Episcopal Bishops Can Bless Gay Unions

Approved Compromise Measure Stops Short of Creating Liturgical Rites

By William Wan, Washington Post
Saturday, July 18, 2009

Episcopal Church officials voted yesterday to allow bishops the latitude to bless same-sex unions -- the second vote this week in favor of gay rights and one that may further divide the worldwide Anglican community.

On the last day of the church's triennial national convention in Anaheim, Calif., officials stopped short of creating liturgical rites to bless same-sex unions, but approved a compromise measure that allows bishops, especially in states where same-sex unions are legal, to bless the relationships. The key portion of the legislation says bishops "may provide generous pastoral response" for such unions.

The vote came three days after the church passed a resolution allowing for the ordination of gay bishops. Both moves have prompted strong reactions among the larger worldwide Anglican Church, of which the Episcopal Church is a part.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the preeminent Anglican clergyman, had asked the Episcopalians before the convention not to take up issues that would further divide the church. This week, the influential bishop of Durham, England, wrote an essay describing the ongoing crisis as "a slow-moving train crash" and the most recent actions of the Episcopal Church as marking "a clear break with the rest of the Anglican Communion."

Meanwhile, gay rights advocates said this week's victories lay the groundwork for future moves. The resolution included a call for bishops to "collect and develop theological and liturgical resources" on same-sex unions to report to the next convention. Three years from now, they may consider creating a standard liturgy for same-sex unions with the eventual goal of including a rite for gay marriage in the church's prayer book.

Mike Angell, who is studying to become an Episcopal priest at the Virginia Theological Seminary, said yesterday's decision comes as a relief. "I have a number of friends -- straight and gay -- who requested me to perform their weddings once I'm ordained," said Angell, who believes in equality for gay parishioners. "I would have felt limited and compromised blessing hetero couples but not gay couples. It's an issue of justice."

The church's recent moves could also have a wider influence on denominations that are watching how the issue of homosexual clergy and marriage plays out among Episcopalians.

"These actions could show other denominations that progress can be made without destroying the church," said Harry Knox, religion and faith director at the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights group.

But some believe the recent moves have come at a cost. A number of parishes and dioceses have left the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church and affiliated with overseas branches of the Anglican Communion. Last month, some conservatives who left the Episcopal Church over issues of Scripture and sexuality formed the Anglican Church in North America.

The Rev. John Sheehan, who leads the Church of Our Redeemer in Loudoun County, said his congregation decided three years ago not to leave the Episcopal Church even as several other similarly conservative churches in Northern Virginia decided to split.

"Now that the convention is over, we need to see what impact all this will have on us as a parish," he said yesterday. "This is something we'll talk over."

Assignment: Persuasive Essay Outline

For this assignment, you will not write an essay, but construct a detailed outline. Though it is not an essay, your goal is still to persuade your reader of your position.

Prompt:
In Chapter 12 of Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller takes traditional Christian churches to task for being too negligent of certain segments of society (e.g. "liberals and homosexuals"). He argues that these churches have neglected these people to their own detriment. Miller also points out that his own church has been successful in attracting people from various walks of life.

Indeed, many critics believe that churches have been too narrow in their search for members, and that as a result, some populations feel left out of the religious experience. What can churches do to expand their bases in traditionally unreligious communities? In a persuasive outline, layout a concise argument for how you believe churches could better reach out to "untraditional" segments of society. Use specific examples from the book to support your thesis.

Though your outline can take any form (e.g. Roman numeral), however it must still contain a thesis and be detailed, specifying evidence (e.g. quotes from the book).

You can find examples of essay outlines here, and here.

Due: Monday, July 20th

Explore Japanese Culture at Buddhist Festival in Mountain View

By Diana Samuels, Daily News
Posted: 07/16/2009 12:24:25 AM

The Mountain View Buddhist Temple will host its annual Obon Festival & Bazaar this weekend, an event that typically attracts thousands of people to sample food, watch dance and drum performances, and learn about other elements of Japanese culture.

Its organizers describe the event — held annually for more than 50 years to celebrate the Buddhist midsummer holiday of Obon — as an "all-in-one festival" that includes activities "to satisfy all your senses." The temple will organize crafts and games for children and adults, and host flower and book shops.

"It's just a fun place to be," said festival co-chairman Mel Inouye, who is organizing the event along with co-chairman Bryan Nishimoto.

The festival will be held Saturday from 4 to 10 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 8:30 p.m. Admission is free and parking is available on the temple's grounds at 575 N. Shoreline Blvd.

Obon originated as a holiday for Buddhists to honor and remember their ancestors, and the temple held an Obon and Hatsubon Service on July 5 to honor loved ones who died in the preceding year.

At this weekend's festival, Japanese Taiko drummers will perform at about 4:30 p.m. Saturday, and at 12:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Sunday. On Sunday at 7 p.m., roughly 400 dancers will perform Japanese folk dances, called "bon odori."

