When the rooster crows, preparing to be survivors…

Then Peter remembered the word of Jesus, how he had said, Before the cock crows, thou wilt thrice disown me; and he went out, and wept bitterly.                  

~Matthew 26:75 (Knox)

Jesus is going to die, Peter is going to live. Jesus is going to die, Judas is going to live. Jesus is going to die, John and Mary are going to live. Jesus is going to die, Mary Magdalene is going to live. Jesus is going to die… and we are going to live, we are going to survive, we are going to have the guilt, the anger, the shame, the resiliency of survivors.

When I generally talk about my middle school, I am referencing an episcopal preparatory school that lives into everyone’s basic expectation of same. When I am honest about my middle school experience, I am referencing a small room with two teachers along the administrative hallway of a children’s hospital ward. My middle school ‘sleep-overs’ involved going to another patient’s hospital room to play video games and watch movies. My middle school shenanigans involved IV Pole scooter races at high speeds down empty corridors late at night. My middle school nights were filled with fears of waking up to hear the crash carts being put in use and wondering if I would not see a friend at school again, to watch a movie again, to race past the nurses desk at full tilt as their eyes boggled and rolled before they got up to admonish us once again… fears of surviving and being even more isolated in a terminal illness ward as others died. 

So many of the patterns we are taking up at the moment resonate back to my middle school years. The expectations of hand washing, social distancing, and isolation… the patterns of living in an environment where terminal illness is an ever-present reality and not an abstract concept far removed from our daily life. It took me a while to realize that I was responding to our current reality as a survivor of trauma, regularly having to process why consistently washing my hands according to the strict guidelines now in place could bring me to tears, needing to name how suddenly being isolated in my apartment put a pressure on my emotions of such dread as to be unnerving. While others were entering into this space of adversity for the first time I was being plunged back into a series of patterns tinged with trauma from my childhood. I realized I needed to reengage all of the tools years of therapy had provided me to process the reality of being a survivor.

When this greater lent we find ourselves in has passed and we are able to gather again as community, to worship together fully, we will want it to be Easter. I hear of many parishes who are promising that when all this is done the first Sunday back together will be brass instruments, drums, and all the festival that we reserve for that morning where we celebrate in full that Christ is Risen Indeed. As a survivor of this type of environment I want us to remember that there is another morning that will come first… that when the rooster crows on the first day when our isolation has ended it will not be Easter but Holy Saturday. We will be waking up to a morning not of the resurrection of Jesus, but one where we are fully aware that Jesus is in the tomb. We will have survived, while family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues will have not. We will be Peter, Judas, John and Mary, and Mary Magdalene on a sabbath when no work may be possible, with a stone placed firmly over the tomb.

We will be Peter, recognizing that there were things that we did not do that we should have done. We will be Judas, realizing that there were things that we did that we should not have done. We will be John and Mary, forming new family amidst grave loss. We will be Mary Magdalene, filled with tears of determination that neither guard nor gardener can abate. We will be survivors realizing that there are those whom we will never see again for school or work, for games and shenanigans. We will need to process death before we process what our new life will be. We are going to have to move through Holy Saturday, perhaps spend quite some time there, before we can enter into a deeply resonate relationship with Easter.

When I finished my years of treatment there was a lot of celebration. I was in full remission from cancer and the threat of a terminal illness was gone. There was a push for me to return to life as a teenager who had not had my experiences, a desire for all of the patterns to go back to where they were expected to be. Instead of processing what I and my immediate community had been through there was a desire to forget as much as we could and move on. There is going to be this same push, from so many arenas in our lives, when this time of isolation and extra health measures has come to an end. The church needs to be the voice in our culture calling for Holy Saturday, calling for a chance to mourn, calling for a chance to repent, calling for a chance to forge new family, calling with tears of resiliency, through any guard or gardener, to reform our society into something better able to protect the vulnerable amidst such crisis when they come again.

We will need our Easter, but first we will need our Holy Saturday. We will need to fully understand what it means to survive when those we loved, those we learned from, those who were always there for us… are gone. We will need to process the guilt, the sadness, the anger, the full emotional turmoil of what their deaths will mean in our lives. We cannot lessen Easter by using it as a means of bypassing all of our pain and suffering but bring our pain and suffering fully and consciously into the Easter Truth.     

Radical Liturgical Pedagogy

I want to begin with the premise that liturgy is a pedagogical tool and amidst the curating of worship clergy are in many ways teachers and the congregation, likewise, are students. This is not to say that liturgy is just a pedagogical tool but simply that alongside whatever else it may be, it is such. I want to further suggest that the tradition of liturgy that comes out of the norms of White European Christianity carries with it many of the same problems that are found within the expectations of education that come out of White European Christianity. What this would mean is that the critiques presented against these educational pedagogies in general also apply to liturgy.

Mainline protestant liturgy is historically part of white middle-class norms in the United States. This is true both to the type of behavior expected within the liturgy itself and also in that regular participation in such liturgy is such a norm itself. While there has been a general decline in mainline Protestantism in recent decades this is still a generally true statement. The first question here is whether or not, in our liturgical life, can we “see the fallacy of measuring ourselves and the young people in our communities solely against the White middle-class norms”. (Paris, 86)

            

Now when Django Paris poses this question initially it is targeted at public school curriculum, but what we are doing here is applying these questions to our worship life. Are we only able to conceive of ourselves and an appropriate way to engage liturgical life within the expected norms of the White middle-class? Do we require everyone who comes into our spaces of worship to conform to those norms? The underlying request here is that we work to make our worship spaces anti-racist… and also anti-sexist, anti-heterosexist, anti-cisist, etc.. A major hurdle in this is naming that we still are marked by supremacist ideologies.

