"Why I Believe Mistreatment of Women is Number One Human Rights Abuse" by Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter: Why I believe the mistreatment of women is the number one human rights abuse  ..."First of all is the misinterpretation of religious scriptures, holy scriptures, in the Bible, Old Testament, New Testament, Quran and so forth, and these have been misinterpreted by men who are now in the ascendant positions in the synagogues and the churches and in the mosques. And they interpret these rules to make sure that women are ordinarily relegated to a secondary position compared to men in the eyes of God.

2:01This is a very serious problem. It's ordinarily not addressed. A number of years ago, in the year 2000, I had been a Baptist, a Southern Baptist for 70 years -- I tell you, I still teach Sunday school every Sunday;I'll be teaching this Sunday as well -- but the Southern Baptist Convention in the year 2000 decided that women should play a secondary position, a subservient position to men. So they issued an edict, in effect, that prevents women from being priests, pastors, deacons in the church, or chaplains in the military, and if a woman teaches a classroom in a Southern Baptist seminary, they cannot teach if a boy is in the room, because you can find verses in the Bible, there's over 30,000 verses in the Bible, that say that a woman shouldn't teach a man, and so forth. But the basic thing is the scriptures are misinterpretedto keep men in an ascendant position. That is an all-pervasive problem, because men can exert that power and if an abusive husband or an employer, for instance, wants to cheat women, they can say that if women are not equal in the eyes of God, why should I treat them as equals myself? Why should I pay them equal pay for doing the same kind of work?..."

"Time for Silence, Speaking'

Mary Theresa

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Time-for-silence-speaking-6431983.php

Times Union, August 7, 2016

Time for silence, speaking

By Sister Megan Rice

There is a time to be silent, to listen, to learn and discern the truth. And there is a time to speak, to our sisters, brothers and all in the web of life in this global village, to be true to ourselves.

For me, the time to be silent lasted many years. I was born in Manhattan in 1930. My family lived next door to a mathematical biologist who worked in the physics department of Columbia University, a few blocks away.

In the late 1930s, what he was engaged in was kept a dark secret from us, even from his wife and daughter. We didn't know then that he worked on the Manhattan Project, which would produce the first atomic bomb.

On Aug. 6, 1945, my sister and I were at summer camp in Maine, when our mother called us and said she had just seen the headline on the Daily News: "Bomb Dropped on Japan. The War is Over!"

"Thank God!" she said. "Uncle Walter will not have to be involved in the invasion of Japan."

On August 9, three days after Hiroshima, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Six weeks later, Uncle Walter, a newly commissioned 1st lieutenant in the Marines, arrived in that city in occupied Japan. There he met the Jesuit bishop, Paul Yamaguchi, on his return to Nagasaki. In a Jeep, my uncle drove the bishop to his ruined cathedral, where his mother and sister had been attending Mass when their lives were extinguished.

My uncle, like many Hibakusha, the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, stayed silent before they could speak and act.

I waited until 1980, when my mother and I marched from the United Nations to Central Park for the abolition of nuclear weapons. My awareness grew through the peace communities and civil resistance at the government's nuclear test site in the Nevada desert where 1,000 weapons of mass destruction were detonated. There, on sacred land ceded by treaty to the Western Shoshone people, I reflected upon their stories and wisdom, and about pollution of water, air and soil by radioactive fallout.

The world continues to feel the effects in physical and psychic disease from the fallout of these weapons.

We can now speak our known truth: Nuclear weapons and war no more on this sacred planet. Please join us in silence and in speaking, to be true to ourselves.

Sister Megan Rice, Roman Catholic nun of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, lives in Washington, D.C. From 1962 to 2004, she was a teacher in Nigeria and Ghana. In 2012, she and two fellow pacifists splashed blood on a uranium facility at the Oak Ridge nuclear reservation in Tennessee. In May, she was released from serving two years in prison. She will speak at the 17th annual Kateri Tekakwitha Peace Conference, which is dedicated to the power of truth-telling, on Friday and Saturday, August 14-15, at the National Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine in Fonda. Information at www.kateripeaceconference.org.

