Being a Christian in Everyday Life

The Anglican Witness initiative, coordinated by the Anglican Communion Office, has produced a new video, Being a Christian in everyday life, to highlight current issues in churches in the Global South and North, with a view to a possible Communion-wide response through a focus on discipleship or Christian living. [ACNS]

Learn more here.

Gun Violence

In the face of so much gun violence in our society (mass shootings, children killing children, murder-suicides, and accidents), we need to ask what we can do to limit the carnage we see daily.

I found this article to be helpful:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/opinion/sunday/nicholas-kristof-a-new-way-to-tackle-gun-deaths.html

What we need is an evidence-based public health approach — the same model we use to reduce deaths from other potentially dangerous things around us, from swimming pools to cigarettes. We’re not going to eliminate guns in America, so we need to figure out how to coexist with them. ~ Nicholas Kristof

(and if you think his statistics are wrong, go here: http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2015/oct/06/nicholas-kristof/nicholas-kristof-gun-deaths-preschoolers-police/ )

He is right.  If we are going to live with them, we must decide the rules, and the current rules are ineffective...

“We will no longer be silent while violence permeates our world, our society, our Church, our homes and ourselves. Our faith calls us to be ministers of reconciliation, to give voice to the voiceless and to strive for justice in the name of our Lord.” Bishops Ian T. Douglas, James E. Curry and Laura J. Ahrens of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut

Learn more here: http://bishopsagainstgunviolence.org/

Changing the Narrative on Race

This is important and I found it to be very helpful, even if it is only a taste.  I look forward to more from Trinity Church and the Trinity Institute...

We indeed need truth and reconciliation here.

Mass Incarceration?

At General Convention this year, a resolution passed: A183 Recommended Book Study of the Triennium: “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander

You can read about it here.

There is a lively debate going on about this but there is no denying that mass incarceration exists.

From a conservative standpoint:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/415557/republicans-rethinking-tough-crime-michael-tanner

I am glad to see the author acknowledges the need to end the status quo even if he misses on some issues; yes, racism is real.  For profit prisons exacerbate the problem.  And choice is not all that its cracked up to be...

Looking at it through the lens of race and family:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/the-black-family-in-the-age-of-mass-incarceration/403246/

We will in 2016, begin our discussions at our parish on mass incarceration.

In the mean time, to just think about a piece of the larger issue of mass incarceration, here is John Oliver of HBO on public defenders (NSFW - language!):

A lively debate is happening here with some good back and forth:

http://www.theatlantic.com/notes/all/2015/09/debating-mass-incarceration/405694/

The Big Class: A Christian Response to Gun Violence

Episcopal Bishops Teach Free, Online Course: A Christian Response to Gun Violence
September 14 - 28

www.churchnext.tv > The Big Class

The grief around senseless killings involving firearms has put a pall over our nation, and many concerned Christians wonder what we can do. Join thousands of people from around the world for a free online class called "A Christian Response to Gun Violence."

The course is taught by Episcopal bishops Eugene Sutton (Maryland) and Ian Douglas (Connecticut), who are co-founders of Bishops United Against Gun Violence.

Register for free beginning Monday, August 31, go to churchnext.tv and click on The Big Class.

Then the course can be taken for free from September 14 - 28. It will take an average student
45 minutes to complete and no special software is required. The course is free to all!

Living into Marriage Equality for Christians

I came across two posts recently that look at the issue of Marriage Equality through the eyes of Scripture and the Sacraments. I believe Christians should be celebrating with our brothers and sisters who are LGBT and supporting them in their lives (more on that soon).

But for those on the fence or not sure what they should believe about all this, I invite you to look at these two articles (links below):

http://www.therebelgod.com/2015/08/homosexuality-and-why-you-cant-remove.html

In other words, their position —and this is by far the most common position among conservatives today— is essentially that it does not matter what you or I think, it does not matter what we can observe, it does not matter what gay people tell us... all that matters is what the Bible says. The Bible condemns it, that settles it. All we need to do, they argue, is to look to what Scripture clearly teaches about homosexuality, and regard this as the final and authoritative word on the matter.

As I demonstrate in Disarming Scripture, there is a major flaw in this kind of reasoning. Using this exact same approach to the Bible has lead Christians in the past to support both slavery and child abuse based on the “authority of Scripture.”

https://sojo.net/articles/same-sex-marriage-and-sacramental-unity

In 1963, William Stringfellow - movement theologian, Sojourners mentor, and gay man - had the following to say about mainline churches who were pondering whether to join the struggle for African-American civil rights:
The issue here...is not some common spiritual values, nor natural law, nor middle axioms. The issue is baptism. The issue is the unity of all humanity wrought by God in the life and work of Christ. Baptism is the sacrament of that unity of all human life in God.
We hear these words anew in the present moment in light of the contemporary public debate over same-sex marriage.

Events in recent months have highlighted same-sex marriage as an issue of full inclusion in both church and society. We receive this as a kind of kairos moment for Christian disciples, specifically those like ourselves who enjoy heterosexual privilege (including the rights of marriage), to act in public solidarity with gays and lesbians, particularly those in the faith, too long shunted to the margin.

- See more at: https://sojo.net/articles/same-sex-marriage-and-sacramental-unity#sthash.gi1NRGry.dpuf

In 1963, William Stringfellow - movement theologian, Sojourners mentor, and gay man - had the following to say about mainline churches who were pondering whether to join the struggle for African-American civil rights:

The issue here...is not some common spiritual values, nor natural law, nor middle axioms. The issue is baptism. The issue is the unity of all humanity wrought by God in the life and work of Christ. Baptism is the sacrament of that unity of all human life in God.

We hear these words anew in the present moment in light of the contemporary public debate over same-sex marriage.

St. Peter's Day (& St. Paul)

St. Peter
(sonnet by Malcom Guite)
 
Impulsive master of misunderstanding
You comfort me with all your big mistakes;
Jumping the ship before you make the landing,
Placing the bet before you know the stakes.
I love the way you step out without knowing,
The way you sometimes speak before you think,
The way your broken faith is always growing,
The way he holds you even when you sink.
Born to a world that always tried to shame you,
Your shaky ego vulnerable to shame,
I love the way that Jesus chose to name you,
Before you knew how to deserve that name.
And in the end your Saviour let you prove
That each denial is undone by love.

Prayer for Saint Peter and Saint Paul  ~  June 29
 
Almighty God, whose blessed apostles Peter and Paul glorified
you by their martyrdom: Grant that your Church, instructed by
their teaching and example, and knit together in unity by your
Spirit, may ever stand firm upon the one foundation, which
is Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the
unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Great article:  http://andrewmarrosb.wordpress.com/2013/06/25/peter-and-paul-the-churchs-quest-for-mimetic-unity/