Ode to St. Patrick: Patron Saint of Evangelism

From Lesser Feasts and Fasts: Patrick was born into a Christian family somewhere on the northeast coast of Britain in about 390. When Patrick was about sixteen, he was captured by a band of Irish slave-raiders. He was carried off to Ireland and forced to serve as a shepherd. When he was about twenty-one, he escaped and returned to Britain, where he took holy orders both as a presbyter and bishop. A vision then called him to return to Ireland…

In my day school chaplain days, every time I told this story to the kids gathered for morning chapel I would pause at this point and ask them if they could imagine that … IMAGINE what kind of vision it must have been to convince Patrick to go BACK to the place – to the people – who had held him captive in order to bring them the good news of God in Christ Jesus. For of course we remember Patrick as the great evangelist whose missionary journeys spread Christianity all over Ireland – and today we celebrate his life and ministry AND the vision that sent him back to Ireland -- which is why we wear green to school today and eat corned beef and cabbage for dinner tonight. (And one of the mysteries of life I've yet to figure out is how corned beef got to be an icon for evangelism but I digress!)

In 2003 I was in New York City on my way out to meetings on Long Island along with a train full of revelers returning from the annual St. Patrick's Day parade. One of those revelers was a NYPD officer who had sprained his ankle marching in the parade and was heading home for an icepack and some Advil.

I must have been traveling in my collar because the conversation turned to church stuff and I found myself telling him about my ministry – at the time I was the Executive Director of Claiming the Blessing – and about the work we were doing in the Episcopal Church. He had been raised an Irish Catholic – and his partner was Puerto Rican – and it had never occurred to either of them that there might be a church where they would be welcome.

We talked some more and exchanged cards and I promised to email some folks to connect with and he said, sprained ankle notwithstanding, that he felt like running into me on the train was a St. Patrick's Day dose of the luck of the Irish.

And when we came to his stop and he stood up to limp off the train, he took the big, green plastic shamrock from around his neck and gave it to me. And he told me to remember there were plenty of other people like him out there who needed to hear what we had to say about a church that welcomed everybody and that I should take some of his Irish luck with me for the work in front of me. And I still have it.

And it reminds me every time I see it of the New York cop who is part of the mission field out there longing for the good news we have to offer – yearning to know that the "Episcopal Church Welcomes You" signs really means him.

And here we are in 2015 -- a church continuing to wrestle with whether or not it is going to fulfill its commitment to the "full and equal claim" promised the gay and lesbian baptized since 1976 as we prepare for our General Convention this summer in Salt Lake City.

On this particular St. Patrick's Day I believe asking gay and lesbian Episcopalians to hang in there and continue to take the vision of a Body of Christ that fully includes all the baptized BACK to the church that still questions their vocations and relationships is like unto asking Patrick to go evangelize the Irish who enslaved him.

And yet that's the vision we've been given – that's the call we have received.

Our witness of God's inclusive love is not just a witness to the presence of the holy in our lives and our relationships and our vocations -- but a witness to the power of God's love to transcend ANYTHING that holds us captive or enslaves us.

So let's remember on this St. Patrick's Day that the same God who inspired a former captive named Patrick to return to his captors and evangelize them in the 4th century is working in us as we work to call this church and this communion to wholeness in the 21st. And let's remember that it is that power working in us that can do infinitely more than we can ask for or imagine. And then let's get on with the work we have been given to do. (After we have a little corned beef and cabbage!)

Black Hawk Down

A Black Hawk helicopter went down last night -- all eleven on board missing and presumed lost. And even though my son is now safely ensconced in the tedium of academia -- finishing up his teacher credentialing and preparing for graduate school in the fall -- the deep muscle-memory of the years he was on active duty as a Black Hawk crew chief ... first in Iraq and then in Afghanistan ... rose up unbidden to make my stomach lurch and my heart clutch at the news.

And the relief that my son is not -- at this moment -- in harm's way was quickly trumped by the grief that the same is not true for eleven other mothers. Families. Loved ones. So please -- join me in lifting them up in your prayers. Giving thanks for their lives. And then redoubling our efforts to make this a world where nobody's son or daughter puts their life in jeopardy every single day because we've finally achieved the swords into plowshares thing. Thanks!

