past ISSUES

2000 #1

JUBILEE : WHERE IS THE JUSTICE???

Verna Dozier, speaking at the Justice Summit in Cincinnati three years ago - the last major national gathering to focus on issues of justice - as we were building the justice and peace coalition of JPIC, made the prophetic statement:

"The problem with the contemporary American church is that we have reversed the verbs in Micah 6:8. We love justice and do mercy - but what the Lord requires is that we do justice and love mercy, and walk humbly with our god."

At this juncture in the life of our church, as we begin a new century proclaiming our intention to call forth jubilee around the world, The Consultation cries out for justice action. The following planks of our platform for 2000, in Denver and after, are the content of our cry, the justice we call our sisters and brothers to do in the years to come.

PEACE WITH JUSTICE

The United States has moved into an era of officially sanctioned violence as a method of settling conflicts, domestic and international. We believe that this use of violence is itself a grave moral issue which the Church must address. Violence at any level begets only violence. The chain of violence can be broken only by active nonviolent ways of living and dealing with all our neighbors.

Domestically, the increasing use and threat of capital punishment is an act of violent retribution. It directly contradicts our professed beliefs in the dignity of every human being, the possibility of repentance and forgiveness, and the promise of redemption. The death penalty is applied disproportionately to persons of color and those who are economically disadvantaged, and the Church must identify the racism and classism inherent in such "justice." It is time for the Episcopal Church to reaffirm its opposition to capital punishment; to oppose all federal initiatives to establish and extend its use in the law of this land; and to support actively all initiatives to abolish it entirely. We specifically call your attention to two resolutions, one reaffirming opposition to the death penalty and calling for an immediate moratorium on executions, and the other promoting educational material related to the death penalty.

The larger question of criminal justice reform leads us to call for a moratorium on prison construction and the use of private prisons. And our beliefs about forgiveness and redemption demand greater attention to proposals for "restorative justice" - the restoration of the victim, the offender and their community to each other insofar as possible - which the Church can understand clearly from Christian teaching.

As we enter the 21st century the rising specter of globalization, the process by which free-market capitalism integrates markets, nation-states, cultures, and technologies, is upon us. Much of what globalization does is to magnify the inequalities between the developed world and the developing world. The Standing Commission on Anglican and International Peace with Justice Concerns is submitting a resolution on Ethical Guidelines for International Economic Development which calls on the Church to address the issues of globalization. We strongly urge you to support this resolution.

Today, South Africa, after too many years of apartheid, has a democratically elected government. In support of South Africa, we call for the adoption of resolutions commending South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and dealing with economic hope and stability for South Africa. We also strongly urge passage of the resolution to make AIDS-related medicines available at affordable prices throughout the world, but most especially in the poorest and neediest countries.

In addition, The Consultation urges adoption of the other resolutions submitted by the Standing Commission on Anglican and International Peace with Justice Concerns; on Haiti and the Dominican Republic; on a formal process for parishes to identify themselves as "safe spaces" for lesbians and gays to tell their stories; a prohibition of the export of handguns; and promoting international education, advocacy and development programs that raise awareness of the economic issues that impact the lives of the poor.

U.S. foreign and military policy continues to have a major impact on the lives of ordinary people in communities around the world. One continuing and egregious example is in Okinawa, where U.S. military bases have taken over vast amounts of land, grown larger in the middle of cities, and overwhelmed local life and culture.The 72nd General Convention adopted a resolution in support of the concerns of the Okinawan people, including Anglicans, about this continuing U.S. military presence. We urge adoption of a new resolution which supports the ongoing campaign for removal of these bases and asks the leaders of our church to communicate with political leaders to this end.

We ask for your support of the resolution calling for the release of Mordechai Vanunu, Israeli citizen, Anglican, nuclear whistle blower and prisoner of conscience. Vanunu was kidnapped by Israeli security agents in September 1986 on the eve of publication of his evidence that Israel possessed nuclear capability. He was tried in secret and sentenced to18 years in prison, the first 12 1/2 of which were spent in solitary confinement. We ask General Convention to call for Vanunu's release on two grounds: humanitarian, that he has served and suffered more than enough for revealing what the whole world suspected; and, on the grounds that all the peoples of the world have a right to know the truth about nuclear weapons and who has them, and the right and responsibility to work for their abolition. General Convention has spoken clearly about the Church's hope for a world free of nuclear weapons. A public
acknowledgment that Mordechai Vanunu did act conscientiously and to benefit humankind is another small step we can take in that direction.

Finally we ask your support for the change in title of the office
heretofore known as "Suffragan Bishop for the Armed Forces" to "Bishop Suffragan for the Armed Services, Healthcare and Prison Ministries." This is not simply a matter of bureaucratic language. Rather it is a reflection of a long period of development, indeed a journey, during which the
portfolio of the office has expanded and the partners in these ministries, including the Episcopal Peace Fellowship, have grown in understanding and compassion for each other. The resolution which will enable this change is being submitted by Bishop Charles Keyser, who retired from this ministry last year, and is endorsed by other bishops. We ask for support for this title change which reflects the reality in which this office lives and does ministry.

HATE CRIMES

Since the last General Convention, the entire nation has been shocked by two brutal hate crimes. The first was the murder of James Byrd, Jr.-a 49-year-old African American who was beaten by three white men, chained to the back of a pickup truck, and dragged to his death. The second was the murder of Matthew Shepard-an openly gay, Episcopal, college student-who was beaten, bludgeoned, tied to a fence and left to die in the freezing night by his assailants.

Sadly, such hate crimes are not anomalies-rather, they are indicative of an epidemic of hate in the United States. In 1998 (the latest year for which complete data is currently available), 9,235 hate crimes were reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Of these, 5,360 were motivated by race; 1,475 by religion; 1,439 by sexual-orientation bias; 919 by ethnicity/national origin bias; 27 by disability, and 15 by multiple biases. Thirteen persons were murdered in 1998 as a result of hate-8 because of race, 4 because of sexual orientation, and 1 because of ethnicity/ national origin.[See www.fbi.gov/ucr/98hate.pdf for more information.]

Hate crimes are the most extreme form of "institutionalized hate," a systemic tolerance of prejudice and unequal privilege. Institutionalized hate is expressed in a wide range of violence-cruel and insensitive jokes, open bigotry, discrimination, scapegoating, emotional or verbal harassment, and outright physical brutality. Hate is a firmly established, tragically
familiar part of the America social system. As Episcopalians we must confront our hearts and the societal norms we take for granted. We must actively seek to end the privilege of the dominant group at the expense of all groups that are targets of institutionalized hate.

We are grateful that the Episcopal Church has responded to this wave of violence. Both the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies issued statements condemning these acts. At the urging of Dr. Chinnis, the Executive Committee passed a resolution condemning hate crimes and directing the Office of Government Relations to work for the passage of the federal Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Dr. Chinnis also encouraged the national church to develop and distributed a Stop the Hate resource brochure and lapel pin. And the Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School authored the Cambridge Accord.

However, much more vigorous action is needed to turn the tide of hate. We call on General Convention to enact legislation supporting the Hate Crimes Prevention Act and expanding the Episcopal Church's Stop the Hate campaign.

As a first step, General Convention should direct that the next edition of the brochure address hate crimes directed at gay and lesbian people and include resources for combating homophobia.

Justice in our own house

The Consultation unequivocally affirms the action taken at the 1976 General Convention, approving the ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopate, and the decisive support by both Houses of the 1997 General Convention in Resolution A052 declaring the action of the 1976 Convention mandatory in dioceses of The Episcopal Church.

The Consultation calls for the report of the non-complying bishops describing their plans and efforts to implement the canons, so that female priests may enter fully into the life and worship of their dioceses and offer the gifts of the grace they bring.

In addition, we support the resolution from the Committee on the Status of Women recommending that every diocese raise the issue of trafficking in women, girls and boys. Millions of people are trafficked annually in forced prostitution, sweatshop labor and domestic servitude. We hope this resolution will be brought to the attention of the Washington Office so that appropriate action to address this atrocity will be undertaken.

Number 2 July 5

THE CONSULTATION

Mike Shirley

Verna Dozier, speaking at the Justice Summit in Cincinnati three years ago - the last major national gathering to focus on issues of justice - as we were building the justice and peace coalition of JPIC, made the prophetic statement:

"The problem with the contemporary American church is that we have reversed the verbs in Micah 6:8. We love justice and do mercy - but what the Lord requires is that we do justice and love mercy, and walk humbly with our god."

As our Church begins this new century proclaiming our intention to call forth jubilee around the world, The Consultation cries out for justice action. The planks of our platform for 2000, in Denver and after, are the content of our cry, the justice we call our sisters and brothers to do in the years to come. The first of these action planks may be found in our first edition of ISSUES 2000. We continue to offer our platform in this edition. And we invite all who are prepared `to do justice and love mercy'" to join us at our first gathering today at

Ed Rodman

The Consultation Open Meeting

July 5th (today) at 1:30 p.m. at the back of the worship space

Please join us at the first Open Meeting of The Consultation. We will be building our Agenda for the Convention based on our Platform. Our priorities include:

•

Special Committee #25 on sexuality

•

Elections

•

P B & F concerns

•

Major social justice resolutions

•

Calendar of special events

•

Other priorities as identified

Your presence indicated interest, and will make your voice heard as we work for the movement of our Church as a community that does justice and loves mercy.

Plan now to be at the Integrity Eucharist tomorrow evening at 7 at the Cathedral of St. John, 13113 Clarkson St. Take East Colfax Av past the statehouse to Clarkson, turn right and the Cathedral will be on your left two blocks south. Remember, the mountains are in the west in Denver!!

EPISCOPAL WOMEN'S CAUCUS BREAKFAST

By Katie Sherrod

The Episcopal Women's Caucus breakfast meeting will be from 8 to 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, July 9 at the Hyatt Hotel. The Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris, speaking at her last General Convention before retiring, will present Reflections and Prophecies, and the Caucus Legislative Team will give an update on key legislation affecting women in the church.

Cost is $15 per person. Reservations can be made at the Caucus booth, #156 in The Consultation area of the Exhibition Hall. The Caucus booth is featuring all the Caucus merchandise as well as information on key legislation and issues of RUACH.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST?

By Katie Sherrod

The bishop of Montana, Charles I. Jones, has been appointed to the Committee on Canons, which will be dealing with revisions to Title IV regarding disciplinary actions for clergy and bishops.

On May 25, the Episcopal News Service reported that "the bishop of Montana, facing charges of immorality and conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy, will be tried in an ecclesiastical court in Minneapolis in late September. The presentment [filed in February 1999] against Bishop Charles I. Jones arises from allegations of sexual misconduct that included an extramarital sexual relationship 17 years ago when he was a priest in Kentucky. If found guilty, Jones, 56, who has been bishop of Montana's 48 congregations since 1986, could be deposed, suspended or admonished."

The ENS story reported that "Under Title IV, the church's disciplinary canons, which were revised in 1997, a nine-member review committee of bishops, priests and lay people investigated the allegations and last year filed a "presentment" or indictment. They concluded that, if the facts are proven at trial, then there is reasonable cause to believe that an offense was committed."

Material will be coming before the Canons Committee that arises out of Bp. Jones' case. When asked about the apparent conflict of interest, Barbara Braver, assistant to the Presiding Bishop, replied in an e-mail that, "I don't have too much to tell you but I can say that Bishops were given their committee assignments early in this triennium and the Presiding Bishop has no plans to make any changes in the composition of the committees at this time that I am aware of. Also, I think it is important to note that all members of legislative committees have, as active members and leaders of the church, direct interests in the issues that come before the committees on which they serve. Those interests are generally known and acknowledged as the committees do their work. If particular matters come up which pertain to the interests of individual committee members, the committee leadership can handle the conduct of the meetings accordingly. "

ENS reported that "Jones, through his attorney, said the charges should be dismissed, contending that the process is legally flawed." The story continued, "In a pastoral letter to his diocese in late April, Jones said he hopes there will be a settlement, but vowed to go to trial if necessary to correct a "flawed" and "abusive" canonical process."

Committee 25

The Special Committee on Homosexual Issues

A Veteran Committee Watcher

Predicts What Will Happen

By Kim Byham

Special legislative committees. Deputies who have served at five General Conventions never experienced one before. New deputies probably assume they're commonplace.

Although permitted by the rules of both houses, they're far from common. The last time such a committee was appointed was to deal with the Church's reaction to the explosion of the nation's cities in the 1960's.

Why have special legislative committees? Basically there are two reasons - if there is a deluge of resolutions on a given subject and it's impossible for the existing committees to handle them or if there is a dearth of resolutions on an important subject and such committee is charged to address the issues. The latter was the principal reason for the special committee in the `60s.

Neither of those situations exists at this General Convention. The convention has before it the smallest number of resolutions in almost twenty years. There are fewer than a dozen resolutions on gay/lesbian issues. The very large Committee on Social and Urban Concerns has for the last several conventions had a sizable subcommittee on such issues. That subcommittee has been discontinued because of Committee 25.

Then why did the Special Committee get appointed? From all reports, the Presiding Bishop was upset by the tenor of the meeting of the committee chairs. Soon thereafter, the Special Committee was announced.

The composition of the committee is unusual. Unique among the legislative committees, there are an equal number of bishops and deputies on the committee. There are no deputy or bishop members from Provinces 1, 2, 7 or 9, while there are four each from Provinces 4 and 5 on the 12-member committee -- highly unusual though not a clear violation of the Rules of the House of Deputies.

The bishops who were selected seem to be generally among those supporting the purported position of the Presiding Bishop that there should be no votes on lesbian/gay issues at this General Convention.

So, what will happen? It is likely that the committee will spend an abnormally great percentage of its time in closed sessions. The normal committee spends 10 or 15% of its time without public scrutiny. This committee will probably spend 50% or more of its meeting time in closed sessions, not because of the issues but because of the committee's internal concerns.

