Author Archives: Laura
ANNOUNCEMENT (February 8, 2014)
ANNOUNCEMENT: Hi, all. Due to the pretty-heavy snowfall tonight, and the difficult driving conditions, we have decided to cancel our worship service tomorrow (February 9, 2014). Stay home, pray for the safety of all, and we’ll worship together again next Sunday (February 16, 2014). God bless! Laura
Pray on behalf of LGBT people in Uganda
A message from Rev. Dr. Nancy Wilson, Moderator, Metropolitan Community Churches
Dear Friends,
In May of this year, we asked you to sign a petition and contact the Ugandan President regarding the “Kill the Gays” bill. Our voices, along with thousands of others, were heard, and the bill was tabled at the end of Uganda’s parliamentary session. We learned today that Uganda’s new Parliament will most likely be bringing up this bill for a vote later this month. Please join us in prayer:
Compassionate God,
We pray for our LGBT sisters and brothers in Uganda.
May your love for all creation be embodied and embraced by those in leadership within Uganda.
May a spirit of tolerance and acceptance sweep through the land.
As they reconsider the bill that would end lives based on whom a person loves,
May each person be reminded of the love they share in their lives.
May they be guided by understanding and compassion to stop this bill of hate.
God, be with those most at risk; surround them with your protection and keep them safe.
Help them to know they are not alone, and help us to be present for them.
Surround them with your peace and love.
We ask this in your many names and through Jesus the Christ.
Amen
In solidarity,
+ Nancy
Rev. Dr. Nancy Wilson, Moderator
Metropolitan Community Churches
From last Sunday’s worship: We together are God’s temple
- 1 Corinthians 3:16
From last Sunday’s worship:
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?
“Love generates life”
Love is the active, creative force that repairs life’s injuries and brings new possibilities into being. Love generates life, from the moment of conception to the moment we remember with gratitude and tenderness those who have died. And in the darkest night, when our heart is breaking, love embraces us even when we cannot embrace ourselves. Love saves us and redirects us toward generosity. – Rebecca Parker
Rev. Jane, one of “The pastors at Planned Parenthood”
from the Yakima Herald-Republic, Friday, January 18, 2008:The pastors at Planned ParenthoodYAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLICWhile some Yakima religious leaders are preparing for this Saturday’s anti-abortion march downtown, others are working quietly to support women’s right to choose abortion.
About a dozen local pastors serve on the clergy committee of Planned Parenthood of Central Washington in Yakima. They meet monthly to talk about issues concerning the reproductive rights organization, which offers birth control, abortion, HIV/AIDS testing and other medical services to women throughout the area.The pastors, who belong to traditional mainline and progressive Christian churches, offer their support to Planned Parenthood staffers. They sometimes are asked to provide pastoral guidance to women considering terminating a pregnancy. They tell women that it’s morally permissible in religious terms to choose to have an abortion.Clergy have been involved with Planned Parenthood since its start more than 90 years ago, so these local pastors are carrying on a long tradition.”Many Planned Parenthood (chapters) started in church basements,” said Anna Franks, president of Planned Parenthood of Central Washington. “Clergy were right there at the beginning of the movement. They had couples coming to them seeking support.”The local pastors’ work is not easy or comfortable, particularly in a community with a heavy representation of Christian conservatives who deplore abortion. The Rev. David Helseth, senior pastor at Yakima’s Englewood Christian Church, acknowledged that not all members of his own congregation approve of his involvement with Planned Parenthood.But “it primarily comes down to supporting women’s rights to make choices,” said Helseth, who was a founding board member of the local Planned Parenthood chapter and its chairman from 1998 to 2000.The existence of the Planned Parenthood clergy committee shows that while conservative Christian and Catholic leaders have taken the lead in denouncing abortion, their view is not shared by all clergy.”Anti-abortion isn’t an accurate representation of how all religious people feel,” said the Rev. Jane Newall, founder and senior pastor of Yakima’s Rainbow Cathedral Metropolitan Community Church, which welcomes people of all sexual orientations. “I think our voices are sometimes overshouted by anti-abortion groups who choose to use religion as one of their whipping posts.”Newall is a member of Planned Parenthood’s national clergy advisory board and a member of the local organization’s board.A local evangelical Christian minister castigates the pastors for their association