastaran partes de Oklahoma, el papel del Rdo. Paul Snyder ha dejado de ser el de un socorrista para convertirse en alguien “que ayuda a las personas a tratar de recobrar el orden en sus vidas”.

Snyder, subalguacil de 35 años, capellán de la policía durante 18 años y diácono durante tres años en la iglesia episcopal de San Cristóbal [St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church] en un suburbio de Oklahoma City, fue el individuo al que algunos clérigos de la diócesis llamaron inicialmente para que les ayudara a localizar a feligreses desaparecidos.

“Por la dirección, yo podía decir con seguridad si la casa estaba en la senda del tornado”, dijo Snyder durante una entrevista el 30 de mayo con Episcopal News Service. “Iba hasta sus casas para cerciorarme de que estaban todavía en pie, y tocaba a la puerta y decía ‘hola, necesitan llamar a su sacerdote’”.

Para el jueves (30 de mayo), al igual que muchos otros en la comunidad, su foco había pasado a “hurgar en los escombros” como muchos vecinos de Moore City seguían haciendo en lo que alguna vez habían sido sus casas y barriadas.

La Rda. Emily Schnabl, rectora de San Cristóbal, dijo que dos de cuatro familias de la parroquia que vivían cerca de la senda del tornado había sufrido daños en sus casas. Un día antes (el 29 de mayo), un equipo de voluntarios de la iglesia había ido a ayudarles y se animó a ayudar a otros también.

“No hubo presentaciones; uno sencillamente entraba en el patio de alguien y comenzaba a limpiar [escombros]”, dijo Schnabl que definió la devastación en Facebook como “una herida abierta de 27 kilómetros, a cielo abierto… No hay lugar para tomarlo con calma”.

Schnabl dijo que la inmensidad de la devastación era “inenarrable, los objetos de las casas a la intemperie, todo hecho escombros, todo pulverizado… No soy capaz de ponerlo en palabras en este momento”.

Snyder —nativo de Oklahoma, que también respondió durante el atentado terrorista al Edificio Federal Alfred P. Murray en 1997 y a la serie de tornados de 1999 que mató a docenas de personas y causó miles de millones de dólares en daños— dijo que no sólo era lo que se veía y lo que se oía, sino también los olores, lo que lo remontaban al pasado.

“El olor de todo es diferente”, explicó. “Hay tanto polvo y churre en todas partes que incluso cuando lo ves después en la televisión te regresa el olor. Parece que sencillamente se queda en el aire”.

Para los socorristas y otras personas que presencian la devastación  “resulta muy emotivo a veces”, agregó. Como por ejemplo ver el ganado atravesado por objetos volantes y que tiene que ser destruido.

Y el agente que descubrió los cadáveres de una madre con su bebé. “Vino a hablarme de eso al día siguiente. Le martilleaba mucho”,  afirmó. “No pudo irse a dormir durante un tiempo. Se mantuvo trabando, creía que no había logrado rescatar al bebé a tiempo, de manera que yo he proseguido y he logrado ayudar a alguien”. En definitiva, “todo consiste en estar a disposición de las personas en una situación de crisis”, dijo Snyder. “A veces, es una crisis espiritual, a veces es física, pero consiste en estar presente cuando la gente está necesitada o cuando ha tocado fondo y tratar de sacarlas a flote”.

Jera Kiespert y su familia saben de qué se trata.

El tornado del 20 de mayo destruyó el hogar de los Kiespert en Moore, pero, al cabo de unos pocos días, la iglesia episcopal de Santa María [St. Mary’s Episcopal Church] en Edmond les dio un lugar donde vivir, y mucho, mucho más, dijo ella durante una entrevista telefónica con ENS el 30 de mayo.

Kiespert, una maestra que también dirige varios coros de niños, dijo que lo primero que vio cuando salió de un refugio para tormentas el 21 de mayo luego del tornado, fue a un vecino que intentaba sacar a su esposa de los astillados restos de su casa.

“Yo no estaba preparada para ese espectáculo”, dijo ella. “Me quedé en shock; vi a otros vecinos salir trepando de los escombros, la gente me enviaba mensajes de texto, el teléfono sonaba”. Al cabo de unos días, luego de quedarse en hoteles y en casas de familiares y amigos, recibieron una asombrosa invitación: el uso de una casa propiedad de la iglesia de Santa María, donde ella y Jason habían sido anteriormente miembros del coro y donde sus hijos habían sido bautizados.

“Es una estupenda historia de mayordomía”, dijo el Rdo. Mark Story, rector de Santa María. “Recibimos la casa como un legado” de un feligrés que murió hace aproximadamente dos años. “Su donación fue en verdad bastante sorprendente para la iglesia e hizo posible que Jera y Jason y sus hijos tengan ahora un lugar donde estar. Estamos sinceramente agradecidos”.

Para Jera Kiespert, de 35 años, no fue nada menos que milagroso.

“Recibimos una llamada de un amigo acerca de la casa” quien les llevó la llave al día siguiente.

“Es una casa bella y lo que resultó más sorprendente aun fue que, entramos en ella y las damas de la iglesia habían estado allí”, contó. “Había camas con sábanas acabadas de tender, y toallas limpias, había suministros en la cocina. Era tan bueno entrar en una casa y sentir que es un hogar”, añadió con lágrimas en los ojos.

“Cuando uno piensa en eso, no son más que cosas, pero son importantes también. Nos dieron tarjetas de regalo, dinero para víveres, había ropa y juguetes para los niños. Es muy tranquilizador para una madre ver que sus hijos pasan por algo como esto y luego encontrarse en un nuevo sitio con juguetes y sentir que vamos a estar bien, que vamos a estar bien”, recalcó.

“La gente ha estado animándonos mucho, con ayuda y con oraciones, con llamadas telefónicas, hemos sentido mucho amor y apoyo, es realmente asombroso. En verdad resulta difícil cuando estas acostumbrada a ser de los que dan y tienes que estar entre los que reciben, es algo aleccionador”.

Story dijo que habilitar la casa de cuatro dormitorios “fue una bendición para la iglesia.