Homily by Annie Watson,ARCWP and Liturgy of Non-Violence at Mary Weber's House Church in Indianapolis

Priests Mary Weber,ARCWP and Annie Watson, ARCWP

“From Mike to Cecil”

2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33

August 9, 2015

Annie Watson, ARCWP

The story of David and his son, Absalom, is a sad story. Sometimes life presents us with choices we don’t want to have to make. In this case, David had to choose against his son, who had rebelled against his kingdom, although he loved his son.

David ordered his men to “deal gently” with Absalom, but as Absalom was riding through the thick forest his head got caught in some branches. Along came one of David’s commanders, Joab, who took three sticks and used them to kill Absalom.

When David heard about this he cried that he would rather have died than his own rebellious son. Regardless, he had to make a choice about what mattered the most: his son Absalom, or his kingdom. He chose the latter.

We don’t always have to choose sides, but sometimes we seem forced to do so by the social and political climate. A case in point is the current “conflict” between the “Black Lives Matter” and the “Police Lives Matter” movements. What are we to make of this?

Today marks the one year anniversary of the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. You remember the story. Brown was an 18-year-old African American who was fatally shot by Darren Wilson, a 28-year-old white Ferguson police officer.

What actually happened that fateful day remains somewhat of a mystery, although Officer Wilson was eventually cleared of any wrong doing. Nevertheless, the incident resulted in widespread protests, civil unrest, international attention, and a vigorous debate about the relationship between police forces and African-American communities.

We know that Michael Brown was not an innocent man. He had just stolen some cigarillos from a nearby convenience store and shoved the store clerk. A short while later he got into an altercation with Officer Wilson. He then tried to flee with Officer Wilson in pursuit, but at some point he stops and turns to face the officer.

We don’t really know what happened next, whether Brown was coming after Officer Wilson or not, or how aggressively. All we know is that twelve bullets were fired at an unarmed man. The last was probably the fatal shot. Whether Brown was holding up his hands saying, “I surrender,” is also not known.

People may have jumped to conclusions about that particular case, but now, all of a sudden, it seems like there has been an epidemic of police brutality against black citizens: Eric Garner, who died in a police chokehold, 12 year old Tamir Rice, who was killed by police while holding a fake gun, Walter Scott, who was gunned down from behind by a police officer after a minor traffic stop, Freddie Gray, who died from injuries sustained in a police van, and Sandra Bland, who was pulled over for a minor traffic violation, arrested, and died by suicide in her jail cell.

Because of these incidents, and others like it, like the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the incident at a McKinney, Texas pool party, and the mass shooting at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, the “Black Lives Matter” movement has gained a lot of momentum.

No one can blame the African-American community for feeling as if their lives have been devalued. To ignore or downplay these incidents could be construed as racism, pure and simple.

Unfortunately, during the same period of time there have been several incidents of police officers being gunned down in cold blood. Most notably was the killing of Memphis police officer Sean Bolton, who was fatally shot during a routine traffic stop in early August of last year.

Some people used this incident, and others like it, to say “Police Lives Matter” or “All Lives Matter. It is true that all lives matter, and yet we have a hard time staying on that point because we are often pushed to choose sides. We have a tendency to engage in “binary thinking,” which means we see things as either/or rather than both/and. We have a tendency to create false choices, what philosophers call the fallacy of a false dilemma or false dichotomy.

Another false choice has presented itself to us recently with the illegal slaughter of Cecil, the 13-year-old lion who lived in a national park in Zimbabwe. Last week, the image of Cecil and other endangered animals, was projected onto the Empire State Building as a way to bring attention to the issue. I shared the story on my Facebook page and waited for the inevitable response.

It came from a friend of mine who said she loves animals, but she would prefer to see “pictures of people who are dying at the hands of police.” I responded by saying that we don't need to engage in false choices. We can bemoan all cruelty, human and animal alike.

One important caveat needs to be expressed: Not all issues have the same amount of urgency at the same time. If there is a choice to be made in terms of what we need to focus on, it should be a choice based on the severity or urgency of the problem at the time.

