Jimmy Carter leaves the Southern Baptist Church

Here's a story that seems to have escaped the mainstream media -- Jimmy Carter has left the Southern Baptist Church.

And here's why, as he wrote in an essay for The Age:

At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.

and

The truth is that male religious leaders have had -- and still have -- an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter. Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world.
Carter faced what many people face in their churches -- the sincere belief that their church has moved away from their core beliefs, or that they themselves have moved beyond their church's core beliefs.

When that happens, people face some choices. They can leave, they can stay and try to change the church, or they can stay and try to change themselves. Carter stayed for many years, trying to change his church.

I took another route. When I began to understand that the Roman Catholic Church's teachings on the role of women were wildly out of whack with my lived experience and my understanding of the teachings of Jesus I realized I had to either leave or violate the integrity of my very being.

I chose to leave, and eventually found the Episcopal Church, which was then beginning the process of trying to live into the Baptismal Covenant in the "new" 1979 Book of Common Prayer. I was attracted to a church that was willing to struggle with the disconnect between "traditional" interpretations of Scripture and the Baptismal promises to "seek and serve God in all people" and "respect the dignity of every human being."

The ordination of women was the presenting issue then, but quickly on its heels came the whole issue of the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the full life and ministry of the church.

Of course, having been received into the Episcopal Church, I found myself in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, whose bishops refused to ordain women to the priesthood and who soon latched onto the issue of homosexuality as their best bet to keep fear levels so high people would do what the bishops wanted.

Their strategy worked a treat. Misinformation was ladled out like candy at Halloween and soon their demonization of the Episcopal Church led to its logical conclusion. They left the Episcopal Church. [But unlike Jimmy Carter, they are trying to keep Episcopal Church property.]

As for me, I soon realized I could not remain in the Episcopal Church in this place AND remain an ethical person without speaking out against what I saw as wrong. I knew enough about the wider church to know that it bore no relationship to the heretical church described by our former leadership. I was not alone in this.

We laypeople worked hard to try to counter the misinformation, and are still doing so. But you can't undo 30 years of lies in nine months.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori at the Closing Eucharist of General Convention

That's why in the wake of the most recent General Convention, we see the old fears and lies raising their ugly heads as Episcopalians deal with action at Convention that simply described what has been the canonical reality of our church for many years -- the ordination process is open to all the baptized. That does not confer an automatic right to ordination, but it does mean we cannot arbitrarily block some people from entering the process simply because of who they are.

Convention also asked for the gathering of resources around the whole issue of blessing same gender weddings and unions as a way of dealing with the new reality being faced by at least 30 dioceses who are in states where same gender marriage and unions are legal. This new reality is also being faced by the Church of England, the Episcopal Church of Scotland, and the Anglican Churches of Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Convention asked for collaborative work with our brothers and sisters in the Anglican Communion as we work to find pastoral responses to these new civil realities.

In short, when LGBT Episcopalians can be legally married they want the church to bless those marriages, just as do heterosexual Episcopalians. This resolution essentially asked for resources and study on how the Church will respond to them.

These were only two of the many issues centering on Baptism that were dealt with by the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies, but they are getting the most attention.

They is part of the Episcopal Church's effort to live into the responsibilities and promises of the Baptismal Covenant. It's not easy, because it requires living in a state of some ambiguity. This is very uncomfortable for those folks used to or desiring a top down authoritarian view of Scripture.

This work requires a lot of thinking and self examination on the part of individual church-goers. But that is what I love about the Episcopal Church. Our leaders expect us -- even challenge us -- to think.

After all, God commanded us to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind.

Too often we forget that last part.

And they did it all with dogs and sheep

This is the best thing EVER. As tired as I was after getting home from General Convention, this one piece of video delighted and amazed me. Enjoy!

Morse code in newsprint

Note:Written for ISSUES
______________

There has been a great deal of justified angst about the proposal from the Episcopal Church communications director to eliminate Episcopal Life and the Episcopal Life printing partnerships with diocesan newspapers. Episcopal Life would be replaced with a glossy quarterly magazine with the same name. Episcopal Life online would continue.

The proposal was greeted by cries of outrage generated at least as much by the apparent lack of consultation with the Episcopal Life Board of Governors and the printing partners as by the proposal itself.

I confess to a great deal of affection for Episcopal Life as a monthly newspaper. It has been a literal lifeline for Episcopalians in Fort Worth.

Our former leadership worked for years to isolate the diocese from the larger Episcopal Church. One of the first things eliminated was Episcopal Life. There were many Episcopalians in Fort Worth who did not even know of its existence. Parishes were kept isolated from another and communication between parishes was actively discouraged. Parish directories were closely guarded. The bishop denounced Fort Worth Via Media as “thieves” when they began to share addresses out of their own members’ parish directories. No names or email addresses of diocesan leaders were available on the diocesan website.

So one of the ways those of us who intended to remain in the Episcopal Church found each other was with Episcopal Life. It became a signal in the dark from one Episcopalian to another, a Morse code in newsprint from one freedom fighter to another.

The presence of a stack of Episcopal Life on a table in a parish hall signaled that this parish’s leadership was at least open to news about the Episcopal Church. Someone actually carrying a copy of Episcopal Life was a clear declaration of one’s intent, no matter one’s place on the progressive-moderate-conservative continuum.

Episcopal Life helped us locate one another and communicate with one another. I know of no better definition of a newspaper’s purpose.

Episcopal Life continues to play a vital role as we in Fort Worth work to reconnect with Episcopalians across our geographically large diocese and with the larger church. I understand the budgetary realities facing the staff at 815, but I do know that our work of reconnecting will be made more difficult if the monthly Episcopal Life goes away.

Where Trust Can Live

Note: I wrote a version of this for ISSUES, the publication of the Consultation, which is published daily at General Convention.
_______________________

On Wednesday night, General Convention heard the Archbishop of Canterbury talk about the economic crisis in the world. Among the points he made was one concerning transparency, truthfulness and trust. He pointed out the obvious but too often ignored connection between these three things. Trust cannot live amid darkness and lies.

I appreciated his remarks. I have experienced firsthand how trust struggles to survive in a place where decision-making was reserved for a hand-picked few, where information was hoarded like gold, and where opacity had long replaced transparency.

It was that experience that gave birth to a resolution D045 – transparency in committee memberships. I crafted this resolution because I was alarmed by the decision to keep secret the names of members of a committee studying the theology of same-sex unions. (Aside from the outrageousness of once again studying this subject that has been been studied for more than 30 years I also was struck by the sheer weirdness of a decision to have a closeted committee studying this subject.)

D045 says:
Resolved, the House of ______ concurring, that the 76th General Convention direct that the membership of all committees, subcommittees, task forces and panels elected or appointed by any body or leader of The Episcopal Church (including, but not limited to, the House of Deputies, the House of Bishops, the Executive Council, Standing Commissions, Committees, Agencies and Boards of The Episcopal Church and their respective Presiding Officers and Chairs) be made public no later than 30 days after election or appointment.