            

This does not mean that many of our congregations, and entire denominations, have not been striving to be spaces free of supremacist ideologies.  Too often, however, we simply maintain what Bell Hooks describes as “a world where it [is] fashionable to mouth anti-racist sentiments without truly undergoing the radical transformation in thought and action that must also take place.” (Hooks, 57) Hooks speaks to her friend Ken, who in many ways embodies the reality of too many of our congregations. “Like many white liberals, Ken sees the “whiteness” of his social life as more an accident of circumstances than a choice. He would welcome greater diversity in the neighborhood. However, he does not consciously do enough work either in his own social life or in the larger community to make that diversity possible.” (Hooks, 55)

            

None of this makes Ken, or our congregations, bad or evil. It just means that we are prone to live into this reflection of Hooks that: “In my childhood that white people could change. And yet I knew that most white people embraced racial domination as their privilege and their right.” (Hooks, 52) The social programing of the white community is an arduous reality to overcome and every anti-racist step is to be lauded. It is simply that we cannot stop taking steps. Hooks reminds us that “Love of justice cannot be sustained if it is only a manipulation to be with the in-crowd whoever they may be.” (Hooks, 62) We must keep loving justice for its own sake, not because it is fashionable and especially must do such when it is unfashionable. There is generally nothing more unfashionable within mainline Protestantism than attempting to change the liturgical life of a congregation.

            

Maintaining these White European Liturgical norms comes at an overwhelming cost, however. Patrick Camangian relates this cost in the reflections a student, Imani, “according to her, imposing Eurocentric worldviews on communities of color maintains White dominance over their communities. To challenge White supremacist thought, Imani argued that Black communities needed to determine their own notions of dignity”. (Camangian, 439) What we have to ask is whether our congregations are allowing Black communities, other communities of color, queer communities, and other marginalized communities to determine their own notions of dignity… and express them fully in the midst of our worship life.

            

An often heard rebuttal to this idea is that a certain congregation, while maintaining some variation of White European Cultural norms, has members of the congregation that are Black, LGBTQ+, etc.. A voice that needs to be heard as we evaluate this reality is another one of Camangian’s students, Leon. He was prone to make “observations regarding how Black communities sometimes aspire toward notions of attractiveness that are based on paradigms that socially devalue the phenotypical traits of people of color worldwide, and African-type features especially.” Camangian, 438)

            

I would suggest that in our liturgical life to have aspirations towards a certain mode of traditional worship is one thing, something that any person can take up. The pivotal question is whether or not amidst such aspirations we are also contributing to the devaluing of other types of features. Bell Hooks reflects on the same phenomena when she notes that “Racial integration ushered in a world where many black folks played by the rules only to face the reality that white racism was not changing, that the system of white supremacy remained intact even as it allowed black people greater access.” (Hooks, 52) Which is to say that racial integration is an essential variable but it is not sufficient by itself to balance the equation. We need a liturgical pedagogy that does more than simply hold up White European Liturgical norms as the sole form of beauty to which we can aspire.

            

What is another important variable then? Antonio Darder, engaging this problem in regards to our education system, speaks to how we need to “unveil the hidden ideological values and beliefs that inform the development and establishment of standardized curricula, materials, textbooks, testing and assessment, promotion criteria, and institutional relationships, in an effort to support and better infuse our teaching with an emancipatory vison of school and community life” (Darder, 57) The application of this process to liturgy would, in my mind, mean creating a sifting from which three types of things would be found. Core components of our liturgical life would betray ideological values and beliefs that are essential to the Gospel message and essential to Christian witness. Other realities would be sometimes beneficial but always at the least benign adiaphora. The final category would be discovering those hidden ideological values and beliefs that are actually counter to the Gospel message and Christian Witness and are actually taking up the process of devaluing that Leon observed.

            

Django Paris puts this question another way “What if, indeed, the goal of teaching and learning with youth of color was not ultimately to see how closely students could perform White middle-class norms but to explore, honor, extend, and, at times, problematize their heritage and community practices?” (Paris, 86) Or, in our context: What if, indeed the goal of liturgy was not ultimately to see how closely congregations could perform White European Liturgical norms but to explore, honor, extend, and, at times, problematize their heritage and community practices?

            

Paris also notes that “It is quite possible to be relevant to something without ensuring its continuing presence”. (Paris, 88) This seems to be a major concern encountered whenever this subject comes up… that what is being suggested is that White European Liturgical norms are no longer relevant and unless we continue to replicate them verbatim we are making them irrelevant. I want to suggest they are relevant because they are an example of  “humanizing pedagogies that begin with their realities, ideologies, and ways of communicating their understanding of the world” (Camangian, 425) They are exactly what we are trying to foster and create amidst our liturgical life. It is simply that they are examples from another cultural context.

            

We have to realize that we need to be able to express ourselves in more than one cultural context. For generations those who could not speak White European Christian liturgical language and assimilate into that culture were at a disadvantage but we are now in a time when it is the liturgical “monolinguals/monoculturals who may increasingly find themselves at a disadvantage” (Paris, 89-90) If our congregations and denominations are going to survive then we must learn to speak other liturgical languages and be able to engage in other forms of liturgical culture. It is not that there is going to be a new liturgical lingua francabut that we will all need to learn to speak multiple liturgical languages and be comfortable amidst a variety of liturgical cultures. 

            

What we understand is that “culturally relevant critical pedagogies draw from students’ cultural frameworks, lived experiences, and diverse learning styles” (Camangian, 428) If we apply this to our liturgical life this would mean that our liturgies should draw from our congregants’ cultural frameworks and lived experiences. They should be aware of the fact that amongst our congregations there will be a diversity of learning styles, or as we more often refer to them spiritual gifts and charisms. There will always be an issue unless our liturgy brings us consistently “to reflect on essential issues of immediate relevance to their community” (Comangian, 434) 

            

What is being requested here is something that is truly life giving, something that liturgy is supposed to be by its very nature. Education is also supposed to be life giving but often falls short. Antonio Darder speaks to:

a living practice that is composed of relevant pedagogical actions within schools and communities that stimulate students’ critical intellectual engagement with their world, support the development of compassionate relationships that reanimated sentient qualities, and fuel a shared sense of citizenship aimed at the well-being of our collective existence. In contrast, educational practices devoid of praxis quickly degenerate into senseless activities that objectify and dehumanize both teachers and students.
(Darder, 84)

We should always be striving for a liturgical life that does the same for our congregations. I would be so bold as to say that if what we are doing as congregations when we gather for worship is not striving for such then we are not actually entering into worship at all.