In my opinion, the two biggest problems in terms of senseless violence in the United States today is police brutality against African-Americans and the almost weekly incidents of mass shootings that have become the norm since Columbine High School in 1999: Sandy Hook Elementary School, movie theaters in Colorado and Louisiana, shootings at military bases in Texas, Washington D.C., and Tennessee, the Virginia Tech campus, the church in Charleston, South Carolina, just to name a few.

These horrifying incidents may garner the most attention, and for good reasons, but at the end of the day all lives matter. On this, the one year anniversary of Michael Brown’s death, let’s try to wrap our hearts and minds around the value of life in general. There is no need to choose sides if we are all on the same side.

Liturgy of Non-Violence

                                                        Liturgy of Non Violence

Welcome

Quieting/ Centering     Taize Music: Let Nothing Disturb You

Let us begin:  In the name of the God of Peace, the God of Love and the God of Non Violence. Amen

 All: Opening Prayer: Beloved One, who are mother and father to us all, look upon your planet earth divided, help us to know that we are all your children, that all nations belong to one great family, and that all religions lead to you. Multiply our prayers in every land until the whole earth becomes your congregation, united in your love. Sustain our vision of a peaceful future and give us strength to work unceasingly to make that vision real. Amen (Helen Weaver adapted from Earth Prayers)

 Voice One: I hear a voice, the cry of a wounded animal, someone shoots an arrow at the moon, and a small bird has fallen from the nest. People must be awakened; witness must be given, so that life can be guarded. (W. S. Rendra from Earth Prayers)

Voice Two: 'Police have come.'
It was early one Saturday morning when Zhang Kai, a human rights lawyer, sent that text message to his friends. And then he went quiet. He is just one of hundreds of activists and lawyers who have been targeted in an unprecedented nationwide crackdown by Chinese authorities.
Another lawyer, Wang Yu disappeared in the early hours one morning. She sent her friends messages saying that her internet and power had been cut. Then, she said that people were trying to break into her home. She's now in police custody. So far, more than 225 people have been targeted. At least 22 are still missing or detained. (Amnesty International email August 5^th, 2015) 

Voice Three: Guatemala, a country about the size of the state of Virginia, is today in a particularly heightened crisis of corruption, government upheaval, militarization and community resistance. In the 1990s, the government lowered royalties on mineral wealth to 1 percent. Successive governments have granted hundreds of mining licenses as well as rights to flood farmland for hydroelectric power. As community resistance has grown to these and other injustices, the military has turned on its citizens while ignoring or even supporting the drug cartels. (Sisters Global Report) Aug. 5^th, 2015.

Voice Four: The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, by any civilized standards, represented one of the moral low-points in human history. After all, by very conservative estimates, 135,000 people died from the atomic blasts — most of them civilians, the victims of the intentional targeting of cities. Think about that — these weren’t military targets, but cities full of men, women, and children, going about their lives, destroyed in seconds by the most destructive weapons ever invented.

Liturgy of the Word:

 Reader 1    First Reading: 2 Samuel 5-10, 15, 32-33

 Reader2   Second Reading:  Ferguson Prepares for Anniversary of Michael Brown’s Death

Activists are set to mark the one-year anniversary of the high-profile deadly shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white police officer with peaceful protests and vigils this week in Ferguson, Mo. The shooting death of Michael Brown sparked weeks of sometimes-violent protests in the St. Louis suburb, and contributed to a growing national debate over police use-of-force. The anniversary of Brown’s death is Sunday…..The Missouri National Guard referred to protesters in Ferguson last summer as “enemy forces,” according to documents obtained by CNN, bolstering claims the police adopted military tactics to react to protests over the death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown. Let us pause in silence to remember Michael Brown, his family and friends, the city of Ferguson as well as Officer Darren Wilson and his family.( The police officer who killed Michael Brown)

Response to Readings: Litany of Nonviolence (Sisters of Providence, St. Mary of the Woods, In.)