There will be an open hearing on the resolutions assigned to the committee on Friday evening, July 7. That's a perfect excuse for not reporting out any resolutions for the first week of convention. Indeed, it's unlikely that anything will be reported out earlier than Wednesday, July 12, conveniently near the close of convention. The resolution that is finally reported out to the House of Bishops will look something like this:

"Be it resolved, the House of Deputies concurring, that this 73rd General Convention is not of one mind on homosexuality.   The Church as a whole is not of one mind on this issue. For that reason, no legislation on this issue should be considered by this General Convention; and be it further

"Resolved, that, not withstanding our inability to reach any conclusions on issues of human sexuality, we nevertheless welcome any and all people, regardless of sexual orientation, to make generous pledges to the Episcopal Church."

The process that led to Committee 25 and the way it handles its mandate will likely be the lasting legacy of this General Convention, not the legislation (if any) that it ultimately disgorges.

Kim Byham is an Alternate Deputy from the Diocese of Newark.

MORE PLANKS IN OUR PLATFORM

Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Equality

Regarding justice for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) people, although there have been hopeful signs in both the Episcopal Church and American society, ongoing prejudice, discrimination, and even violence means that true Jubilee is still a dream for the members of this community.
Accordingly, we urge this General Convention to enact legislation that will:

•   enable the full inclusion of GLBT people in the life of our church and their equal access to its rites.

•   support comprehensive civil rights protections for our GLBT citizens.

•   evangelize GLBT people who have been alienated by our church's past intolerance.

•   affirm the Cambridge Accord and significantly increase our church's efforts to prevent all hate crimes and human rights abuses.

•   encourage education about, and dialog on, homosexuality throughout the Anglican Communion.

YOUNGER EPISCOPALIANS

The Episcopal Church has a unique opportunity to spread the Gospel on college campuses. Students on campuses make decisions that lay the foundations of many aspects of their lives. The Episcopal Church understands this seeking process and invites questions. By questioning in community, we shape the values and understandings of our faith. The same reasoning and logic integral to the faith of the Anglican Church are a central feature of a college education. The Episcopal Church is uniquely equipped to share the Gospel in this environment.

The Church misses this opportunity on campuses across the nation. With a dwindling presence on college campuses, we cannot share Jesus' message that is central to our lives, we cannot reach an increasingly diverse group of students, and we cannot support those students called to ordained ministry.

Young adults have much to offer the Church. On campuses, Episcopal students build communities across the traditional divides of race, class, gender, language, sexual orientation, and national origin. Students know what it means to witness to their faith in a highly secular, culturally diverse, and occasionally hostile world. By incorporating young adults in the leadership of the Church at every level, the Church can benefit from these experiences and gifts.

The Episcopal Society for Ministry in Higher Education calls on the Church to:

•

elect Sarah Harte to Executive Council

•

appoint and elect students to leadership positions in the Church at all levels removing institutional barriers to full participation

•

amend Diocesan canons as necessary to allow Episcopal campus ministries to sponsor candidates for holy orders, and

•

include Episcopal campus ministries in "church-wide" mailings

Stanford Adams
The Episcopal Society for Ministry in Higher Education
hsadams@princeton.edu

Number 3 July 6

THE CONSULTATION

Episcopal Peace Fellowship
Integrity
Episcopal Urban Caucus
Episcopal Women's Caucus
Union of Black Episcopalians
Episcopal Church Publishing Company
Episcopal Society for
   Ministry in Higher Education
Episcopal Asiamerica Ministry Advocates
Episcopal Environmental Network
Episcopal Network for Economic Justice

Which Unity?

By Juan M. C. Oliver

Bishop Griswold has called us to hold on to the Middle Way, after first reading a letter from Canterbury calling us to preserve Church unity. For some, unity is evidenced by unanimity. This is a strangely un-Anglican understanding of Church unity.

Unity is not uniformity. Our unity as Christians is a reflection of the inner unity of the Triune God, in whose image we are made, individually and collectively. Just as we do not confuse the Persons nor divide the Unity, we too are different persons, made one by love. It is not our agreement on doctrine, but our love that makes us one. By contrast, the world understands unity as uniformity. "We'll be one when you come to agree with me," it seems to say. This is crass totalitarianism, more interested in power and control than in communion.

To a very large extent, Anglican wisdom has consisted historically precisely in not excommunicating those who differ from us, but creating instead a community united by communion, not doctrine, and leaving room for a wide variety of doctrine and practice. The Episcopal Church, therefore, wisely does not tell African Churches what doctrine they should uphold regarding polygamy, nor the Mexican Church how to worship in Chiapas.

Perhaps the deputies lukewarm reception to Bishop Griswold's words on Tuesday show their own distrust of any unity talk that would have us fall in lockstep after hierarchical edicts from above. Deputies know from their experience of the last twenty years that we are not necessarily disunited just because we disagree on many issues.

SOULFORCE WELCOME

By Ann Carlson

Bishops and Deputies arriving at the Convention Center for their July 4th joint orientation session were greeted by an unusual sight. From the plaza across from the Center's main entrance a choir sang songs of freedom while a dancer interpreted their emotion. Several speakers told of their faith in God and shared hopes for the future of the Episcopal Church. At first glance, not so unusual. But why were police stationed all around? Why were there bullhorns, warnings and arrests? What kind of a welcome was this?

The non-denominational gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered advocacy group, Soulforce, led by the Rev. Dr. Mel White, was in Denver to send a message to the Episcopal Church. About 100 people wearing T-shirts with slogans "Stop Spiritual Violence" or "We Are Thy Neighbors" came for an act of civil disobedience, to deliver their message as emphatically as they knew how, and to be arrested. "We love the Episcopal Church too much to not be here," said White, "so much that we are willing to go to jail for it." Some Convention goers joined with the demonstrators, including retired Bishop Otis Charles who was one of those arrested. Speakers included lifelong Episcopalians, Metropolitan Community Church members, United Methodists, and Christians from various other denominations.   They spoke of the "heartbreaking intolerance perpetuated by this institution" but of their continuing belief that "nothing can ever separate us from the love of God."

An audience of several hundred apparently anticipated the demonstration. They either joined in the singing or stood and stared as the media wove through the crowd with microphones and cameras. But numerous other deputies and bishops, arriving for the afternoon session, seemed caught off guard and troubled by the spectacle as 73 demonstrators were led away in handcuffs.    Bishop Charles explained their seemingly drastic actions this way: "Several years ago, then Presiding Bishop Browning gave us a central motto for our church - There Shall Be No Outcasts. The time has come for the Church to move on. We look for a time when we are no longer an issue, when our gay or lesbian young people will not have to fight the Church to survive!" As he spoke, a young woman waved a large rainbow flag emblazoned with the letters WWJD. [What would Jesus do?]

THREE DIOCESES STILL NOT ORDAINING WOMEN

by Katie Sherrod

The Committee On Ministry will have an open hearing on Resolution A045 "Continue Monitoring Implementation of Ordination of Women" at 7:30 a.m. Friday, July 7, in the Molly Brown Room at the Westin Hotel.

The bishops of the dioceses of Fort Worth, Quincy and San Joaquin still refuse to ordain women and to deny full access to the ministry of female priests to people in their dioceses.

Various plans have been offered to allow women who seek ordination to enter the process in some other diocese. For instance, in Fort Worth, Bishop Jack Iker uses the so-called "Dallas Plan," whereby women are sent to the Diocese of Dallas to go through the process. This is not a new plan. Since the ordination canon was made equally applicable to women and men, women seeking ordination in Fort Worth have had to leave. Once ordained, they are not permitted to celebrate in their home parishes. The "Dallas Plan" does not address the needs of laypeople in Fort Worth who may be seeking the ministry of female priests.

In San Joaquin, Bishop John David Schofield appears to have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy, whereby a female priest has been allowed to function at a parish in the diocese although she is not licensed there as long as nobody makes too big a fuss.

All three bishops are pleading for more time. The Episcopal Church has been ordaining women since 1976.

SCOUTING FOR A POSITION

By Ann Carlson

Few people missed the controversial Supreme Court decision allowing the Boy Scouts of America to discriminate against gay men in the selection of scout leaders. Our church will consider at this Convention a resolution asking the Boy Scouts to end discrimination against gays. Yet, when asked for comments on this controversy, the people at the Boy Scout booth in the Exhibit Hall don't seem to think it's an issue that should concern them.

We'd like to see a position paper available at the booth, and more willingness to engage in some serious discussion. Wouldn't you?

Bishop of Jerusalem

The Rt. Rev. Riah Abu El-Assal

will be in the Episcopal Peace and Justice Network Booth, #48, on Thursday, July 6th, and Saturday,

July 8th, at 12:30 p.m. for informal conversation and signing of his book Caught In Between

FIGHT AGAINST RACISM OVER?

by Katie Sherrod

The Committee on Social and Urban Affairs will have a hearing on the necessity for continuing the fight against racism at 7:30 a.m. Friday, July 7, in the Bronze Suite on the third floor of the Executive Tower Hotel, 1405 Curtis Street.

The resolutions to be addressed are A047, Extend Anti-Racism Commitment
Another Nine Years; and B006, Endorse Birmingham Pledge on Racism. The Birmingham Pledge on Racism says,

" I believe every person has worth as an individual; every person is entitled to dignity and respect, regardless of race or color; every thought and every act of racial prejudice is harmful; if it is my thought or act, then it is harmful to me as well as to others.

Therefore, from this day forward, I will strive daily to eliminate racial prejudice from my thoughts and actions. I will discourage racial prejudice by others at every opportunity. I will treat all people with dignity and respect. I will strive daily to honor this pledge, knowing that the world
will be a better place because of my effort."

The Rt. Rev. Jane Dixon, chair of the subcommittee on anti-racism, said that
the Rev. Canon Carmen Guerrero and the Rev. Canon Ed Rodman will be present
to speak about "where we have been in the church in the last nine years, what's gone well, what's gone wrong, what hasn't happened, and what the plans are for the future. We want to make a compelling case to the church that we definitely need to continue to fight, to combat, the sin of racism."

Transfiguration

by David Selzer, EPF

Sunday, 6 August is in our Calendar the Feast of the Transfiguration. It is also the 55th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and, three days later, the bombing of Nagasaki. This anniversary of the beginning of the era of nuclear destruction is a solemn reminder the threat of nuclear devastation. The era of nuclear destruction continues with the use of nuclear weapons in Iraq and Yugoslavia, the continued development of nuclear weapons by many nations, and the development of weapon shields in our country, a costly and ineffective escape from dealing with the reduction and ultimate abolition of nuclear weaponry.

This year, congregations are asked on the Feast of the Transfiguration to remember the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to pray for the end of the era of nuclear destruction and the abolition of nuclear weapons, and to ask that the transfiguring love of Christ will transform our nuclear era to an age of peace.

STAR WARS TEST SPARKS PROTEST AT BMD HQ

by William Stuart-Whistler

On Friday, July 7, many will join in a witness protesting the Anti-Ballistic Missile system on the day of its most critical test in space. The witness will take place at 3:30 p[.m. at BMD's Headquarters in Colorado Springs. Banners will be held opposing "Star Wars" during the exit of workers from the Headquarters complex. The witness is jointly sponsored by the Episcopal Peace Fellowship's Nuclear Issues Group, and the Citizens for Peace in Space.

Star Wars endangers existing Nuclear Arms Treaties and defies the Episcopal Church's long-standing positions supporting Peace and Justice. The proposed $60 billion space defense bill in Congress is simply pouring more dollars into defense contractors' pockets.

To join Friday's protest at Boeing Lockheed Martin, sign up at the EPF booth (#167) in the exhibit hall. A van will leave the Convention Center at 2 p.m. Friday afternoon.

Reminders of who we are

By Mike Shirley

As the fireworks fade, and the business of the Church at General Convention begins in earnest, I have been remembering the last time we did this. In Philadelphia, visits to Thomas Jefferson's room and the Liberty Bell and Christ Church reminded us of the roots of our traditions as a Church. Our life together on these shores has produced an evocative and often referenced way of being together as Episcopalians. We recognized the worth of each individual person in Christ, and arranged to live under an order that called upon all members to help direct the life of the Church. Like our nation, our Church developed from those Philadelphia beginnings. Through thick and thin, like our nation, our Church sought and found leaders who worked together from different bases of experience and power, guiding the life of the institution. The form of guidance was a democratic process, a political process, once in Philadelphia a new thing.

Here in Denver, as the fireworks celebrating a step in that still developing process fade away, leaders have come together again from quite different bases of experience and power. We have been called, elected, selected, to help guide the life of the Episcopal Church. The form of that guidance is still, as the fireworks have reminded me, a democratic process, a political process. This form of guidance is admired and imitated around the Anglican Communion by people living together as Christians, as the Body of Christ. We are here in Denver not to "make nice" with each other, but to enter fully into that tough democratic political process that is our heritage from God, and our gift to one another and to the rest of the Body of Christ. Our sisters and brothers in Christ everywhere expect that of us. They understand that is who we are.

The Consultation
endorses the following persons for election to the board of the Church Pension Fund:

For an unexpired term:

James Bayne

For normal terms of service:

John Biggs
Randall Chase
Amy Domini
Debra Harmon-Hines
Chilton Knutsen
Arthur Kusemoto
Peter Lee
Paul Neuhauser
Quintin Primo
Mark Sisk
Warren Wong
Tim Witlinger

Join Us

Tonight at 7

At The Cathedral of St. John

For the Integrity Eucharist

The Rt Rev Steven Charleston, preacher

The Rev Michael Hopkins,

chief celebrant

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

The Cathedral is at 1313 Clarkson St

Take East Colfax Av past the statehouse to Clarkson, turn right and the Cathedral will be on your left two blocks south. Remember, the mountains are in the west in Denver!!

Still some tickets available for
The Episcopal Women's Caucus breakfast meeting, from 8 to 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, July 9 at the Hyatt Hotel. The Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris, speaking at her last General Convention before retiring, will present Reflections and Prophecies, and the Caucus Legislative Team will give an update on key legislation affecting women in the church.

Cost is $15 per person. Reservations can be made at the Caucus booth, #156 in The Consultation area of the Exhibition Hall. The Caucus booth is featuring all the Caucus merchandise as well as information on key legislation and issues of RUACH.