            

This places certain expectations upon those who are in charge of curating our liturgical practices, most often clergy. Darder has a concept of “Teachers as organic intellectuals strive to make meaning by grounding their knowledge construction upon the ongoing social interactions and political events that transpire in their world”. (Darder, 67) One of the pressing issues we face is that too many clergy do not seem to consider themselves organic intellectuals going about an art of teaching amidst liturgy but see themselves as maintainers of a static tradition. Their principal commitment too often is to a customary and a set of rubrics. Darden would suggest that life giving liturgy comes from a very different commitment. “Teachers who embrace a revolutionary practice of teaching come to realize that this is best carried out through their commitment to praxis—a commitment to engage the dialectical connection that exists between theory and practice”. ((Darder, 82) It is, however, a much more difficult request to ask our clergy to engage a dialectical connection that exists between theology and practice amidst our lived experiences than it is to ask them to follow the standards for liturgical performance written down in a book decades or even centuries ago. 

            

I am well aware that there is not a clear answer here. I am not suggesting another clear customary to be followed exactly. I am suggesting that we need to read numerous customaries, not to find the exactly right thing to do… but to understand the process that brought about a customary that served its particular time and place so that we can continue to apply that process to our time and place. Just as our education system needs to be transformed from a hegemonic entity maintaining white middle class norms so does our liturgical expectations. This is an inherently life giving process but it is one that takes a new form of discipline, an unresting engagement and love for the people and communities in our midst and liturgy curated with and for their benefit.

Camangian, P. R. (2013). Teach Like Lives Depend on It. Urban Education, 50(4), 424–453. doi: 10.1177/0042085913514591

Darder, A. (2017). Reinventing Paulo Freire: a pedagogy of love. New York, NY: Routledge.

Hooks, B. (2003). Teaching community: a pedagogy of hope. New York: Routledge.

Paris, D., & Alim, H. S. (2014). What Are We Seeking to Sustain Through Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy? A Loving Critique Forward. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 85–100. doi: 10.17763/haer.84.1.982l873k2ht16m77

Communion and Queer Consent

This is not truly a response or rebuttal of The Living Church’s article Communion and Consent by Fr. Clint Wilson. The paucity of understanding regarding the ethics of consent and the #metoo movement in that article makes a rebuttal an exercise in futility. It did serve as a prompt for this essay on account of this paucity and is meant to be part of the ‘discussion’ that The Living Church is seeking to foster.

one of my school's worship spaces

I remember the first eucharistic service I attended after my sexual assault. It was at my preparatory school and I was still dissociating from the series of events that had occurred to me over the weekend. The liturgy of the 1928 BCP was the closest thing to a rape counselor I would see over the next years. The crucial reality was that at no point in the liturgy did anything bring me to think that I was unworthy to be part of the community as we made eucharist. I could go up to the communion rail, I could partake of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ… the Logos would still consent to enter into my body, a raped body. When it felt as if the bed of my existence was in the depths of Sheol… G-d was there.

The Logos consented to the kenosis of the incarnation. They emptied themselves of the unlimited potentiality of the Trinity and with the consent of the Blessed Virgin Mary and power of the Holy Spirit was born a struggling infant human male. Jesus lived, taught, and had the potential to take up any power known to human imagination but consented in the Garden of Gethsemane to walk the path to Golgotha. Even on the Cross there was that ever pressing temptation to call down the heavenly host, but instead Jesus consented to be forsaken and succumb fully to the depraved violence of humanity. 

G-d consented to be a victim of the depraved violence of humanity. G-d consented to be in solidarity with everyone who is a victim of the depraved violence of humanity. G-d, the Holy Trinity Uncreate whose very reality is outside of existence, consented to be part of my raped body in the Bread and Wine of the Eucharist.

Jesus rose from the dead, in a very physical and real way. I rose from that place of Sheol in a very physical and real way. The realness of that resurrection, the realness of the Eucharistic Elements, the realness of my resilience… are a linked realness. This is the realness, this is the resilience, this is the Triune G-d shifting the very ontology of creation so that no level of depravity, no permutation of death… even such that can break a god upon a cross… marks an ending. All it can mark is a point where the resilience of resurrection will once again manifest itself in our existence. 

The inward invisible truth of the reality out of space and time that is the Eucharist is there working to enliven the resilience of resurrection in each body cruelly marked by the depravity of humanity. It is a grace that is not contained by any of our liturgical endeavors. The consent for each and every one of us to be caught up in this grace has been overwhelmingly granted by G-d from aeternity for all time and through all space.

All of this… the bright cloud and rushing wind of ontological incarnational realities… has something to say about the pragmatics of how we go about our liturgical life. In that our pedagogy of liturgy needs to strive to make this accessible. I had been baptized at two months and from preschool my life had been saturated with the liturgy of the 1928 BCP. The liturgy had made the veil between myself, amidst a moment of Sheol, and the ontological reality of the Resurrection thin. I am not convinced, however, that the universal reality of the ontological truth of the resurrection is universally accessible by means of the 1928 BCP. I am not convinced that an expectation of Baptism before Eucharist makes it universally accessible. I am not convinced that an expectation of Communion Regardless of Baptism makes it universally accessible. There is actually no liturgical format or hierarchy of our sacramental life that I am convinced will make such universally accessible.

