Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori today issued a pastoral letter.

On May 7, Jefferts Schori joined other religious voices in repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery at the 11th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). The theme for the UNPFII meeting is “The Doctrine of Discovery: its enduring impact on indigenous peoples and the right to redress for past conquests (articles 28 and 37 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples).” In 2009, General Convention repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery.

The text of the letter follows.

Pastoral Letter on the Doctrine of Discovery and Indigenous Peoples

Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”[1]

The first biblical creation story tells of the creation of earth, sky, waters, creatures, and gives human beings dominion over the rest. God pronounces what has been created good. At the end of the original week of creation, with the advent of human beings, God blesses all of it, and pronounces the work very good[2].

The second creation story tells of what goes wrong – the first two earth creatures eat what they have been forbidden to eat, and are then expelled from the garden[3]. They have misunderstood what it means to exercise dominion toward life in the garden. Through the millennia, many of their offspring have continued to misunderstand dominion, or to willfully twist the divine intent of dominion toward the conceit of domination. Through the ages, human beings have too often insisted that what exists has been made for their individual use, and that force may be used against anyone who seems to compete for a particular created resource[4]. The result has been enormous destruction, death, despair, and downright evil – what is more commonly called “sin.”

The blessings of creation are meant to be stewarded, in the way of husbanding and housekeeping, for the true meaning of dominion is tied to the constellation of meanings around house and household. There have been strands of the biblical tradition which have kept this sacred understanding alive, but the unholy quest for domination has sought to quench it, in favor of wanton accumulation and exclusive possession of the goods of creation for an individual or a small part of the blessed family of God.

After that eviction from the primordial garden, the biblical stories are mostly about how human communities strive to return to a homeland that will be a source of blessing for the community. Through the long centuries, the prophetic understanding of that community broadens to include all the nations of the earth. Even so, the seemingly eternal struggle between dominators and stewards has continued to the present day.

Most of the passages in the Bible that talk about land are yearning for a fertile place, where people are able to grow crops, tend flocks, and live in peace. The offspring of those first human beings gave rise to peoples who hungered for land, and many of them did a great deal of violence through the ages in order to occupy and possess it. They weren’t alone, for the empires of Alexander, Rome, and Genghis Khan were also the result of amassing conquered territory. The Christian empires of Europe were consumed with battles over land for centuries, and eventually sent military expeditions across the Mediterranean in a quest to re-establish a Christian claim on what they called the Holy Land.

The explorers who set out from Christian Europe in the 15th century went with even broader motivations, in search of riches and abundantly fertile lands. They also went with religious warrants, papal bulls which permitted and even encouraged the subjugation and permanent enslavement of any non-Christian peoples they encountered, as well as the expropriation of any territories not governed by Christians[5]. Western Christian religious authorities settled competitions over these conquests by dividing up the geography that could be claimed among the various European nations.

These religious warrants led to the wholesale slaughter, rape, and enslavement of indigenous peoples in the Americas, as well as in Africa, Asia, and the islands of the Pacific, and the African slave trade was based on these same principles. Death, dispossession, and enslavement were followed by rapid depopulation as a result of introduced and epidemic disease. Yet death and dispossession of lands and resources were not a singular occurrence that can be laid up to the depredations of benighted medieval warriors. They are not akin to Viking raids in the British Isles, or ancient struggles between neighboring tribes in Europe or Africa. These acts of “Discovery” have had persistent effects on marginalized, transported, and disenfranchised peoples.

The ongoing dispossession of indigenous peoples is the result of legal systems throughout the “developed” world that continue to base land ownership on these religious warrants for colonial occupation from half a millennium ago. These legal bases collectively known as the Doctrine of Discovery underlie U.S. decisions about who owns these lands[6]. The dispossession of First Peoples continues to wreak havoc on basic human dignity. These principles give the lie to biblical understandings that all human beings reflect the image of God, for those who have been thrown out of their homeland, had their cultures largely erased, and sent into exile, are still grieving their loss of identity, lifeways, and territory. All humanity should be grieving, for our sisters and brothers are suffering the injustice of generations. The sins of our forebears are being visited on the children of indigenous peoples, even to the seventh generation.

There will be no peace or healing until we attend to that injustice. The prophets of ancient Israel cried out for justice when their ability to live in the land they saw as home was threatened. A day laborer named Amos challenged those around him with the word of God, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream”[7]. Where there is no justice, there can be no peace for anyone.

