Living Gospel Inclusivity and Empowerment Now
Friday, August 7, 2015
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" |
Thursday, August 6, 2015
"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
Wednesday, August 5, 2015
Inclusive Liturgy for Anointing of the Sick Donnieau Snyder TH565 Feminist Sacramental Theology and Inclusive Liturgies Bridget Mary Meehan, D. Min
Inclusive
Liturgy for Anointing of the Sick
New
Spirit Rising, a small inclusive Catholic faith community located in Fresno,
California is the faith community where I serve as a Roman Catholic woman
deacon. The community has evolved over the course of several years. The
community is an active community with a mission for outreach to those infirmed.
New Spirit Rising recently requested to celebrate the sacrament of the
anointing of the sick as an entire community. As part of an inclusive Catholic
faith community, I shared in the planning stages of the liturgy. Some of the community
members forwarded some scriptural readings and the leadership group prayed over
the readings and selected in unison the readings that were to be used in what
was now labeled a healing service. The prayers, blessings, responsorial and
ritual were developed once I was able to meet with the community on several
occasions to ensure the liturgy is inclusive, provides active participation
from all those who wished to participate in the various elements of the liturgy
but most of all met the needs of the community. For the ritual, the leadership
group impressed upon me that it was very important for the community to feel of
sense of connectedness to each other during the ritual to instill a sense of
connection and the power love can bring forth when healing wounded hearts,
minds and spirits. I listened very carefully to the needs of the community,
developed the ritual, and asked for continual feedback until the leadership
group to ensure this was an inclusive process. The language used was inclusive
to ensure an inclusive nature resounded throughout the liturgy. It is important
for the needs of the community that a liturgy and any celebrated sacraments use
inclusive language. The community is a very thoughtful and determined group
that wishes to define their needs and how the sacraments can be celebrated to
meet the needs of the community and all those wishing to partake in sacramental
celebration. The healing service was active and inclusive with a great deal of
participation from all those in attendance. As noted by Susan Ross (1998),
“Since the church’s official liturgical celebrations have been so exclusive of
women, women have turned to ‘unofficial’ religious practices, to ways of
celebrating, mourning, and remembering significant events in their lives that are
on no liturgical calendar” (p. 27). The
following pages provide the liturgy, presider’s reflection and ritual that were
developed to meet the sacramental need for the anointing of the sick for New
Spirit Rising.
New Spirit Rising Welcomes
You!
Healing Service
Fresno, California
Opening Prayer
Presider:
Beloved
Holy One, along this journey of healing may your loving compassion break
through the darkness and shine through onto the road that lies ahead. Thank you
for the gift of sight planted deep within our hearts so that we may see in
others the comfort you send each of us along our journeys of healing. Thank you
for protecting each of us from the destruction of our brokenness. Through your
grace and mercy, grant us wisdom to persevere.
Opening Responses:
PRESIDER: We gather together embracing the healing
presence of God.
ALL: In our
need, and bringing with us the needs of the world.
PRESIDER: We gather together in service to one another
as Jesus serves.
ALL: And who
walks with us the road of the world’s suffering.
PRESIDER: We come with our faith and with our doubts.
ALL: We come
with our hopes and with our fears.
PRESIDER: We come as we are because it is God inviting
us to come.
ALL: And God
has promised never to turn us away.
Gospel Reading: Matthew 26:6-13
Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the
leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive ointment,
and she poured it on his head, as he sat at table. But when the disciples saw
it, they were indignant, saying, “Why this waste? For this ointment might have
been sold for a large sum, and given to the poor.” But when Jesus, aware of
this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful
thing for me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always
have me. In pouring this ointment on my body she has done it to prepare me for
burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole
world, what she has done will be told in memory of her.”
Presider’s Reflection
is shared at this time
Reflection of Matthew 26:6-12
In the Gospel of Matthew this passage of the woman anointing
Jesus is a short passage and even though this is a short passage; in these few
sentences; what had happened; what was created was such a profound experience.
There are several things unfolding in this moment of anointing. Even though the
apostles were present they couldn’t truly see what was actually taking place.
What the apostles had seen was only through their eyes. They saw the woman pour
a jar of expensive oil over the head of Jesus. The saw the superficial; they
saw the materialistic nature of the act and complained about the use of the oil
as a waste of money. The profound experience between Jesus and the woman with
the alabaster jar was beyond what the apostles could see.