The explanation says, “The Episcopal Church should model in its governance and life the transparency and openness all Christians are called to demonstrate. Our Baptismal Covenant calls us to seek Christ in all people and to respect the dignity of every human being. Transparency in our dealings with one another is one way human dignity is respected. Conversely, secrecy is destructive of human dignity and of our common life. Making public the names of persons elected or appointed to any body charged to work in Christ’s name for the good of the Church serves the Church’s health and promotes trust in one another.”

Deputies Nancy Key of San Joaquin and Joan Gundersen of Pittsburgh endorsed this resolution.

The Committee on Structure has sent it to be voted on after doing some slight wordsmithing. Let's hope both Houses pass it.

As we learned to our sorrow in Fort Worth, trust cannot grow in the dark.

A Gift From Fort Worth

NOTE: I wrote this for ISSUES, the daily newspaper published by The Consultation at General Convention.

-----------------------

We have been welcomed home.

The deputies from the Diocese of Fort Worth have been overwhelmed by the warmth of the welcome we have been receiving at General Convention. From the personalized gift bags from “our friends in the Diocese of Rochester” when we checked in to the affectionate handclasps when we got our deputy badges to strangers in hallways, the message has been the same—“We are so glad you are here. We need you in our church.”

It is, of course, an echo of Paul’s metaphor of the Body – one part cannot be lopped off without the entire body suffering.

And while we from Fort Worth are touched deeply by the gifts we have been given, we know we come offering a gift to our beloved church as well.

Episcopalians in Fort Worth are living into a new and deeper understanding of what Paul was talking about. We are learning that even if part of the Body chooses to leave, the entire body suffers. There is a wound left behind that will ache for a long long time.

But perhaps the most important learning we in Fort Worth can bring to the Church is that when the Body excludes part of itself, the Body is crippled, off balance, and dangerously vulnerable to losing its way.

We know firsthand the cost of exclusion, of scapegoating. Most of all we know the devastating and distorting affect of fear on love. Fear clouds thinking. Fear makes it hard to see hope. Fear closes the Body down and cuts off creativity.

Fear’s best friend is the word “no” – no to risk-taking, no to change, no to those who challenge or ask questions, no to anyone who is the slightest bit different from the people in charge.

Worst of all, fear causes the Body to turn its back on the Holy Spirit.

What is it God’s angels always tell us? Fear not, for you are not alone!

Let us remember that.

And then let us welcome home all those the Body has chosen to exclude.

Happy Birthday to the United States of America!

Happy Fourth of July!


This may be my favorite holiday, being as I'm one of those who gets choked up singing the national anthem, thinks our star-spangled banner is beautiful, and believes the Declaration of Independence is one of the world's great documents.


I love the Declaration because of the vision, the dream, it sets before us in the United States -- even though it's a vision we have yet to live into, a dream that remains unrealized for way too many of our people.


I am a patriot, but not one of those "love it or leave it" types. I am a patriot because I question our leaders, not in spite of those questions. I am a patriot because I will not settle for quick and easy platitudes about our country, seeking instead to push this nation to live into a time when the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness doesn't depend on one's gender, race or social class.


I am a patriot because I will always ask questions when this nation moves toward war, believing it should be the last resort, not the first. I am a patriot because I am slow to believe our leaders, but willing to believe them -- if they will provide me with good information.


I am a patriot because I think the First Amendment is one of the keys to our nation's success. I am a patriot who believes that the only excuse for not voting is being dead.


So happy birthday to us. May we always love this nation enough to take our jobs as citizens seriously.

**********

Here's what my garden looked like this morning at 7 a.m., temperature already nearly 90 degrees. Thank God for soaker hoses.

Things "we just don't talk about"

In Texas there are a lot of things that mamas teach their children that "we just don't talk about."

This is especially true among those in the higher income "society" circles and among the powerful people of Texas cities, although I suspect this is not a phenomenon limited to Texas. God knows it's rife all through the Anglican Communion.

One of the subjects"we just don't talk about" is rich, famous or powerful people who happen to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. This tends to play out in ways that can make one's head spin.

Here is the headline in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Broadway Baptist kicked out of Southern Baptist Convention

The story said, "Broadway Baptist Church has been kicked out of the Southern Baptist Convention because its stance on homosexuality is too lenient, convention members said.

"Convention delegates, known as messengers, voted Tuesday to end the 127-year relationship with the historic Fort Worth church during the annual convention being held in Louisville, Ky.

"The vote affirmed that the relationship between Broadway and the convention cease, 'and that the church’s messengers not be seated,' according to Roger Oldham, vice president for convention relations with the executive committee.

"The committee made the recommendation Monday.


"Stephen Wilson, a member of the executive committee, told the Baptist Press that 'the church was in effect saying that it was OK to have members who are open homosexuals.'

"The 2,000-member church could seek reinstatement if it 'unambiguously demonstrates its friendly cooperation with the Convention under Article III,' according to the committee."

-------------------------

And how is Broadway to do that?

------------------------

"David Lowrie, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Canyon and president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, told the Baptist Press that Broadway 'needed to express those convictions in a practical way. They, for whatever reason, weren’t able to do that.'


"Lowrie said, for example, that Broadway could have started a ministry to help people with 'unhealthy lifestyles.'"

----------------------------------------

Does that mean they should start a ministry for all the obese people at Broadway? Or all the smokers? I think not.

I am sorry about Broadway Baptist, because it has long been a moderating influence in the conservative Christian community -- obviously too moderate for the determined-to-be-purer-than-pure Baptists.

But people in Fort Worth know there is a limit to how much more Broadway Baptist can do on the issue of homosexuality, given that their most high profile member -- and one of the biggest rainmakers for donations to the church -- is world renowned pianist Van Cliburn. Van regularly attends Broadway, reportedly with his partner. If he suggests to someone in Fort Worth that they donate to one of Broadway's ministries, it happens. With big donations.

Van was very discreet while his mother was alive -- and social Fort Worth cooperated by not noticing anything. Fort Worth is like that. Folks here will look past a lot as long as people don't do it in the streets and scare the horses.

And it's not just Baptists. The oldest and richest parish in the diocese, attended by many "old Fort Worth" families,"left' with Iker. Its ministers never miss an opportunity to slam the Episcopal Church on homosexuality. But one of the largest endowments of this church was left to it by an openly lesbian artist.

Have these pure former Episcopalians refused to use that 'tainted"money. You bet your boots not. And they haven't returned it to the Episcopal Church yet either.

But back to the Baptists.

Cliburn moved to Fort Worth from New York City in 1985 with his mother. Here's what a blurb about the Broadway Baptist Cliburn Organ says:

"After the death of her husband in 1974, Mrs. Cliburn shared Van's New York apartment until 1985, when they moved to the estate that had previously belonged to Kimbell Art Museum benefactor Kay Kimbell in the Westover Hills neighborhood of Fort Worth. There she lived her final years, lionized as the mother of an international concert star and musical celebrity. As long as her health permitted, well into her nineties, she circulated prominently in Fort Worth society at her son's side at cultural and church events (she was a lifelong, devoted Southern Baptist) and frequently entertained visiting musical artists. She died at the age of ninety-seven in Fort Worth on August 3, 1994, five days after suffering a stroke. The huge Rildia Bee O'Bryan Organ at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth was under construction at the time."

