Does This Make Zense to You?

(Image From Ann Huey's website)

In the most recent case of Episcopalian strange bed fellows, the Diocese of Northern Michigan elected a man as Bishop who is both an Episcopal priest and a "lay ordained" Buddhist. There are also procedural questions about the election which our EDUSC Bishop and Executive Council have to consider before issuing a consent to the election.

I have read with interest the blogging going on about this story. Read Anglicat's take here, or the opinion of the rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Pine Bluff Arkansas,

More to the point is the text of the Rev. Forrester's Trinity Sunday sermon that the people at StandFirm transcribed. Here is an illustrative sample,

“That’s what we heard today, right? All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Well, we could slightly rephrase that and keep it, keep its true meaning, I think, if we would say: Jesus realized that all that He is, He had received from God. Jesus is the one that realized all He is, “all I am, I have received from God.” And in response, we read in the gospels later on His response, to having received everything from God is that, “into Your hands I commend my spirit and Thy will be done.” He receives everything from God and He returns everything to God. That is what it means that everything has been given to Jesus, all the power. His very center, the center of His heart, of His body, of His mind, is the living God. All things come from the divine source for Jesus—who He is, His self identity, His soul, that just means His understanding of who He is, He has come to realize and it’s key in that baptismal moment, that He is the very presence of the living God. That is who He is. He is one who is unified with God. That’s what the Syrians are getting at. Jesus realizes that God dwells in His very being, He is one with God, and He is one with you and me. And because He is one, He is the lifegiver. He can show us the path of life, which is the path to realizing that we are one with God. We are one with one another.”

I named this "Buddhistic Adoptionism."

The same StandFirm post included the service Bulletin which had this interesting bit of information at the end,

AN UPDATE FROM THE EPISCOPAL MINISTRY DISCERNMENT TEAM
May 13, 2008
The discernment process is moving along on schedule. Our first few sessions were led by Marcia Franz, Kevin Thew Forrester, Fran Gardner and Hazel Satterly. Formation and team building were on the agenda for the first few meetings. Kevin led us through a brief oversight of the Enneagram showing us how our personality traits impact group process, how we receive and give information and how we make decisions.

So the Rev. Forrester was in on the discernment team for the next Bishop which may very well wind up being himself.

It will be interesting to see how our Executive Council and Bishop in Upper South Carolina handle this.

I advise all to write to Bishop Henderson and the members of D.E.C. and let them know your opinion.

As for me, I will meditate, and pray for the Diocese of Upper Michigan that they will find a clear minded Bishop who can lead them through the spiritual minefields ahead. I pray that they have also seen this video,

Casting out the Money Changers

Today's sermon was given by Mr. Nicholas Roosevelt a Senior at Presbyterian College who is doing an internship in Youth ministry at Our Saviour. He had the task of preaching on John 2:13-22. He did a pretty good job and he kept it short.

Did anyone note the irony of the money changing hands after the service in the parish hall where the youth were selling fresh cinnamon rolls as a fund raiser for a mission trip?



1 Corinthians 1:23-25,

"but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. ."

It took strength to resist those cinnamon rolls.

Bishop Search 2

Faith...the nounverb problem

Noun: according to Bob Jones, Northside Bible Church, Jacksonville Florida
http://www.biblefood.com/form.html

Verb: is preferred according to Rev. Steven B. Smethers DD

Both (transitive verb and noun): Merriam-Webster and the Rev. Charlie Foss.

Today's sermon was on Faith. If you where not there, you will have to take it on faith that we heard a good sermon, 12 minutes in length, which brought in all the readings for today and an anecdotal story to boot. The only weakness was when Charlie said he didn't know if his story was a Christian one. I have faith that it was.

The story involved a spontaneous act of pastoral kindness occuring in a healing service at a Christian church. The pastor was moved to hug and cry along with a man who was in pain. Okay, the location, the people involved all sound like Christians. The act sounded a Christian response to me, but some might argue that it is a human response to another suffering human. This type of response may be an uncommon one as evidenced by this video of the old man struck by a car.



Most people did not rush to his side. Doesn't it take a leap of faith to forget yourself for a moment and care for another person. Does faith in God have anything to do with it? Does one have to be a Christian? Couldn't one be a Samaritan?

My question is this, if the Samaritan was a good neighbor, is the Samaritan saved?

We Pledge for This?

Ever since we had our own taste of the Divine Feminine, my ears perk up when I hear references to the subject. I once was blind, but now I see...

Do you ever wonder where those dollars sent to the National Church go? I mean besides the RCRC, attorneys fees and court costs. Well it goes to all kinds of kinky stuff. Things like this bizarre event held Feb 13-14, 2009 at the National Cathedral.

From the Institue on Religion and Democracy we read this report,

“A Lakota medicine woman officially opened the conference by offering up a bowl of smoldering tobacco and directing the participants to face the four directions while she went through a ritual to “invite the spirits:”

“To the sacred guardians of the East,” the leader said, “all the medicine that comes from the East, we welcome you. Acupuncture, Tibetan medicine.”

“To the sacred guardians of the South,”—the place of the physical body, innocence, and warriors, “we ask for laughter, healing, joy.”

“To the sacred guardians of the West”—the place of great mystery, the vision quest, and death, “The place of finding your own divinity.”

“To the sacred guardians of the North”—the Earth element, whom she called to “gather spirit and wisdom,” and regarded as the place of transformation, change, and the “White Buffalo Woman.”

“Come spirit of many names, come” the medicine woman concluded.

and this,

"Elizabeth Lesser, co-founder of Omega Institute and guru to Oprah Winfrey, spoke about the importance of emotional and spiritual intelligences…
Lesser recalled the pagan history of what is now St. Valentine’s Day, at which time the Romans honored Lupa, the she-wolf who suckled Rome’s mythical founders, Romulus and Remus, and Juno, queen of the Greco-Roman pantheon. Said Lesser, 'I think it’s time for us women to take back Valentine’s Day,' to 'take it back for Lupa the she-wolf and Juno the fertile goddess, and Valentine.'”

It starts getting a bit obscene, so read no further if you are easily offended.

"Unfortunately, Lesser lamented, women 'suffer from this desire for someone to come and save the day.' Women need to realize, she insisted, 'No handsome prince is going to wake us up. We’re going to have to kiss ourselves; we have to rouse ourselves.'”

I hate to flash you the sacred circle logo...



Do we pay for this stuff? Yes we do.

. . . The Episcopal Office of Women’s Ministries underwrote all of the scholarships to attend “Sacred Circles,” and a paid staffer of the cathedral served as the convener of the event.

I can't wait to see the brochure for the men's conference. I even have some suggestions for the location and the logo. We could have the meeting right here in Rock Hill at a certain restaurant just off I-77 and Hwy 161. Call it "Sacred Chicken Wings." It would be a hoot!

OMGodess

Bishop Search 1

Lent 1

Following the Great Litany and lessons, Mary Cat delivered today's sermon with a call for Lenten devotion and preparation. Her sermon was short, sweet, and stayed on topic. I give it 4 stars.

As the rain fell on the roof and the children's choir sang "When Jesus Wept,

"When Jesus wept, the falling
In mercy flowed, beyond all bound.
When Jesus groaned, a trembling fear
seized all the guilty world around."

William Billings (1746-1800)

All this rain and rumors of snow made me long for a little walk in the desert, and since we got out of church early, spend some time on the desert walk below,