Sunday night shuffle

... because I am so brain dead (and that has nothing to do with Fran's visit!)

Hasta siempre Che • Corrido de Che
Krishna Das • Kalabinashini Kali
The Beatles • Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
George Michael • Flawless
Pet Shop Boys • Email
Mr Mister • Broken Wings
Simon and Garfunkle • Mrs Robinson
Diego Torres • Deja de pedir perdón
Alain Souchon • On avance
Mox • Twirl

What an odd lot tonight. There's a fair amount of foreign language in this mix.

The Corrido de Che is from a FMLN disk I bought during sabbatical in El Salvador. To go from that to Krishna Das is a bit odd but this particular piece moves along.

And Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band... oh, is tha† ancient!

George Michael and the Pet Shop Boys are sort of the pop contingent, the dance stuff that borders on techno.

Then we wind back the years to Simon and Garfunkle, ano†her classic.

Then lest we get too complacent, we whip to Diego Torres and Alain Souchon (the latter is a funny French singer from the early 80s).

Finally, a piece by Mox. As far as I know they only did one album, Mox. Great music. Right now I can't remember which luminaries from other bands are in the group. ¿Padre?

Feast of the Transfiguration (transferred)

[Fran says this sermon was brilliant... I am not sure about that but take the compliment. She will be the first to tell you that there is a lot that doesn't appear in the written text.]


The Feast of the Transfiguration, 6 August, one of the major church feasts of the year, always seems out of place to me because it comes a week before the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when we remember Jesus’ mother and our matronal saint, because we observe the Transfiguration on the Last Sunday of Epiphany and lastly because it comes in the middle of the summer, in the thirteenth week of ‘common time.’

I can’t help but come to the Feast of the Transfiguration aware of the other levels of significance attributed to this day. Just as the day seems jumbled to me by its timing in the church year, the many layers of significance to this date in history make my mind jump all over. Not only is it a major feast in the Anglican Church, it is the Feast Day of El Salvador. On or near to the Feast of the Transfiguration, the country and its expatriates celebrate the Saviour of the World, Salvador del Mundo, with masses and processions. We can remember the people of El Salvador as they recognise the One whose name they call their own, ‘Saviour.’ They have had many prophets lead them to new life-giving ways of life and they are trying now to be a people of hope despite so many difficulties. And the 6th is also the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. A simple day becomes complex.

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The gospel reading begins by saying that eight days have happened after Peter’s confession to who Jesus is, the Messiah of God. Peter, James, and John accompany Jesus up the mountain, away from the plain where he has finished preaching. The end of Jesus’ Galilean ministry has come; Jesus now resolutely turns his face to Jerusalem and the passion. At this turning point of the gospel, one at which Jesus has been identified and where the focus now shifts to the march to the cross, the action picks up.

While up on the mountain to pray, Jesus is joined by two well known historical figures, Moses and Elijah. They speak to Jesus about his exodus, which he is about to fulfill in Jerusalem. Jesus’ witnesses, Peter, James, and John, sleep through the encounter, perhaps explaining Peter’s illogical response when he finally comes to.

As the disciples are figuring out what is going on around them, a cloud overshadows them. Once again, Jesus is identified for who he is but this time, the identification comes from a heavenly voice which declares, ‘This is my Son, my chosen One.’ The voice adds a directive, ‘Listen to him,’ a command that in other gospels and this one happens at the moment of Jesus’ baptism.

If we listen to Jesus and live into the baptismal covenant, we also must keep in mind the two figures that appear to Jesus on the mountain, Moses and Elijah. Moses seemingly represents the prophetic office that Jesus will occupy — the voice calling us to be people of the Beatitudes, while Elijah pictures the hope of the world to come — the promise that we can hold out to those around us. Jesus will function as a Moses-like figure who will draw people around himself in much the way that Moses drew together the nation of Israel. With Jesus comes a new period, a new age, a new way of living and being God’s people, a new way of relating to God. And so Elijah is present on the mountain as a reminder of another time when people related to God in new, life-giving ways.

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Normally, I like to wax eloquently (!) about the wonders of being up top a mountain. You’ve heard sermons about the awe one has of looking out across the countryside instead of being in a valley, being able to see for one hundred miles and, in the case of Mount Washington, feeling a bit of the altitude and closer to God.

Today I want to approach the mountaintop experience from a different vantage point… getting there when it’s not so great.

This past Tuesday while over in the New Hampshire Whites, we decided to take a quick 5.8 mile hike up a barely 4000 footer so we could tick it off on the list of the 48 4000 footers in NH (we’re up to 18 now, including all the 5000+ footers). Since it had been raining in the morning, and still looked foggy and overcast, we decided to summit a mountain where there is no view because the top isn’t cleared. Why waste a good day on a viewless summit when we could do it on a crummy day? So off we went.

It was a miserable hike. Humidity was 100% without it raining. I was very tired and thought of quitting at least twice. I had no energy, couldn’t breathe and was annoyed by my sluggishness. Streams that normally would be easy to cross were rushing torrents. When we got within half a mile from the summit, it began to rain. Still, we slogged on through the mud, no longer worrying about keeping it off our boots and pant legs. When we got to the top, in the rain, we looked around, saw nothing because it had socked in, nodded and said, ‘OK, we’ve done it. Let’s go down.’ We turned around and left after two minutes up there. Big deal.



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Mountaintop experiences can be like this most recent one… struggling to get there and once you’re there seeing nothing and figuring you might as well go down where at least you can get dry again. Sometimes I think this experience is more akin to what the disciples felt when they were up in the cloud with Jesus. They didn’t know what was going on.