“Muchísimas personas querían hacer algo físico, y limpiar la casa y tenerla lista les dio a muchísimos feligreses una oportunidad de hacer algo que los relacionaba físicamente con la tragedia de Moore. Fue una bendición para la familia, una bendición para la parroquia, sencillamente fue algo bueno”.

La iglesia había estado planeando alquilar la casa, pero se la ofrecieron gratis a los Kiespert; la póliza de seguro que ellos tenían les ha cubierto algunos gastos de vivienda temporal, añadió.

Los niños de la escuela de Santa María también enviaron tres camiones de alimentos y otros artículos a los centros de acopio, siguió diciendo Story. “También hicieron con pedazos de tela pañuelos de oración y se los enviaron a los niños como mantitas de consuelo.

“Los niños iban orando según los hacían”, contó Story. “Fue ahí donde cambiaron su foco de atención después de haber enviado los artículos de ayuda”.

El Rdo. José McLoughlin, canónigo del Ordinario en la Diócesis de Oklahoma, dijo el 30 de mayo que los empeños de limpieza y recuperación se encuentran todavía en etapas muy iniciales y que se aceptan de buen grado las contribuciones económicas, las oraciones y cualquier otra ayuda.

“Gran parte de lo que hacemos es compartir información y seguir proporcionando recursos para necesidades a corto plazo, a personas que necesitan ropa, tarjetas de regalo [de tiendas] y ayuda para vivienda”, explicó.

La Cruz Roja Americana y la Agencia Federal para el Control de Emergencias (FEMA), han abierto centros, a través de toda la ciudad, para dejar donaciones, así como han coordinado el trabajo voluntario. Él sigue en consulta con Ayuda y Desarrollo Episcopales y otras agencias, en tanto los empeños de ayuda y recuperación continúan desarrollándose.

“Hasta el momento, el dinero es lo mejor que se puede dar”, dijo. “Se han comunicado con nosotros personas de fuera del estado que quieren venir y ayudar, y de seguro que coordinamos con ellos… pero ni siquiera llevamos una semana de limpieza”.

Él hizo énfasis en que la necesidad durará largo tiempo, especialmente una vez que los medios de prensa se hayan ido. “Queremos hacer las cosas inteligentemente y no duplicar esfuerzos y cerciorarnos de que las personas sepan que no serán olvidadas, tanto a corto plazo como a largo plazo”, añadió.

“Queremos ser parte de la solución, sea quien fuere el que esté haciendo la necesaria labor de recuperación… Una vez que las personas tengan una mejor idea de lo que van a hacer sus compañías de seguro, sabremos mejor donde están las deficiencias en servicios y viviendas y podremos ayudar en eso”.

El aluvión de apoyo ha sido abrumador  tanto de dentro como de fuera de Oklahoma. “Hay un tremendo espíritu aquí”, resaltó. “Los oklahomenses son gente optimista… y ellos sencillamente se han mostrado dispuestos a ayudar”.

Kiespert está de acuerdo. “Ha habido mucho apoyo. La gente se ha ofrecido ha lavar la ropa, a cuidarnos los niños, [a responder a] cualquier necesidad. No puedo describirlo, es tan asombroso, el altruismo de la gente de echar una mano y tratar de lograr que la vida de otra persona se recobre”.

En medio de la devastación, Kiespert experimentó muchas más señales de esperanza. Aunque el hogar de ellos quedó destruido, su dormitorio sigue aún en pie, y ella pudo rescatar algunos muebles, álbumes de fotos y una muñeca de cerámica, hecha en el siglo XIX, que había sido un regalo de su abuela.

No pudieron llevarse al perro al albergue, y ella lo dio por muerto. Pero Jason, su marido, lo encontró ileso en la entrada de autos.

Celebraron el 29 de mayo, día en que Jason cumplió 37 años.

“Le dije que yo tenía que cocinar porque esa era nuestra tradición, de manera que me puse a trastear en esta cocina nueva y asé algunos pollos y nuestro nuevo vecino se apareció con esta maravillosa torta de chocolate. Comimos torta y le cantamos el Happy Birthday a Papá y vimos TV y todo fue normal y magnífico.

“Estoy viviendo al día y recomponiendo las cosas. Mi máxima prioridad fue garantizar que mis niños se sintieran seguros y que tuvieran un hogar y, una vez que pudimos venir aquí, su actitud cambió, su conducta cambió, supieron que era aquí donde íbamos a estar y que íbamos a estar bien. Como madre, eso fue extraordinariamente gratificante”.

–La Rda. Pat McCaughan es corresponsal de Episcopal News Service y está radicada en Los Ángeles. Traducción de Vicente Echerri.

[Lambeth Palace -- Press Release] The Archbishop of Canterbury said today that the Queen’s coronation in 1953, and her public service ever since, have symbolised “the very nature of being British”.

In his sermon at the anniversary service at Westminster Abbey this morning, the Archbishop reflected on the moment 60 years ago when the Queen knelt before the altar at Westminster Abbey in silent prayer, before taking the throne.

“Her Majesty knelt at the beginning of a path of demanding devotion and utter self-sacrifice, a path she did not choose, yet to which she was called by God. Today we celebrate sixty years since that moment, sixty years of commitment,” he said.

The Queen’s original pledge of allegiance to God symbolises the model of liberty and authority which our country enjoys, the Archbishop said.

“Liberty is only real when it exists under authority. Liberty under authority  begins, as the Book of Common Prayer puts it, with our duty to God, “whose service is perfect freedom”.

“We live in a hierarchy of liberty under authority that ascends to God’s limitless love. As we see in the life of Jesus, with God justice and mercy are perfectly joined, wisdom is unlimited, generosity is unstinting, and love pours out to the whole world in an overwhelming embrace that is offered universally and abundantly.

“A nation that crowns its head of state with such a model of liberty under authority expresses commitment to the same glorious values for itself,” he said.

The full text of the sermon is below:

‘And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant’
(Matthew 20:27)

A nation watched. It was the first time the whole nation had watched anything as it happened. But this they saw. Pomp and ceremony on a rainy, June day, wrapped in time and custom – very British. At its beginning was a moment of deepest meaning we have almost forgotten. The figure at the centre of events, the new Queen, goes alone, not to the Coronation Chair, but past it: to kneel at the altar in prayer. Before her on the High Altar the words “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and Christ.”