with Planned Parenthood and their support for abortion rights.”Abortion is a curse on the land; our nation is suffering because of it. Four thousand babies a day are murdered in the womb, and we will have to pay a great price for that,” said the Rev. Ron Thomasson, pastor at Gateway Fellowship in Yakima. “I think (the Planned Parenthood pastors) are deceived. They have a liberal mind-set.”Thomasson believes Helseth and Newall are “in a very small minority” among Christian ministers on the east side of the Cascades. He will be out Saturday participating in the anti-abortion walk, which commemorates the 35th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade that barred states from outlawing abortion.Pastoral guidance on abortionThe local Planned Parenthood clergy committee is part of a small but growing nationwide trend that started in the mid-1990s. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America formed its national Clergy Advisory Board in 1994.Since then, clergy committees have formed at about 15 percent of the 110 Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country, including three of the five in Washington, according to the Rev. Vincent Lachina, a Southern Baptist minister and the state chaplain for the Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Washington.”It’s only since 1994, when the religious right became so powerful, the progressive clergy tried to find a voice and speak out,” said Lachina, who attends most meetings of clergy committees in the state. But “we’re just now finding our voice. It’s very important for us to meet with our peers and talk about these issues and know there are others who are part of the progressive movement.”The Yakima clergy committee has been meeting “quietly and consistently” for about 12 years, Helseth said.”We’ve had (Planned Parenthood) staff members talk about what they do. We’ve talked about homosexuality, HIV and AIDS, the role of clergy, sex education. We don’t necessarily get theological.”But some of the clergy committee members do get political. They participate in legislative lobbying in Olympia on behalf of Planned Parenthood, and write letters to legislators. A major issue for Planned Parenthood in this year’s legislative session is whether local school districts should be required to seek federal funding for sex education. Such funding would require them to teach abstinence only, instead of a more comprehensive approach that includes lessons such as condom use.Clergy committee members also receive referrals from Planned Parenthood staff of patients who are struggling with difficult decisions. In addition, the clergy group has drafted a “Pastoral Letter About Your Abortion Decision” to guide patients.The letter states that “we believe that God loves you, and that you can find strength, understanding and comfort in that love on days when you are in doubt or distress. We support your right and your ability to choose what is best for you. If you have thought about this decision, then you should allow yourself to be at peace and to be confident in your decision.”But Thomasson, at Gateway Fellowship, said he strongly disagrees that it’s religiously permissible to have an abortion.”We believe according to the Bible that God is originator of life, he decides when it begins, and he ends it at his determination,” Thomasson said. “We don’t want to meddle with what God is doing.”Helseth takes a different view.”When women are given power over their own bodies, and especially reproductivity, they will make good decisions that are best for them and their children and family,” he said. “This strengthens families and strengthens communities.”Planned Parenthood’s Franks encouraged pastors to join the clergy committee.”The clergy that have come forward are willing to respect women’s decisions and offer spiritual guidance regardless of their decisions,” she said. “We would love more clergy to join.”* Herald-Republic City Editor Harris Meyer contributed to this report.
an epiphany prayer
Jesus, grant us the humility to see you as you truly are; not through the dark glass of our weak and finite minds but through the glorious clarity of your love. Speak to us from the whirlwind of Your reality, and call us back to You as You are. Fill us, Lord, with your grace, and inspire us to serve you in love in the world. Amen
The Great O Antiphons
The great O antiphons:
December 17 — O SAPIENTIA: O Wisdom, you came forth from the mouth of the Most High and, reaching from beginning to end, you ordered all things mightily and sweetly. Come, and teach us the way of prudence.
December 18 — O ADONAI: O Adonai and Ruler of the House of Israel, you appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and on Mount Sinai gave him your law. Come, and with outstretched arm redeem us.
December 19 — O RADIX JESSE: O Root of Jesse, you stand as a sign for the peoples; before you kings shall keep silence and to you all nations shall have recourse. Come, save us, and do not delay.