Furthermore, getting up the mountain can be hard work. After watching Bruce Feiler’s A Walk Through the Bible, I realise just how high Mount Sinai is (7455 feet but it sticks up out of the desert). It wasn’t a walk in the park for Moses to keep going up and down the mountain. He didn’t have goretex and fleece the way Feiler did. Moses struggled in more ways than one.

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So why do we do it? Why do we slog along if we are going to have to work extra hard without the knowledge of any pay off?

Because it is part of being faithful. The climb up one mountain is but a piece of a life-long faith journey. Continuing on even when things don’t seem to click or God seems lost in the fog is part of our believing despite not being able to see. It is part of trusting in God even when we are not sure of what is going to happen.

No matter where we are spiritually when we go up that mountain, God is up there, even in the fog, ready to remind us that we are God’s chosen. Just as God tells the disciples to listen to Jesus, so God tells us to listen to one another because we are all chosen — in other gospels, beloved.

One of the ways we keep at it is by remembering the vows we made at baptism and reaffirm. One of those is to come together to break bread and share in the prayers.

One of the transforming moments of life for me, and for many, is the moment in which the People of God — friend and stranger, wise and foolish, strong and weak, guilty and forgiven — gather around the Table of Christ and are invited to that time and place where heaven and earth are joined, where the basic things of life, bread and wine, become for us the life giving presence of the Holy One, who is not far off, but is as near as our breathing.

If that is not a transcendent, mountain top experience, what is? So, come with the prayer that we might be touched by God who is near, to be drawn to that place and time which is Holy and life giving and changing.

Fran meets Caminante and her cats

... and lives to tell the tale!

Srsly, I had a grand time meeting Fran in person, having her in the congregation this morning, showing her the three covered bridges (all in a row) and then having lunch at the local restaurant that has just reopened in a new incarnation.

Fran is still driving back home, all three hours, lordy!, so it's extra special that she came up. We'll figure out a more southern spot to meet up so she doesn't have to drive so far but obviously she couldn't have come to church that way.

All you bloggers out there, be jealous :)

And here's some 'splainin' to do.

Continued Idolatry

In other words, a golden calf (עגל הזהב)

Per the Lead...

The Archbishop of Canterbury responds to the flap over what he wrote years ago regarding same-gender relationships:

I accept Resolution I.10 of the 1998 Lambeth Conference as stating the position of the worldwide Anglican Communion on issues of sexual ethics and thus as providing the authoritative basis on which I as Archbishop speak on such questions.

A question: when are you, Archbishop, going to allow conversation WITH the LGBT population? When will you allow us to become incarnate and move away from the abstract?

Oh, we know. As long as you can keep us at arm's length, as an 'issue' or 'problem,' keep throwing the idolatrous Lambeth I.10 WHICH HAS NO LEGAL AUTHORITY at us, as long as you can keep us in the abstract, you think you can save the Communion.

But we need to become incarnate. The Incarnation is the basis of our theology. It is how we perceive Christ. It is through incarnate experience that we do theology.

Look at all those faithful (and legal in several countries and states) same-gender relationships. See the abstract become incarnate and realise that we are not undermining society. We, too, are God's beloved children, as we are, who we are. And our relationships are blessed, too. But as long as you refuse to recognise them, keep them in the abstract, then you can deny their existence.

The Archbishop also says:

Our Anglican Church has never exercised close control over what individual theologians may say. However, like any church, it has the right to declare what may be said in its name as official doctrine and to define the limits of legitimate practice.

This increased drift toward the use of the word, 'Church,' is very frightening. I am sensing the modus operandi, 'If you say it enough times, it will become true.' Such has become the authority of the other idolatrous document, the Windsor Report. So, Archbishop, are you thinking that if you use 'Church' enough times, we will begin to think of the COMMUNION as a world-wide 'Church'? If so, you truly are steering us toward becoming a hierarchical, centralised body as the Roman Catholic Church. Traditional Anglicanism has embraced a wide spectrum of thinking. The idea of setting up a curia type body and this Pastoral Panel is equally threatening to the Anglican way.

As for the use of the word, 'doctrine,' I do believe (without looking it up) that the Anglican Church of Canada determined that blessings of same-gender couples was not 'core' doctrine. For the Archbishop to raise blessings to the level of core doctrine (a notion that typically Anglicans have a hard time nailing down) is absurd — that is to make blessings (or the ban thereof) on a par with the creeds and the sacraments. Not.

Third point: those of us who embrace the full inclusion of LGBT people are called various names such as 'innovators,' but we are never called 'traditionalists.' Yet those who claim the word, 'traditionalist,' are distorting Anglicanism in its classical sense by pointing us to a sola scriptura and literalistic approach toward the Bible, to the exclusion of tradition and reason. We need to reclaim the word, 'traditionalist,' too. Those of us who love the sacramental life, mystery, history, depth of reason of the Anglican tradition have every right to call ourselves traditionalists. That word, like Christian, needs to be wrested away from the narrow, exclusionary use that we have seen of late.

Just a few poorly expressed thoughts (on one cup of coffee) on a Saturday morning.

A new definition of misery

Just as this moving van pulled up in front of the house across the street, the heavens opened, the lightning and thunder struck and the driver clearly decided he was going to stay put. I could see him phoning (his supervisor?) and figured the conversation was: I don't care what the time schedule is; it's bucketing outside and I am not leaving this cab. He stayed put for a good 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, I read that my favourite bookstore in Montpelier, Bear Pond, got flooded yesterday. Oh dear. The road from here to there was closed because of washouts, and downtown Montpelier had flooding. There are a lot of roads out around here. The road I take to get from here to the other side of the ridge (to Small Dog, to Mad River Glenn) is closed because of two washouts — on Wednesday the town had patched up (with lots of gravel) the two and a couple of hours later, they'd all washed out again.