We do not know what was prayed. Her Majesty knelt at the beginning of a path of demanding devotion and utter self-sacrifice, a path she did not choose, yet to which she was called by God. Today we celebrate sixty years since that moment, sixty years of commitment.

There was a trumpet fanfare as today, as the Queen arrived with her supporters, but let us resist the splendour of the spectacle for a moment, and focus on what was meant: “Not my will, Lord, but yours be done.”

And following her Majesty’s giving of allegiance to God, others, especially with such equal commitment the Duke of Edinburgh, pledged their allegiance to her.

And here, in the grace and providence of God, is the model of liberty and authority which our country enjoys. Liberty is only real when it exists under authority. Liberty under authority begins, as the Book of Common Prayer puts it, with our duty to God, “whose service is perfect freedom”.

We live in a hierarchy of liberty under authority that ascends to God’s limitless love. As we see in the life of Jesus, with God justice and mercy are perfectly joined, wisdom is unlimited, generosity is unstinting, and love pours out to the whole world in an overwhelming embrace that is offered universally and abundantly.

A nation that crowns its head of state with such a model of liberty under authority expresses commitment to the same glorious values for itself.

In those moments of prayer are symbolised the basis for the greatness of this country. In their silence lies God’s call. In their humility lies God’s authority. In their resulting service lies God’s perfect freedom. What follows is the joy of security that comes from obeying God alone. Such consecration to God is followed by a crown. When we obey God’s call, whoever we are, leading Government or quietly serving our local community, we establish a country that is open-handed and open-hearted, serving others with joy.

In such service we become Britain at its best. We know how to celebrate – as again last year in the Olympics. We know how to comfort and grieve – as on the streets of Woolwich, in the courage of passers-by and police.

Yet we are not always and everywhere at our best. We celebrate today not liberty by itself, which in human weakness turns to selfishness, but liberty under the authority of God. We are never more free, nor better than when we are under the authority of God.

The coronation was an ordination, a setting aside of a person for service. Once anointed, Her Majesty received symbols, symbols so monumental that they are only bearable by the grace and strength of God.

They were symbols of service as well as of leadership and authority. Hear the words spoken to Her Majesty as she received the sword:

With this sword do justice,
stop the growth of iniquity,
protect the holy Church of God,
help and defend widows and orphans,
restore the things that are gone to decay,
maintain the things that are restored,
punish and reform what is amiss,
and confirm what is in good order:
that doing these things you may be glorious in all virtue;
and so faithfully serve our Lord Jesus Christ in this life,
that you may reign for ever with him
in the life which is to come.

Small tasks! Tasks that are shared and renewed in a free democracy under authority. The symbols and words point us to our deepest understanding of the nature of power, which is found neither in pomp and circumstance nor in public displays but in radical commitment, single-minded devotion and servant leadership.  And for that we give thanks today.

The very nature of being British follows this simple logic. It is founded on liberty under authority. It imitates the example of Jesus who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but humbled Himself and took the form of a slave. In Jesus is seen the greatest servant of all, whose service gives us freedom, whose love is generously offered to each of us.

Her Majesty the Queen is servant of the King of Kings, and so she serves us, as we serve her, in liberty and under authority. It is a system that points to freedom in God, in whose love alone we are fully human, fully free.

©  Justin Welby 2013

[Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth] The Rt. Rev. Rayford B. High, Jr. has announced that the Rev. Janet Waggoner has been named canon to the ordinary / transitional officer for the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.

She “will assist me and the diocese as we move forward together in our life. This is being made possible by the generosity of one of our diocesan families. I am most grateful and very excited about filling this office, which is so vital for our future. It is my plan for her to begin this new ministry in July. Please welcome her to this new call,” High said in a letter to the clergy.

Waggoner is a priest from the Diocese of Oregon who, after receiving her MDiv from Yale Divinity School, served parishes in Connecticut for more than a decade, most recently as rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Shelton. The Waggoner family moved to Fort Worth in August 2012 when Janet ’s husband, Ed, accepted Brite Divinity School’s invitation to become the first Right Rev. Sam B. Hulsey Chair in Episcopal Studies. Since September 2012, Janet Waggoner has been serving as interim pastor at Rejoice Lutheran Church in Coppell.

In her work with individuals, congregations and the community, Waggoner seeks to facilitate transformation through leadership, preaching, education, conciliation and the arts. She is a board member of WIKS-USA, partnering with Kenyans to provide quality education for underprivileged children. Waggoner is a spiritual director and a member of the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross.  She serves as an advisor in Title IV disciplinary processes for The Episcopal Church.

The Waggoners are the parents of two children, Wynne (10) and Benjamin (8), and a rescue dog, Ziggy.

[Saint Paul’s College -- Press Release] Following the unexpected termination of a proposed merger with another HBCU (Historically Black College or University), the Board of Trustees of Saint Paul’s College has determined to close the College temporarily to pursue other strategic opportunities consistent with its purpose and mission. As a result, Saint Paul’s will relinquish its accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) and implement a plan to complete instruction and transfer student enrollment in cooperation with SACSCOC and the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV).

Dr. Oliver Spencer, Chair of the Saint Paul’s College Board of Trustees, expressed disappointment on behalf of the Board and the College. “The time deadlines associated with our accreditation issues with SACSCOC and the termination of the proposed merger require our Board to take this action in the best interests of our students. This is especially disappointing in view of our very successful completion to the 2012-2013 academic year and the graduation of 51 students just weeks ago. Nevertheless, our Board is committed to exploring all solutions that will allow the continuation of the historical mission and purpose of Saint Paul’s College on its campus in Lawrenceville, Virginia. In pursuit of that goal I call on all members of the Saint Paul’s community to come together to guide and support the College in the next phase of its life in service to the many thousands of students deserving of the very special educational opportunities that Saint Paul’s College can offer.”

