tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-216096762024-03-19T01:46:30.355-07:00An Inch At A Time: Reflections on the Journey<b>Sister Joan Chittister famously said, "We are each called to go through life reclaiming the planet an inch at a time until the Garden of Eden grows green again." Reflecting on that journey -- a blog at a time -- is the focus of this site.</b>SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.comBlogger4234125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-64654690784075688032024-03-10T11:59:00.000-07:002024-03-10T11:59:59.355-07:00No Accident We: The sermon I didn't preach on Lent IVIt was written, printed and ready to go -- this sermon for Lent 4/2024 -- but it turns out I wasn't. Ready to go.Still managing symptoms from a virus picked up traveling a week ago, I opted to pass the 10am pulpit baton to the 7:30am preacher and keep my possibly germy self home for rest and hydration. But ... with deep bows of gratitude to the brilliant Deon Johnson ... here's what I would have SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-18450632874633635342024-01-11T15:03:00.000-08:002024-01-11T15:03:02.949-08:00Rejoice & Resist
Rejoice & Resist: A Sermon for Advent Four December 24, 2023 | All Saints Church, Pasadena On this Fourth Sunday in Advent, we light the final candle on the wreaththat has marked our time of preparation for Christmas –the annual celebration of the mystical longing of the creature for the creator – the finite for the infinite -- the human for the divine – all wrapped up in swaddling SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-91746873262163951022023-11-29T08:22:00.000-08:002023-11-29T08:22:16.329-08:00On the $7.00 Tempest in the TEC TeapotSome quick background for those who missed the latest episode of As the Episcopal World Turns: The Washington National Cathedral (WNC) roll out of its annual "come to the cathedral for Christmas" campaign included a $7 fee to cover the cost of processing the passes that make managing the Christmas crowds possible. Not making an explicit option for those for whom the fee was a financial hardship SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-81007985587880592202023-11-16T16:40:00.000-08:002023-11-16T16:40:02.269-08:00“When was I supposed to sing?” -- Woke Words of Wisdom from Bishop John Harvey Taylor When we gathered for our annual Diocesan Convention last week at the Riverside Convention Center our bishop -- +John Harvey Taylor -- did what bishops do at diocesan conventions and offered his convention address ... which is a kind of church version of a "State of the Union" address. You can watch the whole thing here ... and I commend it to you. But during this week of Transgender SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-27142021852418697242023-11-02T09:07:00.001-07:002023-11-02T13:49:58.691-07:00“This Is The Day That The Lord Has Made: Sunday, November 02, 2003”Today we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the consecration on the 9th bishop of New Hampshire and a historic crack in the rainbow stained glass ceiling with the first openly gay (emphasis on openly) bishop in the Anglican communion. Feeling nostalgic, I looked back at what I wrote 20 years ago this morning and was a little gob smacked to realize how many parallels there were between what was SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-64150873737519939622023-10-11T08:44:00.000-07:002023-10-11T08:44:30.203-07:00Coming Out In A CathedralYes, I came out in the National Cathedral on the 4th of July in 1996. It's a story I've told many times ... but since it's the only one I have and it's National Coming Out Day 2023, here it is again.On July 4, 1996 at noon eastern time I was in the choir at the National Cathedral. While crowds of tourists milled about the nave of the cathedral and others gathered outside or headed toward the MallSUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-28245945091291284392023-10-10T07:05:00.002-07:002023-10-10T07:05:34.553-07:00Walking on Water: A Sermon for the Celebration of the Ministry of Bishop Gene Robinson Walking on Water
A Sermon for the Celebration of the Consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson | St. Thomas, Dupont Circle | October 7, 2023It was 1998 and I was the Associate Rector at St. Peter's in San Pedro, California. The Inclusion Wars in the Episcopal Church were heating up with a resolution from the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops declaring "homosexuality incompatible with SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-51755728632474212572023-09-03T14:39:00.002-07:002023-09-03T14:39:48.640-07:00Time To Make Some NoiseThe email hit my inbox at 12:58pm ... just as I was about to log into lead a 1:00 Zoom meeting. Because it was from our PHOD (President of the House of Deputies) I scanned it quickly to see if there was any breaking news ... and I felt like I'd been gut-punched as I read the words:On July 9th, 2022, shortly after the House of Deputies elected me to serve as your 34th president, I experienced an SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-68591997165109225622023-07-30T18:11:00.000-07:002023-07-30T18:11:34.184-07:00We Persist: A Sermon Commemorating the Philadelphia ElevenA sermon preached at All Saints Church in Pasadena on July 30, 2023 commemorating the 49th anniversary of the ordinations of the Philadelphia Eleven. It was a hot Monday in July 1974 at the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia -- and as Barbara Harris told the story, "The phones were ringing off the hook."One woman said ‘Are you people going to ordain women there today?’ and I said