In the North American context, the poorest of the poor live on Native reservations. The depth of poverty there is closely followed by the poverty among ghettoized descendants of the indigenous peoples of Africa who were transported to these shores as slaves. That kind of poverty is also frequent in other parts of the world where indigenous people have been dispossessed and displaced. Healing is not possible, it is not even imaginable, until the truth is told and current reality confronted. The basic dignity and human rights of first peoples have been repeatedly transgressed, and the outcome is grievous – poverty, cultural destruction, and multi-generational consequences. The legacy of grief that continues unresolved is visible in skyrocketing suicide rates, rampant hopelessness, and deep anger. In many contexts it amounts to pathological or impacted grief – for when hope is absent, healing is impossible.

The legacy of domination includes frightful evil – the intentional destruction of food sources and cultural centers like the herds of North American bison, the intentional introduction of disease and poisoning of water sources, wanton disregard of starvation and illness, the abuse and enslavement of women and children, the murder of those with the courage to protest inhumane treatment, the repeated dispossession of natural resources, land, and water, as well as chronically inadequate Federal management and defense of Native rights and resources.

There have been some glimmers of justice in decisions that have returned Native fishing and hunting rights, and some improvements in tribal rights to self-determination. There is a very small and slow return of bison to the prairie, and wolves have begun to return in places where they are not immediately hunted down. Yet many of these recoveries continue to be strenuously resisted by powerful non-Native commercial interests.

There are signs of hope in returning cultural treasures to their communities of origin, and the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act[8] is returning remains for dignified burial. The legacy of cultural genocide is slowly being addressed as indigenous traditions, languages, and cultural skills are taught to new generations.

The Episcopal Church has been present and ministering with Native peoples in North America for several centuries. That history of accompaniment and solidarity has hardly been perfect, yet we continue to seek greater justice and deeper healing.

The Episcopal Church’s relationship with Native peoples in the Americas begins with the first English colonists. We remember the story of Manteo, a Croatan of what is now North Carolina. He traveled to England in 1584 and helped a colleague of Sir Walter Raleigh learn to speak Algonquin. He returned here the next year, became something of an ambassador between the two peoples, was baptized, and is counted a saint of this church[9].

Episcopal missionaries have served in a variety of indigenous communities and contexts. Henry Benjamin Whipple was Bishop of Minnesota in 1862, and his powerful petition to Abraham Lincoln saved the lives of some 265 of the Dakota men sentenced to hang the day after Christmas in Mankato[10]. The Dakota people called him “Straight Tongue.” Today many Dakota and Lakota people are part of this Episcopal tradition.

This Church has stood in solidarity with native peoples in Alaska, Hawai’i, and the American southwest, especially the Diné (Navajo), as well as in urban Indian communities. The Poarch Band of Creek Indians (in Alabama) achieved federal recognition in the 1980s with the aid of baptismal records maintained by this Church, which also assisted in returning a piece of land to the Poarch Band[11]. A large group of indigenous people in Ecuador is seeking recognition as worshiping communities in the Episcopal tradition, and we have other indigenous members and communities in Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras, and Micronesia. Our historical presence in the Philippines began with the indigenous Igorot peoples of the mountains and highlands.

Healing work continues across The Episcopal Church. In 1997 Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning apologized for the enormities that began with the colony in Jamestown[12]. Today our understanding of mission has changed. We believe that God’s mission is about healing brokenness in the world around us – broken relationships between human beings and the Creator, broken relationships between peoples, and damaged relationships between human beings and the rest of creation. We seek to partner in God’s mission through proclaiming a vision of a healed world; forming Christians as partners in that mission; responding to human suffering around us; reversing structural and systemic injustice; and caring for this earthly garden[13]. We partner with any and all who share a common vision for healing, whether Episcopalian or Christian or not.

Work with indigenous peoples in recent years has been intensely focused on issues of poverty and the generational consequences of cultural destruction, the reality of food deserts and diabetes rates on reservations, unemployment and inadequate educational resources, as well as the ongoing reality of racism and exclusion in the larger society[14]. Mission and development work in Native communities is locally directed, honoring the gifts and assets already present[15], and moves toward a vision of healed community. We partner with White Bison in community organizing that develops training programs for community healing[16]. This is a historic development, the first such partnership between a traditional Native American non-profit and The Episcopal Church.

