INTERFAITH WORSHIP AND COMMUNION AT CASTLE OTTTIS, Lenten Prayer and Communion, Mass at Titisville, Florida, Miriam Picconi ARCWP and Wanda Russell ARCWP

INTERFAITH WORSHIP AND COMMUNION AT CASTLE OTTTIS

This Sunday, FEBRUARY 24 at 10:00 AM there will be an INCLUSIVE Interfaith Worship and Communion Service

at Castle Otttis located at 103 3rd Street, St. Augustine, 32084.  Due to limited parking area, please carpool.

Sorry, there are no handicap facilities.  Please dress according to weather.  No air conditioning or heating.

For additional information call Miriam Picconi, 386-569-7311 or e-mail at miriampicconi@gmail.com.

For information about the castle and directions, go to www.castleotttis.com.  

LENTEN PRAYER AND COMMUNION 

Wednesday evenings, MARCH 6 (ASH WEDNESDAY), 13, 20 AND 27 at 7:15 at 2 Westmill Ln., Palm Coast, FL 32164

MASS AT TITISVILLE 

Saturdays, MARCH 2 & 16 AT 4:00 PM at the Church located at the Great Outdoors RV and Golf Resort.

125 Plantation Dr., Titisville, FL 32780.  All are welcome to the Table!  

If you or someone you know are traveling in the area, join the St. Christopher Community 

for Mass any Saturday.   Just tell the person at the gate that you are going to the church.

MASS 

Saturday, MARCH 9 at 4:00 PM at 2 Westmill Ln., Palm Coast, FL 32164

Hospitality follows.  Bring your favorite appetizer or dessert if you like.

Dear Faith Family,

Lent starts in just two weeks!  We pray you will be able to join us at as many services as you are able.

Preparation for Easter is a wonderful time to enable ourselves to get closer to our God who loves us tremendously.

God created us out of love.  God simply wants to love us and have us return that love. Relationship with God is so easy, 

unless we don't spend time with our God.  Just as our friendships suffer when we don't spend time with our friends, so too does our relationship with God suffer.

So, perhaps our challenge this lent is to decide to spend a bit more time with our God.  We don't even have to speak.  Just decide to spend however many minutes we want to challenge ourselves to spend with God. Let God know that we are coming to spend this time (however many minutes) with God.  God will be so happy and wait for us to come.  God loves us.  We love God.  Just spending time with our loving creator.  It is amazing how special that time becomes.

Please pray for the reduction of pain in my arm and shoulder as I await shoulder replacement surgery which now has been postponed until May 16.  I even cried in my doctor's office because I am in a catch 22 situation.  If I don't take anything for pain I am useless around the house and Miriam has too much slack to pick up in our everyday lives.  If I take pain medication (even just alieve) it can cause bleeding and breathing issues.  I don't like a lot of pain meds but the pain is getting more intolerable.  PLEASE pray.

Know that we pray for you and your family's needs.  We look forward to seeing you soon.

Love and peace,

Wanda

Roman Catholic Women Priests Chart New Path in Response to Sexual Abuse Crisis and Ordination - Press Release in Response to Pope Francis Meeting in Rome, Feb. 21-24, 2019

Roman Catholic Women Priests Chart New Path in Response to Sexual Abuse Crisis and Ordination 

Contacts:

Janice Sevre Duszynska ARCWP

Rhythmsofthedance1@gmail.com

859-684-4247

Martha Sherman RCWP-USA

revmmsherman@gmail.com

 605-421-0820

 

Pope Francis has scheduled a meeting to address the worldwide horrific sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church on Feb. 21-24. (See Link to RCWP/ARCWP Letter to Commission). 

https://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/2019/01/worldwide-roman-catholic-women-priests.html

 

In addition, Pope Francis is considering reinstating women deacons, but not women priests.

While women deacons could be a possible first step to women priests, both are needed in a renewed priestly ministry.  In an open letter published on Feb. 3^rd, nine Prominent German  priests and theologians call for the ordination of women priests

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/open-letter-to-cardinal-marx-urges-changes-to-church-teaching-on-sexual-morality-92352

 History and tradition support women in ordained ministries. Roman Catholic theologians like Dorothy Irvin affirm that women priests and bishops served in the early Church. In 820 A.D., there was a Bishop Theodora whose icon with her title can still be seen in the Church of St. Praxedis in Rome. 