As this woman anoints Jesus, she is ministering to him in a
way that extends far beyond what only the eyes could see. Jesus recognizing
what the woman had done says, “she has done a beautiful thing for me.”
In this profound moment compassion, love, and comfort pours
out from this woman to Jesus. This powerful extension of compassion, love, and
comfort was such a profound moment Jesus said, “what she has done will be told
in memory of her.” Jesus and the woman with the alabaster jar share a moment of
comfort, a moment away from any fears for what might happen to Jesus. The woman
did not know what was to come but she offered healing comfort to Jesus through
her loving and compassionate act.
There is such power in compassion, love, and comfort which
can be healing.
Much like the woman with the alabaster jar she was not truly
aware of what was going to happen to Jesus we too cannot predict the future. In
our daily lives we prepare for the worst and hope and pray for the best. We are
truly not able to ever fully prepare for any type of brokenness that comes into
our lives. The brokenness that enters into our lives can and does take many
forms whether it is physical, emotional, or spiritual the depth of the
experience can leave us with wounds deeper than what the physical world can
see, sometimes deeper than what our own loved ones can see. It is in our
brokenness that we seek healing, we seek to become whole once again.
The word healing in its most basic definition means to
restore, to repair, to set right. Though we don’t have the opportunities to
foresee the brokenness of what is yet to come in life we do possess the same
gifts the woman with the alabaster jar possessed which can be extended and shared
with others. We too carry in us the gifts of compassion, love, and comfort.
We often look at the fact finding evidence of healing and
have at times discarded our own gifts of healing comfort. For those that have
ever cared for a child and that child hurts for example got scraped up and is
truly feeling the physical pain of those injuries it is amazing what your hug
and kiss gave to that child in the moment of love, compassion, and comfort. For
those us that have ever hugged to ease another’s suffering how amazing was that
gift in that moment? Our gifts of healing are not just relegated to hugs and
kisses as we have seen throughout history we have been witness to the healing
of nations. We have witnessed the death of injustice and the birth of human
rights for so many people throughout the world. The gifts we have been endowed
with can have the strength to heal nations yet gentle enough to comfort the
most fragile of moments of personal one to one interactions. In our own healing
whether it is from the visible or invisible brokenness it can at first have an
ugly appearance; much like a scab on a wound. Some of us may show anger, some
despair, fear, some hopelessness yet when we go beyond looking at the
superficial level of one’s pain we can anoint the brokenness of that other
person with compassion, love, mercy, truth, and justice what begins to happen
is the healing the restoration, the repair, the setting right, the movement
from brokenness to wholeness.
When we stand up for what is right we anoint with the
healing gifts of truth and justice
When we unconditionally care for those not able to care for
themselves we anoint with the healing gift of love
When we show kindness to the stranger and to our enemy we
anoint with the healing gift of mercy and when we use the gifts of God’s love
as modeled through the woman with the alabaster jar Jesus reminds us that what
we have done will be remembered.
Shared reflections
are invited at this time from the community
[A moment of silence
is shared as the oil is brought forward for the communal blessing]
Blessing of the Oil -
All are invited to extend their hands over the oil
Presider
welcomes everyone to extend their hands for blessing the oil:
Presider:
[Prayer for
blessing oil]
With hands
extended over the oil, we pray:
In your name
Merciful Creator may it please you to regard favorably, to bless, and make
sacred this oil, which earth has given and has been prepared from your fruitful
gift of olives. We pray that by the power of the Holy Spirit, those whose hands
come upon this oil are blessed in your name, and continue to receive your
loving healing of heart, mind, body, and spirit. - ALL: Amen
Rite of Healing
(everyone is invited to come forward)
Healing Ritual –
people have come forward and one by the one the presider faces each person that
has come forward and completes the following:
The presider pours
water from a water jug onto the person’s hands then dries them. The person then
turns to the person behind them and proceeds to repeat the hand washing.
The presider now
begins to place oil in the hands of the person whose hands were cleansed and dried
The presider proceeds
to take one hand at a time and recites the words while placing the oil in each
hand.
As oil is placed in
the right hand.
Presider: “From the
hands that long to be healed.”