Also on Sunday, children can participate in hands-on activities including flower arranging and origami.

For more information: www.mvbuddhisttemple.org.

Pope Gives Harry Potter Film His Blessing

The Vatican has given a nod of approval to the latest Harry Potter film, saying it made clear that good would triumph in a battle with evil.

Tuesday July 14, 2009
SkyNews

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince arrives in cinemas on Wednesday and is the sixth installment in the fantasy series about the boy wizard and his Hogwarts school friends.

The official newspaper of the Vatical City - which is ruled by the Pope - said it was the best adaptation yet of JK Rowling's hit novels.

L'Osservatore Romano said the film's treatment of adolescent love achieved the "correct balance" and made the story more credible to the general audience.

However, the paper criticised JK Rowling for failing to make any explicit "reference to the transcendent" in her books.

Nevertheless, L'Osservatore said the latest installment made clear that good should overcome evil - a fight that sometimes "requires costs and sacrifice".

"In addition, the fitful search for immortality epitomised by Voldemort is stigmatised," the review said.

The Vatican's praise follows the sharp criticism of the Harry Potter series by a conservative Austrian priest at the centre of a church crisis earlier this year.

The Rev. Gerhard Maria Wagner claimed Harry Potter novels help spread satanism, while other Christian groups have argued that the books promote witchcraft and dark arts.

Many churches, however, see the message of good versus evil as being in line with teachings of Christian morality.

Spiritual Poetry for Week 5

“God Says Yes To Me” by Kaylin Haught
I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey
she calls me that sometimes
she said you can do just exactly
what you want to
Thanks God I said
And is it even okay if I don't paragraph
my letters
Sweetcakes God said
who knows where she picked that up
what I'm telling you is
Yes Yes Yes

“Mother's Evening Prayer” by Mary Eddy Baker
O gentle presence, peace and joy and power;
O Life divine, that owns each waiting hour,
Thou Love that guards the nestling's faltering flight!
Keep Thou my child on upward wing tonight.
Love is our refuge; only with mine eye
Can I behold the snare, the pit, the fall:
His habitation high is here, and nigh,
His arm encircles me, and mine, and all.
O make me glad for every scalding tear,
For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!
Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear
No ill, — since God is good, and loss is gain.
Beneath the shadow of His mighty wing;
In that sweet secret of the narrow way,
Seeking and finding, with the angels sing:
"Lo, I am with you alway," — watch and pray.
No snare, no fowler, pestilence or pain;
No night drops down upon the troubled breast,
When heaven's aftersmile earth's tear-drops gain,
And mother finds her home and heav'nly rest.

“Atheist” by Yip Harburg
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only god can make a tree;

And only god who makes the tree
Also makes the fools like me.

But only fools like me, you see,
Can make a god who makes a tree.

“Aubade” by Philip Larkin
I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.
Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare.
In time the curtain-edges will grow light.
Till then I see what's really always there:
Unresting death, a whole day nearer now,
Making all thought impossible but how
And where and when I shall myself die.
Arid interrogation: yet the dread
Of dying, and being dead,
Flashes afresh to hold and horrify.

The mind blanks at the glare. Not in remorse
- The good not done, the love not given, time
Torn off unused - nor wretchedly because
An only life can take so long to climb
Clear of its wrong beginnings, and may never;
But at the total emptiness for ever,
The sure extinction that we travel to
And shall be lost in always. Not to be here,
Not to be anywhere,
And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true.

This is a special way of being afraid
No trick dispels. Religion used to try,
That vast, moth-eaten musical brocade
Created to pretend we never die,
And specious stuff that says No rational being
Can fear a thing it will not feel, not seeing
That this is what we fear - no sight, no sound,
No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
Nothing to love or link with,
The anasthetic from which none come round.

And so it stays just on the edge of vision,
A small, unfocused blur, a standing chill
That slows each impulse down to indecision.
Most things may never happen: this one will,
And realisation of it rages out
In furnace-fear when we are caught without
People or drink. Courage is no good:
It means not scaring others. Being brave
Lets no one off the grave.
Death is no different whined at than withstood.

Slowly light strengthens, and the room takes shape.
It stands plain as a wardrobe, what we know,
Have always known, know that we can't escape,
Yet can't accept. One side will have to go.
Meanwhile telephones crouch, getting ready to ring
In locked-up offices, and all the uncaring
Intricate rented world begins to rouse.
The sky is white as clay, with no sun.
Work has to be done.
Postmen like doctors go from house to house.

