Volume 4 Issue 4 ~~Autumn 1999
Integrity/Calgary
Support for gay, lesbian and bisexual Christians & friends
Wine & Cheese
Fund Raising Social
for Integrity
Nov. 14 3:00pm-7:00pm.
A $20 donation per person
would be appreciated.
See 'News of Integrity' for more details.
News of Integrity
The annual meeting of Integrity/Calgary was held on Sept. 26, 1999, following the regular Eucharist. Two new members, Brian Oreel and Samie, were welcomed.
Present:Dan, Bill, John, Stew, Brian Q., Richard, Hugh, Brian O., Samie, Jim Apologies:Vince, Winston, Phil, Stephen, Tim. The membership list was updated, and copies are now available.
Three officers were elected to serve for one year:Jim as Chair, Winston as Treasurer and Richard as Secretary. Thanks were expressed to Brian Q. for his work as secretary last year, and to Winston for continuing to serve. Also to Vince for continuing to provide coffee and nibbles; to Stew and Tim for phoning; and to Dan for being web master and producing the newsletter; and to everyone for mutual support and various contributions.
With a recent donation from Integrity/Toronto of $200. (received with grateful thanks), the bank balance stands at $567.27. We agreed to budget as follows;
$200. towards a fund to enable members to attend General Synod 2001
$100. towards a bursary to enable members to attend courses at Sorrento Centre
$50. for an ad in the Unity Pages
$100. for Pride week celebrations and advertising
A second annual fund raiser was discussed. This will be a wine and cheese open house to take place 3 - 7pm on Nov. 14 at the home of John Chabai. Tickets will be $20, and Dan will print them. Members may bring food in lieu of payment. Hugh will organise the food. The regular Eucharist on that evening will be cancelled.
We have planned two book study/socials. These will take place at 7.30 pm, Oct.16 at Jim's and Nov. 20 at Stew's. For Oct. 16 a photocopy of a chapter of 'We Were Baptised Too' is available from Jim. For Nov. 20, Chris Glaser's 'Coming Out As Sacrament' has been ordered from Woman's Place. Please pick up a copy there ($22.95), from the library, or arrange to borrow. Try to have the whole book read before the November discussion.
A discussion about new initiatives in outreach and publicizing our presence was deferred till the Oct. 24 Sunday evening.
In November we are all invited to a House Blessing for Peter Tovell and Mark, date t.b.a., probably a Sunday evening.
That's all for now, folks! jp
Cultivating the Inner Voice of Love: Sorrento Summer Retreat '99
Brothers and Sisters in Christ: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered [henceforth l/g/b/t] people, family and friends gathered together from around North America and even a young man from as far away as Uganda from July 11-17 at the beautiful Sorrento Retreat Centre on Shuswap Lake, British Columbia. We worshipped, laughed, sang and even cried a bit together among the lovely gardens and tall trees in the outdoor worship area and in a safe and nurturing environment. The staff and volunteers went out of their way in their ministry to make us all feel comfortable in the excellent facilities either camping or in the lodges.
For me, the retreat was a powerful experience to meet l/g/b/t people from the different communities of Integrity, Dignity, MCC and other churches. I made many new friends and each of us shared our own unique stories. Apart from the teachings there were man activities one could plan to join such as swimming, hiking, campfires, a dance, a variety night or just walk peacefully among the fabulous gardens and ravines or meditate quietly along the outdoor labyrinth just recently built.
Chris Glaser, a graduate of Yale University Divinity School, the author of many books on spiritual life, was our retreat leader and lecturer. He guided and challenged us at may different levels through presentations, spiritual exercises, affirmations, dialogue and small group discussions. He asked what special gift or ministry we as l/g/b/t people could offer the church from our woundedness and unique experience. Coming out of the closet could be such an experience. Culminating in a moving ritual that left most of us in tears; we learned we could remove the heavy stones of prejudice we struggle with and bonds of death to a place where we choose life, enjoy love and are liberated from our oppressors. In the ritual there was tremendous healing as we called out by name sufferings and prejudice then removed a heavy stone from the altar (John 11:39). After the stones were removed we unwrapped a rainbow flag to reveal three loaves of bread which 3 representatives of the gay, lesbian and transgendered groups fed to each person in the room. With compassion, I was conscious, particularly of our Ugandan brother in the room who had been imprisoned in Kenya for being gay, how so many l/g/b/t people have suffered and are currently suffering in jails around the world, denied their basic human rights. How precious are our freedoms in this country! The mystery of coming out of the closet as sacrament as Chris explained, (refer to:Chris Glaser, Coming Out as Sacrament, Louisville, KY;Westminster John Knox Press, 1998) is a truly pivotal and holy moment in the lives of l/g/b/t men and women (see Ruth 1:16; 1Pe 2:9-10). Through coming out one can experience tremendous healing, peace with ourselves, forgiveness, the unconditional love of God, and place us in an important role in the church and our community today.
