PLEASE PRAY FOR THEME (NEAL)

From Petty Witter:

I was right - the light at the end of the tunnel was indeed the next train about to hit us. Husband dearest was admitted to hospital this morning (4th of June)

Husband dearest is TheMe (Neal) at Conscientization. Since Neal has spoken about his illness on his blog, I don't feel that I'm breaking a confidence to reveal that he has Crohns disease, which, as many of you may know, is difficult to treat.

His lovely wife, Petty, was badly injured in an accident years ago and uses crutches in the home and a wheel chair when she goes out. I met the two of them when I was in England last year. They are a wonderful couple, charming company. Despite a good deal of adversity in their lives, Petty and Neal face the world with admirable courage. They are two of the bravest people I know.

Heavenly Father, giver of life and health: Comfort and relieve your sick servant Neal, and give your power of healing to those who minister to his needs, that he may be strengthened in his weakness and have confidence in your loving care; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

UPDATE: Petty says if Neal "remains stable over the week-end, he may be home Monday (I so hope so)".

I hope so, too.

UPDATE 2 from Neal:

...and so he is.

...home that is. Good news, indeed, Neal.

NOT "UNJUST DISCRIMINATION" TO FIRE GAYS - USCCB

In All Things at America Magazine posts a letter sent to the members of Congress by the USCCB (US Conference of Catholic Bishops) on Same-Sex Marriage and ENDA

The Catholic Church makes an important distinction between actions and inclination. While the Church is ardently opposed to all unjust discrimination on the grounds of sexual inclination, whether homosexual or heterosexual, it does teach that all sexual acts outside of a marriage between one man and one woman are morally wrong. The Catholic Church’s teaching cannot, therefore, be equated with “unjust discrimination,” because it is based on fundamental truths about the human person and personal conduct. Homosexual conduct is categorically closed to the transmission of life, and does not reflect or respect the personal complementarity of man and woman. In contrast to sexual conduct within marriage between one man and one woman—which does serve both the good of each married person and the good of society— heterosexual and homosexual conduct outside of marriage has no claim to special protection bythe state.

Just as every other group in our society, the Catholic Church enjoys the same rights to hold to its beliefs, organize itself around them, and argue for them in the public square. This is guaranteed by our Constitution. This includes the right to teach what it holds to be the truth concerning homosexual conduct—and to act as an employer consistent with that truth—without the threat of government sanction.

The USCCB continues to oppose “unjust discrimination” against people with a homosexual inclination, but we cannot support a bill – such as ENDA in its current form – that would legally affirm and specially protect any sexual conduct outside of marriage.

H/T to Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Dish, who says:

Notice that there is no attempt here to argue that straight people who violate church doctrine - anyone who masturbates or uses contraception, is divorced or re-married - should not be protected from discrimination. It is always just the gays who are the target, because their identity inherently proves their iniquity, while most straight people can hide theirs. Notice also that the focus here is entirely on the victims of discrimination, not the perpetrators.

So the church that emerged from a man who preached the story of the good Samaritan, is now in the business of identifying Samaritans and ensuring they remain the targets of discrimination in the workplace. It does not matter whether they are good at their job; their orientation, even if no one even knows it results in sodomy, is sufficient to allow them to be fired and no law be broken.

And what about the unmarried folks? Must each single employee affirm that she/he is not sexually active?

There are church laws and church laws - laws that must not be transgressed by the employees of Roman Catholic institutions and other laws that may be transgressed and will not trigger job termination. My goodness! That sounds an awful lot like "unjust discrimination".

Of course, the Roman Catholic Church has "...the right to teach what it holds to be the truth concerning homosexual conduct...", but the church does not have the right to impose those teachings on the rest of us who do not belong to the fold.

Not too very long ago, I included Andrew's blog in my Google Reader, but he more than monopolizes the space with his vast number of new posts. I say that only because I'm jealous of and daunted by his prolificity. Does he even take potty breaks?

Thanks to Wade for the link.

STORY OF THE DAY - QUIET PRIDE (DAUGHTER)

For Alison:

There has never been a day when I have
not been proud of you, I said to my
daughter, though some days I'm louder
about other stuff so it's easy to miss
that.