The Board of Trustees has implemented a plan to preserve the physical and financial assets of the College during the process of exploring its options.

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About Saint Paul’s College
Founded in 1888 and affiliated with the Episcopal Church, Saint Paul’s College is a private, historically black, accredited, four-year coeducational and culturally diverse liberal arts institution of higher learning located on a beautiful 183-acre campus in the rolling hills of Brunswick County in Southern Virginia. Saint Paul’s offers baccalaureate degrees in the arts and sciences, teacher education endorsements, professional and pre-professional programs, and the only Single Parent Support System program for degree-seeking single parents in Virginia. Saint Paul’s offers an accelerated degree program for working adults in four locations across Virginia including Richmond, Farmville, Franklin and Lawrenceville.

[Lambeth Palace -- Press Release] Members of four Melanesian religious orders visited Archbishop Justin at Lambeth Palace on Thursday last week. Amid prayer, worship and song, the Brothers and Sisters pledged their desire to work for “peace and reconciliation in the Anglican Communion”. Scroll down to watch a video of them singing to Archbishop Justin.

Archbishop Justin with the Melanesian Brothers and Sisters at Lambeth Palace. 30 May 2013. Picture: Lambeth Palace

Archbishop Justin welcomed a group of Brothers and Sisters from Melanesia to Lambeth Palace on Thursday night for an evening of prayer, conversation and Melanesian song.

The visit was part of the Melanesian Religious Orders’ mission to the UK, in which they visited five different diocese around the country. The theme of their mission was ‘Simply Living’ in which they live the question ‘How do we live the Gospel in relation to God, creation and one another?’

During the evening with the Archbishop, the Brothers and Sisters shared their experiences of prayerful living, peace and reconciliation, mission, outreach and environmental issues.

The group was composed of members of the Franciscan Brothers, the Sisters of the Church, the Melanesian Brotherhood and the Sisters of Melanesia.

Of these, the largest is the Melanesian Brotherhood, whose 400 members take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience for three to seven years, after which many return to their villages. The Brotherhood has houses in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines.

Reconciliation

On behalf of the four orders, Franciscan Brother Clark presented the Archbishop with a cross hand-carved by Novices from the Melanesian Brotherhood.

Brother Clark said the cross symbolised “a pledge to you of our desire and our willingness to work for peace and reconciliation in the Anglican Communion and to help deepen spirituality and prayer life wherever we go”.

The Melanesian Religious Orders became internationally known after seven of Melanesian Brothers were martyred while carrying out reconciliation work during the civil unrest in the Solomon Islands in 2003.

The Rev Richard Carter, who was chaplain to the Melanesian Brotherhood during that period, recalled that learning about the Brothers’ deaths was “the saddest day of all our lives”.

But through the fact that each of the martyred Brothers came from a different Melanesian island, the Rev Richard said, they “were showing the nation that we didn’t have to divide along ethnic or tribal lines, and they became a symbol to the whole nation that something better was possible.”

Religious life

The visiting Brothers and Sisters later told Archbishop Justin about their religious life in Melanesia, which is centred on prayer, simplicity and serving their communities. The orders share their resources with their neighbours, offer them labour, and show care and respect for all they meet.

Many of the Sisters work with women and children who are the victims of domestic violence and other abuse. As with the male orders, the two orders of Sisters are self-supporting.

Archbishop Justin has expressed a wish to strengthen such religious communities as part of his ministry.

Thanking the Brothers and Sisters for coming, he said: “Renewal of the church has never come without a renewal of prayer and praying communities. So it is wonderful and a great privilege to have you here this evening.”

[Episcopal News Service, Richmond, Virginia] A celebration to honor the first 25 years of the Episcopal Preaching Foundation began with a memory that pointed to the future.

The Rev. Brent Norris, the rector of St. Mary’s Church in Asheville, North Carolina, recalled coming to the foundation’s annual Preaching Excellence Program (PEP) in 1995 and receiving “a brilliant, white-hot passion for preaching in the parish and what the word of God delivered in faithfulness to God’s people could do, and what place that might ought have in my ministry.”

Norris, speaking at a banquet May 30 during this year’s PEP gathering, recalled that the Rev. Jane Sigloh, a PEP faculty member in 1995, sparked in him “a love and passion for parochial preaching – preaching to the people God has entrusted to you on a weekly basis.”

“I hope that you can be instilled with that passion too and that it can become white-hot and burning in you so that at some point you pass that spark of passion on to someone else,” Norris, who was on staff for this year’s gathering, told the 44 rising senior seminarians and recently graduated seminarians who were among those attending the banquet.

And Annie Pierpoint, a seminarian at Virginia Theological Seminary, replied during the tributes that she was indeed “white-hot with passion for preaching.”

“We have been given a gift, us seminarians, this week,” she said. “And this gift that we have received is a gift that we will not hold on to very long. It is a gift that is going to go directly from our mouths into the ears and the hearts and the souls of the people we preach to throughout our careers.”

The foundation’s aim is to encourage and enhance preaching in the Episcopal Church. For years, its annual centerpiece was the Preaching Excellence Program. This year’s participants gathered at the Diocese of Virginia’s Roslyn Conference and Retreat Center May 26-31, working with their peers, preaching professors and parish priests. They preached and received feedback about their own preaching, and listened to others preach. They also attended workshops and large-group presentations on preaching topics.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who was a PEP participant in 1993, held two question-and-answer sessions with the participants on May 29 and 30, and spoke about the changing nature of preaching. She also presided and preached during Eucharist on May 30.

Click here for a video of Jefferts Schori reflecting on preaching.

The text of her presentation is here and the text of her sermon is here.

The banquet during which Norris and Pierpoint were among the speakers was also meant to honor A. Gary Shilling who began the Episcopal Preaching Foundation in 1987 because he was convinced that excellent preaching is a key to engaging all of the church’s members, but especially those who were relatively uninvolved.

His aim was to improve preaching in the Episcopal Church by offering seminarians an immersion experience in the art and practice of preaching. The foundation has sponsored the annual tuition-free program since 1988. Approximately 1,200 Episcopal clergy have participated in the program while they were in seminary. Participants are nominated by their seminaries.

