Why this blog?

So, check out this little blog about pastors blogging. It is a small list of the pros and cons for ministry when church leaders blog. You and I could come up with the same list on our own, I think, but it's helpful when others are thinking of some the good reasons for church leaders, like me, to have a blog.

The reason I started this blog was to be able to reach the young adults and college students (and faculty and staff) of the Diocese of Lexington on a regular basis, to:

• allow myself and my theology to be better known by diocesan young adults and others
• publicize and encourage young adult participation in diocesan events and college ministries
• get comments from those I am ministering with, about the world today, different opinions on Christian engagement with our world, and whatever may be in the hearts of young adults in our diocese
• and, hopefully, not last, to have some fun contacting friends and other campus ministers

As time goes on, I am adding and subtracting items from the blog. I need your feedback.

What works for you on this site?

What would you like to see, to assist the ministry of, by and for campus students/faculty/staff and young adults in the Diocese of Lexington??

If you're out there and you're reading this, get back to me!

Vacation pix

Go to the link above to see my Picasa web album. I accidently copied pix that were already there, but this is the first time I have used Picasa, so I guess it will be better next time.

The pix are of our rented cottage near Candler, NC, a canoe trip down the French Broad River, and on a hike on Graveyard trail in Pisgah National Forest, right on the Blue Ridge Parkway outside of Asheville. The trail name comes the logged remains of stumps and then of a fire that swept the area in 1925. It is covered with mostly mountain laurel and other vegetation and has some nice water falls on it.

Sabbath

Vacation time for me. Sabbath.

I am rethinking the meaning of Sabbath in my life. Sabbath is not the utilitarian use of time off, so that you can work harder and be fresher when you return to work. It is not a break from work on which you "recharge your batteries." Sabbath is not like resting a horse to be able to use the horse again.

We are neither horses, nor machines, nor cogs in the machinery of production. Although, I admit we may feel this way often, in the world of work or school.

Sabbath is the reminder to us that we are not in charge. Those who can't take vacations are practicing "functional atheism." They believe that they are so important that they cannot be absent from work because nothing will get done, and their work place will fall apart.

God has other things to teach us on Sabbath. It is that God is in charge of all creation. That we are dependent upon God for all that we have, all that we are, all that we will be. Sabbath is the gift given to us, in a face-to-face encounter with our dependence on God's great mercy and abundance. Without Sabbath, we could learn this, but it would be difficult. The slowing and stillness of mind and body that accompanies true Sabbath make us clearly aware of our dependence.

Sabbath is about thanksgiving, praise, faith, and allowing God to be God.

Bring it on!!

Lambeth--The first Round begins

See the headlines on the right column of this blog for the issue of the Archbishop of Canterbury not inviting Bishop Gene Robinson to the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops for 2008.

I have heard from our own bishop about the House of Bishops' potential response to this latest development. Let it be said that I believe that the Archbishop of Canterbury has shown extreme cowardice in not allowing all to heard and be part of the theological (and politicial) process that is the current discussion of the unity of the Anglican Communion worldwide.

If you are unfamiliar with the issues of bishop's Robinson's ordination as a the first partnered gay bishop, I encourage you to go to the Episcopal News Service web site to learn more.

Or, if you choose, don't. But I can assure you that these issues will not be going away any time soon, and we as a church must respond to them.

What are your thoughts?

Guilt

I heard a good description of guilt, on the audio book, Eat, Pray, Love (Elizabeth Gilbert).

A former South African nun said--

"...guilt is the ego's attempt to convince you that you're making moral progress."

Whoa...
I cannot even begin to contemplate how this works, but it seems so intuitively right. Guilt has a way of grabbing you by the collar and holding on for dear life, and you let it, because it feels so good to beat yourself up for some far-flung, old thing you said, did, or even thought (a la Jimmy Carter). Guilt does not let go easily once that collar has been grasped, and it begins to choke you after a while. Guilt has no power unless you give in to it. Guilt can only be helpful when you have begun to use it for moral improvement--in the Episcopal church, perhaps confession with a third party, prayer, making amends, if possible and if it will improve relationships, and then working to get past this thing, on to new behavior: thinking, speaking, relationships.

It takes a lot of work to break the stranglehold of guilt. You must be courageous, not just guilty: you must be ready for change and transformation, for repentence and conversion (read: literally, "turning around"). Change of self is hard indeed, much harder than nurturing guilt, being kind to it, and letting yourself feel how good it hurts.

Jesus, whenever addressing someone who is guilty, always calls them forward to their best selves, to repent, to give up their wealth, to pick up their pallet and walk. He often asks those he heals if they want to be healed. This is our cue to healthy Christian lives.