Number 4 Friday July 7

If you are looking for back copies of ISSUES, go to The Consultation area at the right rear of the exhibition hall, or to www.theconsultation.org.

TWO TAKES ON RACISM

#1
by Uchenna Ukaegbu

Resolution A-047, being discussed on Friday by the Social and Urban Affairs Committee, proposes that the church's "Anti-Racism Commitment" be extended by another nine years. Within the context of this commitment, projects which promote awareness of racism within the church will be implemented, including one in which personal accounts of experiences of prejudice among persons of varying ethnic and cultural backgrounds will be collected and shared throughout the church.
Very few people would argue that this extension is anything other than the great idea it is. However, it is important to keep in mind the specific reasons why such an endeavor is still necessary, and the potential that such a program has to help in meeting some of the modern goals of the Episcopal Church. For example, such a project could result in an increase of membership and diversity in the church.

Making a visible, conscious effort to raise awareness of the sin of racism present on the parish and diocesan levels is a step towards positive change, one which would result in the incorporation of the needs and voices of formerly marginalized members of under-represented ethnic groups. As the Church regains "cradle" Episcopalians who may have left the church to find a more accepting environment, it will also gain new members who will be encouraged by the reflective actions of the Church, and by parishes with more diverse representation both at the altar and in the pews.

As this process continues, it is important to remember the stories of Episcopalians from every group in our church: counting not only ethnicity, gender, and region, but age as well. Too often, racism is seen as a problem that affects primarily older adults, something that has faded from view among the young. This is far from the truth. The experiences of younger adults, while often different, are no less authentic or important. In Wednes-day evening's "Conversation" on combating racism in the church, those of us who were fortunate enough to be in mixed-generation dialogue groups witnessed this firsthand.

As a young adult who has had only one truly integrated parish experience out of seven Episcopal communities, I look forward to the time when the active membership of the church will truly reflect the richness of the human population. Let us pray that we use the products of A-047 and other resolutions to reach that goal.

& #2

By Bob Stuhlmann

Charles Jackson, a 70 year old from Alaska, rose last night to remind over two hundred that had gathered for the Racism dialogue that "Racism exists within the Episcopal Church, We don't like to talk about it, but it exists."   He recalls in his all white church how people would go out of their way to find someone else to talk with
so they did not have to engage him in a conversation. Jackson grew up in Florida, where he had to walk five miles to school because the only High School for Black children was five miles away.   " I had to walk past 30 High Schools for whites only to reach my school.   I'm angry about that." Today, he works with Special Needs Children in Anchorage: " I`m helping by teaching in Alaska. And where am I teaching? I'm teaching special needs children: native, Hispanic, in classes that are segregated out of the mainstream."

Recently, a white parishioner in my parish in Connecticut remarked with utter surprise in her voice, "Certainly, there is no racism anymore in our community."   I turned to 17 year old Brandis Flash, whose parents are both Jamaican born, and said , "Brandis, is that your experience?.   He was quiet for a moment and said; "I was in the locker room the other day with people I thought were good friends, and one of them asked me to leave the locker room because he didn't want to hurt my feelings when he told his friends a racist joke."

Racism exists in our society and in the church at the highest levels of our church polity.   African American Clergy have asked that the issue of unequal treatment in deployment be confronted in the Church.   It has been my experience in the Church that up until recently, a white priest could be considered for employment in any congregation of the Episcopal Church, Yet, African American Clergy are excluded from having their names considered for any post other than African American or multi-race congregations. Seldom is the name of an African American, Caribbean or African Priest included in the lists given to white congregations.

So, what does the Church do about it?   The Rev. Canon, Dr. Ed Rodman and The Rev. Sheryl Kujawa led the group through a series of exercises that the Committee on Anti-Racism has successfully perfected in Dioceses throughout the church..   The Anti-racism process is adaptable to the cultural context in which it finds itself, and premised on the understanding that "everyone suffers from some form of oppression. Members of a targeted group are directly harmed, but members of the dominant group are also harmed. For instance, in sexism, women are the targeted group. But men suffer too from the rigid roles they are forced to play."   (Among these are overwork, absence from the home and from the raising of children, and the common expectation that, when required, little boys will grow up to be forced to kill other people.)

There is no question in this reporter's mind that Racism exists both in our nation and in our church. Will the delegates and Bishops act at this convention to continue the work of the Anti-racism committee? We have heard some clergy complain that " We have already done that" meaning , I suspect, some anti-racism work at a place far removed from the parish and the community.

A youth delegate, in some closing remarks, said he has heard it said that "America is a hotbed of social rest," and went on to add: "In terms of race, for white people the conversation around race is optional.   For Black people it is a required course."

I think it overdue that anti-racism become a required course for all of us. On the work we do now depends the spiritual health of the whole body of Christ and the spiritual well being of our children. The work has begun, it is a positive step to increase our understanding of each other in the church, and it is on the way to fulfilling the dream, long delayed, of a "Church for All People and a Church for All Races".

A NEW MODEL FOR DISCERNMENT
By Ann Carlson

Special Committee 25 has passed to the House of Deputies amended resolution C008 calling the Church to continued discernment and sharing on human sexuality. The resolution also requests the Bishops to prepare a study guide and pastoral teaching on heterosexism as a systemic form of injustice. As the Church considers how to conduct yet again another study and dialog, we would like to recommend a new model:

In response to the "profound blow to the morale of many California parishioners" occasioned by Lambeth Resolution I.10.d, the Diocese of California adopted a new model for diocese-wide discernment. The matter of Holy Relationships and the Auth-ority of Scripture was assigned to a task force for background work and to prepare a draft statement. This statement was circu-lated throughout the diocese, with every congregation having an opportunity to respond. A final statement was drafted to describe the mind of the diocese and is being circulated at this General Convention.

Available in the exhibit hall at the Diocese of California booth and at the Integrity booth, we commend this model to the church as a new approach for a new millennium.

Keep Worship Alive!
Resolution A066: Of the Common Worship of this Church

By Juan M.C. Oliver and Sr. Jean Campbell, OSH co-Presidents
Associated Parishes for Liturgy and Mission

Common Prayer expresses who we are and sends us into the world to do justice and love mercy. It is also the main vehicle of Christian formation and education, trans-forming us into agents of justice and com-passion. And yet, worship is always in need of renewal:

"There was never anything by the wit of man so well devised, or so sure established, which in continuance of time hath not been corrupted: as among other things, it may plainly appear by the common prayers in the Church, commonly called Divine Service…" (Preface to the First Book of Common Prayer.]

Since, corruption --even of Worship-- is a reality, we should care deeply for the renewal of our Common Prayer. For in order to present in worship the unchanging truth of the Divine Life the Church must employ the changing means found in the cultures in which it incarnates, using outward and visible means, passing and mutable, to reveal inner, invisible, and unchanging Divine realities. In this way the Church imitates the Incarnation of the Word at all times and in all places, from generation to generation.

However, drastic revisions of our Common Prayer have proven traumatic to the People of God. Instead, we should responsibly attend to the gradual renewal, revision, and enrichment of our worship by

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Including all the Baptized: all congregations, dioceses, provinces, and other organizations.

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Paying attention to the worship needs of a Church that is increasingly multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and multi-generational.

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Discovering and teaching each other the principles, patterns and structures of how the liturgy does what it does, through educational programs and worship materials, distributed in a variety of forms, including multimedia and electronic options.

Associated Parishes urges you to support Resolution A 066. Keep Common Prayer alive!

(The following article has appeared in the email of many of us. We share it, with the permission of the author, for its value to every person. Mike Shirley)

by Ted Mollegen, Deputy from CT

When I was young, I could not imagine thinking of myself as a member of a privileged group. Most of my friends came from families with more money than we had, and my cousins whom we visited in the summer had fancier cars than our family had, country club memberships which we did not have, and so on.
When I started becoming racially conscious in my early adolescence, my perspective started to change. Later, when I went abroad for the first time as a member of the Naval ROTC program, I could not believe how relieved I was when I again set foot on US soil. When I entered the workforce, I realized how privileged I was to have had a good education.

There have been numerous other breakthroughs in my awareness along the way, but my most recent experience in recognizing my privileged status took place at an Evening Prayer service during a meeting of the New Commandment Task Force about six weeks ago. We were reading Psalm 40 and the recognition came as we were finishing reading verse 15:

Let them be ashamed and altogether dismayed
who seek after my life to destroy it;*
Let them draw back and be disgraced
who take pleasure in my misfortune.

I had been mentally blowing off this verse as not applying to me (since I have no enemies) when suddenly I became intensely aware of the presence of the person standing next to me in the service (who had no idea what was going on in my mind). It was as though the Spirit were giving my conscience a wake-up call. The person next to me was Louie Crew, the founder of Integrity.

I realized that another of my privileges was that no one was going to beat me up or even kill me because of my sexual orientation.
And still another was that I did not have to found an organization that would work for having people like me be accepted equally in my Church and God's church.
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These are privileges that I think our Lord wants us to extend to all members of the human race. We all are God's children.

OBSERVATIONS by David Selzer, EPF

The Presiding Bishop in his sermon at the opening Eucharist noted that while the Jubilee Year was clearly detailed in Scripture, it was never practiced. Perhaps that was because the people spent all their time discussing Jubilee and what Jubilee meant and how Jubilee fits into their lives. They never got around to becoming repairers of the world.

Shalom - the Hebrew word means wholeness as well as peace. Shalom is a key word of Jubilee. For us, wholeness means the full inclusion of gay and lesbian persons into the full life of the church. Wholeness means calling groups that use our facilities and our support to task for excluding gay men, as the Boy Scouts have done. Wholeness means an end to the racism which infects our Church at all levels. Wholeness means the full participation and empowerment of women in the Church, and taking to task those who demean women and refuse to recognize their ordination.

The time for conversation is important. But Jubilee calls us to move from out comfortable circles of conversation to repair, to healing, to wholeness. This convention in this Jubilee year can move, because of conversations in years' past, to practice shalom - we cannot sacrifice peace with justice for the sake of feeling good for having "talked about the issue." Tikkun - to repair or mend - is an active, not passive, vocation.

SOME EVENTS YOU WILL NOT WANT TO MISS

The Episcopal Women's Caucus breakfast meeting, from 8 to 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, July 9 at the Hyatt Hotel. The Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris, speaking at her last General Convention before retiring, will present Reflections and Prophecies, and the Caucus Legislative Team will give an update on key legislation affecting women in the church.

Cost is $15 per person. Reservations can be made at the Caucus booth, #156 in The Consultation area of the Exhibition Hall. The Caucus booth is featuring all the Caucus merchandise as well as information on key legislation and issues of RUACH.

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The Episcopal Peace and Justice Network invites you to a Continental Breakfast on July 11th from 7 to 9 at The Courtyard by Marriott, at 16th and Curtis. The Rt Rev Leo Frade, former Bishop of Honduras and Bishop-elect of Southeast Florida is the featured guest, to assist in launching of Peace and Justice Resources on Maquiladoras.

Tickets for the event are $10, and must be purchased in advance at Booth 48 in the Exhibition Hall. Don't wait on this one, folks. It is a worthy cause and a good place for breakfast!!

Number 5               Saturday                 July 8

HETEROSEXISM IS NOT THE SAME AS HETEROSEXUAL

by Katie Sherrod

The Rev. Eleanor McLaughlin, Ph.D., vicar of Christ Church in Barre, Diocese of Western Massachusetts, has written an excellent paper explaining the meaning of "heterosexism," a word being much heard at this Convention, and apparently much misunderstood.

The Rev. McLaughlin's complete paper is available at the booths in The Consultation area of the Exhibit Hall.

Here are some excerpts:
"Words we haven't heard before, especially if associated with `sin,' make us uncomfort-able. But as `uncomfortable' is also often a sign of the `nudge' of God in our lives, I would like you to make a closer acquain-tance with this admittedly ugly new word. . . .
"First, `heterosexism' is not an -ism which in any way questions the blessing and God-liness of marriage between a man and a woman. Nor is `heterosexism' an irrational prejudice against the vast majority of people
who define themselves in terms of affect-ional attraction to the opposite sex. It is not an `anti-straight' -ism. Finally,`heterosexism' is not an attitude limited to heterosexually oriented people; many gay people also are
afflicted by the sin of heterosexism . . .This is not an attitude which neatly separates sexual minorities from sexual majorities. . . .

"Jesus was asked to define the Law, responding with the requirement that we
love God, love our neighbor as ourselves. The religious man who questioned him responded, "Who then is my neighbor?" Jesus' answer in the Parable of the
Good Samaritan uncovered the unconscious way of seeing of a tribal society, that the neighbor is somebody like me. . . certainly not an `outsider' like the Samaritan . . .

"Jesus offered awareness and freedom to the captives of taboo and power relationships of culture and religion which bind and separate us from Life. He shattered the unquestioned boundaries between sacred and profane -- the poor are rich, the thief this day is in Paradise. . .

"To question cultural boundaries upsets the `tables; of power. . . .All of the `natural' privileges of the religious Jew, the man, the wealthy . . . Jesus called into question. That's why we kill him.

"Heterosexism is like that water in which the fish swims, like the assumption of the Jewish men confronting the woman taken in adultery, or of Martha about the proper work of a woman, or Pilate, confused by silence. This word, `heterosexism,' names the unconscious perspective and privilege of the
mainstream. It is not a judgment, but rather a lens, a way of seeing which is taken wholly for granted by those whose position in society is one of unquestioned and `natural' power, the family of man and woman, for
Christians, modeled after the top-down relationship of Christ and the Church.
Heterosexism names the social privilege of the married, the not-`old-maid,' the `not Queer.' It is like the concept of sexism,
another lens which brings into focus the privileges and ways of being `naturally' associated with men. . .

"Racism, a parallel `discovering' names another lens through which the world is seen in terms of the privileged pole of whiteness. Black may be beautiful, but `skin-colored' Band-Aids are light pink, for that is the color of human `skin,' is it not? Who speaks here? Who names?

"Heterosexism is this same kind of interpretive lens . . . which insists that where human sexual love is concerned, there must be a man, and that man, by definition, if the `natural' order be observed, is in charge.