The Rildia Bee O'Bryan Organ is something indeed. More than seven thousand people attended the six dedication concerts and services of the Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn Organ.

In 1996 Cliburn was very publicly outed when a former partner sued him, alleging that Cliburn exposed him to the AIDS virus.

Keven O'Hanlan, reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, broke the story which was picked up by the Associated Press and run in the Star-Telegram [the local paper never did its own story on this]:
"A former associate sued pianist Van Cliburn for palimony, seeking millions in cash and property and alleging that Cliburn exposed him to the AIDS virus although Cliburn has never tested positive for the virus.

"Thomas E. Zaremba, 48, a former member of the board of the Van Cliburn Foundation, brought the suit this week in a court that normally handles divorces.

"'This has been absolutely a shocking surprise to me this afternoon,' said Cliburn, 61.

"Cliburn's lawyer, Dee Kelly, said the claims are false and were an attempt at extortion. 'Van Cliburn categorically denies the charges,' Kelly said.

"Zaremba is represented by attorney Mike McCurley, who represented tennis player Martina Navratilova as the defendant in similar litigation four years ago.

"McCurley said Zaremba met Cliburn in 1968 and the two became sexual partners in 1977. The lawyer described the relationship as 'akin to a common-law marriage'and said it broke up two years ago.

"McCurley said Zaremba had no reason to believe that Cliburn has tested positive for HIV, but accused the pianist of having sex with other people who were HIV-positive during the relationship. Zaremba does not have the AIDS virus, McCurley said, 'but he continues to be tested regularly because of his exposure.'

"Cliburn said he has not been tested for HIV and does not have AIDS.

"Zaremba, who teaches mortuary science at Wayne State University in Detroit, declined to comment when reached at his home in a Detroit suburb.

"Although the exact total had not been determined, Zaremba will seek 'multiple millions' of dollars in cash and property, McCurley said. He contended the pair agreed to share Cliburn's income in exchange for Zaremba serving as a business and personal consultant."
---------------------------

As the story says, this was not the first high-profile palimony fight Fort Worth society has had to ignore. In 1991, Navratilova -- who was living in Fort Worth -- told reporters "she lavished $1.6 million in cars, credit cards and cash on ex-lover Judy Nelson and her family over the course of their seven-year relationship.

"In return, the tennis champion described the former beauty queen as selfish and vindictive in an interview with reporters covering the celebrity palimony lawsuit hearing."
-------------------------------------

Nelson and Navratilova met at the high society River Crest Country Club, where Nelson was a member with her physician husband and Martina practiced. The highly visible affair between the two women and Nelson's subsequent divorce was studiously treated as invisible by social Fort Worth as was their 7-year relationship, most of which took place right here in Cowtown.

Reports are that Navratilova ended up paying Nelson a million dollars. If Cliburn settled his lawsuit it was done out of the public eye. And no one ever talked about it pubicly.

Many say this kind of tact is the oil of the gears of Society. Maybe so.

But this oil turns rancid and smells of hypocrisy in Christian churches when it's used to single out one group of the Baptized as sinners so bad anyone who even tolerates them is to be cast out.

Someone should be ashamed here and it's not Broadway Baptist.

Thank God I wasn't drinking anything when I read this . . .

I don't read David Virtue, but this was send to me by a friend. You can see it here.


ACNA'09: FROM MY EAR TO YOURS....
By David W. Virtue in Bedford, Texas
www.virtueonloine.org6/23/2009

Rumors abound that Ft. Worth Bishop Jack Leo Iker's long term goal is to take his diocese to Rome. Not true. Numerous sources have told VOL that he is deeply committed to the new North American Anglican Province and he will work with his fellow bishops over the thorny issue of women's ordination.

A number of his Ft. Worth priests were recently seen at the Anglican Use conference in Houston. He has told them that if they want to go to Rome, they can do so, but they can't take their property with them.

--------------------------------
One doesn't know where to start, does one?

Here's to the violets - Patricia Clarkson

Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning actress Patricia Clarkson spoke at a Human Rights Coalition event. This was posted at the Huffington Post. Here's what she said:
----------------------------------
Here's the text of a speech I wrote with my friend Ron Marasco for the Human Rights Campaign's recent gala in New Orleans.

I am so happy to be with all of you tonight. To celebrate the work you do--and to have a bourbon or two later.

The great Tennessee Williams wrote---

--of course I'm starting with Tennessee Williams. I'm in New Orleans, at the HRC gala, and I played Blanche DuBois.

Which is why I never go anywhere without a paper lantern in my purse.

Tennessee Williams wrote a line that I felt was appropriate for tonight. And appropriate to this time in our history, your history, and to the rights that everyone in this room is fighting for. It is a line that meant so much to him, it's on his gravestone.

"The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks."
"The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks."

To me, its meaning is simple. The hard, the cold, the oppressive will--at long last--be broken apart by a force that is beautiful, natural, colorful, alive.

That's what tonight is about, what the people in this room are about. We're a bunch of violets breaking through the rocks.

And it is happening.

The rock is cracking away. The rock of hate and falsehood is being broken apart.

All across this country, regular Americans who were born and bred in towns where a gay couple wouldn't dare walk down a street--all over these American Main Streets--something is changing.

Blue-collar guys are looking up from their work, grandmothers are speaking up at the dinner table; and they are saying something to members of their family, and co-workers, who are against gay marriage.

They are saying in one, increasingly-loud American voice, "Honey, rather than worry about who someone else loves--and why, think about who you hate--and why!"

The violets are breaking through the rocks.

America has always been a country of common sense. A country of innate goodness--although a goodness that is sometimes slow to action. As Winston Churchill said, "Americans are always ready to do the right thing. After they have exhausted all the other possibilities."

We have exhausted all the other possibilities. And it is time to call an injustice an injustice.

It is an injustice that we send a gay or lesbian soldier to die in a war--to give their life for a country that won't let them be legally bound to the person they love. It is an injustice that a soldier gives their life for a Military--an exemplary Military in every way--except one in which they cannot have the picture of their lover cut-out in the shape of a heart and taped to their locker because that would be "telling." Such a ugly word.

It is an injustice that, in this room, many of you pay your tax money to the very public institutions that deny you rights other Americans enjoy; pay your tax money for public schools that will not accept you as legal parents; pay your tax money for the paper on which they print the goddamn marriage licenses you cannot get.

And while you are paying your tax money for all of the above, a preacher can stand in the pulpit of a multi-million-dollar mega-church advocating the damnation of gay Americans and not pay one thin dime in taxes.

You know, I occasionally watch those preachers on the Christian TV stations.

I always think to myself: How can I believe your theology when I can't believe your hair?

I find it intellectually offensive when people shrink the Bible to fit the small-mindedness of their bigotry.

Leviticus 18:22 and Deuteronomy 22:5...the famous list of the "abominations." Bible verses which, by the way, also list as a mortal sin things like "the wearing of a garment made of two different kinds of fabric."

Yes, the Bible verse they use to condemn homosexuality also calls Polyester-blend an abomination.

