Portrait Photo of Bridget Mary Meehan by Laurel Burns - Albany, NY

Photo of Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP,  taken by Laurel Burns
at Kim Panaro's and Jim Marsh's ordination - 04-16-16 Albany NY

Earth Day - Canticle of Creation by Edward Hays

CANTICLE OF CREATION 

In the beginning, O Holy One, You alone existed: eternally one yet pregnant in the fullness of unity. Full to overflowing, You, Mother of All Life, exploded outward in a billion bits and pieces. 

Your Words became flesh, whirling in shining stars, shimmering suns and in genesis glimmering galaxies. You, O Holy One, spoke, and Your Words became flesh: in sun and moon, earth and seas, mountains and gentle hills, rolling rivers and silent streams. 

You, O Holy One, spoke, and Your Words became flesh: in winged bird, in deer and elephant, in grazing cow, racing horse and fish of the deep. Your Words, so unique and so varied, filled the earth also with rabbit, squirrel and ant. 

And all Your Words were beautiful, and all were good. From each of these holy Words arose a prayer of praise and adoration to You, their creator and wondrous womb. 

"Praise You," rang out the redwood, "Blessed he You," chimed in the cedar, "Holy are You," prayed the prairie grasses. From all four corners of this earth, rose up a chorus of perpetual adoration. 

O Sacred Spirit, 0 Divine Breath of Life, unseal my ears that they may ever listen to Your continuous canticle of creation; open my heart and my whole self, to sing in harmony with all its many voices. 

Teach me to commune with Your first Word made flesh, Your Creation, that I may he able to unravel the wondrous words of Your second Word made flesh, Jesus, through whom, with whom and in whom, I may see myself as another Word of Yours made flesh, to Your glory and honor. Amen

These are the inspired words of Edward Hays - Prayers for the Domestic Church

Appeal to Pope Francis to Reform Congregation for the Doctrine Medieval Practices of Secretive Investigations/Fr. Roy Bourgeois/Women Priests

An international group of bishops, nuns, priests and lay people, who have all been investigated by Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, have written to Pope Francis calling for a reform of the investigation process and specifically an end to anonymous denunciations.

The 15 who signed the letter include Bishops Patrick Power and William Morris of Australia, the well-known American moral theologian, Fr Charles Curran, BBC radio presenter, Fr Brian Darcy as well as Fr Roy Bourgeois, the Maryknoll priest excommunicated for his involvement in the ordination of a woman in 2008. 

In their letter to the Pope, which was also sent to the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the group warn that as the CDF acts as "investigator, accuser, judge and jury" the process cannot offer justice. The process is outdated and follows the "absolutism of sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe" as a model, the signatories said. 

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/5448/0/congregation-for-the-doctrine-of-faith-must-end-medieval-practices-pope-urged-by-accused-

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/popes-doctrine-chief-germanys-bishops-are-leading-the-church-into-schism

Be Happy, Live Compassion, Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP

 O Great Love of the Cosmos,
in the gift that each of us is
Your Spirit loves through us.
In the heart of compassion,
Your Spirit heals through us.
 In loving solidarity,
we are the face of God in our world each day!

The Dalai Lama writes, "If you want to be happy, practice compassion. If you want others to be happy, practice compassion."

Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, www.arcwp.org

Community as Alternative Consciousness Tuesday, April 19, 2016 by Richard Rohr

Community

If the Trinity reveals that God is relationship itself, then the goal of the spiritual journey is to discover and move toward connectedness on ever new levels. The contemplative mind enjoys union on all levels. We may begin by making little connections with other people and with nature and animals, then grow into deeper connectedness with people. Finally we can experience full connectedness as union with God. Remember, how you do anything is how you do everything. Without connectedness and communion, we don't exist fully as our truest selves. Becoming who we really are is a matter of learning how to become more and more deeply connected. No one can possibly go to heaven alone--or it would not be heaven.   Of course, we won't become vulnerable enough to connect unless we learn to trust over and over again. Einstein is said to have claimed this to be the most important question: "Is the universe a friendly place or not?" The spiritual experience is about trusting that when you stop holding yourself, Inherent Goodness will still uphold you. Many of us call that God, but you don't have to. It is the trusting that is important. When you fall into such Primal Love, you realize that everything is foundationally okay. Unfortunately, this is often absent in our secular world today.   Foundational love gives us hope and allows us to trust "what is" as the jumping-off point toward working together for "what can be." The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus shows us what's fully possible. God will always bring yet more life and wholeness out of seeming chaos and death. In the words of Timothy Gorringe and Rosie Beckham, "Faith in the resurrection is the ground on which Christians hope for adifferent future, a transition to a society less destructive, more peaceful and more whole. Living in this hope grounds the Christian ethic of resistance and calls ekklesia to live as a 'contrast community' to society." [1]   Building such communities in contrast to the surrounding society of emperor-worship was precisely Paul's missionary strategy. Small communities of Jesus' followers would make the message believable: Jesus is Lord (rather than Caesar is Lord); sharing abundance and living in simplicity (rather than hoarding wealth); nonviolence and suffering (rather than aligning with power). Paul was very practical. He taught that our faith must take form in a living, loving group of people. Community was everything for him.   Paul seems to think, and I agree with him, that corporate evil can only be confronted or overcome with corporate good. He knows that the love-transformed individual can do little against what he calls "the powers and the principalities." Today we might call powers and principalities our collective cultural moods or mass consciousness or institutions considered "too big to fail." We are mostly oblivious to this because we take all these things as normative and absolutely needed. It is the "absolutely" that gets us into our blindness and idolatry. Because we share in this collective evil, it doesn't look like evil. For instance, I've never once heard a sermon about the tenth commandment, "You shall not covet your neighbor's goods," because in our culture that's the only game in town. It is called capitalism. The individual is largely helpless and harmless standing against the system. Paul believes cultural blind spots can only be overcome by a group of people affirming and supporting one another in an alternative consciousness. Thankfully, we're seeing many people, religious and secular, from all around the world, coming together to form alternative systems for sharing resources, living simply, and imagining a sustainable future. The "Transition" initiative is one contemporary example of this. As Todd Wynward, a former intern at the CAC, writes, "A Christian discipleship community aligned with the Transition movement and following the Way of Jesus could become a beacon of resilience, spreading good news and [much needed] social and environmental justice in its community." [2]

Gateway to Silence We are one in the Spirit.

References: [1] Timothy Gorringe and Rose Beckham, Transition Movement for Churches (Canterbury Press: 2013), 79.

"One God "by Jann Phillips

Homily for Holy Spirit Catholic Community, Easter 5 C, April 24, 2016 by Beverly Bingle RCWP