The abuse of minors, nuns, and women and the failure to include women in all the church’s ministries is an example of an abuse of patriarchal power. It is a justice and human rights violation. Let’s be clear, business as usual in covering-up of clerical and sexual abuse by the Roman Catholic clergy will no longer be tolerated by anyone.  

The Church cannot move forward without the leadership of women. Women deacons, priests and bishops are ministering to survivors of clergy abuse now. While the Vatican has yet to open a dialogue with us, justice like a river is flowing in inclusive Catholic communities in 35 states. Since 2002, our international RCWP movement has grown from the Danube 7 to approximately 265.

In summary, women priests in a renewed priestly ministry are a solution in plain sight which many Catholics already support.

Janice Sevre Duszynska ARCWP Witnesses for Justice for Migrants -Indigenous and Non-Violence in front of White House on Feb. 18, 2019

Janice Sevre Duszynsak ARCWP ( second on left) joins Code Pink Women for Peace in Washington DC in witness for justice for migrants- indigenous and non-violence

https://twitter.com/codepink/status/1097588736584429572

"With so much of its leadership compromised, is the Catholic Church irredeemable?" by By Michael Rezendes, The Boston Globe

"IT’S DIFFICULT TO EXAGGERATE the crisis that has engulfed the Catholic Church due to unending revelations about priests who have sexually abused children, young adults — even nuns — and the bishops who have covered up for them.

In the American church, where the crisis is perhaps most acute, the sense of disappointment among Catholics is bordering on outrage. The anger is no longer limited to survivors and their advocates; others have joined them in the years-long effort to urge the Vatican to take decisive action.

Each week, it seems, the scandal detonates yet again with fresh news of priests who have had their way with children, and the bishops who have allowed them to continue working as trusted clergymen. Nearly two decades after the scandal erupted in Boston and began its relentless march around the world, it’s become a crisis without end.

Later this week, in what is merely the latest attempt to arrest the scandal, top bishops from around the world will gather at the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis and assure the Catholic faithful that leaders of the global religion, with an estimated 1.2 billion followers, are finally ready to face the crisis.

"One thing I’ve noticed that’s different from 2002 when the story broke is the people who are most infuriated are the most devout Catholics,” said Philip F. Lawler, editor of Catholic World News, an online publication aimed at conservative Catholics. “In 2002, a lot of my friends who I would see at Mass didn’t want to talk about it. It was hurtful and distasteful. Now, there’s smoke coming out of their ears.”

Given the continuing revelations concerning the very highest church officials, some Catholics are starting to wonder whether significant reforms are even possible. Put another way, if every bishop and cardinal in every corner of the world has either committed abuse or covered it up, how can the church be expected to change?"

https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2019/02/14/with-much-its-leadership-compromised-catholic-church-irredeemable/O5oTVEuu57QUoFe8GGEuHM/story.html

"Real change against abuse starts with church's clergy/lay structure" by Mary E. Hunt

https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/real-change-against-abuse-starts-churchs-clergylay-structure

I agree with Dr. Mary Hunt: "The sacramental theology and ecclesiology necessary to dismantle the hierarchical system and replace it with egalitarian, function-based, globally connected structures that conform to the Gospel is already in the literature." Inclusive Catholic communities initiated by women priests are examples of a new model of inclusivity in communities of equals. Being a pioneer in dismantling the hierarchical system and replacing it with an egalitarian structure  has been one of my deepest joys for the past 13 years! Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP, https://arcwp.org, sofiabmm@aol.com

20180820T1134-19513-CNS-POPE-ANGELUS-EUCHARIST c.jpg

A priest prepares to distribute Communion during Mass in Washington. (CNS/Bob Roller) Theodore McCarrick's alleged flagrant and repeated abuse of power over those in his employ (not forgetting his abuse of a minor, but focusing on the workplace cases for the moment) raises the specter of clericalism and begs change.

Related: Francis says Catholic Church 'abandoned' children, Theologian Fr. Bryan Massingale agrees with Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich that a sense of entitlement prevailing among some ordained men could be conducive of exploitative behavior. Both agree that the issue is not whether the men are gay or straight (or, I would add, something beyond that binary), but that they have, by reason of their clerical status, access to privilege and power within the ecclesial community that can insulate them from accountability.