‘Yes, we areSUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-69037212806465096832023-07-21T19:15:00.001-07:002023-07-21T20:26:14.915-07:00Comment on Diocese of Florida Episcopal Election ResultsMy comment on the results of the most recent episcopal election in the Diocese of Florida after a day of reading, marking and inwardly digesting various letters, comments and reactions. Yes, there's plenty of pain to go around. And it grieves the heart of God when there is polarization and division. And there is much work to do by all of us who love, tend and seek to call this church to become SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-50654590461400827092023-07-08T14:00:00.000-07:002023-07-08T14:00:24.144-07:00Deploying Religious Liberty as a Weapon of Mass DiscriminationAgain with the Religious Liberty as a weapon of mass discrimination thing! Whether the debate has been about achieving marriage equality or preventing employment discrimination or providing gender affirming care or protecting reproductive freedom it seems that someone, somewhere is absolutely convinced that their religious liberty is under attack because not everyone agrees with them. It is, of SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-59956446389369309272023-06-30T08:32:00.003-07:002023-06-30T10:45:14.450-07:00Equal Protection is Not Equal Protection if it doesn't Protect Equally And
so we end Pride Month in a year where it is literally open season on LGBTQ people
in our nation with another SCOTUS decision chipping away at the ideal that the equal protection guaranteed by the Constitution to
all Americans equally protects LGBTQ Americans.
To paraphrase Bishop Barbara — who famously said
“there’s no such thing as half-assed baptized” — there is no such thing as
SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-75777528440703088112023-06-12T13:59:00.000-07:002023-06-12T13:59:50.707-07:00Beyond Inclusion to TransformationSermon for June 11, 2023 All Saints Church, Pasadena | Susan
Russell
It was 1998 and I was the Associate Rector at St. Peter's in San
Pedro. The Inclusion Wars in the Episcopal Church were heating up with a
resolution from the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops declaring
"homosexuality incompatible with Scripture" -- a resolution the
Diocese of Los Angeles immediately "declined SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-36338137619516867562023-06-02T20:30:00.000-07:002023-06-02T20:30:25.407-07:00Nothing PersonalSo it was 1998 and I was the Associate Rector at St. Peter's in San Pedro. The Inclusion Wars in the Episcopal Church were heating up with a resolution from the Lambeth Conference of Anglican Bishops declaring "homosexuality incompatible with Scripture" -- a resolution the Diocese of Los Angeles immediately "declined to receive." A "concerned parishioner" made an appointment to come and and talk SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-50151376825577552782023-05-18T16:03:00.004-07:002023-05-19T09:16:20.039-07:00The Consultation Weighs in on Diocese of Florida election processBishops with jurisdiction and Standing Committees around the Episcopal Church continue to weigh in on consents to the election of a new bishop for the Diocese of Florida. It is always a long, drawn out process -- in this case made the more so by widely debated and much discussed concerns about both the integrity of this election process in general and this episcopal candidate in particular. SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-69498799628906851912023-04-21T11:01:00.003-07:002023-04-21T11:20:52.072-07:00Telling the Philadelphia Eleven StoryFriends, we are coming up on the 50th Anniversary of the stained-glass-ceiling-shattering ordinations of the first eleven women as priests in the Episcopal Church: July 29, 2024. A brilliant feature length documentary -- The Philadelphia Eleven -- is on final approach to mark that anniversary ... and I am writing today to ask you to join with those who are helping complete the work by makingSUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-71069211881594220672023-03-26T09:00:00.002-07:002023-03-26T18:47:37.818-07:00A Statement from the Episcopal Church’s Task Force on LGBTQ+ InclusionI am honored to serve as the chair of this amazing team of faithful people. Called to the work of serving as the Episcopal Church's Task Force on LGBTQ+ Inclusion, we met for the first time this week in Cleveland and issued the following statement about our scope of work and the context in which we labor. We covet your prayers and give thanks for the gift and privilege of this work we have been SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-78451216742023106082023-03-08T14:08:00.001-08:002023-03-08T14:29:40.205-08:00Celebrating the Philadelphia 11 on International Women's Day March is Women's History Month, and I've been picking a "woman of the day" to celebrate each day. Today is an exception as I'm picking eleven of them: The Philadelphia Eleven, to be specific -- the eleven courageous women who heard the "yes" of the Holy Spirit above the "no" of the institutional church and paved the way in July 1974 for the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church.I'm SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-31868047923774501262023-02-13T09:31:00.001-08:002023-02-13T09:31:46.762-08:00They Shall Never Be Silent: A Sermon for Epiphany VIThey
Shall Never Be Silent
A Sermon for Epiphany VI, Year A (Women’s Lectionary)
February 12, 2023 | All Saints Church, Pasadena
Upon your
walls, daughter Jerusalem, I have posted sentinels; all the day and all the
night, they shall never be silent.
