just enough for the city: LGBTQ Pride Day

Showing posts with label LGBTQ Pride Day. Show all posts

Sunday, July 17, 2022

PRIDE

6/29

PRIDE

PRIDE hat

new flag

On the last Wednesday of June, one last chance to share something of PRIDE with our Wednesday morning Underground group. Earlier in the month, I had gone to the Brooklyn Cyclones Pride event. They had produced a fine jersey using the latest Pride colors in what’s become known as the tequila sunrise template originally designed by the Houston Astros. The accompanying hat has the almost newest versions of the Pride flag, lacking only the intersex circle. The newest flag for LGBTQIA+ (my friend Luciano says, Look, I just say queer..). has added baby blue and pink for trans people and black and brown for queer people of color.

We live in strange times. On the one hand, what was remarkable about the Cyclones Pride Night was its very unremarkableness, it’s normalness. Gay community leaders involved in ceremonial first pitches and the between innings promotions and games, No different than Italian night or Irish night or Jewish Heritage night. Parents and kids happy to get the Pride jersey and hat. Corporate sponsors. Just another part of the community.

On the other hand, the Supreme Court and its originalists have cancelled out a half century of women’s rights over their own bodies and access to abortion. And formerly silent Clarence Thomas seems ready to challenge marriage equality, contraception and sodomy laws along with his wife and partner "Ginny" who promotes conspiracy theories and promotes coups. So strange to have come so far and be so vulnerable at the same time. Perilous times indeed.

So hats off to the queer community, hats on for PRIDE. Stand strong,

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Hands to the plow

6/30

Good Shepherd Faith ready for worship

On the Sunday on which the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising was celebrated in our city, I came to Good Shepherd Faith to lead the service. Here were my refections:

There’s been a lot on my mind this week. I’m just back from two weeks in Central America, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. And when Jesus says “Foxes have holes, and birds of he air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” I could do a whole sermon just on that. But I chose this passage because last Saturday I was in a music festival on Governors island and after my own set, I sat in with an Appalachian band and their last number was “Gospel Plow”....

Ready to preach...rainbow stole....

Mary wore three links of chain

Every link was Jesus' name

Keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Oh Lord, oh Lord, keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Mary, Mark, Luke and John

All these prophets are dead and gone

Keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Oh Lord, oh Lord, keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Well, I've never been to Heaven

But I've been told streets up there

Are lined with gold

Keep your hand on that plow, hold on

Oh Lord, oh Lord, keep your hand on that plow, hold on

So I had to preach on this...

It’s about Jesus saying once you start out, there just ain’t no turning back...can’t be going back to take care of business, can’t be making farewells, just hand to the plow, hold on.....

I was in the Village twice this week for music. And every time I went, the energy was building for today’s global celebration of 50 years of Stonewall, a rebellion that reverberated across the globe.

In the religious world, the Stonewall story is a Presbyterian story. It started in 1978 when the General Assembly in San Diego voted to prohibit ordination of “avowed and practicing homosexuals”....no one then knew it would take until 2011 to finally open the doors to acknowledge ministries that god had already called into being. That’s 33 years... the whole life of Jesus ....that’s a lot of years with hands on the plow...

And I’m proud that the church Stonewall moment took place at my old church West Park in September 1978 when the Session at West Park approved the historic More Light statement. It’s valuable to hear it again...

In harmony with the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church, West-Park Church affirms the civil rights of all person. Further, in keeping with our General Assembly’s guidelines, this community of faith welcomes as members homosexual persons who both seek and have found Christ’s love.

This local congregation will not select one particular element from a person’s total humanity as a basis for denying full participation and service in the body of Christ. Nor will this community of faith condemn or judge our brothers and sisters who declare their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and promise discipleship to Him. We affirm that in meeting each other in Christian love. God’s spirit frees us all to live and grow, liberated from the oppression invoked upon us by ourselves and others.