"Heterosexism dehumanizes Gay and Lesbian people by `disappearing' and devaluing our experience of human intimacy. . . . But it was for the `outsider' that Jesus was born, by whose weakness we are transformed, and in whose Sight our world is made a New Heaven and New Earth, at whose Table all are decked with joy and gladness."

FORMATION OF UGANDAN INTEGRITY CHAPTER

Integrity announced Thursday the formation of its first chapter on the African continent. Integrity/Kampala in Uganda has been formed and elected a president. Much to our distress, the current political situation in Uganda does not allow the release of names or contact information. We call on all member churches of the Anglican Communion to join our call for the government of Uganda to work to change the hostile climate, particularly the threat of arrest to lesbian and gay persons.

Integrity/Kampala plans a pan-African meeting before Lambeth 2008. Integrity USA President Michael Hopkins travels to Kampala next spring with support for this indigenous effort.

NO VICTIMS HERE

By Ann Carlson

"The real issues facing the church are power and fear," Bishop Steven Charleston told a packed cathedral at Integrity's Thursday night Festival Eucharist. "But power can be shared, and this fear must be expunged from our church once and for all."   Charleston based his message on the Isaiah 61 passage, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me…" telling the crowd that "you are here because you heard a call, you were chosen, and the truth is already imprinted on your hearts."

He said it was time that the Church stopped playing the game of "Who gets to choose Jesus for their team?" The Church has often forgotten that Jesus said [in John 15], "You did not choose me but I chose you." He said the time is now for the Episcopal Church to stop propagating the "nonsense" that we face over and over again. Even today a group represented at the Convention is advertising a program that equates gays and lesbians with pornography addicts and child molesters. "It's time we grew up!"

Charleston announced to the crowd the news, heard that afternoon, that Judy Collins had cancelled her appearance at the PBFWR benefit. Ms. Collins' press release explained, "I was shocked to learn that the Episcopal Church, of which I'm a member and in which I was married, does not have an official national church policy allowing ministers to officiate at same sex unions or ordain openly gay people. Allowing each Diocese to determine whether or not to ordain gays and lesbians or bless same gender couples on a local level, rather than making a church wide decision, I feel is tantamount to accepting and supporting discrimination." Speaking from information not included in her press release, Charleston told the crowd that someone had contacted Ms. Collins and convinced her that the Episcopal Church hates its gay and lesbian members. He said it was not true and further, "Ms. Collins, I wish you were here tonight. This is the Episcopal Church, full of hope and promise. Yes, we have divisions, but there are no victims here tonight."

Reflecting Integrity's theme for this General Convention, "a full and equal claim … a full and equal ministry," the highlight of the evening was the celebration of the Eucharist by an openly gay priest, the Rev. Michael Hopkins, who was joined by more than 30 openly gay or lesbian priests of the Episcopal Church as con-celebrants. Explaining the exclusivity of Integrity's choice for celebrant and con-celebrants, Hopkins said, "We are tired of being told that the Episcopal Church does not ordain gays and lesbians."

Episcopal Urban Caucus is collecting your complimentary toiletries from our various hotels during the convention. These toiletries will be donated to St. Francis House here in the diocese of Colorado. All donations of toiletries should be brought to Booth 168/ 169 in the Exhibit Hall of Convention Center, under The Consultation banner.

And the Holy Spirit Blew Through Us

by Katie Sherrod

On Thursday night at the Integrity Eucharist the Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston, dean of the Episcopal Divinity School, blew everyone's hair back with a sermon delivered with a fire kindled by the Holy Spirit.

This incredible sermon, "A New Commandment: Love One Another," is available on audio tape at the Integrity Booth [#165] in The Consultation area of the Exhibit Hall. The reverse side of the tape contains "Our Gift to the Church: Keep on Walkin' Forward," a sermon preached by the Rev. Elizabeth Kaeton, Missioner of The Oasis, Diocese of Newark, at Integrity's 1997 General Convention service in Philadelphia. Cost is $7. The tapes are made available from Christianity for the Third Millennium (CTM), which has many other audiotapes, books and videos. CTM's catalogs are available at the Integrity Booth or by writing to PO Box 473, Hope, NJ, 07844-0473.

FOR REASONS OF CONSCIENCE

by the Rev. S. Michael Yasutake

The Episcopal Peace Fellowship and The Consultation are supporting the passage of Resolution BO13 on Mordechai Vanunu, who is serving an 18 year sentence in Israel for revealing that his government has a nuclear arsenal. The substitute resolution being reported out by the National and International Committee urges Mordechai Vanunu `s release from prison. The substitute resolution "while recognizing that Mordechai Vanunu violated the oath of secrecy for reasons of conscience" calls for his immediate release "on humanitarian grounds."

The discussion at the National and Inter-national Committee included concerns by some that Mr. Vanunu revealed the secret of nuclear weapons that the government of Israel was guarding. In response to such concerns, the U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu, the key organization in the U.S. with which the EPF has been working closely, agrees with Vanunu that we need to press for an open forum on such issues as nuclear weapons, a life and death matter for all people. Secrecy surrounding weapons of mass destruction should not be allowed without protest.

Due to sustained effort of many, including members of the Israeli Knesset, for the first time the subject of Israeli nukes entered into public discussion this past Spring. The recent release, caused by increasing public pressure, of secret trial transcripts shattered the nuclear weapons taboo in Israel's media. However, the Israeli government continues to deny, supported so far by the U.S., its possession of nuclear weapons.
And Vanunu remains imprisoned.

BO13 resolution, calling for Vanunu's immediate release, is a beginning step in the church's assuming responsibility in support of those who are standing up for justice and peace.   Even at the price of becoming a "whistle blower" as with Mordecai Vanunu who acted, as the resolution states, "for reasons of conscience."

WE ARE HAVING A JUBILEE MINISTRY CONCERT!

By Carmen Guerrero

A world renowned opera singer, Madam Yun Deng, with the New York Metropolitan Opera and a member of Church of Our Savior in New York, has agreed to perform a benefit concert, which will be held at the St. John's Cathedral on Saturday night at 7:30. The purpose of the Jubilee concert is to raise funds to establish a Grants Fund for Jubilee Ministry Centers. The concert will also include a dramatic mime presentation on Economic Justice by Doug Berky and company. You may remember him from the presentation at Kanuga in December. Tickets for the benefit concert are $50 or $25, with a reception following the concert for an additional $25. This is a blessing that I believe is a direct gift from God to us in Jubilee, and therefore I invite you to share it with us. Tickets are available at booth #63 in the Exhibit Hall.

THE POOR, AGAIN

By Bob Stuhlmann

Robert Reich, former economic czar in the Clinton Administration, said on NPR Thursday night that the United States controls 27% of the world economy, has only five percent of the world's population, and yet is very "stingy" with its money.   The United States gives no more than one percent of its gross national product for aid to third world countries: food, medicine, infrastructure, etc.

I live in the wealthiest county in the nation.   My corner of Connecticut, Stratford, is separated from the rest of Fairfield County by the City of Bridgeport. Within its borders and hidden in the abandoned buildings, along the interstate in makeshift camps, and crowded with families in already overcrowded apartments are the anonymous poor.    Every Bishop and delegate can identify those pockets of the poor not very far from where they live. And because, in part, of the Episcopal Church, we know of the extreme deprivation in Haiti and Central and South America. A war has devastated parts of West Africa, moving from Liberia into Sierra Leone. Our lackluster support for Christians in the Sudan has probably cost many lives.   Members of our congregations with relatives in these places plead with immigration for relief. They must wait and wait some more.

My spiritual practice is to use a form of Ignatian direction and end it with a direction that comes from Ghandi. Ghandi said, "After all has been said and done, how will my actions benefit the poor, the most destitute, the ones who are on the fringes of our communities, the outcasts?" Jesus and the prophets asked similar questions: "What does this all have to do with the reality that is all around you?   How does what we do here help those who are the oppressed of our society and our world community?" I often add, "who is outcast to me"? (probably those who most heartily disagree with me).

So where do the poor and oppressed fit into our deliberations here.   Our national budget in aid to the poor has been severely reduced over my time at these gatherings. Jubilee was cut years ago. It is ironic therefore to be using Jubilee as a theme for this convention.   At this convention the issue of debt reduction for poor nations has been invisible. And our missionary Dioceses are still struggling with too little, often too late.

We are headed in some positive directions. The Covenant with the Lutherans is revolutionary, and brings our two churches a union that can collaborate on ministries with the poor, refugees, urban ministry and missions. While we could have been doing this work all along, this outward sign will strengthen our bonds of unity. I stand by my belief that the Lutherans are way ahead of us in developing mechanisms to meet some of the needs of the poor.   I hope we will find ways of working with Lutheran Social Ministries at the diocesan and national levels and develop our own equivalent structures at those levels.

At any point this convention could turn around and give its life for the poor. "Sell all you have and follow me", said Jesus. What good after all is the Church of Jesus Christ if it is not giving up its life daily for the sake of God's poor.   So brothers and sisters, arise. Reclaim this convention for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and for the poor for whom he gave his life. Proclaim the Gospel of Christ for the poor. Do not allow "business as usual" to silence their cries and shut out their pleas from these proceedings.

COLORADO NIGHT "HOW THE WEST WAS FUN"

By David Selzer

Question - How many American Indians does it take to plan a night in which they can laugh at their own exploitation?
Answer - Ask the Diocese of Colorado.

The title of the Diocese of Colorado's night at General Convention raises questions of the sensitivity of the planners. Given the well-documented history of the "conquest of the West" by European Americans and the subsequent murder, forced removal, enslave-ment and abuse of the native peoples, including our own Episcopal Church abuse through Indian schools and forced conversion, a better title for the night of entertainment should have been chosen. Sherry LeBeau said, "As American Indian Episcopalians are we truly, honestly being invited to our own house? This church needs us; we were always children of the Creator."

We are called to be a church that embraces all the people of God, that renounces racism - this is hard work for all of us European Americans, but it is a part of God's agenda and our vocation.
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No ISSUES on Sunday. Think about all the above. Watch for us Monday morning.

Number 6               Monday               July 10

A CONGREGATION SPEAKS: GUNS & THEIR IMPACT
ST. JAMES CATHEDRAL, CHICAGO

By Helen Moore, Interim Dean, St. James Cathedral

This morning at St. James, we sang, In Christ There is No East or West. On Sunday, August 26, 1984, while singing that same hymn in the church where I grew up, my brother-in-law remarked it was his favorite. Around 9:30 that same evening., he was shot in the head as he put his car in the garage. Some young men were walking by that night. One of them shot him. At his funeral, it was important to sing In Christ There is No East or West. Every day I remember it as if it happened yesterday. (Karen)

My son, Joey, went to the neighborhood park with his girlfriend and new radio. Five boys approached, demanding the radio. When Joey protested, one of the boys shot him in the back of the neck. "This boy who took my son's life; his parents must have left the gun someplace where he could get it." (John)

Dozens of heart-rending stories, crossing every line of race, orientation, gender, age, and socioeconomic class, flooded forth from this one Cathedral congregation. It happens every day, eighty-nine times a day, in Chicago and in cities small and large across America. Handguns are used as a threat-a threat often delivered.   What's more, according to the New England Journal of Medicine, a gun kept in the home is 43 times more likely to kill a member of the household or a friend than an intruder. Americans are armed and dangerous, mostly to themselves and the innocent.

"Where would Jesus keep his gun?" That was the wake-up question put before Chicago Episcopalians at their 1999 Diocesan Convention, which adopted the resolution calling on its members to "prayerfully consider removing handguns and assault rifles from their homes". The Peace and Social Justice Commission of St. James Cathedral challenged the Diocese of Chicago to move beyond predictable lines of debate and polarization over national gun control legislation to prayerfully consider personal handgun possession, its impact on households and communities...and the life of faith.

Their effort now comes before General Convention in the form of a resolution sponsored by Chicago Bishop William D. Persell and cosigned by Suffragan Bishop Arthur B. Williams, Jr. of Ohio and Bishop John Palmer Croneberger of Newark. Resolution B007, assigned to the Social and Urban Affairs Committee, is not a political statement on gun regulation. It does not address hunting or hunting firearms. It does not invalidate the Second Amendment. It does not advocate political action. It does not challenge civil authority. It does not cost anybody any money. It does not change canon law. Other resolutions and actions can deal with these matters. This resolution has no enforcement mechanism except individual conscience. Our own faith leads us to personal action that can begin in our own homes. We can contribute to a solution for this complex social problem, carrying our Christianity into the world and reshaping that world in the light of Christ.

Women's Caucus to raffle historic poster
(If colorado law doesn't force a silent auction)

by Katie Sherrod

Female bishops attended the Lambeth Conference for the first time in history
in 1998. The color photo of those first eleven women together on a hilltop with the
Canterbury Cathedral in the background quickly became one of the most indelible images coming out of Lambeth as it was transmitted worldwide.

That photo was arranged by the Episcopal Women's Caucus then-president, the
Rev. Cynthia Black, who also arranged to have all eleven women sign two poster-sized prints.

At the Caucus brunch on Sunday, the first of these signed posters was presented to Dr. Pamela Chinnis, the first female president of the House of Deputies. The second signed poster will be raffled off by the Caucus this week.

Raffle tickets are available at the Caucus booth, Number 156 in The Consultation area. Tickets are $2 or 6 for $10. The drawing will be held Thursday at noon at the Caucus booth.

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The Consultation

Open Meeting

Today at 1:30

Rear of Worship Area

Remember, no food or drink!

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A disaster waiting to happen

by Katie Sherrod

The apparent attempt at exorcism that stunned the House of Deputies on Friday was the act of the Rev. Nelson Koscheski, clerical deputy from the Diocese of Dallas.
Several people from the Dallas diocese, including one in the deputation, confirmed to this writer that Koscheski has been disciplined within the last year - since being elected deputy - for having pornography on a church computer. They describe him as a deeply troubled man. In spite of that, he was allowed to retain his office as a deputy.