Well, in this, perhaps the Lord has a point. But if you took away all the Polyester-blends in those mega-churches....most of the women would be naked.

In my Bible I see no evidence of Jesus telling same-sex couples they cannot love each other.
And he could have. He was a carpenter--if he made good furniture every gay man in Nazareth knew Him.

The fact is: it's happening.

All the violets--gay Americans, lesbian Americans, Bi-sexual Americans, transgender Americans, people of color, and the people of this city forgotten by Washington in hurricane Katrina--we are all are starting to break through the mountain of straight, white, male lawmakers in Washington.

Their time is over. And they know it. Which is why they are looking increasingly ridiculous and beleaguered. To me those guys look like one, big casting-call for the lead role in a very bad production of Death of Salesmen.

Because America is starting to say those lawmakers are wrong about "Don't ask don't tell," and wrong to oppose gay marriage. The way they were wrong, wrong, wrong about the war in Iraq.
A war that was created by who? A straight, white man named George W. Bush. A straight, white man named Dick Cheney. And a straight, white man named Condoleezza Rice.

The rocks are breaking. And it's time to call certain people on the hypocrisy of their stance against gay marriage.

Newt Gingrich: against gay marriage, but on his third wife.

That recent convert to an anti gay-marriage stance, Rudy Giuliani: third wife. Rush Limbaugh: vehemently against gay marriage and....yep, third wife. A third wedding that was performed by none other than Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Clarence Thomas: second wife.

4 men, eleven marriages, and you must be lectured on love by them? This Mount Rushmore of Divorce!

Ladies and gentlemen, as all of you in this room know so well, political activism tells us now what history will tell us later.

The people who support "don't ask don't tell;" and who oppose "gay marriage" are wrong. And their children and grandchildren will know they were wrong.

This is the age of Obama. And the people who oppose these causes need to realize that. But there is someone else who needs to realize that this is the Age of Obama.

Obama.

It is time, Mr. President. Do not fall behind others on these issues. My God, Dick Cheney announced that he is in favor of gay marriage.

And on that very day, the National Weather Service reported hell froze over.

So Mr. President, please catch up. Or you are in danger of being considered "just to the right" of a man who is "just to the left" of Vlad-the-Impaler.

Newsweek magazine just said about gay marriage--and I quote: "This train's left the station. Time to get on board."

It is happening.

Something is changing.

Oh--there is still a lot of work to be done. But it will happen.

And when it does--when "Don't ask don't tell" is scrapped, when gay men and women can marry the people they love--when that day comes, people across this great land will be looking for a place to party.

And I say: Come on down to New Orleans! I'll be so happy I might swing naked in a window on Bourbon Street!

Me and Rachel Maddow!

Yes, across America we will celebrate because, at long last, that day will have arrived. But to the people in this room--that day will not only have arrived for you, it will have arrived because of you.

Thank you HRC. Here's to the violets.

Some jokes are never OK

I did not see the David Letterman show in which he made a tasteless joke about Sarah Palin and an even worse joke about her daughter.

I haven't watched David Letterman for years. I got tired of his sexism.

But I have read multiple news reports and watched video clips of his show in which these remarks were made. During a segment on the Top Ten Reasons Palin visited New York, one was to update her "slutty flight attendant look."

Even more egregiously, during his monologue, he said Palin attended a Yankees game with her daughter and "during the seventh inning her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."

The daughter with Gov. Palin was 14-year-old Willow.

I am no fan of Sarah Palin. I think she would have been a disaster as vice president. But Letterman's "jokes' were sexist in the extreme, insulting not only Palin but every flight attendant in the industry.

And there is no excuse possible for the remark about her daughter.

Bristol Palin did not run for office. Her mother did. Bristol Palin already has had her out-of-wedlock pregnancy held up for examination by the entire world. I think enough's enough for her.

Letterman should be ashamed of himself.

When faced with the outrage, Letterman issued a sort-of apology in which he said he was referring to 18-year-old Bristol and explained that he would never make, say, rape jokes about a 14-year-old.

Here's a news flash, Dave. Making rape jokes about an 18-year-old isn't OK either.

Read my lips.

Rape jokes are never OK.

Behind the screen

During the 1890’s Dr. M. Carey Thomas, later president of Bryn Mawr College, asked to attend a class at Johns Hopkins University school of medicine in Baltimore. No woman had ever before been permitted to attend the lectures, and Dr. Thomas was granted her request only on condition that she sit behind a screen so as not to offend and distract the male students.

In 1893, Florence Bascom was the first woman to to receive a PhD from Johns Hopkins. However, she too had to sit behind a screen so the male students would not know she was there and be offended or distracted.

British-born Charlotte Angas Scott (1858-1931) was pivotal in the development of mathematics education in the United States. She was among the first faculty members at Bryn Mawr College and the school's first head mathematics teacher. Scott was awarded a scholarship to Hitchin College (now Girton College, the women's division of Cambridge University). She and the other women in her class were all required to sit behind a screen that separated them from the male students and obscured their view of the blackboard. Women also were not permitted to be at the commencement exercises.

But that was all so long ago. Right? Well, requiring women students to sit behind a screen or even out in a hallway at schools, universities and seminaries continued in some schools in the U.S. right up until the early to mid part of the last century. The people in charge did not want the male students to be offended or distracted.

African Americans endured even worse indignities as white America enacted laws designed to keep them "in their place" so they could not offend the sensibilities of white people. That's what segregation and then the Jim Crow laws were all about.

Even recognized heroes were not immune to the insults. In 1971, after a 40-year career in baseball, Leroy “Satchel” Paige became the first Negro League Player voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

But Baseball Commissioner, Bowie Kuhn announced that Paige would be the first member of a Negro wing of the Hall of Fame. Sports writers exploded, saying that having a "Negro wing" was perpetuating the bad old separate-and-NOT-equal days of segregation. Outrage grew, and Kuhn finally convinced the board of the Hall of Fame that putting Paige in a separate corridor was a really bad idea. So Paige's plaque and those of other "Negro" players were put with all the rest.

It seems that any time those on the margins seek to be included, those in charge have moved to include them only after making sure the sensibilities of people like themselves [historically straight white men] are not offended.

That is what is happening in the Episcopal Church right now with our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender brothers and sisters in Christ. After years of steady pressure, the church is slowly making moves to include them, but only if they will in essence sit behind a screen so as not to offend any of the people already inside the room.

That's why Gene Robinson was not invited to Lambeth, although the Archbishop of Canterbury did offer to let him speak in an exhibit hall of the Marketplace . . .

That is what B033 was and is all about -- making sure that the presence of LGBT Episcopalians in our church won't offend anyone anywhere who is made the slightest bit uncomfortable by their presence.

And that is why the closeted panel that is studying same sex relationships wants to keep itself secret "for a season." We apparently even have to study LGBT folk from behind a screen.

Someday our children will read of this time in our history and be just as amazed and outraged as you were when you read the first paragraph of this blog.

I hope some of those children will still be in the Episcopal Church.

Bad timing or embarrassment?