Within this context, West-Park Presbyterian Church reaches out to Christian and non-Christian homosexual persons with a ministry of support, caring and openness—a ministry in which the creative, liberating power of the Holy Spirit rules and guides." [5]

The name More Light came from the farewell words of Pastor John Robinson to the pilgrims as they set sail on the Mayflower on 1646:

...if God should reveal anything to us by any other instrument of his, to be as ready to receive it, as ever we were to receive any truth by his Ministry. For he was very confident the Lord had more truth and light yet to break forth out of his holy Word.

In the 1850s George Rawson would write a hymn with these words:

...We limit not the truth of God to our poor reach of mind --

By notions of our day and sect -- crude, partial, and confined

That universe, how much unknown! that ocean unexplored

For God hath yet more light and truth to break forth from the Word.

Eternal God, Incarnate Word, Spirit of flame and dove,

enlarge, expand all living souls to comprehend your love;

and help us all to seek your will with wiser powers conferred

O God, grant yet more light and truth to break forth from the Word.

..... so what began with the session of West Park birthed the More Light movement that jumped across denominational lines and inspired movements in all mainline denominations.

33 years. And still, villages turn him away....even this summer our Methodist brothers and sisters failed again to step into freedom and even took a step back. Countries in Africa, inspired by North American missionaries, pass draconian laws against lgbtq people. In Central America among those seeking their way north are lgbtq people who suffer the worst of repressive measures putting their very lives in danger as we raise walls higher both literally and figuratively to keep them out.

And today, our country seems to be moving backward even as acceptance become more and more normative, banning trans people from the military, not allowing our embassies to fly rainbow flags this week and on and on...

Hands to the plow my brothers and sisters..

and of course it wasn’t just west park, it was pastors and members in small churches just like this one all across the country who kept tower hands to the plow and held on even through the darkest hours.

Things do and can change. Today in the Village the Evelyn Davidson memorial water table will again be in operation..who remembers its origins? In the gospel of Matthew (10:42) Jesus says “and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple — truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward. That was the verse that inspired an act of witness by Evelyn Davidson, wife of my preceding pastor, Bob Davidson. Around 1982, she felt that the gay community had been so rejected and hurt by the church that there had to be a counter witness. So she came up with setting up a water table and distributing cool cups of water --in Jesus name—every Pride march day. It would be in front of First Presbyterian at 5th and 12th along the parade route. At first, First Pres was resistant. Then Presbytery Executive George Todd had an office there and rigged up a hose on the top floor in his bathroom and dragged it all the way down and through the church the outside to fill up the cups. By the next year, the church became an active participant. And today the table is a fully owned project of First Presbyterian.

People are marching. There is much to celebrate. As of 2014 the PCUSA recognizes same gender marriages. But still so far to go. Keep your hand on the plow....hold on!

In our conversation, people were interested in the parts of the Gospel we hadn't spoken of. Like the not burying the father, letting the dead bury the dead. Which could take years. Despite its hyperbolic language, the sense is clear, we can't be stuck on what is dead. We need to move forward. And don't look back.

Outside the sun was shining. A good day to celebrate....

Luke 9: 51-62

51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; 53 but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”[a] 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 Then[b] they went on to another village.Would-Be Followers of Jesus

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 But Jesus[c] said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Pride Sunday 2015: Do you have enough?

6/28

Welcoming our old friend Johanna Bos

It’s Pride Sunday. And in our continuing series, Life in the Spirit: we’re talking aboutCapacity assessment, Do you have enough?

We begin with another HARP song, that became an important one to the LGBTQ acceptance movement, We are a Gentle Angry People:

We are a gentle, angry people
and we are singing, singing for our lives

We are a justice-seeking people
and we are singing, singing for our lives

We are young and old together
and we are singing, singing for our lives

We are a land of many colors
and we are singing, singing for our lives

We are gay and straight together johanna
and we are singing, singing for our lives

We are a gentle, loving people
and we are singing, singing for our lives

After Psalm 130, Andre sings There is a balm in Gilead. And after we read 2nd Corinthians 8: 7-15, I sing Jesus Calls Us.

Then we begin our reflection.