As oil is placed in
the left hand:
Presider: “to the
hands that lovingly heal”
The presider places a
small stone into the oiled hands, presses them together saying:
May the light of
Christ shine in you and strengthen the healing gifts of love, compassion &
comfort that is poured out from you to others & may you also continue to
experience the strength of God’s healing Grace.
The presider repeats
this ritual with each person and the last person proceeds to wash and cleanse
the hands the presider’s hands and completes the ritual for the presider.
Musical Accompaniment
– “See Me, Heal Me”
See me, feel me, touch
me, heal me.
Silent Prayer and
Meditation
Musical Accompaniment
– “Wash Me”
Participation:
Invitation to all for testimonies and sharing (this is the time the presider
welcomes everyone to share in their testimonies, stories, thoughts of healing)
Final Blessing
PRESIDER: In
mercy and in love may we go forth to receive and become the healing hands of
the body of Christ for our sisters and brothers and the whole world.
ALL: Amen
Closing Prayer
PRESIDER: Loving
Creator, we give you thanks for the continuous healing of mind, body, and
spirit. We give you praise for the healing hands you send to us in the form of
our brothers and sisters through your works of healing, and we also give you
thanks as we become the merciful, loving, compassionate, and healing hands
which we hope to share with others, and we ask this in the name of Jesus your
son, our beloved brother.
ALL: Amen
Music – “Go In Beauty”
O, God is beauty.
Peace be with you.
Til we meet again in
the light.
Conclusion
The
healing service was very powerful and received wonderfully positive feedback. Because
of the communal nature of New Spirit Rising, I always enjoy asking the
community how they feel about the celebration services so that I can continue
to understand how to meet the sacramental needs of the community. As noted by
Susan Ross (1998), because “women’s experiences of the sacraments are ambiguous
and ambivalent…these ambiguities and ambivalences are not entirely negative and
have the potential to refocus and redefine the nature and experience of
sacramentality itself” (p. 204). This liturgical celebration and several others
have been offered at New Spirit Rising. As a deacon I am not able to offer
Eucharist however, New Spirit Rising has invited Roman Catholic women priests
to preside and I have been able to serve as deacon during Mass. The
celebrations offered at this time are prayer services and other types of
services celebrating the community while meeting their spiritual, ministerial
and sacramental needs. It is the hope of the community and mine that someday I
will be ordained a priest so that I may offer Eucharist using inclusive liturgy
while ensuring a feminist theological approach to the sacrament of Eucharist.
Reference
Ross,
S. (1998). Extravagant affection: A
feminist sacramental theology. New York, NY: Continuum International
Publishing Group, Inc.
This Inclusive Liturgy for Anointing of the Sick is shared with permission of Author ,Donnieau Snyder as an assignment for Course TH565 Feminist Sacramental Theology at Global Ministries University Course. Dr. Bridget Mary Meehan, D. Min. is Dean of Doctor of Ministry Program
Homily:“Soggy Bread” by Annie Watson ARCWP, Mary Magdala Community, Indianapolis,
Exodus
16:2-4, 9-15; John 6:24-35
August
2, 2015
 |
| Annie Watson, ARCWP |
Apparently,
God is a fan of bread. No low-carb diets for the Creator! If God didn’t like
bread, God wouldn’t have created so many different types of bread. It is the
most basic food staple there is.
Bread
is a common food item in the biblical writings, from the unleavened bread that
the Israelites ate on Passover to the bread Jesus broke with his disciples
claiming it was his “body.”
One
of the interesting things about the Bible is that it will often take something
very common and mundane, like bread, and elevate it by attributing spiritual
qualities to it. Our two readings from Exodus and John highlight the “spirituality
of bread.”
In
the first story from the book of Exodus we read about a bread-like substance
called “manna.” The Israelites had escaped from Egyptian slavery and now they
find themselves in a desert with little or no food. They complain to their
leader, Moses, that as slaves in Egypt they fared better. They would prefer to
go back to Egypt.
Who
wouldn’t? Have you ever been hungry? Of course you have, and yet few of us have
missed many meals due to a lack of food. We’re talking about real hunger here, that which is experienced
these days by nearly 15% of the people who live in developing nations.
