We know that some of our UCC churches are prayerfully considering how to be more prepared when, at the 2004 Conference Annual Meeting in October, the "Resolution in Support of Legal Marriage for Same-Sex Couples" comes up for deliberation and vote. Again.
Well into pro and con debate at the 2003 Conference, the body voted to table the vote for one year.
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| The Rev. Sarah Verasco, chair of Open/Affirming Ministry, is an associate pastor at Asylum Hill Congregational Church, Hartford |
Open/Affirming Ministry stands ready to assist any UCC churches in Connecticut in a number of possible ways. We would be glad to arrange for one or two persons to join you at a Sunday morning Second Hour or an evening meeting. This might help clarify confusions over difference between religious unions celebrated by faith communities and civil marriages regulated by government.
Another possibility might be a series: Bible study, putting in historical perspective the difficult passages that seem to condemn homosexuality in juxtaposition with texts about Jesusā radical ministry of love and concern for neighbor.
You may have other suggestions. If O/AM can assist, our chair, the Rev. Sarah Varasco, can be reached at (860) 525-5696 or verasco@ahcc.org.
If a particular book or resource not now available at the Conference Dudley Resource Center would be helpful in preparing a sermon or planning a meeting, contact Amy Beveridge or Cecile Gilson, 233-5564 at the Conference.
Since this newsletter is published quarterly at best, O/AM is not in a position to publicize all the educational forums and sessions that will occur around the state in coming months. The FIDO* Open & Affirming website is only as useful as we make it. It provides a link among people in the 260 UCC congregations in Connecticut.
Webmaster Eric Anderson's step-by-step directions on using the website:
If you have any difficulties, you can send an email directly to Eric at webmaster@ctucc.org.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force points out that the "Federal Marriage Amendment" (restricting marriage to "one man and one woman"), if passed by Congress and ratified by three-fourths of the states, would undo any steps already taken by states such as domestic partner benefits and civil unions. Such amendment would prevent any state or federal law from being construed to grant the targeted group any of the "incidents of marriage." In federal law alone, over 1,000 "incidents" range from inheritance tax to social security benefits.
[www.ngltf.org; Email: ngltf@ngltf.org]
On May 22, 2004, a landmark multiracial conference called Together in Faith: Journey into Inclusiveness invites people of all faiths into conversation about creating WELCOMING COMMUNITIES FOR LGBT PEOPLE. The conference, planned by the American Friends Service Committee, will take place at Eastern Michigan University. For more information, visit www.togetherinfaith.com or call 734/260-0517.
Soulforce, a nonviolent movement to bring justice for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons, is urging persons of faith TO OPPOSE THE PROPOSED FEDERAL MARRIAGE AMENDMENT, promoted by conservative Christian groups. The Soulforce website (www.soulforce.org) includes educational and organizing materials, sample sermons, and an outline petition.
Let's Get Real is a 35-minute documentary released by the Respect for All Project, featuring TEENAGERS WHO SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCES of being harrassed at school and doing bullying themselves. The video and accompanying curriculum guide are part of a national campaign to prevent violence in junior high schools. For more information, visit www.womedia.org or call 415/641-4616.
David R. Owens' review of the book Meeting Jesus AGAIN for the First Time by Marcus J. Borg.
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| Dennis Morin and David Owens |
While Borg did not mention gays explicitly, David's review here is from his perspective as a gay man. David recommends the book for its combined examination of exodus, exile, and homecoming and says, "It is one of the most meaningful books in my spiritual life." Credit also to E. Y. Harburg for "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
Like Jewish survivors marched into exile by conquering Babylonians, Christians who are gay may be held captive in their own "Babylon." That could be their personal closet, or the confines of the nation or society in which they live, or perhaps the world of the larger Church.
What is it that holds you back from living out your gift of life, in the fullest, most creation-affirming manner?
What separates you from the life that God intended?
To quote Borg, "Exile is an experience of separation from all that is familiar and dear. It involves powerlessness and marginality, often oppression and victimization. It has psychological as well as cultural-political dimensions."