This Church has worked to alleviate systemic and structural injustice in many ways, and our repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery in 2009 is a recent example[17]. Since at least 1976, our advocacy work has included support for First Nations land claims in Canada, advocacy with the U.S. government for improved health care, religious freedom, preservation of burial sites and repatriation of remains and cultural resources, increased Federal tribal recognition, and critical Federal Government self-examination around Native American rights. We have affirmed and reaffirmed our desire to strengthen relationships with Native peoples by remembering the past, recognizing the deficits and gifts in our historic and current relationships, and continued work toward healing[18]. We are currently advocating for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, with provisions directly affecting Native women.

The Doctrine of Discovery work of this Church is focused on education, dismantling the structures and policies based on that ancient evil, support for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples[19], and challenging governments around the world to support self-determination for indigenous peoples.

We seek to address the need for healing in all parts of society, and we stand in solidarity with indigenous peoples globally to acknowledge and address the legacy of colonial occupation and policies of domination. Our Christian heritage has taught us that a healed community of peace is only possible in the presence of justice for all peoples. We seek to build such a beloved community that can be a sacred household for all creation, a society of right relationships.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us… and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near… So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God[20]

We pray that God will give us the strength and courage to do this work together for the good of all our relations, in the belief that Christ Jesus ends hostility and brings together those who were once divided.

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

_________________________________

[1] Genesis 1:26
[2] Genesis 1:1-2:3
[3] Genesis 2:4-3:24
[4] Commodification or what Heidegger called Bestand, cf. The Question Concerning Technology or Being and Time
[5] Doctrine of Discovery resources: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/page/doctrine-discovery-resources
[6] cf. Johnson v M’Intosh: http://en.wikipedia

In the Dallas Morning News' blog on religion, theologians from all over Texas consider the question of marriage equality and of how and whether the church should shift when the culture does - or if it's the other way around - or both - or something else entirely.

Fort Worth's Katie Sherrod takes a reasoned swing at the question.

In The Episcopal Church, change happens as a result of the church exploring scripture through the lenses of tradition and reason as we seek to understand what scripture is saying to us in our day. That, and the impetus of the Holy Spirit.

For instance, deputies to the General Convention of The Episcopal Church in Indianapolis this summer will vote on a resolution "authorizing liturgical resources for blessing same-gender relationships . . .for trial use . . . beginning the First Sunday of Advent 2012, under the direction of a bishop exercising ecclesiastical authority."

If passed, it means that "bishops, particularly those in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same-gender marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships are legal,may provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this Church, including adaptation of the liturgy and declaration of intention" contained in the liturgical resources.

A second resolution requests General Convention create a Task Force on the Study of Marriage "to identify and explore biblical, theological,historical, liturgical, and canonical dimensions of marriage" and to "consider issues raised by changing societal and cultural norms and legal structures, including legislation authorizing or forbidding marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships between two people of the same sex, in the U.S. and other countries where The Episcopal Church is located," and that they "develop tools for theological reflection and norms for theological discussion at a local level" and report back to the 2015 General Convention.

How did The Episcopal Church arrive at this astonishing point in its history? Well, it took more than thirty years of patient work by faithful lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Episcopalians and their allies. These individuals collaborated with each other and with other justice groups in the church such as the Episcopal Women's Caucus (which led the effort to get the church to authorize ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate), and the Union of Black Episcopalians (the leader in ongoing efforts to eradicate racism in the church) to educate the church about the realities and astonishing diversity of human sexuality; to explore and develop theological and scriptural foundations for the full inclusion of LGBT people in the life and worship of the church, and -- perhaps most important of all -- to put a human face on what had been a theoretical issue for most Episcopalians.

This patient witness and the hard work of education on this subject were perhaps slightly easier in The Episcopal Church than in other denominations because of our Anglican tradition.

Anglicanism, of which The Episcopal Church is the expression in the United States and in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe, famously relies on the three-legged stool of scripture, tradition and reason to make the connections between our God-given reason and the scripture given to us by God. This connection, used in the context of the tradition of the church, enables us to apply our ability to reason to make sense of what scripture is saying to us in our day.