[from the Times Argus on Saturday:

Next door at Bear Pond Books the shelves of the Poetry section were bare and a fan was running to dry the area. A shelf near the front door sported a sign, "Flood Damage, 25% off."

"Really all I know is that we had a ton of water pour down from the second floor," said Claire Benedict, co-owner of the bookstore. "If our store hadn't been very full of customers at the time we really would have lost a lot more."

The damaged books for sale were mildly amiss, and three construction-size trash bags held the ones that had been soaked. Mary McKeever was one of the employees on when the geyser happened.]

This weather is nuts. Already places like Mount Washington have had 6 inches of rain, whereas the norm for the entire month is 8 inches.

With all this rain, it means that the desperately needed driveway repairs and roof painting and fixing are held back. It'll be October at this rate before the jobs are done.

Next-to-last update

Once Monday comes, I don't think there will be any more updates because I'll no longer have the boa paw. I took this photo yesterday. The bruising (yellow and grey) comes down to the top of my fingers, almost as though I had on a glove whose fingers I chopped off. The swelling is all gone so I have back my knuckles. I actually can reach all the way inside to scratch the incision.

The plaster/gauze set-up is disintegrating and loose enough that I could peek inside to see that the incision goes across the top of my wrist and, as promised, there are three stitches. It looks lumpy but in time that all will go down and eventually my bracelets will cover up any scar.

I could take this off but am happy enough to leave it on because it is good protection and because I don't necessarily do stitches well. Besides, what's the difference of three days?

The wrist is still a bit stiff and tender so we'll see what if anything I need to do next week.

Bonus photo!

And here's our silly friend last night as I went to bed. He had taken over the bag I had taken with me to New Hampshire. I bought it at a church fair in Ecuador (actually at the cathedral) for a mere $10.

Friday cat blogging

This is a collection of sillies of Young Guy, all taken in a three-minute period as he moved from one basket to another on top of the drier.


He started out in the big basket on top of the drier.


He seemed pretty happy there but then started to move around.


How can you resist me?


Then he moved into the smaller basket.


A bug attracted his attention.


If I sit in the basket, maybe I can get the bug.


So much for the bug.


But I just can't get comfortable.


So I'll keep squirming around.


I'll do a total flip around.


Aren't I beautiful?


OK, the show is over. K THX BY.

Celebremos la cosecha

Here's what I managed to rescue from the over-grown part of the garden. What seemed like a rational idea back in May — clear out the blackberry bushes and dig up the Jerusalem artichokes to expand the garden into an area that gets more sun — has turned out to be a disaster because the aforementioned vegetation has once again taken over its former digs. Despite it, the peppers are turning out decent chiles and some day I will have lots of tomatillos and tomatoes (if the slugs don't get them).

Mercifully the rain held off to just half an hour ago so I could collect veggies, mow the lawn (with one hand, having secured the self-propelling bar with a bungee cord) where it was flat and drive up the road to the local farm stand to get my favourite summer dinner: wax and green beans, corn on the cob and fresh new potatoes. So what if it's almost all starch.

I am involved in some outside writing so don't have a lot of free time to work here.

Proper 13A

[I realise that in the confusion of the past week, I never put up last Sunday's sermon and now on the 9th. I realise it never got published. FWIW.]


The Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of Maine, Stephen Lane, wrote the other day on his blog about his Indaba group discussion at the Lambeth Conference, which has been taking place these past two weeks in Canterbury, at the University of Kent:

This morning there was a small explosion in my Indaba group. What exploded was widespread frustration that all the talk about our disagreements distracts from mission and undermines the Communion's credibility. The real issues, the real priorities of the Anglican Communion, need to be poverty, hunger, HIV/AIDS, the oppression of women and children, the oppression of the Dalits in India, war, refugees, care for creation, etc. (Indeed, if there is a consensus at this Lambeth it is that global warming is the most important matter facing humankind and that care for creation must be a first priority for the Church.) Most of the members of my group shared in some part of this frustration.

Of all the things that have been posted at his blog, this particular entry has generated the most comments, almost all of which chastise the bishops for focusing on these matters and not following the great commission found at the end of the Gospel according to Matthew: ‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.’

The comment that absolutely blew me away was this one that accuses the bishop: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

Wow! I don’t know who this person is and it’s really not fair for me really to post this comment without their being able to engage in conversation, but mea culpa, I am going to anyway because I am very curious: How does one square a remark like the above with this morning’s gospel where our Saviour preached with action, not words, when he fed the 5000? And how does that line of thinking square with the baptismal covenant that states we will respect the dignity of every person, which to me means making sure they have access to the bare necessities of life? If any of you can help me, I would love to hear at coffee hour because even here, we can't really engage in conversation. Sometimes I feel there is a huge chasm between the way I hear the gospel mandate and how others do. But let’s back up to the story itself.

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The feeding of a large crowd by Jesus takes place on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, a deserted place, a place of wilderness where God traditionally reaches out to God’s people in need. Prior to feeding the crowd that has been following him, Jesus has compassion for their needs and heals their sick. Jesus gives out of abundance, making do with the simple gifts of food placed before him — five loaves of bread and two fishes. The crowd eats, is satisfied and there is plenty left over. Giving from little resources to many people. Sharing life’s basic food, bread. Restoring the needy. Providing for them so that then they can hear God’s message of love.

This story of the multiplication of the loaves is so important that it appears in all four gospels — twice in the gospel of Matthew. It is a story we know well and one that touches our hearts. Why?

First, because it shows us a tender God who is attentive to our fundamental needs. God does not desire hunger for any of God’s children. God’s promises to us, expressed through the prophets, are promises of life, a life which should be lived in delight. At the Easter Vigil, for example, we hear from the prophet Isaiah who declares, ‘ Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.… Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.’ In God’s economy, every person is entitled to have bread on the table, including those who have no money.