It was his privileged access as a deputy that made possible his bizarre actions. When it was brought to the chair's attention that Deputy Koscheski had, on more than one occasion, placed salt beneath the chairs of the Newark deputation as well as under the chairs of various other deputies, the work of the House of Deputies was halted.

His actions reduced at least two lesbian deputies to tears and left others - lesgays and their supporters - with the sick feeling that they were not safe even on the floor of the House of Deputies. This was exacerbated by the failure of the chair to deal swiftly and decisively with Deputy Koscheski once the situation was brought to his attention. Many were aghast that he was not immediately escorted from the floor.

Immediately after the House went into session on Saturday the Dallas deputation chair made a formal apology to the House for Koscheski's "offensive and hurtful" actions and announced that he had resigned from the deputation. A similar apology was made in the House of Bishops by Bps. James Stanton and Bruce McPherson. They asked the forgiveness of those hurt by his actions and asked for prayers for Koscheski. However, as of midday on Saturday, Koscheski had not been sent home.

On Saturday, many deputies were trying to deal with their shock and lingering unease with humor, but this episode is much more immensely sad than funny. The fact that a man with obvious psychological problems was allowed to continue as a deputy even after the discovery of pornography on his computer speaks volumes about how things work in dioceses such as Dallas. In these dioceses, loyalty to the bishop's ideology is the ONLY litmus test. In Fort Worth, if you oppose the ordination of women and lesgays, any other lack of qualification hardly matters. In Dallas, if you are a guaranteed vote against any action dealing with lesgay issues, you are in, no matter what other obvious problems you may have.

Conservative writers repeatedly have accused the lesgays at the convention of being willing to do anything to achieve their legislative goals. Perhaps they should look to their own houses.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

JUBILEE GARDENING WISDOM
from Ed Rodman by Bob Stuhlmann

For the field to lie fallow, you have to build up enough stores so the people won't starve.

Bent Over Women

by Katie Sherrod

On Friday morning the Committee on Ministry heard testimony on resolution A045, "Continue Monitoring Implement-tion of Ordination of Women." As it came from the Executive Committee, this resolution essentially does nothing more than acknowledge letters from the bishops of Fort Worth, Quincy and San Joaquin, encourage them to honor the canons, and urge that monitoring of their "progress" continue.

It was fitting that the Gospel passage in the worship service immediately following the hearing was about the bent over woman. It is an image with which the women and men who seek the ministry of female priests in these dioceses deeply identify. Certainly I do. The "temple officials" in my diocese have made it clear that we bent over women better not dare stand up straight! This means General Convention is one of the few places in which I feel safe enough to "stand up straight and praise God." At home, standing up straight and speaking out on this subject makes one a target.

At the hearing, several of the female priests who signed the 1997 "Open Letter to the Church" (opposing the resolutions clarifying that the canons on ordination were manda-tory and accusing those of us pressing for female priests in our dioceses of "indulging in the sin of impatience") spoke in favor of this resolution. They urged the church to act in the spirit of Jubilee and extend "grace" to these bishops by giving them more time to "receive" the idea of ordaining women as priests.

Several members of the Fort Worth deputation spoke in defense of the "Dallas Plan," which ships women aspirants off to the Diocese of Dallas. They described proudly how Bishop Jack Iker had invited four female priests into the diocese to meet with the diocesan leadership, the first time female priests had been "officially" invited to the diocese. (That makes once since the diocese was formed 17 years ago.) Why, one priest declared proudly that he had spent several hours in the company of one of these ordained women! These meetings were closed meetings. Indeed, nearly all lay people in the diocese knew nothing of the visits. It is hard to see how the process of reception can work if people are denied the opportunity to experience the ministry of female priests on regular basis.

When it was my turn, I also spoke in the spirit of Jubilee-as one of the many "resident aliens in the town," a reference to Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold's remark in his opening sermon that the Jubilee release was extended "even to the resident aliens of the town." I was delighted to hear one of the female priests invited by Bp. Iker describe how graciously they had been received, for that same graciousness is not extended to those of us who live in the diocese and seek the regular ministry of female priests.

This is the fourth General Convention to which I have come seeking to take my place in the full life of the Episcopal Church. I used to come in hope. But I have become more realistic. Now I consider it a "good" Convention if I don't return home in despair. This is because nothing has changed in Fort Worth-nothing. The Dallas Plan is not new. Women seeking ordination have always had to leave the diocese. Once ordained, they cannot return to their home parishes to celebrate. Parishes that seek to even interview female priests in a search process see the women's names removed from the list by the bishop. This has happened within the last year. It is made clear to search committees that any parish with the audacity to disobey the bishop and call a woman will suffer severe consequences.

The use of supplemental liturgical materials is forbidden. Worship using inclusive and expansive language is forbidden. Girls are refusing to be confirmed by a bishop who does not believe their sex is "proper matter" for ordination. Young women are refusing to be married in Episcopal Churches. Families are leaving, not wanting to expose their children, especially their daughters, to the misogyny of the Fort Worth diocese.

But some of us stubbornly remain. Our spirits may be bent by the weight of oppression, but our souls stand tall and praise God. For the problem lies not with God, but with men. Twelve years may not sound like much to some.   But to those of us living in the spiritual war zone that is Fort Worth, it is an eternity. How much longer must we wait?

MORNING PRAYER

By Mike Shirley

At the Episcopal Women's Caucus breakfast yesterday, Pam Chinnis was given a rising ovation and a signed poster of the woman bishops at Lambeth, as thanks for all she has been and done for women in the Church. Cynthia Black and Katie Sherrod were specially recognized for their contributions to the Caucus. Diane Pollard was endorsed by the Caucus in seeking the position of Vice President of the House of Deputies, as she had been the night before by the Black Deputies and Bishops.

Barbara Harris allowed us to overhear her morning prayer time with God. We hope that the organizers had the wit to record her prayer, as the bishop's intimate conversation called us to recall, recommit and restore our faithful relationships to the work of justice, one another and the God who bears (and bears with) us all.   Memories of this convention will certainly include this morning prayer, with the homily of Steven Charleston on Thursday! May I be enabled to share it with others, on tape or in print. This publication is not able to produce such texts for distribution, but is happy to let others know where they may be got.

Tradition or A New Thing?

By Ann Carlson

While many have emphasized that our sexuality debate is not the most pressing Gospel issue facing our Church, judging from the huge crowd at Friday night's Committee 25 Open Hearings, it is the most interesting. Even testifying 2 minutes at a time for 2 hours, 15 minutes, numerous would-be-speakers left without telling their story. Although the hearing went until nearly 10:30pm after a long Convention day after a long Convention week, I saw no one sleeping or even appearing inattentive. Would that we could sustain an equal level of passion for world peace or economic justice!

Both those speaking for and those speaking against the various resolutions respected the committee's wish to present as much information as possible in a limited time. I heard limited repetition of points, and the speakers seemed well prepared and conscious of the time constraints. While numerous viewpoints were shared, it all boiled down for me to a tension between two fundamental views of the church.

On one side was the conviction that it is "critical that our Church remain a standard bearer of our traditions." The contention that the Church is moving into a new place on this issue is "not prophetic, but arrogant and wrong." "We have seen way too much of experience, it's time to consider scripture and tradition." "The sacrament of marriage is between one man and one woman - only this can reflect the face of God." As one man put it, "many dioceses and congregations will never receive these [same-sex] rites."

On the other hand, people speaking for change emphasized that God has already moved. "We need to join in the work that is already happening - God's blessing of gay unions as evidenced by the powerful ministry of gay couples in our congregations." Several spoke of the risk taking and honesty in their parishes as an occasion for growth and renewal, as they became open and affirming of the gay couples in their midst. Yet, as one woman testified, despite evidence of "God's abundant blessing" on their relationship through personal growth and ministry, "we have seen the church bless families, pets, hymns and battleships, but not our relationship." In blessing same-sex unions, "we in the life of the church are simply confirming what actually is."

Both sides claimed a respect for the authority of scripture and grounding for their position in the study of the Word. Both acknowledged the complexity of the issues and danger of locking ourselves into an either/or debate. I was pleased by the amount of listening that seemed to be going on, and by the respect for divergent points of view. But I conclude that we remain strongly divided.

Number 7               Tuesday            July 11

A CALL FOR THE WITHDRAWAL OF U. S. TROOPS FROM OKINAWA

by Mike Yasutake

Initiated by the Episcopal Peace Fellowship, and supported by the Episcopal Asiamerica Ministry Advocates, a justice advocate organization of Asian American Episcopalians, Resolution DO28 "Support of Okinawan People…" calls for the General Convention to implement a resolution of a previous Convention expressing concerns "over the impact of U.S. military bases on their daily life." In this Convention's Resolution DO28 the Episcopal Church joins the Anglican Church in Japan and its Diocese of Okinawa in demanding the withdrawal of the U.S. military from Okinawa

The site of the last battle of WWII between Japan and the U.S., over 150,000 Okinawan women, children and men were killed in the fierce conflict. Colonized by Japan from centuries before, Okinawa and its people were ruthlessly exploited by the Japanese troops before and during World War II. Since war's end, the U.S. has occupied 20% of the land, much of it in the most populated central area, causing untold suffering to the people -numerous plane crashes, school children's studies interrupted by continuous loud air flights overhead, and a flourishing sex industry around the U.S. military bases. Only a few days ago, it was reported in the media that a U.S. marine is alleged to have entered a private residence and sexually molested a 14 year old girl, provoking huge protest demonstrations in Okinawa. U.S. weapons systems, possibly involving nuclear weapons, have left toxic pollutants in the earth and water around Okinawa.

The Okinawans have been most vocal in their demands. A few years ago, some 3,000 land- owners refused to renew the lease of their land to the military, when the lease was up for renewal. The government of Japan, however, disregarded the landowners' rights and renewed the lease to the U.S. In the 1996 referendum of the general population in Okinawa, 91% of the people objected to the U.S. military presence. In the 1998 referendum, a majority of the Nago City voters formally protested the planned relocation of the Air Base to their area.

The Anglican Church in Japan, Nippon Sei Ko Kai, and its Diocese of Okinawa have been joining the Okinawan people's demand for the U.S. military to withdraw. Episcopal Church representatives, including former Presiding Bishop Browning, have worked closely with the Anglican Church in Japan. to support the demand of the people of Okinawa that the U. S. military leave their homeland. We urge the passage of DO28 "Support of Okinawa People…" which would demonstrate the Episcopal Church's continuing effort and prayer to respect the wishes of the people of Okinawa.

On Sunday, The Rt. Rev. Barbara C. Harris, Suffragan Massachusetts, allowed the 500 people at the Episcopal Women's Caucus annual gathering at the Hyatt to eavesdrop on a conversation between the bishop and God. An audio tape of her overheard prayer is available at the Caucus booth in The Consultation area.

More than just unity

by Jared Smith     ESMHE
Diocese of Oklahoma

In the spirit of the year of Jubilee, the Episcopal Church must reevaluate itself. The Church has the opportunity to really touch the hearts and minds of its followers and those who do not know the Gospel of Christ.

The discussion regarding young clergy is not a new one. According to the Blue Book, the church only has 355 clergy under the age of 35. This points to the fact that our church is not fostering a sense of openness to young adults. If there are not young people around, the church will become obsolete. This fact is quite important when the church is seeking to double its numbers by 2020. To accomplish this goal, university campuses need to be looked at to find the ground the plant the mustard seeds of faith.

College is the ground for cultivation. During these precious years, students form their spiritual beliefs and stances on the issues. It is here where students have the ability to begin their own unique and genuine relationship with God.

As students increase their awareness, they begin to look for a place they believe to be open and to encourage thought. These strengths help the Episcopal Church be truly effective. Moreover, the church is becoming a church of converts. As a relatively new convert and college student, I hope that our church can cater to the needs of those people who are hurting from not having a spiritual home and who find the love of Christ in the Episcopal Church's ability to adapt, to acknowledge and accept our differences.

If the church truly wants to increase its numbers and enrich the lives of its members through Christ, it must look at the young adults who will shape and direct the church in the near future.

THE CONSULTATION

endorses for Executive Council

Laity for six years:

Louie Crew

Sarah Harte

Russell Palmore

Diane Pollard

Becky Snow

Mary Ann Weiss

Clergy for three year term:
    David Chee

Clergy for six years:
    Cynthia Black
    Carol Cole Flanagan

Bishops for six years:
    Ted Daniels
    Catherine Roskam

STAR WARS WITNESS

by Bill Stuart-Whistler

On Friday, July 7, five Episcopalians witnessed at the Ballistic Missile Division headquarters at Colorado Springs, Colorado, home of "Star Wars."

On that day of a crucial missile intercept test, they bore witness that BMD's goal of dominating and nuclearizing space directly opposed the Episcopal Church's teachings on the abolition of war, especially a genocidal nuclear war. The witness was co-sponsored by Citizens for Peace in Space based in Colorado Springs, chaired by long-time activist Bill Sulzman.

Banners of that group called the "Star Wars" concept "Immoral, a fraud, a waste, and the start of a new Nuclear Arms Race." An Episcopal banner named those who "need a Missile Defense": BMD contractors, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, TRW, and Raytheon, who will share most of the $60 billion cost of its production. The much-vaunted missile intercept test experienced a mechanical failure and was unsuccessful. The test cost $100 million.

The Church should concentrate on the national and global effects of the diversion of roughly half of our nation's disposable income to military adventures related to cold war concepts. This money should, instead, be applied to the immense variety of social needs we are discussing at this General Convention.

It is time our Church demanded an end to this crime of stealing money from demanding social needs to build space-borne Maginot Lines that increase the risk of a new Nuclear Arms Race.

Personally I am glad that my Church has both acted and spoken to oppose this madness. "America needs a missile defense like a fish needs a bicycle."

A Way to Enlarge
our Practice of Jubilee

By Geoff Curtiss;   President,
Episcopal Network for Economic Justice

The Episcopal Network for Economic Justice is introducing legislation to encourage the National Church to find ways to enlarge the portfolio of the Economic Justice Loan Fund. We are calling upon various organizations and structures of our Church to consider seeing the Economic Justice Loan Fund as a place where assets can be placed for their alternative investment strategies. The loan fund makes loans to intermediaries for such purposes as economic development, the provision of child-care and other community services, micro-enterprise lending and other job creation mechanisms, and housing.