Churches other than The Episcopal Church do this as well, of course. How else would so many Christian churches come to accept divorce, against which Jesus spoke with great clarity in scripture? Even so, along with many other denominations in the mid 1970's, the Episcopal Church changed its canon law about divorce. Our forebears in Christian churches did the same in coming to terms with the evils of slavery, which scripture clearly condones.

Jesus had nothing, not one word, to say about homosexuality. The famous story of Sodom in Hebrew Scripture is not about homosexuality, but about abuse of hospitality. Levitical passages refer to temple prostitution, not committed lifelong relationships among gay people. Indeed, the word "homosexual" did not exist until the mid-1800s. Patient and thorough work by numerous theologians and biblical scholars has undergirded the evolution of thought on this issue in The Episcopal Church.

In the end, I think it all comes down to a theology of baptism. What does it mean to mark someone as Christ's own forever? That is work The Episcopal Church has been doing for the last century, as it works to understand and live out our baptismal covenant to seek and serve Christ is all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.

The L.A. Times reports on Bike Week L.A.:

... dozens of cyclists rode to Good Samaritan Hospital for the ninth annual Blessing of the Bicycles. A rabbi talked about living green. A nun spoke of guardian angels. And the Rev. Jerry Anderson, an Episcopal priest and hospital chaplain, sprinkled holy water on bikers and their bikes.

Jody Nathan, a Sun Valley high school biology teacher, came from Pasadena, with a paisley-patterned yellow backpack on her back. In it was Zooma, her Chihuahua, who wore Doggles-brand silver goggles decorated with skull and crossbone stickers.

Nathan, 48, who frequently commutes by bike to work and back, 25 miles each way, has been in three accidents, including one that landed her at Good Samaritan. She had been hit by a car, she said, and ended up with a broken wrist and some stitches.

....

"This bike needs blessing, the way I ride," [Celeste Douglas, 39, of East Hollywood] said as she asked Anderson, the priest, "Do you have one more blessing?"

LifeWay Christian Resources - a product of the Southern Baptist Convention - recently polled 2,144 Americans using an online instrument. They were asked, "Do you believe homosexuality is a sin?"

44% said yes.

43% said no.

13% weren't sure.

It's always important to remember who's asking and why. As an unabashed arm of the Southern Baptists, LifeWay may be trying to ring an alarmist bell, claiming a tipping point is near, and that all it will take to start full-blown culture wars or Armageddon or whatever is just one more state making gay marriage legal.

'Course, if you go with information released by Gallup on Monday, it's more of a done deal, and attitudes have already shifted in favor of acceptance of gay relationships and rights.

We like how Box Turtle Bulletin articulates the kind of careful self-deception that's long fueled outfits like LifeWay.

For many years, conservative Christians have played a word game with themselves and the public. When it came to discussions about sin and love, there was a careful distinction between the person and the behavior. They could joyously love the sinner (but not his sin) so much that they longed for his soul to know God (and give up all that sin). But when it came to individual rights and civil liberties, that distinction evaporated. When talking about whether someone should have job security or the right to rent an apartment, suddenly the Bible declared “it’s a sin”.

This allowed conservatives the comfort of convincing themselves that the American public still agreed with them, still deferred to them on matters of religious conscience. Should Connecticut allow marriage or should Lincoln choose to ban anti-gay employment discrimination, well at least they know that they are accommodating immorality.

Sharing communion without first baptizing a person is a small but common practice in the Episcopal Church right now. There's been a great deal of discussion on the question here on the Episcopal Café over the past few years. (You can read an essay from 2007 here, and a series of three essays posted last year beginning with Part 1, and then Part 2 and Part 3.) These discussions generate more comments than any other subject on the Café. And now some of the ideas being discussed are going to be voted on at General Convention this summer.

The Diocese of Eastern Oregon has proposed a resolution that would remove any bar to anyone receiving Holy Eucharist. But it's not the only one.

"[There are] two resolutions on this topic [that] convention will consider when it meets July 4-12 in Indianapolis. The Diocese of North Carolina has proposed a longer-term look at the issue. Resolution C029 calls for a special commission to conduct ‘a study of the theology underlying access to Holy Baptism and Holy Communion’ and recommend to the 78th General Convention any amendment to Canon 1.17.7 it believes is needed.

The texts of both resolutions are available here. Eastern Oregon’s is accompanied by a diocesan statement explaining its stance.