Jesus, by sharing bread with those whose lives have been trampled by the economic forces of society, makes real God’s desire that everyone might have bread to eat. Taking that bread, blessing it in words and gestures that would be familiar to anyone of the time, and inviting them to eat with him, Jesus becomes their companion.

Those of us who share in Jesus’ body, the bread of the Eucharist, are also invited to become companions to those who have little or nothing. Jesus invites us to share our bread, to make the poor and every person our companion in our journey toward building a more human, just and loving society. There are many barriers and obstacles in making that society — greed, jealousy and fear for starters — but we are called to do so. When in doubt, I go back to Archbishop Martín Barahona’s words: ‘A scholarship or medicine is good news for us. If we want to start a church, we need educated and healthy people. If they are uneducated and unhealthy, we can’t move forward.’ I can’t help but think these words come from someone who knows far better than I what engaging in God’s mission is. For me, then, part of living out the Christian faith is to engage in those activities that will multiply loaves and fishes so that all of God’s children will truly know this caring and tender God who provides for them. Somehow, we are called to tear down those barriers that impede God’s generosity from touching everyone and not just a few.

Another reason why the story of the multiplication of the loaves is so central to our faith journey is because it clearly reflects the actions and words of the Eucharist, that sacrament that unites all of us, rich and poor. It is in the Eucharist that Jesus brings diverse peoples into one worshipping community and feeds them with the concreteness of bread and wine, Christ’s own body and blood. It is in the Eucharist that our deepest yearnings are satisfied. It is in the Eucharist that we are united with a community that stretches throughout the earth and throughout history. And it is at the close of the Eucharist that we are sent out to go forth in the name of Christ.

What is that going forth in the name of Christ? From today’s gospel, making sure that everyone has enough to eat. Sharing our bread with someone else. Breaking bread with someone else so that we are companions on the way. Working toward justice so that there be food in abundance. So, come and eat, and then let us do Christ’s work in the world.

Another rainy day

We are positively going to float away... coming back from NH tonight, we had to make a detour because of a mud slide on the road.

Anyway, since we couldn't really go hiking anywhere because it was too miserable out, Compa had the great idea that we would stop in Fraconia Notch and see the Flume. We figured that with all the rainfall, the cascade would be marvellous. We were not at all disappointed. We suited up in our rain gear and set off.

According to Waterfalls of the White Mountains (Bruce, Daniel and Doreen Bulnick, Back Country Publications, Woodstock VT, 1999, 120-26), 'a flume is formed from a narrow band, or dike, of softer rock, such as basalt, that has plugged a fissure in harder bedrock. When exposed to running water, the dike erodes much more rapidly than the surrounding bedrock. The result is a narrow, sheer gorge that is gradually widened by frost action. The Flume in Fraconia Notch, therefore, is not really a curiosity. What accounts for its notoriety is its size: 800 feet long and 12 to 20 feet wide, with vertical walls 7 to 9 stories high.'


On the south side of the Flume. You can see how high the water was running.


Entering the Flume. Photo quality isn't so great because I couldn't really see what I was doing.


The drops on the camera lens come from the spray of the river. It is utterly amazing that one can walk through this site; people have been doing so for a century. Supposedly the Flume was discovered in 1808. There also used to be a huge boulder stuck up top but it came down in the great storm of 1883.


Looking back down from whence we came.


Avalanche Falls above the gorge provided us today with a 45-foot drop because the water was running so high. In other shots found on the web, the water daintily drops from rock to rock. Not so today.


The rocks are in focus so you can see just how hard the water is flowing.


Beyond that, there's Liberty Gorge cascade which was gorgeous.


And lastly there's the Sentinel Bridge (the covered bridge is built on a huge pine tree) with the Pool, a basin 150 feet in diameter, 40 feet deep, under granite walls 13 stories high.

I always have to remind myself that there are countless other waterfalls and cascades equally as beautiful hidden away in the mountains, many of which go unseen, others of which are viewed by hikers. This one just happens to be close to a highway and has been rendered more accessible for more people.

Let's play catch up

Somewhere up in the fog and rain one can find this Lake in the Clouds below the summit of Mount Washington. We are at my brother's in Bretton Woods, up for what should have been two days of hiking but due to the incessant rain got out only a short 5.8 mile hike yesterday.

That jaunt was about all I could handle. Between my double red donation 12 days ago and my surgery 6 days ago I was beyond being a moribund tortoise, I was a dead tortoise. My brother made feel a little better by saying that with the double red, it was as though I was starting my hike at 10.000 feet rather than summitting a small 4051 footer, Mount Tom, with a 2051 foot rise.

The boa paw is now yellow and grey. The swelling has mostly come down. The incision bothers me and as we found out last night in retaping the ace bandage, if you push down on it, it merits a yelp. I still can't type well because the plaster gets in the way. Still, it is healing and next Monday I'll get the stitches out.

As in the case of so many other people, I am letting the end of the Lambeth Conference settle down. I am going to try to get our deputation to write something to Executive Council on the Saint Andrew's Draft as Executive Council is still getting responses.

So more will come along in time. Right now my brain is a bit groggy.

Latest letter from my bishop

Tom Ely (top row) during organization of Lambeth bishops' group photo. (ENS photo)

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Dear people of Vermont

These last few days of the Lambeth Conference have been very full, not only with content and a busy schedule but also with much more passionate conversations calling all of us here to a deeper level of listening and engagement with one another. I am blessed to be part of a diverse and faithful Bible Study group where I feel listened to and where I feel nurtured and fed by the stories and experiences of others from very different parts of the Anglican Communion.