“The astonishing thing to lots and lots of people is that it’s a lay person who cares so much about preaching in the Episcopal Church that he has kept this baby going through thick and thin,” the Rev. William F. Brosend, the foundation’s executive director and homiletics professor at the University of the South’s School of Theology, said during the recent PEP gathering.

Shilling, founder of an investment advisory firm, attends Christ Church in Short Hills, New Jersey. He has also served at the local, diocesan and churchwide level.

“If there is a force of nature in the Episcopal Church more determined and committed to his vision than Gary Shilling, I don’t know who she or he is,” Brosend said while introducing Shilling at the banquet. Shilling, he said, “has kept before our eyes the importance, the centrality, the incredible potential of powerful, committed, eloquent preaching.”

Since 2009, the foundation has expanded its support of Episcopal Church preachers by offering national and regional conferences for lay and ordained preachers. Close to 1,500 clergy have attended one or more of these events. New programs, such as conferences on preaching for military chaplains, peer-mentoring and evaluation programs, and programs for those preaching in Spanish are planned in the next three years.

The church needs strong preaching, Virginia Bishop Shannon Johnston said during the banquet  “because Luther was right: there is something sacramental about the preaching of the word.”

“I am very grateful for your presence here in Virginia but, I am more grateful for the work and inspiration – the white-hot inspiration – that you have for what you do and how that is going to set our congregations on fire.”

The Rev. Hope Eakins, one who Brosend said was among those who were “present at the creation” of the PEP sessions, told the banquet participants that “the one thing that has always been true at a PEP conference is that we have proclaimed hope.”

“We’ve grown over the years to know that we all in need for learning, that we all can benefit from being in community and listening to each other. And we have hope that we will be able to proclaim the word of God in better and more powerful and stronger voices. We have hope that the complexities and the difficulties and the confusions of the world can be countered be the clear voice from God calling us to a bigger and better vision of what might be.”

Shilling reminded the PEP participants that they have a unique relationship with their congregants during the time they spend in the pulpit. “We have such a rich liturgy that sometimes the sermon gets lost in the shuffle,” he said.

But, he said, “people in the pews do have some interest in what’s going on in the pulpit.”

“Most of all, we want you to improve your preaching. We want you to become dynamite preachers because you are the kind of people who are going to attract a lot of people like me back into the church.”

– The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is an editor/reporter for the Episcopal News Service.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.][Episcopal News Service -- Richmond, Virginia] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori reflects on the “kinds of proclamation [that] are likely to be needed as we move into the future that God is creating all around us.” She made her remarks May 24 during the Episcopal Preaching Foundation’s annual Preaching Excellence Program, held this year at the Roslyn Conference and Retreat Center outside of Richmond, Virginia.

Episcopal Preaching Excellence – 25th anniversary
Feast of the Visitation of the BVM
Roslyn Conference Center, VA
May 30, 2013

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church

Creator, we give you thanks for all you are and all you bring to us for our visit within your creation.  In Jesus, you place the Gospel in the center of this sacred circle through which all of creation is related.  You show us the way to live a generous and compassionate life.  Give us your strength to live together with respect and commitment as we grow in your spirit, for you are God, now and forever.[1]

That gathering prayer comes from A Disciple’s Prayer Book, which includes Prayer Book resources developed and adapted by Native Episcopalians.  It insists that the gospel is at the center of all we are and do.  It also notes that we are visitors in God’s creation.

This feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is both a celebration of the incarnate Word growing within Mary, and the recognition of that good news by Elizabeth and the child who will be cousin John, forerunner and prophet of the Word among us.  There is a whole lot of visiting going on here.

That word visit doesn’t just mean stopping by for a beer.  Its roots are in Latin words for seeing, observing, or noticing – that’s where video comes from.  In early English (13th century) a visit meant coming to comfort or benefit somebody, often with the sense that the visitor was a heavenly one.  In the same era, visitation meant primarily what a bishop or hierarch did in inspecting a church or abbey, or what a doctor might do in coming to examine a patient.  The connotation of a social call – having tea – doesn’t roll around for another 400 years.

Mary has had a visitation in the gospel scene just before the one we heard.  That heavenly messenger offers comfort, in the ancient sense of strength, and she is examined as to her willingness to make a home for the incarnate Word.  Then she goes to visit Elizabeth and nascent cousin John, who recognize the visitation as a heavenly encounter at many levels – and so does Mary.

There are at least two other verbal echoes of this sense of visitation in the Bible – one in Wisdom where the writer speaks of the righteous who have died, and are now at peace, in spite of what others sense as destruction or loss.  God has tried them… and accepted them, and “in the time of their visitation they will shine forth and run like sparks through the stubble.” [2]  Here visitation is a life-giving encounter between human soul and godly reality.  Visitation gives evidence of the living God.

The other is also in the Gospel of Luke, in the midst of the Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem.  As Jesus approaches the city, he starts to weep and lament, “if only you’d recognized the things that make for peace!  But now they’re hidden from your eyes…” and disaster is coming, “because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”[3]  Then Jesus pays a visit to the Temple and starts to clean house.

There is another echo in the scene when three heavenly visitors pay a call on Abraham by the oaks of Mamre to tell him that Sarah will have a child[4] – a child called laughter!

Visitation is above all about recognizing the presence of the holy in our midst – sometimes quite literally, as in Mary’s belly.  It’s about seeing with the eyes of the heart, and perhaps even hearing with the ear of the heart, as Benedict would have it.  Indeed, St. Ephrem insisted that Mary conceived through her ear, receiving the Word brought by that angelic visitor.[5]  Visitation means letting the word of God dwell in you richly, as Colossians puts it.  Visitation brings the incarnate Word to light and life.

Where and when is your visitation?

Last week I was in Beirut, and Bishop Dawani (Diocese of Jerusalem[6]) took me to see one of the diocesan institutions.  St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Center, or Beit Mery, as it’s called in Arabic (the “house of Mary), is a day and boarding school for mentally challenged young people.  It’s just over the mountain ridge behind Beirut, set on a hillside looking across a beautiful valley.  It serves about 50 students, many with Down’s syndrome and a growing number with autism, from about age 6 well into their 30s.