"Before the Birth of One of Her Children" by Anne Bradstreet
All things within this fading world hath end,
Adversity doth still our joys attend;
No ties so strong, no friends so dear and sweet,
But with death's parting blow are sure to meet.
The sentence past is most irrevocable,
A common thing, yet oh, inevitable.
How soon, my Dear, death may my steps attend,
How soon't may be thy lot to lose thy friend,
We both are ignorant, yet love bids me
These farewell lines to recommend to thee,
That when the knot's untied that made us one,
I may seem thine, who in effect am none.
And if I see not half my days that's due,
What nature would, God grant to yours and you;
The many faults that well you know I have
Let be interred in my oblivious grave;
If any worth or virtue were in me,
Let that live freshly in thy memory
And when thou feel'st no grief, as I no harmes,
Yet love thy dead, who long lay in thine arms,
And when thy loss shall be repaid with gains
Look to my little babes, my dear remains.
And if thou love thyself, or loved'st me,
These O protect from stepdame's injury.
And if chance to thine eyes shall bring this verse,
With some sad sighs honor my absent hearse;
And kiss this paper for thy dear love's sake,
Who with salt tears this last farewell did take.

“Written in Disgust of Vulgar Superstition” by John Keats
The church bells toll a melancholy round,
Calling the people to some other prayers,
Some other gloominess, more dreadful cares,
More harkening to the sermon's horrid sound.
Surely the mind of man is closely bound
In some black spell; seeing that each one tears
Himself from fireside joys, and Lydian airs,
And converse high of those with glory crown'd
Still, still they too, and I should feel a damp, -
A chill as from a tomb, did I not know
That they are dying like an outburnt lamp;
That 'tis their sighing, wailing ere they go
Into oblivion; - that fresh flowers will grow,
And many glories of immortal stamp.

“Within this Earthen Vessel” by Kabir
Within this earthen vessel are bowers and groves,
and within it is the Creator:
Within this vessel are the seven oceans and the unnumbered stars.
The touchstone and the jewel-appraiser are within;
and within this vessel the Eternal soundeth,
and the spring wells up.
Kabîr says: "Listen to me, my Friend!
My beloved Lord is within."

“Prayer” by Henry David Thoreau
Great God, I ask for no meaner pelf
Than that I may not disappoint myself,
That in my action I may soar as high
As I can now discern with this clear eye.
And next in value, which thy kindness lends,
That I may greatly disappoint my friends,
Howe'er they think or hope that it may be,
They may not dream how thou'st distinguished me.
That my weak hand may equal my firm faith
And my life practice what my tongue saith
That my low conduct may not show
Nor my relenting lines
That I thy purpose did not know
Or overrated thy designs.

Can Mormons Enforce 'No Kissing' on Salt Lake City Plaza?

USA Today, July 12, 2009

There was a protest with a twist on Sunday -- a smooch-fest on the headquarters grounds of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons).

The call went out this weekend on social media to "swarm" the Main Street Plaza in Salt Lake City. Despite its public sounding name, the plaza is owned by the Church, which sets rules for "appropriate" behavior, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

On Friday, a gay couple was strolling by the lovely gardened plaza in front of the Mormon Temple when Matt Aune gave his partner, Dereck Jones a peck on the cheek -- and got handcuffed and cited for trespassing and inappropriate behavior -- or something like that. No police reports have been made public yet, the newspaper says. The men also admit to responding to the citation with profanity so no one may wind up looking good in that scenario.

Sunday, kiss-in participants were asked to gather with paper hearts on their sleeves or across their faces on masks, to engage in "gentle" displays of public affection on church-owned Main Street Plaza or nearby public sidewalks, former Salt Lake City councilwoman Deeda Seed told the paper.

According to the Associated Press, gay and straight couples "exchanged small kisses and pecks at the plaza's south entrance" and those who strayed on to Church property were ushered off by police and Church security.

The Salt Lake Tribune has interesting background on the very public-looking priave plaza:

The kiss happened on a former public easement given up by city in 2003 in a controversial land-swap deal. The easement became private property, allowing the church to ban protesting, smoking, sunbathing and other "offensive, indecent, obscene, lewd or disorderly speech, dress or conduct," church officials said at the time. In exchange, the city got church property for a west-side community center.

Week 5

T 7.14
Read: BLJ, pg. 103-240
Lab: Book discussion; Lecture—“The Art of Persuasion: Logos, Pathos, and Ethos”; Presentations

W 7.15
Read: eR—Selected poetry
Class: Poetry discussion; Lecture—“How to Do a Close Read”

Th 7.16
Read: eR—Selected poetry
Lab: Persuasive essay; Poetry discussion; Guest speaker: Carrielynn Headlter from The Church of Christ, Scientist
Journal 5 Assignment: For your final journal, consider the role spirituality can play in sexuality. Some religions seek a prominent role in the sexual lives of their followers, while others prefer to stand in the background? Do you believe there should be a role for religion in sex? Why or why not? Can religion enhance sexuality? Can it detract? Articles to assist you can be found here, here, and here.
Due: Journal 5

UPCOMING
Week 6
Note: Three day week—No class Thursday

M 7.20
Class: Final exam prep
Due: Poetry explication

T 7.21
Lab: Final Exam

W 7.22
Class: Course review; Evaluations