ALL:  Provident God, aware of my own brokenness, I ask the gift of courage to identify how and where I am in need of conversion in order to live in solidarity with all of Earth’s people. Deliver me from the violence of superiority and disdain. Grant me the desire and the humility to listen with special care to those whose experiences are different from my own. Deliver me from the violence of greed and privilege. Grant me the desire to live simply so others may have their share of Earth’s resources. Deliver me from the silence that gives consent to abuse, war and evil. Grant me the desire, and the will, and the courage to risk speaking and acting for the common good. Deliver me from the violence of irreverence, exploitation and control. Grant me the desire and the strength, to act responsibly within the cycle of creation. God of love, mercy and justice, acknowledging my complicity in those attitudes, actions and words that perpetuate violence, I ask for the grace of a non-violent heart. Amen

 Reader 3   Gospel: Matthew 26:51-52

Homily: From Mike to Cecil All Lives Matter (Annie and Jimmy Watson)

Intercessions: Response:  BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM LOVE. AWAKEN! BEFRIEND JUSTICE AND MERCY!

Loving God, our human family is broken, our lives are shattered by violence, our cities are tormented with unrest and warfare, but you are with us as we reach out for solutions! Response

Response:  BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM LOVE. AWAKEN! BEFRIEND JUSTICE AND MERCY!

Merciful one, you know the anguish of hunger, joblessness, discrimination and hopelessness, help us reveal your love and justice to those who suffer! Response

May each one present find ways to confront racism, superiority and entitlement and replace them with love, mercy and justice.

And for what else shall we pray?

Let us pray:

We yearn to live in ways that are in keeping with the teachings of Jesus who taught us to treat others like we want to be treated. We yearn to witness through lives of serving the needs of others; especially those who are despised and rejected by the world. We pray for a fresh anointing because we want to be doers of the Word. We pray that the Spirit of the Living God would fall afresh on us so that we can grow into the church that we are supposed to be. Take our heads, take our hearts, take our minds and our souls and use them in accordance with your will for your world. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. (UCC prayer)

                                    Preparation of the Gifts 

 Voice One:  On the night before he faced his own death and for the sake of living fully, Jesus sat at the Seder supper with his companions and friends.  He reminded them of all that he taught them, and to fix that memory clearly within them, be bent down and washed their feet. When he returned to his place at the table, he lifted the Passover bread, spoke the blessing, broke the bread and offered it to them saying:

Take and eat; this is my very self.

 Voice Two: He then raised high the cup of blessing, spoke the grace, and offered them the wine saying:

Take and drink of the covenant made new again through my life, for you and for everyone, for liberation from every oppression.

Whenever you do this, Re-member me!

Prayer over the Gifts (All, while extending hands)                                                                                          Great Spirit of Creation, source of life and energy, You have blessed us with bread that nourishes, and wine that makes us glad. Sanctify these, our gifts, and all who partake of them. We make this prayer in Christ’s name. Amen.

 Voice Three: Preface:                                                                                               
God of life, you nurture and sustain your people.
You bless us with abundance; you gift us with your graciousness,
you know our every need.
In the birthing forth of creation you call us into being.
You gift us with health and wholeness; you sustain our every endeavor.
You feed your hungering people.
You call us to work for justice, to share our table with all creation,
to feed the needy at our door, to see nobody left in need.
For the blessing of your gifts, and the challenge of your call to us,
we join our voices as we acclaim your liberating love: Holy, Holy, Holy God of wisdom and abundance. Heaven and earth are full of Your love.  Hosanna in the highest. Blessed are all who come in the name of our God.  Hosanna in the highest
 Voice Four: EUCHARISTIC PRAYER:
The table we share is adorned with the gifts of creation,
gifts given for all to share in equality and justice, a table where all are welcome,
and from which nobody is to be excluded.
As a Christian people we celebrate the open table,
proclaimed by Jesus our liberator and our friend,
a table of abundant life, inclusive love, and redemptive liberation.
 Invocation: ALL
In the power of the creative Spirit, Jesus lived life to the full.
We, too, are blessed in the power of that same Spirit,
which we now invoke upon all gathered here,
to celebrate the transformative energy
symbolized in our gifts of bread and wine,
given to nourish and sustain us into the fullness of life.
Voice One: Doxology:
This prayer we make in union with all God’s people, living and dead,
and particularly with those laboring for justice in our world.
May we all know the blessing of our loving God,
Creator, Liberator, and Holy Spirit, in whose power we gather here,
nourished and sustained, now and forever.  Amen.

