Religion and Politics: A Conversational No-No?

It has been said that in order to have a peaceful dinner conversation, one should steer clear of talking about religion or politics. Yet, ever since Governor Mitt Romney entered into the race as a candidate for President of the United States, it seems that all we have heard from the news media is commentary about the relationship between religion and politics. With Governor Mike Huckabee’s entrance into the race, we have a very public Baptist minister running for the highest office. What are we to make of all of this? Maybe it is time to throw caution to the wind and actually embark on a serious conversation about the relationship between religion and politics. Maybe we need to seriously examine what it means to say that we are choosing a candidate based on how they represent our values. What are “our values?” And, the question I am most interested in, is, “How does our faith shape our values and convictions when it comes to choosing political leaders?”

The conversation about religion and politics is actually one which the Episcopal Church has been actively engaged in for a long time. After all, how can we be a people of the Baptismal Covenant that calls us to “strive for justice and peace among all human beings” without actively engaging the political process? Our faith is not lived in the privacy of our prayer closets or worship spaces. It is a communal and public process. The Episcopal Church actively engages concerns about peace and justice through the ministry of the Peace and Justice Ministries Office at the Episcopal Church Center (http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/peace_justice.htm). These concerns fall broadly into these categories: social justice, governmental affairs, jubilee ministry, criminal justice, peacemaking, and environmental stewardship. Did you know that the Episcopal Church also has an Office of Governmental Relations in Washington, D.C.? This office engages the issues and concerns that General Convention deems important and works to bring about awareness and advocacy related to these issues. The Episcopal Public Policy Network (EPPN), housed by the Office of Governmental Affairs, is a nationwide grassroots network of Episcopalians who call and write their members of Congress and the Administration to advocate positions of the Church. (http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/eppn.htm) The EPPN and Office for Governmental Affairs represent the social policies established by the General Convention and Executive Council, including issues of international peace and justice, human rights, immigration, welfare, poverty, hunger, health care, violence, civil rights, the environment, racism, and issues involving women and children. The staff meets directly with government leaders, works with media, recruits and mobilizes grassroots Episcopalians, builds relationships with Members of Congress and staff, and forms coalitions of both religious and secular interest groups to further the Church’s positions.

For Episcopalians, the conversation between religion and politics is an important part of our tradition even if many of our members still feel great anxiety about breeching this social convention. There is a tremendous energy present in our culture now as we move toward the process of electing a President of the United States later this year. The turnout at the primaries alone has been record setting. As we move toward the general election, I believe that it would be a fruitful time for us to have some intentional conversation about how our faith shapes our values and how that impacts choices we make in the political realm. Beginning during the Season of Easter, I will convene a forum for us to examine our faith based values and the ways in which we make decisions about important social issues. This will be a time to peacefully explore what we believe and why we believe it. It will be a time to learn from each other and to wrestle critically with major issues facing our nation as we search for new leaders. It will NOT be a time to recruit people to particular viewpoints or political party affiliations. It will NOT be a time to beat others over the head with the “rightness” of our own opinions. My hope is that we can come together as a community of widely divergent viewpoints and listen to each other as we wrestle with what our faith and our tradition teaches us about how to respond to social issues.

In order to do this, I need your help and input. First, I wonder when would be the best time for us to schedule such an ongoing forum so that it could begin in April and extend through early October if interest prevails? Are there particular concerns that you would like for the group to address? I am thinking of these major issues as a place for us to start: US Constitution and the Patriot Act, immigration policy, local and global poverty, universal health care, reproductive rights and the right to life, environmental concerns, world peace and US foreign policy, nuclear weaponry, and economic justice in the US. Are any of you experts in any of these areas and would be willing to help present information that would stimulate our thoughtful discussion? Are any of you skilled in small group facilitation and would be willing to lead a small group if we discovered the need to do small group work in addition to the larger plenary?