When we arrived, the students were finishing lunch.  It was barbecue day, shared at picnic tables on a terrace open to the breeze.  There was lots of good-humored banter and laughter, and after lunch was over, a musical performance.  The girls’ choir was dressed in albs, and one of them was a very short young woman wearing a blue cape like Mary’s.  They sang together and in alternating parts, with the more capable singers encouraging the others.  Then four of the young men answered with a rollicking performance of a current popular song that encourages the corrupt and power-hungry local politicians to leave town – complete with dramatic actions and jumping up and down from their chairs.  This produced spontaneous dancing, quickly joined by others.  Song, dance, laughter – and JOY – abounded.  I kept thinking, this is what Isaiah was talking about:

 

On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich

food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-

aged wines strained clear.  And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud

that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will

swallow up death forever. Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears

from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the

earth, for the LORD has spoken. [7]

That was indeed the festal banquet without tears or shadow, and God’s people rejoicing in peace.

As we were leaving, I heard a bit more about the story of the shy young woman dressed as Mary.  She first came to the school a number of years ago, and the director and staff told her parents what they could likely expect as a result of her disability.  They took her away, and her father spent thousands of dollars and many years on treatment to try to change her.  Finally they brought her back to St. Luke’s, where she is filled with joy and purpose.  She accompanies a much younger child on the bus to and from school each day, as a guide and mentor – and she is a pretty good excuse for a diminutive St. Mary.

A whole lot of visiting going on – or as Iris Dement puts it, “a whole lot of heaven shining in this river of tears.”[8]

Where has the Word visited you lately?

Are you becoming a visitor within God’s radiant creation?

[1] http://www.dioceserg.org/files/uploaded/files/urban_native.pdf

See also  http://episcopalprayers.com/

[2] Wisdom 3:1-7

[3] Luke 19:41-44

[4] Genesis 18:1-15

[5] One allusive example:  http://vultus.stblogs.org/2009/10/saint-ephrem-on-the-mystic-nam.html

[6] including Israel, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon

[7] Isaiah 25:6-7

[8] http://www.songlyrics.com/iris-dement/there-s-a-whole-lotta-heaven-lyrics/

[Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs] Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori gave the following address during the 25th anniversary Preaching Excellence Conference May 30 at the Roslyn Conference and Retreat Center near Richmond, Virginia.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church

I want to invite us to consider what kinds of proclamation are likely to be needed as we move into the future that God is creating all around us.  We live in a world that’s changing rapidly, is increasingly interconnected, and at least in much of the developed world, functions more and more on a virtual level.  Basic human challenges continue – not least our fallen nature, but in particular, poverty, hunger, war, illness, and a widening chasm between the poor and the wealthy.  We still have the ability to grow enough food for all the people of the earth, but not the will to distribute it to all.  We have unimagined abilities to heal disease, yet growing numbers of people have no constructive access to that healing.  As a species, our numbers and our consumption habits are wreaking havoc on the ecosystems and geophysical systems that sustain all life on this planet.

The electronic nature of much of our communication brings one kind of connectedness – seeming to know intimate details of lives reported on twitter and Facebook – but it also yields a harvest of loneliness and isolation from deeper, incarnate human contact.  The exploding fund of knowledge means we know more about what happens across the globe and less about our near neighbors’ deepest longings.  The business of information harvesting means that large corporations know a great deal about us that used to be considered private, from social security numbers to microscopic details of our browsing and buying habits – and probably what we had for dinner last week.  We are being commodified whether we like it or not, and for many that only adds to the sense of a world descending into anomie and lack of respect for basic human dignity.  At the same time, that data mining offers new opportunities for constructive engagement with poverty, disease, and social dysfunction.

The globalization of markets and economies is contributing to wealth disparities at the same time that poverty statistics show some significant improvement in the numbers of the hungriest.  Some of that is the fruit of interconnected commitment to projects like the Millennium Development Goals, and the ability to measure results, share learnings quickly, and tell the stories widely.

We have seen the end of conflicts in South Africa and Ireland that few ever expected.  Other conflicted areas seem more hopeful than in years past – Sudan, perhaps eastern Africa.  At the same time political systems seem paralyzed in Israel/Palestine and Korea, and while growing violence in Syria and Pakistan makes many increasingly fearful, there are signs of hope alongside the despair.  This nation looks toward an end to our prosecution of distant wars, yet the human damage from those wars will be with us for many years to come.

Good news is needed in our day at least as much as at any time in the Christian era.  The spiritual hunger and yearning we see everywhere is an unavoidable sign.  How shall we tell the good news of God in Jesus in these days?

Context

I want to suggest that reading the context is the first essential.  What stories do you hear?  If you ask the people around you about their lives, about what is meaningful and not, what their joys and pains are, what do they say?  What are the anxieties, yearnings, dreams, and how are all of these spirit-questions expressed?  What’s the neighborhood tweeting about?  What stories do people tell?  When we begin to have some sense of the life of the community where we are, both its interior life and its external realities, then we can begin to know how to tell the good news – and not before.

By way of example, consider how violence is experienced in some of the different contexts preachers encounter – in parishes and beyond.  Consider the particularity of life-denying violence and the places where hope is likely to be encountered.  The evangelical task of the preacher is to point to that hope.

The reality of life on many Native American reservations today reflects centuries of broken promises, trashed possibilities, and hope snatched out of the mouths of infants and the hearts of elders.  Suicide rates are many times those of the wider population.  There are reservoirs of hope, particularly among elders with a connection to their history and where there are significant communities of support.  There are also many deep resonances between the Christian story and elements of indigenous spiritualities.  An effective preacher in a context like that knows the stories and has some understanding and respect for those connections and complexities.  The brothers of Taizé have been encouraging young pilgrims to build bridges of hope and connection in the middle of a Lakota reservation in South Dakota.  This week and last indigenous peoples from around the globe have been at the United Nations advocating for justice, particularly in the face of mining companies’ interests in their ancestral lands.  The gospel is being proclaimed in presence and solidarity.

