LGBT Newsletter. Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi Committee on Ministry with LGBT Persons February, 2016

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "LGBT Newsletter. Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi Committee on Ministry with LGBT Persons February, 2016"

Benjamin Wood
6 years ago
Views:

We believe this to be a fabulous upcoming spiritual retreat for LGBT persons and our allies in the state. We especially thank Bishop Seage for reaching out to Bishop Robinson late last year.

He was elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire on June 7, 2003, having served as Canon to the Ordinary (assistant to the bishop) for nearly 18 years.

His story is featured in the 2007 feature-length documentary, For the Bible Tells Me So, and his book In the Eye of the Storm: Swept to the Center by God was released in 2008.

In 2012, he authored God Believes in Love: Straight Talk About Gay Marriage, and a feature-length documentary on Bishop Robinson s ministry, Love Free or Die, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival

1 LGBT Newsletter Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi Committee on Ministry with LGBT Persons February, 2016 The Committee on Ministry with LGBT Persons in MS, is extremely pleased to announce our speaker for the Eleventh Annual Spiritual Renewal Retreat at the Gray Center in August. Our speaker is the Retired Bishop Gene Robinson! We believe this to be a fabulous upcoming spiritual retreat for LGBT persons and our allies in the state. We especially thank Bishop Seage for reaching out to Bishop Robinson late last year. The dates for the upcoming retreat are August 26, 27, and 28, Save the Dates!! "V. Gene Robinson is a Senior Fellow at American Progress. He was elected bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire on June 7, 2003, having served as Canon to the Ordinary (assistant to the bishop) for nearly 18 years. He was consecrated a bishop on All Saints Sunday, November 2, 2003, and was invested as the Ninth Bishop of New Hampshire on March 7, His story is featured in the 2007 feature-length documentary, For the Bible Tells Me So, and his book In the Eye of the Storm: Swept to the Center by God was released in Bishop Robinson was invited by Barack Obama to give the invocation at the opening inaugural ceremonies at the Lincoln Memorial on January 18, In 2012, he authored God Believes in Love: Straight Talk About Gay Marriage, and a feature-length documentary on Bishop Robinson s ministry, Love Free or Die, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival that same year. Robinson graduated from the University of the South in 1969 with a B.A. in American studies and history. In 1973, he completed the M.Div. degree at the General Theological Seminary in New York, and was ordained deacon and then priest, serving as curate at Christ Church, Ridgewood, New Jersey." Your Committee will be working with Bishop Robinson on the contents of the Retreat, and we believe this could be a powerful and meaningful experience for all of us. Peace, Pepper ( )

The Committee on Ministry with LGBT Persons The Rev. Dr. Lynn Barker - St. Francis', Philadelphia The Rev. Dr. Susan Hrostowski - St. Elizabeth's, Collins Ms. Betty Melton - St. Paul's, Meridian Ms.

AZ (Butch) Rains - St. Andrew's Cathedral, Jackson Mr. Ben Roach - St. Alexis', Jackson Dr. Robert Stewart - St. Peter's, Oxford Dr. Robin Webb - Calvary, Cleveland The Rev.

Thanks, Pepper I am proud of our Presiding Bishop, The Most Rev. Michael Curry and our own Bishop, The Rt. Rev. Brian Seage for their comments regarding same sex marriage.

2 The Committee on Ministry with LGBT Persons The Rev. Dr. Lynn Barker - St. Francis', Philadelphia The Rev. Dr. Susan Hrostowski - St. Elizabeth's, Collins Ms. Betty Melton - St. Paul's, Meridian Ms. Lori Mitchell - St. Paul s, Columbus Mr. Webb Morgan - St. Andrew's Cathedral, Jackson The Rev. Janet Ott - St. Mark's, Raymond Suzanne Pepper St. Phillips, Jackson - Chairperson Mr. AZ (Butch) Rains - St. Andrew's Cathedral, Jackson Mr. Ben Roach - St. Alexis', Jackson Dr. Robert Stewart - St. Peter's, Oxford Dr. Robin Webb - Calvary, Cleveland The Rev. Deacon Scott Williams - St. Peter's by-the-sea, Gulfport Expect to hear more from your committee in 2016 about working around the Diocese and on the upcoming Spiritual Retreat in August. Thanks, Pepper I am proud of our Presiding Bishop, The Most Rev. Michael Curry and our own Bishop, The Rt. Rev. Brian Seage for their comments regarding same sex marriage. Bishop Curry spoke up at the Anglican Primates Meeting after The Episcopal Church was sanctioned for agreeing to permit same sex marriages. He stated that it is the vocation of our Church and the work of the Jesus Movement to ensure that all of God's children are welcomed and loved. He has stated in the past that he fully supports same sex marriage. At our recent Council, Bishop Seage stated that he will add a fourth option for churches and couples to use as we come together to explore avenues for same sex couples to marry and that he too fully supports this right. I am thankful that our leaders are providing opportunities for people of differing opinions to listen to one another in love and respect, and to find a path to same sex marriage that is acceptable to all. The Rev. Deacon Deborah Hanson This was only my second time to attend Annual Council, and my first time to travel for it. I had a great time catching up with friends from around the diocese, especially the new friends I met last August at the Spiritual Renewal Retreat. The bishop's address on Friday night was one of the highlights of the weekend as he spent a fair amount of time talking about marriage equality. Knowing that our spiritual leader is supportive of the LGBT community is a huge deal for me, and I really feel like he has prayerfully considered his actions on this topic. Looking forward to seeing everyone at Gray Center in August! Webb Morgan