What I am convinced of is that our duty as curators of liturgy is to work in our context to make the Resilience of the Resurrection accessible to those whose bodies, whose minds, whose hearts, whose souls… have been marked by the depravity of humanity. That amidst the rules of relationships that we foster within our specific communities we ensure that the expectations are clear, that there is no coercion or forcing of anyone towards anything, and that everything occurs with consent by all involved. That consent as an undergirding ethos of our liturgical life is, in my mind, essential to us curating thin spaces where individuals can become outwardly and visibly aware of the inward invisible graces that permeate our reality.       

Episcopal Doctrine on Reproductive Health

The Episcopal Church is often mischaracterized as not having doctrinal expectations on issues. This is actually not true. In the Episcopal Church we have a very high theology of personal conscience. This means that amidst the doctrinal expectations of the church individuals, especially laity, are given an exceptional amount of freedom in regard to their personal belief and practice. When the Episcopal church convenes as a council of the church, General Convention, we do make statements of expectations of where our church stands on an issue. This includes a long history of statements regarding Reproductive Health.

The extent to which we value personal conscience is clear in our statements regarding access to abortion. As resolution 1994-A054 reaffirmed the longstanding doctrine of the church that "that the individual conscience is respected, and the the responsibility of individuals to reach informed decisions in this matter is acknowledged and honored". Now A054 does provide guidance in regards to when an abortion in that "while we acknowledge that in this country it is the legal right of every woman to have a medically safe abortion, as Christians we believe strongly that if this right is exercised, it should be used only in extreme situations. We emphatically oppose abortion as a means of birth control, family planning, sex selection, or any reason of mere convenience". In this, however, it still remains ultimately the decision of the individual who is considering an abortion when it constitutes an extreme situation for their short and long term well being and that of their dependents. The decision to have, or not have, an abortion is an issue that is overwhelmingly contextual and not something that can be arbitrated remotely or theoretically. Those not in the specific lived experience of the individual making the decision for themselves at that time and place simply do not have the capacity to place judgement. 

The resolutions regarding abortion are only part of the picture when it comes to the Episcopal Doctrine on Reproductive Health. The various resolution that our General Convention has passed over the years shows a holistic approach to lowering the number of abortions in our society by alleviating the various injustices that too often mean that the reality for a pregnant individual does not embody the BCP's assertion that "the birth of a child is a joyous and solemn occasion in the life of a family. It is also an occasion for rejoicing in the Christian community". Our role, as Episcopalians, is to not place a false burden upon every individual who finds themselves pregnant that if they must respond with joy but to place the burden upon ourselves to ensure that every pregnancy is a joyous occasion.

This means that the Episcopal Church encourages comprehensive sexual education. This is named clearly with resolution 1988-A089 "Resolved, That this 69th General Convention call on the Presiding Bishop and the Executive Council to provide and promote the use of materials on human sexuality, birth control and family planning for all age groups as part of this Church's on-going Christian Education curricula as reflective of God's creation; and be it further Resolved, That the topic of abortion be included in the Church's education curricula and that these materials be explicit, with a full understanding of the physical, emotional and spiritual realities and risks involved in abortion; and be it further Resolved, That we encourage the members of this Church to give strong support to responsible local public and private school programs of education in human sexuality." A resolution which we are striving to live into with the most current curriculum These are our Bodies.

This means that the Episcopal Church encourages the use of Birth Control. We see this with 1982-D016 "Resolved, That as a means of world population control this 67th General Convention of the Episcopal Church reaffirm the right of individuals to use any natural or safe artificial means of conception control". We even go one step further and feel that birth control should be part of government funded health care, Resolution 1991-D059 "Resolved, That this 70th General Convention of the Episcopal Church urge that all state Medicaid offices make available the necessary funds to enable the use of Norplant implants by those women who choose to use it". If we are going to name that it is unacceptable to use abortion as a form of birth control we have to advocate for other means of birth control... and we do.

It is also not lost on us that a major reason many individuals seek out abortion is because the economic hardships of medical costs within our country, and elsewhere. That these can and do create extreme situations in which an abortion may be required. To that end we have Resolution 2012-A140 "Resolved, That the 77th General Convention direct the Office of Government Relations to partner with international and domestic efforts to encourage and advocate for legislation, programs, services and advocacy related to improving maternal mental and physical health and infant development; and be it further Resolved, That the congregations and dioceses of The Episcopal Church take action in their own contexts to support and foster maternal and infant health and development, which addresses the mission priority of Alleviating Poverty and Injustice established at the 76th General Convention, and also the Millennium Development Goals; and be it further Resolved, That healthcare institutions and providers in The Episcopal Church whose ministries are associated with maternal health and infant development be urged to support advocacy and to make themselves available as resources to congregations and dioceses for this work." Working to ensure that every individual who finds themselves pregnant has full and comprehensive health care is an essential part of Episcopal Doctrine in regards to Reproductive Health.

The crushing reality of what occurs while we live in a society that continues to fail new families, and the need to alleviate the burden our society often creates for individuals amidst the birth of a child, is seen with Resolution 2000-D082 "Resolved, That the 73rd General Convention recognize that the death of any newborn child is a personal and pastoral tragedy, and that mothers and fathers, who for any reason, fail to take appropriate care of and responsibility for their newborn infants, are in need of appropriate medical, social and pastoral assistance, and intervention; and be it further Resolved, That the General Convention commend those states and communities which are establishing "safe drop off zones" where parents might safely leave babies which they might otherwise simply abandon to the risk of death." This is, obviously, a stop gap measure of how we must make amends for the injustices of a world that does not support families with new infants... it does show, however, how the Episcopal Church considers this an issue that has to be addressed holistically from every quadrant.