THE PRAYER OF JESUS:  Our Father and Mother . . .

Voice Two:  Deliver us, God, from every evil and grant us peace in our day.  In your mercy keep us holy in your sight and protect us from all anxiety and fear.  We watch and wait; we search and find all the signs that You are continually with us, calling us to new life. 

ALL:  For the kindom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever.  Amen.

THE SIGN OF PEACE   Jesus, You said to your disciples, “My peace I leave you.  My peace I give you.”  Look on the faith of all and grant us the peace and unity of your kindom where you live forever and ever.  ALL:  Amen.    May the peace of our nonviolent God be always with you.  ALL:  And also with you. Let us offer each other a sign of peace.

LITANY FOR THE BREAKING OF BREAD

ALL:  Fountain of Life, You call us to spirit-filled living; guide us by your Spirit.  Fountain of Life, You call us to spirit-filled service; strengthen us to serve with compassion.  Fountain of Life, You call us to be Your spirit in the world, grant us peace.

 This is Jesus, who liberates, heals and transforms our world.  All are welcome at this banquet of love.   ALL:  We are the Body of Christ. 

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION:

Let us pray: We have been nourished by God’s word, by our prayers, by the presence of Jesus and Sophia. We are people of hope, we are people of action, we are people of promise. We will not be silent, we will find our voice, and we will not be afraid, we will join hands and hearts and stand in solidarity with all those who seek justice and peace.  And with God’s help, we will be the voice of justice in our time.

As we go forth to live the gospel and make a difference, let us say together:

When racism goes unchecked, unacknowledged, unrecognized,

We will be the LIGHT

Until #blacklivesmatter in all our communities, and in every place,

We will not be quiet.

When the Beloved Community is violated by violence and abuse of power,

We will be the Peace.

Until the hope of a new day of freedom is made real in our midst,

We will not give up

If we hear our sisters and brothers, our kindred and communities crying out, “I can’t breathe,”

then we must stay in the struggle; we cannot leave.

Through God’s grace, in God’s love, with God’s help,

we’re not going to stop until all people are free.  

Go into the world to fight for freedom.

Go into our communities to struggle for justice.

Go into the streets to work in solidarity.

Go into the boardrooms and courtrooms, police stations and council meetings,

            to make a way out of no way.

Go into each endeavor to love one another.

We have nothing to lose but our chains. ( UCC prayer)

Go now to be the Light, the Hope and the Peace that our world needs!

Song: We Shall Overcome!

Farewell Tribute and Blessing for Pastor Phil Garrison and Patricia McGee at Farewell Liturgy on Aug. 9, 2015

Bridget Mary Meehan, represented Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community, 

in giving tribute below to Pastor Phil Garrison. See text and blessing below and photos from liturgy 

on Aug. 9th at St. Andrew UCC and MMOJ on Aug. 1, 2015

Pastor Phil co-presided at Liturgy on Aug.1st with MMOJ Community
Pastor Phil and Bridget Mary Meehan

Bridget Mary Meehan: Tribute and Blessing on Behalf of MMOJ Community:

 Pastor Phil, as a representative of our Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive 
Catholic Community, we give thanks to God for your Spirit-filled ministry here at St. Andrew UCC.

When our community outgrew its home church setting,
 I came knocking on St, Andrew’s door.

 After consultation with your beautiful faith-filled community, 
you opened this blessed sanctuary to us.

Walking in the footsteps of Antoinette Brown, 
the first woman to be ordained as a mainstream Protestant minister 
in 1853 in the United States,  
you supported gender equality in spite of the 
Vatican’s and local bishop’s opposition to women priests!

Co Presiders: Kathryn Shea ARCWP , Sally Brochu, ARCWP and Pastor Phil Garrison at MMOJ Liturgy on Aug. 1st.
Farewell to our community 

Thank you Pastor Phil and St. Andrew UCC for your courage.