UPDATE: Here is what 815's communication director Anne Rudig told Mark Harris about the change of text on the opening page of the Episcopal Church website:

"We shortened the copy so that there will be room for the Spanish translation (coming soon) below it. It is part of our effort to welcome in many languages. French will be next. We just thought the page needed freshening and perhaps some specificity for seekers. Sorry if you liked the first copy better. Don't worry - it will change again. [...]"

You can read Mark's comments on this here.

So Anne Rudig is saying it was just an update to the page to "freshen" and shorten it. But it's not significantly shorter.

However, I am reminded of a piece of wisdom one of my first city editors gave me. He said, "Never attribute to malice what can be explained by imcompetence."

In this situation, incompetence is too harsh a word. The Church Center staff for the most part is very competent. Here I think it would be more accurate to say, "Never attribute to malice what can be explained by obliviousness."

End of Update.
--------------------------------------

My friend Jan Adams alerted me to something:

"Facing criticism for withholding information from its 2.3 million members, the Episcopal Church has quietly removed from its new IAmEpiscopalian.org website assurances that the church is committed to openness and transparency in government.

For months, the site had proclaimed on its home page: “Our controversies and conversations have been public. Our governance is transparent. You are free to see our imperfections…” (See a copy of the original message here.)

http://biblebeltblogger.com/index.php/religion/facing-criticism-for-withholding-information-episcopal-church-removes-transparent-governance-pledge-from-website
or
http://tinyurl.com/l48gnk"
----------------------------

If you had gone to the Church Center's web site until very recently, you would have seen this [emphasis added]:
----------------------------
Welcome to I am Episcopalian, launched this Ash Wednesday 2009, the beginning of Lent.
The Episcopal Church is a big, colorful, vibrant church. We hope you will see that in the wide spectrum of its members represented here on this site.
In our Church you may touch ancient traditions and experience intelligent inquiry. It is an expansive Church, a loving Church, with strong ties to our roots as a nation. We are a thoughtful, inquiring, freedom-loving and welcoming body, and we thrive not only in the U.S., but also throughout Latin America, Asia and Europe.
We invite you to see and hear the very personal reasons we choose to be Episcopalians. Our controversies and conversations have been public. Our governance is transparent. You are free to see our imperfections, as well as share our joy in that which unites us - our openness, honesty and faith.
-----------------------------

But if you go there today, you will see this:

-----------------------------
The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
You will hear this recurring theme in the videos by clicking on them above. We welcome you not only in the U.S., but also in parts of Latin America, Asia and Europe.
In the Episcopal Church, we may all serve as preachers, teachers, or worship leaders. Both men and women are welcomed into ordained ministry. Each and everyone of the baptized may experience God's grace at the altar, and the knowledge that God loves you and forgives is always present.
The best way to experience how the Episcopal Church welcomes you is to visit. To find a church, please click "continue" below to the main website. To share a personal story of why you are an Episcopalian, follow the directions for uploading your video here.
--------------------------------

No reference at all to being a freedom-loving church, or to transparency, honesty, openness, or the "freedom to see our imperfections"?

Why the change? Was it just a "routine" updating of the I am Episcopalian page? Or was it to remove embarrassing statements about transparency in the wake of the refusal to identify the members of the panel of the House of Bishops' theology committee that is "studying" same sex unions?

If it is the former, the timing is really really unfortunate.

And if it is latter, well, it at least proves someone at the Church Center had the grace to be embarrassed about the hypocrisy of talking about transparency while a secret panel examines the lives of one part of the baptized.

Whichever it is, everyone should be embarrassed about the secrecy.

Enough already! End this season of waffling and delay

From Episcopal News Service:

"A group formed by Episcopal Church bishops to study the theology of same-gender relationships has begun its work, but the chair of the committee that appointed the panel refuses at least for now to identify its members, a decision that critics say is insulting and lacking in transparency."

Here's how the committee chair, Diocese of Alabama Bishop Henry Parsley, justifies the secrecy of the panel:

"We believe that for a season the work can best be accomplished by allowing the panel to work in confidence. This supports the full collegiality and academic freedom of the theologians and provides the space they need for the deep dialogue and reflection that is taking place among them."

And here's my reaction to this.

Bull**it.

If there is one thing a Texan recognizes, it is bull droppings. And this is a big pile of it.

-----------------------------------------

The ENS report continues, "While the study is mentioned in one paragraph of the House of Bishops Theology Committee's report to the 76th General Convention, the names of the "diverse and balanced panel of theologians" the report says have been appointed to the sub-committee are not included.
"The committee's report says the House of Bishop requested the study, which is described as "designed to reflect a full spectrum of views and to be a contribution to the Listening Process of the Anglican Communion, as well as to the discussion of this subject in our province." The report calls the study 'a long-term, multi-step project' designed to be completed in 2011.
"Parsley said in his statement that he wanted to 'assure those concerned that the panel very intentionally represents a robust range of views on the subject and includes gay and lesbian persons.'
"The project, he said, 'is designed to articulate theologically a full range of views on the matter of same sex relationships in the church's life and to foster better understanding and respectful discernment among us.'"

---------------------------------------------

Here's a piece of wisdom that I've learned from my LGBT friends as I've listened to them that I will share freely with Bishop Parsley and that is, the closet makes you sick.

No matter how you dress it up, no matter how you try to justify it, working in secret, living in secret makes you sick. It makes authenticity and integrity impossible.

What's more, as has been pointed out by Integrity time and again, and in the ENS story by the Rev. Dr. Ruth Meyers of the Chicago Consultation, this has been studied enough.

----------------------------

"Meyers said in her statement that 'the theological study of human sexuality is essential to our common life, to our mission and evangelism, and to our ability to live out our baptismal promises' and 'deserves to be no less than a model of the transparent governance that the Episcopal Church has upheld for centuries.'
"Commending the committee for continuing the effort to study the issues of human sexuality in the life of the church, Meyers noted three of four official Episcopal Church studies in 1994, 1997, 2000 and 2003 involved the House of Bishops Theology Committee. Those studies include:
the House of Bishops' 1994 'Continuing the Dialogue: a Pastoral Study Document of the House of Bishops to the Church as the Church Considers Issues of Human Sexuality';
'The Blessing of Same-Sex Relationships' report of the Standing Liturgical Commission with the Theology Committee of the House of Bishops to the 72nd General Convention in 1997;
the liturgical commission's report to the 2000 General Convention titled 'Theological Aspects of Committed Relationships of Same-Sex Couples'; and the House of Bishops Theology Committee's 2003 report 'The Gift of Sexuality: A Theological Perspective'".
-------------------------------------------

This "a long-term, multi-step project" is an obvious delaying tactic designed to give the House of Bishops cover for not moving beyond B033 and not moving toward marriage equality at this General Convention.

So, as a first-time deputy to General Convention, I want to know just how much more insult and injury are we planning to pile on the LGBT baptized?

First we asked LGBT priests to "for a season" stand aside and become official second class people in the church in an effort to appease those unhappy with the moves the Episcopal Church was making toward full inclusion of all the baptized in all the sacraments.

Convention 2006 scapegoated LGBT clergy to appease bullies. And for what? NOBODY claims it worked.