What a week!...while we were worshipping here last Sunday, Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston opened it’s doors for worship. I find that in itself amazing. Then there was President Obama’s eulogy at Pastor Clementa Pinckney’s funeral, perhaps the most passionate speech of his time in office. And how many can identify Bree Newsome? (She’s the woman who brought down the confederate flag in Charleston for the first time since 1961.) The whole debate about symbols like the confederate flag….and with it team names like Redskins or mascots like Cleveland’s Chief Wahoo, it was a week full of action, debate, sea tides rolling….like the storms we spoke of last week. And last but not least, the declaration by the supreme court that marriage is the right of all, which in essence declared that sexual identity can no longer be a bar to any citizen’s , or that lgbtq people are equal in the eyes of the state.

For us at West Park, there is special significance. The city of New York in 2003 honored West-Park for being the first church in the city to perform gay marriages. We have been doing that for 37 years now. And we began calling them that before it was legal.

And we all should know the history of our forebears. On the one hand, what began here spread so far, that lgbtq acceptance is common in NYC churches, at least in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn. During recent years, we helped found Presbyterian Welcome, which is now Parity. And housed one of its two offices, the other being at Rutgers, recognizing the connection between these two churches. (Where so much leadership of West-Park went after the failed merger of 1993)

And this afternoon, cups of cold water will be handed out at the Evelyn Davidson Memorial Water Table named for the wife of our former pastor who believed the church needed to show a more compassionate face to ur lgbtq brothers and sister by offering a cup of cold water in Jesus' name while the long march passed buy.

That is history. We continue to support and be part of what is now Parity as the church begins to prepare for the next wave of issues about what it means to be human. Last week, our friend Stephanie Johnstone, who has helped lead music in worship here, had her CD release party in the gym. The name of the CD is love songs for the rest of us.In introducing the album, she said I look forward to the day when the album title doesn’t make sense anymore. And her songs explore the whole range of what they now call queer identity issues. New fault lines emerging ever, (like with the whole Bruce Jenner transformation raising issues about what to means to be a woman…) And Stephanie feels a special connection here from our support in that project.

In our Bible Study, we note that at the beginning of Genesis, it’s all about separation, dry land and water, night and day, etc. Waters from above, waters from below. Avivah Zornberg has said that the rain is an expression of the waters weeping for their separation and that the whole Biblical story is about coming back together again. And that as we have night and day, how much beauty is there at sunrise and sunset as one flows into the other? As there is dry and wet, how rain forests teem with diversity and life and our wetlands protect our cities from floods?

There is much for theological reflection in the emerging civil rights struggle. (And note queer young people arm in arm with their peers in the black lives matter struggle…)

OK….so who are we in all of this? When we struggle so much for our own continued life? What I have to say applies both to us as a community and as individuals. What Paul says this morning

if the eagerness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have

During my urban ministry training, there was a significant shift. Things used to begin with what they called needs assessments. But they discovered, especially in communities like ours, that the sense of need can be so great as to be overwhelming. And lead to resignation and despair.

It was determined that the better way to proceed is with capacity assessment. To begin with what we have. If there is eagerness,( and what is that?) the the gift is acceptable according to what one has—not according to what one does not have.

The same applies to our own lives,

If you stopped for a moment to name and give thanks for all you have? What would be on the list? At a low point in my life, I remembered Walter Breuggeman saying that resistance begins with doxology. That’s thanksgiving. (That’s part of the message of Mother Emmanuel..)

So while we find our way forward ,ask who we will be, let us start there.

To lead us into prayer, Andre sings Just as I am. For our offertory, we sing Cuando el Pobre, When a poor one, another from the great Nuyorican translator and composer Jorge (George)Lockwood.

We conclude the service by singing the South African freedom song Siyahamba, which had also become important to the lgbtq faith community movement because of its reference to light.

