speaking of love ...

With Valentines Day looming, a couple of thoughts on love for today ...

"Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love." -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Just a little loveliness ...

... from All Saints Church last Sunday.

Just Posted: Open Position at All Saints Church!

Know someone with a gift for connecting people with each other and with opportunities for ministry, a heart for the Good News of God's inclusive love and a boatload of energy for congregational development? Have we got a job for them: Associate for Congregational Development at All Saints Church in Pasadena. Job description and details here. Help us spread the word!

Associate for Congregational Development

All Saints Church, a progressive, inclusive and dynamic 4,000-member Episcopal church is seeking to hire a full-time Associate for Congregational Development.

All Saints Church is in the urban center of Pasadena, California, and a presence in regional Los Angeles. It has a long history of interfaith relationships and an ongoing commitment to local, national and global issues of peace and justice. It strives to follow God’s prophetic call to live out God’s inclusive love through Spirituality, Community and Peace & Justice.

The Associate for Congregational Development will be responsible for:

• Developing, monitoring and maintaining systems for:

o Inviting and welcoming new members;

o The engagement and tracking of every member;

o The training, retention, nourishing and rotation of parish leadership;

• Analyzing trends in parish/church life and national life;

• Small groups ministry;

• Parish Life ministries and activities;

• Vocational discernment and life skills offerings for members;

• Identifying, training and coordinating volunteers;

• Leading the stewardship/development/grant writing and incorporation functions.


The position requires the following:

• Excellent skills in organizing people and administering programs;

• The ability to cultivate leadership and inspire others to action and reflection;

• The ability to work cross-culturally and collaboratively;

• The ability to train, supervise and support both staff and volunteers;

• Experience in administration and in managing a budget, i.e., the ability to query basic data into useful information;

• Experience in Development, fundraising and/or grant writing;

• Excellent oral and written communication skills and knowledge of PC computer systems;

• Experience with tracking information using databases;

• The ability to work collegially in a large staff;

• A warm, welcoming, supportive, innovative, open, flexible and playful nature.

The Associate for Congregational Development must be present for Sunday services and for all special events. Although not required, bilingual (Spanish/English) communications skills are highly desirable.

We are interested in someone who eagerly embraces the values that All Saints has of promoting children and youth ministries, of a commitment to peace and justice, of blessing same-sex covenants, of transforming church and culture through a multicultural lens and of providing interfaith leaders for our time. Being committed to an ongoing process of multiculturalism, we encourage applications from women, persons of color, and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons. We are an equal opportunity employer.

We are open to applications from clergy and from lay persons.

Full benefits, including health and dental insurance and pension, are provided. If you are interested, please send your résumé and a letter about yourself to:

Christina Honchell
Or FAX: 626.584.4237
Or email: honchell@allsaints-pas.org (Word or PDF documents only)

All Saints Church
132 North Euclid Ave.
Pasadena, CA 91101

No phone calls, please. Deadline for receipt of materials: February 28, 2013

BREAKING (BAD) BOY SCOUT NEWS

This morning’s announcement that the Boy Scouts of America “need more time” to make a decision about ending discrimination against gay scouts and leaders is deeply disappointing. It not only lets down gay youth who are looking to the Boy Scouts to walk the talk of their diversity statement (“Scouts come from all walks of life, all types of family units, faiths, and racial and ethnic groups”) it also betrays the Scout oath “to help other people at all times” inserting a asterisk after “other people*” that reads *unless they are gay kids wanting to experience the gifts that Scouting offers.”

Over a decade ago at its 2000 General Convention the Episcopal Church adopted a resolution to “Encourage the Boy Scouts of America to allow membership to youth and adult leaders irrespective of their sexual orientation.” And now the Boy Scouts “need more time” to send the message to young gay American kids that they are just as loved, valued and important as their straight friends and neighbors? The time is now to end discrimination against our kids – and fair minded Americans need to step up, speak out, and drown out the voices of those marginalizing and excluding gay youth from Scouting. Justice delayed IS justice denied – and both our kids and our country deserve better!

BREAKING NEWS: Pentagon to extend (some) benefits to same sex military spouses!

This just in from the Washington Post:

The Pentagon has decided to extend certain benefits to the spouses of gay and lesbian personnel, according to officials and people notified about the decision, responding to the increasingly vocal appeals of same-sex couples in the military.

The military expects to announce the decision later this week.

Read the rest here

What a wonderful andidote to this awful story from yesterday about the wife of a solidier killed in Afghanistan who couldn't even get back the wedding ring from her dead wife because they were a same sex couple:

When her spouse was killed in Afghanistan, Tracy Johnson drove across town to her mother-in-law’s house — clutching her marriage certificate — so she could hear the Army’s formal notification. No one from the military came to her door.

She later watched as the American flag that cloaked the coffin of her spouse, Donna Johnson, was offered, not to her, but to Donna Johnson’s mother – the next of kin, as U.S. law stipulates. She was denied death benefits, she said, that are standard issue to heterosexual spouses of service members who die in action: free health care, tuition assistance, and monthly indemnity compensation of about $1,200.

And then there was the ring. On Valentine’s Day 2012, Tracy Johnson placed that band on her wife's finger during their marriage ceremony in Washington, D.C. Last October, as Johnson escorted her wife's body home from Dover Air Force Base, the Army asked Johnson to carry the wedding ring, designated as a “personal effect.” After arriving in Fayetteville, N.C., Johnson was obliged, by a federal statute, to deliver the ring to an Army officer who then provided it to Donna Johnson’s mother who, in turn, gave it back to Tracy Johnson. She wears it on her finger today.

Read that one here ... and give thanks that the arc of history appears to be bending just a LITTLE closer to justice.

Yes ... I said "Mississippi!"

Missed this "Breaking news" yesterday from our friends over at Episcopal Cafe ... but it's never to late to share good news!!

According to CJ Meaders @cjmeadersiii, live blogging the Annual Council #diomscouncil of the Diocese of Mississippi, the Rt Rev Duncan Gray has announced that he will give permission for use of the same sex blessing rite in the diocese. He also called for the election of a co-adjutor: (Read up from bottom of stream:)

"I have chosen to take this step so that the deep emotion can be born by me and not at the outset of new episcopacy" B. Gray

Re: optional same-sex liturgy..."No congregation or clergy will be asked to betray their conscience."

"There will be trial and provisional use of the Liturgy for same sex blessings in our diocese."

Bishop Gray: "I am formally and officially calling for a Bishop Coadjutor"

So there you have it. And good for him! Anybody so inclined to drop Bishop Gray a note and thank him I suggest you act on that inclination right now ... Lord knows he'll be hearing from folks on "the other side of the aisle" (as we speak, heads appear to be exploding over at Stand Firm) and it's never a bad time to exercise a ministry of encouragement! Click here to send an email to Bishop Gray's office. Go ahead. Do it. Now. (Seriously!!) You'll be glad you did! :)

ONE BILLION RISING to end violence against women

February 14 is a global day of awareness to end violence against women -- the brainchild of Eve Ensler (of Vagina Monlogues fame) and All Saints Church is honored to stand with ONE BILLION RISING. Check it out:



SOOOO proud of my All Saints colleagues for putting this together! Help us spread the word!