Forced to live under conditions that contradict our very selves, we may find ourselves feeling like exiles. In our land, we hear of "freedom of assembly"÷ yet for ages, gay folk have been rounded up for arrest simply for gathering together--for example, at the Stonewall Inn. In our land, gay families are torn apart at the border because the guards cannot recognize marriages that are legal in other countries. In our land children are taken from their lesbian mothers because ignorance sees risk where clearer eyes see love. In our churches, sincerely devout individuals shout "abomination" and "apostasy" and threaten "schism" because another diocese has called a gay bishop to serve them. In our land, extremists actually work to amend the national constitution, scapegoating gay folks for the social pathologies of failed heterosexual unions, in a last-ditch effort to shore up their own apparently frail marriages.
How does this constant barrage affect us?
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Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true. |
Borg again: "As a life of being separated from that to which one belongs, exile is often marked by grief--deep sadness and an aching loneliness... In our own lives, the experience of exile as estrangement or alienation can be felt as a flatness, a loss of connection with a center of vitality and meaning... We yearn for something that we perhaps only vaguely remember. Life in exile thus has a profound existential meaning. It is living away from Zion, the place where God is present."
What is the message that we need?
A message only of redemption may not address our circumstances. Guilt over sins may not be the central issue in our lives, yet we have strong feelings of bondage or strong feelings of alienation and estrangement. The message of redemption would be like saying "to the Hebrew slaves, 'My children, your sins are forgiven.' They would properly have responded, 'What? What does that have to do with us? Our problem isn't that we are sinners, you idiot. Our problem is that we are slaves, oppressed by Pharaoh!'
"So it is in our time. For some people the central life issue is not sin and guilt, but bondage to, or victimization by, one Pharaoh or another... For them, what can the message of sin and forgiveness mean? Unfortunately, it often comes to mean 'You should forgive the person who is victimizing you,' when what the victim needs to hear is: 'It is not God's will that you remain in Babylon, not God's will that you mourn in lonely exile there.'"
Borg continues: "If our problem is exile, what is the solution? The solution is, of course, a journey of return..." which is richly imaged in Isaiah:
In the wilderness prepare the way of Yahweh, make straight in the desert a highway
for our God...
..."a way of return, leading from Babylon back to the promised land, back home.
"Thus, like the exodus story, the story of exile and return is a journey story. It images the religious life as a journey to the place where God is present, a homecoming, a journey of return. And like the exodus story, this story speaks of God aiding and assisting those who undertake the journey:
God gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless...
They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."
God gives us the tools to thrive, even while we live surrounded by our enemies. Our life can be shaped by "Jesusā own perception of the religious life and therefore his message and activity... The conventional wisdom which he subverted had characteristics of both bondage and exile--Egypt and Babylon. Conventional wisdom is life under the lordship of culture, which is both oppressive and alienating, and his message is filled with the theme of liberation and return. He came to 'set captives freeā' language that connects to the imagery of both bondage and exile. "As a journeying with Jesus, discipleship means being on the road with him. It means undertaking a journey from the life of conventional wisdom, from life in our Egypt and life in our Babylon, to the alternative wisdom of life in the Spirit. To journey with Jesus means listening to his teaching."
You need not experience your own church as an oppressive part of the larger world church. There are many fine congregations which may be an oasis for you on your journey--where loving friends and supportive clergy welcome and affirm you, where they actually join with you as partners on the journey to reconnection with God, away from exile in the surrounding world. We are called to life in the community of Jesus, a journey in a company of disciples that remembers and celebrates Jesus.
Recall that "believe" means to "give one's heart to, to give oneself at its deepest level." This journey back is a journey of transformation. "It leads from life under the lordship of culture to the life of companionship with God."
O/AM News is published four times annually by the United Church of Christ Connecticut Conference Open/Affirming Ministry (a focus group). News is mailed to all UCC clergy and Christian educators in Connecticut as well as to daily newspapers, staff at national UCC headquarters and others on request.
Send news, articles, letters to Dorothy Many, Editor, O/AM News, PO Box 684, Windsor, CT 06095; IGD.Many@comcast.net. Material, if published, may be edited for space and clarity.
Conference Liaison: the Rev. Gordon Bates (Associate Conference Minister for Justice and Witness Ministry), gordonb@ctucc.org; 860/233-5564. Or contact Cecile Gilson (Coordinator for Justice and Witness Ministry and Wider Church Ministry), cecileg@ctucc.org; 860/233-5564.
Connecticut Conference address: 125 Sherman St., Hartford, CT 06105.