Massingale and Cupich cite clericalism as the problem. I concur to an extent, but I think the problem is deeper, indeed foundational, rooted in the very bifurcation of clergy and laity that grounds the Roman Catholic institution.

This clergy/lay, top-down structure conditions relationships and functions in the church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says ordination "confers an indelible spiritual character" on a priest that "cannot be "repeated or conferred temporarily" and "mark[s] him permanently" (1583). A priest is seen as ontologically different from a layperson. His place in the hierarchical structure reflects this difference. His roles as a sacramental presider and as a decision-maker are contingent on it.

Moreover, in dioceses and orders, the institution that pays, feeds and eventually buries him is built to maintain its own well-being as well as his; he is expected to exhibit similar loyalty to the institution.

No wonder bishops and superiors have reassigned, covered up and otherwise protected clerical criminals. That is simply how the system works, not some rare, anomalous case as I expect any honest participant would affirm. The Pennsylvania disaster is proof positive. But it can be fixed. Even if all of the U.S. bishops were to resign (be fired from) their posts and be replaced with yet more clerics, I predict that little would improve. The structure, not just individuals who err, is the problem and structures can be changed.

Ordination is the bright red line that divides in this schema. Imagine a pyramid with a line drawn just shy of the top peak. That is where clerics reside in the ecclesial system. Their numbers are well below 1 percent of the billions of Catholics, yet this system ultimately divides the community into vastly unequal strata.

Catholic feminist biblical theologian Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza has usefully called it "kyriarchy" to signal the many forms of "lording it over" that accrue to those with race, gender, class and more, and in this case, clerical privilege. It is the structure and not just the abuse of it, the clerical/lay system, not simply clericalism, that is at issue.

The McCarrick case makes this glaringly obvious. As Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese has noted, "The normal ecclesial punishment for priests who abuse children is expulsion (laicization) from the priesthood."

In other words, the worst that can happen to McCarrick is that he will be laicized, that is, demoted from his clerical perch.

To be clear, for his many and varied alleged transgressions, the worst thing that can happen is that he will become like most of us, expected to live a decent life without clerical status. He will become once again as he was when he was baptized, namely, a layperson.

I daresay there are worse fates, harsher punishments.

Of course for laicized priests there are other consequences, mainly economic and reputational. But they all are rooted in the same structure.

The language used by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is not accidental in spelling out the norms for "reduction [my emphasis] to the lay state with a dispensation from the obligations connected with sacred ordination." The demotion is meant as such. I am sure it would be experienced that way by people like McCarrick, whose decades of unfettered access to children, assumption of personal virtue without evidence, and untold opportunities to engage in religious, political and social discourse condition them to unrealistic senses of themselves.

But when all is said and done, in church circles, priests' most heinous crimes and most egregious breaches of trust consign them to lay status, where the rest of us live our entire lives. Something is radically wrong with this picture.      

It is not my intent to charge and convict Theodore McCarrick (now carefully called "archbishop" instead of "cardinal" by his fellow ecclesiastics, a subtle reminder that he has lost only the one title he gave up, not his clerical privilege, including meal ticket). Rather, I mean to indict the whole ecclesial system that creates the conditions for such inequality. The system is unfair to all, albeit differently depending on one's position, including even McCarrick in his dotage.

The good news is that we do not start at ground zero to construct postmodern Catholicism. Many groups — base and/or intentional Eucharistic communities, women-church groups, Dignity chapters, and others — have been living out per force new ways of being church for decades. The sacramental theology and ecclesiology necessary to dismantle the hierarchical system and replace it with egalitarian, function-based, globally connected structures that conform to the Gospel is already in the literature.

These new models meet the needs of contemporary, and if there are to be any, future Catholics. That would be a legacy worthy of McCarrick's best moments as a human being without erasing his failings as a cleric. Then we can sing "All Are Welcome" and mean it.

[Mary E. Hunt is a feminist theologian who is co-founder and co-director of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual (WATER) in Silver Spring, Maryland.]

