ISSUES
2006
THURSDAY JUNE 15
What Covenant do you
mean?
The discussion about the Anglican Communion conceals a slippery use of the word “Covenant”.
The Catechism defines a covenant with God as “a relationship initiated by God, to which a body of people responds in
faith.” This used to be the principal use of the word in the churches. The word has also been used to describe the relationship
established by
God between the individuals united in marriage.
Since the Book of Common Prayer
was adopted there is also the “Baptismal Covenant.” This last one is discussed in ambiguous ways. Since we commit
ourselves to the Baptismal Covenant, it sounds as though it is something that it is a human institution on the analogy of
the marriage covenant, but it may have been intended to describe the way God acts in baptism to establish the New Covenant
with an individual believer. In any case, people have begun to describe the Baptismal Covenant as something we establish --
almost as a “good work” which we do and not a relationship God has made with us.
We now come
to the “Anglican Covenant” proposed in the Windsor Report. The discussion seems to assume that it is a God-given,
grace-filled relationship initiated by God to bring fuller life, but we are beginning to feel that it is a human invention
dedicated not to bringing freedom but bondage. We were reminded the other evening of the other use of covenant, of the restrictive
covenants intended to perpetuate segregation in housing or to enforce a deadening uniformity of style. If the Anglican Covenant
is of the latter kind, one which does not bring freedom but repression, the Episcopal Church would be wise to refuse politely
to bind any of our people in this way.
We urge Deputies to think, to think deeply, about
this, to ask if God is calling us to a new kind of relationship, or whether we are being offered an opportunity to enslave
our selves and to turn away from our GLBT brothers and sisters. We fear that the call to covenant is to the idolatry of the
second choice.
Ron Miller
ENEJ Provides Glimpse of Inner City Columbus
The Episcopal Network
for Economic Justice and the Office of Jubilee Ministries have collaborated to provide convention goers an opportunity to
see the work of a local Jubilee Center. The site visit will take place Thursday June 15 from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. Those wishing
to visit Neighborhood House, Inc. should sign up at the ENEJ booth or the Jubilee Ministries booth (Episcopal Church Center)
with the Rev. Canon Carmen Guerrero. Suggested contribution for bus transportation is $7.00. The bus will be available at
1:00 pm at the shuttle pickup at the top of the escalator (semicircle drive).
The Door Once Opened
General Convention 2006 marks three full decades in the journey to include gays and lesbians in the life of the Episcopal
Church. Since the Church declared in 1976 that gays and lesbians “have a full and equal claim with all other persons
upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church,” the struggle to keep that promise has not been
easy for the Church or for individuals within it.
Seeking a broader understanding of what it means
to be faithful and moral can look to some people as if faith and morality themselves were being tossed out the window. The
Church must follow where the Spirit leads, but it must not fail to take care of those for whom change is disturbing, painful,
or whose faith is shaken.
The Windsor Report and the actions of General Convention 2006
offer an opportunity to acknowledge that actions have consequences, and to accept responsibility for the distress of others.
Neither the consents to the election of the Bishop of New Hampshire, or the last General Convention’s efforts to acknowledge
value in the relationships of gays and lesbians, were intended to cause pain or confusion. Where that has happened, we have
reason for regret.
We have all done things we regret, that is simply human. Nevertheless, we must never
make the mistake of regretting being human, because that is our assignment – what God created us to be. Most of all,
we must not repent the lessons we have learned from our journey, even when it has been hard.
It is for
all those who have made the perilous journey from “don’t ask, don’t tell” to honesty and openness
that we ought to avoid any suggestion that their journey itself is to be repented; that what we have learned is not worth
the trouble. We can and should be mindful of the pain and disruption any change can cause. That is not at all the same as
unlearning hard-won lessons. Most of all, we ought to avoid language of repentance that seems to disavow prophetic actions,
taken in good faith and after long deliberation.
There is an old gospel song that proclaims “I
wouldn’t take nothing for my journey now!” That expresses very well why gay and lesbian Episcopalians do not want
to hear their church suggest in any way that our journey – and the Church’s journey with us – is not worth
it. What we have learned we cannot unlearn.