Siyahamb' ekukhanyen' kwenkhos', Siyahamb' ekukhanyen' kwenkhos', Siyahamb' ekukhanyen' kwenkhos', Siyahamb' ekukhanyen' kwen-, (Khanyen' kwenkhos',)

Chorus Siyahamba, (hamba,) Siyahamba, (hamba,) Siyahamb' ekukhanyen' kwenkhos'. Siyahamba,

( hamba), Siyahamba,( hamba), Siyahamb' ekukhanyen' kwenkhos'.

We are marching in the light of God, (4X)

(The light of God)

Chorus

We are marching, (Walking)

we are marching(oh )

we are marchingin the light of God.

We are marching, (Walking)

we are marching (oh,)

we are marching in the light of God.

Caminamos en la luz de Dios, (4X)

Caminando... ooh
[Caminando, vamos caminando, vamos]

Caminando en la luz de Dios.
[en la luz de Dios]

Caminando... ooh
[Caminando, vamos caminando, vamos]

Caminando en la luz de Dios.

And then the service is over.

We worshipped in a space being daily transformed by Niche Flamenca for their upcoming performance of Antigona. And were graced by the visit of our old friend Johanna Bos, Hebrew Scripture scholar and author and feminist and activist and…friend. And she would come again Monday night to join in our Bible Study.

Once again Pat made things beautiful!

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

A gift. Passing on the mantle. The religious Stonewall

6/30

On the way to church, I get a text from Stephen. He and Cara will be late to church. So I will be on my own to set up. Depressing.

But when I arrive, I find Sergeant Keith and los Rodriguez and the lost boy all still there. There seems to have been some kind of rapprochement between Keith and the others. So we talk.

I learn my lost boy’s name is Rob. He wants help to get it together. They all join in to help me get it together for this morning. Keith and Joe help roll the heavy baptismal font to the center of the sanctuary. Rob sweeps the steps and takes out the garbage. Soon we’ll be ready for worship.

I learn that Keith believes either Dick Cheyney or Texas governor Rick Perry should be President. Well, all right, then. I understand where’s he’s coming from. He talks to me bout the appropriate display of the American flag in the sanctuary.

Sheryl Jaffe

My congregants are beginning to arrive. And soon Sheryl arrives as well. She has come down from Massachusetts with a very special gift. A new cover for our baptismal font that went missing during the peek of the #OWS days. OWS promised it’s replacement. Sheryl, an #OWS mom, made it happen. Almost a year and a half later.

on the wheel

We begin with Desmond Tutu’s Goodness is stronger than evil, kindness is stronger than hate...in honor of Nelson Mandela.

After we read the story of the Elijah being carried away, we sing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.

And today we do our Psalm 77 People’s mic style as we recall #OWS.

ready for glazing

As my sermon begins, I note that there’s lots to talk about today:

*We are ordaining and installing officers

* It's LGBT pride Sunday

And we are receiving a gift that brings an end to a story

To help us reflect on these things, what do our scriptures tell us?

First we have Elijah (2 Kings 2: 1-2, 6-14) passing on the mantle ( that's where that expression comes from) And he's carried away by chariots....without really being dead. Which is why in the Jewish tradition, he always still seems to be around. Or just around the corner. There’s always an empty chair for him. At a bris. (Circumcision celebration.) Or at Passover. And he seems to appear at moments and bring small miracles.

When we ordain and install new people, we are passing on the mantle. Just like when Elijah passed it on to Elisha who struck the Jordan and parted the waters. Perhaps the best biography of Martin Luther King, Jr., was Parting the Waters, not referring to the parting of the Red Sea by Moses,

Moses parting the water by Angelo Romano

but to this parting of the Jordan by means of Elijah’s mantle. King picking u the mantle of Moses, the mantle of Elijah and parting the waters. And now the mantle is being passed on. To us.

Today we join our hearts with the people of South Africa...and all around the world... as they pray for Nelson Mandela. We celebrate his life and witness among us. A beacon of a tireless fight for justice and peace and relentless in the pursuit of reconciliation.

In Luke (9: 51-62), we find Jesus setting his face to Jerusalem. Being clear and single minded as to where he was going and why. He asks those near him to follow me, and many respond, I will follow you without really understanding what that means. We need to know exactly what that means before making promises.