According
to the story in Exodus, God supplied the stomach-grumbling Israelites with
manna in the morning and quail in the evening. If we were dieticians we might
call this carb/protein combination the Wilderness Wandering Diet. Probably not highly
recommended!
What
was the manna? We don’t know. The writer introduces it by claiming that God
said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread
from heaven for you.” A few verses later we discover a few more details
about it: “In the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the
layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky
substance, as fine as frost on the ground.” Sounds yummy . . . and soggy.
We
don’t know what the manna was, but we know what the writer is trying to say: Something needed was supplied unexpectedly.
In fact, the word “manna” is occasionally used for anything that is needed and supplied unexpectedly. Have you ever
received a monetary gift from someone at just the right time? Have you ever
received a kind or encouraging word from someone at the moment it was needed
most? Manna from heaven.
Before
you start thinking that the Israelites got a raw deal with soggy bread in the
morning, have you ever had an Italian beef sandwich dipped in au jus sauce or a
French Dip roast beef sandwich? Soggy bread can be a spiritual experience!
Our
second “bread” story is found in John 6, which comes on the heels of the story
of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, which featured fish and bread on the menu
(there’s that protein/carb diet again!).
The
people know a good thing when they see it (or eat it) so they go looking for
Jesus again. They even go so far as to get in boats and sail across the Sea of
Galilee looking for him. Full stomachs don’t stay full for long.
When
they find Jesus, he quickly understands their motive for finding him, and says
to them, “Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw
signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” In other words, you are
missing the point, which is bigger than your stomachs. He then tells them, “Do
not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal
life.”
Those
are nice words, but I imagine they fell on hollow ears with people who had
hollow stomachs. We should never use this passage to tell hungry people, “All
you really need is Jesus,” or “Man cannot live by bread alone.” That would be
cruel.
Nevertheless,
John’s Gospel is trying to prod us to think beyond
our physical stomachs, to think about how we might nourish our spiritual
stomachs. We are spiritual beings, which means that it is possible for us to focus
on things other than our material and physical needs. John’s Jesus reflects our
spiritual needs where he says, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me
will never be hungry” (or thirsty).
What
we find in both the manna in the Exodus story and the “bread of life” in John’s
Gospel is the notion that something
needed is received unexpectedly. No one can claim that this is always true,
and yet I don’t think many of us would be here today if our spiritual needs
were not being met on some level.
Both
stories have something else in common: soggy
bread. We understand the sogginess of the manna in the book of Exodus, but where
do we find soggy bread in John’s account?
The
answer is: In Jesus himself. The late Marcus Borg refers to Jesus as a
“God-intoxicated” person. This is Borg’s way of saying Jesus was
“Spirit-filled.” Jesus, the bread of life, was soggy. He was drenched in the
Spirit. He spent so much time swimming in the “living water” that he started to
resemble a big prune (spiritually speaking of course).
Sogginess
is a great metaphor for the God-soaked life. As Christians, we begin our
journeys with a ritual bath called “baptism,” and although most of us are not
fully immersed in the water, it does serve as a wonderful sign about life in
the Spirit. As Christ followers we should be bathed in the waters of baptism,
soaked in scripture, and saturated in the Spirit.
Maybe
it’s time for the inauguration of a new Christian symbol: soggy bread. Reflect on these words:
Soggy
bread is a symbol of God’s grace, dripping
in unconditional love. Soggy bread represents the peace of God which spills over in terms of our ability to
understand it. Soggy bread is served alongside the overflowing cup of goodness and mercy that follows us all the days
of our lives. Soggy bread points to the justice that rolls down like waters—an ever-flowing
stream of righteousness. Soggy bread is a picture of those who have been anointed—drenched in the spirit—to bring
good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight
to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of God’s
favor. Soggy bread is a metaphor for the fullness
of God, filled to overflowing, soaked to saturation.
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Homily for Holy Spirit Catholic Community on 19th Ordinary Time, Aug. 9, 2015 by Beverly Bingle, RCWP
We started reading this long “bread of life” discourse
in Chapter 6 of John's Gospel the last week of July,
and we'll continue reading from it through the end of August.
Each piece of it is full of theology and spirituality for us to consider.
This week John puts words in Jesus' mouth to tell us
that we have to go through Jesus to get to God.
We can't get to God any other way.