December 20 — O CLAVIS DAVID: O Key of David and Scepter of the House of Israel; you open and no one closes; you close and no one opens. Come, and deliver from the chains of prison those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
December 21 — O ORIENS: O Rising Dawn, Radiance of the Light eternal and Sun of Justice: come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
December 22 — O REX GENTIUM: O King of the Gentiles and the Desired of all, you are the cornerstone that binds two into one. Come, and save humanity which you fashioned out of clay.
December 23 — O EMMANUEL: O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Expected of the nations and their Savior. Come and save us, O Lord our God.
For more on the O Antiphons, see this post from last advent.
Rev. Jane in today’s paper — “Local clery share a common ground”
Hi, folks. Deb just called me and let me know that Rev. Jane was in the paper today. What an encouraging story! Very cool. Laura
|
Published on Saturday, November 10, 2007 |
Local clergy share a common ground
By ADRIANA JANOVICH
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
|
ANDY SAWYER/Yakima Herald-Republic |
They appear to have little in common.
He’s in his 70s; she’s in her 30s. He took a vow of chastity; she has a partner and they have four children.
Monsignor John A. Ecker is a Catholic priest, the senior pastor at St. Paul Cathedral, a Yakima parish that’s more than 90 years old. The Rev. Jane Newall is the founding and senior pastor at a 13-year-old Christian church that’s open to people of all sexual orientations.
The two pastors from different backgrounds have worked together in the past on community projects and committees. And they’re working together again.
Newall and Ecker are the co-leaders of the 2007-08 Yakima Association of Churches and Faith Communities.
The association’s members — lay and religious leaders of local churches and faith communities — strive to put their theological differences aside in order to focus on what they have in common, and identify and meet the needs of the community.
“We certainly have different liturgical backgrounds, but we can work together,” the 38-year-old Newall says.
“The more secure you are in your own faith, the less you worry about other people’s,” she says. “I’m secure in what I believe. If someone else believes differently than me, I’m not threatened by that.”
Other members don’t seem to be either. They elected Newall to lead the Yakima association before they broke for their annual summer-long hiatus. Due to time constraints, she wanted to share the leadership role and responsibilities with Ecker.
“I said I would do it if John helps me,” Newall says.
“Our home lives are different. Our faith lives are different,” she says. But, “the variety of skills we have to offer coordinates well in terms of leadership. I have a lot of respect for the man.”
Ecker echoes that sentiment: “We have definite differences in church discipline and the way we worship,” the 74-year-old says. “We don’t talk about dogmatic differences very much; we talk about what we have in common.”
And that’s “a love of people and a love of the community,” Newall says. “Our common goals are altruistic. That’s where we share passion.”
So do other members of the interfaith association, which works to serve the community, Newall says, “without strings attached.”
“We’re not trying to convert anyone,” Ecker says. “We stress our similarities and what we can work on together to take care of the poor and homeless and the gangs in this city.”
The pair have known each other about as long as Newall has been in Yakima. She came here from the East Coast in the fall of 1993. By the following spring, she had started Rainbow Cathedral Metropolitan Community Church.
The association, traditionally made up largely of representatives of mainline churches — a group which includes United Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians — was already here.
But 59-year-old David Helseth, senior pastor of Yakima’s Englewood Christian Church and the out-going leader of the association, says it has evolved over the years and become more inclusive.
A particular emphasis to reach out to other denominations and religions was made after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Helseth says. Around that time, the group broadened its scope even further, loosening by-laws and including “Faith Communities” in its title.
Today, “All of these people are at this table,” Helseth says. “We are a very broad group, and that’s part of our strength and part of our challenge.”
The idea — and the group itself — isn’t new. In fact, the association has been around since the 1960s. Ecker helped start it following the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
“There was an opening of doors and windows to work ecumenically,” he says. “That was pretty much the impetus.”
These days, the group meets for lunch and discussion once a month at Yakima’s Central Lutheran Church. About 20 pastors and lay leaders usually attend.
Members pledge to work together in mutual support, respecting each other’s convictions and distinctions and pooling their resources. The latest season of collaboration and cooperation — without compromising beliefs —
began in September.
Many attendees represented local mainline churches. Also at the table: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the Mormon church, and the current president of Yakima’s Temple Shalom. And on the rolls: representatives of the Bahá’í Faith.
