Bishop of New Hampshire to lead off Inaugural Celebrations

From Bishop Robinson: [via email this morning and posted on Episcopal Cafe]

"I am writing to tell you that President-Elect Obama and the Inaugural Committee have invited me to give the invocation at the opening event of the Inaugural Week activities, “We are One,” to be held at the Lincoln Memorial, Sunday, January 18, at 2:00 pm. It will be an enormous honor to offer prayers for the country and the new president, standing on the holy ground where the “I have a dream speech” was delivered by Dr. King, surrounded by the inspiring and reconciling words of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. It is also an indication of the new president’s commitment to being the President of ALL the people. I am humbled and overjoyed at this invitation, and it will be my great honor to be there representing the Episcopal Church, the people of New Hampshire, and all of us in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community."

From Integrity USA's press release:

Integrity is delighted at today’s announcement of New Hampshire Bishop Gene Robinson’s role in the upcoming Inaugural celebrations. Following on the heels of yesterday’s selection of the Rev. Sharon E. Watkins as the first woman preacher for the January 21st National Prayer Service, today’s news is yet another indication that we are entering an historic era of diversity and inclusion.

“Bishop Robinson’s selection by the President-elect to pray God’s blessings on the opening event of the Inaugural week is good news not only for gay and lesbian Americans but for all who share the audacious hope of a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all are created equal,” said Integrity President Susan Russell.

“It also gives us hope that the age of an ‘America’s Pastor’ is behind us and that we enter a new era where diverse voices of faith speak from the particularity of their own experience of God’s grace, love and power. While there are many miles to go before we are done with racism, sexism and homophobia in this country, we look forward to Barack Obama’s inauguration, to Sharon Watkins’ sermon and to Gene Robinson’s prayers as signs of great progress and profound hope.

Being Gay Is A Gift From God

Here's how Ed dealt with the Oprah experience in his sermon this morning:



You can see the whole sermon on the All Saints website -- I particularly liked what he calls "God's Politics of Love."
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"Gay is a Gift" ... You heard it on Oprah!

So I was doing the quick-email-check-on-a-Sunday-morning thing and found a link to this article about Ed's interview on Oprah ... which was in DUTCH so I couldn't read it ... but found that it had a link to an excerpt from the segment on You Tube, so ... VOILA!



Lots of comments, emails and stuff flying around about this, as you might imagine. There are hundreds of comments on the Oprah.com community pages and we continue to get emails and voicemails in response. I even heard that Bill O'Reilly referred to the segement but haven't gotten confirmation or a clip yet. (Am thinking that it wasn't to say, "Amen!")

So tune in on Wednesday evening when the panel does their live webcast with follow up questions. At the end of the day what matters most, I think, is the comment Sedrick made at the end of the segment, "After listening to you guys today I think I'm going to leave here with a renewed vision."

What a GREAT way to start off the Season of Epiphany! With an "AHA!"

PS - Stay tuned ... the focus of today's sermon here at All Saints was "A Stubborn Kind of Love" and we should have an excerpt soon.

Celebrating Ten New Presbyters in the Church of God

It was a beautiful day in the Los Angeles neighborhood ... and a great day for an ordination service!

So we did what Anglicans "do" when it's time to ordain new priests ...

... got a cathedral lined up and found a crucifer to lead the procession. Then we herded a bunch of clergy into line (NO small task, that!) ...
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And got ready to process to (you guessed it!) ... "St. Patrick's Breastplate."

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Now, the ordaining of new clergy is the main reason for the celebration, but let's face it ... seeing old friends and connecting with colleagues we usually only see on "Facebook" is also worth celebrating. (Here's me with friend Albert Ogle.)
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Cue Music: (click video to play)

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And here they are ... two-hours-and-change later: 10 New Presbyters in the Church of God with their bishops and the preacher du jour ... Grace Cathedral's Canon Mary Haddad. (Great sermon, Mary!)

And here's my friend Vicki Mouradian giving +Jon a blessing at the end of a VERY blessed day.

It was a great day to be an Episcopalian ... an Angeleno ... and I found myself thinking about some of the "ghosts of ordinations past."

