Will you strive for justice and peace...?
Episcopal Diocese of Washington
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Bishop Mariann’s Blog
Will you strive for justice and peace...?
Thursday, February 09, 2012
Patty Johnson
Dearest Bishop, Bless you for your amazing leadership among us. Please know that I stand with you and that, should there be anything I can do to assist you, I am here. Jesus never turned people away: he embraced ALL as children of God. I have stood among the black clergy at Wed. Clergy Fellowship to speak on on the subject of gay rights/marriage equality. I did so from my strong conviction that the consecration of marriage between two people who love one another is a divine right, a human right and should be a legal right. On a personal level, I am very proud of the caring, kind nature of my gay son, the fourth of four sons. He, like others, did not choose his orientation. God made him. Finally, I thank you also for your enthusiasm at our MLK event: it meant the WORLD to me to have you there! He is my hero - and clearly yours too! God bless - and I'd love to meet with you when you have time to tell you about the outreach ministries of this Cathedral and beyond. Patty Johnson, Cathedral Missioner
Frank Dunn
That you take this firm stand is not surprising. That you do so with such humility and grace humbles me. Your comments are about, of course, far more than the topic at hand. They are about how the Church engages its society in constructive dialogue. Yours is a model I want to emulate, and your tone one I wish to cultivate. Thanks!
Anne Ritchie
Dear Bishop Mariann, In both recent messages you strike a remarkable blend of courageous and clear position with openness to and caring for those who differ from you (and me). Before I retired, I strove to communicate to members of my parish the critical distinction between biblical prohibitions of same-gender exploitation and loving, committed relationships. You, in just a few paragraphs, achieved this wonderfully. Thank you for your witness and for being a prophetic spokeswoman for justice, mercy and love. In Christ, (The Rev. Dr.) Anne Gavin Ritchie
carol kramer
We were thrilled when Mark Van Note called us about your election as bishop. We knew that you would someday assume that leadership in some lucky diocese. I hope to be able to speak with you soon. Love, from Iowa via the White Earth Missions in Minnesota. Carol
Marty Dickinson
This was a very great and caring statement. Thank you very much.
Chuck Divine
Last week was Maryland Arts Day. A large number of people went to Annapolis to lobby for arts funding and to discuss various art related topics. At the end of the day there was an after party at the Maryland Federation of Art's State Circle gallery. During the party, Heather Mizeur stopped by. During our conversation I mentioned your support for same sex marriage. A big smile lit up her face! We also exchanged cards.
Ali
Thank you, all, for your responses. Please allow me to daerdss some of the points raised in these comments. First, my post was introductory, slightly autobiographical and presented a number of ideas that I hope to develop more fully in future posts. But I think I should clarify a few things here. As Derek Olsen has picked up, and as I believe Jeffrey Tucker is aware, I do serve a high church parish, Sarum or English Catholic in use and in theology. (But you wouldn't know that from the evening liturgy which is very much its own beast: slow, contemplative, using enriching and ad experimentem texts.) I wouldn't be there if I wasn't convinced of what we do and why we do it. We aren't trying to be all things to all people, but we are trying to provide the greatest number of parishioners with a respectable variety of options for the expression of divine worship. I am well aware that there are solid arguments both for and against this approach, and one of the strongest arguments is that such variety or diversity is divisive. That is an argument that I respect, and such variety can be divisive in a parochial context, indeed: I have seen that happen. Jeffrey Tucker is quite correct that the model of my parish, which I hold up as one example (and not necessarily the one-and-only ideal), is not the only path to charity; indeed, there is a certain path of least resistance quality to it.The chief points that I was trying to make in the post are two: first, a variety of liturgical expressions, at any level of the church's life parish, diocese, church or ecclesial body need not be a matter for divisive and acrimonious contention. Serious debate, yes. Principled stands, yes. My second point follows upon this: Where such realities attain, as they do with the two series of rites in the Episcopal Church and with the two forms or uses of the Latin Rite liturgy in the Roman Catholic Church, ad hominem attacks and dismissive attitudes need to be set aside, in the name of charity, precisely so that healthy, constructive and edifying debate can take place. This demands of us all a degree of humility, particularly in our reading of liturgical history. My own understanding of that history compels me to assert that the emergence of Rite II liturgy in the Episcopal Church, and the revision of the Roman Missal following upon Vatican II, are, by scholarly standards, organic outgrowths of their predecessors. (In a future post, I hope to explore this in more detail.) But I make that assertion conscious that others hold contrary opinions, which I'm not afraid to engage in debate, fully aware that I may be wrong. I disagree with those who find one or another of the Episcopal rites (or one or another of the Roman uses or forms) to be inherently superior to the other (and take your pick, if you must). But I recognize that there are those who find the opposite to be the case, and I respect the convictions and scholarship that stand behind the opinions that they hold by right. While I may debate those opinions, strongly at times, I do so with the hope that all involved may find their own understanding of the liturgy and its history deepened and enlightened. But I cannot experience such deepening and enlightenment if I'm wrapped in a cocoon of absolute self-assurance, nor if I belittle and dismiss my potential dialogue partners along the way. And I see far too much of that in the field of liturgics and far, far, far too much of it in comment boxes in blogs such as this! Charity above all, my friends, caritas super omnia.ccu
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Andrea "Tracy" Holmes
As a lifelong Episcopalian and heterosexual woman, mother of three adult daughters, and grandmother to two grandsons, I found your comments to be some of the most well thought out and cogent of any I've seen about this issue. I fully support you in your ministry, and hope that before I leave this earth, members of our spiritual community will open their minds, hearts and souls to full acceptance of all of God's creatures. Thank you for your spiritual leadership!