The growing suicide rate among veterans and members of the military has some parallels – broken promises about numbers and length of deployments, trashed ethical systems related to initiating these wars as well as the treatment of prisoners and civilians, and as we are increasingly aware given rates of sexual violence, even a lack of respect for the basic human dignity of fellow soldiers.  A preacher will have to search for the reservoirs of hope, likely discovering them in officers and enlisted personnel with their own deep faith grounding, and in the families and communities who welcome returning veterans and seek to provide communities of healing for all.

Communities like Boston and Newtown and Columbine that have suffered shocking and surprising events of violence bring their own challenges.  Good news must be sought in the network of humanity that suffers and stands in solidarity when its members are wrenched away, and still commits itself to a meaningful, loving, and hopeful future – a future that is not mired in vengeance but soaked in meaning-making and building a new and more life-giving future.

The violence of our lives, at the very personal level of illness and loneliness, in regions that suffer natural disaster, and in the global context that is not so slowly frying its flora and fauna – those forms of violence can only be met by the kind of anti-violence that Christians call hope, and the expectation of abundant life.  The job of the preacher is to offer that vision of abundant life in ways that can not only be heard, but that can lead to transformed hearts and actions – through enfleshed evidence of abundant life, and encounter with that holy reality.

Styles/forms

Preaching is about transformation, whether we’re talking about forming disciples, building communal systems of justice, or binding up the broken-hearted.  It is a particular form of leadership, in the understanding that all leadership is intended to motivate change.  To be effective, it has to communicate in ways that stir interest, commitment, and even resistance, for that means the Word has been engaged.  Preachers must be agents of change, not chaplains to the status quo, for we have not yet arrived at the fullness of the Reign of God.

We live in an age that depends on visual imagery and narratives to communicate meaning, rather than deductive reasoning or propositional preaching.  Those latter forms communicate to only a tiny fraction of our hearers, for they are basically closed communication forms.  Fixed answers and solutions tend to exclude creative participation by the hearer.  Preaching ought to invite and open all the homiletical conversation partners (the preacher included).  The language we use can be iconic, in the sense of pointing beyond itself to greater possibility.  It is possible to teach without being stuck in academic language and dogmatic formulae; example, story, and invitation are far more effective.  If we truly believe we are made in the image of God, then all human beings participate in divine creativity.  Our preaching needs to reflect that, and invite participation in beauty, poetry, surprising connections, dreams, new interpretations, playfulness, and joy.  How else are we to give evidence of the hope that is within us?

If preachers and their congregational conversation partners are going to dwell in the Word, and abide in the Word incarnate, the power of words and language must be taken with utmost seriousness – and equivalent playful creativity.  Consider the layers of meaning evident in Jesus’ own invitational conversation – parables, connections with the fount of Hebrew scripture, deep irony, and humor that we often miss.  Consider the context of your preaching, and make connection with other tongues and languages both local and more globally – invite transgression of comfortable borders and usual boundaries.  Reflect on the origin and context of the biblical narrative, and how its meaning has changed and not changed over the millennia.  Notice words changing resonance:  nice in Shakespeare’s and King James’ English meant stupid (not knowing), somewhat later it had a vapid or lukewarm nuance – Jesus did not call us to be naaaahs! – and now it’s an almost useless word, with little meaning at all.

We live in a society that often assumes that Christianity is mostly about guilt and imposing rules and requirements on others.  That is even true among some Episcopalians, particularly older generations.  They remember all too well the penitential flavor of the old liturgies, and the era of “Father knows best” or knuckle-rapping nuns.  Preachers in our tradition don’t need to impose guilt.  Evoking compassion, whether for the sinner, the offended, or the larger community, is likely to be far more transformative, and it’s far likelier to eventually elicit repentance and lasting amendment of life.

The world around us increasingly needs leaders (those change-agents, again) to give voice to our shared lament and name our anger, grief, and despair at what is broken, lost, and missing.  We share an image of the creation God intends, and know that we’re still a very long way from seeing that dream realized.  Yet even the ability to name that dream offers hope.  We claim the capacity to name the good news around us, in the presence of God at work bringing resurrection out of death, creativity out of brokenness, and God revealing the divine presence.  Pointing to the possibility of encountering the divine and the reign of God in the daily round as well as on transfigured summits is perhaps the most essential task we share.  It is a task we share with the wider community; our preaching and pulpits can honor and include the gifts of those others, we can expand the conversation and the dimension of community, including the distant neighbor as well as the ones next door.  That is an essential part of engendering and encouraging hope – the result of eating and digesting good news.

Content/issues

Preaching in this emerging era shares tasks with the proclamation in any age, yet there is real urgency in this age about loving all our neighbors.  The preacher normally attends to what this particular encounter with the Word offers for someone’s daily life, but I urge you to keep pushing that local push for transformation outward.  Part of the homiletical framework will always have to attend to how this sermon might help the hearer negotiate fights with a boss, or struggles with spouse or children.  Don’t stop there.  How will this meal of Word help me care for my neighbors, and just who should I care about?  What does it really mean to love them?  Are they just the folks next door or does neighbor include all humanity, and all creation?

The particularly urgent form of original sin today is about consumerism, hoarding, and accumulating.  It is a challenge as old as humanity, but the consequences for the rest of creation are far greater today than ever before.  How do we help ourselves and others to ask when enough is truly enough?[1]  Loving God and neighbor requires our urgent and continual attention to caring for the wider creation.  There will be no peace and little justice otherwise.

That particular focus on accumulating is being exhibited, particularly in North America, in a parallel and excessive attention to safety and security.  When we have so much stuff to protect (those old barns, again), then it’s much easier to focus on the question about whether this visitor is an enemy or a neighbor.  Soon, no one is safe.  I’m never fully secure nor can I be sure any other person is really safe enough to let down my guard enough to start a conversation or friendship.  Without vulnerability, there can be no real love of self, God, or neighbor.  Vulnerability becomes powerful and effective by its very weakness, as the gospel reminds us over and over.  Love of the other is not possible without some relinquishment of safety and security.  Until we let down that protective fence, we are always going to see the other, the outsider, the foreigner, the different as potential if not actual enemy.  Humor may the most powerful means to lowering those barriers.  Compassion is another.  Both depend on vulnerability.