Today's gospel passage from John

is the beginning of what scholars call
Jesus' “farewell discourses,”
created to reflect the point of view
of the Johannine community.
They follow a first century pattern of a last will and testament
where a dying patriarch or religious leader
gave deathbed instructions to his heirs.
Assembled over a period of time,
these Johannine discourses
bear only a marginal likeness to Jesus' message.
But they do contain some remains of his intent.
_____________________________________
After I read that “glorify” part at the beginning of this passage
at least a dozen times without making much sense of it,
I had to look it up.
I found that John uses the word “glory”
to refer to power or splendor,
which didn't help a whole lot.
It did help when I found that the word “glory”
was used to mean the manifestation of God's presence.
Then I could see it as a post-resurrection affirmation
that God's presence had been
and continued to be
manifested in Jesus.
_____________________________________
Today's passage ends
with what is most assuredly the bedrock of Jesus' message.
It's love, the heart and soul of his teaching.
As a Jew faithful to the spirit of his tradition,
Jesus preached the great commandment,
the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:
God is one,
and you shall love God with all your being.
And he preached the commandment that he said is like it,
from Leviticus 19:
Love your neighbor as yourself.
_____________________________________
We know from the earliest writings in our Jewish tradition—
from the Torah—
and from earlier writings in our Christian tradition—
the synoptic gospels—
that Jesus called for a radical following of God's call to love.
_____________________________________
And that leads me to a serious examination of my own conscience:
Do I love like that?
Do I love God with my whole heart, with all my being?
Do I love my neighbor as myself?
Well, no.
Sometimes I manage it, but not always, not consistently.
I have a temper.
And it's not that I erupt in righteous anger at injustice.
That would be good.
No, it's that I fume
because I want something to be other than what is.
I'm mad because it's not my way.
And, as you probably have noticed,
I have a few opinions,
and sometimes I express them
without listening to what anyone else is saying.
I make judgments, too,
judgments about who I will give to and who I won't,
and it's not always love or mercy or wisdom that motivates me.
In short, I'm not really pouring myself out for others.
I'm not perfect, and I need to work at it.
_____________________________________
Apart from my own failures at loving God and neighbor,
I don't have to look far
for other negative examples to learn from.
I grew up hearing the story of my grandmother and her three sisters
who didn't talk with each other for 58 years
because they argued over
who got the bushel basket full of canned fruit—
spoiled fruit, no less—
from their mother's pantry when she died.
_____________________________________
On the brighter side, positive examples are all over the place.
Look at married couples
and the love it takes
to commit oneself permanently and intimately
to another person.
Look at Suzy, down with a flu-like cold last week,
phoning every tree nursery within a hundred miles
to find a semi-dwarf sweet cherry
for Tree Toledo's Earth Day planting at the Zepf Center.
Look at Mary Jo—she'll be 90 this summer,
and a liberal progressive feminist if there ever was one—
going to last Sunday's MultiFaith banquet
and covering her head with a scarf
because the event was at the mosque
and she wanted to show respect for their traditions.
Look at Liz, a TPS special-ed teacher
who keeps at it until the student blooms.
Look at Pope Francis
opening the Vatican to twelve Muslim refugees
and arranging to take care of them as they re-settle.
_____________________________________
Down at Claver House last Monday
one of the guests, a homeless addict,
was acting really funny.
A few of the folks ignored him.
Some of them yelled at him and called him names.
But Tom noticed it
and responded with compassion and wisdom and care,
tending him until the rescue squad arrived
and got him to the hospital in time.
_____________________________________
Sometimes it's easier to love a puppy—or even a chicken—
than a human being,
especially some of our relatives,
or the people we don't like,
the people we disagree with,
the people who do us wrong.
We aren't perfect, but we have to aim for it—
aim for that perfect love for all creation.
And that's when we pass the test—
that's when they know we are Christians
by our love.

--
Holy Spirit Catholic Community
Saturdays at 4:30 p.m./Sundays at 5:30 p.m.
at 3925 West Central Avenue (Washington Church)

www.holyspirittoledo.org

Rev. Dr. Bev Bingle, Pastor
Mailing address: 3156 Doyle Street, Toledo, OH 43608-2006

Witness for Justice in Honduras: End the U.S. Drug War by Janice Sevre Duszynska ARCWP

Berta Caceres, co- founder of the Civic Council of Indigenous and Popular Organization if Honduras ; COPINH) and recipient of the 2015 Goldman EnvironmentAl Prize, was assassinated in her home on March 3rd. We gather today in solidarity with CIPINH members being criminalizes for defending their lands in the face of illegal land grabs by mining companies and hydroelectric dams.
In Berta's words: "We must undertake the struggle in all parts of the world, wherever we may be, because we have no other spare or replacement planet. We have only this one, and we have to take action."
Demands of COPINH and the family: 
1- An independent investigation of the murder of Berta Caceres by the Inter- American Commission on Human Rights.
2. Immediately suspend all US security aid to Honduras and review all US aid to Honduras.
3. respect ILO 169 and end invasion of indigenous lands by the World Bank and multilateral financial institutions in Honduras . 
4.- Terminate the Agua Zarca dam project that is displacing the Lenca people.

  1 Attached Images

"Questions from a Ewe", Enjoy!

"Do you have eyes and not see?" (Mark 8:18)

I recently finished a three month Peace Corps Response assignment in Ghana.  Being in Peace Corps required refraining from political commentary and this blog danced along a line regarding that stipulation so I suspended writing during my assignment.  However, I’m back. 

I actually began writing this article on the plane flying home, having just watched the movie “Spotlight” again.  This is the movie about the Boston Globe’s investigative journalism that blew the lid off the systemic nature of the church’s sex abuse scandal. 

After spending three months in a culture that has extensive unreported sexual exploitation issues largely facilitated by cultural taboos against pursuing legal action…much like those the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team exposed in the Archdiocese of Boston…I find myself even sadder for the Church than the first time I watched the movie.