Indeed, reaffirming that the church is again trying
to find ways to value gays and lesbians serves to draw attention not to how far we have come, but to the path we have yet
to try. When someone tells you that they still love you “in spite of everything,” which do you hear -- the “love”
part or the “everything” part? The best way for those within the Church who do not fully agree with one another
to demonstrate that love is by continuing conversation and the breaking of bread.
Most people
who have not spent time in the closet can appreciate how toxic that life can be. It has truly been said that the only thing
harder than being oneself is to try to be anybody else.
One person’s privacy
is another person’s closet, and one person’s repentance might well be someone else’s refusal to learn from
experience.
Bob Van Keuren
Resolution D018 Active
Nonviolence - Not Just Another Training
Our world and nation are more violent and divided
than ever before - now is the
time to take action! The EPF'S "Creating a Culture of Peace" Nonviolence Training
seeks support and funding in this critical resolution, to bring the transformative power of nonviolence to national Episcopal
communities for personal and social change. The training uses a variety of media (drawing, roleplaying, large & small
group discussions) to engage & envigorate communities to take action on peace & justice issues. With a focus on community
building and action planning, participants leave with a deep understanding of the power of nonviolence, the spiritual foundation
it provides in the nonviolent ministry of Jesus, as well as peace-makers such as Gandhi, Coretta & Martin Luther King,
Desmond Tutu, and many others. With a program developed for over 10 years by our Franciscan sisters & brothers in the
"Pace E Bene" Nonviolence Service, and for four years by FOR (Fellowship of Reconciliation), this is one of the
most dynamic & effective nonviolence trainings ever created.
Drop by the EPF booth
at The Consultation to pick up a brochure, and talk to EPF staff about bringing training to your community!
Nick Chavasse
Millennium
development goals – reducing extreme global poverty
The Millennium Development
Goals are eight goals for reducing human suffering through development by 2015. the goals reflect a global consensus;
they are a roadmap toward a world free from the suffering caused by extreme poverty.
The eight goals are: 1. Eradicate extreme hunger and poverty; 2. Achieve universal primary education; 3. Promote
gender equality and empower women; 4. Reduce child mortality; 5. Improve maternal health; 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and
other diseases; 7. Ensure environmental sustainability and 8. Develop a global partnership for development.
The MDGs are drawn from the vision and targets of the Millennium Declaration, adopted by 189 nations
during the Millennium Summit in September, 2000, in which the nations of the world boldly declared,
" We will spare no effort to free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing
conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected. We are committed to making the
right to development a reality for everyone and to free the entire human race from want."
The Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church have both endorsed the Millennium Development Goals.
In 1998, the Lambeth Conference focused on the suffering of the extremely poor. By 2000 Episcopal dioceses were responding
to the global crisis of HIV/AIDS, burdensome debt and extreme poverty.
At
its 2003 General Convention, the Church passed a resolution involving the structures and leadership of the Church in urging
U.S. leaders to meet the MDGs, monitoring progress towards the MDGs and towards 0.7% giving at the diocesan and congregational
levels.
Referring to our baptismal promise, this resolution said, "
Funding for nutritional, education, health care and development programs is essential to achieve not only the MDGs, but also
for recognizing the dignity of all human beings."
The 0.7% giving by the developed
nations is the amount the international community has estimated to be necessary to dramatically reduce extreme poverty.
Only 5 nations now give at that level. In 2005, the U.S. gave on 0.2% less thatn half the requested amount.
The Church must model the behavior being asked of the developed nations by having every diocese,
congregation and individual commit to 0.7% giving.
Michael Bryant
You MUST SEE This Video!!!
Tuesday evening a capacity crowd packed into the undercroft of Trinity
Episcopal Church in Columbus for the premiere of Voices of Witness, the powerful and moving new video produced by Claiming the Blessing. The video, described as “a
gift to the Church and the Communion,” tells the stories of gays and lesbians and their families and the spiritual journeys
they have made through the Episcopal Church. A limited number of copies were be available later this week through the Claiming
the Blessing booth in The Consultation exhibit area.