This will be the second time in recent years that what is variously called open communion, open table and communion of the non- or unbaptized has come to convention. In 2006, the General Convention affirmed Canon 1.17.7 (via Resolution D084) and asked for the House of Bishops Committee on Theology and the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to provide to the 2009 meeting of convention ‘a pastoral and theological understanding of the relationship between Holy Baptism and eucharistic practice.’"

Mary Frances Schjonberg has collected a huge compendium of resources in an article posted on the Episcopal News Service this afternoon. It turns out that this controversy has been discussed to one degree or another since at least 1982 in the Episcopal Church. The discussion in church history goes all the way back to Didache, written in the first centuries of the Church's life.

Schjonberg's article contains links to all the original Episcopal Church material such as previous resolutions, Ecumenical statements and position papers.

You can find the whole history of the Episcopal Church's Communion without baptism discussion here. If you're preparing for General Convention, this is some must reading.

The Church of Ireland met in General Synod last week. Last year, Dean Tom Gordon entered into a civil partnership with his long time partner and in so doing created a crisis in the Irish Anglican church. After attempts by the bishops to reiterate the traditional opposition to marriage equality in the church as part of a temporizing compromise, a push by the progressive voices to oppose that plan has highlighted the disagreement within the church.

"In a public display of the disagreements within the Church of Ireland’s leadership on the issue of homosexuality, Bishops Michael Burrows and Paul Colton voted against the motion at the church’s general synod in Dublin, while the 10 other bishops supported it.

Saturday’s debate was the first time that the church had openly debated homosexuality since the News Letter revealed last September that the first serving Church of Ireland cleric had entered a civil partnership.

Yesterday a liberal Dublin minister blamed conservatives from Northern Ireland for having ‘suddenly appeared’ on Saturday to vote through the motion.

But the leading evangelical bishop, Harold Miller – who seconded Saturday’s motion – dismissed that and said: ‘Anyone who wanted to be there could be there.’"

More here.

The motion, which states "faithfulness within marriage is the only normative context for sexual intercourse" and is therefore a rejection of either civil partnerships or "gay marriage", is feared by liberal voices in the Church of Ireland to intended for use in a "witch hunt" against gay clergy. There are no plans as yet to use the resolution as the basis for a disciplinary action against Dean Gordon.

Two of the bishops who voted for the motion stated they were doing so in an attempt to maintain unity within the Anglican Communion. Their speeches were given "loud applause".

The motion does contain language which calls upon the Church of Ireland to "continuing commitment to love our neighbour, and opposition to all unbiblical and uncharitable actions and attitudes in respect of human sexuality from whatever perspective, including bigotry, hurtful words or actions, and demeaning or damaging language.”

One of the reports submitted to General Convention this year analyzes the interest in the Episcopal Church in revising the 1982 Hymnal. The task of doing the research was passed to the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music, and they've posted their long report on the Church Pension Group website. (See update below for more information regarding the report itself.)

The report contains information that might be surprising to some, but not to all. Robert Hendrikson blogs:

"The group that was most resistant to the idea of revising the hymnal are those under 29 years of age. They are the most resistant by a large percentage. The report concludes, on page 57,

‘Respondents in their twenties and younger are statistically different than the rest of the respondents, reporting the least interest in desiring worship music to reflect their personal musical tastes. This proves counter to the ‘common knowledge’ theory that younger congregants are looking for a more modern or popular-music experience at church.’

The survey found that those ‘whose age is significantly above or below 50 are less likely to support revision. Middle-aged Episcopalians are more supportive of revision than younger and older Episcopalians.’

Among clergy, the numbers are striking, ‘Specifically, both the youngest and oldest clerics tend to be more opposed to revision, while middle-aged clergy are more favorably disposed. Clergy who are younger than 30, in fact, are nearly two-thirds in opposition to revision.’"

There was strong support from female clergy for revising the language of the hymns, and less from the male clergy. There was no gender based difference among the laity who filled out the survey.

More from the Curate's Desk blog here.

Go read the blog analysis. And then come back and tell us what you think.

UPDATE: A clarification on the authors of the report; the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music asked the Church Pension Fund's research group to conduct the study on its behalf, and it is that group that developed and administered the surveys, and wrote the report that is posted on the Church Pension Group website.