"Our History" by John A. Dick : A Contemporary Theologian on History of Catholic Church, on Apostles, Sacraments with Implications on Debate About Women In Ministry and Sexuality

..."Today I offer historical reflections about some key ecclesiastical issues: bishops as successors of the apostles, women in ministry, seven sacraments, the first pope and church structure, and sexuality and sexual abuse. Bishops as successors of the apostles: I remember a friendly chat with an American archbishop. He attended one of my lectures in which I stressed that all who are sent out to proclaim the Gospel are truly successors of the apostles. He reprimanded me (privately) and reminded me that at the Last Supper Jesus went around the group and ordained the apostles as the first bishops. I asked him, with a chuckle, if Jesus also gave each of them a pectoral cross, ornate episcopal ring, and a pointed-hat miter. He was not amused. Early Christian history is quite clear. Jesus did not ordain anyone. There were male and female disciples of Jesus and male and female apostles. An apostle is one sent out to proclaim the Gospel. Women in ministry: Pope Francis, and his papal predecessors John Paul II and Benedict XVI, have been emphatic: "women cannot be ordained as priests." With all due respect, popes too need remedial and ongoing education. History in fact says judgments against women's ordination are wrong and based on a mistaken view of history. In the early church, heads of households presided at Eucharist. We know that women as well were heads of households. We know that several women were key leaders in the early church. Fortunately today we have women historians and women scripture scholars who help us see beyond male prejudices and narrow stereotypes. And, most importantly today we have a growing number of ordained women! To assert today that women cannot be ordained is like standing in a departure hall at O'Hare Airport and saying "women can never fly." I recommend two books about women in ministry:  Crispina and Her Sisters, Women and Authority in early Christianity by Christine Schenk, and The Hidden History of Women's Ordination: Female Clergy in the Medieval West by Gary Macy. Seven sacraments: After the sixteenth century Reformation, the Council of Trent (held between 1545 and 1563) proclaimed that the historical Jesus instituted seven sacraments: baptism, confirmation, eucharist, confession, marriage, holy orders, and extreme unction (anointing of the sick). Historically there is no foundation for this dogmatic assertion. As Joseph Martos points out in his excellent book, Deconstructing Sacramental Theology and Reconstructing Catholic Ritual, the New Testament makes reference to rituals such as baptism, the Lord's supper, and the laying on of hands, but it never calls them sacraments. The scriptures also talk about forgiveness, about healing, and about ministry, but they speak only indirectly about rituals that may have been connected with them. Sacramental rituals were created by the Christian community, not as something one received but rather as ritual moments in the Christian life and ministry. History tells us we can and we should be freely creative in our ritual celebrations of Christ's presence in the community. It also tells Catholics to be a bit more understanding of "Protestant sacraments." The first pope and church structure: I have touched on this in some detail in previous posts. History is quite clear about Peter the Apostle. He was never a bishop of Rome. It is only with a highly symbolic theological imagination that he can be described as "the first pope." Church structure? Imperial Rome has had a great and long-lasting impact on the Roman Catholic Church. One of my friends yells at me (an email yell) that "the church is not a democracy!" when I criticize the power-hungry and self-serving behavior of institutional church leaders. Ok. I agree. Nevertheless, it should not be an imperial and monarchical authoritarian organization either but a fellowship of believers in which compassion, collaboration, and shared decision-making prevail. There are still too many holdovers from ancient Rome in contemporary Catholic structures and behavior. Sexuality and sexual abuse: Here history haunts us. Sexual abuse of children, young people and adult men and women has a long history. Priests and bishops have been perpetrators. Priests and bishops have known this history for a very long time and have closed their eyes, covered their ears, and closed their mouths about it. This history now haunts us and will continue to push people away from the institution. A big part of the Third Millennial Reformation has to be an enhanced understanding of human sexuality and a healthy living-out of human sexuality. There is indeed a problem with mandatory celibacy and a still unhealthy approach to sexuality within the church. Church language and teaching about sexuality has to be examined and changed. Too many innocent people have suffered because of the failure of those in authority to face up to this haunting historical issue. Well my friends this is enough for today. When history says: this is what happened in the past, it also asks the key question: what should be happening today? URL John A. Dick, Ph.D., S.T.D. (ARCC Vice President and Treasurer)  is a historical theologian - Catholic University of Leuven and University of Ghent

Upper Room Inclusive Catholic Community - Sunday Liturgy, February 17, 2019 - Presiders: Kathleen Ryan, ARCWP, and Bernie Kinlan

Kathleen Ryan, ARCWP, and Bernie Kinlan led the Upper Room Community’s Liturgy on Sunday, February 17, 2019. Kathie’s homily starter is below the readings.  

