Louise & Susan: February 18, 2006The definition of a sacrament is "an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace" -- which makes the photograph below an icon of a sacramental moment of blessing that was part of the February 18th Blessing of our Covenant at All Saints Church.
It captures the point in the service -- just before the Peace -- where the priest blesses the commitment the couple has made to Christ and to each other. At our wedding, Ed invited the whole congregation to be part of that act of blessing -- laying hands on those laying hands on those laying hands on us -- until the 400+ in attendace became this outward and visible sign of the blessing God has already given us in the love we share for each other. And then the prayer of blessing:
Most gracious God, we give you thanks for your tender love in
sending Jesus Christ to come among us, to be born of a human
mother, and to make the way of the cross to be the way of life.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, pour out the abundance of your
blessing upon Louise and Susan. Defend them from every enemy.
Lead them into peace. Let their love for each other be a seal upon
their hearts, a mantle about their shoulders, and a crown upon
their foreheads.
Bless them in their work and in their companionship; in their
sleeping and in their waking; in their joys and in their sorrows; in
their life and in their death. Finally, in your mercy, bring them to
that table where your saints feast forever in your heavenly home;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit
lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. And the people said, "AMEN!"
6 comments:
I can't believe we were out of town. Thanks for sharing it with us!
Rev. Susan :
I certainly do not enjoy raining on anyone’s parade, no matter how much I disagree with them. And I truly wish the two of you all the happiness in the world. But one thing that really bothers me is someone with a hypocritical double standard, and I can’t help but call them on it.
I had to do it a couple weeks ago when you accused others of violating church canons, while All Saints Pasadena openly violates a church canon every single week. And I gotta call you on this one.
About 10 months ago, you posted at Everyvoice an article entitled “So much for the Windsor Report”, and immediately commented :
So what happened to the "we won't cross diocesan boundaries" part of the Windsor Report recommendations? Clearly the schismatics are approaching the Windsor Report with the same kind of selective literalism as they approach the Holy Scriptures!
Weren’t there a couple paragraphs in the Windsor Report about moratoriums on same sex blessings? What happened to that part of the Windsor Report recommendations?
Kevin S.
kevin -- Yep -- one of the Windsor recommendations was indeed a moratorium on blessing unions. Not a recommendation we have chosen to receive as congruent with our understanding of the call of the Holy Spirit to include all of the baptized in the Body of Christ OR with the 1976 General Convention Resolution stating that GLBT persons are entitled to "full and equal claim" in the Episcopal Church.
A reasonable question IS how then can you rag on the crossing-diocesan-boundaries folks and my answer is because they are the ones who have attempted to elevate the recommendations of our Anglican relatives to a level of authority it simply does not have: it was the Windsor Report, not the Windsor Mandate.
It's part of the conversation, not the end of the line.
My point was those saying "we must abide by all parts of the WR" aren't doing so themselves.
And thanks for the best wishes ... still working on all the thank you notes but "happily ever after" is going great so far!
Rev. Susan :
Thank you for the response. While I disagree with you on much of the subject matter at hand, I can certainly appreciate the logic in your response.
Kevin S.
thanks, kevin!
All I can say is congratulations and may God continually bless you both as you honor Her and the Son in your lives.
Joyfully,
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