I believe that it is time to throw caution to the wind and actually embark on a serious conversation about the relationship between religion and politics. I hope that we can seriously examine what our values are, and how our lives of faith impact the decisions we might make as we seek new leaders. My prayer is that we will make well informed decisions at which we arrive by asking ourselves hard questions and being shaped by the conversation of our community. May we grow in faith and love as we engage difficult questions in a place where our voices will be heard and valued. May we enter into sacred conversation about the things that matter knowing that it is often in the place of conversation where conversion may happen.

Blessings to you as you make your Lenten journey to the Cross and then greet with joy the news of Our Lord’s Easter Resurrection!

“Change? But We Are Episcopalians …!”

It has been said that the only certainty in life is change. In the biblical book of the Revelation to St. John the Divine, Jesus says, “Behold, I make all things new …” Whether we like it or not, life is not a static process. Life is a constant process of movement and flux. It is a creative process characterized by both growth and decline. This process is magnified for us in the life of the whole creation that God created. This process is something to be entered into with dignity and grace, not something to be avoided with fear and resistance.

The same rhythm is true of life in the Church. While we may confess that Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever; we do not believe that the same is true of the Church. We are entering a time of transition in our life as a parish in St. Mark’s Church. It is a time of change, and with change comes both loss and new opportunities. One of the preeminent transition specialists, William Bridges, has described three major phases that take place in transitions:

1. Ending – This is the time when people experience endings, losses, and the
experience of letting go.

2. Neutral Zone – This is the in-between time when the old is gone but the new
isn’t fully happening yet. It is a time of realignments and repatterning of
work or ministry.

3. New Beginning – This is the time when people discover a new identity, new
energy, changes begin to work, and a new purpose undergirds the common life.

From William Bridges, Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change (Cambridge, MA: De Capo Press, 2003) p. 5.

When a time of clergy leadership ends in the life of a parish, an interim priest who is trained in interim or transition ministry is usually called for a period of at least a year. It is essential for a parish to have an intentional interim experience as that tends to be the time in which these three phases of transition can be entered into. A trained interim priest will usually begin her/his ministry by helping a parish to examine what it means to end or close a chapter of its life. The priest will help people deal with the impact of the leave-taking of a previous rector and the impact that the leadership transition has on the community. Grief, loss, and letting go are the emotional experiences that tend to characterize the ending time. The interim priest helps the community identify what must be ended and grieved. Then, the interim can assist the community in living into the neutral zone with a sense of excitement for the future. The neutral zone becomes the place where the interim makes necessary changes to strengthen the common life of the parish. The interim priest also helps the transition team to muster the resources it needs to do an honest self-assessment and then look forward to a proactive search process.

One of the key realities of the interim process for St. Mark’s Church during the time between the retirement of Father Steve Weston and the calling of Father Jeremy Warnick was that the interim priest who was called was attempting to be both an interim and a full-time hospice chaplain. The Rev’d Steven Ford was called to serve as the interim clergy leader for St. Mark’s Church. At the same time, Fr. Ford was continuing to maintain his full-time ministry as Hospice Chaplain. Even if Fr. Ford could have cloned himself (and he would have enjoyed trying it!) and been in two places at once, he could not have adequately served in both of these ministries at the same time. Each ministry is unique and requires a certain skill set and a certain constellation of resources. They each require a full-time commitment and an integral investment into their respective communities. Therefore, what we really experienced at St. Mark’s Church was the presence of a long term supply priest (Fr. Ford) with the support of a search consultant (Fr. Frank Clark) whose primary role was to consult about the search process and not the transition process. Much of the essential work of transition ministry was deferred.

We now enter a new time with a new rector and a new vestry. We could simply sweep the undone transition ministry under the carpet and move on realizing that a successful search has been completed and things seem to be working well. We could plow ahead without looking back. For many organizations this would be the natural path to take. However, I believe that we would do so at our own peril. The things we need to end and to grieve the loss of have not gone away. The work we need to do to identify areas needing strengthening still remains to be done. If we gloss over these things, we will not be spiritually and organizationally prepared to take the steps to live into a new vision for our common life. We will wonder why we are hurt, angry, and wishing that things could have been more like they were before Fr. Jeremy came aboard.

