by Demi Prentiss

Return

If you’ve stumbled and fallen, if your initial fervor and zeal have faded away, if you haven’t been true to your promise to love and serve God with your whole heart, if you’re keenly aware of your weakness, don’t be troubled. Don’t waste time wallowing in guilt and shame. Simply return, in repentance and faith, and offer yourself once again. There can be no doubt that God will welcome you with open arms. –  Br. David Vryhof, SSJE

Looking at the history of the Israelites, the stories of Jesus’s disciples, and the church as we know it today, Br. David sees our fervent desire to grow as God’s people combined with our daily – perhaps hourly – need to turn around and renew our relationship with God.

Mirabai Starr, author and teacher, has offered a fresh translation of the work of Julian of Norwich, a 14^th century English mystic. Julian is thought to be the first woman to write a book in English which has survived. Starr reminds us that Br. David’s understanding of our need to return to the heart of God is not new:

Julian informs us that the suffering we cause ourselves through our acts of greed and unconsciousness is the only punishment we endure. God, who is All-Love, is “incapable of wrath.” And so it is a complete waste of time, Julian realized, to wallow in guilt. The truly humble thing to do when we have stumbled is to hoist ourselves to our feet as swiftly as we can and rush into the arms of God where we will remember who we really are. ^[1]

There was a time in my life when I would have dismissed these thoughts as “cheap grace.”  How could the journey of a holy life be so simple? Surely there had to be more to it – more effort, more toil and sweat. Not to mention more suffering and more cowering in fear of an angry God.  Somehow the spiritual life ought to be more stressful and dramatic – shouldn’t it?

Sometimes, I think, we resist the truth that God, who is love, longs for that magnetic love to compel our return. Longs for humility and God’s grace to outweigh our pride and our stubbornness.  Longs for us to practice persistence in surrender as the naturally-chosen life-giving path, back to the welcoming arms of our “prodigal father.” Our arrogant notion that the high drama of our suffering might persuade God to forgive us, though enthralling, is just not God’s way.

The story is told that, when asked what monks do all day in the monastery, the abbot answered, “We fall down and we get up, we fall down and we get up.”  In the Beloved Community, “fallen” is not our spiritual home.  God calls us to get up, and take the next step in grace.

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^[1] Mirabai Starr, introduction to Julian of Norwich – The Showings, xviii–xix. Quoted in Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations (Wed., Aug. 14, 2024)

by Demi Prentiss

Today – July 29, 2024 – is the fiftieth anniversary of the “irregular” ordinations in Church of the Advocate, Philadelphia of “The Philadelphia Eleven.”  The courage brought to life in those ordinations cracked opened the door to priestly ordination in The Episcopal Church for “others” of all sorts.

That day, “the earth [was] remade,” as one of The Eleven later described it.  The recognition that God’s call – like God’s love – extends to all God’s people has reshaped Episcopalians’ understanding of the Baptismal Covenant. (Book of Common Prayer, 304-305).

Have you seen Margo Guernsey’s documentary film The Philadelphia Eleven? Episcopal News Service explained, “The film tells the story of what it calls ‘an act of civil disobedience.’ The ordinations took place two years and a few weeks before the General Convention agreed that it was permissible for women to become priests and bishops. The 11 were harassed and received death threats.”^[1]

In his welcoming remarks at the film’s premier, Bishop Daniel Gutiérrez (Diocese of Pennsylvania) said, “…the cataracts on the eyes of the church and society were removed” when the Philadelphia 11 were ordained. The event confirmed that “the divine image cannot be defaced or distorted by patriarchy, ignorance, hate, fear, marginalization or any of the -isms or constrictions we tend to create,” he said.

One of those eleven pioneers, Alla Renée Bozarth, wrote of that day:

Call
Inspired by “Mountain Moving Day,” 1911,  by the Japanese Feminist Poet, Yosano Akiko.

There is a new sound
of roaring voices
in the deep
and light-shattered
rushes in the heavens.

The mountains are coming alive,
the fire-kindled mountains,
moving again to reshape the earth.