His comments about the birds of the air and foxes gives us an image of a homeless savior. One whose home is the journey itself.

The key here is a single minded focus. There can be no distractions. When one asked to follow asks to first bury his father,sounds reasonable but Jesus responds that the dead should bury the dead. On reflection, it’s not really clear just how long the father would live....it comes down to let me wait until...I get my new job, I get my degree, my children are raised .There is no waiting until...if you want to follow, you must follow now. What’s dead must be left for dead...what was is not what will be. ideas, theologies, forms, all....let the dead bury the dead.

No, it must be now.

We just can’t say we 'll wait until our deal is done...we need to do it now.

As we ordain and install new leaders today, we are passing on the mantle. And to symbolize that, we will use these More Light stoles. They were originally symbols of resistance. Originally stoles were only for ordained clergy. But during the years when ordination was denied to LGBTQ elders and deacons as well, people from the More Light movement from across the country knitted stoles for use at General Assemblies (Presbyterian legislative meetings) to symbolize those whose ministries were denied. Finally, in July 2011, 33 years later, the ban was lifted. Now these stoles symbolize welcome, acceptance, the power of the ordination of elders and deacons. The power of the people. To those who are being ordained today, this mantle is passed to you....

Whoopi Goldberg sings I Will Follow Him

As we pass our collection plates, I play I will follow him from Sister Act. (And does anyone remember Little Peggy March?)

And then I invite Sheryl to come forward to explain her offering, her gift. Her son Dan was one of the first Occupiers to come to West-Park. His time here was not always easy. in fact, sometimes deeply troubled. But Dan’s inherent goodness was always evident, even at the most difficult moments.And he persevered. And we all rejoiced when he went home, set his face to his own Jerusalem and wound up a chef again. We celebrate the fact that he is now a chef in Colorado.

Stephen, Sheryl and Bob

Sheryl shows the cover it took months to create. The size itself was a challenge. Then a crack appeared and she had to reglaze and seal it. But I thought, she said, that’s what you do, fix the cracks in the world, the cracked lives...Sheryl has brought an end to a story. Her new creation joined to the florid late Victoriana of the original Tiffany font. She even echoed its water lily/lotus theme, a symbol that transcends Christianity for rebirth. In the inside of her cover, the words for peace from many languages are transcribed. And in tiny letters, right under Shalom, OWS 2012 is inscribed. The time that OWS lived here will always be remembered. Sadly this part of the story will not spread through Murdochland and beyond the way the disappearance did.

Stephen responds that it was the church’s response to that incident that drew him close. The compassion. Clear speaking, but compassion. The vision of a permanent reminder of #OWS presence. How that led to a journey to his ordination today. And of Marsha thanking OWS the morning amends were made. Money for the missing computer paid back. You took responsibility, even though you didn’t have to, she said. The people who wrecked the economy never did. You paid us back. The banks never did. We thank you...

And so as we receive the cover, we give thanks, sing our doxology. Remember as Breuggeman said, resistance begins in doxology.

OWS 2012

Soon it is the moment to ordain and install our new officers. I explain how in our tradition, all ordinations are equal. As Stephen and Don are ordained to be ruling elders, so I serve as a teaching elder. And John is ordained to a ministry of compassion, justice and service. More Light stoles are placed on the shoulders of each. Passing on the mantle.

Following the ancient tradition, all the way back to Elijah and the company of prophets, all in the congregation who are ordained lay their hands on our new ordinands. And the the mantle is passed on.

Ordained deacons and elders

After in singing Siyahamba, a song of South African resistance that became an important song for the More Light Movement,

We are marching in the light of God, we are marching in the light of God..we go to the chapel.

There we gather to refine the language of the our resolution to sell our manse. To build a sense of stability. It has been a good day together. Much to give thanks for. To celebrate.