So, dear friends, I enthusiastically invite us to set forward into this time of transition confident that by doing the work of transition we will move into a place of change with greater insight, emotional well being, and spiritual energy for the future. I invite us to take stock of where we are, let go of what we need to leave behind, and set forth into the wilderness of the neutral zone with confidence that like Jesus’ sojourn in the wilderness – there will be both wild beasts and angels waiting to minister to us. May we claim the hard work of this transition time as an opportunity to build up our community and prepare ourselves for the change necessary to enter into the future where our ministry in God’s name may be quite different than it has been in the past. May we embrace the truth that life is filled with change and when approached with intention and support, change is a creative and life-giving process.

May God bless you in your wilderness journey during this Lenten season!

Some Epiphany Thoughts – What does it mean to be inclusive?

The following appeared in a recent post by Fr. Andrew Gerns on the blog Episcopal Café (http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/).

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has apologized to gay people all around the world for the way they have been treated by the Church. The Archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner says “sorry” to the worldwide LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered) community in an exclusive recorded interview with Ashley Byrne, presenter of Gay Hour, the only LGBT program on the BBC, which was broadcast on BBC Radio Manchester. The Archbishop has said that the Church is ‘obsessed’ with homosexuality. He goes further here, saying:
“I want to apologise to you and to all those who we in the church have persecuted,” Archbishop Tutu says in the interview.

“I’m sorry that we have been part of the persecution of a particular group. For me that is quite un-Christ like and, for that reason, it is unacceptable. May be, even as a retired Archbishop, I probably have, to some extent, a kind of authority but apart from anything let me say for myself and anyone who might want to align themselves with me, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for the hurt, for the rejection, for the anguish that we have caused to such as yourselves.”
Read more: The UK Gay News: Tutu Apologizes for Persecution of Gays on BBC Radio Tonight

I admire Archbishop Tutu for many reasons, but I think that his apology exemplifies everything that he stood for and which undergirded his efforts at creating the Truth and Reconciliation Committee in South Africa. If you read Archbishop Tutu’s book, No Future Without Forgiveness, you will come to a deep understanding of his beliefs that the only way healing could take place in South Africa was for the truth to be spoken and for forgiveness to take place. As we are reminded in John’s Gospel, “The truth shall set you free.” (John 8:32) In apologizing to the LGBT community, Archbishop Tutu has offered everything that he can – the truth and his regret for having been complicit with forces that worked against the truth. He has affirmed once again that God has created all God’s children in the image and likeness of God and that God welcomes all into fellowship with him. The church is at her best when she incarnates this kind of radical and Gospel based hospitality.

I wonder what it would be like if we at St. Mark’s Church practiced being even more intentional in our efforts to be a radically welcoming and inclusive church? What if we realized that the message of this season of Epiphany is that God has revealed Godself to the outsider – the Gentile – and embraced the outsider as if she or he was an insider? In so doing, God broke down the human barriers between those who were “of the faith” and those who “came to the faith through Jesus.” God revealed that Jesus’ ministry was to draw the whole world to himself and that in Christ there could be no distinctions among humans. The early Christian community was radically inclusive and hospitable to all. The sad reality is that as the church became more of an institution, it institutionalized ways of acting that may never have been what Jesus intended.

I believe that we as The Episcopal Church have a unique contribution to make in the efforts to incarnate radical hospitality and live as an inclusive Christian community. We have not always done this. We have struggled in different generations as we have heard the voices of those who are a part of us yet who we have treated as outsiders. These divisions have been based on race, ethnic heritage, gender, and sexual orientation. As we have heard the voices of our sisters and brothers who have been made to feel as outsiders within their own church, we have slowly repented and apologized and sought to practice a more inclusive way of living in community. In so doing, we have allowed the Holy Spirit to continue to reveal God’s truth and to shape us in our convictions in how we might live in community.