It is we sleeping women,
waking up in a darkened world,
cutting the chains from off our bodies
with our teeth, stretching our lives
over the slow earth—

Seeing, moving, breathing in
the vigor that commands us
to make all things new.

It has been said that while the women sleep,
the earth shall sleep—
But listen! We are waking up and rising,
and soon our sisters will know their strength.

The earth-moving day is here.
We women wake to move in fire.
The earth shall be remade.[2]

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^[1] By Mary Frances Schjonberg, posted Oct 3, 2023

^[2] Published in Womanpriest by Alla Renée Bozarth, Paulist Press 1978,revised edition Luramedia 1988, distributed by the poet; Gynergy by Alla Renée Bozarth, Wisdom House 1978; audio cassette Water Women by Alla Renée Bozarth, Wisdom House 1990, distributed by the poet; and Stars in Your Bones: Emerging Signposts on Our Spiritual Journeys by Alla Bozarth, Julia Barkley and Terri Hawthorne, North Star Press of St. Cloud 1990. All rights reserved.

by Demi Prentiss

Misinformation. Disinformation. Outright lies. Twisted truth. So many of the words we hear and see are not intended to communicate truth or inspire hope.  The outcome for many is a deep, corrosive cynicism or paralyzing despair – or both.

We can often find more clarity when we venture beyond words, and use the real world for our touchstone. The deeper truths of life are plainer when we, as they say, “touch grass” – ground our experiences in the natural world, and ponder the truth we encounter there. Cultivating a bedrock foundation of creation’s wisdom as we engage wonder instead of analysis.

While the speed and complexity of communications have magnified the difficulty of remaining grounded, the need to go deep is not new.  Every time we run into God’s gift of diversity, the resulting culture shock compels us to question where we look for deep truth, and how we discern our North Star.

Mei Li, a new immigrant from China in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Flower Drum Song, offers wonder as a tool for gaining clarity:
“My father says
That children keep growing,
Rivers keep flowing too.
My father says
He doesn’t know why,
But somehow or other they do.

They do!
Some how or other they do.

“A hundred million miracles,
A hundred million miracles
Are happening every day,
And those who say they don’t agree
Are those who do not hear or see.
A hundred million miracles,
A hundred million miracles
Are happening ev’ry day!”^[1]
Lyrics By Oscar Hammerstein II  Music By Richard Rodgers

The miracles aren’t confined to the natural world.  Amazingly, when we choose to partner with God as cocreators, we can grow in ways that we can hardly imagine.

As Br. Curtis Almquist, SSJE, reminds us, “The most amazing thing about miracles is that they happen. They still happen. Saint Paul had his own miraculous experiences, repeatedly, which led him to write that ‘[God’s] power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.’ Don’t give up. Give in. Give into the reality of God’s magnificent, sometimes amazing work in us and through us. Watch for it. Wait for it.”

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^[1] “A Hundred Million Miracles” (Rodgers/Hammerstein)
© 1958, Copyright Renewed, Williamson Music Company (ASCAP) c/o Concord Music Publishing

by Brandon Beck

“I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows – was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, even considering the exceptional character of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor 12:2-10, RCL)^[1]

On this blog on July 9, the Rev. Pam Tinsley posted a brilliant narrative of her experience preparing an eight-year-old child for baptism. Rev. Pam focused on grace in her story. In reflecting on the July 7 Epistle reading from 2 Corinthians through the lens of Rev. Pam’s story, I am struck by the revelation to Paul of God’s message, “My grace is sufficient.”

Even having heard this 2 Corinthians passage, especially this small fragment of verse 9, time and time again, and having studied the Pauline epistles in EfM, small group Bible studies, and divinity school, Rev. Pam’s words offer me an encounter with God through her eyes – and through Merritt’s eyes, the child whom she prepared for baptism.

Paul’s mysticism and focus on body-spirit divide, his further struggles with legalism, and unresolved identity development have always called the academic in me to wrestle with his words and the unknowable psychology of the man Paul rather than the potential Christ revealed in the stories he tells.