Later, in Chapter 14, verse 6, John has Jesus saying it straight out,
“No one comes to the Father except through me.”
__________________________________________
But we all know people who are not Christians
who are good people, following their conscience,
some of them followers of religions like Islam or Hinduism,
some of them following no religion at all.
If we believe the Gospel of John, they cannot get to God.
The German theologian Karl Rahner tried to solve the problem
with the notion of “anonymous Christianity.”
Here's how he put it:
"Anonymous Christianity means that a person
lives in the grace of God and attains salvation
outside of explicitly constituted Christianity…
Let us say, a Buddhist monk…
who, because he follows his conscience,
attains salvation and lives in the grace of God;
of him I must say that he is an anonymous Christian.”
The way Rahner sees it is that,
if he did not call this good Buddhist an “anonymous Christian,
he would have to say that there is a path to salvation
that has nothing to do with Jesus Christ.
But, Rahner writes, “I cannot do that.”
So he ends up defending the proposition that
“outside the Church there is no salvation.”
Not only is Jesus the only way to God in this theology,
but the Roman Catholic Jesus is the only way.
____________________________________
On the other hand, the Swiss theologian Hans Küng
has a problem with the idea of “anonymous Christians.”
He says, "It would be impossible to find anywhere in the world
a sincere Jew, Muslim, or atheist
who would not regard the assertion
that he is an 'anonymous Christian' as presumptuous."
Other theologians have called
Rahner's “anonymous Christian” notion
paternalistic and denigrating.
__________________________________________
A look at history shows
how this kind of presumptive self-righteousness
has provided fuel for the slaughter of innocents—
the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisitions,
conquest of the Americas, the pogroms, the Holocaust.
Even though we know
that wars are mainly about power and money,
we also know that fanning the flames of religious hatred
has been used as a tactic, a weapon of war,
a way to fire up a population for political or cultural goals.
Globally we're very much aware of various followers of religions
who claim that their way is the only way.
We know about the Sunnis and the Shias.
We know about ISIL
and their massacre of both Christians and Muslims.
Here in the USA we notice some people
reacting with suspicion of people who are Muslims
or look like Middle Easterners.
Since 9/11 our own government's security forces
have practiced profiling, to the extent that
people are stopped, questioned, and detained
because they “look like” Muslims.
______________________________________
We have to read the scriptures carefully and with a loving heart,
so we will notice that, while John's Gospel
sows the seed for holy wars,
the other three canonical Gospels sow seeds of cooperation,
with Jesus teaching the exact opposite
of this passage from John.
Jesus' message is inclusive in Matthew, Mark, and Luke:
everyone can get to God;
you don't need a priest or a religious authority at all.
___________________________________
What this theological-scriptural discussion has to do with us
becomes clear when we look at our own community.
Some Christians continue to select and interpret scripture passages
in a way that condemns or excludes,
setting up excuses for them to discriminate
or, in the extreme, do harm to others.
Three years ago a man set fire to the mosque here
out of hatred for Muslims,
saying he was upset because Muslims are terrorists.
Some who purport to be Christians find grounds for hatred
on the basis of race, or gender identity, or sexual orientation.
_________________________________________
Our scriptures can be read to call for much violence
or much love.
In every generation we are challenged to live
by the best and highest principles.
For today's Gospel passage,
we can embrace, as we did last week,
the “bread of life”
as John's way of expressing the impact
of Jesus' teaching and his inclusive table fellowship
on his followers.
We must be careful, though,
not to fall into taking literally the exclusion from Godliness
of people who find another path to God.
___________________________________
For us, Paul's advice to the Ephesians has a clear message,
echoing the best of our Christian tradition.
He says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.”
Put away bitterness and wrath and anger
and clamor and slander and malice.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted and forgiving.
Walk in 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
419-727-1774
in Chapter 6 of John's Gospel the last week of July,
and we'll continue reading from it through the end of August.
Each piece of it is full of theology and spirituality for us to consider.
This week John puts words in Jesus' mouth to tell us
that we have to go through Jesus to get to God.
We can't get to God any other way.
Later, in Chapter 14, verse 6, John has Jesus saying it straight out,
“No one comes to the Father except through me.”
__________________________________________
But we all know people who are not Christians
who are good people, following their conscience,
some of them followers of religions like Islam or Hinduism,
some of them following no religion at all.