I invite you, during this season of Epiphany, to consider how we as a parish practice radical hospitality and how we seek to be an inclusive Christian community. What are the ways in which we embrace those who may be different than ourselves? Are there ways in which we may be practicing discrimination or inhospitality toward some in our community? Are our LGBT sisters and brothers as welcome here as our heterosexual sisters and brothers? Are we as concerned with the needs and concerns of our single parishioners as we are with our married parishioners? As we tell the truth about how we really live, will we be willing to join Archbishop Tutu in apologizing to those we marginalize and seek to amend our ways so that we may more intentionally become an inclusive Christian community?

My prayer for us all in this season of Manifestation is that we will come to give thanks ever more fervently for the myriad of ways in which God manifests Godself to God’s people, and in so doing will be drawn more deeply into the mystery of God. May our lives continue to be shaped in ways that model God’s deep love and concern for all in the world so that we may practice being an inclusive faith community in God’s name. May Epiphany blessings be upon you as you walk in the Light of Christ!

Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise

In September of 2000, the United Nations General Assembly approved the Millennium Development Goals, a series of eight strategic goals that if achieved would end global poverty and transform the living conditions throughout much of the world by 2015. If the wealthiest of the world’s nations would commit .7% of their gross national product (GNP) to these development efforts, in conjunction with a world-wide partnership of organizations working to end poverty, the world could be free from extreme poverty and disease by 2015. Millennium Development Goal #6 calls for the halting and reversal of the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. (See http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/goals/index.htm)

On 1 December 2007 the world will remember, for the 19th year in a row, World AIDS Day. It is a day to take stock of the devastation this disease has caused in the United States and throughout the world. The Arizona Department of Health Statistics reports that in 2005 there were 11,614 cases of HIV/AIDS in Arizona and of those 7919 cases were in Maricopa County alone. (See http://www.azdhs.gov/phs/hiv/2007annualreportpage.htm) Arizona has AIDS and the world has AIDS. The only way that Millennium Development Goal #6 will be achieved is if we come together to recognize the reality of HIV/AIDS, continue to work for a cure and work for disease prevention, and make it a spiritual priority in our faith communities.

Why, might you ask, would we make a public health issue a spiritual priority? In the Christian tradition, we worship and follow a Lord Jesus Christ who exercised a ministry of public healing. Jesus offered hospitality to all sorts and conditions of people who were sick and who would have been rendered ritually unclean in First Century Palestinian society. Jesus broke the spiritual laws of purity in reaching out to the sick and suffering and in casting out demons from those who were possessed. Jesus raised compassion and mercy to the highest priority. This upset many of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. Yet, Jesus also shared this concern about public health by empowering his own disciples to go into the world and be about a ministry of healing. Jesus demonstrated both through his own actions, and through the commissioning of his disciples, that spiritual health and physical health were interrelated and a matter of ultimate concern for God. Indeed, God was the source of healing.

Health and wellness is a spiritual issue. This is true not only for Christianity, but for many other world religions as well. The theme for World AIDS Day 2007 is “leadership.” Leadership will be required at many levels if we are to halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS in Arizona and in the world. How might you become a leader in the quest to end HIV/AIDS? How might you join in the world-wide effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015? I invite you to consider how your faith community can make world health a spiritual priority and exercise a ministry of leadership in the effort to make poverty and disease history. Together – we can keep the promise!

Food in the Desert

Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for the crowd and I do not want to send them away hungry …” The disciples said to Jesus, “Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?” (Matthew 15:32-33)

Where are we to get enough bread in the desert? For so many in our community, this is a daily question. Consider the following information: The poverty guideline for a family of four in Arizona is $20,650 annual gross income. 14.2% or 824,008 Arizonans live in poverty. The highest concentration of these families is in the metro areas of Phoenix and Tucson. For those living in poverty, hunger is a daily challenge. Often, people choose between eating and fulfilling some other necessity. Of those who do receive emergency food assistance in Arizona, the following is true:

· 41% are children and senior citizens.
· 30% of the households are headed by single-parents among households with children under 18.
· 13% of the families had children under age five. These are children who are at a critical stage of development, which will in part determine their future success and productivity.
· 15% of families reported their children skipped meals because there was not enough money for food.
· The racial/ethnic make-up is 42% White, 9% Black, 7% Native American and 41% Hispanic.
· 42% of the households reported having someone in the household who is employed.