Loans are made at a 2 - 5% interest rate that is adjusted to the needs of the borrower.   This interest rate is both the difficulty and the challenge. PB & F heard that the interest differential between the rate of the economic justice loan program of 2% to 5% and a standard investment rate represents a loss of funds available to the operating budgets of our Church. A differential of 4% on each one million dollars put into the fund for a given year could be as much as $40,000 a year. How can we encourage our Church to move funds into this alternative investment strategy? How can we overcome this loss of funding income for other mission opportunities?

In legislation adopted already, we have agreed to support Lambeth's 1998 request that we "fund international development programs" and are asking our Dioceses to set aside 0.7% of our annual budgets to contribute to international development programs including micro-credit programs. What if these funds were not used simply as direct support to a particular project but rather used to increase the opportunity and capability of the National Church's Economic Justice Loan Committee? Could we resource this fund so that they can attract a larger asset base for providing substantial loans to partner with organizations that are already doing this work?

For example, if the $17,500 from the Diocese of Newark were used to help cover the loss in the interest differential rather than a specific project, we could resource the Executive Council's Economic Justice Loan Program to enable them to attract assets that could provide more than $500,000 in loans for a year to partner with organizations doing great work. If twenty Dioceses joined this effort and pooled our 0.7 funds we would quickly respond to the concern for the interest differential and allow our Church to put assets into the Economic Justice Loan Fund which would provide more than $10 million a year for this important work.

Should there be interest in this kind of creative use of our resources for the practice of Jubilee, the Episcopal Network for Economic Justice would be willing to act as a catalyst to bring our church together for this work of economic justice in the year of our Church's Jubilee.

Common Prayer?

by Katie Sherrod

Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold is working hard to bring everyone along with his Jubilee theme of this General Convention. It has been obvious for some time that he's not about to allow schism to happen on his watch if he can help it. To this end, he has discouraged any action on "controversial" issues, and is either preaching or presiding at every Eucharist, offering meditations on love, overcoming fear, embracing freedom, etc.

But the very people he is seeking to appease aren't listening. They aren't attending the daily Convention Eucharist. They are not participating in the daily discussions around the tables in the worship area. They are not sharing the bread with the rest of us.

Instead, just as they did in Philadelphia and Indianapolis, many of the conservatives are attending their own separate Eucharist. Here in Denver it is at the Executive Tower Hotel, three blocks away from the Convention
Center. Some do so to avoid encountering bread touched by the hands of a female priest. Others do so out of disdain for the inclusive language of the daily liturgies at Convention. Others have no desire to pray or break bread with those they consider apostates.

So the question arises -- at what point is Communion broken? Conservatives have been threatening to "break Communion" with those bishops who ordain lesgays or bless same sex unions. They cry schism at the drop of a resolution. But when they already are boycotting the thing that is at the
very center of our church, the Eucharist, exactly what is it that we are trying so mightily to preserve?

Hate Crimes

By Bob Stuhlmann

June 13, 2000, Dennis R. Avgerinos, a member of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Stuart, Florida, was attacked and beaten to death by men with metal clubs.   The Stuart News wrote, "members of the congregation were `shocked' and `devastated' when they heard of his death."   His rector, the Rev. Thomas Tracy Pittenger said, "Dennis loved the church; it's been his life." "Dennis was a very outgoing guy, very friendly. He loved everybody.   He supported the Church financially. He was a very responsible member of the community. And was a member of the Church choir."

The convention needs to send a clear message that hate crimes of any kind, and especially those that are gender related, will not be tolerated. With the murder of 21 year old Matthew Shepherd in Laramie, Wyoming, near this convention, I wonder why we did not think to dedicate a place for our meeting together in his memory. Matthew, an Episcopalian, and student at the University of Wyoming was found unconscious and tied to a fence like a scarecrow.   He had been kidnapped, robbed, burned and beaten, eventually dying of his injuries.   Matthew was murdered because he was gay. Matthew is one of our children. Maybe there is still time to honor his memory.

Anti-gay violence is alarmingly widespread, and is often more vicious that other bias-motivated crime. A failure to include sexual orientation in the laws of our states perpetuates the myth that anti-gay violence does not exist, or worse, is somehow less reprehensible.

Facts about Hate Crimes from http://www.equalitycolorado.org

•

Higher victimization rates for some groups. Gay men are 400 times more likely to become a victim of crime.

•

Bias assaults are more severe.

•

Two thirds of victims had experienced multiple attacks before deciding to report.

•

Most are not committed by organized groups-most done by unidentified strangers.

•

More emotional harm to victim-Victims experience 2.5 times more negative psychological symptoms (mostly because of the unprovoked nature of the attack and the potential for future attack.)

Support anti-bias and anti-hate crime resolutions. Support our children, Matthew and Dennis and their families and friends. Don't let Fred Phelps and his cronies determine who is valued in our eyes.

THE VIA MUDDLE THROUGH

by Ann Carlson

Last week we were greeted by protestors claiming that the Episcopal Church does violence to its gay and lesbian members by prolonging the sexuality debate while avoiding decisions. This morning we had Fred Phelps protesting our inclusiveness and calling us a "Fag Church." Meanwhile, distributing my armful of Issues, I was greeted with a hug by my friend handing out the American Anglican Council GC2000 Encompass, with whom I speak everyday as we exchange papers. You could not find at this Convention two opinion papers further divided, but we are simply two tired people doing jobs we believe in.

I think this leafleting camaraderie represents the Episcopal Church at its best - relationship first, then perhaps our talk can find ways to reach past our automatic defenses. It won't be easy, but I predict the Episcopal Church will continue to hang together and muddle through.

GIFTS

By Mike Shirley

People have begun to offer their own gifts to one another in the manner, and sometimes in the form, that +Frank T Griswold has been giving us daily at worship. This came to me on Monday:

Unless there is the soil of justice, the seeds of compassion can not grow.
Mark Harris

Number 8         Wednesday             July 12

Where is COCU, the Churches Uniting in Christ, or A038?

By Bob Stuhlmann

COCU and its infant, Churches Uniting in Christ, is LOST somewhere in the Ecumenical Committee. Like the elusive Waldo, A038 is missing..   Can anyone out there find A038?

"The genius of Churches Uniting in Christ," says Canon Dr. Edward Rodman of Massachusetts, is that it brings the historic Black Churches and mainstream Protestant Churches together "to heal our racial and social divisions."   A038 proposes to do ecumenism with healing. The accord engages us in a conversation with the Methodists, United Church of Christ, Presbyterians, and the historic Black Churches: African Methodist Episcopal, CME and AME Zion Churches, and brings us into full communion by 2007. All we have to do is sign on the dotted line, and we're in. Not to sign is to miss the opportunity that we Episcopalians began in 1960 with Eugene Carson Blake of the Presbyterians.   As an outgrowth of the Civil Rights Movement our two churches convened the Consultation on Church Union, to find ways that the historic White and historic Black Churches could join in common mission and worship.

Those of us who work ecumenically in our communities, and most of us do, don't start with a list of preconditions for our participation. We enter the process, we ask what we need to do and how we're going to do it.   Then we ask where are the roadblocks.    But some would hold the dialogue hostage to the imperative of the Historic Episcopate and Three-fold Ministry as a pre-condition for our entry. This is before any discussion begins.

Come on! There is no reason why the AME and CME should not be partners with the Episcopal Church.   John and Charles Wesley were some of our own. If it weren't for those London Bishops, maybe Episcopalians could have some of those "strange warm feelings" for themselves.

In the euphoria of our new accord with the Northern tribes (CCM), let's not miss an opportunity of even greater consequence with the Southern and Eastern ones.   We must take action at this convention or the train will leave without us. Help us find A038 and restore it to the floor of this convention.     Forty years of work could be lost by our intransigence.   Let's take a chance and risk our lives for the healing of our racial and social divisions. Let's enter into these dialogues and practice a new form of Ecumenism for the 21st Century.   Canon Rodman asks, "Is our pride so great as to prevent us from dealing with 21st Century issues."   What do we have to lose? Once we get into discussions and make friends, the Historic Episcopate could look like a good way to organize this new community in Christ. It already happened once

SLICING THE PIE

By Mike Shirley

One of my fondest childhood memories is of blueberry pie. My Swedish farm-raised grandmother would help us beat the bushes on Prospect hill for the sweetest berries, and then bake them up into a pie to die for. The seven of us would gather round after supper and slice the pie so that everyone was satisfied.

When company, cousins or neighbors or other friends, were coming, Grandmother and the rest of us spent more time on Prospect Hill, and the pie tin she used to make the pie was much bigger. Sometimes she made two or three pies. Her resources came from neighbors and the Hill, if she did not have enough. No one was left out, no matter how many gathered round the table.

PB &F has put me in mind of those pies, as they slice up the money for the next triennium. I keep wondering why the pie is so small! For a Church with our wealth, and connections to even more wealth, shouldn't the pie be big enough so that no one at the table is left out? Grandmother would have had us go back to the hillside and beat the bushes for more berries. We should be working harder to get filling for our pie of funds, beating the bushes and using all our skills for funding the real needs of those around our table.

GOD'S LOVE DIDN'T CHANGE ME

By Ann Carlson

Last Friday morning, Bishop Griswold invited us to reflect on the passage in Luke 13 regarding the healing of the "bent woman." Most at my table saw this as an example of the regenerating power of Jesus' compassion. One man shared that Jesus broke not only the convention of doing "work" on the Sabbath, but also of speaking to a woman in public and of touching her. I wondered why he didn't also mention the Levitican pronouncement that is burned on my heart with every bit as much permanence as John 3:16 or the 23rd Psalm; that no one with a crooked back should approach the altar of the Lord "for I the Lord do not sanctify them." [Leviticus 21]

I don't experience this story as liberating, but as so painful that I had managed to blank it from my mind - until forced to encounter it again this week. With it came memories flooding back, memories preferably buried, of the absolute faith and desperate desire with which my grandmother pursued my healing from congenital scoliosis (curvature of the spine). I was prayed over at every opportunity, the victim of every traveling faith healer, captive audience of every Kathryn Kuhlman televised healing crusade, anointed with oil ordered especially from the holy land, and quizzed at every opportunity about the strength of my faith, which if strong enough would convince God to heal me. I wanted with all my heart to be healed. My grandmother was absolutely convinced and managed to convince me too, but it never happened.

Don't get me wrong. God's love has done wonderful things in my life and has changed me in profound ways. Nor am I saying I don't believe in God's healing power. But, despite clear evidence from both Old and New Testaments that a crooked back is not part of God's natural plan for his people - at best an "ailment" which should respond to Jesus' touch, and possibly a sin (why else would I be denied approach to God's altar?) -God's love refused to change me. I have spent a lifetime seeking healing, or if not healing then a sense of purpose in my deformity. I have found neither. No easy answers. Thanks to advances in modern orthopedic surgery and years of treatment, I bear little physical resemblance to the bent woman I would otherwise have been. But lingering with the remaining physical impairment and nagging backaches is the heart knowledge reminding me (as often as I allow it to surface) that I am proven unworthy of God's healing touch.

I fear at this General Convention that the bandwagon of "God's love changed me" is promoting a simplistic doctrine of God as an easy "cure-all for what ails you." I worry that we are losing touch with the very compassion one person said was the real meaning of this story. Asking "Why don't you just let God's love change you?" sounds like a refusal to feel with me life and faith as I experience them (co-passion). I was even cautioned not to share my story because it is dismissive of the healing ministry. Is there room then for a person like me, a faith failure, in the Episcopal Church?

Six Levels Down

by Mark Harris

Not all is well in the land of Jubilee. "Six levels down," she said, "there the heart aches."

The initiation of full communion with the Lutherans, an event viewed by almost all of us as full of promise and joy, perhaps even about jubilee, was immediately named "diplomatic" in its import rather than full of practical change. And so it is. It has been noted that Lutherans and Episcopalians have never been divided from one another by deep-set doctrinal differences. Neither has pronounced anathema on the other. What has divided us has been the divisions of the Northern Tribes.. We seem united in a battle against the medieval devil, if in nothing else. But we politely forget that mostly our spiritual and geographical ancestors fought each other to death for many centuries. No, there is a spiritual diplomatic settlement among the residue of the northern tribes settled in America. Still, "Six levels down, there the heart aches."

The ELCA and the Episcopal Church will come closer. So now about eight million people, mostly descendants of Europe's northern tribes, will learn to get along. I wish us all well. But the delegate of color whose heart aches pulls me into her sixth level down where the truth still lives. She said, "unless there is real and profound change there will be no African Americans left in the Episcopal Church by the middle of this century."   Two politely called "predominately white churches" do not a multicultural Jubilee event evoke.

On the sixth level of the heart there is the disturbing sense that all is not well in the land of Jubilee. At the largest and most public of our worship services, one filled with wonder of music and celebration, there were all the signs of inclusion except two. For most of us in the hall the only person of color to be seen on the altar platform was the preacher, a person of color certainly, but not from among us. And then there is the matter of the symbols. Even for those of us who are educated in Roman numerals, an education of marvelous irrelevance, the "MM" logo takes a bit of getting used to. It is, of course, an irrelevant number. But it is not an irrelevant writing of the number. That writing is the residue of imperial Rome, a state whose present descendents include monarchial symbols of England, imperial residue of the Holy Roman Empire, and magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. To associate those with Jubilee produces a disturbing jarring of the heart.

What in the world is going on here? As we face into the twenty-first century our Jubilee needs desperately to be about justice, inclusion, and depth of heart. The only presently existing use of the "MM" logo is for "m and m's", a candy which some of us remember, melts in our mouths, not in our hands. But the sweetness of the Jubilee is of honey that drips down into the beard or onto the chin. It is messy, it is wondrous, it is not tidy, and it is for sure not imperial.

Six levels down, her heart aches. And she is right.