If we believe the Gospel of John, they cannot get to God.
The German theologian Karl Rahner tried to solve the problem
with the notion of “anonymous Christianity.”
Here's how he put it:
"Anonymous Christianity means that a person
lives in the grace of God and attains salvation
outside of explicitly constituted Christianity…
Let us say, a Buddhist monk…
who, because he follows his conscience,
attains salvation and lives in the grace of God;
of him I must say that he is an anonymous Christian.”
The way Rahner sees it is that,
if he did not call this good Buddhist an “anonymous Christian,
he would have to say that there is a path to salvation
that has nothing to do with Jesus Christ.
But, Rahner writes, “I cannot do that.”
So he ends up defending the proposition that
“outside the Church there is no salvation.”
Not only is Jesus the only way to God in this theology,
but the Roman Catholic Jesus is the only way.
____________________________________
On the other hand, the Swiss theologian Hans Küng
has a problem with the idea of “anonymous Christians.”
He says, "It would be impossible to find anywhere in the world
a sincere Jew, Muslim, or atheist
who would not regard the assertion
that he is an 'anonymous Christian' as presumptuous."
Other theologians have called
Rahner's “anonymous Christian” notion
paternalistic and denigrating.
__________________________________________
A look at history shows
how this kind of presumptive self-righteousness
has provided fuel for the slaughter of innocents—
the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisitions,
conquest of the Americas, the pogroms, the Holocaust.
Even though we know
that wars are mainly about power and money,
we also know that fanning the flames of religious hatred
has been used as a tactic, a weapon of war,
a way to fire up a population for political or cultural goals.
Globally we're very much aware of various followers of religions
who claim that their way is the only way.
We know about the Sunnis and the Shias.
We know about ISIL
and their massacre of both Christians and Muslims.
Here in the USA we notice some people
reacting with suspicion of people who are Muslims
or look like Middle Easterners.
Since 9/11 our own government's security forces
have practiced profiling, to the extent that
people are stopped, questioned, and detained
because they “look like” Muslims.
______________________________________
We have to read the scriptures carefully and with a loving heart,
so we will notice that, while John's Gospel
sows the seed for holy wars,
the other three canonical Gospels sow seeds of cooperation,
with Jesus teaching the exact opposite
of this passage from John.
Jesus' message is inclusive in Matthew, Mark, and Luke:
everyone can get to God;
you don't need a priest or a religious authority at all.
___________________________________
What this theological-scriptural discussion has to do with us
becomes clear when we look at our own community.
Some Christians continue to select and interpret scripture passages
in a way that condemns or excludes,
setting up excuses for them to discriminate
or, in the extreme, do harm to others.
Three years ago a man set fire to the mosque here
out of hatred for Muslims,
saying he was upset because Muslims are terrorists.
Some who purport to be Christians find grounds for hatred
on the basis of race, or gender identity, or sexual orientation.
_________________________________________
Our scriptures can be read to call for much violence
or much love.
In every generation we are challenged to live
by the best and highest principles.
For today's Gospel passage,
we can embrace, as we did last week,
the “bread of life”
as John's way of expressing the impact
of Jesus' teaching and his inclusive table fellowship
on his followers.
We must be careful, though,
not to fall into taking literally the exclusion from Godliness
of people who find another path to God.
___________________________________
For us, Paul's advice to the Ephesians has a clear message,
echoing the best of our Christian tradition.
He says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.”
Put away bitterness and wrath and anger
and clamor and slander and malice.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted and forgiving.
Walk in 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
419-727-1774
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Monday, August 3, 2015
Poem in response to Ordination of Barbara Billey ARCWP written by Suzanne Woitowich, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
I am the
cloud
I am
floating with the wind with my feet bare in the wet grass of the
morning
my eyes
dazzled by sunlight on the glimmering tips of leaves holding
pools
and
droplets in the eyes of flowers...
moved by
the sound of God in the visions seen on the screen of my minds
garden
moved by
song, in the voices, in the smiling eyes seen in singing songs and
chants
drumming
drums and dancing dances-
In the
chapel for the ordination of the first woman Catholic priest in our
town.
What a
momentous occasion with reverberations of hope
in this
morning of beginnings and letting go of endings-
to be a
part of ---in unison with other grateful souls- dressed for the
occasion.