The Episcopal Church also recognizes that the lack of parental leave also often creates a burden on families at the birth of a child. To that end we passed Resolution 2015-D030

"Resolved, That the 78th General Convention strongly urges all dioceses, congregations, and other church-related offices and agencies/contexts to establish and make available parental leave policies for birth and adoptive parents, both clergy and lay, in their employ; and be it further Resolved, That the 78th General Convention extend the provisions stated in resolution 2000-C042, to include mention that clergy who give birth have a 12 week benefit that is available through the short term disability coverage provided by the Church Pension Fund; and be it further Resolved, That the 78th General Convention directs the Church Pension Group to increase publicity and knowledge about the provisions provided through the short term disability; and be it further Resolved, That the 78th General Convention directs the Executive Council in consultation with the Church Pension Group to prepare a church wide model policy on parental leave for both birth and adoptive parents for consideration by the 79th General Convention." While this document is one for internal consideration I do not think it is ever too far of a stretch to say that the church is seeking to model ethical practices of employment with such resolution and feels that all employers should take similar steps if they are going to live out their lives within the context of church doctrine.

Finally I want to bring in our most recent resolution regarding domestic violence, a reality which does turn a pregnant individuals context into one that is an extreme cirumstance where an abortion may be considered. In this we are looking at Resolution 2000-C025

"Resolved, That the 73rd General Convention call upon every congregation within the church to designate at least one Sunday each year during one of the following months:

a.         April (National Sexual Abuse Prevention and Sexual Assault Awareness Month) or

b.         May (Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Month) or

c.         October (National Domestic Violence Awareness Month)

for special prayers for all whose lives have been affected by any form of sexual, domestic, or family violence, remembering in particular those who have been violated by sexual misconduct within the church; and be it further Resolved, That the General Convention call upon the National Church Center to make available to every congregation within the church educational opportunities for its members about practical, pastoral, spiritual, and/or theological issues related to the problems of sexual or domestic violence and call upon congregations to make an active and ongoing response to these problems in their local community." 

What these resolution cumulate into is, in my mind, a truly “human rights” based argument to bring an end to abortion. One that is grounded in holistic policy that alleviates human suffering and is shown to actually end abortion. Without this type of intersectional relationship to contingent human rights issues in the greater society there can be no way to make a “human rights” based argument regarding abortion, and the laws seeking to strip individuals of personal conscience are as morally abhorrent as they are inept.

Of Palms and Passions, A Narrative Eucharist for Holy Week

Of Palms and Passions
A Narrative Eucharist for Jesus’ Last Week

Our Eucharistic worship has a normal pattern. This service disrupts that pattern and places the elements of the Eucharist within the narrative presented in the final chapters of Matthew’s Gospel.   

Celebrant        The Lord be with you.

People             And with thy spirit.

Celebrant        Lift up your hearts.

People             We lift them up unto the Lord.

Celebrant         Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.

People             It is meet and right so to do.

Celebrant        It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times, and in all places, give thanks unto thee, O Lord, almighty, everlasting God. Creator of the light and source of life, who hast made us in thine image, and by water and the Holy Spirit hast made us a new people in Jesus Christ our Lord. Bring this same spirit into our midst, may this bread and wine be for us the body and blood of Jesus Christ and may we be made more deeply aware of him who for our sins was lifted high upon the cross, that he might draw the whole world to himself. Be with us as we recount the final days of Jesus’ life. 

Leader             Jesus and the disciples were near Jerusalem on the days before the celebration of unleavened bread. As they approached the city Jesus sent two of his disciples on an errand; 

Celebrant        Go into the village that faces you and the first thing you will find there will be a she-ass tethered, and a foal at her side; untie them and bring them to me. And if anyone speaks to you about it, tell them, The Lord has need of them, and they will let you have them without more ado.

Leader             The disciples went and did as Jesus told them; they brought the she-ass and its colt, and saddled them with their garments, and bade Jesus mount. Most of the multitude spread their garments along the way, while others strewed the way with branches cut down from the trees. And the multitudes that went before him and that followed after him cried aloud, 

People             Hosanna for the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in heaven above.

Leader             Then Jesus went into the temple of God, and drove out from it all those who sold and bought there, and overthrew the tables of the bankers, and the chairs of the pigeon-sellers.

Celebrant        My house shall be known for a house of prayer, and you have made it into a den of thieves.  

Leader             And those who were blind and lame who came up to him in the temple, and he healed them there. The chief priests and scribes saw the miracles which he did, and the children that cried aloud in the temple, 

People             Hosanna for the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in heaven above.

Leader             The chief priest and scribes were greatly angered. To this Jesus replied,

Celebrant        Have you never read the words, Thou hast made the lips of children, of infants at the breast, vocal with praise?

Leader             Afterwards Jesus came into the temple; and while he was teaching there, the chief priests and elders approached him, asking, What is the authority by which thou doest these things, and who gave thee this authority?  Jesus answered them, 

Celebrant        I too have a question to ask; if you can tell me the answer, I will tell you in return what is the authority by which I do these things. Whence did John’s baptism come, from heaven or from earth?

Leader             Whereupon they cast about in their minds; If we tell him it was from heaven, they said, he will ask us, Then why did you not believe him? And if we say it was from earth, we have reason to be afraid of the people; they all look upon John as a prophet. And they answered Jesus, We cannot tell. He, in his turn, said, 

Celebrant        And you will not learn from me what is the authority by which I do these things.Have you never read those words in the scriptures, The very stone which the builders rejected has become the chief stone at the corner; this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? I tell you, then, that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and given to a people which yields the revenues that belong to it.  As for the stone, when a man falls against it, he will break his bones; when it falls upon him, it will scatter him like chaff. 

Leader             The chief priests and the Pharisees saw clearly that it was of themselves he was speaking, and would gladly have laid hands on him, but they were afraid of the people, who looked upon him as a prophet.

People             Hosanna for the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in heaven above.

Leader             And Jesus continued to frustrate the Pharisees and Sadducees and one of them, a lawyer, put a question to try Jesus: Master, which commandment in the law is the greatest? Jesus said to him,

Celebrant        Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and thy whole soul and thy whole mind. This is the greatest of the commandments, and the first. And the second, its like, is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments, all the law and the prophets depend… What is your opinion concerning Christ? Whose son is he to be?