Renewed in Spirit and faith our challenge as we left the sacred space at the Sorrento Centre was to remain united, keep in touch with each other, and encourage each other in faith to respond to God's calling, offering our uniqueness to our own communities. We hope that we may all meet again next summer with our brothers and sisters in Christat Sorrento Centre. Mark it in your calendars!Hugh Baker 9/13/99
Ethics for a New Age
(Excerpts taken from Chapter 10, A New Basis for Ethics in a New Age, by Bishop John Shelby Spong,"Why Christianity Must Change or Die." Although I cannot embrace or recommend the theology of Bishop Spongs book chapter 10 struck a cord in me, and reading Spong one is definitely challenged, and so I follow the apostles advice "Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good;" 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21, NRSV.)dwf
Our society no longer requires a civil contract to be sworn "in the name of the Lord," so that if broken, the offending party would be guilty of "taking the Lord's name in vain." Today contracts are signed into legal documents and enforced by the courts. Without that defining context, we have begun to suggest that this third commandment has something to do with profanity. Profanity may be either blasphemous or in poor taste, but it has nothing to do with taking the name of the Lord in vain."...
Literal biblical texts quoted in the past to uphold slavery, to battle against the way illnesses were treated, and to prevent women from being ordained, holding them in the status of second-class citizenship. We seem to forget that defenders of each of these archaic ideas also claimed to be acting according to "the clear teaching of scripture."...
The Bible, [Professor Walter Wink] wrote, condemned the following sexual activities, which we also condemn: incest, rape, adultery, and intercourse with animals. But the Bible also condemned, Dr. Wink continued, the following practices, which we today either generally allow or at least do not universally condemn:intercourse during menstruation, celibacy, marriage to non-Jews, naming sex organs, nudity under certain conditions, masturbation, and birth control....
Finally, Dr, wink noted that the Bible permitted theses behaviours that we today condemn: prostitution, polygamy, levirate marriage, sex with slaves, concubinage, treatment of women as property, and very early marriage (for the girl aged eleven to thirteen). He went on to say that "while the old testament accepted divorce, Jesus forbade it." In conclusion, Dr. Wink observed that "of the sexual mores mentioned here, we only agree with the Bible on four of them and disagree with it on sixteen."....
The Bible is an ambiguous document about specific sexual practices. Perhaps that is what those who think of themselves as "Bible believers" have so much difficulty accepting. A real knowledge of scripture does not issue in certainty. Even one of the biblical instances that is quoted to demonstrate the Bible's clear denunciation of the "sin of homosexuality" (Rom. 1) confronts us with the strange idea that if we fail to worship God properly, God will punish us with homosexuality! That is an idea so bizarre as to merit immediate dismissal even if it does appear to have been uttered by the apostle, Paul. No longer is it deemed adequate to assert "but the Ten Commandments state" or "but the Bible teaches." Those claims settle no debate in our time. All the do today is to proclaim that the one who uses this tactic has nothing worthwhile to say to the current ethical dilemmas....
When the value of human sexuality is repressed, it returns as pornography. When we take sex away from love, we sucked only in taking love away from sex. Ethics and morality must go beyond this false dichotomy.....
Christian ethics are not found in a system of behaviour control. They are found in a call to the fullness of life. The business of the Church is, therefore, not to judge life, but to enhance consciousness, to expose ignorance and prejudice, and to remove the barriers to life in all of it's fullness. The Church's task is to assist it's people in plumbing the depths of their own humanity, where transcendence, mystery, being, and even love are discovered, and to bring those qualities found in the center of life into the world. I name that center of life God.dwf
Trusting in the Fruits
We belong to a generation that wants to see the result of our work. We want to be productive and see with out own eyes what we have made.But that is not the way of God's kingdom. Often our witness for god does not lead to tangible results. Jesus himself dies as a failure on a cross. There was no success there to be proud of. Still, the fruitfulness of Jesus' life is beyond any human measure. As faithful witnesses of Jesus we have to trust that our lives too will be fruitful, even though we cannot see their fruit. The fruit of our lives may be visible only to those who live after us.