Now we are supposed to ask LGBT Episcopalians to "for a season" accept the secrecy of this panel in order to let the members "reflect deeply" on same sex relationships for three years.

Why? Are they afraid that if we know who the members are they might be -- God forbid -- talked to by people whose relationships are the focus of the study?

Isn't that what a "Listening Process" is?

Enough already! I'm calling for an end to this season of waffling and delay.

It is time for this church to have the courage to include all the baptized in all the sacraments. It is time to say to the Communion, let us show you how we can include all the baptized AND participate fully in the life of the Communion. They are not mutually exclusive.

Yes, such a decision will resonate throughout the Anglican Communion.

Yes, many of the powerful men in the Anglican Communion will be angered and will issue reports and make threats.

But I guarantee you that the most powerless in the Anglican Communion -- straight women, girl children, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Anglicans in Africa, in Asia, in South America, in all those places where speaking the truth about who they are can get them imprisoned or killed -- those Anglicans will stand up and cheer that the Episcopal Church had the courage to do the right thing. Our actions can give hope and a vision of how things can be to more people than we can ever imagine.

So where will we choose to stand at this General Convention?

With the powerful?

Or with the powerless?

That's our choice.

Playing catch-up

No, I haven't died. I just have not have time to blog.

I've been busy on deadlines for two videos for Integrity, then tending to a husband very suddenly and seriously ill with pneumonia [he is completely recovered, thanks be to God], then I was fighting the sinus infection from Hell, all while trying to keep up with work, the garden, the grandkids, all the good things happening in the Diocese of Fort Worth and life in general.

Several important family events happened. We celebrated Mother's Day:

My 91-year-old mother is sitting next to Gayland as the assembled clan eats, drinks and talks.

My daughter and her husband, two of my three brothers and nephews and grandchildren helped celebrate the day.

My beautiful daughter and her two gorgeous boys -- not that I'm biased or anything . . .


My son-in-law sends the boys flying on the swing, to their great delight.

What fun!
Then we all attended Gavin's play at his pre-school. He was a scarecrow.

He remembered all his lines.

He remembered all his gestures.

He liked his costume.

It was a good day.

And we all attended Curran's piano recital.

He was very poised and calm.

He played his piece accurately and well.

He even seemed to enjoy it a little bit.

Next came Gavin's "graduation" from preschool, which made his Mom and Dad a little teary-eyed.

It was a serious occasion for Gavin.

All the class was dressed in their very best.

Mrs. Ishrat will miss him -- and he will miss her!

The undermining of the Episcopal Church continues

UPDATED
There is news busting out all over cyberspace about a group of Episcopal Church bishops and rectors calling themselves Communion Partners and a group grandly named the Anglican Communion Institute Inc. who are working to establish as fact their "belief that Episcopal Church polity legitimately arises out of the autonomy of dioceses who gather in voluntary association at The Episcopal Church in General Convention. In this view it is the diocese and not The Episcopal Church that is the "basic unit" of The Episcopal Church. In this argument TEC is not a metropolitical entity, but rather a free association of dioceses."

In this world view, a diocese would have full right to sign on to an Anglican Covenant, thus maintaining its purity without having to leave the Episcopal Church for an entity such as ACNA -- the Anglican Church in North America, the "province' Duncan and Iker et al are trying to set up to replace The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada in North America.

But while these Communion Partner bishops and rectors say that this is a way to keep dioceses and parishes from leaving the Episcopal Church, they also have to know that this argument will be used against the Episcopal Church in the litigation now going on in the dioceses of San Joaquin, Fort Worth and Pittsburgh.

In their way of thinking, the as-yet-unfinished Anglican Covenant has morphed from a document spelling out ways a communion might live together in spite of differences over human sexuality [its original purpose in The Windsor Report] into a document that vouches for signatories' orthodoxy.

Remember the attorney Mark McCall who wrote a piece defending the idea that the Episcopal Church is not hierarchical? Well, he and the Communion partners are in bed together, as revealed in a string of emails reported both on Mark Harris' blog and on Thinking Anglicans. The Episcopal Cafe is also on the case.

Please take the time to read these reports, for they give details about how the undermining of the Episcopal Church continues and how many bishops who pledged to uphold the constitution and canons of the Episcopal Church are willing to do just about anything to avoid having to acknowledge the authority of Katharine Jefferts Schori. Indeed, my initial impression on reading the string of emails was, "This is a bunch of men saying 'She's not the boss of me!"

All the writers of these emails are men, but there is one female bishop signed on as a Communion Partner. That would be, to the surprise of no one, Bishop Geralyn Wolf of Rhode Island, also known to many in the Anglican Communion as an honorary man. Both bishops of the Diocese of Dallas are Communion Partners. [Side note -- Now do you see why it wasn't ever a good idea to fold our diocese in with the Diocese of Dallas?]

It is interesting that none of this passionate discussion of the autonomy of dioceses arose until a woman was elected presiding bishop and primate. But this goes beyond misogyny. This is serious meddling in legal cases that directly affect us here in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth.

As Thinking Anglicans Simon Sarmiento writes:
"The arguments being put forward by Communion Partners about the autonomy of TEC dioceses apply also of course to those dioceses which now claim to have left TEC. And the ACI is clearly aware that the forthcoming CP statement could be used in the litigation which is ensuing in relation to those dioceses (San Joaquin, Fort Worth, Quincy, and Pittsburgh). "

So please take time to read all this reporting. It will give you a better understanding of how some of our former bishop's friends in the Episcopal Church continue to further his schismatic cause as well as an understanding of some of the political forces that will be in play at General Convention this summer.

Note -- these guys LOVE acronyms. So here's a glossary:
PV -- Pastoral Visitors -- a kind of ecclesiastical SWAT team suggested in drafts of the Anglican Covenant that would be sent into any province that misbehaved to try to straighten it out.
CP - Communion Partners.
ACNA -- Anglican Church in North America -- the "province" of which Duncan will most like be made archbishop and to which Iker hopes to adhere his group.
ACI -- Anglican Communion Institute.
CO- Colorado.
Beers is a reference to David Beers, the chancellor for the presiding bishop.
Any place name with a plus sign in front of it is a reference to a bishop, as in +SC, which is a reference to Mark Lawrence, the bishop of South Carolina. +Salmon is the retired bishop of South Carolina. +O'Neil is the bishop of Colorado, the target of some interesting manipulation in these emails. + Wimberly is the retired bishop of the Diocese of Texas, + Hathaway is the retired bishop of Pittsburgh, +MacPherson is the bishop of Western Louisiana.

And as you read, ponder this question asked in a comment on Thinking Anglicans:
Once again, I fail to see how an entity--such as a diocese--that owes its very existence to its creation by a larger entity--the national church--can claim that it is an autonomous entity. Have these bishops and rectors even READ the canons and charters they pledged to uphold when they were ordained and consecrated?

And here's a statement from Integrity about these political machinations:

Integrity applauds the “outing” of both the “Bishops’ Statement on the Polity of the Episcopal Church” and the email trail between the framers and signers of a document clearly designed to continue to undermine the mission and ministry of the Episcopal Church.