Leader             They told him, David’s. 

Celebrant        How is it then that David is moved by the Spirit to call him Master, when he says: ‘The Lord said to my Master, Sit on my right hand while I make thy enemies a footstool under thy feet?’  David calls Christ his Master; how can he be also his son?

Leader             None could find a word to say in answer to him, nor did anyone dare, after that day, to try him with further questions.

People             Hosanna for the son of David, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in heaven above.

HYMN: ALL GLORY, LAUD, and HONOUR

Leader             And Jesus admonished the crowds, the scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees… Then Jesus left the temple, and was going on his way, when his disciples came up to shew him the view of the temple building. Jesus said to them 

Celebrant        Do you see all this? Believe me, there will not be a stone left on another in this place, it will all be thrown down.

People             We pray for the throwing down of systems of oppression.

Celebrant        Take care that you do not allow anyone to deceive you. Many will come making use of my name; they will say, I am Christ, and many will be deceived by it.

People             We pray for the end of spiritual abuse.

Celebrant        And you will hear tell of wars, and rumours of war; see to it that you are not disturbed in mind; such things must happen, but the end will not come yet.

People             We pray for perseverance amidst struggle.

Celebrant        Nation will rise in arms against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there will be plagues and famines and earthquakes in this region or that;

People             We pray for all who suffer and are afflicted.

Celebrant        Friends will give you up to persecution, and will put some to death; all the world may hate you because you cherish my name;

People             We pray for victims of hate, those who are killed for who they are.

Celebrant        The charity of many will grow cold, as they see wickedness abound everywhere; but they will be saved who endure to the last.

People             We pray that our hearts will be open and our vision for love.

Leader             And with these and other words Jesus admonished his disciples and followers preparing them for his death as they prepared for the days of unleavened bread. As that day approached they asked him, ‘Where wilt thou have us make ready for thee to eat the paschal meal?’. Jesus replied,

Celebrant        Go into the city, find such a man, and tell him, The Master says, My time is near; I and my disciples must keep the paschal feast at thy house.

Leader             The disciples did as Jesus bade them, and made all ready for the paschal meal there. When evening came, he sat down with the disciples, and, while they were at table, he said, 

Celebrant        Believe me, one of you is to betray me.

Leader             They were full of sorrow, and began to say, one after another, 

People             Lord, is it I?

Celebrant        The one who has put his hand into the dish with me will betray me. The Son of Man goes on his way, as the scripture foretells of him; but woe upon that one by whom the Son of Man is to be betrayed; better for that one if they had never been born.

Leader             And while they were still at table, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, 

Celebrant        Take, eat, this is my body. 

Leader             Then he took a cup, and offered thanks, and gave it to them, saying, 

Celebrant        Drink, all of you, of this; for this is my blood, of the new testament, shed for many, to the remission of sins. And I tell you this, I shall not drink of this fruit of the vine again, until I drink it with you, new wine, in the kingdom of my Father.

HYMN: SANCTUS

the bread and wine are distributed

Celebrant        To-night you will all lose courage over me; for so it has been written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of his flock will be scattered. But I will go on before you into Galilee, when I have risen from the dead.

People             I will never disown thee, though I must lay down my life with thee.

Leader             So Jesus left, and they with him, to a Garden called Gethsemani, and he said

Celebrant        Sit down here, while I go in there and pray. My soul, he said, is ready to die with sorrow; abide here, and watch with me…My Father, if it is possible, let this chalice pass me by; only as thy will is, not as mine is… My Father, if this chalice may not pass me by, but I must drink it, then thy will be done.

Leader             As Jesus prayed thus for hours his disciples could not stay awake and watch. Thus, Judas, who was one of the twelve, came near; with him was a great multitude carrying swords and clubs, who had been sent by the chief priests and the elders of the people. The traitor had appointed them a signal; It is none other, he told them, than the man whom I shall greet with a kiss; hold him fast. No sooner, then, had he come near to Jesus than he said, Hail, Master, and kissed him.

Celebrant        The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People             And also with you.

share a sign of God’s peace

Leader             Then they came forward and laid their hands on Jesus, and held him fast.

Celebrant        You have come out to my arrest with swords and clubs, as if I were a robber; and yet I used to sit teaching in the temple close to you, day after day, and you never laid hands on me. All this was so ordained, to fulfil what was written by the prophets.

Leader             And now all his disciples abandoned him, and fled. As they fled each remembered saying:

People             I will never disown thee, though I must lay down my life with thee.

Leader             The chief priests and elders and all the Council tried to find false testimony against Jesus, such as would compass his death. But they could find none, although many came forward falsely accusing him; until at last two false accusers came forward who declared, 

People             This man said, I have power to destroy the temple of God and raise it again in three days.

Leader             Then the high priest stood up, and asked him, Hast thou no answer to make to the accusations they bring against thee? Jesus was silent; and the high priest said to him openly, I adjure thee by the living God to tell us whether thou art the Christ, the Son of God? Jesus answered, 

Celebrant        Thy own lips have said it. And moreover I tell you this; you will see the Son of Man again, when he is seated at the right hand of God’s power, and comes on the clouds of heaven.

Leader             At this, the high priest tore his garments, and said, He has blasphemed; what further need have we of witnesses? Mark well, you have heard his blasphemy for yourselves. What is your finding? And they answered, 

People             The penalty is death. 

Leader             Then they fell to spitting upon his face and buffeting him and smiting him on the cheek, saying as they did so, 

People             Shew thyself a prophet, Christ; tell us who it is that smote thee.