They
shall never be silent ... these truth tellers, these justice proclaimers, these
whistleblowers Isaiah tells us about in this SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-74384028479521170792023-02-10T10:30:00.002-08:002023-02-10T10:30:50.750-08:00The Ongoing Saga of "As The Anglican World Turns":If you're someone who binge watches As The Anglican World Turns, a new series of episodes have just dropped across the pond. To catch you up, the Church of England has been immersed in a years-long initiative called "Living in Love and Faith" encouraging members to "grow together" on issues of sexuality, identity, relationships and marriage. A recent set of pronouncements by their bishops and SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-75990088688531052422023-01-21T11:49:00.000-08:002023-01-21T11:49:00.124-08:00The Arc Doesn't Bend Itself: The Struggle Continues for LGBTQ Equity in the ChurchSo if you're following the debate across the pond in the CofE over blessings, marriage and whether or not LGBTQ people should be fully included in the Body of Christ (spoiler: not quite "there" yet!) just a little contextual reminder that way back in 1997 the Episcopal Church adopted Resolution D011, issuing a formal apology to "lesbians and gay men" for "years of maltreatment and rejection by SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-89685695461071142312023-01-17T14:02:00.001-08:002023-01-17T14:02:15.134-08:0025 Years and CountingTwenty-five years ago today, God willed and the people consented and +Fred Borsch put his hands on my head and made me a presbyter in the church of God. And it seems like yesterday. And it seems like several lifetimes ago.It had been a long and winding road to get to that moment (and today is not the day for revisiting that saga) but suffice to say when we got to that moment, I swore as God was SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-77504395290380221962023-01-07T17:06:00.001-08:002023-01-07T17:06:36.826-08:00Words of Wisdom from Three Wise WomenAnd the Word Became Flesh: Words of Wisdom from Three Wise Women
Christmas Day 2022 | Susan Russell | All Saints Church, Pasadena
And the Word became flesh … the scriptures tell us.
And a weary world rejoices … the hymn sings to us.
Familiar words
Comforting words
Christmas words
Words we’ve sung, said, and heard
(many of us)
for as long as we can remember …
maybe even before we can remember.
AndSUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-78053750523362444652022-12-16T11:08:00.001-08:002022-12-16T11:08:46.271-08:00A Thank You Note for The Respect For Marriage ActEvery week All Saints Church puts its faith into action on an issue in alignment with the Gospel values of love, justice and compassion. This week we’re sending a thank you letter to President Biden & congressional leaders for the Respect For Marriage Act, signed into law this week. Here’s the letter:Dear Mr. President and Members of Congress,We write today to express our heartfelt gratitude SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21609676.post-25393361691357709122022-12-05T10:12:00.002-08:002022-12-05T10:12:42.622-08:00Equal Protection Is Only Equal Protection If It Protects Everyone EquallyAnother Monday, yet another opportunity to listen to Nina Totenberg dissect yet another Supreme Court case deciding whether the equal protection guaranteed by the Constitution to all Americans equally protects LGBTQ Americans. To paraphrase Bishop Barbara — who famously said “there’s no such thing as half-assed baptized” — there is no such thing as half-assed equal protection. But there is a SUSAN RUSSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795717638621668638noreply@blogger.com0