You and I
make the same note, but who is louder and who has the purest
tone
the bass or
the soprano, the alto or the tenor
the ego
rears its ugly head of arrogance and is satisfied by the
disruption!
Our need to
compete --men and women-
Who is
louder and who has the clearest tone,
reveals
your fear and my fear and our vulnerabilities and
sameness!
My desire
for the soft note the reverent harmony is also your
desire
I yearn for
the awe that comes when brought to our knees in
prayer-
an old
sound that rattles in my heart breaking open in
reverence.
The crack
of tears that cry out from me to God
opening my
heart of hearts just like yours,
erupting
spontaneously with cascades of warm chills
that
rattles cages long locked in chains of hurt against
dangers,
the crust
fragmenting now by trust in love and hope in
justice
the earth
of my heart quakes
and I let
go momentarily in the moment
adoring the
disarming- the laying bare of the clear ringing crystal
bowl
the
balanced note of equality rising to meet the day
my beating
heart sings a song of celebration
clear and
clean as the bell in the steeple of my church.
Can you
hear the sound of the church bells ringing
there?
The birds
singing in the voices?
The waves
washing through our minds in rhythmic breath?
carrying
all the debris away away
healing the
struggles of yesterday
clearing
the way for the morrow
when women
walk as Catholic priests!
The bass
tenor alto and soprano brought into balanced
harmony
and now our
voices lighten as we listen to each other...
as we
sing
I know when
you are softening and when you rise
I hear your
bass bravado
mixing with
my soprano
sweet
balance and harmony is heard and known
my voice lost in
yours
dissolving into
spirit
resolving the illusion of
separation
resolving the illusion of
our outward appearances
as men and
women
the loudness of the
masculine decreases to include the softness of the feminine
and the chorus
repeats
All our hearts are heard
by God
All our hearts are heard
by God
and for today
Grace descends upon the
one in our focus
The woman who receives the
challenge and chalice
to stand alongside the men
in robes
and minister in love and
in confidence
with God's
blessing...
and now with man's
blessing... as well!!!
Poem 7/18/2015 by Suzanne Woitowich, a
member of the choir
at Barbara Billey’s Ordination, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
at Barbara Billey’s Ordination, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Member of the choir at Barbara Billey’s Ordination, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
Sunday, August 2, 2015
In 1979 Sister Theresa Kane Invited Pope John Paul 11 to Open All Ministries to Women, In 2015 Women Priests Lead the Church in Inclusive, Egalitarian, Empowered Communities
http://ncronline.org/news/people/legacy-beyond-catholicism
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| Women Priests Co Presiders: Kathryn Shea, ARCWP, Sally Brochu, ARCWP, and Pastor Phil Garrison St. Andrew UCC Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Liturgy on Aug. 1, 2015 at St. Andrew UCC in Sarasota Florida |
Advocacy for women's equality existed before Kane gave her address at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. At the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) meeting in 1975, a resolution for women to be in all ministries passed almost unanimously, and two years later, the Sisters of Mercy of the Union endorsed a similar statement.
By the time Kane, as LCWR's president, welcomed the pope, she knew what she would say. Visible glints of support were present in the crowds that day; a group of sisters wore blue armbands to signify advocacy for women's ordination.
Bridget Mary Meehan: I was there and witnessed Sister Theresa Kane's unforgettable address. The atmosphere was electric, filled with Spirit energy and anticipation. On that day, new hope for gender equality filled my soul when I heard Sister Kane's prophetic words, and saw nuns wearing the blue armbands promoting women's ordination. Wow, talking about being outside my comfort zone, and challenged to move in a different direction than anything I had known as an IHM Sister. Some of the nuns even stood on the pews to get a better view of the Pope as he processed in to the Shrine.
Bridget Mary Meehan: I was there and witnessed Sister Theresa Kane's unforgettable address. The atmosphere was electric, filled with Spirit energy and anticipation. On that day, new hope for gender equality filled my soul when I heard Sister Kane's prophetic words, and saw nuns wearing the blue armbands promoting women's ordination. Wow, talking about being outside my comfort zone, and challenged to move in a different direction than anything I had known as an IHM Sister. Some of the nuns even stood on the pews to get a better view of the Pope as he processed in to the Shrine.