In the Gospel we read that Jesus prayed that all may be one.

Pastor Phil, you have prayed with us, laughed with us and 
cried with us for the past 7 years. 

You attended many of our liturgies.  I appreciate your warm welcome to the participants at our ordinations and your organizational skills that contributed to the success of our major retreat days with world renown speakers like Matthew Fox.

You invited us to pray with your community here at St. Andrew. 
Our members have shared how much they appreciated 
your contemplative Wed. evening liturgies.  

Thank you for your spiritual depth and leadership.

We have participated in the feast of Maundy Thursday
 where we shared a reenactment of the Last Supper and 
celebrated communion together in groups of 12 around the Table. 
 You even took a risk by allowing a certain woman priest  
to play the role of Jesus at the Last Supper!

Thank you for being a risk taker and a great liturgist.

Pastor Phil, because of your visionary leadership, we can truly say that we are one in the spirit and that united in prayer, love and service.

 Thank you for being you, abounding in kindness and  generous service.  You have touched our souls and we have grown.

As we bid you farewell, we will hold you in our hearts
 forever with deep gratitude for all you have given to us and 
for all that you are, the face of Christ in our world today.

We bless you and Patricia as you walk in faith into a 
new adventure into the unknown trusting that the 
Living God will accompany you every step of the way.

 One day we will meet again.  Namaste!

 Final Blessing at Farewell Liturgy at St. Andrew UCC

May God bless you with a restless discomfort 
about easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships,
 so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.

May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression, and 
exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for justice, 
freedom and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed 
for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, 
or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may reach 
out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe
 that you really can make a difference in this world, 
so that you are able, with God’s grace, 
to do what others claim cannot be done.

Let it be so! Amen!

A Franciscan blessing
Thank you, Pastor Phil and Patricia. We will never forget you.
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, www.arcwp.org,
www. marymotherofjesus.org

Janice Sevre Duszynska ARCWP Witnesses for Justice on Anniversary of Priestly Ordination

Today, I celebrate my seventh anniversary of priesthood, and soon I will call Roy to check on him and to thank him again for his prophetic courage exemplified in so many ways for the people of God, including our Latin American sisters and brothers, women priests,  and the LGBTQ community.

In his homily seven years ago, Roy introduced our Lexington interfaith peace and justice community to Franz Jagerstatter, who chose nonviolence over killing, following Jesus’ example and those of the early Christian community.

“Franz is still a force of controversy throughout Austria, but he is the closest saint in recent centuries to resemble those daring, early Christians. This is exactly what we need: saints who inspire us to follow the nonviolent Jesus, say No to war, resist the culture of war, speak out for peace, work for justice, and combine the full mystical and political dimensions of faith.” (Jesuit John Dear)

http://www.fatherjohndear.org/NCR_Articles/Oct30_2007.htm

Here in Baltimore, we have been commemorating the 70^th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima-Nagasaki. On Thursday we witnessed at Johns Hopkins U. Applied Physics Laboratory that receives $1 billion of taxpayers’ money each year to do military research, including killer drones.

We were joined by two precious Hibakushas: 83-year old Goro Matsuyama was 16 when the first uranium detonation of the 9,700 pound “Little Boy” atomic bomb took place. Retired teacher Takako Cheba, 73, was three. The stories they told of their experiences had each of us in tears as we listened at the Homewood Friends Meeting House.

Goro remembered the “purple flash and an enormously bulging cloud that looked beautiful on a perfectly clear day. But soon the sky blackened and it seemed like the devil was upon us.”

Both Goro and Takako remember the incinerated bodies of the screaming burning-alive Japanese “ghosts” of all ages who ran toward whatever pond or water in sight.

Hibakushas were shunned in Japan because they experienced the atomic blast. Takako thought she would never marry because “I would pass on damaged genes.”

Because of their experiences, Goro and Takako have participated in several Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Reviews in New York City. They learned that they should have also challenged nuclear energy from the beginning, as evidenced by Fukishima.