From StoryPeople.

YA GOTTA LOVE THE ALASKANS

From the The Huffington Post:

Don't worry about the oil spilling into the Gulf, Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) says, because the worst spill in U.S. history is "not an environmental disaster," just nature taking its course.

"This is not an environmental disaster, and I will say that again and again because it is a natural phenomenon," Young said after Congressional hearings last week. "Oil has seeped into this ocean for centuries, will continue to do it. During World War II there was over 10 million barrels of oil spilt from ships, and no natural catastrophe. ... We will lose some birds, we will lose some fixed sealife, but overall it will recover."

One might think that ignorance in Congress critters had its limits, but one would be wrong.

"...THOSE MORONS DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING"

From Yahoo News:

Film director and deep-sea explorer James Cameron said on Wednesday that BP Plc turned down his offer to help combat the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

"Over the last few weeks I've watched, as we all have, with growing horror and heartache, watching what's happening in the Gulf and thinking those morons don't know what they're doing," Cameron said at the All Things Digital technology conference.
Cameron, the director of "Avatar" and "Titanic," has worked extensively with robot submarines and is considered an expert in undersea filming. He did not say explicitly who he meant when he referred to "those morons."

But we all know whom Cameron meant, don't we?

His comments came a day after he participated in a meeting at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington to "brainstorm" solutions to the oil spill.

Cameron said he has offered to help the government and BP in dealing with the spill. He said he was "graciously" turned away by the British energy giant.

Perhaps, a great mistake. In this kind of desperate situation, in which BP failed time after time, I say pay attention to anyone with any kind of expertise. And BP should not have the final say on which plan would or would not work.

DOGS DETECT PROSTATE CANCER

From the Los Angeles Times:

Man's best friend may cement his position if early results from French researchers can be replicated. A team of researchers from Tenon Hospital in Paris reported Tuesday at a San Francisco meeting of the American Urological Assn. that dogs can be trained to detect the characteristic odor of unique chemicals released into urine by prostate tumors, setting the stage for a new way to identify men who are most at risk from the cancer. If developed, the test might be more effective than the PSA test now used because it would have fewer false positives.
....

The researchers are now attempting to identify what specific chemicals the dog is reacting to in hopes of developing an "electronic nose" that wouldn't require treats and potty breaks.

It seems to me that treats and potty breaks are not a big price to pay to keep the doggies working. What's wrong with letting the dogs live with their humans and working them for limited periods of time (no sweatshop hours)? After all, in past times, many dogs were working dogs, and even today we have working dogs, such as seeing-eye dogs, airport security dogs, sheep dogs, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, as Yul Brynner would say,

I once flew across the Atlantic, seated next to a man and his seeing-eye dog. The dog lay quietly at her/his human's feet and only shifted around slightly during the whole seven hour trip.

AND MORE PRAYERS...

...for the family of Ann Fontaine's brother, Steve, who passed away on Monday. The funeral will be tomorrow, Friday, at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon, at 1:00 PM (PDT). Ann will lead the service, and Steve and Marlene's priest will serve with her.

Ann asks for prayers to bear her through the service.


From Arkansas Hillbilly:

I spoke with Fr. Roger again today about going to see Bishop Benfield about starting the official discernment process. His answer? We're forming a pre-discernment committee to meet a couple times before approaching the Bishop. More red tape. Well, nothing worth doing is done quickly, I guess. It is frustrating. I mean I've spent the last 18 months working on the degree to get to this point. Well, if I can get my 4 year degree in 18 months while holding down a full time job and with a wife and two babies at home I think I can make it to the next step.

In the meantime, please pray for me that no matter what happens I accept whatever it is Christ has in store for me.

PLEASE PRAY FOR KIRSTIN

From Kirstin:

Pray please


Some of you know I had a mass removed from my abdominal wall last week. They told me it was a lipoma; harmless something like 99% of the time.

My pathology report came back today, consistent with metastatic melanoma.

That is literally all I know. I expect my oncologist in Oakland to call me tomorrow; I'll do a phone consultation with him. And see the oncologist here (Stockton) who is not the one who tried to kill me two years ago. The very least it means is scans and probably more surgery. I don't even know the protocol, if interferon would be done a second time.