Dear Vince,

by Bob Stuhlmann

I'm a white guy too and I know what it is to cover your, ah, behind. But it looked to me like a lot of white guys up there on the platform. I suspect we'll want to be seeing some of these women you were talking about at the next convention. There must be some women down there. (Any African Americans, Latin Americans, Native Americans, Asians?) You might think about how three white guys are going to be conscious and responsive to including people who are not white and male. Or you might not.   Hope you can figure this one out. Fast!

While I'm at it. Did anyone else have the feeling that the white guys felt they wanted to get it back this time?   Did anyone get the feeling we missed an opportunity here?   I know, sour grapes. But what do three white guys do when there are such riches of intelligence and breadth and spirit in the diversity of our Community and we don't invite them into leadership with us?   We just don't get it.   We don't get that we have everything to gain and nothing to lose by opening our Church at the highest levels of leadership to women, and men and women who are not white.   In case anyone hasn't noticed, white guys still are in the majority in leadership in the Episcopal Church. How can a delegation not bring a single female deputy, or priest for that matter?   Or how about a Bishop?

Compounding our problems with leadership are the growing voices of concern that Frank Griswold is not listening. Some Bishops have asked me to caution the Presiding Bishop, that this Primate thing doesn't really work in North America.   Says one Bishop; " The Presiding Bishop is the executive officer and chief pastor of the church".   When primates meet they meet without the presence or input of the laity, clergy, or Bishops.   One can get light headed in such high places.   So, dear Frank, be cautious, and hone you skills at collaborative and inclusive ministry. So, I have delivered my message. Thanks friends. Just what I needed.

Fort Worth Priest honors Call to Common Mission

by Katie Sherrod

My husband, the Rev. Gayland Pool, a retired priest in Fort Worth, is a bread-maker, among other things. On Sunday, he took a loaf of his famous bread to St, Matthew's Lutheran Church in celebration of the passage of Call to Common Mission.

The celebrant, Ginny Stephenson, accepted the bread with pleasure and used it in the worship service. She invited him to address the congregation about the recent vote at General Convention, a vote they had greeted with joy. Then they all prayed together. Perhaps it will be in these small ways that common mission will begin in many places. After all, grace doesn't need much room to squeeze in.

A MESSAGE TO ALL OUR RELATIONS

by American Indian Communion

We appreciate the concern and compassion of those who have invited us to join their protest of the insensitivity of the "cowboy" image which, it is reported, will be employed at Colorado Night. Nevertheless, we are taught by our Elders and the Gospel of Jesus Christ to also appreciate hospitality shown us by our hosts at this conference. We appreciate and are grateful for their hospitality even while we invite all our relations to be transformed by the Good News of Jesus. In that transformation we learn to appreciate God-given gifts and images that are placed in all of our cultures. We rejoice that the Gospel calls us to a life where the images of what we were before will no longer haunt or imprison our future together as the living body of Christ.

JUST A FEW QUESTIONS

by Elizabeth Kaeton

This is my first General Convention as a deputy, so I suppose it's natural to have a few questions. I'm new, and sometimes rank neophytes unintentionally ask embarrassing questions. Forgive me. Inquiring minds want to know:

•

How is that the church is "divided" on the issue of human sexuality in general and homosexuality in particular? Is that an accurate portrayal of the state of the church? Didn't the General Convention Resolution on Same Sex Blessings in 1997 fail by only one vote? Is that a "divided" church?

•

How many people does it take, exactly, to leave the church before it is considered a "schism"? Five? An even dozen? Exactly one hundred? Or, is it as one friend suggests: One bishop?

•

How will voting (or abstaining) on a resolution on Same Sex Blessing "resolve" the issue of human sexuality? Did the passage of the Civil Rights Amendment end racism? Has the mandatory canon on the ordination of women resolved the issue of the ordination of women?

•

If a woman is a rector in Ft. Worth, but must be canonically resident in Dallas and therefore, has no vote with her church, how is that a "workable solution" for the woman and the community of faith which she leads?

•

Since when is non-compliance with a mandatory canon something which the Church monitors? Isn't it something to which the church holds its priests and bishops accountable?

•

How is it that some of the same conservatives who plead for the church to delay a decision on Same Sex Blessings on the basis of "unity in the Church" absent themselves from daily Eucharist? Shouldn't some of us join some of the folks from Ft. Worth in their daily Eucharist for the sake of "unity in the Church"?

Number 9            Thursday             July 13

ANOTHER VOICE

by Lydia Kelsey ESMHE
Diocese of Northern Michigan
University of Vermont

A man who was against the blessings of same sex unions at the open hearing for the Committee on the Church and Human Sexuality stated last Friday night that he was sick of hearing about experience and it was time to turn to the scriptures. Well, I am sick of hearing twisted theology to validate
discrimination and oppression. We need to show society that we will not tolerate oppression. People are being oppressed daily in our church and it is an issue that cannot be pushed aside and spoken of later. We must do something now.

We have to guarantee safe spaces, ordain gays and lesbians, and bless committed loving relationships. I have grown up in this church believing in unconditional love and acceptance. It is painful and frustrating to see the exclusion of so many wonderful members in the church.

I recently taught 13-18 year old men and women at the church camp in Northern Michigan the meaning of respect and reconciliation within the context of Jubilee. We discussed the ism's and the hurt they cause. I shared with the campers and staff that the church I know is a community of
love, in which everyone is appreciated and respected for their diversity. But I know that we are not all there yet. We fear differences and want to keep our distance from those who don't speak like us, look like us, or are in any way different than us. This has to end. It is time we respect everyone in
our midst. This means full inclusion.

The issue is not complicated. To me it is so simple. Gays and lesbians are being oppressed and this cannot go on. We wonder why more young people are not getting involved in the Episcopal Church. Why would someone my age
(early 20's) want to join into an institution that picks and chooses who it ministers to? We are just finding our place in the world and we long for acceptance and inclusion. All of us are called to God and we are one family in Christ. We as a community of faith must no longer exclude our brothers and sisters. I pray that we have the strength, the courage, and the patience to fight for justice.

HOW LONG, O LORD?

By Clara Gillies

As it is now in God's kingdom: May the day come when we are just sisters and brothers with Christ - not subject to designation by race, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation or culture.

The Children's cross in the meditation chapel is a replica of the cross constructed by the children of St. James Cathedral, Chicago to honor the children killed by violence. Come and pray for the safety of our children

No Hope for Our Hypocrisy

By Ann Carlson

In the Tuesday Center Isle Bishop Howe was quoted as saying that the first 7 resolves of the D039 resolution make it clear that "this church is not in the business of endorsing promiscuous behavior or any sexual relationship that demeans persons." With the defeat of the 8th resolve, it is equally obvious that the national Church is not in the business of supporting relation-ships which are "characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication, and the holy love which enables those in such relation-ships to see in each other the image of God" unless those relationships are heterosexual marriages.

Even without mention of "blessing" or "affirmation," the Church cannot see its way clear to supporting such exemplary relation-ships between persons unable to marry - for whatever reason. They seem to say that achieving these qualities in our relationships is laudable if we manage to get there under our own steam, but our national Church policy will not allow liturgical support for achieving or sustaining a Godly quality of mutuality and fidelity in the most central relationships of many of our members.

Local option is alive and well, even strengthened by the passing of resolves 1-7. Those resolves clearly acknowledge that Church members are living in committed relationships of integrity outside the traditional definition of marriage. Several bishops told us that this was all they needed to move forward in implementing local options on blessing of same-sex unions in their dioceses. But for those of us who hoped to see the Church renounce the hypocrisy that allows us to admit this reality of God's work in our midst without supporting it in our formal liturgies, it was a sad day.

Irony as Liturgy

by Katie Sherrod

All are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place. So said the chorus of the opening hymn of the daily Eucharist on Wednesday, the day after the House of Deputies narrowly defeated resolve 8 of D039s, which asked for development of a liturgical rite that would support committed
unions. As in Philadelphia, it took a vote by orders to defeat the resolve. A majority of deputies in both orders voted for it. The major argument against it was from clerical deputies who said that if it passed with resolve 8, most of their congregations would leave the Episcopal Church.

Round the table all will flourish . . So said the first line of the offertory hymn. Every day, the readings are provided in English at every table. So why are they read only in English? Why not read them in Spanish, French and the many other languages spoken in our church?

Round the table we will nourish . . . stories that are not yet sung. Clay Morris, liturgical officer for the Episcopal Church, was quoted in the Convention Daily as saying that the "basic language" of General Convention is
English. "We try to provide translation services, but we don't intend to be entirely inclusive," Morris said. This is an amazingly arrogant statement. This is the GENERAL Convention of the Episcopal Church, and even the leaflets for each service, which one assumes the liturgical officer help write, say,
"The liturgies that mark these days seek to embrace the richness of our heritage as they explore the directions in which the Holy Spirit is calling the church to move in the future."

Part of that richness is our diversity, including our diversity of languages.
Of course, the leaflets go on to say that one of the fundamental assumptions guiding the designs was "an awareness that essentials should not be overwhelmed by nonessentials." Perhaps being able to understand the language of the liturgy is considered a nonessential.

We are one in the house of God.
So concluded the refrain of the closing hymn, reminding us all once again that the House of God is not, mercifully, synonymous with the Episcopal
Church.

Over heard at Convention:

By Bob Stuhlmann

"Jubilee is about liberation, not taking vacations:"

(A reflection on the literature handed out about the Jubilee theme of convention); "there are references to Celtic and Sufi Mysticism and trips to the Holy Land, but not a word has been said that the Jubilee Ministry Office of the Episcopal Church even exists!"

The beginning of my Sunday July 16th Sermon:

by Bob Stuhlmann

Good morning. I am writing this is in a small Super 8 Motel room in Denver.   The House of Deputies last week refused to give the liturgy committee authority to find liturgical forms to recognize same sex relationships within the church.   Oddly the vote was very close, with far more in the positive than the negative. But then, I still don't know how they count the votes. There were a large number of dioceses that were divided. So there were for example a combined vote of 108 for developing these liturgies, 78 against, and 59 divided. So I don't know how you count them. It seems to me if you add half of the divided to one group and half to the other then those who want us to continue to develop the affirming of same sex relationships were in the majority, but who can figure.   At any rate the churches in New England were all for this modest proposal.   Some suggested that if this passed the whole church would be destroyed, and hordes would leave the church.   Others said that this resolution would help them to minister to all people in Christ.   So the sentiment is divided, but not as divided as you might think.   This church will probably be finding ways of honoring the love between people of the same sex in the next few conventions.   Now if that makes you want to leave the Episcopal Church and if this is some sort of litmus test, consider this.   In much of the rest of the country there is an atmosphere of vitriolic hatred toward people who are gay or lesbian.   I wrote a piece on hate crime for the little leaflet we do for Convention. A 43-year-old gay man, a member of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Stuart. Fla., was beaten to death by a gang of men on June 13.   He was active in the church, sang in the choir, "Loved everybody," said his priest, contributed to the financial mission of the church.   They killed him, with impunity.   This is the same church where Ann Minatti [former warden] goes when she is in Florida.

Now to me there needs to be someone, some Christian Community, in the mainstream of our Society that is saying clearly that this cannot be tolerated. That hate crime against anyone, any group, is a crime and it must be aggressively dealt with through education, treatment, and incarceration.

Does that mean you have to approve or disapprove of the gay or lesbian life style?   There are all kinds of gay and lesbian life styles, as there are all kinds of straight life styles.   I approve of those life styles that are committed, caring and compassionate.   I approve of life styles that are based on deep and lasting friendship, where one would be willing to give up ones life for the other.   Those that are mutual, and not oppressive. I have known of gay and lesbian people who sincerely love one another, and I have known straight and gay people who can't stand each other and stay together in relationships of abuse that would make us cringe.   So go figure.   But that's where I'm at.   And I've been this way for over 40 years.   For me the issue is, do people love one another, and care deeply for the well being and the continuing developing of the soul and brilliance of the other person.   And I hope we convey that to people in our community so that all, in Christ, will find food at this table for the healing of their souls and a SAFE Place to come for shelter from the hatred in the world.

[Bob will see the following on the web, if not on paper, to help him understand the voting.]

THE NUMBERS ON SEXUALITY

by Rebecca Walker & Mike Shirley

In interpreting votes by orders in the House of Deputies, one must take into account the following:
the most individual `yes' votes would assume that everyone in all `yes' deputations were voting `yes', that all `no' votes included one `yes', and that divided deputations included two `yes' votes;
the fewest individual `yes' votes would assume that every `yes' deputation included one `no', that every `no' deputation was all `noes', and that divided deputations included only two `yes' votes.

In the vote on D039s, the most `yes' scenario would have, in the lay order, 277 `yes' votes to 151 `no' votes; and in the clerical order 292 `yes' and 140 `no' votes.
The fewest `yes' scenario would have, in the lay order, 187 `yes' and 241 `no'; and in the clerical order 203 `yes' and 229 `no' votes.
The average scenario would have, in the lay order, 232 `yes' to 196 `no', and in the clerical order 247 `yes' and 184 `no' votes.

If this were a straight democratic voting system, `yes' would have won, most likely. But we cannot know that. Now, go figure.

ENDORSEMENTS AND ELECTIONS

A Response to Center Aisle Endorsement for Executive Council by The Reverend Canon Benjamin Musoke-Lubega, Michigan Deputation

Center Aisle, a publication of the Diocese of Virginia promoting core values of unity, love, and witness, endorsed the following for Executive Council: Martha Bedell Alexander, Louie Crew, Theodore Mollegen, Jr., Russell V. Palmore, Jr., Sarah Harte, William D. Nix, James B. Simons, Rebecca Snow and Philip M. Duncan II, all in the name of unity and diversity.

All the above who have been endorsed by Center Aisle are Caucasians. One wonders what kind of unity and diversity this is, that leaves out Black, Hispanic, and Asian Episcopalians, to mention a few? The endorsement moves us back to a time when people of color were never endorsed and elected to the governing bodies of this church.

The Consultation thanks our friends in Deputies for recognizing the wisdom of supporting those whom we endorsed for Executive Council, most of whom you elected to serve us all.

Does Anyone Care if We Leave the Church?