Since my letter to you on July 28th the conference has focused its attention on the topics of Inter-Faith Relations, the Bishop and the Bible in Mission, the Bishop and Human Sexuality, and the proposed Anglican Covenant and the continuation of the Windsor Process. On Tuesday July 29th the bishops and spouses participated in a powerful joint session on power and abuse, with a poignant focus on violence and sexual abuse toward women and children. This included a lengthy Bible Study session on the biblical narrative of the rape of Tamar (2 Samuel 13:1-22). We also held our second successful reception for bishops and spouses with Bishop Gene Robinson.

These past few days have also featured many fine self-select options. I have chosen to participate in the offerings related to the draft Anglican Covenant. I have tried to express the sentiments I heard from Vermonters regarding this development within the Anglican Communion, and I have tried most especially to speak against those portions of the draft Covenant that put in place excessive juridical structures and in favor of a Covenant in Mission, such as that proposed by the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Mission and Evangelism (IASCOME). There continue to be many strong voices calling for a Covenant that sets forth a clear process and set of procedures for dealing with issues and actions arising in one part of the Communion that are “deemed to threaten the unity of the Communion and the effectiveness or credibility of its mission.…”

We have also begun in these last few days to engage with the “Reflections” document being prepared by a group of bishops (one from each Indaba Group) known as “the listeners.” This has added the element of “hearings” to our schedule, in which conference participants are offered an opportunity to respond to each new draft of this substantial document. The document is meant to provide a fairly comprehensive account of our time at Lambeth while offering something of the flavor and substance of our time together and our conversations. It is not meant to be a report from Lambeth as much as an account of Lambeth. Its development is meant to draw primarily upon the Indaba process, however the format of the hearings is such that people come to the microphone one at a time for no more than three minutes to offer a response to one or more portions of the document. Obviously this is not Indaba, but the hope is that it adds to the Indaba process by providing individuals with an opportunity to address the draft report and its authors directly.

We received the latest version of the Reflections Document this evening just after 5:00 P.M. The last few pages were being photocopied as we waited in a crowded lecture hall (the same venue where we hosted the conversations with Bishop Gene Robinson). Clearly all of us would have preferred more time to digest and comment on this penultimate draft. In my view, the sections dealing with the Environment, the Bible, Mission and Evangelism, Human and Social Justice, Ecumenism and Inter-Faith relations are among the strongest portions of the document. Among the strengths I see in the most recent draft are:

1. It offers of a comprehensive overview of the conference and the various and significant agenda topics we have been discussing.
2. It offers a glimpse into the depth and breadth of conversation at the conference and the many mission and ministry connections that have been renewed, strengthened and begun here.
3. It offers an important measure of confidence by reminding readers that our common life and time here has been centered in prayer, worship, and Bible Study, and that we have lived as a community of learning more through conversation than through debate.
4. It offers hope in the reality that the vast majority of bishops gathered at this Lambeth Conference were willing to listen and learn from one another.

The sections of this Reflections document that provide the greatest challenge to me are those dealing with the topics of Human Sexuality, the draft Anglican Covenant and the Windsor Process. This is not surprising, and it is important to note here that the current draft is not the final product and our time to engage in conversation with the drafting group about the text was limited to less than one hour. I don’t know when we will see the final draft of the document on Sunday, but it is unlikely that we will have further opportunity to influence the wording of the final product. That is not necessarily a bad thing, since there is no way for a group of 650 bishops to perfect the wording of such a document, and the drafters have done a rather remarkable job overall in capturing the fullness of our Indaba conversations. It will be a document that each of us will need to reflect upon through the lens of our own experience these last two weeks and share with others our perspective on what is written from the vantage point of our participation in the conference and especially our Bible Study and Indaba groups.

For the most part, the current draft of the section on Human Sexuality offers an accurate account of the conversations as I have participated in them. The reality is that there is a huge need for more conversation, as well as additional biblical and theological discussion around the communion in this area. Some of that took place these past two weeks, thanks to the presence and witness of faithful GLBT Christians and straight allies who made themselves available for conversation on the campus, in the Marketplace, in the various self select groups and through a host of fringe events.

My observation is that misunderstandings and misinformation abound with regard to the realities of homosexual orientation and behavior. There are many reasons for this but among them is the stark reality that in many Provinces of the Anglican Communion the greater focus of mission and ministry is necessarily upon the day to day realities of poverty, disease, education and survival. Throughout the conference I was greatly impressed by the number of bishops from other parts of the communion who sought out opportunities to listen and learn more about the lives and ministries of GLBT Christians. I am sad that others did not, or for various reasons felt they could not. I am grateful that the current draft of the Reflections document acknowledges some of the positive effects of the full inclusion of gay and lesbian persons in the life of our church in addition to naming the many negative results attributed to the ordination of an openly partnered homosexual bishop and the blessing of same sex relationships. It has been a great joy and privilege to share stories from Vermont that have helped others expand their knowledge and understanding of the contributions of GLBT persons in the life and ministry of the Episcopal Church.

The section on the draft Anglican Covenant in the document we received today voices well many of the concerns I heard talked about in the several self-select sessions on the draft Covenant that I attended. It will be interesting to see what the covenant drafting group does with the many responses they received that have not yet been fully digested and incorporated into this section of the Reflections document. I heard many voices from many parts of the communion calling for a more deliberate process and for a Covenant, if there is to be one at all, that relies more on mutual generosity and trust, as opposed to safeguards and juridical process. As I understand the process, the drafting committee is still receiving responses from Provinces throughout the Anglican Communion in anticipation of a next draft that will be submitted to the Anglican Consultative Council in the spring of 2009.