Bishop Stacy Sauls, chief operating officer of the Episcopal Church, sent the following e-mail to the church's staff yesterday in the employee newsletter. In it he discusses the role of the Church Center staff:

Not Being Overcome by Fear

Our attention as a staff will undoubtedly become increasingly focused on General Convention as we enter the homestretch to July. Some of that attention will be on various resolutions reflecting things that we as a staff are working on. Some of it will be on what it feels like to be micromanaged by a committee of over a thousand people. A great deal of it, no doubt, will be on the budget and the budget’s consequences for the work we do and on our livelihoods. There is no doubt that General Convention is an anxious time for the staff of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society. It is for the Church as a whole, too. And it is even more anxious at this moment of fundamental change, and indeed, crisis.

With that in mind, it is perhaps a good time to remind you of something I said when I first had the chance to address you as a staff last September.

I believe The Episcopal Church is being called to a great adventure at this particular moment, the adventure of reforming the Church for a world unlike any it has ever tried to serve before. All of us, to one extent or another, are having a hard time letting go of what we have known in favor of grasping what is becoming and, indeed, shaping what is becoming. It is true at all levels of the Church’s leadership. It is true of bishops, dioceses, congregations, and individual members. It is true of the General Convention. It is true of us as a staff. It would be untruthful of me to tell you there was no element of risk in this adventure before us. In truth, I think there is a great deal of risk in it.

The very name of our organization, the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society is adventurous. Being a missionary is inherently adventurous. What we are setting out to become is a domestic and foreign missionary society in a much more fundamental way than a mere corporate name, in a much more adventurous way than we are currently doing, in a much more risky way than we have had to do before. I think the world’s salvation may be in that. I know ours is.

We as the staff of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society have the opportunity to lead that adventure, and I am determined that we will. Leadership is risky business as I have certainly found out in the last few days. It is dangerous. I have found that out, too. But the adventure is going to be a lot more fun, I promise you, than attempting to cling to an old way of doing ministry that no longer matters. We might be able to prop up the system we have for a few years more, but the new world God is creating is coming nevertheless. God’s word to us at this moment, I am absolutely convinced is, “Go for it.” For the truth is that we as the DFMS staff will either shape the future or have it shaped for us. And if it is shaped for us, it will then be imposed on us. We have before us the opportunity to shape our own future or stand passively by and let others do that for us. I just don’t think passivity is a very healthy spiritual position to be in. And, as you have heard me say, working for the Church ought not be a spiritually damaging experience. Whether it is or not is largely up to us.

This is where we now find ourselves. What are we going to take the opportunity to shape? Will be “go for it” or not? Will we lead or be led? Will we serve or hide? Will we be active or passive? What the Church needs from us right now is leadership. We have work to do.

So, here’s one other excerpt from my September address to you, then my new colleagues and now my trusted colleagues.

Here’s what really matters. Going for it is always better than not. Adventure is always better than safety. Safety, it seems to me, is at the root of a lot of boredom, a lot of status quo, a lot of disease, and a lot of stuck, but not much at the root of God. That is why it never ceases to amaze me that so much about religion is about playing it safe. Now what I’m about to say, I realize, may be heretical. This, you will come to realize, is not unusual. What is interesting to me is that the word safe is the noun form of the verb to save. Religion may be mostly about being safe. Faith, on the other hand, is not. Faith is about adventure. In truth it involves no small amount of risk. The risks can be material or spiritual, often both.

Being safe is, of course, one metaphor the Bible uses to describe the experience of God, but it is not the only one, and I don’t even think it is the main one. The main one is much more about risking and adventuring. Abraham and Sarah were called to leave their safety in Ur to seek an adventure in God’s promise of a new life. Moses is called to leave the safety of tending his father-in-law’s flocks into a very risky confrontation with Pharaoh. The Hebrew people were called to leave the safety of their lives in Egypt to seek the more difficult path of freedom. Amos was called to leave the safety of dressing sycamore trees to speak on behalf of justice. Jeremiah was called out of the safety of the womb to speak dangerous truth to power. Andrew, Peter, James, and John were called to leave the safety of what they were used to for the adventure of what they were not. I find myself a lot more interested in the adventuring than in the saving. In fact, I think adventure and being saved in the truest sense are actually the same thing.

