I believe...

…I believe I experience God as life fully lived, as love wastefully given, as being completely realized. I cannot tell you or anyone else who or what God is. I can only describe my experience. I may be delusional. Lots of religious people are, but I don't think so.

I join the mystics in saying that I think I am part of what God is. God lives in me, loves through me and empowers me to escape that drive to survive that is in every living thing in order to give my life away. That is the Christ role and I think it is also the role that his disciples are called to model.

So I am drawn by God beyond my boundaries and I perceive that God becomes real when I enter into the task of living and loving and being. This means that it doesn't occur to me that I am alone with no one to whom to pray. This makes me rather a deeply infused, God-intoxicated human being who no longer has the words to describe the God in who I live and move and have my being, but it does not even occur to me to doubt the reality of that which I experience, but can never define…. Bishop John Shelby Spong

I have spent the past 5 days at clergy conferences. Two days with the Episcopalians and 3 days with the Lutherans. The Episcopal clergy conference had a speaker on philosophy and theology and the Lutheran conference spotlighted the Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, an amazing person who is centered into holding the ELCA together despite votes from the Church Wide Assembly that bode realignment or schism.



Five days of clergy conference is too long. It is hard to keep one’s sight on the parochial experience of the people in the pew when constantly called to hear the experience of those far away. It will be interesting to hear Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori when she comes in November to Central NY and how she works at providing a vision for the whole of the Church.




I have always been a churchwoman. The Church has always been the place where I lived and moved and had my being. It has given focus for my life and hope for the future in Christ. But where the rubber hits the road for me is the parish, the lived out experience of how Christ calls me to live my faith in Jesus with the others that I see every day.

The deliberations both at General Convention 2009 and the Church Wide Assembly of the ELCA produced legislation that has given affirmation to me and the ministry I have participated in for the past 40 years. I should be deliriously happy. But I must admit that I am just plain TIRED!

I have worked all my life for civil rights—for African-Americans, for Latinos, for women and for LGBT folks. But that is not where Christ is. I have labored to make sure that their voices could be heard both in society and in the Church and yet no one seems to get it. I feel like Jesus when he is trying to teach the disciples and they simply don’t get his meaning of his parables. The issue is not about inclusion—it is about turning our lives over. It isn’t about rights—it is about becoming lesser and Christ becoming greater. It isn’t about what makes us Lutheran, or Episcopalian, or Presbyterian or Methodist or Holiness. It is about, as Bishop Spong says, loving wastefully; it is about giving myself away.

As I approach that magic age of 65—a time when retirement is at hand, I realize that I no longer want to hold up the Church. I want to share that “God-intoxicated” life that I know. I can no longer describe that Holy One that lives in me. I have no rules or plan to pass it on to others. My words and actions fail me when I think that I am preaching so eloquently the love I know in my innermost parts.

What will the Church be for the future? I don’t know. I just pray that it will continue to be a place where we can gather to hear the stories about those who have loved God: Abraham who left his home to follow God, Joseph who had been cast out by his own brothers yet welcomed them when they came to Egypt, Moses who found God in a burning bush and who led his people out of slavery, Jeremiah who spoke the power of God even though he was young, John Baptist who knew that repentance was the way the heart could open itself to God and Jesus who laid down his life for us and all those who have come after him to teach us of God’s love. Will there be a Lutheran Church? Probably. Will there be an Episcopal Church? Probably. But does that mean anything in the long run? I doubt it. What will be important to us for the future is whether we can give ourselves away.

What Now?

…I believe I experience God as life fully lived, as love wastefully given, as being completely realized. I cannot tell you or anyone else who or what God is. I can only describe my experience. I may be delusional. Lots of religious people are, but I don't think so.

I join the mystics in saying that I think I am part of what God is. God lives in me, loves through me and empowers me to escape that drive to survive that is in every living thing in order to give my life away. That is the Christ role and I think it is also the role that his disciples are called to model.

So I am drawn by God beyond my boundaries and I perceive that God becomes real when I enter into the task of living and loving and being. This means that it doesn't occur to me that I am alone with no one to whom to pray. This makes me rather a deeply infused, God-intoxicated human being who no longer has the words to describe the God in who I live and move and have my being, but it does not even occur to me to doubt the reality of that which I experience, but can never define…. Bishop John Shelby Spong



I have spent the past 5 days at clergy conferences. Two days with the Episcopalians and 3 days with the Lutherans. The Episcopal clergy conference had a speaker on philosophy and theology and the Lutheran conference spotlighted the Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, an amazing person who is centered into holding the ELCA together despite votes from the Church Wide Assembly that bode realignment or schism.

Five days of clergy conference is too long. It is hard to keep one’s sight on the parochial experience of the people in the pew when constantly called to hear the experience of those far away. It will be interesting to hear Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori when she comes in November to Central NY and how she works at providing a vision for the whole of the Church.




I have always been a churchwoman. The Church has always been the place where I lived and moved and had my being. It has given focus for my life and hope for the future in Christ. But where the rubber hits the road for me is the parish, the lived out experience of how Christ calls me to live my faith in Jesus with the others that I see every day.

The deliberations both at General Convention 2009 and the Church Wide Assembly of the ELCA produced legislation that has given affirmation to me and the ministry I have participated in for the past 40 years. I should be deliriously happy. But I must admit that I am just plain TIRED!