Deciding priorities for the coming year was one of the first orders of business. And Newall emphasized the need for more outreach.
“We are such a diverse group it can be challenging to approach issues, especially ones that have any kind of controversy around them,” she says. “We might not agree on the how, but we probably agree on the problem.”
Issues up for discussion included gangs and prevention, family enrichment programs, health and wellness, immigration, and environmental concerns. After the tally, top priorities for this year were homelessness, race relations and cooperation with Yakima schools.
Says Newall, “I really think we can be more pro-active than we have been in years past.”
Traditionally, the Yakima association has been involved with the Yakima CROP Walk, an annual 5-kilometer walk to support the work of Church World Service. One-fourth of what is raised in Yakima stays here. This year, the monies went to Yakima Interfaith Coalition/La Casa Hogar, a faith-based organization that provides emergency services and helps Hispanic immigrant women and children.
Yakima Interfaith Coalition/La Casa Hogar is an outgrowth of the association, which continues to support the nonprofit through donations and offerings collected at interfaith worship services.
It also sponsors interfaith Good Friday and Thanksgiving services and participates in the local Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration.
Association dues are $50 a year. The money is used to cover administrative costs. It’s also given to other organizations — like Yakima Interfaith Coalition/La Casa Hogar — to help address community needs
“We believe that powers of evil cannot kill God… God walks on free!” (call to worship July 21)
Last week’s CALL to WORSHIP:
We believe that horizons of hope are never fixed.
They always move beyond, in the creativity of God.
We believe that powers of evil cannot kill God.
God walks on free and leaps ahead of us in the risen Christ of faith.
We believe that the Spirit can never be confined.
She dances forth in the world and is found in surprising places, leading us on until the end of time. (Adapted/D McRae-McMahon/bst)
“cause us to always be centered on your love” (Lord’s Prayer for June 17)
Here’s the version of the Lord’s Prayer we used during last Sunday’s worship. I also added to the “fresh versions of the Lord’s Prayer” page (see the button right below the blog banner). Check that page out; we’ve built up a rich little collection of Lord’s Prayers, including this one.
O God, you love us like a good parent, and are present in every aspect of our existence. May your nature become known and respected by all. May your joy, peace, wholeness and justice be the reality for everyone as we live by the Jesus Way. Give us all that we really need to live every day for you. And forgive us our failures as we forgive others for their failures. Keep us from doing those things which are not of you, and cause us always to be centered on your love. For you are the true reality in this our now, and in all our future. In the Jesus Way we pray. Amen. (David Sorrill)
We say, “In God I trust, I am not afraid” (call to worship June 17)
the call to worship from last Sunday’s worship:
To those who shout with bitter words and prejudiced hearts, we say,
In God I trust, I am not afraid.
To the voices within that doubt and fear, we say
In God I trust, I am not afraid.
To the forces of prejudice, to homophobia, biphobia and transphobia, we say
In God I trust, I am not afraid.
To the diseases of heart, mind and body, we say,
In God I trust, I am not afraid.
God of Justice, God of beauty,
Holy Creator of us all,
In you we put our trust; to you we call this day.
Be with us as we worship.
O Holy One, bless our pride, our celebration, our laughter, those who oppose us, our differences, those for whom it takes great courage to be here, our calls for equity and freedom, each one of us… O Holy One
A prayer for worship, June 10th, in celebration of Pridetide:
O Holy One, known to us in many ways, be present with us now. We ask for your blessings as we rejoice as a community this day. Bless our pride that it be a humble reflection of gratitude for who it is you have created us to be. Bless our celebration that it be an expression of our joy in love and in health. Bless our laughter that it herald the building of friendships and relationships. Bless those who may come to oppose us that our happiness may be contagious. Bless our differences as a source of our strength and a sign of our respect for one another. Bless those for whom it takes great courage to be here that they may feel the abundance of life. Bless our calls for equity and freedom that we may both speak and hear your vision of justice and of peace. Bless each one of us here today with your presence and our presence, one with another. All this we ask of you, O Holy One, for you are ever faithful to us. Rejoice with us today! Amen.
Rainbow Cathedral 