I remember singing the same anthem the choir sang today -- Friedell's "Draw Us in the Spirit's Tether" -- at my friend (now Dean of St. Paul's, San Diego) Scott Richardson's ordination in (I think) 1990. Maybe 1991. Whatever. A long time ago.

I remember the year someone missed that the names of the year-before's ordinands were listed in the litany instead of that year's crop ... and the litanist didn't miss a beat and prayed God's blessing a whole slew of last year's priests. Oh well.

I remember the year we ordained the first "openly gay" priest in this diocese. I was the litanist that year and my cue to move to the lectern was when the bishop asked if there was any "crime or impediment" ... and I remember literally feeling the intake of 1000 people holding their breath ... and all was well.

I remember my own ordination when my son thought the mounted police who were gathered in the parking lot adjacent to St. John's to monitor a protest going on further down Figueroa Boulevard were there "to make sure my mom gets ordained." (At least that's what he told his Grandma!)

And I remember the year we ordained Robert Two Bulls and the procession was led by the MOST amazing corps of Native American drummers ... and how when they stood in the narthex it felt as though St. John's might just be pulsing with the heartbeat of the universe ... and then as the last drum beat faded into the first chords of St. Patrick's Breastplate and we processed down the aisle into the packed cathedral ... well ... it was the kind of moment you remember when you're remembering those kinds of moments.
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So congratulations to Anna, Jeffrey; Shannon, Allison, William, Elizabeth, Victoria, Loren, Kirby and Richard. May God richly bless you in your lives and ministries ... and may the One who has given you the will to do all these things give you grace and power to accomplish them!

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Words of wisdom from behind the Orange Curtain

My friend and colleague, John Taylor, wins the 'Behind the Orange Curtain" award for this blog posted yesterday in response to the news that Rick Warren, the purpose-driven-America's-Pastor-wannabe, is now offering "sanctuary" to the former Episcopalians who've lost their fight to leave the Episcopal Church and take our property with them.

If you don't know John, you should. You can read more about him here ... but key bio material includes "The Reverend John H. Taylor is the former post-Chief of Staff to Richard Nixon, former President of the United States, and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation."

So here ... fresh from Behind the Orange Curtain (AKA Orange County CA) is:

Nobody Steps On A Church In My Town * by John Taylor

It's often been a blessing to have Pastor Rick Warren's mammoth Saddleback Church in our backyard at St. John's in Rancho Santa Margarita, about two miles south of Warren's digs. His ministry gives inspiration and comfort to tens of thousands in our community and millions around the world. He brings the gospel alive in practical ways to help people live better, more faithful lives.

But now he's offered to help dissident Episcopalians plant a church in our neighborhood. Thanks a lot, dear colleague!

In the wake of Monday's ruling by the California Supreme Court under which three churches which tried to leave our Diocese may soon have to return their buildings and other properties, Warren wrote,

We stand in solidarity with them, and with all orthodox, evangelical Anglicans. I offer the campus of Saddleback Church to any Anglican congregation who need a place to meet, or if you want to plant a new congregation in south Orange County.

As the orthodox pastor of the closest Episcopal church to Saddleback, I'll try not to take it personally. Still, if any of the 20 million Baptists who aren't especially taken with Pastor Rick's conservative Southern Baptist Convention want to plant a church in his backyard, I'll happily talk to the St. John's Bishop's Committee about using our choir room to start Saddleback South. We could only seat about 20, compared to Pastor Rick's 50,000 Christmas Eve worshipers, but all good things start small.

Among dissidents' problems with Mr. Warren's Southern Baptists is this carefully worded policy statement from the Convention's web site:

Women participate equally with men in the priesthood of all believers. Their role is crucial, their wisdom, grace and commitment exemplary. Women are an integral part of our Southern Baptist boards, faculties, mission teams, writer pools, and professional staffs. We affirm and celebrate their Great Commission impact.

While Scripture teaches that a woman's role is not identical to that of men in every respect, and that pastoral leadership is assigned to men, it also teaches that women are equal in value to men.

That's right: Pastor Rick and his colleagues believe Jesus Christ didn't want women to be pastors. The policy is one reason former President Jimmy Carter resigned from the Convention in 2000. With us Episcopalians and many other denominations, the seeming crisis is over the sacramental status of gay and lesbian people. But an even more important problem is that many Christians haven't even come to terms with the radical equality of women in the body of Christ.