The section addressing the Windsor Process is by far the least polished and for me the least satisfactory portion of the Reflections document. In part this is due to the reality that most Indaba groups did not discuss this topic until earlier in the same day we received the Reflections document. I also think the reality of a separate Windsor Continuation Group (WCG) and the work it has been doing prior to and during the conference has contributed to a lack of clarity about just what we were being asked to comment on in this area. In my judgment, the matter of the various moratoriums remains a topic of considerable division and misunderstanding. The idea of a Pastoral Forum was given its first public airing at the Lambeth Conference and I think there is considerable confusion about its purpose and place within the structures of the Anglican Communion.

In conversations around the Windsor Process, many are fond of saying that certain actions by the Episcopal Church have “torn the fabric of our Communion,” and I do not doubt the conviction of their belief. However, there is equal conviction on the part of many—including myself—that our actions have helped to break the bonds of oppression. I prefer to withhold further comment on this section of the Reflections document until the listeners have the opportunity to incorporate some of the comments made during the late afternoon hearing. In any event, the work of the WCG is meant to go to the Anglican Consultative Council this coming spring, and so the conversations here at Lambeth are but one aspect of the ongoing Windsor process.

Tomorrow (Sunday) is the closing day of the Lambeth Conference, and it is a very full day! Much of it will be spent saying farewell in our Bible Study and Indaba Groups. We will have a final plenary session that will include an address by the Archbishop of Canterbury. We conclude the conference with Eucharist at Canterbury Cathedral beginning at 6:00 P.M. I take away much from this conference, and I am glad we were here. Perhaps more than anything else I leave with a deeper knowledge and appreciation for the mission and ministry of others throughout the Anglican Communion and all its many contexts. I remain more convinced than ever that the mission we share in common is far more uniting than the differences that challenge and threaten to divide us. I have listened to some difficult words these past couple of weeks, and I have heard some incredible stories of faithful mission and ministry in difficult and demanding settings. Through it all I remain ever more strongly convinced that within the Body of Christ we can never say to one another, “I have no need of you!”

Ann and I leave early Monday morning for a week of vacation in Scotland, so I am not planning on sending any further communication about the Lambeth Conference until we return to Vermont. We thank you from the depth of our hearts for your prayers and support during these past few weeks while we have been away from Vermont. I want to offer a word of thanks to the members of the Ministry Support Team for their good work while I have been at Lambeth, and especially to Anne Brown who has done a great job of keeping you informed via the diocesan Web site. We look forward to sharing more about our time at Lambeth when we return.

Faithfully,
+Thomas

Sad irony

[Listening to the debate in the House of Deputies on C045. In one of the quirks of General Convention, that year the deputations from Vermont and New Hampshire were right across the aisle from one another.]

On Sunday 3 August 2003, five years ago today, the House of Deputies voted to consent to the election of the Rev'd Gene Robinson to be Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of New Hampshire.

As ENS reported that night:

Gene Robinson’s journey to becoming bishop of New Hampshire passed a crucial milestone Sunday afternoon when the House of Deputies voted to consent to his election as bishop coadjutor. While the bishops appear poised to follow suit, the response by the rest of the Anglican Communion — and the wider church — could prove a rough road.

In a vote by orders on resolution C045, lay deputations voted 63 yes, 32 no, and 13 divided. Clergy deputations voted 65 yes, 31 no, and 12 divided. With the deputies' action, the final decision now rests with the House of Bishops, which will take up Robinson’s consent Monday afternoon.

We know that things got bogged down over the next two days but ultimately, the House of Bishops voted to concur with the House of Deputies on Tuesday 5 August 2003. And when that vote came through, the 1200 or so of us who stood in the worship space watching the HOB at work did not whoop or holler. When they started singing Uib caritas, we joined in, linked by a video camera.

So it's a sad irony that five years later, to the day, the Archbishop of Canterbury is putting heavy pressure on The Episcopal Church not to go forward with any more consecrations of honest LGBT people and to stop blessings of same-gender couples. I will spend time later sifting through the emissions from Lambeth and the various commentaries out there but I couldn't let this moment of irony go by unnoticed.

This arc that swings to justice is a very wide and slow one, I think.

Memory Lane

Tomorrow night we're going to the closing concert for the Vermont Mozart Festival (as we did last year). It probably won't happen outside this year because the weather is too unpredictable so we'll end up in a hockey arena instead.

As I talked with our friends tonight about the concert and †he fact that we'll probably miss fireworks, it brought back a fun memory from either the summer of 1979 or 1980 (I think it was '79). My father was living in London and in me he found a concert lover.


So one night we went to the Royal Albert Hall to hear among other things, the 1812 Overture. (There was some Scottish piece that if I really, really wrack my brains I can come up with.) I† was the final concert for the Proms. We were up in some balcony but that made the 1812 all the better because when they started to fire off CANNONS INSIDE the building, we ended up with the smoke, that is, we knew it wasn't just sound effects. It seemed pretty crazy that in a concert hall cannon fire was going on but, heck, it's the Proms.

Cruising through photos of the web, I find this one of the memorial statue of Albert.


I always through it was pretty cool. And, oh so Victorian.

From my father's flat up by the London Clinic on Upper Devonshire Place, it was a good hour walk over to Kensington, the Victor and Albert Museum, and this statue. I used walk for hours and hours around London. (March break of 1980 I walked so much that I ended up with tendonitis in my foot.) It was free and I could see a lot. I wonder now after 27-28 years how much I would actually recognise or remember. I wonder these days if I will ever return there or much of anywhere else given airfares.

Reasons beyond sexuality as to why there is such a divide

From the comments at someone's blog:

The blogger had written: "The real issues, the real priorities of the Anglican Communion, need to be poverty, hunger, HIV/AIDS, the oppression of women and children, the oppression of the Dalits in India, war, refugees, care for creation, etc. (Indeed, if there is a consensus at this Lambeth it is that global warming is the most important matter facing humankind and that care for creation must be a first priority for the Church.)"