All this has something to do with why the most prevalent angelic message in the Bible is this: Do not be afraid. It is what the angel told Mary when God had an adventure to propose to her. It is what the angels told the shepherds when suggesting they leave their flocks behind to go in search of something else. It is what the angels told the women who found the tomb empty on the first Easter. Like Mary and the shepherds and the woman at the tomb, it helps to be reminded of this basic message: Do not be afraid, or in other words, “Go for it.” Go for it because what is safe and secure is an illusion, and illusions are never of God. God is in the adventure.

When the people of God choose adventure, there will always be someone urging what is safe instead. Sometimes they will actually do everything they can to prevent the adventure. Safety is admittedly tempting. I just don’t see much evidence that God is much in it. It was the adventure of the Exodus that became the standard for the people of Israel. I’m not sure I can think of a time when Jesus ever chose to play it safe. None of the people we regard as saints were much about safety. “Fear not,” the angels always say, which of course doesn’t mean not to feel fear. It means not to be overcome by it.

Peace,

+Stacy

What are your thoughts about his e-mail?

I lack the theological and historical chops to assess Eric Berkowitz's claim that the Catholic Church celebrated same-sex unions between men in medieval times, or to distinguish his claims from those of the late historian John Boswell. But I would be delighted to hear from commenters who can give us a sense of whether Berkowitz is saying anything new or significant. He writes:

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From the Chicago Consultation:

In October, some 25 Anglican leaders from across Africa gathered with more than a dozen Episcopalians from the United States for a consultation on issues of justice and human sexuality.

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Gretta writes in Salon:

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Andrew Sullivan has an excellent round up of reaction focusing on the religious aspects of President Obama's historic endorsement of marriage equality.

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Odyssey Networks wraps up last week's religion news. Like many media outlets, they give the Catholic League more visibility that it deserves.

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Last year, the Rev. Greg Syler,rector of St. George's Episcopal Church in Valley Lee, Maryland, wrote a thoughtful piece about the historical origins of Mothers' Day, and we thought you might like to read it again. It does not conclude in a warm and fuzzy fashion, but that is its strength:

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The Rev. John Yates, rector of the schismatic Falls Church, is entitled to his own opinion about the events that led him and his followers to break with the Episcopal Church. He is entitled to having those opinions published in The Washington Post. He is not, however, entitled to his own facts.

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The Diocese of Chicago, which has a companion relationship with the Diocese of Renk, links to difficult news this morning about the deteriorating situation along the Sudan-South Sudan border.

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Work it Richmond discusses difficult customers and assesses the costs of sending them on their way. How do you think this might apply to church or not.

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Derek Olsen, frequent contributor to Daily Episcopalian, writes in the Washington Post.

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Walter Wink, one of the most influential Bible scholars and theologians died May 10 at age 76. Ekklesa writes:

At the time of his death, he was Professor Emeritus of Biblical Interpretation at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York. He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1961. He developed nuanced biblical arguments in favour of pacifism, anti-capitalism and the acceptance of same-sex relationships.

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The National Cathedral in Washington DC dedicated a stone carving of Rosa Parks yesterday according to USAToday:

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Kate Blanchard, writing at Religion Dispatches, reflects on her spiritual journey and finds that none of the usual labels--religious, spiritual or atheist--fit. She proposes an alternative.

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David Gibson at Religion News Service notices that in America, the Golden Rule--treating others as you wish to be treated--is still at the heart of popular (and political) American religious thought.

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The New York Times ran a "Room for Debate" on whether churches should continue to enjoy tax exemption. Among the variety of views was the observation that tax-exemption allows for freedom of religious expression by small progressive groups mainly in cities where taxes are generally higher.

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The Rt. Rev. Eugene Sutton writes on forgiveness in The Washington Post. Following the murder of a priest and administrator at St. Peter's Episcopal Church of Maryland Sutton comments on a country that votes down programs for those who find themselves hungry and homeless and votes up easy access to guns:

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When President Obama endorsed same-sex marriage this week, he cited his faith, and this highlighted the fact that different Christians read the same Bible differently and see different implications. The Rev. Canon Susan Russel talked about this on NPR's Morning Edition today.