(Information from United Food Bank, http://www.unitedfoodbank.org/hungerfacts.htm)

“Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?” It is becoming an increasing challenge to find bread in a time when food banks are facing increasing demand and decreasing donations. There are many food pantries throughout the greater Phoenix area, but they are all struggling to meet the demands of those who need food. We have seen an increase here at St. Mark’s Church in the number of food bags we distribute. It seems that our supplies are continuously being depleted and must be renewed more often than ever before. The same thing is true for our neighboring food pantries.

The Outreach Committee has learned that the Food Pantry Program administered by A New Leaf (formerly PreHab of Arizona), and housed at S. Drew Street and Broadway, will be closing at the end of 2007. This food pantry has been a joint project of A New Leaf and MesaCAN. Due to the increased need for food stamps and the resources necessary to administer a WIC program for Mesa, MesaCAN has decided to reclaim the space that is currently being used as a food pantry and convert it into a full scale WIC program. That will mean that 70-110 families a week will no longer have access to nourishing food boxes that contain both perishable and non-perishable resources. These food boxes are about twice the size of the bags that St. Mark’s Food Pantry currently distributes. The Food Pantry Program of A New Leaf has also been able to provide both formula and diapers to those children in need.

“Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?” As a parish with a history of dedication to supporting those who are hungry and in poverty here in our neighborhood, we now have the opportunity to respond in a new and bold way to this ongoing crisis. What if we at St. Mark’s Church decided to offer the space and physical resources for A New Leaf to continue its Food Pantry? What if we decided to partner with A New Leaf and MesaCAN to expand the Food Pantry ministry and keep it open more than just 2 days a week? What if we committed our time and treasure to reaching out to our neighbors in need through a feeding ministry; but maybe also a ministry of radical hospitality, crisis counseling, or parish nursing? Wouldn’t it be a powerful witness of God’s love if we could find many ways to feed our hungry sisters and brothers in Mesa?

Sisters and Brothers, Jesus used what the disciples had – 7 loaves and a few small fish – and he fed 4000 people. Imagine how we might be an oasis of bread and love in the desert by opening up our doors and our lives to those in our community. Imagine how we might partner with A New Leaf to recruit volunteers, secure food donations from food banks, and invite others to help make poverty and hunger history by feeding people in body and soul right here in our midst. The disciples were awestruck when, after those who ate were fed, there remained 7 baskets full of extras. Can you even begin to imagine what it might be like for us to live confident in that promise of abundance?

Our Vestry and Outreach Committee are in the process of discerning how we might make this vision a reality. We are working with A New Leaf to look at the logistical issues necessary for us to deal with in order to open a full service food pantry here at St. Mark’s Church. God willing, this vision will take shape and we will begin to offer bread in the desert right here on North Horne Street starting in January 2008. I hope you will join in our excitement and live with hope as we seek to make poverty and hunger history here in Mesa. There will be opportunities for your support of this ministry and we look forward to giving thanks for your ongoing dedication and support.

Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for the crowd and I do not want to send them away hungry …” The disciples said to Jesus, “Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?” Jesus asked them, “How much do you have?” (Matthew 15:32-33)

How much do we have? How much more can we become when we take what we have and give it away to those who are in need! Now is our chance to make a difference.

Who are you? Journey to Authentic Living

Who are you? How do you come alive? What makes you, you? Consider this wonderful poem entitled “Love after Love” by Derek Wolcott.

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another; who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

(From Parker Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness, San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2004.)