THE PEOPLE RESPOND IN PRAYER As people of God, we hear the Word of God read and preached regularly. Our response to God s Word comes, of course, in our actions, but it also comes in our prayers.

3 THE PEOPLE RESPOND IN PRAYER As people of God, we hear the Word of God read and preached regularly. Our response to God s Word comes, of course, in our actions, but it also comes in our prayers. Yet how many of us regularly pray to God in response to what we are hearing? Or how many of us find ourselves in places of such inarticulate fear or need or even exaltation that we cannot pray at all? We are here together, today, and this is a perfectly appropriate place and time for us to voice our prayers to God in response to what God has conveyed to us, both in the Word of God printed on pages and in the Word of God made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord. I offer the following prayers on behalf of all, leaving spaces for you to utter in the privacy of your own heart or aloud the prayers that you offer to God today. Patient and loving God, we offer you these prayers in response to what you have communicated to us. Lord, our world feels as if it is filled with threats. We fear the enemies of this country. We fear the forces which seem bent on taking this country to ungodly places and actions. We fear that we have lost the ability to see the face of Jesus in the other. We fear that we will not have enough. We fear because powerful weapons have now been developed and appropriated by forces which will use those weapons to our harm, and to the harm of all your people. Gracious God, our mortality and the mortality of those we love brings to our hearts deep sadness and deep fear, despite our faith in you. We pray now for eyes which allow us to see beyond the challenges of mortality to the promises of immortality. We pray for eyes which allow us to see the God in every person of every color, every nation, every party, every religion, every opinion. Divide our sorrows and multiply our rejoicing. When we endure grief and suffering, give us a clarity to understand that you have not abandoned us, but that you are with us always. Dear God, we place before you all of our fears, those we have named and those we cannot even find the courage to name. Lord, remind us constantly of your perfect love which casts out all fear. Blanket and vanquish our fear, God of peace. And from that place of peace in you, give us the courage to change and to grow into your loving body on earth. Allow us to remember what we truly believe, dear Lord, that because our Redeemer Jesus Christ has been resurrected, we too will be resurrected. Help us to remember, when we face illness, injury, or weakness, that we have immortality in you, that we have transcendence in you. Open our hearts fully to invite the presence of your Holy Spirit into us through worship, community, action, and study. Make us into vessels of your grace, a grace so obvious that others ignore the baggage of religion and are drawn to the gifts of faith. Teach us hospitality so unencumbered by condition and self-interest that that hospitality invites others to seek you and to find you. We pray to you in thanksgiving for community: for the body of Christ lived out in this assembly, in our own churches, in our homes, in our relationships. Give us the appreciation of community, and the wisdom to strengthen community in all its forms. Draw us into cohesive, loving, and productive groups which work in your name. When other groups disagree with us, give us the strength and the compassionate to stop marginalizing, to stop dividing into us and them. Allow us to hear dissenting views with grace, and make us open to compromise, cooperation, and transformation. Teach us to resist the forces which work against God. Help us to practice gracious discipline so that we no longer have the instinct to gossip, to close out. Remove our misguided glee for the downfall of those with whom we disagree. Unite us through your Holy Spirit; show us that our fractiousness, no matter how much we can rationalize it, inflicts wounds on the body of Christ. Give us the clarity of loving vision that we truly live out our belief in one Body, one Spirit, one hope in God s call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. Make us remember, God of light, that we are one. (Continued next page)

Encourage us to detach regularly from our screens, that we may retreat into silence, as Jesus did, rather than allowing the whole virtual world to follow us everywhere and intrude on our