Integrity President Susan Russell introduced Voices of Witness, relating that Louise Brooks had
been seeing to the final production and rendering of the video as recently as last weekend. Joe Solmonese of Human Rights
Campaign, which contributed to the production, commented on the impact of the video to the crowd that were first to see it,
and who alternately laughed, wept and cheered as the stories unfolded.
Voices of Witness addresses directly the repeated calls by Lambeth conferences and the Windsor Report to “listen
to the experience of homosexual persons...and...assure them that they are loved by God and that all baptized, regardless of
sexual orientation are full members of the Body of Christ.” (Lambeth Conference 1998)
Those are
the facts about Voices of Witness, but
they scarcely begin to capture the emotional
intensity and inspirational quality of the lives portrayed in this video, which
is not primarily about rights so much as about faith – the faith that blossoms in and around people who can count on
the full love and support of a community of faith that values their humanity and nurtures their relationships. For those who
have not imagined what it might be like for gay and lesbian Christians to contribute fully in a Church were they are valued
as full members, you must see this video, for that is exactly what you will witness.
I predict that you
too will laugh, weep – cheer. This video deserves the widest possible distribution. It will change people who view it,
and their conversations will cause others to tell their stories. General Conventions are important, the election of a Presiding
Bishop is important, and human rights legislation is important -- but all these things are important because they ultimately
support individual people as they seek to be the people of God. Harvey Milk used to say that “the personal is political”
and this video is intensely personal in the best sense of that term.
Bob Van Keuren
Will you strive for justice and peace among all peoples?
This convention,
while tensions run high over numerous “hot button issues”, I beg you to remember those who are always with us:
the poor. As an integral part of our calling as Christians, economic justice should never be far from our hearts and minds.
Last summer, I worked as a director of Meals and More, a day camp for the kids who
came to our soup kitchen in Gettysburg, Pa. Even in our small town of eight thousand, we had no fewer than fourteen children
and often more that thirty. The program, which is Jubilee sponsored, was supposed to be for kids ages 6-12, but we couldn’t
turn them away, and had a variety of ages.
One of these children was a delightful four year
old named Elissa. She had the funny habit of writing her name backwards, but that’s another story. By the second week
of the summer we realized that she was walking herself six blocks to the church. She would often show up an hour and a half
to two hours early. We thought it was a case of parental neglect. Upon investigation, it turned out to be societal neglect.
Elissa’s parents were married, and both had high school degrees. Her father worked two full time maintenance
jobs, and her mother was an overworked and underpaid swing shift manager at MacDonald’s. The cost of housing in Gettysburg
is astronomical, especially for those who work service jobs, and Elissa’s parents struggled to make ends meet. Even
though it was summer, she hardly saw her mother. In a predominantly white community, over half of our kids, including Elissa
and her family, are minorities. Most of the families were over the welfare line but below the poverty line. Almost all of
the children had no health insurance, and a few had untreated cavities. Can we call this situation just, that those who work
more than one full time job cannot afford basic health insurance and struggle with the cost of housing?
Economic justice is not just about feeding the hungry and caring for the sick—although that is part of it.
At its roots it is a radical identification of the Spirit of God in every individual. Only when this is realized will the
Kingdom of God be here on earth. This is part of our calling as Christians. Please support economic justice ministries such
as Jubilee and Health Care initiatives. Of course, these are only a few of many, your opportunities to help are myriad. This
convention, be a witness for those who have no voice. Let the Spirit of Christ lead you in all of your decisions.
Becky Zartman
EPF Youth Presence
Lunch Time Speaker
under
The Consultation banner
Today at 12:45 -- The Rev. Canon Naim Ateek; Director of Sabeel Ecumenical Institute, Jerusalem and EPF Sayre Award
Honoree
Friday, Janet Chisholm
Saturday, The Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson
Signed contributions to ISSUES are welcome; send to issues@theconsultation.org. The editors retain their right to exercise
discretion.