Who are you? It is a timeless question and an essential part of the spiritual life. The fact that we gather week after week, year after year, and pray the same prayers in the same holy place is not because we are somehow robots or puppets on strings being controlled by a God who only knows how to play one game. No – we continue to come to church because we seek meaning in life. We seek a deeper knowledge of God and a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. We seek something that will help us to come alive. We seek some kind of nourishing energy. All too often, what we find is less than what we hoped for. All too often, what we find is the unexamined repetition of liturgical actions that have lost any sense of their own life and meaning. The problem is not the liturgy. The problem is in us.

Sit – Feast on your life. We are a people who are more concerned with running the race, with moving ahead, with getting on to the next thing. We live in a world that is constantly ratcheting up the pace, moving faster and faster toward what? To sit and feast on our lives means to stop and take time to examine who we are and whose we are. It means that we rejoice in who God has created us to be. It means that we enjoy our uniqueness, our quirkiness, our own creatureliness. To sit and feast means to really know oneself and what makes us tick. Why is it that some among us have a love affair for Ford Mustangs while others adore anything that is British? Why is it that some of us are energized when we hit the streets and offer food or supplies to someone in need, while others among us are most energized when they go up to the Grand Canyon and quietly hike down among the rocks and ruins of past lives of this earth?

We are each unique creatures of God who are on a quest to become more fully who we have been created to be. But, we cannot become more fully ourselves unless we love again that stranger who is ourself. In theological terms, the journey to salvation is a journey to wholeness. It is a journey of authenticity – of becoming a being with integrity.

Dear sisters and brothers, how can you become yourself when you do not know yourself? How can you grow into who God has created you to be when you constantly try to be the someone who you think that someone else needs you to be. How can you become more fully alive when you fail to live the life that is in you?

Sit. Feast on your life. Ask yourself, “What makes me come alive?” Then, go do it!

Here are some final thoughts from Will Thompson’s book entitled, “The Power of Play: The ABCs of Living with Wonder and Exuberance.”

· If you are feeling lousy because you got up on the wrong side of the bed – go back to your
bed and get up on the other side. It’s that easy!
· Actively do nothing. (and do it guilt free)
· When you first wake up in the morning, ask yourself, “What adventure is calling me
today?” Then, go do it!
· Practice digging your heels in. It is very important to dig in and insist on being
lighthearted and playful – when seriousness wants to rule.
· Practice undigging your heels in. Know when you are being stubborn and a stick in the
mud for no good reason.

Will Thompson, The Power of Play: The ABCs of Living with Wonder and Exuberance, Bloomington, Indiana: AuthorHouse, 2006.


Sit. Feast on your life. Ask yourself, “What makes me come alive?” Then, go do it! May God inspire us to come alive!

(To Life,) L’Chayim, לּחים

Honor the Sabbath and Keep it Holy

"In the relentless busyness of modern life, we have lost the rhythym between work and rest ... Poisoned by this hypnotic belief that good things come only through unceasing determination and tireless effort, we can never truly rest. And for want of rest, our lives are in danger." (Wayne Muller, Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in our Busy Lives, New York: Bantam Books, 2000, p. 1)

Our lives are in danger says Wayne Muller. Our lives are in danger of burnout. And burnout is not doing too much as many of us think. Burnout is taking on things that do not belong to us. Burnout is taking responsibility for things over which we have no responsibility. Burnout does come because we fail to honor the rhythym of work and rest. We busy ourselves beyond our own capacities and find more technological means to become productive. We as a society are becoming like hamsters in a wheel that can not stop running until they collapse and die.

This is not the way of God!!!

From the beginning, God created order in the cosmos by creating a rhythym of exertion and rest. The sabbath was an essential part of the order of all things - not a discretionary time for catching up on everything that fell through the cracks on the other days. The sabbath was and is essential for all things to achieve their proper balance.

Jesus modelled this for us many times when he withdrew to a quiet place, a desert place to pray and rest and observe a sabbath. How essential it is for us to do the same.

This blog will continue with more thoughts and ideas about how to keep holy rest ... For now - peace, shalom!