#MarchOn | #Selma50 "What enormous faith these men and women had."

Listened with such deep gratitude to President Obama's speech from "the bridge" today in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of "Bloody Sunday."

ICYMI

PHOD Gay Jennings does us proud

Today was the deadline for submission of Amicus Curiae Briefs -- literally, "friend of the court" briefs -- on the pending marriage equality cases in the Supreme Court. These are briefs that can be filed by "a person with strong interest in or views on the subject matter of an action, but not a party to the action, [who]  may petition the court for permission to file a brief, ostensibly on behalf of a party but actually to suggest a rationale consistent with its own views." [legal dictionary]

According to one news report, the Supreme Court was "swamped" with "dozens of legal briefs representing hundreds of thousands of parties calling for the bans to be overturned."

One of those -- a brief filed by Freedom to Marry & The Religious Institute -- represented faith leaders. A key quote from the brief:

"By reversing the judgment of the court below without reliance on religiously based arguments, and by affirming the constitutional promise of equal treatment for different- and same-sex couples, this Court will ensure that civil law neither favors nor disfavors any particular religious viewpoint. Requiring equal treatment for different- and same-sex couples with respect to civil marriage will, in fact, reaffirm the religious liberty fundamental to this nation’s founding identity. When the freedom to marry is fully respected, all couples will have the right to a solemnized union before a justice of the peace, while all individual faith communities will retain the right to decide who among such couples may seek religious sanction of their union."

Over 2000 clergy and faith leaders -- including me -- signed the brief, which included 117 pages of signatures. And here was number one:

Well done, Madame President! Well done!

• Oral arguments April 28.
• Decision Day: TBD ... but probably the end of June. 

PS -- (Our first anniversary is June 28 ... nationwide marriage equality would be a LOVELY anniversary gift. Just sayin')

Malcolm Boyd: Reflections from me and Louie Crew

As we continue to grieve the loss of our friend, colleague and brother Malcolm Boyd -- who died on February 27th at the age of 91 -- the tributes to his work and witness continue to roll in.

The New York Times called him an "Author, Activist and Counterculture Rebel."

The Religion News Service called him "the gay rights icon you've probably never heard of."

And the Episcopal News Service feature included this quote from Bishop Jon Bruno: “Malcolm lives on in our hearts and minds through the wise words and courageous example he has shared with us through the years.”

Those wise words and courageous example are a loss to all of us -- and a personal loss to many of us. This picture of the two of us was from the celebration of one of  his retirements -- this one in 1996. Malcolm and his husband Mark stood up with my late wife Louise and me at our February 2006 wedding. Our birthdays were just days apart (he was June 8th -- mine is June 10th) and so we had shared birthday celebrations over the years. And when Malcolm turned 90, here's what I said to Pat McCaughan when she interviewed me for the feature she wrote about him for our diocesan newspaper.

There are so many things I could say about Malcolm Boyd as a trailblazer, truth-teller, and courageous witness to the power of God’s inclusive love. It is no exaggeration to say that his "Are You Running With Me, Jesus?" fed the hunger of a generation of people who had given up on the church or anyone connected with it having anything relevant to say.

His willingness to put his faith into action by marching in Selma to end segregation was a powerful witness to what former Presiding Bishop John Hines called ‘justice as the corporate face of God’s love. And his example as an out-gay priest in a time when such a thing was practically unimaginable was – and continues to be – an inspiration to all who work for the full inclusion of LGBT people in this church and in this country.

And all of that is as true today as it was then.

Then there's this great reflection from Louie Crew -- posted on his Facebook page and shared with his permission:

I first met Malcolm in 1968, when he was a guest of radical groups at the University of Alabama. Even David Matthews, President of the University, showed up to hear the chic priest in a crowded sports arena turned auditorium, but Matthews walked out after a few swear words and more evidence of street reality than was in his ken.

Malcolm's presentation was welcomed by many. That spring — whether before or after Malcolm's visit I cannot remember — the sorority/fraternity circuit was radicalized because local Tuscaloosa police beat them over the heads in the wake of campus protests sympathetic to Kent State and Jackson State. I did time for a few hours in the Tuscaloosa jail as one of two faculty members arrested for refusing to obey the lawful order of a policeman to abandon our peaceful demonstration.

