Among the Knockers of Florence

Campo di’ Fiori -- plaza of flowers

Reflections of Venice

Young Woman and Fire in Roma

Sunset on the Arno from the Gold Bridge

Ciao for Now

Heading to Italy with the eldest this week to celebrate his turning 18 and graduating and heading of to Mary Wash in the fall. No blogging. No tweeting. No e-mail till after Memorial Day! Lots of Italian food, fine wine, maybe a rented Vespa, and much good time with a very good kid.

Random Thoughts on a Rainy Day

Completely random queries that came to mind on another rainy day in DC.
Why do baseball players continue to cheat on such a grand scale?
Why do athletes get so many second chances? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Why should same sex marriages undermine straight marriage?
Why has it rained for nine straight days? And when should we start building the ark?
Do actors sometimes confuse themselves for the characters they play?
Is it ever too late for justice?
Will the Caps beat the Pens?
Will the Nationals ever get better?
Will the Racistskins ever change their name?
Who will stop the rain?

Clergy Call

Spent the morning at the Human Rights Campaign's Clergy Call. Here's an AP article on the event.

By BRIAN WESTLEY, The Associated Press
2009-05-04 WASHINGTON -
The U.S. Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop is among hundreds of clergy members urging Congress to support gay rights, including the passage of an expanded hate crimes bill that would give gay victims of violence new federal protections.
V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire and more than 300 clergy of various faiths will spend Tuesday on Capitol Hill lobbying lawmakers to push through a bill that broadens the definition of hate crimes to include those motivated by a person's sexual orientation, gender identity and disability. The legislation was passed by the House last week.
Clergy also will push for legislation providing protections against workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
"They're not here to grind political axes," said Harry Knox of the Human Rights Campaign, which is sponsoring the event. "They're here out of a pastoral concern for real people in their congregations who have to deal with the ramifications of hate violence and employment discrimination."
It is the second time the lobbying effort known as Clergy Call has been held on Capitol Hill; the first event was held two years ago.
This year's event comes amid significant victories for the gay-rights movement, including the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in Iowa and Vermont.
On Tuesday, the District of Columbia city council is expected to hold a final vote on legislation recognizing same-sex marriages performed elsewhere. The vote will place the issue before Congress, which has final say over the city's laws.
Robinson, who delivered the invocation during a kickoff concert at the Lincoln Memorial for President Barack Obama's inauguration, said that despite recent momentum, an uphill struggle continues for gay rights supporters in the religious community. He said that's because their message is often overshadowed by many on the religious right.
"Religion in general still presents the greatest obstacles we face in full equality," he said Monday during a speech at the Calvary Baptist Church in downtown D.C. "Ninety-five percent of the oppression that we know in our lives comes from the religious community."
Robinson's 2003 consecration has divided the Episcopal Church in the United States and abroad. Last year, theological conservatives upset by liberal views of U.S. Episcopalians and Canadian Anglicans formed a rival North American province.
Robinson said he continues to deal with threats. On Monday, he spoke of a scare earlier this year in which a man was arrested while driving with a sawed-off shotgun, a map to his home, and photographs of the bishop and his partner taken from the Internet.
Still, he spoke of the importance of clergy members who are reaching out to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
"We actually are the bridge between the LGBT equality movement and those institutions which are afraid of it," he said.
Knox, the director of the Human Rights Campaign's religion and faith program, said Tuesday's daylong lobbying effort will include 325 clergy members from various denominations - including Christians, Buddhists, Jews and Muslims.

Bishop Robinson's remarks were powerful, intelligent and grounded in his own rich story, but the word that spoke most powerfully to me was a Basque saying he quoted: if no one feeds the shepherd, the shepherd will eat the sheep.
Not having had a real day off in three weeks, I decided that the best way to spend the afternoon was a wonderful Mexican lunch (quatro de Mayo?) in Chinatown with my beloved and then a long afternoon nap.
Tomorrow I'll be on the Hill speaking with my representatives about hate crimes legislation.
But first, gotta listen to Neil Young's Ohio on this, the 39th anniversary of the the Kent State shootings. The four dead in Ohio would all be about 60 years old now. I wonder what they might have accomplished had they not been murdered in the midst of exercising their constitutional right to assemble and speak out against an immoral war. Rest in peace Jeff, Sandy, Allison and Bill.

John Deer at Christian Peace Witness for Iraq

Standing in front of the White House, long-time peace activist John Deer reads a letter from Archbishop Desmond Tutu to Christian Peace Witness for Iraq.

“In the name of Jesus, Stop the War!”