A Reading from Being Peace 

By Thich Nhat Hanh. 

When you look at the night sky, you might see a very beautiful star and smile at it.  But a scientist may tell you that the star is no longer there, that it was extinct ten million years ago. So our perception is not correct.  When we see a very beautiful sunset we are very happy, perceiving that the sun is there with us.  In fact it was already behind the mountain eight minutes ago.  It takes eight minutes for the sunshine to reach our planet.  The hard fact is that we never see the sun in the present, we only see the sun in the past. Suppose while walking at twilight, you see a snake, and you scream, but when you shine your flashlight on it, it turns out to be a rope.  This is an error of perception.  During our daily lives we have many misperceptions. If I don’t understand you, I may be angry at you, all the time.  We are not capable of always understanding each other, and that is the main source of human suffering.

A Reading from the Gospel of Luke

Jesus said to his disciples:
“To you who hear I say,
love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
To the person who strikes you on one cheek,
offer the other one as well,
and from the person who takes your cloak,
let them have your shirt as well.
Give to everyone who asks of you,
and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
For if you love those who love you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners love those who love them.
And if you do good to those who do good to you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners do the same.
If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, 

what credit is that to you?

Even sinners lend to sinners,
and get back the same amount.
But rather, love your enemies and do good to them,
and lend expecting nothing back;
then your reward will be great
You’ll rightly be called children of the Holy One,
since the Holy One is good even to the ungrateful
and the wicked.
Be compassionate as the Holy One is compassionate.
“Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give, and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you.

Kathie’s homily reflection:

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk.  He was a friend to Thomas Merton and Martin Luther King. He worked to end the Viet Nam War. He is a peace activist. He is non-violent and speaks the truth to power.

Last week we had a Thich Nhat Hanh reading which in a nutshell said “when we have understanding we have love.”   Today in the first reading Thich Nhat Hanh talks about misperceptions that create misunderstandings and these misunderstandings often result in anger.

The gospel today starts out with Jesus reminding his listeners and us to love our enemies, do good and bless and pray for those who hate and curse you, and then he uses the famous examples of “if a person strikes you turn the other cheek, and if he asks for your cloak give him your shirt as well.”   Our present day understanding of these examples may be a misperception.

Over the years we have come to understand these examples as ways to react to people who are unkind and bullying. You know don’t fight back instead take a passive stance.  But Jesus was a rebel-non-violent yes, but revolutionary nonetheless. He was always being watched and challenged by the authorities. The higher ups, those in power, civil and religious feared his message.  

Jesus gave these examples to a crowd who interpreted his message differently than you and I.  In the time of Jesus masters could strike their servants at will but the masters had a code of conduct that they followed.  The master used a backhand strike, the use of this type of strike showed who was in charge, it was shaming, a put down, it was a reminder “I am master you are servant” If the master used a closed fist to strike his servant this indicated an equality between the two. Men who were equals fought with closed fists they did not back hand one other. When Jesus says turn the other cheek he is in effect declaring an equality between master and servant.   If you are backhanded-and turn your cheek, it is impossible to be backhanded again. By turning the other cheek you are taking some of your power back and declaring equality.

 In a similar way if the master took your cloak and you offered your shirt as well, you would be left naked and the master again is caught breaking a code of conduct. 

Jesus always challenged the norms of the day…turn the other cheek, give them your shirt as well, were huge challenges to the status quo…they were not passive suggestions.  It was a non-violent way to remind others that we are all equal and beloved children of the Holy One.

I love studying these stories of Jesus getting the one up on the authorities. They make me feel good.  But then we move on to the last part of this gospel. Jesus says stop judging and condemning, forgive, and give.  Be compassionate as the Holy One is compassionate.  Jesus just got the one up on me.  Jesus always gets the one up on us.

Going back to the first reading Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us to watch our misperceptions, work on understanding, and love will come. And Jesus reminds us that the love the Holy One offers is a Love that is a full measure and is overflowing.

What did you hear? What will you do? What will it cost you?