By Kathleen McAdams

Does anyone care if WE leave the Church? Or is it more of a threat to promise that we will stay, no matter what? I listened intently to debate in the House of Deputies on the 8th resolve of D039, supporting relationships of mutuality and fidelity other than marriage. Speaker after speaker related stories of members of their congregations who have threatened to leave the Episcopal Church if this Convention passed legislation in support of Same-Sex Unions. I agree wholeheartedly that it would indeed be detrimental to the unity and mission of the church to lose such members. But I sat wondering, "why isn't anyone relating stories about couples who will leave the church because their lifelong, committed, monogamous relationships, which they know to be holy, may not be blessed by their worship communities?"

These people usually do not make a public spectacle of their leaving - they don't break off in renegade denominations or take church property with them when they leave. They simply walk away quietly, despairing that the Church they love, even with the mistaken impression that the God they love doesn't return their devotion. They often won't join another denomination, but instead give up on the Church altogether and perhaps even give up on God altogether. All because persons who purport to follow Christ have upheld standards they believe to be law over and above principles of justice.

Isn't the Church already divided, when those who are perceived to be at the center are valued more highly that are those on the margins? Aren't we already divided into THEM and US? And aren't we all guilty of this division? Perhaps we can be unified in our responsibility for this rift, and in our charge to preach the Gospel of Christ in our lives. We must repent of this sin of division, and pursue together the mission of the Church: `to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ" through "prayer and worship, proclamation of the Gospel, and the promotion of justice, peace and love" (BCP855).

I was thankful for the minute of silent prayer suggested by Committee 25. It was then that I, just for a moment, let go of my certainty that this resolution would never pass, that same-sex unions would never be fully recognized and blessed in the Episcopal Church. I let go of this cynicism and became vulnerable to hope. For a moment, I actually believed that by some miracle of God, this resolution might be passed, this year, here at this Convention. It can be devastating to have such hope and to have it dashed by yet another defeat. Yet that is the hope to which the resurrection of Jesus Christ has called us, to expect the unexpected, the miraculous.

I invite my gay/lesbian brothers and sisters, and our allies, to stick around here in OUR Church, and to continue to "strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being" (BCP305). And to those with whom we might disagree I invite you as well to stick around and work with us to live out our Baptismal Covenant as the Body of Christ.

ISSUES

2000

Number 10                Friday               July 14

In this space at the end of each General Convention we thank all those who have been working on ISSUES with us. That tradition is important to us, so…..
Thank you to
Bobbie Armstrong and Verna Fausey; EPF

Ann Carlson; Integrity

Bob Stuhlmann; Episcopal Urban Caucus

Katie Sherrod; Episcopal Women's Caucus

Mike Yasutake; Episcopal Asiamerica
            Ministry Advocates

Edna Shirley; ISSUES

Mike Shirley; ISSUES
and to all those others who offered us articles on paper, disks and email. We will continue this publication on the web at www.theconsultation.org beginning in August, with a monthly "sheet" of opinion and ideas about the Episcopal Church from the perspective of justice and peace. Your participation is invited.

First, Do No Harm........

By Bonita Ann Palmer, M.D.,M.F.T.

Much has been said at this Convention about the wisdom of not stepping out beyond the lead of other mainstream Christian bodies on matters of human sexuality. What has been conspicuously absent, however, in any of the debates is the fact that over a year ago the Presbyterians pushed well beyond the Episcopal Church to acknowledge the scientific bankruptcy and potentially exploitive nature of some ministries' efforts to "heal homosexuals."   We in the Episcopal Church thus far have failed to articulate the reality that the purveyors of "conversion therapy" are well outside the mainstream research and thinking in the psychotherapeutic community.

In June of 1999, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), meeting in Fort Worth, declared "that no church should insist that gay and lesbian people need therapy to change their orientation, nor should it inhibit or discourage those who are unhappy with or confused about their sexual orientation from seeking therapy they believe would be helpful. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) affirms that medical treatment, psychological therapy, and pastoral counseling should conform to recognized professional standards [emphasis added]."

We applaud the Presbyterians for joining the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Counseling Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Association of Social Workers in raising concerns about the ethics of "reparative therapies" and "transformational ministries," and their potential to do serious and long-lasting harm.

As we in the Episcopal Church attempt to live out our pledge (D039) "to provide a safe and just structure" and " prayerful support, encouragement and pastoral care" to gay and lesbian persons committed to living faithful and healthy lives, it would be wise for us to be alert to the ethical implications and the potential professional liability consequences of our actions and inactions. Good quality counseling is non-judgmental and has no predetermined goal or outcome. We need to protect troubled individuals from purveyors of false hope bent on social conformity and religious "purity." It would be prudent to follow the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in speaking out against these misguided, and prejudice driven "helping ministries."

IN THE JUNIOR HOUSE

by Ann Carlson

Bishop Ackerman, addressing the House of Bishops, accused all those favoring the adoption of the 8th resolve in the human sexuality resolution (calling for the study and consideration of rites for blessing committed relationships other than marriage) of desiring not actually the preparation of such rites, but a split in the church. Come on, Bishop Ackerman. Don't we smell a little paranoia here?

At the same session, bishop after bishop spoke of feeling betrayed in this discussion because they in their ivory tower recent meetings together had decided that the General Convention 2000 would do no legislating on the issue of human sexuality. Somebody needs to tell the bishops that they are not the whole Church.

EPF JOB OPPORTUNITY

Are you interested in a position as EPF executive secretary?

The position is open late spring 2001; applications are due by December 1, 2000. Information is available from the EPF chair,

the Rev. David O. Selzer, Church of the Good Shepherd,

96 Jewett Parkway, Buffalo, NY 14214-2322,

e-mail:dos403@aol.com

NEXT STOP MINNEAPOLIS

by Mike Shirley

As we pack up to head home to three more years of "life as it is lived," I have been thinking about the next time we get together as General Convention. We at ISSUES need to be more careful to be inclusive. Our list of staff writers has included people of different ages and cultures, but not enough people of enough ages and cultures. "We are so very white!" Edna says. "And so very English speaking."

Part of our life as it is lived includes ESOL classes in our parish house in Amesbury MA. And I have been working on my Brazilian Portuguese, much to the amusement of our Brazilian parishioners. Our neighbors at the Grace in Lawrence MA are offering SSOL classes for their Anglo parishioners. We are considering attending. Spanish for Speakers of Other Languages is about the level I feel up to working at.

So in Minneapolis we will publish articles, God willing, in at least English and Spanish. We will strive for a more inclusive staff, and seek writers in languages of the Episcopal Church other than English. We will pay attention to the developments in theology that ITTI offers us. Will you join us in reflecting the Church as we know it in your preparations for Minneapolis 2003?

8th Legislative Day: July 12, 2000

Committee 13: Liturgy and Music
Bishop Rowthorn on behalf of the Sub-Committee on Calendar and Lectionary:
The Sub-Committee has belatedly considered Resolution 007 (Diocese of South Carolina and Diocese of Upper South Carolina) and recommends adoption. There are four resolves:

…Be it resolved, the House of Deputies concurring, that the calendar of the Episcopal Church henceforth include the notable South Carolina hero, Mel Gibson, who in the current movie The Patriot exemplifies the independent spirit of your friendly local Episcopalian and his/her determined resistance against alien and intrusive Anglican forces, originating, if not from Westminster, then certainly from Lambeth; and be it further

…Resolved, that in each year when a General Convention is held this commemoration be observed on July 4th (for obvious reasons); and be it further

…Resolved, that in any such year there be an observance whatsoever of the Connecticut Loyalist, Samuel Seabury (for obvious reasons); and be it further

…Resolved that copies of this soul-stirring movie The Patriot be distributed forthwith at all levels of the Episcopal Church, with the proviso that in the Convocation of American Churches in Europe the movie be renamed The Ex-Patriot.

In moving the adoption of this resolution I must point out that as Chair of the sub-committee I voted against it (for obvious reasons.) Thank you

A CHURCH OF ALL…

By Amy Denney ESMHE

Yesterday morning a young Vietnamese woman walked into our Convention, worshipped with us, and spent several hours in the Exhibit Hall. I walked around the Exhibit Hall with her after we met at the ESMHE booth, and over the course of an hour and across a language barrier we became vehicles of God's grace for one another. She asked me, her eyes shining, "Do you love God?" This was the most important and beautiful question I had heard in the course of my time at Convention.

My time with this woman brought to me face to face and heart to heart with the issues of inclusivity and representation which have been a theme running through my first Convention as part ESMHE's Student Presence. Loving our neighbor as we love ourselves is the incarnation of our love for God. I truly believe that as a Church our hearts and our words are in the right place, but the reality wrought by our action (or inaction) has yet to catch up to the vision of the Reign of God; the completion of love.

Throughout General Convention I have caught glimpses of what that fullness of love would look like. Wednesday morning the Prayer Book, Liturgy, and Church Music Committee agonized over putting a resolution on the Consent Calendar regarding authorized Bibles in languages other than English that they felt was worded too weakly, even though almost everyone in the room spoke English as a first language. Later in the morning, after a Eucharist in which Bishop Frade of Honduras celebrated in four of the languages of Latin America, the House of Deputies learned that it had overwhelmingly voted in the youngest individual to serve on Executive Council in recent memory, Sarah Harte.

Other instances have shown how far we still have to go on the journey toward the fullness of love expressed in care for neighbor. The long delay in seating the delegation from Liberia on the floor of the House of Deputies to truly allow them "seat and voice" as stated in their Covenant with ECUSA is a prime example. The fact that the General Convention of a Church as diverse as ours-made up of people of many different ages, economic backgrounds, ethnicities and nationalities-does not yet reflect that diversity in its membership or make adequate provision for it in its structures is another.

In order to more fully reflect the love of Christ for one another we need to be "entirely inclusive," contrary to the statement of a Convention staff member regarding the issue of multi-lingual liturgy and legislation brought to light by the Diocese of Los Angeles. This kind of love means that in every preparation, decision, and action we consider first the needs of the other.

Learning from the Margins

by Katie Sherrod

The Episcopal Church can learn much from the history of the equal rights struggle and the failure of both abolitionists and suffra-gists to realize how intertwined are the oppressions of people on the margins. The suffrage movement grew out of the abolition struggle. Women fighting to end slavery, especially Quaker women, could not help realizing that they had few more legal rights than did the slaves they were championing. When the Civil War was over, black women joined with white in demanding the right to vote.

But when the 14th Amendment, giving black men the right to vote, and the 15th
Amendment, giving black men citizenship, were proposed, it marked the first time the word "male" appeared in the Constitution, raising the question of whether women, white or black, were citizens at all. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton opposed the language. They maintained that the wording should be changed to give all people the right to vote and to clarify the
citizenship not only of black males who were former slaves, but also of all women. They feared once the word "male" was in the Constitution, women might never get it out again.

Black men and all women were fighting for rights assumed as God-given by white men. Now the black men insisted that women step aside, saying that the sufferings of slavery entitled them to precedence. Anthony argued, "The question of precedence has no place on an equal rights platform." She feared splitting the rights of black men from the rights of women would weaken both groups. History would prove her right.

The decision to put aside women's demands split the suffrage movement in two. Black women were forced to choose between supporting their men or supporting the women's struggle. It was an easy choice. Freshly freed from slavery, they were going to stand by their men to the death, even at the cost of their own rights.

So black men were named citizens and given the vote. Though the struggle to live fully into this has continued for years, at least their rights were acknowledged in the US Constitution. But the women's struggle dragged on year after year as male legis-lators argued that such rights for women did not exist at all. At the last, the desire to win the vote overcame the white suffragists' commitment to justice for all. They sold black women out, agreeing to let southern suffragist organizations exclude black women. They saw it as the only way to win the votes of the Southern white legislators who dominated Congress. Women won the vote in 1920, but the victory was based in this betrayal so deep that nearly a century later it still divides black and white women.

Anthony's statement that "The question of precedence has no place on an equal rights platform" is as true today as it was in 1869. The truth is that whenever people on the margins - racial minorities, women, lesbians and gays - begin to argue over whose rights take precedence over the other, the only winner will be the straight white men who always have held power.

Only by understanding the interlocking nature of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and all other oppressions will people on the margins come into the full rights and dignity due them solely on the basis of their shared
humanity. It is no accident that it is black female scholars such as Katie Cannon and
Kelly Brown Douglas who are exploring and developing this idea of interlocking oppressions, for black women stand at the intersection of racism and sexism. They have much to teach the rest of us.

That includes the fact that even people on the margins have access to some privileges. Brown Douglas says that it is vital to name those points of privilege in order to become aware of our vulnerability to the temptation of protecting that privilege at the expense of other people. White women share in the privileges of a dominant race in a racist society. Black men and gay men share in the privileges accorded to males in a male dominated culture. Upper and middle class white, black and gay people share in the privileges of their class.

Brown Douglas writes that it is vital to understand the nature of linked oppressions, to claim one's position on the margins, and to make common cause with other marginalized peoples: "Claiming our marginality does not mean playing the oppressed victim card in order to gain access to privilege, or to secure the privilege we have. Rather it means holding one's self accountable to those who are on the very
underside of marginal locations." She continues, "Such a claiming obliges one to work to dismantle unjust structures and systems of privilege, thereby constraining one from garnering unjust privilege and from duplicating or mimicking the corruptions of such power and privilege."

How different things might have been if Susan B. Anthony had been able to develop her instinctual understanding of the inter-locking nature of oppressions in a manner that convinced her fellow freedom fighters, male and female, black and white. We people on the margins in the Episcopal Church are only now beginning to "get" this ourselves. How much more of God's work would the Episcopal Church get done if, in the end, we all remembered that what hurts one of God's children hurts all of God's children.

Un-Conventional

by Ann Carlson

The presentation of the budget seems to have borrowed from the sense of fun and irreverent perspective of the Generation neXt'ers participating at Convention. While copies of the budget were being circulated, we were treated to the Rolling Stones with "You Can't Always Get What You Want." Several deputies of this staid, proper church were seen to boogie for all they were worth until the P.B. called for order. The image of deputies dancing on the floor of the House as the budget was distributed takes the cake for the most wildly unconventional scene at Convention.