But today I encountered God through someone else’s eyes. These other eyes are Rev. Pam’s and her eight-year-old student Merritt’s. These eyes are Paul’s – with letting go of my need to psychoanalyze him.

God’s words to Paul – “My grace is sufficient” – draw me back to verse 2 of this passage. Paul says, “I do not know.” What a powerful pairing of ideas – “I do not know” and God’s “grace is sufficient.” May we all continuously encounter God with awareness and hope, remembering that seeing through someone else’s eyes might just open our own hearts to a new experience of the Divine that’s been encountering us all along.

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^[1] The Episcopal Church. “Proper 9, Year B.” The Lectionary Page, 1979. http://www.lectionarypage.net/YearB_RCL/Pentecost/BProp9_RCL.html.

by Pam Tinsley

At Pentecost I had the joy of preparing an eight-year-old child for baptism. As I met with Merritt, her parents, and her sponsors, I loved how engaged she was. I was also excited to learn she was the one who had expressed a desire to be baptized.

I shared how Jesus himself was baptized by John the Baptist before he began any of his ministry and that by being baptized Merritt was taking her first formal step in following Jesus. Baptism, I said, is the beginning of a life-long journey of faith – a faith that has love at its heart. So, baptism is about choosing to love others each day, because God loved us first. All of humankind and all of creation are God’s beloved.

Throughout our conversations, Merritt asked several questions, and then she asked the one that opened the door to amazing grace! I had shared that baptism was the first sacrament Jesus initiated, which – of course – led to the definition of a sacrament, an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual grace. Merritt had been wondering what grace was because her family sings the beloved hymn Amazing Grace during bedtime prayers.

Merritt’s eyes lit up as I quoted the Book of Common Prayer: Grace is God’s favor towards us, unearned and undeserved; by grace God forgives our sins, enlightens our minds, stirs our hearts, and strengthens our wills. We talked more about grace: how nothing we can do will make God love us any more; how nothing we do will make God love us any less; and how baptism happens because of God’s grace. As we talked about Pentecost and – above all – about God’s love and God’s grace, I felt enveloped by the Holy Spirit. When Pentecost arrived, Merritt stood by the font and solemnly made her baptismal promises. And we all were embraced by God’s amazing grace as she was baptized, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and marked as Christ’s own forever!

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To PBL’s disappointment, the House of Bishops at the 81st General Convention of The Episcopal Church this week decided to “take no further action” on Resolution D002: Review canonical requirement for Holy Communion. The House of Bishop’s lack of action effectively kills the resolution. Despite the question now rendered moot for this General Convention, Partners for Baptismal Living (PBL) urges the church to find appropriate ways to celebrate the life-giving invitation that Holy Baptism represents. Bishop Edward Lee, a member of PBL, offers these thoughts:

by Edward Lee

The current Canon (1.17.7) reads: “No unbaptized person shall be eligible to receive Holy Communion in this Church.”

Contrast that with what the Book of Common Prayer (p. 308) proclaims in the Holy Baptism liturgy: “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own for ever.”

The former is negative, juridical, exclusive, and judgmental in its prohibition.  Its blunt tone is that of a membership requirement to a country club. The latter is a solemn, inclusive, affirmative and challenging  mandate for an intentional lifelong journey in Christ’s radical mission of redemption, renewal and release.  The former is conditional; the latter is covenantal. The former is proscriptive; the latter is relational.

This contrast is why D002 in its current or an amended form must come to the floor of this Convention for discussion and action. The House of Bishops, the initiating body, is strongly urged to make this happen. Letting the present Canon stand or just be deleted is unacceptable. Both options would ignore and undermine the profound solemnity of Holy Baptism that is inherent in the Prayer Book liturgy. After almost a half century its centrality is secure in the worship and practice of the church.  But what is yet to be fully realized is the  radical character of what it means to be indelibly sealed and marked as Christ’s own disciple for ever.