Though couched in ecclesiastical language, the statement is an entirely political document. It attempts to lay the foundation for an unprecedented power grab by anti-gay bishops who will assert that they are not bound by the Episcopal Church’s governing body: General Convention.

These bishops seek to increase their own authority, while diminishing the role of the laity and clergy in the governance of the church.

“We have been given a look at ’the men behind the curtain’ manipulating a schism driven agenda while professing to work transparently for reconciliation”, said Integrity President Susan Russell.

“To quote one long-time ally’s response to these documents, ‘This is stunning. It is remarkable to think about the plotting that is going on. In many ways I am just too naïve.’”

“This statement – and the email trail leading up to its creation – should be required reading for all who will be making decisions in good faith at our upcoming General Convention,” said Russell. “We cannot afford to be naïve about the forces working to divide this church and distract it from its call to live out the gospel in the world. And we must not accept the false choice between unity and justice being presented by the very people working behind the scenes to create disunity and foment schism.”

The argument that dioceses are independent of the Episcopal Church is novel, and a creature of convenience. It seeks to camouflage the desire of anti-gay bishops and theologians to punish the Church for consecrating an openly gay bishop and permitting the blessing of same-sex relationships in some dioceses.

The authors of these emails profess to be loyal Episcopalians, but they openly express their hope that this statement will be used in litigation by individuals who have left the Episcopal Church to join forces with virulently anti-gay bishops in other parts of the world and are attempting to take the Church’s property with them.

A number of the bishops who have reportedly signed on to this statement are members of the "Communion Partners Bishops’ Network." When founded, this group pledged to work transparently and in cooperation with the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in attempting to reconcile those of differing theological views. These emails make clear that the group instead was working surreptitiously to undermine the Bishop of Colorado, and seeking to set up a system of episcopal oversight controlled entirely by the Communion Partners.

The work of reconciliation in the Anglican Communion was thoroughly compromised by a theologian and a bishop named in this correspondence who used their positions on important Communion-wide bodies to advance the agenda of the Communion Partners network. The Rev. Ephraim Radner, who is copied on these emails and whose name appears on the statement, helped draft the proposed Anglican Covenant. Bishop Gary Lilibridge, who the emails suggest offered advice on drafting the statement, was a member of the Communion’s Windsor Continuation Group.

Both bodies produced documents that create significant impediments to the full inclusion of LGBT Christians in the Church, while the proposed covenant removed obstacles to the inclusion of anti-gay churches, dioceses and parishes in the councils of the Communion.

The emails concerning the Diocese of Colorado make clear that this group will use the proposed Anglican Covenant as a tool for moving individual congregations out from under the authority of their diocesan bishops. This strategy can be employed not only in the Episcopal Church, but across the Anglican Communion.

"It is time for The Episcopal Church to "just say no" to the forces working to divide it and get on with bringing people into the work and witness of the gospel," concluded Russell. "Our Lord promised us that the truth will set us free. Our prayer is that knowing more now about the truth of what is going on behind the scenes of the Communion Partners Network will indeed set us free to get with the work of being the church in the world for ALL God's beloved human family."

--Posted to Walking With Integrity at 4/22/2009 01:59:00 PM

All the mommies

This week my 4-year-old grandson Gavin had a visitor come to his Montessori preschool. It was the mother of his classmate Paxton.

"Paxton's mommy drives an airplane!" Gavin exclaimed when he got into the car. "She flies to Asia, Russia, New York and Mexico."

And indeed she does. She's a pilot for Delta Airlines, and she told the children all about the cockpit, the check list, and the stars on a captain's uniform. She also gave them balsa wood airplanes with "Delta" on them and Delta pencils that change color when rubbed vigorously by small hands.

Gavin chattered about this most of the afternoon as we put the small wooden plane together and flew it in the front yard, the living room, and the back yard. When part of the tail broke off, Gavin took to running with the plane in his hands, making airplane noises and telling me that "Now Paxton's mommy is doing a loop! And now she's flying over the ocean!"

For Gavin, a woman as an airline pilot is an interesting piece of information that makes for a fun afternoon of pretend. For me, it was a yet another satisfying resolution to years of advocating for women's equality in the workplace.

The mommies of Gavin's friends include stay-at-home moms, lawyers, teachers, physicians, sales executives and women who work in all manner of professions. One woman he considers a personal friend is a state senator.

This is the new normal.

But it is a hard-fought-for and hard-won normal.

The mommies of these mommies worked and lobbied hard so that their daughters and their daughter's daughters would have opportunities that were denied to us and to our mothers.

I remember the exact second I became a feminist. It was the moment the nurse handed me my newborn daughter. I held her and said, "Hello baby. I'm your mommy."

And this little squinched-up bundle of humanity opened the most amazing blue eyes I have ever seen and looked directly at me. Our eyes met and it felt like a bolt of electricity went through my body. This was my little girl.

From that moment on, I knew I would do whatever I had to do to insure her life was filled with all good things. I wanted her to be able to be all she was capable of being.

Well, it seems other mommies of other baby girls were having similar experiences. We were part of the Women's Movement. The media and other women derided us as "women libbers" and "bra burners" and, of course, man haters.

The media is only now realizing that it was never about hating men. It was always about loving women and women's abilities, about allowing them to explore all life can offer if they are willing to work hard enough to reach their goals.

For me, the definition of feminist is a person who believes that women and men are made in the image of God. And as such, both women and men are deserving of respect and opportunity.

I adore my grandsons. I want the same opportunities for them that I want for their female friends. I want little Paxton to have as many opportunities as I want for Gavin. She is as much the future of our country as is he.

So hooray for Paxton's mommy, and for all the mommies -- of whatever race, creed or color -- who are working hard to keep the promise of a nation where all are created equal. If we keep this up, we may yet make that promise come true for all women and men, all girls and boys.

Let justice roll down

On Tuesday, April 14, 2009, the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, the Corporation of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and the Episcopal Church filed suit in the 141st District Court of Tarrant County, Texas in part to recover property and assets of the Episcopal Church. The defendants are former members of the corporation’s board and the former bishop of the diocese, all of whom have left the Episcopal Church.

The petition seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, damages, an accounting, and attorney fees and costs. The petition can be seen here.

This lawsuit is necessary because of actions and decisions of these former diocesan leaders that sought to alienate property and assets of the Episcopal Church and deprived Episcopalians of their use and benefit. Despite courteous demand, the defendants and others continue to use the name and seal of the Diocese and maintain possession and control over diocesan property, including the Diocesan Center, Camp Crucis in Hood County, and significant funds, including endowed funds given for the use of the Episcopal Church.

The Episcopal Church is a party to this litigation and has been very supportive of local efforts to maintain continuity of worship, ministry and mission by and for Episcopalians in North Texas. The Rt. Rev. Edwin F. Gulick Jr., provisional bishop, supports the litigation, as does the Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, and the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Recent court decisions in the dioceses of Los Angeles, San Diego, Rochester, Long Island, Colorado and elsewhere have been decided in favor of the Episcopal Church and against those who have sought to leave the Episcopal Church and take its property with them.