More Light Stoles

* * * *

I’m getting ready to leave to head downtown with Presbyterian Welcome, to serve water at the Evelyn Davidson Memorial Water Table, named for the wife of Bob, the former pastor of West-Park. Her idea...to give a cup of cool water in Jesus’ name to hot marchers in the Pride parade. But I hear Pastor Jane say the word Lot, and I realize she’s preaching about Sodom and Gomorrah. So I look in. She sees me and says isn’t that right pastor Bob? And I say yes.

Many of her Sanctuary NYC people have chosen to be here instead of at the Pride parade. Rainbow colored balloons mark the day. She’s preaching about how the sin at Sodom wasn’t about same sex love but abuse of the stranger.The crowd’s desire to rape the strangers (angels) has nothing to do with sex and everything to do with domination, she says. She goes on to bring out the often forgotten part when Lot offers up his virgin daughters to the crowd instead. (No, I don’t get it either...)

She speaks of the importance of acknowledging your shadow, naming it, incorporating its power. How that applies to some of the more outre displays and activities of pride weekend. Taking that part of you that wants to remain hidden and transforming it, using its power to be who you are called to be. At the conclusion of her sermon, she asks me to photograph them in a Pride Sunday portrait. After all have named their personal quality to be claimed and transformed.

And then I speak. How I was on my way out when I heard a word and had to stay. I remembered my friend Howard Warren.Founder of Presbyterian ACT UP. How he stood up to the Presbyterian power elite and accused the the executive director, and thereby the whole Church, of the sin of sodomy. That is refusing to welcome, accept and honor the stranger. And then I explained how this very place was the birthplace of the More Light movement. A movement that has spread across the country and across all denominations. How this place was, in reality, the religious Stonewall. So it’s good to be here on Pride Sunday. It all began here.

I join them for their final songs. Glad I stayed. Proud to have passed on the mantle of the religious Stonewall prophets.

* * * *

Finishing up work. Late at night. Marc says it’s time to get the garbage out. Can’t the people who live here do it? I remind him that no one lives here anymore. And so we go down together Take the garbage out together. The day is over.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

We are going to the other side

6/24

We welcome new members:
Elder Marsha, Steven, John, Don, Bob. Teddy, Willa (welome back!) and Elder Leila
(who made the rainbow stole)

Big day. Starts out like one of those that feel like you’ve momentarily slipped out of sync with the universe. People I expected would be coming texting or e-mailing saying they wouldn’t. Someone else I’m counting on texting that they’re late coming back from upstate. After talking to Andre earlier, I’m getting that strange message on his phone. Will he make it? The Bengladeshi copy shop is closed. The Internet is wacky at the Israeli shop. Desperate to get the service bulletins and action resolutions finished and its approaching 11. From somewhere I’m learning to stay calm in these moments. Moments when there is nothing you can do.

As I approach the steps, I see my sons Micah and Dan there. It makes me happy to see them, Micah back from Berlin for a week, Dan home from Drexel . Has Andre arrived? Yes, he’s inside waiting, says Micah. First sigh of relief. There’s a nice congregation already gathered and in the pews.

I step to the front. Say a word or two about out of syncness and ask everyone to take a breath. As it is LGBTQ Pride Sunday, we open the service with

God welcomes all, strangers and friends

God’s love is strong and it never ends...

I point to the rainbow flag. Remind the congregation of the More Light Statement of welcome and inclusion from 1978. The knitted rainbow stole, for so many Presbyterian General Assemblies (national legislative meetings) worn as silent symbol of witness of those excluded from serving until the victory last July. And how the Evelyn Davidson Memorial Water Table at the First Presbyterian Church at the Pride March is named for the wife of former West-Park Pastor Bob Davidson who felt that given traditional church hostility to the lgbtq community, offering a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name to hot marchers would be a healing witness.

Friends from the Sweatshop Upper West Side Campaign have come to worship with us, to say thanks and to inivte us to their Friday night celebration at Holy Name.

Given the challenges of the day, our opening hymn is Harry Emerson Fosdick’s God of Grace and God of Glory....

God of grace and God of glory

On Thy people pour Thy power

Crown Thine ancient church's story

Bring her bud to glorious flower