Contained and found in this sacramental action is the unique Christian identity and vocation for ministry of every baptized person starting with the laity (99% of the church) and sequentially by the (1%) clergy. See the Catechism on The Ministry, BCP, p. 855. Therefore it is asked of all of us, how seriously do we understand, claim and embrace this baptismal mandate of seeing ourselves as ministers and our lives as ministry?

What has also brought this matter to General Convention’s attention is the increasingly common practice in many parishes of inviting and welcoming worshippers to receive Holy Communion whether they are baptized or not. There is no prior checking or public alert. Clearly a contradiction of the existing Canon but a point of entry and welcome for uncertain seeking and searching persons.  It’s regarded as radical hospitality consistent with Jesus’s association with and inclusion of religiously unqualified persons of his time. It is radical as it should be, yet it should not diminish the centrality and solemnity of Baptism. It’s not an either/or matter but rather a both/and. 

The suggestive language in the enumerated resolves of D002 propose an understanding of the connectedness of the Eucharist, Baptism and the inclusive fellowship that constitutes Christian community. For example, a revision to the canons that would be “a positive statement affirming that the fullest meaning of our Holy Eucharist is lived out through our Baptism and Baptismal Covenant.” (#6) Also, “develop a generous pastoral and invitational rubric to Baptism and Communion” in the Payer Book. (#5)

Hopefully this General Convention will not bypass this crucial theological, sacramental and pastoral matter that grounds and informs our Church’s  mission and our daily baptismal ministries.

Edward L. Lee, Jr.

Steering Committee, Partners for Baptismal Living
Bishop, Diocese of Western Michigan, 1989-2002
Assisting Bishop, Diocese of Pennsylvania, 2003-2017

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The Consultation – a collaboration of six progressive organizations, including Partners for Baptismal Living – opened its booth today in Louisville, KY, at the 81st General Convention of The Episcopal Church. The Consultation is inviting all attending the convention to participate in an open space experience in the General Convention exhibit hall. All are invited to engage live and in person with friends and not-yet friends in ways that allow all to learn and grow together, speaking the truth in love, and respecting the dignity of every human being.

Here are some of the ways all participants are invited to connect:

• Earnest Questions – Each day of General Convention when the exhibit hall is open (June 21 through June 27), The Consultation will publicize – on the Consultation Commons (booth #1214), via ISSUES, social media, and in-person conversations – several questions.
  • Come to The Consultation Commons in the exhibit hall to post your response in words, pictures, or other art expression.
  • Come engage in live, real-time conversation with others who are open to questioning the status quo and engaging the future.
  • Convene your own meet-up to explore your “earnest question.”
• Lunch-time Speakers – 12-2 pm at The Consultation Commons (booth #1214)
  • Sunday, June 23 – TransEpiscopal presents the Revs. Cameron Partridge and Gwen Fry, who will host a conversation to share their perspectives on the work TEC has done, is doing, and that needs to do to fully embrace trans and non-binary people in the Church and the wider world, in a time of intense attack on trans and nb people.Tuesday, June 25 – Episcopal Peace Fellowship – Palestine Israel Network presents Jonathan Kuttab, “What’s Going on in The Holy Land?: Behind the Headlines”
  • Wednesday, June 26, Episcopal Peace Fellowship presents “Gun Violence Prevention”
• Community Sing – Saturday June 22 and Monday June 24, 12:30-1:30pm, come to The Consultation Commons (booth #1214) to join in paperless music and “turn-and-talk” minutes with fellow singers. Fill the exhibit hall with song! “Those who sing pray twice.”
• Meet-ups – Schedule a 60-90 minute conversation on a vital topic. You bring the “earnest question” and the facilitator, The Consultation Commons provides the space. Sign up at The Consultation Commons (booth #1214).
• Exploration – Learn more about the work of The Consultation and of its individual member organizations. Come engage with one of The Consultation’s booth hosts at booth #1214.

Come – Come and see!             

Come engage with fellow Episcopalians!

Agreement not guaranteed.