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The Diocese of Los Angeles has won another appeal in the ongoing dispute with two breakaway congregations.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

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Updated. US Catholic has what ought to be an April Fool's Day story, but isn't. Bryan Cones writes:

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(Via e-mail) Bishop Mariann Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington released the following statement on President Barack Obama's endorsement of marriage equality:

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From Anglican Communion News Service

The Most Revd Dr Barry Morgan, Primate of The Church in Wales, has been elected to serve on the Crown Nominations Commission for Canterbury, the body that will nominate the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

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Susan Russell posts:

Just finished an interview with NPR's fabulous Barbara Bradley Haggerty. Look for her segment on Obama, Faith & Marriage Equality tomorrow on Morning Edition!

Affirming a trial court's judgment as sound, a Nashville-based appeals court found for the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee against a former parish's representatives, court documents testify.

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From the Huffington Post:

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. -- The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland is offering forgiveness and a funeral service for a homeless man who killed himself after fatally shooting a priest and church secretary last week.

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Reuters reports professional boxer and current WBO welterweight champ Manny Pacquiao has cleaned up his partying ways and gone biblical - or at least, started reading the Bible with regularity - with the result that he's a better, more focused fighter.

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In an interview with ABC News, Barack Obama today became the first sitting U. S. President to endorse marriage equality:

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The Rt. Rev. Michael B. Curry of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina offers the following on the day after the passage of Amendment One.

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Every so often, in and amongst the general chatter, something catches your attention. Crusty Old Dean (Bexley Hall's Rev. Dr. Tom Ferguson) made this blogger sit up straight this morning in an entry on blips and germs in an entry he calls a manifesto.

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In a move long anticipated, Reform Jews are phasing out "investiture" of cantors and are moving toward ordination, JTA reports.

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Maurice Sendak died today, but not before showing us how the wild rumpus starts.

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The "spiritual but not religious" people in society, while not growing as a percentage of society, do seem to be driving a marked increase in the number of people providing spiritual direction.

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I attended a clericus meeting in Arizona today. One of the topics that came up in our free ranging discussion was the changes that have happened to small to medium size churches that used to be able to employ a full time seminary trained priest. What used to be the most common model of parish ministry has become almost a rarity.

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We covered the demonstration following rejection of any official accommodation of conscience for clergy and laity in the Methodist Church who are supporters of marriage equality last week. But there's more to what happened than just the demonstration. The Conference decided, after the votes that would have officially admitted a diversity of opinion to cancel all subsequent votes on issues touching on the same subject.

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Bishop George Packard, arrested during the occupation of Zuccotti park last December, was arrested again over the weekend at the Vietnam Veteran's memorial in New York City this weekend. He was participating in a protest by the group "Veterans for Peace".

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What happens when the religious leader in a community loses their belief in God? For some it's a secret they hide. For others it means the end of their vocation. For some it's a temporary thing. And for some it's become a reason to seek support from others in a similar state.

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Among the more intriguing developments on the religious and political landscape in the past five or six years is the increasing concern for our deteriorating environment among evangelical Christians, especially young evangelical Christians. The Rev. Dr. David Gushee, director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University, charts his own involvement in this movement in a thoughtful essay for the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard University Medical Center.

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On the eve of the day on which voters in North Carolina will decide whether to add discrimination against gays and lesbians to the state constitution, Fred Clark, also known as Slacktivist, directs us to three commentators who could enlarge Billy Graham's sense of what it means to be Christian.

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The presentation that Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is making at provincial synods is now online. Here is an excerpt, what do you think about it?

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St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Sioux City, Iowa, whose rector is the Cafe's own Father Torey Lightcap, needs your help. St. Thomas' community garden is one of 15 such gardens vying in online voting for a $4,000 grant from DeLoach Vineyards.

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The Rev. Kirk Kubicek, co-rector of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Ellicott City, Maryland, delivered this sermon yesterday morning. St. Peter's is the church at which a mentally unstable homeless man shot and killed co-rector the Rev. Mary Marguerite Kohn and parish administrator Brenda Brewington on Friday, and then killed himself.

Here is an excerpt:

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On Friday, Douglas Jones, a homeless man who became angry after being told that he needed to reduce his visits to the food pantry at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Ellicott City, Md., shot and killed the Rev. Mary-Marguerite Kohn, the parish's co-rector and Brenda Brewington, its administrator. Jones then killed himself.

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A press release from Canticle Communications:

DIOCESES OF QUINCY AND CHICAGO CONTINUE REUNIFICATION TALKS

Bishops, Diocesan leaders seek to build relationships, conduct due diligence

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