After Churchwide Assembly...chop wood; carry water.
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:17-18
8 comments:
With the water we carry, we are buried in Christ. On the wood we chop, we will be crucified: Do It Anyway.
. . . cuz after the Cross, comes the Crown! (And honey, it's faaaaaaabulous! *g*)
[Psssst! For a "Taste of Heaven", ECUSA is already serving . . . no waiting! ;-p]
J.C.: I think I'm already there in spirit. If I ever (total fantasy alert) had the opportunity to move up to my very favorite up-north hanging-out town, I'd join the ECUSA parish there; wouldn't think twice about it.
But...I can't complain about my own parish, or the other ELCA parish in my locality.
The frustrating thing is -- looking at the bigger picture, it's not the clergypeople I know and have known who are part of the problem; it's Fritz and Frieda in the pew. How to get them to understand...well, don't even get me started.
To add to which...I just got called an abomination again today, by a heretofore unknown Missouri Synodian -- actually, he explained that what I do is an abomination. (Not clean out my car? Serve dinner on paper plates? Mow my lawn clockwise?) Actually, I think he probably just thinks it's "hot" to talk to a lesbian. (Keep both hands on that keyboard, buddy.)
Good reading! These days I still have some ELCA involvement (in one of my many past lives I did music, youth and education for a sizeable congregation of the now-former LCA) and for me, partnered LGBTs serving in called positions is a no-brainer. For a number of reasons, I'm currently PCUSA, though would not be able to serve professionally in this Presbytery (San Diego) because my theology - though highly confessional - most likely would merit me a heresy trial! Really!
On a different though related topic, the UCC, another of my predecessor denoms in which I served professionally for a long time, passed the gay marriage marriage resolution at this year's General Synod, and I so wish they'd gone slower! Before the ELCA, the UCC was far and away the most diverse mainline denom in every way, and in passing gay marriage rather than the tamer-sounding legal partnership, and in doing so before carefully and slowly working through the theology, I feel they ate meat sacrificed to idols in front of their weaker sistern and brethren. Besides, what on earth are the churches thinking of and doing when they act as agents of the state? IMNHO, the church needs to get out of that business and do covenanting services for all parties.
Regarding the LC-MS, here in San Diego (as in many communities geographically far away from St. Louis) there are some exceptional pastors who've elected to remain LCMS. John Huber, chairperson of the Ecumenical Council's Faith, Order and Witness committee on which I serve, regularly gets introduced as "Mr. Ecumenicity" and then introduces himself with, "I'm Pastor John Huber, from the ecumnically conservative Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod." Another LCMS pastor and his wife sometimes attend Voices of Eve, a monthly feminist eucharistic liturgy and discussion group for which I serve as musician (we meet at an ELCA church but have ecumenical participation--lots of RCs): he tells us he's LCMS for the long haul, trying to make changes from the inside--until they kick him out, which, he admits, probably will happen any time now. I'll be back here soon!
"IMNHO, the church needs to get out of that business and do covenanting services for all parties."
You can legitimately make that argument, leah . . . just as you can argue that the State should get out of the "marriage biz", and just grant everybody civil unions.
HOWEVER, as it is, there IS a status quo, and that status quo is "marriage" (in both Church and State).
I'm very glad, that the UCC made the stand for equality, of *all* loving couples before God.
God grant that all members of Christ's Body may follow their lead! And soon, Lord! :-D
If it makes you feel any better, LC, the conservative weblogs are as we speak rending their garments over the gay menace that's afflicting all of mainline Christianity.
So we must be doing something right.
;-)
It does feel glacial sometimes, doesn't it? But things are moving along, underneath.
bis, ...if it makes me feel any better?! What does that mean, or, in Luther's vernacular, "Was ist das?!"
Bls: That's what one of my friends told me...he pointed out how close the votes were. "Next year in Jerusalem..."
Of course, speaking from a purely selfish perspective, as one who is at this moment in time, in Matt Fox's words, "all dressed up with nowhere to go";-), it's kind of academic for me. But I certainly know people for whom it is not, and those are the people I care about.
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