A commentor (among six others who said that the only thing we should be doing is preaching the gospel and social service agencies can do all the rest and we shouldn't be): I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

+

Such a kind comment, one that is so full of judgement.

If this is the type Christianity that the Anglican Communion now is going to espouse, one that condemns others for doing justice and loving mercy, then I am outta here. Where's the wideness of God's mercy? The difference in theology is a gulf I have no desire to cross. Sorry.

My name is Caminante and I am a pervert... not for orientation but because I dare to focus on the MDGs. Let me be eternally condemned.

Sheesh.

Friday cat blogging

and a non cat photo... not a lot tonight simply because the boa paw is tired.

And not posted until Saturday because blogger wouldn't let me upload this.


Here's the boa paw. By the end of the day, it's tired. It doesn't hurt too much unless I try to do something that stretches the incision... which I think goes down my hand not across but I can't tell because of the plaster under there.


La Doyenne loves now to get into this basket after her dinner. Such contentment.


Usually the bungee cord that keeps the kitchen cabinet shut (where I keep the garbage) is sufficient to keep out the boys but this particular night, they were worrying the doors and I caught Young Guy half in and half out of the cabinet so I hauled over the chair and parked it †here. Orange Guy then sat there, hoping the doors would wondrously open.


Friday fireworks! Every year the local university hosts a two-week orientation program for foreign students coming to the US for a year. At the end, they put on a fireworks display. The photo isn't any good but this is what I saw last night from my front porch. I was glad I didn't go down the street because during the grand finale, it began to rain.

Sure could have fooled me

[(c) Herb Gunn/ACNS]

According to ENS in their coverage about the draft Anglican Covenant:

"We did not even think about going a legalistic or a contract route," Covenant Design Group Archbishop Drexel Gomez of the West Indies told a news briefing in the middle of the first of two days that the 2008 Lambeth Conference will spend discussing the proposed Anglican covenant.

"It's not a stick to whack people over the head with; people entered into it voluntarily so the expectation is they will observe it," said Archbishop Phillip Aspinall of Brisbane, the primate of Australia and principal spokesman for the bishops. "It is meant to be a vehicle for grace and self-limitation and mutual support and encouragement."

+++

If that is the case, then they had jolly well jettison the current appendix to the Saint Andrew's Draft (SAD) which is everything about whacking people over the head and being a legalistic contract and not religious covenant.

Friday afternoon shuffle

I have been a total slug today with a hand that looks more and more like the boa constrictor in Le Petit Prince. So here is what's up on the play list.

Barber: Agnus Dei (Based On Adagio For Strings) • Robert Shaw Singers
Dorothy Masuka • Ngotsotsi
Jiggle the Handle • Walking Backwards
Michael Jones • Wind and Whispers
Giordano Morel • Cuanto Daria
Jon Mark • The Greenwood, The Briar And The Rose
Uakti • Xingu River
Simple Minds • Sanctify Yourself
Bobby McFerron • Discipline
Backstreet Boys • All I have to give

What a bizarre collection. The Barber is amazing simply for the soprano descant that takes a lone voice into the stratosphere (must be a 'B' or 'C'). Masuka is off one of the Simply World disks and not something I have really gotten to know yet. Jiggle the Handle came off a collection my nephew made for me and I have never been able to find it; I think it's a local Denver band. Michael Jones is one of those New Age pianists who has been plinking the keys for over 20 years. Throw in a bachata song to break up one New Age from the next, Jon Mark. The Mark songs are disks that came out in the late 1980s and I can remember listening to them as I worked for interlibrary loans at Firestone library at Princeton. We weren't supposed to listen to Walkmen as we worked but I had to spend all afternoon trundling a bookcart around the library collecting books and figured I was far away from my boss to do so. The Jakti is a combo classical guitar with South American instrumentation. Simple Minds — speaks for itself, some mid 1980s music. Wind things down with some Bobby McFerron and then finally liven things up with Backstreet Boys (Naomi was floored when she learned that I listened to them).

So where do we go from here?

Taken entirely from the Lead:

First draft of the Lambeth reflection on the bishop and human sexuality:

THE CONTEXT OF OUR TALKS

We met in a spirit of generosity and prayerful humility which enabled us to listen patiently to each other. Apologies have been expressed in the Indaba groups by some of the Episcopal church who had no idea that their action in the consecration of the present Bishop of New Hampshire had caused such a negative impact in many parts of the Communion. Although there has been a great appreciation of one to one conversation, there is the need to develop further the trust in the relationships that have started here.

While there is a desire to end the spiral of chaos around this issue, there appears to be no desire to be so decisive at this stage that anyone would want to walk away. There was a plea to have an "enabling" environment to discuss issues without creating a win-lose situation.

It is important to be careful not to make judgments because on both sides people have come to their decision by careful study of the Bible. Those who take different positions regarding this issue have exercised passionate compassionate pastoral care to homosexual/lesbian people.

We need to repent of positions that have been taken that have further damaged the dignity of homosexual/lesbian people.

THE ISSUE

The whole issue of homosexual/lesbian relations is highly sensitive because:

there is a long tradition of Christian moral teaching which is now being questioned

there are very strong affirmations and denials in different cultures across the world which are reflected in contrasting legal provisions, ranging from gay marriage to punitive action against homosexuals

In some parts H/L relations are taboo; in others it has become a justice issue.

We wish this wasn't the big issue because there are bigger ones, but we can't now avoid it.

We are not agreed as to whether this is a first or second order issue.

Even before the Consecration of a partnered gay bishop the issue of homosexual/lesbian relations was a contentious issue in the Anglican Communion shown by the fact of the long debate at Lambeth 1998.