Come as you are for creative, generative, boundary-breaking conversation!

by Brandon Beck

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30-31)…raises some interesting questions with regards to autism: how can you love God “with all your mind” when your mind works differently? (p. 41)

At St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in San Marcos, TX, in the Diocese of West Texas I experience our church community in what, I hope, is the way Erin Burnett has experienced church. We, as a church family, too, pray that other autistic people and neurospicy families can experience church community as we do. We have many children and adults on the autism spectrum, and, when the gestalt-processing, echolalic, 8-year-old shouts, “The Blood of Christ. The Cup of Salvation,” and runs to the Communion rail clapping his hands, all of us, the St. Mark’s family, smile and celebrate with him, knowing all are welcome here. In a classroom at the back of the Sanctuary building, St. Mark’s Director of Family Ministry has created a Sensory Space with sensory play toys and books and a calm zone with the service streamed to a TV, so all the families in the church know that those with differing sensory needs, members and guests, young and old, can attend church in a way that is comfortable and accessible for them. My experience as part of this neurodivergent-aware church led me to Erin Burnett’s 2022 With All Your Mind: Autism and the Church.

Burnett’s “booklet” (p. 1) is invaluable to churches wanting to be places for all people. Burnett says, “It is very difficult to precisely define autism, as it is a spectrum condition that manifests differently for each person” (p. 1). She shares basics of autism in Chapter 1, such as characteristics of autism, autism statistics, use of language around autism, and some autistic role models. Each chapter ends with reflection questions to assist you in further relating to the content.

Chapter 2, “Autism and the Church,” brings us to Burnett’s own context of being autistic and Christian in the UK. Her story is applicable to all Christians who want to understand the role of inviting, welcoming, and connecting autistic persons to church in full communion. Burnett says, “Churches should follow the example of Jesus, who reached out to those who were ostracised from society” (p. 19). Burnett exegetes 1 Corinthians 12:14-27 and Luke 14:15-24, concluding that “Jesus takes inclusivity very seriously!” (p. 24) She moves into practical advice for churches based on a research project she conducted in which she asked, “What sorts of adjustments can make churches more welcoming for autistic people?” (p. 25) Participants most popularly suggested that churches, especially those with loud and/or contemporary worship, provide earplugs or noise-canceling headphones.

Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 focus on theology and spirituality. In Chapter 3, “Autism and God,” and Chapter 4, “The Spirituality of Autism,” Burnett explores “how autistic people may experience the Christian faith in a way that differs from the norm” (p. 31). Burnett reviews articles from Psychology Today and The Cognitive Science Society that reveal a link between autism and atheism. She expounds on the articles saying, “Autistic people are less likely to experience sensus divinitatus, the inexplicable feeling of God’s presence” (p. 32), bringing her own research and experience into conjunction with the research she reviews to demonstrate that it is not so much that atheism and autism must go together but that church must reach people with autism in different ways because of their possible missing sensus divinitatus experience.

Remembering that Burnett began by sharing that autism manifests differently for each person, we know that she is not saying here that no autistic lacks sensus divinitatus, rather that some autistic persons might experience God in ways other than what would be described as supernatural. Burnett cites John Shelby Spong’s now infamous Tweet: “God is not a noun that demands to be defined, God is a verb that invites us to live, to love, and to be” (p. 34). She says that Spong’s view of God is encouragement for autistic Christians to embrace their different ways of experiencing God, especially the more concrete-rational experience of God in the action of striving to live by love through action.

In Chapter 4, Burnett further discusses the concept of practical love in the context of autism, Imago dei, and human connection, as “the National Autistic Society [UK] reports that autistic people are seven times more likely to feel isolated compared to the general community” (p. 43).

The most recent youth confirmation class at St. Mark’s in San Marcos, TX, had several autistic youth in it. To hear the parents rejoice that these youth had a place where they felt that they fit in and that their questions could be asked and discussed in their unique ways of thinking and seeing reminded me of Burnett’s self-description. Seeing them acolyte and serve as lectors for their own confirmation ceremony and speak with the Bishop filled the House with a Spirit of Unity and Love.

Burnett concludes her booklet with these words: “I hope and pray that more autistic people can experience church community like I have. Amen” (p. 54).