Leader             At day-break, all the chief priests and elders of the people laid their plans for putting Jesus to death, and they led him away in bonds, and gave him up to the governor, Pontius Pilate. And now Judas, his betrayer, was full of remorse at seeing him condemned, so that he brought back to the chief priests and elders their thirty pieces of silver; saying

PeopleI have sinned in betraying the blood of an innocent man.
What is that to us? they said. It concerns thee only. Whereupon he left them, throwing down the pieces of silver there in the temple, and went and hanged himself. Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor while the chief priests and elders brought their accusation against him, he made no answer. Then Pilate said to him, Dost thou not hear all the testimony they bring against thee? But Jesus would not answer any of their charges, so that the governor was full of astonishment. At the festival, the governor used to grant to the multitude the liberty of any one prisoner they should choose; and there was one notable prisoner then in custody, whose name was Barabbas; so, when they gathered about him, Pilate asked them, Whom shall I release? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ? 

People             Barabbas

Leader             Pilate said to them, What am I to do, then, with Jesus, who is called Christ?

People             Let him be crucified.

Leader             And when the governor said, Why, what wrong has he done? they cried louder than ever, 

People             Let him be crucified.

Leader             And so, finding that his good offices went for nothing, and the uproar only became worse, Pilate sent for water and washed his hands in full sight of the multitude, saying as he did so, I have no part in the death of this innocent man; it concerns you only. And the whole people answered, 

People             His blood be upon us. 

Leader             And with that he released Barabbas as they asked; Jesus he scourged, and gave him up to be crucified. The governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the palace, and gathered the whole of their company about him. First they stripped him, and arrayed him in a scarlet cloak; then they put on his head a crown which they had woven out of thorns, and a rod in his right hand, and mocked him by kneeling down before him, and saying,

People             Hail, king of the Jews

Leader             And they spat upon him, and took the rod from him and beat him over the head with it. At last they had done with mockery; stripping him of the scarlet cloak, they put his own garments on him, and led him away to a place called Golgotha, that is, the place named after a skull. Here they offered him a draught of wine, mixed with gall, which he tasted, but would not drink, and then crucified him, dividing his garments among them by casting lots. There, then, they sat, keeping guard over him. Over his head they set a written proclamation of his offence, 

People             This is Jesus, the king of the Jews

Leader             and with him they crucified two thieves, one on his right and one on his left. The passers-by blasphemed against him, tossing their heads; 

People             Come now, thou who wouldst destroy the temple and build it up in three days, rescue thyself; come down from that cross, if thou art the Son of God.

Leader             The chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him in the same way. 

People             He saved others he cannot save himself. He trusted in God; let God help him now.

Leader             Then there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour when Jesus cried out with a loud voice, 

Celebrant        Eli, Eli, lamma sabachthani? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Leader             Hearing this, some of those who stood thought he was calling upon Elias: and thereupon one of them ran to fetch a sponge, which he filled with vinegar and fixed upon a rod, and offered to let him drink; many wondered whether Elias would come and save him. But then Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit. And all at once, the veil of the temple was torn this way and that from the top to the bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks parted asunder; and the graves were opened, and many bodies arose out of them, bodies of holy ones gone to their rest: who, after his rising again, left their graves and went into the holy city, where they were seen by many. So that the centurion and those who kept guard over Jesus with him, when they perceived the earthquake and all that befell, were overcome with fear; 

People             No doubt, but this was the Son of God.

Leader             Many women stood watching from far off; they had followed Jesus from Galilee, to minister to him; among them were Mary Magdalen, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. And now it was evening, and a man came forward, by name Joseph, a rich man from Arimathea, who followed Jesus as a disciple like the rest; he it was who approached Pilate, and asked to have the body of Jesus; whereupon Pilate ordered that the body should be given up. Joseph took possession of the body, and wrapped it in a clean winding-sheet; then he buried it in a new grave, which he had fashioned for himself out of the rock, and left it there, rolling a great stone against the grave-door. When he had gone, there were two who sat on there opposite the tomb, Mary Magdalen and the other Mary with her. On the next day, the chief priests and the Pharisees gained permission from Pilate to make the tomb secure and they put a seal on the stone and set a guard over it. The male disciples cowered in locked rooms while the women came to the tomb showing little fear, waiting for the festival of unleavened bread to end so that they could tend the body and begin their time of mourning.  

HYMN: WHERE YOU THERE

 Leader            Do not cower, but wait, showing little fear.

People             Thanks be to God.

Episcopal Doctrine on Gun Control

The Episcopal Church is often mischaracterized as not having doctrinal expectations on issues. This is actually not true. In the Episcopal Church we have a very high theology of personal conscience. This means that amidst the doctrinal expectations of the church individuals, especially laity, are given an exceptional amount of freedom in regard to their personal belief and practice. When the Episcopal church convenes as a council of the church, General Convention, we do make statements of expectations of where our church stands on an issue. This includes a long history of statements regarding Gun Control.

The first such statement is 1976-C052:

Resolved, That the 65th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, meeting in Minneapolis, September 11-23, 1976, urge the Congress of the United States to adopt effective hand gun legislation as promptly as possible and that this resolution be communicated to the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime of the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senators Birch Bayh and James Eastland of the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate, and to the President of the National Rifle Association; and be it further

Resolved, That this General Convention urge all citizens to support federal, state, and local legislation aimed at controlling the sale and use of hand guns.

It is important to realize that this first resolution dates back forty years, long before any current political controversy or the heightened issue of regular mass shootings. The Episcopal Church, then, has a long standing history of seeking gun control legislation. The next decade did not see the changes longed for by the Episcopal Church and this prompted 1991-B042:

Resolved, That the House of Bishops, meeting in the 70th General Convention of the Episcopal Church, reaffirm its support for sound handgun control legislation, a position first taken in 1976; and be it further

Resolved, That this House of Bishops endorse the so-called Brady Bill now before the Congress of the United States as a first step toward effective handgun control. It is sensible legislation which requires waiting periods and background checks on those persons who wish to purchase handguns; and be it further

Resolved, That copies of this resolution be sent to the President of the United States, appropriate members of Congress and other appropriate government entities.