In the early church, women played a prominent role in all aspects of ministry. After all, the "apostle to the apostles" wasn't Peter, James, or Paul, or indeed Tom, Dick, or Harry. All four gospels agree (in other words, "scripture teaches") that Mary Magdalene first received the good news of our Lord's Resurrection. She believed, while Jesus's male followers (who had fled in fear after the Crucifixion) at first did not.

And yet in the 21st century, powerful Christian leaders still keep Mary's half of the population down. I can well understand why they prefer to talk instead about the 2-3% of the population who are homosexual. Safer odds.

* Name that movie!
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He's B - A - C - K !!!

As reported in today's USA Today ...

Rick Warren, who has been out of the news for, oh, about 10 minutes, since the controversial California pastor was picked to give the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration, is back.

Recapping here: After sticking a fork in the eye of gay rights advocates by actively supporting Proposition 8 -- which overturned the legalization of gay marriage in California -- Warren compounded their outrage by equating gay marriage with incest in an interview with Beliefnet.

The hubbub lulled down a little over the holidays but today, he's back, with an open invitation to any group displaced by their denomination. This is code for Episcopal congregations that oppose that church's acceptance of a gay bishop in 2003. Earlier this week, a California judge ruled that a breakaway congregation, St. James in Newport Beach, cannot keep its property now that they have left the Episcopal Church.

The Southern Baptist Warren shared his letter with Christianity Today which says, in part:

We stand in solidarity with them, and with all orthodox, evangelical Anglicans. I offer the campus of Saddleback Church to any Anglican congregation who need a place to meet, or if you want to plant a new congregation in south Orange County.

This is pretty much guaranteed to revive demands by gay rights advocates for Obama to reconsider Warren for the invocation. My bet is that Obama will hold firm, maintaining, as he has before, that this is a diverse nation and that Warren, as much as Rev. Joseph Lowery, a zealot for civil rights, are equally welcome on the podium. Lowery is set to give the benediction.
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Q & A

Q. So your boss was on Oprah. Big Deal. Isn't it time to move on and write about something else?

A. Not today. Not when I've spent a good chunk of my day helping respond to emails like these:

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Thank you Mr. Bacon for so publicly saying that “gay” is a gift from God. I have struggled with homosexuality for many years. I grew up in the Southern Baptist church and always felt that maybe God didn’t love me because of the way I am. I tried years to change it, but when I finally accepted myself, I began to thank God for who I am. Had I not been a gay man, I may not have had the many talents or the success given my upbringing. I would love to visit the All Saints church. Are there other members from the GLBT community that attend you church?

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I just watched Rev. Bacon on the Oprah show and was moved to tears by his kindness and compassion. My father died of stomach cancer when I was 9 years old and on the day he died I stopped believing in God. The Reverends remarks about how God does not give diseases struck me at my very core and I am still crying as I type this. Moreover, his comments to the young gay gentleman were so incredibly kind and loving. I would like to reconnect with God. I live in New York City and was wondering if your church had a sister organization in NYC. I would like to find a Reverend and a church that shares Rev. Bacon's approach to spirituality. Would you be able to recommend a church in New York City? Or perhaps how I may start to figure out how to find one?Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated.

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I am a volunteer counselor at a suicide and crisis line for gay teens. When I started training I was staggered by the number of gay teens that attempt suicide, 3 to 1 over their heterosexual counterpart, and now as a counselor I find that most of the calls involve conflict about religion. So many teens across this country are torn between their sexuality and their faith. As a counselor, it is frustrating to have so little to say to be able to ease their often desperate anxiety. Your words on The Oprah Show, I am confident, changed the lives of many kids. There are so many conflicted kids who are trying so hard to do what's right, I know that your words saved some of their lives. I, myself was moved to tears. I wanted to commend you for you bravery and your clarity, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

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Q. Will you proclaim by word and example of the Good News of God in Christ Jesus ... [even on The Oprah Winfrey Show?]

A. I will, with God's help!

And let the people say Amen, Amen, Amen!