The movie ends by listing 203 dioceses around the world that have had major sex abuse scandals exposed.  A few more have been exposed since the film’s September, 2015 release.  I believe there are probably many, many, many more dioceses that continue enabling abusive priests, especially those in regions with cultural taboos acting as accomplices like in Africa. 

Spotlight portrayed the privileged status Boston’s Catholic hierarchy enjoyed which permitted priests to abuse and bishops to cover it up.  Beyond even Boston priests’ privilege, many African priests enjoy outright demagogue status.  They are untouchable. They are not to be questioned.  They are in prime positions to abuse without accountability.  I pray that somehow the lid gets blown off of any sex abuses occurring in African Catholic Churches. 

Before I re-watched that movie, I intended to write about attending Mass at the Papal Nuncio’s residence.  He opens his residence every Sunday to anyone who wants to attend Mass – a nice diplomatic touch.  The Mass was lovely, the people were friendly, and I was even asked to join the choir.  The Papal Nuncio is a Francis appointee and works the crowd greeting people and he even engaged in a meaningful discussion with me…more on that in a bit. 

However, he celebrates Mass on his outdoor patio and Mass goers sit staring at the glass patio doors of his residence, the Vatican Embassy.  Clergy abuse issues in every country filter through the Papal Nuncio’s office.  So, although friendliness floated in the air, I kept getting a sick feeling in my stomach wondering how many sexually abusive priests this man knowingly leaves in service in Ghana. I would hope that number is zero but I am skeptical.

Re-watching Spotlight, I was sad for my church that chooses to not see what it does not want to see.  It prevents us as individuals and an organization from achieving our full potential.

By the way, my discussion with the Papal Nuncio was about three points associated with the “Doubting Thomas” gospel reading. 

1.        I am very tired of people preaching about Thomas’ character flaws.  He was the only one not in the locked room paralyzed in fear.  He was brave enough to be out and about. 

2.       People say Thomas doubted because he did not see.  And yet, the reason those in the room believed was because they saw. They saw and believed; Thomas saw and believed – but - most homilies portray Thomas as the only one who had to see to believe.  Whom Thomas doubted was his fellow humans, not God.

I mentioned these two concepts to the Papal Nuncio and he initially said, “Yes, yes…of course” in a dismissive way that feigned interest. 

That was not the case when I mentioned point 3.

3.       In his homily he repeatedly referred to “the apostles” and “the guys.”  I held the gospel reading in front of him and pointed to it saying, “It actually says disciples not apostles; there were women there too.” 

I wish I had a camera for the stunned look on his face.  He laughed and said, “OH MY GOD!  I NEVER SAW THAT BEFORE! THAT IS FANTASTIC!”

His reaction pretty well sums up some issues in the church.  A passage that is used to justify marginalizing women from ordination clearly says disciples not apostles, but he did not read what it actually said.  He read what he wanted it to say.  Things that clearly exist in front of people are not seen because they do not want to see it – whether it is sexual abuse of children, reprehensible reshuffling of abusive clergy by bishops so they can abuse other children or unjust marginalization of women based on not seeing what is clearly written in scripture.  How do we fix willful blindness?

Side note: There were many women disciples.  Jesus breathed on the disciples present, told them to receive the Holy Spirit and if they loosed or held sins, they would be so loosed or held in heaven.  This is a pivotal scripture passage used to withhold ordination from women because hierarchy leaders read “apostle” of which they believe there were only 12 male ones.  This passage is considered instituting the sacrament of reconciliation, granting powers to absolve sins only to male apostles. 

Side note 2: Thomas, an apostle who was not present, did not get hit by this holy hot air yet is considered a full apostle and predecessor to priests and bishops.  However, the women disciples who were present?  The hierarchy evidently believes they had their Star Trek matter/anti-matter shields fully operational and deflected any such holy hot air from touching them. 

I was in Ghana working on girls’ education and empowerment.  As part of that I taught a session on “Finding Your Voice.”  It is a mini workshop I conduct to help people realize their ideas and opinions matter, and to help them cultivate their critical thinking and expression skills.  The Boston church found its voice.  I found my voice. How can we help others find their voices on children’s and women’s rights, especially in the church?

Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests: Homily at Ordination of Jim Marsh and Kim Panaro on April 16th Ordination in Albany, NY

Introduction: Bridget Mary

We rejoice today as we ordain Kim Panaro and Jim Marsh priests with the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests.