The Brady Bill became law in 1993 and yet in the next year the General Convention of the Episcopal Church continued to be concerned about issues of gun control with 1994-D019:

Resolved, That the Standing Commission on Peace with Justice extend its study of the sale and spread of armaments by adding to its agenda for the coming triennium (without additional budget expense) a review of existing and pending state and national legislation which seeks to:

1. Limit the manufacture and sale of weapons and ammunition domestically;
2. Strengthen firearms licensing provisions for both sellers and buyers; and
3. Restrict the exportation of weapons and weapon parts from the United States.
4. Tighten restrictions on importation of weapons and weapon parts to the United States.

As things progressed the Episcopal Church's consideration of this issue became broader and we consider gun safety to be more than just gun control, this can be seen at the convention three years later with 1997-D033:

Resolved, That this 72nd General Convention of the Episcopal Church strongly urge the Congress of the United States promptly to pass national legislation that will apply the same quality and safety standards to domestically manufactured hand guns that are currently applied to imported hand guns; and be it further

Resolved, That this Resolution be forwarded to the Office of Government Relations of the Episcopal Church for distribution to the proper Congressional authorities.

Here we have a resolution that is about ensuring the safety and quality of guns brought into this country, an issue one would hope very gun enthusiast would see as important. While wanting to ensure that what guns are in our country are safe the same General Convention continued our petition for further gun control legislation.

Resolved, That this 72nd General Convention, through the Office of Government Relations, urge the Congress of the Unites States to increase restrictions on the sale, ownership and use of firearms, particularly "Saturday night specials" (described as short-barreled, four inches or shorter, easily concealed hand gun); and be it further

Resolved, That legislation to ban carrying concealed firearms be encouraged; and be it further

Resolved, That Congress be urged to adopt legislation requiring the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to develop regulations to delineate appropriate safety standards for use of firearms, and circumstances under which firearms may be used and to monitor and enforce compliance with said safety standards.

At this point we are looking at decades of consistent resolutions around this issue coming from our General Conventions. This stance existed, solidly, in the Episcopal Church before the current era of mass shootings began. The next general convention, three years later, would be in a post-Columbine world. These events would prompt three resolutions regarding gun control.

2000-D004

Resolved, That the 73rd General Convention express deep concern about the repeated use of easily available hand guns and assault weapons by and against children and call upon Episcopalians to seek ways to develop community strategies and create sanctuaries for our children, so that all may come to identify and value themselves and others as the precious children of God that they are, and that they may come to know peace in their lives and to create peace for future generations.

2000-B007

Resolved, That the 73rd General Convention request members of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America to acknowledge that the violence in our communities is encouraged and enabled by the presence of guns; and be it further

Resolved, That this Convention call upon all members of the church to work intentionally in their several committees, legislatures, and institutions toward the removal of handguns and assault weapons from our homes, other residential communities, and vehicles.

2000-A006

Resolved, That the 73rd General Convention urge the appropriate departments and agencies of the U.S. government to prohibit the export of handguns.

Note how 2000-B007 and 2000-D004 shift the conversation away from political legislation and to personal responsibility of individuals to take account of their own personal gun ownership and deeply consider the implications of owning guns. It would be twelve years before the general convention would again look at the issue of gun regulation, when we did, it was in regards to regulation on our church properties with 2012-D003:

Resolved, That the 77th General Convention requests every parish and every diocesan place of work to declare their establishments as Gun Free Zones.

This resolution brought our worship communities across the church to take up some very difficult conversations and process the forever more pressing issue of gun ownership and control. Our most recent General Convention added two more resolutions for our consideration.

2015-C005

Resolved, That the 78th General Convention on the 50th anniversary of the murder of seminarian Jonathan Daniels, urge all legislators at federal, state and local levels to help decrease gun violence by implementing laws that;

1. Require permits to carry concealed weapons and criminal background checks for every gun purchase, including those made at gun shows; and

2. Except for the use of military and law enforcement agencies, ban the sale, transfer, importation and manufacture of military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines; and

3. Ban the importation and manufacture of Full-Auto Conversion kits that convert guns into automatic weapons; and

4. Tighten laws against gun trafficking, and increase penalties for those who engage in "straw purchases" of firearms for ineligible persons; and

5. Prohibit persons from purchasing guns without evidence of gun safety training; and

6. Recognize the impact of existing inheritance laws on the transfer of gun ownership; and

7. Promote funding for research into the prevention and causes of gun violence.

2015-B008

Resolved, That the 78th General Convention of The Episcopal Church support handgun purchaser licensing in order to prevent gun violence and save lives; and be it further

Resolved, That the dioceses of The Episcopal Church be encouraged to advocate for handgun purchaser licensing in their local contexts.

These two resolutions are the strongest made over the past four decades of resolutions considering this subject. They do not, however, represent some new liberalism or politicization of our church's stance on this issue. The Episcopal Church is overwhelmingly in support of exceptionally more robust gun control laws than are currently in use and we have been seeking such to be put in place for nearly half a century.

Now, as stated above, the Episcopal Church does not do much in the way of doctrinal enforcement and we leave much up to personal conscious on any issue including this one. There are many Episcopalians I know who responsibly own guns and often for exceptionally sound reasons of personal safety. They live out their gun ownership as if the expectations sought by the church of our legal code were already in place. 

What then is expected of Episcopalians? We must be knowledgable of the above resolutions and take up personally any requests they make of us. If asked if the Episcopal Church has a doctrine on gun ownership and gun safety it is the prerogative of every Episcopalian to say yes, explain the reality of our resolutions on the subject, and then explain their own conscious regarding the issue. At this point in the crisis we are facing in the United States no Episcopalian should be ignorant of our denomination's long standing expectation on this issue.



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To view these and all resolution of the episcopal church go to: https://www.episcopalarchives.org/e-archives/acts/