Do I want to be healed?

Pentecost, Pizza, Canterbury Pub

Lots happening for young adults in our Diocese this summer. The Young Adult Commission decided on Friday (before Pizza at Pazzo's) that they would sponsor the July Jazz Eucharist for the entire diocese to come--whoa! We are excited.

Also, we are beginning Theology on Tap on 4 Tuesdays in July, starting the 10th. Diocesan leaders will discuss the topic, "What Do Episcopalians Believe?" We are calling our ToT "Canterbury Pub."

All right, so some would say it will not take long to discuss what we believe, because...

But actually, there is a lot in our heritage as Anglicans--

• the three-legged stool of theological sources,
• the "via media",
• the Elizabethan Settlement,
• the Scottish Prayer Book,
• Anglican sacramental theology,
• Anglican liturgy and hymnology,
• Anglican saints,
• Anglican spirituality...

well you get the picture, we could go on quite a while.

What are your questions? What do you want to know about your Anglican heritage, and your Episcopal roots? Email the Young Adult Commission at yac-diolex@googlegroups.com or reply to this blog.

I hope you will come to this venue for age-appropriate beverages in July! We are working on a place that will be announced maybe as soon as later this week.

Pizza at Pazzo's Tonight//Canterbury Pub in July!

Tonight 7 pm.

The young adult commissioners will be talking about Theology on Tap, better known for us at Canterbury Pub.
What would you like to have presented for discussion?
Let us know...

Ascension Day

We celebrate the ascension of Christ into heaven today.

But there is no "up" in this ascension because Christ is at the right hand of God, and God's hand is in all creation. There is no "up" to heaven, because heaven surrounds us. And just so, Jesus surrounds us in his divine presence, gone from us in bodily form, but still with us.

In the propers for this Sunday, the 7th Sunday of Easter, we will read the very last of the High Priestly Prayer, in the Gospel of John, where Jesus asks that God provide his faith community with the same love shown through Christ; that the faith community be in God as Jesus is in God. Today, in the ascension, Christ leaves this earthly realm, but takes us with him in the divine relationship.

We the faith community are now the "locus of love" in the world, showing and mirroring the divine relationship of God and Jesus. We are the divine relationship, in its intimacy, its mutuality, its reciprocity. We the faith community, not a bunch of individuals, but a true community of interconnectedness, are in this together, this love of the world. Pray with Jesus, our intercessor, that God will give us all the glory of this intimate divine relationship, give us peace and love abounding, as we continue the work begun for us in Jesus, the Word made flesh.

Draft Anglican Covenant Study Guide

This came in my email this morning from the Episcopal News Service. It may be of interest to some young adults who are focused on how our church is structured. It relates to the draft Anglican Covenant, or how the many Anglican church entities will organize with each other throughout the world.

Canterbury Fellowship at Morehead State

Morehead is getting going. I met today with the dean of Students to begin the process of formalizing a group for Episcopal/Lutheran students and others interested in a more theologically open religious student group. There are a few steps involved and more students than we currently have, so it will take a few months before we are a formal organization on the MSU campus.
However, it is exciting to be meeting with students and faculty already and have many who seem to be hungry for this ministry.

I ask your prayers for the Canterbury Fellowship at MSU.

Mother's Day Proclamation

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women,
to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother"

This was written in 1870 by Julia Ward Howe in response to the carnage of the Civil War and the Prussion War.

Jimmy and God

Jimmy Carter was interviewed on the radio program Speaking of Faith.
I highly recommend it, he has some interesting things to say about theology and politics, and the peace process in particulare.

Women at the altar, but not for other women??

I'm going to Cincinnati tomorrow with a group of Episcopal women that I belong to. We are staying at Episcopal convent that did not used to allow women to preside at the Eucharist.

See any irony here?!

Thank God, it now does allow women at the altar. I think this was due to new nuns coming into the convent who were more up to date. But a cynical part of me hopes it was not because they ran out of male priests to come preside.

The grounds are really quite nice. They have a beautiful Anglican style chapel, complete with rood screen in dark wood. It is old too, with the altar still on the wall.

What will become of Christianity that is steeped inside these old frames--old buildings and institutions like this convent? Will there still be a place for Christians there? Should there be?

woops

So I was having a good conversation about the theology of anointing for healing of persons who are "standing in" for another person who needs the healing. My friend Michael, chaplain of UCLA commented with the idea of spirituality in a quantum mechanics metaphor. I was asking him to tell me more about this theology.

And then...I accidently deleted my BLOG.

(Here insert a Charlie Brown "ARGH!")

So, I hope we can get back on track, talking about the meaning of healing by proxy.

What do you think?