I don't know what it means for my ministries in Sacramento. I know I want to continue doing everything I can. And I know that right now, I feel physically fine.

Keep praying.

Heavenly Father, giver of life and health: Comfort and relieve your sick servant Kirstin, and give your power of healing to those who minister to her needs, that she may be strengthened in her weakness and have confidence in your loving care; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.


GOD'S AID

God to enfold her,
God to surround her,
God in her speaking,
God in her thinking.

God in her sleeping,
God in her waking,
God in her watching,
God in her hoping.

God in her life,
God in her lips,
God in her soul,
God in her heart.

God in her sufficing,
God in her slumber,
God in her ever-living soul,
God in her eternity.

From the Carmina Gadelica. (Edit.)

A PASTORAL LETTER TO THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH FROM THE PRESIDING BISHOP

Pentecost continues!

Pentecost is most fundamentally a continuing gift of the Spirit, rather than a limitation or quenching of that Spirit.

The recent statement by the Archbishop of Canterbury about the struggles within the Anglican Communion seems to equate Pentecost with a single understanding of gospel realities. Those who received the gift of the Spirit on that day all heard good news. The crowd reported, “in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power” (Acts 2:11).

The Spirit does seem to be saying to many within The Episcopal Church that gay and lesbian persons are God’s good creation, that an aspect of good creation is the possibility of lifelong, faithful partnership, and that such persons may indeed be good and healthy exemplars of gifted leadership within the Church, as baptized leaders and ordained ones. The Spirit also seems to be saying the same thing in other parts of the Anglican Communion, and among some of our Christian partners, including Lutheran churches in North America and Europe, the Old Catholic churches of Europe, and a number of others.

That growing awareness does not deny the reality that many Anglicans and not a few Episcopalians still fervently hold traditional views about human sexuality. This Episcopal Church is a broad and inclusive enough tent to hold that variety. The willingness to live in tension is a hallmark of Anglicanism, beginning from its roots in Celtic Christianity pushing up against Roman Christianity in the centuries of the first millennium. That diversity in community was solidified in the Elizabethan Settlement, which really marks the beginning of Anglican Christianity as a distinct movement. Above all, it recognizes that the Spirit may be speaking to all of us, in ways that do not at present seem to cohere or agree. It also recognizes what Jesus says about the Spirit to his followers, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:12-13).

The Episcopal Church has spent nearly 50 years listening to and for the Spirit in these matters. While it is clear that not all within this Church have heard the same message, the current developments do represent a widening understanding. Our canons reflected this shift as long ago as 1985, when sexual orientation was first protected from discrimination in access to the ordination process. At the request of other bodies in the Anglican Communion, this Church held an effective moratorium on the election and consecration of a partnered gay or lesbian priest as bishop from 2003 to 2010. When a diocese elected such a person in late 2009, the ensuing consent process indicated that a majority of the laity, clergy, and bishops responsible for validating that election agreed that there was no substantive bar to the consecration.

The Episcopal Church recognizes that these decisions are problematic to a number of other Anglicans. We have not made these decisions lightly. We recognize that the Spirit has not been widely heard in the same way in other parts of the Communion. In all humility, we recognize that we may be wrong, yet we have proceeded in the belief that the Spirit permeates our decisions.

We also recognize that the attempts to impose a singular understanding in such matters represent the same kind of cultural excesses practiced by many of our colonial forebears in their missionizing activity. Native Hawaiians were forced to abandon their traditional dress in favor of missionaries’ standards of modesty. Native Americans were forced to abandon many of their cultural practices, even though they were fully congruent with orthodox Christianity, because the missionaries did not understand or consider those practices exemplary of the Spirit. The uniformity imposed at the Synod of Whitby did similar violence to a developing, contextual Christianity in the British Isles. In their search for uniformity, our forebears in the faith have repeatedly done much spiritual violence in the name of Christianity.

We do not seek to impose our understanding on others. We do earnestly hope for continued dialogue with those who disagree, for we believe that the Spirit is always calling us to greater understanding.

