Janie Spahr and Others Disinvited...

Could you ever imagine Janie disinviting anyone? Me neither.

Here is the link to the article that tells the srory of Janie and other gay clergy being "disinvited" from an Advent vespers service at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in the Castro. Below is my letter to the reporter.

We have much work to do in healing and understanding. No amendment will change the heart. That's our work...

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2011/12/gay-clergy-disinvited-from-advent-services-at-castro-catholic-church/

 

Dear Cynthia,

 

Many thanks for your article on Janie Spahr and others being "disinvited" from Advent services, in particular vespers ar Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in the Castro.

 

I should first say that I am a long-time friend of Janie and was ordained in the PC(USA) as an openly gay person in 2005. For me and many others, Janie has been a guide and steadfast servant of the faith she holds dear; a faith that tirelessly calls her to welcome all. She would be the last person on earth to exclude the Archbishop from one of the services she was leading or a church of which she was a part. In fact, she would welcome him with open arms and an embrace. That's Janie. That's the difference.

 

The irony that the "disinvitation" by the Archbishop is referred to as reflective of and in harmony with the time of Advent and the theme for vespers is stunning and incomprhensible; that is unless the leadership is driven by an irrational fear and dislike of the LGBT Community (many of whom are members of Most Holy Redeemer). If we agree that hatred is an irrational dislike toward others - this borders much too close to a demonstration of the illness of those in power than the welcoming, hospitality, and love upon which the Christian faith is founded. And, the message to the community is sad and dangerous and filled with fear.

 

For it is true, that every time a member of the LGBT community, its friends and supporters is excluded, marginalized, or otherwise dismissed because they are gay, every time - those implementing such rulings, edicts, or practices become complicit in the violence toward the LGBT community, a violence now endorsed by a church's or church representative's hateful position. Just based on that alone, it would have been a much more prophetic and courageous decision to come together.

 

And, perhaps, the last of ironies is that the time of vespers at Most Holy Redeermer which now teeters on the theme of exclusion is, in fact, the poorest of reflection of Advent one could hope for.

 

Again, thank you for your reporting.

Sincerely,

Rev. Ray Bagnuolo, Minister PC(USA)

New York City

 

Moving a Church Forward with Love and Justice for the Gay Community

Standing on the Side of Love & Justice

Monday, October 31 2011 @ 09:32 AM More Light Presbyterians are committed to the achievement of spiritual, ordination and marriage equality for LGBT persons within our Church and equal rights in civil society. More Light Presbyterians continues to work with others toward marriage equality, including changes in the Directory for Worship, and requests for Authoritative Interpretation. MLP supports the freedom and discretion of sessions to extend hospitality to same gender loving couples seeking to join their lives in the commitment of marriage. MLP claims that same freedom and discretion for teaching elders to preside at marriage services for same gender loving couples, especially as more states move to legalize these marriages. We oppose all attempts by any entity to rescind the gains for justice punctuated by the passage of G-2.0104. Adopted by the MLP Board of Directors in Rochester, NY on September 2, 2011 Reflecting upon MLP's Statement of moving forward for marriage equality in the PC(USA), just a few comments at this point.   The courage and spirit of people who are LGBT, their families, friends, and allies have given great momentum to the change in this church. A change long overdue. The long-term exclusion of sisters and brothers is starting to be replaced with real equality. I am grateful to MLP, it's leadership, and all who support it in its dedication to BOTH constitutional change that makes marriage equality an inherent part of our form of government AND authoritative interpretations which free our ministers to marry same gender loving couples in states where legal.    We move forward in justice and love, welcoming all to join in this raising up and affirming the power of this church, the PCUSA, to witness and practice God's Love, in which no exclusion or injustice can survive, becoming a church in which people who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender are welcomed with the same love and grace with which the Creator gave us life.   We know of the terrible pain and suffering that gay folk have been subjected to, in part because we who are gay have lived through too much of the inherent violence of exclusion ourselves. We recognize that we who are gay, our family, friends, and allies are looking to the leaders of this church and the pro-LGBT movement for real and honest change. And, we also recognize that we - all of us are the leaders. Please get involved. Bring your voice, your pen, your presence and votes at presbytery meetings to continue the momentum and progress of the 219th General Assembly.   Need help getting started? Contact MLP at www.mlp.org or drop me a note.   Ray

A little clarity goes a long way...

There's a story, a true story I am told, about an unfortunate fellow who spent a bit too much time sitting at the local pub. Time and again, night after night, he would wander home drunk. Many times he made the mistake of attempting to get behind the wheel while intoxicated. One night, much too loaded to drive, he opened the car door, got into the car, and discovered that his steering wheel had been stolen. Yes, stolen. Totally besides himself that anyone would do such a thing, he immediately got on his cell phone to call the police and report his steering wheel stolen.

A short time later a patrol car arrived. Both officers approached the driver, who remained seated in the car, window down. When the officers asked him what seemed to be the problem, the driver replied, "The problem? Look! Someone stole my steering wheel. They actually stole my steering wheel!"

The officers exchanged glances with one replying, "Sir, your steering wheel hasn't been stolen. It's there in the front seat, where it's supposed to be. You, on the other hand are seated in the back seat. And now you are going to be seated in our back seat."

Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is often pointed to as having a lack of sanity. Until something happens to change the way one thinks, very often, things remain the same. Many people who recover from alcoholism or substance abuse report such events as "moments of clarity" in which they, themselves, see how they have been wrong in their judgment, assessment, perception, and choices. There is no underestimating that moment. It has been known to change not only the life of an alcoholic or an addict, but that of artists, poets, great leaders, believers, and even those who once were oppressors.  