The ordination of a partnered gay Bishop has put this onto a higher plane and focused the issue further.

there is an inevitable anxiety that this will not turn out to be a single act but something that is likely to happen again.

Given all this, an unilateral action by any province without consulting the Communion was bound to have profoundly disruptive effect on the Church.

For some the way the Communion has handled polygamy has complicated the issue.

IMPACT

It creates problem for the Church because:

It questions the authority, the interpretation of the Bible and the basic teaching of marriage and questions the traditional teaching on morality of the Church. The question for many is "Whether the Bible transforms the culture or the culture transforms the Bible."

This is an issue which divides people within provinces and not only between provinces.

In some cultures the action of the North American churches has commended the Gospel in some quarters. In some places the church is ridiculed as the "gay church", so membership is lost.

Partnership in mission is lost and damaged.

It is felt in some provinces as a betrayal of the teaching of missionaries who brought the faith and it is experienced as a new form of colonization.

Confidence in the validity of the Anglican Communion is severely damaged.

It is dishonoring to former Lambeth Conference decisions.

It diverts us from our primary focus.

It is seen as leading to "sexual license."

It affects ecumenical and interfaith relationships.

Bishops cannot be a symbol of unity when their consecration itself divided the church. the unique focus for catholicity in the Communion is lost.

In some regions the issue has become a test of orthodoxy and a basis for hostile actions.

OPTIONS

Understandably there are competing visions of how the communion should responsibly handle this difference:

Gamaliel's advice can be followed here: "If it is from God it will last," so wait.

Decisive action (if your eye causes offense, pluck it out.)

Let God be God and allow Him to transform the attitude and behavior of people.

Further careful study of the Scriptures and theology to be pursued.

Some people are looking for a clear direction from the Communion, in the form of a pastoral letter or direction.

More "listening" than hearing is needed where the purpose is not to "I win, you lose," but "nobody wins, nobody loses."

Ongoing dialog itself is a "Christian witness". The Communion needs a "catholic patience."

Reaffirm the 1.10 resolution and accept that it was a mistake to ignore it.

Give pastoral care, but do not canonize, regularize, legalize or endorse homosexual/lesbian relationships.

Cross provincial and diocesan borders must stop to create the space for creative responses.

Keep walking, keep talking.

Comment: I was expecting a wide variety of opinion, but there's not variety enough. Was there not a bishop at the entire conference who said that consecrating Gene was a good idea, that he's been a good bishop, that he has energized a marginalized population and kept people in the church? GLBT people are discussed exclusively as a problem and a challenge, never as a gift. Where are the voices of the bishops who voted to consecrate Gene?

That said, I like this bit: While there is a desire to end the spiral of chaos around this issue, there appears to be no desire to be so decisive at this stage that anyone would want to walk away. There was a plea to have an "enabling" environment to discuss issues without creating a win-lose situation.

It is important to be careful not to make judgments because on both sides people have come to their decision by careful study of the Bible. Those who take different positions regarding this issue have exercised passionate compassionate pastoral care to homosexual/lesbian people.

+++

My comments? Few. (I'd like to make them over at the Lead but it's not accepting my password/name and I don't feel like starting all over.)

'Apologies have been expressed in the Indaba groups by some of the Episcopal church who had no idea that their action in the consecration of the present Bishop of New Hampshire had caused such a negative impact in many parts of the Communion.' And there are no apologies needed from others who elevated this canonically authorised action to such importance? Or regret that the very person was excluded from Lambeth, thereby depriving the people of a diocese their bishop's attendance at Lambeth? Is it always one-sided like this?

'Those who take different positions regarding this issue have exercised passionate compassionate pastoral care to homosexual/lesbian people' Why can't they use the current parlance of gay/lesbian (it is beyond their capacity to fathom bisexual and transexual people)? Whenever I see †he word, 'homosexual,' all I can think of is the dripping way in which people who scorn LGBT say, ho-mo-SEX-u-al. It is so clinical and dehumanising.

And pastoral care that still refuses to invite LGBT people to the table is condescending and incomplete. When is the Communion going to invite us to the table to listen to us rather than continue to talk about us?

'We are not agreed as to whether this is a first or second order issue.' It is a loud group that has elevated this to a first order issue to the detriment of other issues, such as water and food access, women's and children's equality... that again LGBT relationships are being referred to as an 'issue' also reflects a continuing lack of understanding.

'Partnership in mission is lost and damaged.' Yet some of us dare to enter into mission elsewhere and form relationships and through these relationships new understandings are forged. But it requires being open and taking risks on all sides.

'It is seen as leading to "sexual license."' You can fill in the elipsis of the old canard: if you let gays have relationships, then what is to stop incest, bestiality and the rest.

'In some places the church is ridiculed as the "gay church", so membership is lost.' And amazingly in some places the church has gained members because it is seen as being open, inclusive and loving. It cuts both ways but somehow the converse is ignored in this statement.

'It is dishonoring to former Lambeth Conference decisions.'
So what do all those divorced and remarried bishops do?
And what do all those people who use contraceptives think?
Those also are Lambeth Conference decisions that later were changed with the passage of time.

'Reaffirm the 1.10 resolution and accept that it was a mistake to ignore it.'
How many times do we have to say that Lambeth resolutions have no authority? Lambeth 1.10 and the Windsor Report have become idols. They seem to have assumed more authority than the Bible itself.

'Give pastoral care, but do not canonize, regularize, legalize or endorse homosexual/lesbian relationships.'
That is an unacceptable option that continues to relegate LGBTs to a second-third-class status.

This document is a start and one can be glad it is not completely clamping down on things but it isn't exactly helpful either. It's more of the same.

[photo from Susan Russell's blog]