When Malcolm's main gig ended, a couple hundred of us squeezed into a campus Presbyterian church nearby. I lived a few houses down and fetched Malcolm a huge tumbler of scotch, delivering it to him where he sat on the altar. I wore a black cape which I had made with lavender taffeta lining. We were instant friends. He was in the closet then but picked up on my dress code with a wink. We were correspondents ever after. His most recent hand-written letter (they all were) arrived in January.

From the altar Malcolm did the holy thing of asking the black students in the audience to tell the white students the truth about how white people treated them. Several squeezed onto the altar with him, anger unleashed and unchecked for a rare cleansing. Only four years earlier had Governor George Wallace stood in the doorway of Foster Auditorium in an effort to block federal enforcement of integration. Then the brothers Kennedy nationalized the National Guard, forcing Alabama to be a part of a more perfect union.

That's what Malcolm did too: with holy candor, he forced the church not to ossify by mistaking liturgy and iconography as more holy than flesh and blood human beings.

Thank God for Malcolm and other Yankees who cared enough to speak the truth to us, to invite us into a more perfect union.

The Diocese of Los Angeles bade Malcolm's friends to pray his most famous prayer in the vigil they kept. Let's continue that as we rejoice in Malcolm's eternal life with Jesus:

“It’s morning, Jesus. It’s morning, and here’s that light and sound all over again.

… “Where am I running? You know these things I can’t understand. It’s not that I need to have you tell me. What counts most is just that somebody knows, and it’s you. That helps a lot.

“So I’ll follow along, OK? But lead, please. Now I’ve got to run. Are you running with me, Jesus?”

"Marriage Matters" to be focus of Diocese of Los Angeles Clergy Conference

Super delighted to share that the Diocese of Los Angeles will focus its annual spring clergy conference on "marriage matters" ... because (... wait for it:) Marriage Matters.  

From "The Angelus" -- our monthly email newsletter:

The topic of our spring clergy conference will be "Marriage Matters" and during our three-day gathering (Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, May 3-5), we will consider "What makes a marriage Christian and holy?"

Marriage is both a sacred covenant and a civil contract. Whether we're preparing a couple for marriage, counseling a couple in a troubled marriage or answering questions about where the Episcopal Church stands on marriage equality -- whether we serve a mission or parish, urban or rural, large or small - marriage is an issue that we all "touch" as clergy.

Over the last three years the Task Force for the Study of Marriage - convened by the 2012 General Convention - has been working on its charge to identify and explore biblical, theological, historical, liturgical, and canonical dimensions of marriage" and to "address the pastoral need for priests to officiate at a civil marriage of same-sex couples in states that authorize such."

The Task Force framed its work with the question "What does the Episcopal Church have to say to today's world as to what makes a marriage Christian and holy?" And that is the question we want to consider together at this year's clergy conference.

We are honored to have as our keynote speaker Dr. Rosemary Radford Ruether. Rosemary Radford Ruether is arguably an embodiment of the theological vocation well lived. Her scope is awesome, her writing compelling, her commitment to a livable planet unceasing. The impact of her work can be found in so many fields and hearts that she fairly defines the term "scholar activist," teaching and mentoring generations of appreciative colleagues. Dr. Radford Ruether will help us ground our reflections in and exploration of theology, marriage and family in the 21st century.

This year's conference will also include expanded opportunities for interaction and consultation with workshop and breakout sessions focused on a wide range of marriage matters, including: 

• Pre-marital Counseling Best Practices;
• Navigating Life as a Clergy Couple;
• Pros and Cons of Clergy Acting as Agents of the State;
• Challenges & Opportunities of Interfaith Couples;
• Same-sex Marriage: What's Next in the Church and the Courts.

We will also have one breakout session for further conversation with Dr. Ruether and the opportunity to consult with a representative from CPG (Clergy Pension Group) on benefits and beneficiaries.

- From the Conference Planning Committee

Malcolm Boyd 1923-2015

Today we lost a friend, a mentor and a giant of justice. It is no exaggeration to say that Malcolm Boyd’s 1965 book of prayers “Are You Running With Me, Jesus?” fed the hunger of a generation of people who had given up on the church and given up hope that anyone connected with it had anything relevant to say.

From Bishop Jon Bruno

Karen Ocamb's wonderful tribute in Frontiers