In the Gospel today, the Risen Christ asked Peter 3 times “do you love me, followed by “feed my sheep”?

In this tender encounter, the Risen Christ offers a vulnerable Peter, who had denied him 3 times, forgiveness. The invitation to “feed my sheep” reflects Christ’s compassion and confidence in a humbled Peter to serve God’s people. Thus, Peter’s apostolic authority is a call to faithful service and  not to any form of domination or power over others. ( James Carroll, Christ Actually, p. 243.)

The lake in Galilee provides an intimate setting for this Eucharistic meal. Peter is portrayed, by the author of the Gospel of John, as the one who truly understands the resurrection and the meaning of Jesus as one who dwelled in a mystical oneness with God. (John Shelby Spong, The Fourth Gospel: Tales of a Jewish Mystic, p. 316)

In John’s Gospel, Mary of Magdala is portrayed as the first witness of the resurrection. Unlike Peter and the other men, except for the beloved disciple, Mary of Magdala and the other women did not abandon Jesus at Calvary. First at the tomb and first witness to encounter the Risen Christ, Mary becomes the apostle to the apostles and the model of courage and faithful love for all generations.

The Gospel of Mary, a second century text, portrays the tension between Peter and Mary of Magdala. In this Gospel, Mary is portrayed as the first apostle whose authority is rooted in deep intimacy with Jesus. In this Gospel we meet a mystical Risen Christ, who cautions the disciples about following rules or leaders and who advises them to seek the indwelling presence of divinity within themselves and to live in inner peace.  

In one encounter, Peter said to Mary: “Sister, we know that the Savior loved you more than all other women. Tell us the words of the sacred that you remember, the things which you know that we don’t because we haven’t heard them.  Mary responded “I will teach you about what is hidden from you.  And she began to speak these words to them.“

“But Peter expresses anger toward Mary’s knowledge and understanding of the “hidden” meaning of Jesus, and he complains to his brothers: ““Did Jesus choose her over us?

“But one of the other apostles challenges Peter saying, “If the Savior considered her to be worthy, who are you to disregard her?”

Scholars conclude that this passage confirms the fierce debate in the second century over women’s apostolic authority and ministerial roles that continues in our times!

Seems like we have come full circle!

Like Peter and Mary Magdala, we are called to mystical oneness with the Holy One and to overflowing love and compassion  in our world.

The international Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement is a holy shakeup!  There is room at the table for everyone as we live Jesus example of Gospel equality and reclaim the church’s early tradition of women in ordained ministry.  

Despite the hierarchy’s efforts to stop our movement, we have grown from 7 brave women ordained on the Danube in 2002 to a total of 222 in 2016 in 13 countries and 31 states serving 81 communities.

 In openness to the Spirit, we call on Pope Francis in this Holy Year to open the door to justice and change the tone of the Vatican toward our movement- from condemnation to conversation !

As a first step toward beginning a healing process of a centuries old misogyny we call our beloved Francis to lift excommunication and all ecclesiastical penalties  against us , our supporters and all Catholics who follow their consciences.

We rejoice now as we hear a reflection by Jim and Kim about God's call to priestly ministry in a renewed church. 

JTM’s Musings for Ordination Homily

My friends, we have gathered to share Word and Eucharist—to celebrate the Holy within and among us in the “story” of our lives as people of faith.

As we heard in that first reading, “We try to hang on to the teachings and ‘get it,’ but come to a realization that we must really let go in order to find our own way.”  The second reading from the contemporary mystic, Thomas Merton, reminds us that we find the way by “listening to the Holy One, who has no voice, speaking in the depths of our being, for we ourselves are the words.”  Each of us is a unique expression of the Divine—truly, you and I are the face of God!

This certainly captures much of my journey to this moment today.  My dreams and aspirations as a young man did not happen as I imagined.  Nevertheless, the journey has been extraordinary!  My experience as a “person on the margins” according to church and society, as well as my subsequent ministry to those affected by HIV and AIDS has profoundly influenced and re-shaped my life—my story.