Takako joined the 14-women of the Heartfull chorus, dressed in colorful and elegant garb, led by their director on the piano. They sang Japanese songs, including “Suki-yaki” that is about keeping hopes alive; it is a protest song in Japan against U.S. occupation. The evening ended with the youngest woman in the choir playing a peace song that she composed and another woman singing “Ave Maria.” We then gathered for dinner and conversation at a nearby Japanese restaurant. As the dinner concluded, one of the singers led us in a rousing rendition of “We Shall Overcome” and we all joined hands in solidarity.

Tonight we will commemorate the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. As part of the commemoration, we’ll start with a potluck dinner followed by discussion and conversation about Baltimore’s problems, especially relating to the mistreatment of African-Americans and the poor. Yesterday afternoon Max and I joined a march with others through poverty-stricken parts of West Baltimore. Today is the one-year anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown by a Ferguson (MO) police officer.

Nominate Your Choice For Courageous Woman Leader: Follow Link Below

http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07ebd6aohcicxaxrjn/start?c=ad699b00-41cc-11e3-9f70-d4ae52754055&ch=af279eb0-41cc-11e3-9f93-d4ae52754055. 

Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community Remembers All Who Have Died in War on Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at Prayer Service for Peace

Manatee River View from Lee Breyer's Home

We lit candles and floated them on leaves in Manatee River
to remember
all who have died in wars
on anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We prayed for victims of all war.
"Never again"

"The Papacy" by John Chuchman, History Most Catholics Don't Know

The Papacy

with its claim that

the Pope is the vicar of Christ

was not original to

the early Jesus movement

that was morphed into church.

The belief that

Peter the Apostle

was the first Pope

is wrong.

The Papacy

took form

in the fifth century

under Leo I,

Bishop of Rome,

trained in Roman Law,

who simply took

the titles and majestic claims

developed by Emperor Augustus

and applied them

to himself in Peter’s name.

Peter had nothing to do with it.

Leo

and others

simply transferred Roman ideas

of imperial power

to the function of Pope.

Popes still claim the title

Supreme Pontiff.

The monarchical papacy

that resulted from the expropriation of

Roman Imperial pomp

is heretical

to the Jesus story.

Evening of Retreat: The Sisters of Belle Cœur: A Medieval Sisterhood for Contemporary Times Presented by Sibyl Dana Reynolds Tuesday, September 22, 2015 7:00-9:00 p.m.

Pendle Hill Retreat Center…Reading Room in the Main House

338 Plush Mill Rd, Wallingford, PA 19086

Many women today express a common desire and mutual longing for spiritual sisterhood, to explore the questions and creative stirrings we carry within our hearts and souls. Join Sibyl Dana Reynolds for a meditative and prayerful evening as she shares the cosmological template for Belle Cœur (Beautiful Heart) Sisterhood. We will explore the way of Belle Cœur’s four pathways including: Spirit, Sacrament, Sisterhood and Service and the four Belle Cœur sacred practices including Devotion, Craft, Study, and Story.

Belle Cœur sisterhood is a Christ-centered, contemplative, monastic community that draws inspiration from Sophia Wisdom, the medieval Beguine movement, and the natural world. The way of Belle Cœur can be a solo experience to deepen one’s spiritual journey. Additionally, this sacred template of formation may be shared collectively ( in sisterhood) by small groups and communities seeking a deeper spiritual and creative connection.

This evening’s presentation will be a prayerful, reflective, shared experience. Please bring your journal. A donation to benefit the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests will be appreciated for this event. Thank you.

Sibyl Dana Reynolds

Sibyl is author of the novel, Ink and Honey, and spiritual guidebook, The Way of Belle Cœur: A Woman’s Vade Mecum (Fall 2015). Sibyl is a spiritual director and retired bishop (RCWP). She is the founder of the contemplative spiritual community,The Sisters of Belle Cœur. 

For thirty years Sibyl has been a facilitator for the feminine spiritual/creative process. She is passionate about the concepts of the sacred imagination and the six senses as conduits to the Divine Presence. She is a mother and grandmother and she lives with her husband in Texas.   SacredLifeArts.com     InkandHoneytheBook.com