The Episcopal Church is an autonomous Province of the Anglican Communion in the United States, Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe.

The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth covers 23 counties in North Texas.

The Episcopal Church has a long history in this part of North Texas. Since the mid-19th century, long before the plaintiff diocese was formed, its geographic territory was part of other missionary districts or dioceses of the Episcopal Church. In 1838, The Episcopal Church formed its “Missionary District of the Southwest,” which included the state of Texas, under the jurisdiction of Missionary Bishop Leonidas Polk. In 1850, the General Convention admitted the Diocese of Texas as a part of The Episcopal Church. In 1874, the General Convention divided the Diocese of Texas into the continuing diocese of Texas and the Missionary Districts of North Texas and West Texas. In 1895, upon action of the General Convention, the Missionary District of North Texas became the Episcopal Church’s Diocese of Dallas. In 1982, the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth was created by General Convention from the western part of the Diocese of Dallas. It continues to carry out the work of the Episcopal Church under the direction of Bishop Gulick.

------------------------------------------

Pastoral Letter from the Rt. Rev. Edwin F. Gulick Jr.

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, heir and steward of the legacy of generations of faithful Episcopalians, has this day brought suit to recover that legacy. We deeply regret that the decisions and actions of former diocesan leaders have brought us to this difficult moment.

Even before 1850 when this area was part of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas, faithful Episcopalians were preaching the saving gospel of Jesus Christ as part of the Episcopal Church in North Texas. After the General Convention created our diocese in 1982, that work continued. Today we, with our Presiding Bishop, remain committed to preaching the gospel as we celebrate the sacraments, care for those in need, and strive for justice and peace. This litigation is designed to move quickly to confirm the historical right of Episcopalians to lead the diocese as stewards of its property as we in humility and hope continue the mission of the Episcopal Church here.

Please pray for patience while the legal proceedings go forward. These first steps are crucial in confirming the continuing diocese’s unbroken historic connection with the Episcopal Church and the church property. We will then proceed to deal more directly to recover and restore specific parish property. Be assured, however, both the Presiding Bishop and I are aware of your pain and frustration, as well as being committed to addressing your local concerns thoroughly.

We bid the prayers of all faithful Episcopalians and other Christians as we protect our legacy and fulfill the trust and dreams of those who have gone before.

Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine: Glory to him from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3:20,21

The Rt. Rev. Edwin F. Gulick, Jr., D.D.
Bishop of Kentucky and Provisional Bishop of Fort Worth
----------------------------------------

Statement from the Office of the Presiding Bishop concerning actions in Fort Worth today.

The Episcopal Church, with the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and the Corporation of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, filed in court today for a declaratory judgment as the rightful owners of all diocesan property, real and personal, including funds and endowments. We feel sorrow that the former diocesan leaders took such actions that led us to this time. However, this is a necessary step in order for the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, comprised of Episcopalians of the full theological spectrum, to continue its gospel work in Texas. In other court venues, the courts have ruled in favor of the Episcopal Church and we anticipate a favorable outcome in this case and to a continuation of The Episcopal Church's mission priorities.
---------------------------------------

"Let justice roll down like water, and righteousness as a mighty stream."
Amos 5:24

Taking stock

The beginning of the Easter Season seems a good time to take stock of where we in the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth are as we go about the task of beginning a new chapter in our history.

St. Augustine said, “Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are Anger and Courage: Anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.”

Hope's two beautiful daughters have been in evidence here for a long long time.

Many people were long angered and dismayed by the direction our former diocesan leadership chose, and many people courageously spoke up in favor of inclusion of all the baptized, something viewed with distaste and even hostility by our former leaders.

The long faithful work of these folks has paid off, and today the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth moves into the Easter season -- for the most part -- full of hope, energy, and excitement.

But inevitably there are some of us who remain stuck-- stuck in the anger, stuck in the fear.

And no wonder. It is hard, after all the years of being ignored or worse, abused, to unclench one's fists and jaws. Change is hard when you know only one way of being "church." It is made even harder by years of deliberate isolation of the diocese from the larger church.

For the clergy it can be hard because they were expected to be "in charge" and certainly in control of "their" lay people.

For the laity it can be hard because they were expected to sit down, shut up, pray and pay and do what "father" said.

Building a healthy diocese in which the bishop, clergy and laity work together to the mutual good of all and to the end of carrying out God's work in this part of North Texas is our goal. We want a diocese in which transparency and shared ministry is the norm, not the exception. We want a diocese in which all the baptized are welcome and valued and yes, loved.

But if birth is hard, rebirth is harder.

Our old default settings may not have been fun, but they ARE familiar. There can be a kind of strange comfort in that. Fear is the enemy of change, and it whispers seductively of the ease of just letting things go on the way they were.

Plus, many people could easily slide into anger every Sunday as they yet once again haul in an altar and all the things they carry in the trunk of their cars to set up for Sunday Eucharist in a rented space while their own buildings are occupied by non-Episcopalians. The miracle is that so few do revisit that anger.

Indeed, our displaced parishes are among the healthier places in the diocese. They have left fear behind along with most of their parish possessions. They are too busy doing ministry to waste time whining. They do expect to back in their buildings eventually, but they are not making that the center of their lives. They report a sense of liberation, of excitement, of energy and of endless possibility.

They are teaching the rest of us many things, among them patience. They know that time is our best friend right now.

Wounds take time to heal. It takes time to build trust. It takes time to learn new ways of being.

Bishop Ted Gulick is understanding this more with every day he spends in the diocese. And while he is tending to the wounds, he is not encouraging anyone to dwell on them. He takes seriously the harm done here, but even more seriously the work of becoming healthy.

He is loving us, teaching us, partnering with us in learning change.

He wants us all out there living the gospel message, not inside licking our wounds.

Yes, there is still much work to do. But all in all as we enter the Easter Season, I'd say the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth is doing well and getting better every day.

Eastertide

The Lord is Risen! Alleluia!

One of my favorite things in a bronze sculpture by David Newton. It is the moment of Resurrection -- we look on as Death loses its grip on Jesus.

In this piece, Resurrection doesn't look easy. But then, maybe it never is.

There are many things trying to keep us from entering into new life,

fear being the strongest. Easter reminds us that it is worth the effort.

After church, my family gathered for a meal cooked by my talented son-in-law and then, of course, multiple Easter egg hunts.

Curran and Gavin looked for the eggs hidden by their father and me.

There were a few debates about who saw which egg first.

Gavin was astonished to discover candy inside some of the eggs!

Molly dog supervised the hunts, and then walked the garden with me as the day wound down.

Bouganvillea bloomed inside the greenhouse as Rose of Sharon sprouted baby leaves outside.

The beloved Texas Bluebonnets lit up the grass.

Dwarf cannas caught the late sun.

Pincushion flowers leaned on one another.

A late but much appreciated daffodil showed up.

The Spiderwort's lovely flowers once again redeemed its unfortunate name.

Geraniums by the fountain glowed as the sun sank in the sky.

Clematis went from purple to pink as the light changed.

And the Chapel Garden choir greeted the vesper light.

May your Easter season be filled with beauty, courage, and laughter.