What is important is how well we love. God will make our love fruitful, whether we see that fruitfulness or not.
-Henri J. M. Nowen, Bread for the Journey: August 11 meditation.
Jesus cites the saying 'One sows and another reaps.' in the gospel of John (4:37), and so we plant seeds of love but do not necessarily see the harvest...we might even believe that those seeds we plant are too small to make a difference for after all our seed might be a small seed but when it has grown it may well become the greatest of shrubs or even a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. (Mt. 13:32) This little seed which is planted brings life and food to people as well as to the birds, do we dare discount the importance of any act of love? My friends sow love, the fruit is good and it is the wish of our Lord "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you (John 15:12). dwf
Food for thought
Resisting the pressures of a consumer culture, which generate perpetual needs for more and newer possessions, is difficult for many Christians today. Our excess consumption may deprive others of resources they need to survive. It is a hidden form of structural greed that wastes the world's resources and creates suffering for others we may never meet. - P. Perkins, New Interpreter's Bible (vol 8) p. 649
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[M]arriage union is from God, according to Matthew 19:6, "What... God hath joined together let no man put asunder." But a union that is made for immoral motives is not from God. Therefore it is not a marriage. - Thomas Aquinas, Suma (P4-Q48-A2-O2)
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"O Holy Spirit of God, visit now this soul of mine, and tarry within it until eventide. Inspire all my thoughts. Pervade all my imaginations. Suggest all my decisions..... Lodge in my will's most inward citadel and order all my doings. Be with me in my silence and in my speech, in my haste and in my leisure, in company and in solitude, in the freshness of the morning and in the weariness of the evening; and give me the grace at all times to rejoice in thy mysterious companionship." source unknown (Teresa of Avila?)
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I do assert that one prepares for eternity not being religious and keeping rules, but by living fully, loving wastefully, and daring to be all that each of us has the capacity to be. I also assert that making it possible for everyone else to live, to love, and to be is the only mission the Christian people possess. Our task is not to convert; our task is to call people into the depths of their own capacity to be. -Bp. J. S. Spong, Why Christianity Must Change or Die p.218-9
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The fact that I am a monk and you are a layman is utterly beside the point. What God requires is true faith in Himself and His only begotten Son. In return for that the grace of the Holy Spirit is granted abundantly from on high. The Lord seeks a heart filled to overflowing with love for God and our neighbour; this is the throne on which He loves to sit and on which He appears in the fullness of His heavenly glory. Son, give me thine heart (Prov. 23:26; see Mt. 6:33), for in the human heart the kingdom of God can be contained. -Seraphim of Sarov, speaking to his disciple Motivilov
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When we love a person, we love all that belongs to him... -Plotinus, from the Ennends
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All disappointments spring from your hunting for satisfactions. If only you could stop, all imaginable joys would be rolled like pearls to your feet. -Rumi, Sufi
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Legalistic Christians sometimes do act as if "the gospel" consisted of every part of the New Testament but the Gospels. - Bruce Bawer, Stealing Jesus p.220.
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"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear: our presence automatically liberates others." --Nelson Mandela
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Nor is it certain we have any urgent obligation to find sin in ourselves. How much sin is kept hidden from us by God Himself, in His mercy? After which he hides it from Himself!
--Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander p. 23
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Donations Appreciated
On our behalf, St. Stephen's Church has kindly agreed to issue tax deductible receipts for donations of $35. These donations to St. Stephen's are in lieu of rent. Become a supporter. If you would like to do this please speak to Winston. You can reach Winston at 246-2029.
Drop us a line Do you have a story, article or idea you wish to share? All articles must include name address and phone number. Names will not be published upon request. Integrity /Calgary 1121-14 Avenue S. W. Calgary, AB, Canada T2R 0P3 (403) 270-9661
Mailing lists for Integrity/Calgary are strictly confidential. Inclusion or receipt of this newsletter or membership in Integrity/Calgary does not imply sexual orientation.
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