 

In spite of being labeled “intrinsically disordered” by church authorities, perhaps, I too heard  “Feed my sheep” and responded with others to establish a ministry to gays and lesbians (known as DIGNITY Capital District), where all were welcome at the table.  Certainly, my ministry with and to persons with AIDS revealed another face of God—often a feminine face.  It was the faces of mothers who so tenderly cared for sons returning home to die.  The metaphor of “Holy Mother Church” became enmeshed with these images and once again I heard the voice “Feed my sheep.”

The Gospel we have just heard (chosen by Kim and me) is another marvelous story.  Though it states this is Jesus’ third appearance after the resurrection, we know it is really the fourth; someone didn’t count that first important appearance to Mary of Magdala, the “Apostle to the Apostles.”  Remember, too, that this Gospel by John, the Jewish mystic, was written after those Jews who followed Jesus were expelled from the Temple, and even after the Temple itself was destroyed by Roman authorities. 

What were these followers to do?  They were ready to give up until they heard the voice of the Teacher say “Cast your nets off the starboard side”—in other words, cast in a new direction and “you’ll find something.”

My friends, I believe this speaks of our ARCWP movement today.  In the words of Bridget Mary Meehan, our beloved bishop, we are not leaving the Church, but leading the church in a new direction by our new model of a non-hierarchical priesthood in egalitarian, inclusive communities where all are welcome and all celebrate sacraments together as the priestly people we are.

Let us continue together in the spirit of Vatican II “to read the signs of our times, and open the windows,” as well as listen to Spirit Sophia who echoes deep within our being, to follow our consciences and be prophetic voices within our church and world as we seek peace and “justice, love tenderly, and walk humbly” as Jesus taught.

Kim Panaro

Ordination Homily 2016

In it’s most simple sense, ordination is a response to a call. It is a  journey that is one of personal evolution  offered for the good of the community. But what is “a call” and who get’s one?  I believe the answer is that  everyone is called because a call is simply our invitation to live a life of being awake, alert, attentive and responsive to the many needs we encounter daily.  Ordination is not a call to preach a religion about Jesus. It is a call to live the faith and lifestyle that Jesus himself  lived. If we are to create the kind of church community and world that Bishop Bridget Mary just described, it must start with a personal experience of the Risen One.   It is clear that the Christ of Faith touched women and men 2000 years ago and that same Spirit moves us today.

As  Bishop John Shelby Spong describes it, Jesus’ message is  “that we reflect God when we love others more than we love our own biologic drive to survive”. Scripture portrays Jesus as one who spends time in solitude and prayer and then returns to the community with an ability to love extravagantly beyond all reason. In our gospel today, Jesus calls Peter and the other disciples.  It would be understandable if Jesus had moved on to someone more reliable than Peter, who denied knowing him, not once but three times.  

But here is the simple beauty of the gospel. Jesus knows that everyone is a work in progress. As Spong puts it “nothing about us is fallen, everything about us is emerging”.  In a world where religion and society are obsessed with guilt, rule's, crime and punishment, individual success and gain, Jesus turns the prevailing culture upside down.  He always chooses love, reconciliation, forgiveness, “do overs” and total belief in people’s potential to grow. He constantly refuses to condemn but also calls people to evolve and do better. In this light, it makes sense to me that he chose Peter and the others who had run away. I think the message is that he trusted them to have been transformed by experience. It is in this spirit that I trust our call today.

Karl Rahner says that today’s Christian will be a mystic, or not at all. Mysticism invites us to prayer, meditation and contemplation. As Buddhist monk Pema Chodron states in our first reading “the truth sinks in like rain into very hard earth. The rain is very gentle and we soften up slowly at our own speed”. 

Ordination is not a call to a new job. It is a commitment to letting the rain of God’s grace soften the very hard earth of one’s heart. We contemplate, we mediate, we respond to Spirit’s call to action.  Just like Jesus called the apostles in today’s story, we are ALL called to live in this world in a radically different way. I believe this radical way is to live with our heads held high as sons and daughters of God, co-creating a world that is the kin-dom of God.

 I am here, as is Jim, as one who is cooperating with grace to evolve into the person that God intends. I am so thankful that we are all here together today as companions on this journey. I know that we will be praying for you and I thank you for praying for us.  As we embrace this non-clerical priesthood I pray that our lives can be a testament to the infinite love of God and the power of that love to heal ourselves, our communities and our planet.  

Photos by Helen Blanchette 

Troy, NY