"That's where I became alive," Kane said. "It has become a vision, a passion, a focus for my life, and a priority. My greeting was considered a commencement. It was not the end of my responsibilities. ... For me, it has been a lifelong journey."
Bridget Mary Meehan: In 1979, I was on a leave of absence from the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters in Philadelphia. My dear friend, Sister Regina Madonna, a nun also on leave of absence and I went early to the Shrine to secure seats, never dreaming of the seismic shift we were going to become part of as Sister Kane addressed the pontiff.
Bridget Mary Meehan: In 1979, I was on a leave of absence from the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters in Philadelphia. My dear friend, Sister Regina Madonna, a nun also on leave of absence and I went early to the Shrine to secure seats, never dreaming of the seismic shift we were going to become part of as Sister Kane addressed the pontiff.
As the spokeswoman for LCWR, Kane was also conscious of herself as "a voice in the desert," she said. "I needed to speak not just for women religious, but for all women. That particular moment was somewhat of an inclusive mindset that deepened solidarity."
Bridget Mary Meehan: On July 31, 2006, I was ordained a priest in the first U.S. ordination. When I returned to Florida, a group gathered with my Dad and me for house church liturgies. Our close-knit community grew and flourished and became known as Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community. Now we are a dynamic community with presiders that include married priests, women priests and community members. Each week we celebrate liturgies where all are welcome to receive sacraments on Sat. at 4 PM at St. Andrew UCC. www.marymotherofjesus.org
Bridget Mary Meehan: On July 31, 2006, I was ordained a priest in the first U.S. ordination. When I returned to Florida, a group gathered with my Dad and me for house church liturgies. Our close-knit community grew and flourished and became known as Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community. Now we are a dynamic community with presiders that include married priests, women priests and community members. Each week we celebrate liturgies where all are welcome to receive sacraments on Sat. at 4 PM at St. Andrew UCC. www.marymotherofjesus.org
When LCWR gave Kane the Outstanding Leadership Award in 2004, her speech at the ceremony mentioned what she calls the "colonizing spirit" -- the idea that as long as there is no gender equality, women, without meaning to, take a secondary role and fail to recognize their own power.
Bridget Mary Meehan: The Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement is a holy shakeup! We are no longer asking for permission from the institutional church. We are leading the way, united with all the baptized as a companionship of empowerment.
Bridget Mary Meehan: The Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement is a holy shakeup! We are no longer asking for permission from the institutional church. We are leading the way, united with all the baptized as a companionship of empowerment.
It is Kane's belief that until the church achieves radical equality, "we have a sacred responsibility as women to pursue this vision. We really can stand strong and stand firm and say gender equality is a gift from God. As martyrs of old, we're willing to die for it, but more importantly, I'm willing to live for it."...
Bridget Mary Meehan:While Pope Francis promotes an economy of inclusion, the entire church must promote a church of inclusion with the full equality of women in all areas of ministry including ordination. Woman Spirit is rising up in love for justice now!
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, www.arcwp.org The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, (ARCWP) will ordain 3 women bishops on Sept. 24, 2015 in Pendle Hill to grow our movement. Communities are calling forth women as deacons and priests. We need more bishops to keep up with our growth. The primary mission of our bishops is to ordain women to serve inclusive Catholic Communities in a discipleship of equals. Our new bishops-elect are Olga Lucia Alvarez of Colombia, South America, Mary Collingwood of Hudson, Ohio, USA, Michele Birch Conery of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. I am a bishop in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. I was ordained a bishop in 2009.
Bridget Mary Meehan:While Pope Francis promotes an economy of inclusion, the entire church must promote a church of inclusion with the full equality of women in all areas of ministry including ordination. Woman Spirit is rising up in love for justice now!
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, www.arcwp.org The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, (ARCWP) will ordain 3 women bishops on Sept. 24, 2015 in Pendle Hill to grow our movement. Communities are calling forth women as deacons and priests. We need more bishops to keep up with our growth. The primary mission of our bishops is to ordain women to serve inclusive Catholic Communities in a discipleship of equals. Our new bishops-elect are Olga Lucia Alvarez of Colombia, South America, Mary Collingwood of Hudson, Ohio, USA, Michele Birch Conery of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. I am a bishop in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. I was ordained a bishop in 2009.