4 Lord, we struggle to identify and to live into priorities which are your will. Our world has become so noisy, so filled with technology that we very often fail to see the face of the person standing in front of us. Encourage us to detach regularly from our screens, that we may retreat into silence, as Jesus did, rather than allowing the whole virtual world to follow us everywhere and intrude on our relationships, with you and with the other. Loosen our grip on material things and their grip on us. Teach us to have generous hearts and generous spirits, to share our physical, emotional, and spiritual abundance to all who hunger and thirst for you. Give us such an awareness of your grace that we use our abundance to fill others true needs, and that we allow others to help us rather than insisting on the illusion of self-reliance. Allow us to see not with the vision of the jaded, the cynical, the critical. Allow us to see with the eyes of grace, that we may see your image, face to face, in all persons. Transform us into human beings who truly and daily respect the dignity of every human being. Transform us into persons who value you and other human beings above all selfish interest. Give us such an awareness of your grace that it will overflow into our relationships with all persons. In an atmosphere crowded with strident, self-centered, and ill-informed voices, whisper to us your will, for each of us. Whisper to us ways to find, even in those with whom we disagree, a place to reconcile ourselves to your presence and your grace. Whisper to us that your image lives in every human being, and give us the gift of seeking reconciliation with all persons, no matter how much they may differ from us. Quicken our trust in you, that we may entrust to you those whom we love. Give them, through us, the great joy of knowing themselves to be your beloved, and the great freedom of knowing such belovedness as the only status that matters. Free them, and us, from the self-inflicted burdens of measuring up, accomplishing, and succeeding. We bring before you this day, dear God of mercy and forgiveness, of power and glory, these our responses to your Word. We bring before you all of our debilitating fears, our soaring joys, our gifts and blessings. We bring before you every concern voiced and unvoiced of the human condition. We are mortal, flawed human beings trying to live into your image as incarnate in Jesus Christ. Show us how to be the Christ to our world, dear Lord. Show us, and give us the courage to live into what you have shown us. Embrace us, dear God. Comfort us. Inspire us. Challenge us. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and the Word of God incarnate, that we pray. Amen. Copyright 2016 by Carol L. Mead. ( Holy Ordinary: Finding God in the Everyday. The Diocesan Committee on Ministry with LGBT Persons and The Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi present The Eleventh Annual Spiritual Renewal Retreat August 26-28, 2016 Gray Center - Canton, MS

'41 5 - John Davis February 11 - Carlene

com so your special day can acknowledged.

5 Happy Anniversary March 31 Janet & Luther Ott April 6 - Carlene Barkley & Suzanne Todd 12 - LJ Hunt & Ron Hudgens Happy Birthday January 1 - Pete Eubanks ' John Davis February 11 - Carlene Barkley ' Luther Ott ' Ceil Bunyard March 4 - John Kellogg 4 - Tait Kellogg April 19 Greg Germany 23 - L.J. Hunt Send your anniversary and birth dates to diomslgbt@gmail.com so your special day can acknowledged. 189th Annual Council Being One Church Please Visit the Committee on Ministry with LGBT Persons' Web site at:

Give it back to me. That deep and unrelenting sadness over your losses shows only how deeply you have loved, how deeply you are loved.

6 Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46: 10) Be still. Lay down your armor, in all its forms. Lay down your control. It s an illusion, anyway. Down deep, you re actually thankful that it s an illusion, because you want to rest. I will take care of you. I always have. That will never change. Be still. Lay down your sadness. Give it back to me. That deep and unrelenting sadness over your losses shows only how deeply you have loved, how deeply you are loved. Don t you think I know what it s like to give up someone you love more than anything? Be still. You know I understand. Your tears are mine. Give them to me. Be still. Lay down your weapons. Lay down your need to be right. Lay down your frenzy to know everything. Lay down your urge to bring others down so you can feel superior. Rise above this world by coming to me. Be still. Lay down your obsession with being perfect. Being perfect is not your job. It s mine. Be still. Lay down your anxiety. Being a responsible adult doesn t mean that you have to agonize over every detail of life. Lay down your worries before me, so that you can stand up straight and draw closer to me. It s all I want from you. Be still. Lay down your gifts before me. Bring every talent I have ever given you to the altar so that I can bless it and give it back to you a thousand times over. Be still. Lay down your praise before me, all the joy in your life. You know it all comes from me. You know it. You may find it through your family or a friend, or through music or nature or laughter. But you know its Source. Be still, and let it flow. Be still. Lay down your life, your love, your loss before me. As my Son did. Be still, my child, and rest in me. Know with all your heart that I am God. Be still. I love you. Be still. Carol Copyright 2016 by Carol L. Mead. Holy Ordinary: Finding God in the Everyday. (

LGBT Newsletter. Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi Committee on Ministry with LGBT Persons November, 2015

LGBT Newsletter. Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi Committee on Ministry with LGBT Persons November, 2015 LGBT Newsletter Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi Committee on Ministry with LGBT Persons November, 2015 A Message from the Chairman Just a short message to let you know that I will be stepping down (retiring)