I would like to suggest that the virtual world of electronic communication is an important venue where preachers have an ability to encourage transformation.  Blogs and related forms of communication offer the opportunity both to savage human dignity and to invite a holier encounter.  The first makes face to face relationship more difficult if not beyond imagining, and the second just might begin to facilitate the kind of friendship that Jesus offers.  How might social media, blogs, and YouTube promote the kind of human community that will sit down to a feast together, where all know they are in the presence of the holy?

What change or transformation do we hope for?

Preaching – yesterday, today, and tomorrow – means helping hearers and ourselves connect with the holy, the divine, with God:  connecting in awe and mystery as well as immanent presence, in ways that lead to deeper and more abiding relationship – so that we might live, and move, and have our being well connected to those springs of eternal life.  The aim of preaching is to aid transformation, so that living water begins to flow within us and through us into the wider creation, that it, too, might be healed and restored and reconciled.

Transformation happens in connection with incarnation – finding the holy in the daily, in present bodies, and in surprising encounters.  Transformation is being surprised by grace and discovering that undefended participation in reality makes that surprising encounter easier and more frequent.

Transformation generates confidence rather than anxiety – a humble confidence, rather than dogmatic certitude.  Connection to that well of life develops a generosity of spirit expressed in an open mind, an open hand, and an open heart.  Knowing that we are loved beyond imagining makes it easier to reserve judgment about situations and neighbors – for we can always expect to be surprised!

In all of this work of proclamation a certain transparency is essential – not in the sense of sharing all the earthy data of our own existence, but in letting the light we know shine through.  Whatever authority a preacher has is rooted in that kind of authenticity.  We are vehicles of conversation with the holy, ever hoping that God’s spirit will speak to others through us, sometimes in sighs too deep for words.  We are meant to invite others into that conversation in ways that open us all to greater connection – like opening a less-defended and larger diameter well into that artesian source.  Practicing this art of preaching is most certainly about drilling for that water.  Keep drilling – not boring.  Better yet, open up and let the water flow.

[1]One example:  Anglican Communion Environmental Network resources:  Think.Eat.Save:  http://www.aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2013/5/29/ACNS5397

[Trinity Wall Street - Press Release] Trinity Wall Street announced today that the Rev. Canon Benjamin Musoke-Lubega has been named the new Director of Faith in Action, a programming arm that encompasses the historic Episcopal parish’s outreach in Lower Manhattan and its esteemed national and international grant-making. Since formal inception of the Trinity Grants Program in the early 1970s, a robust series of grants has focused on supporting the flourishing of the African continent. Musoke-Lubega, Ugandan by birth, will be the first African to fill this role.

“Trinity Wall Street is a partner to so many here in New York and around the world. I am thrilled to announce that, in Benjamin, we have a generous and wise leader to bring our partnerships forward into the bright future,” said the Rev. Canon Anne Mallonee, Vicar of Trinity Wall Street and executive with overall leadership responsibility for Faith in Action.

Musoke-Lubega takes up oversight of a Grants program that is slated to spend $3.2 million in 2013 – the highest amount in more than two decades. Recent Trinity grants supported, among many efforts, peace-building and telecommunications improvements in South Sudan, and the Episcopal Service Corps, a formation program for young adults who live for a year in communities serving others here in the United States.

Historically, the Trinity Grants Program won renown for its early support of the ministry of an Anglican priest in South Africa, Desmond Tutu, who would become Archbishop of Capetown and Nobel Laureate. It has also funded successful affordable housing and jobs creation in New York, and the work of priests advocating for the rights of rural and migrant workers.

“To be offered an opportunity to contribute in this way to such an important New York City parish as Trinity is a deep honor,” said Musoke-Lubega. “I am indebted to all who came before me, and all those who I have worked alongside, who made this role as full as it is today. The partners we work with worldwide know they are cared for by the people of Trinity Wall Street, and that the people of Trinity care for New York City, and for each other, as well. In the care and concern that comes with being in Communion, we strive forward together.”

In becoming the Director of Faith in Action, Musoke-Lubega is promoted from Deputy for Anglican Partnerships, a position he has held since 2010. He joined Trinity in 2005 as a Program Officer for Grants.   At Trinity, Musoke-Lubega has been instrumental in galvanizing support around financial sustainability for the Church in Africa – a vexing problem African partners had suggested would be essential to address in order for the Church to continue to play a positive role in people’s lives.

As Director of Faith In Action, Musoke-Lubega will have oversight of the international and national grant-making program as well as Trinity’s extensive local outreach. This includes the operation of a neighborhood center, a brown-bag lunch program for those in need, and advocacy for local public schools.

“Benjamin realizes that essential truth: all that we have is gift,” said the Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper, Rector of Trinity Wall Street. “He is a fine steward, an insightful spiritual leader, and a friend to many, many people across the world.

Born and educated in Uganda, Kenya, and the United States, Benjamin holds a Masters of Sacred Theology from Nashotah House Seminary in Wisconsin. Prior to joining the staff of Trinity Wall Street in 2005, Benjamin was Partnership Officer for Africa at The Episcopal Church USA. He also served as Rector of the historic St. Matthew’s and St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in Detroit, and was Vicar of Holy Spirit inCincinnati. He was a Deputy to General Convention of The Episcopal Church 1991-2003. He served as Rector of a rural church in Uganda, prior to coming to the USA, where he assisted with diocesan planning and development.

During his ministry in Detroit, he helped a suburban congregation make a healthy transition from being a joint ministry of the Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ, to being a parish in the Episcopal Church. He has served on the Standing Commission on Anglican and International Peace and Justice Concerns, the Board of Church World Service, and the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Michigan.

Musoke-Lubega succeeds the Rev. Matthew Heyd, who was recently called as 10th rector of Church ofHeavenly Rest in New York City, and the Rev. Canon James Callaway, General Secretary of Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion (CUAC). Callaway is also consultant to Trinity Wall Street for Anglican Partnerships.