We are in a time in the PC(USA) of greater welcoming for our sisters and brothers who are Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT). The ratification of Amendment 10A, now part of the Book of Order as G-2.1014, makes it possible for gay men and women to be considered for ordination, just as anyone else would be. For those of us who are gay, we know that the exclusion never had any real basis. The fact that we love and marry members of our same gender is a difference without a distinction. Our lives are our lives, just as others lives are theirs. If there is a distinction that has mattered it has been that over and over, time and again, we have been questioned from baptism to burial about being gay. We have suffered serious consequences from the accusations and innuendos of others who believed that such an assault would make us "go away."

These days, as in the past, but more so these days - I pray for a moment of clarity for others to see what they have missed in the lives and faithfulness of their sisters and brothers who identify as being LGBT. We know there is nothing to fear in getting to know someone who is gay - other than discovering having been wrong about opposing gay folk in the first place. Perhaps some fear that were that discovery to take place,  they would then be faced with changing their position - or remaining silently complicit in the great harm they were allowing to continue. Given such a prospect, it may be easier for some to just keep saying the same things over and over - and believing them to be true. It may be easier, but it certainly isn't fair, just, or Christian, in my opinion.

Sadly, fair, just, and Christian are not often the order of the day. Recently, I got a response from someone named Mary on one of the videos I have posted for "It Gets Better." She wrote, "GOD HATES HOMOSEXUALS" [Her capitalization.] She went on... "Turn or burn..."

As many times as I get something like this, it still bothers me a bit personally - I mean these people don't even know me! But, more - it bothers me because I feel terribly sad for whatever it is that fills someone like Mary with the idea that God could ever be a "hater" of God's own creation - and that she wishes those with whom she disagrees to be relegated to a hell of her own making. Whatever our differences, perhaps we can agree that this is not the way to go forward, and perhaps you will agree, as well, to pray with me for those like Mary who are so soul-sick that they twist God into their own personal executioner.

Clearly it was a good thing that the driver in my opening story was not behind the wheel. His sad experience hopefully produced one of those moments of clarity for him to do things a bit differently in the future. Maybe we, too, can find such clarity, eliminating the clouded vision of the old, innacurate, and mythic stereotypical perceptions about people who are gay, ending the sickness of bickering, exclusion, and harm. If we do, perhaps we in the PC(USA) can come to believe in God in ways that restore us to the sanity that reminds us we are called to love one another, working together as children of God.

May it be so.

 More posts on my new blog www.july10a.net

Seeking Harmony...

Well, it might be called "Gay in the World." But it's not. At least not yet. It's a new blog I'm starting:
www.july10a.net.

It's named to reflect the implementation of 10A on July 10, 2011 and look at the ways in which this change opens the PC(USA) to see its Lesbian, Gay. Bisexual, and Transgender sisters and brothers in our daily faithful lives. Thanks to Margaret Aymer for the conflations and the permission to use it!

OK, it is. It's an attempt to bridge the contentiousness and confrontation - maybe even find some harmony in places we don't expect. Your stories are welcome...

We'll see where it goes, but if you have time - maybe you'd like to take a look.

Shalom,
Ray

And Happy New Year 5772!

NYS Marriage Equality: The Spirit Smiles

On this day, when Marriage Equality has come to New York State, many people are celebrating the promise they never let go of or stopped working for – that one day in this state of all states – marriage would be available across gender identity.

In effect, in New York, by this change marriage has transcended even the best of marriage definitions from the sum total of all marriage practices in the bible. Marriage Equality acknowledges that marriage is more than just form. It underscores that neither laws nor oppression can stop the march through time of Love, that is God, coursing through all God’s human creation and equally present in the love between same gender loving couples as in different gender loving couples. Equality means that the differences separating such love have been removed. The truth is that the imposition of bygone restrictions should never have existed in the first place – and must continue to be removed wherever they exist. To do otherwise is to stand in opposition – not just to one another – but to God and God’s great and abundant love. In New York State, on this day, the Spirit is truly smiling (however it is the Spirit smiles!).

10-A: The journey has just begun again...

Some days the Spirit moves things around as it goes by, so much so that you can follow its path by the clearing it leaves in its wake. I have always know such Spirit paths as invitations to follow, ways that indicate how we are to proceed.

This day, this day of Spirit and Grace when the PC(USA) moves even closer to a fully welcoming and affirming denomination, marks the opening of one of those highways for our membership and those who will come to join us. But, unlike most other grand openings of thoroughfares, newcomers will already find folk on the path; sisters and brothers who have been there for quite a while; the faithful who have been waiting for the church to catch up with what many of us have already known: the road had only been blocked by fear and resistance to what change might bring - and that the change never needed to be feared in the first place.

It may be that the new highway the Spirit has opened is, in fact, a bridge. A bridge that now connects the too many who couldn't get here from there - for whatever reasons - with one another. Some will choose to avoid the Emmaus Road on which we now are invited to walk together. But word will spread, as it always does. And when the Spirit brings a church together, sisters and brothers together, forgotten and found side by side - there is surely more to come.

So, on this day we give thanks for the lifting of the barrier used to prevent Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender folk from serving in the full work and mission of the PC(USA). It is a magnificent banner day, indeed. And the church, the PC(USA) has done well, thanks to the Spirit and all those who stayed on the path, all those now ready to welcome others with the wildly gracious hospitality and love that has always been God's gift to us all. All.

Welcome! And stay ready...for the journey has truly just begun, again...