We live in great concern that colonial attitudes continue, particularly in attempts to impose a single understanding across widely varying contexts and cultures. We note that the cultural contexts in which The Episcopal Church’s decisions have generated the greatest objection and reaction are also often the same contexts where women are barred from full ordained leadership, including the Church of England.

As Episcopalians, we note the troubling push toward centralized authority exemplified in many of the statements of the recent Pentecost letter. Anglicanism as a body began in the repudiation of the control of the Bishop of Rome within an otherwise sovereign nation. Similar concerns over self-determination in the face of colonial control led the Church of Scotland to consecrate Samuel Seabury for The Episcopal Church in the nascent United States – and so began the Anglican Communion.

We have been repeatedly assured that the Anglican Covenant is not an instrument of control, yet we note that the fourth section seems to be just that to Anglicans in many parts of the Communion. So much so, that there are voices calling for stronger sanctions in that fourth section, as well as voices repudiating it as un-Anglican in nature. Unitary control does not characterize Anglicanism; rather, diversity in fellowship and communion does.

We are distressed at the apparent imposition of sanctions on some parts of the Communion. We note that these seem to be limited to those which “have formally, through their Synod or House of Bishops, adopted policies that breach any of the moratoria requested by the Instruments of Communion.” We are further distressed that such sanctions do not, apparently, apply to those parts of the Communion that continue to hold one view in public and exhibit other behaviors in private. Why is there no sanction on those who continue with a double standard? In our context bowing to anxiety by ignoring that sort of double-mindedness is usually termed a “failure of nerve.” Through many decades of wrestling with our own discomfort about recognizing the full humanity of persons who seem to differ from us, we continue to work at open and transparent communication as well as congruence between word and behavior. We openly admit our failure to achieve perfection!

The baptismal covenant prayed in this Church for more than 30 years calls us to respect the dignity of all other persons and charges us with ongoing labor toward a holy society of justice and peace. That fundamental understanding of Christian vocation underlies our hearing of the Spirit in this context and around these issues of human sexuality. That same understanding of Christian vocation encourages us to hold our convictions with sufficient humility that we can affirm the image of God in the person who disagrees with us. We believe that the Body of Christ is only found when such diversity is welcomed with abundant and radical hospitality.

As a Church of many nations, languages, and peoples, we will continue to seek every opportunity to increase our partnership in God’s mission for a healed creation and holy community. We look forward to the ongoing growth in partnership possible in the Listening Process, Continuing Indaba, Bible in the Life of the Church, Theological Education in the Anglican Communion, and the myriad of less formal and more local partnerships across the Communion – efforts in mission and ministry that inform and transform individuals and communities toward the vision of the Gospel – a healed world, loving God and neighbor, in the love and friendship shown us in God Incarnate.

May God’s peace dwell in your hearts,
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Churh


Quickly - I think the letter is brilliant and pastoral, as a pastoral letter should be.

H/T to John Chilton at The Lead, where you can view the video of Bishop Katharine giving the address.

THE WINDSOR REPORT - "A DOCUMENT OF FAITH AND ORDER"?

Bishop Marc Andrus of the Episcopal Diocese of California writes an excellent response to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams' Pentecost letter.

The words in Bishop Marc's response concerning the Windsor Report caught my attention:

For example, the Lambeth Conference was explicitly advertised as a non-legislative meeting; indeed we voted on nothing. However, lo and behold, through a non-transparent “consensus building” process, the bishops present (and so, in Archbishop Rowan’s thinking, the Communion) have affirmed the three moratoria put forward by the Windsor Report.

Here it is also important to note that the Windsor Report itself has been reified and given the status of a central Anglican document of faith and order, not by the test of time and use, but by the Archbishop and those who agree with him saying so.

The process by which the Windsor Report morphed to "a document of faith and order" greatly alarms me. What seems to me to be operative is the putting-the-facts-on-the-ground strategy. Whether a matter is so, or not, continue to say it is so, and it will be so. Amazing! Is it really that simple? I think not, but many in the Anglican Communion, from the ABC on down, seem to have either participated in the fabrication of the ruse or fallen for it. The entire maneuver is dishonest and unworthy, and I thank Bishop Marc for laying the matter out so clearly.

I, for one, don't buy the package.