I have worked all my life for civil rights—for African-Americans, for Latinos, for women and for LGBT folks. But that is not where Christ is. I have labored to make sure that their voices could be heard both in society and in the Church and yet no one seems to get it. I feel like Jesus when he is trying to teach the disciples and they simply don’t get his meaning of his parables. The issue is not about inclusion—it is about turning our lives over. It isn’t about rights—it is about becoming lesser and Christ becoming greater. It isn’t about what makes us Lutheran, or Episcopalian, or Presbyterian or Methodist or Holiness. It is about, as Bishop Spong says, loving wastefully; it is about giving myself away.

As I approach that magic age of 65—a time when retirement is at hand, I realize that I no longer want to hold up the Church. I want to share that “God-intoxicated” life that I know. I can no longer describe that Holy One that lives in me. I have no rules or plan to pass it on to others. My words and actions fail me when I think that I am preaching so eloquently the love I know in my innermost parts.

What will the Church be for the future? I don’t know. I just pray that it will continue to be a place where we can gather to hear the stories about those who have loved God: Abraham who left his home to follow God, Joseph who had been cast out by his own brothers yet welcomed them when they came to Egypt, Moses who found God in a burning bush and who led his people out of slavery, Jeremiah who spoke the power of God even though he was young, John Baptist who knew that repentance was the way the heart could open itself to God and Jesus who laid down his life for us and all those who have come after him to teach us of God’s love. Will there be a Lutheran Church? Probably. Will there be an Episcopal Church? Probably. But does that mean anything in the long run? I doubt it. What will be important to us for the future is whether we can give ourselves away.

Two-tier thinking

Listening to many from the ELCA talk about the momentous decision of their Church Wide Assembly to ordain partnered gay and lesbian clergy, it has been interesting to compare their experience with those of the Episcopal Church (TEC). I watched as that vote came in and heard an audible gasp from the assembly as the report of the vote was given. I don’t think that they expected it to pass. Since then on a list serve I follow, I have listened to many in pain about the decision agonize as to whether they were going to stay in ELCA. But when I ask them, can we meet at the altar, they all say yes. It is Christ where we all meet.



Yet with the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury wants to make of us a two-tiered communion. We have Anglicans who cannot meet at the altar. The neo-conservative Anglicans cannot meet at the altar rail with those of us who support gay folk in the Church. This week we are told that there are bishops who cannot join in communion with other TEC folk who are meeting with the ABC in hopes of being chosen to be a part of that “upper” tier. So what the ABC may be doing is allowing individual dioceses to sign on to the Anglican Covenant. Churches like Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya refused to attend Lambeth because the American and Canadian bishops were attending. They have already chosen to walk apart. And yet the ABC chooses to court those who would incite disunion. It is clear that the ABC wants to punish TEC without doing that overtly.
The breaking point may be the Anglican Covenant. The Anglican Covenant in its various manifestations has been met on this side of the pond with such derision that I doubt if TEC could ever be a part of it. It does not take into consideration our polity or our lay-led Church. So we may find ourselves sent to the “second tier.”

Each time I think of a second tier I begin to smile. I am a lover of opera and classical music and love going to concerts. The “second tier” in my mind is the best seat in the house. You can see better, hear better, and you don’t have to dress up.

We can only be ‘second tier’ if we allow others to place us there. But we may be able to see better, hear better and we may not have to dress up to meet at the altar rail.

What the ABC is not paying attention to is the loss of his own church and the split that is happening there. And this ABC will not be here long. He will retire; he will not always direct the Anglican Communion. Meanwhile the Church will continue to emerge all over the world. It will emerge without discrimination for gays; it will emerge without pompous hierarchical trimmings. It will emerge less judgmental, ready to spread the love of God and ready to meet Christ at the altar rail. A two-tier communion will be just a figment of some Hogwartian imagination

The Beginning of Healing?

While reading Susan Russell’s blog I came across a letter from her bishop, +Jon Bruno. Following on a report on the applicants for Suffragan Bishop which includes gay folks, he goes on to say:





“We have a plan for the future, and it includes working toward re-incorporating into our Diocese the four congregations whose members voted five years ago to break away from our Church. When the new bishops suffragan are on board, we will invite them into the leadership of deciding where we go in the future in this process.

No matter what, we are always open to reconciliation. I've been contacted by several of the clergy who left the Diocese who've asked to be reinstated. I am evaluating with my fellow bishops and leadership of this Diocese how we can be of service in providing reconciliation.”

Comment: What a marvelous statement! In the midst of all the pain and agony of the past six years there has been some way that those congregations have found a way to again be a part of the greater church.

I have no idea what kinds of conversations that have gone on in those congregations or what has gone on in the diocesan offices, but something has brought the possibility for healing to the fore. I, for one, will be praying for a way to be found for those parishes to return to the Diocese of Los Angeles.



Now the real hope for healing is for the Archbishop of Canterbury to understand the real meaning of Anglican via media. His two tier concept of Anglican Communion is absurd at best. It takes a willingness to hold both sides in tension and with respect. It is clear that the ABC has reverted to the “cootie” test for lgbt clergy and bishops. Good Lord deliver us…