From the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship:
Three hundred Christians worship and witness together, twenty arrested in an act of nonviolent direct action in front of the White House, as President Obama held his “100 Days” press conference inside.
As more than three hundred Christians worshipped together at National City Christian Church in Washington on Wednesday night, they heard a rousing call from Tony Campolo to put an end to the war in Iraq. Campolo shared the story of the fourth century Monk Telemachus who was martyred when he entered the Coliseum in Rome during the fights of the gladiators and demanded “In the name of Christ, Stop.” After he was killed, a hush fell over the crowd and the Coliseum slowly emptied. The tradition of Gladiators fighting for sport had come to an end. Campolo suggested that,similarly, Christians who take the Bible seriously must be prepared to take great personal risks as they demand, “In the name of Jesus, stop the war.”
Others were also there to inspire the crowd, who had come from all over the country to worship and witness together on the evening that marked President Obama’s first 100 days in office. Elizabeth MacAlister, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Kathy Kelly, Sr. Diana Ortiz, Noah Baker Merrill and by video presentation, Najlaa Al-Nashi from Direct Aid Iraq all spoke strong words of criticism for the Iraq War, and implored President Obama and the U.S. Congress to bring the war to an end.
There was a light rain falling as the worshippers left the Sanctuary at National City Church and processed to Lafayette Park in front of the White House carrying candles and baskets of bread. There in the park, Rick Ufford-Chase called on all of those assembled, and on our President and Congress, to lead with apology, repentance for our actions, and a commitment to make amends to the people of Iraq for the spiral of violence unleashed by the U.S.’s “pre-emptive strike” in March of 2003. Fr. John Dear read a letter from Archbishop Desmond Tutu expressing his gratitude to Christian Peace Witness for Iraq for their continuing insistence that the war in Iraq must end.
After attempting to present a loaf of bread for President Obama, the group formed a large circle in front of the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue, and sang together for over an hour. Eventually, twenty of those standing in the “arrestable space” on the sidewalk in front of the White House were arrested and put into police vans. Eleven of those arrested, including Presbyterian Pastor Tim Simpson and his son Stephen, were released just after midnight. Nine others, including Kathy Kelly, were held over night until they saw a judge the following day.
Presbyterian Pastor Clay Thomas, Associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Sarasota, FL and a member of the public policy advocacy team for Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, said that the conversations that CPWI supporters had with their legislators the following morning were a significant step forward in advancing CPWI’s effort to end the war. “In fact,” said Thomas, “we were given a 90 minute meeting with representatives from the Obama Administrations National Security Council and the Public Liaison for the religious affairs office.”
“In each of those meetings with government representatives,” said Rick Ufford-Chase, former moderator of the General Assembly of the PC(USA), “CPWI’s message was that “we must see a plan that indicates how we will remove all U.S. military personal and bases from Iraq, support reconstruction of Iraqi communities devastated by the war, resettle five million Iraqis displaced by the violence, and establish a commission of inquiry regarding our nation’s use of torture. Those moves, taken in concert with one another, will send a clear message to the rest of the world that we are truly interested in the things that will make for a just peace and a lasting security for all people.”

Brothers Frantzich Singing at the White House

A great cloud of witnesses singing in support of 25 faithful followers of the Prince of Peace as they were arrested in front of the White House last night during the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq.

Christian Peace Witness for Iraq

This was the end of yesterday's sermon. It is an invitation to this week's Christian Peace Witness for Iraq.

Writing in 1962, Thomas Merton said, “the task is to work for the total abolition of war.”
Merton was right then, and he is right now. Indeed, if anything, the task is more urgent now than it was in 1962.
Merton was not naïve. He understood that the task that he named as the abolition of war involved work on multiple levels on multiple issues starting at the level of our own hearts.
He ended his great essay on the roots of war with these words:
“It is absurd to hope for a solid peace based on fictions and illusions! So instead of loving what you think is peace, love other men [and women] and love God above all. And instead of hating the people you think are warmongers, hate the appetites and the disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed – but hate these things in yourself, not in another.”
I have been praying for peace, marching for peace, organizing for peace, working for peace, donating for peace, witnessing for peace, singing for peace, petitioning for peace and every other act for peace I have been able to imagine since I was in high school. I have a passion for peace.
As I read Merton, I am reminded that a passion for peace, like any passion, involves suffering and death. I am further reminded that my work for peace is work for the death of injustice, tyranny and greed in my own heart.
Such heart work is done best in community. That is why I really hope that some of you can join me and hundreds of others this Wednesday evening at 7:00 at National City Christian Church as we worship and witness for peace in our own hearts and in the heart of our nation.
As Martin King said in 1967, some five years into another endless war, “Now let us begin … let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the [children] of God.”
Grace and love can change the world.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

Why witness now? Why go to the White House when the current occupant has pledged to end this war?
Well, to begin with, President Obama has promised an end, but actions speak louder than words and even his words, if put into action, will leave 50,000 American troops in Iraq in 18 months. Christian colleagues in Iraq remind us that real peace and security in Iraq for Iraqis will not be possible until the American occupation ends.
So we go to the White House to press the president not only to live up to his pledge to end the war, but also to end it now.
In addition, Wednesday's worship and action are a Christian peace witness FOR Iraq and for Iraqis. So we will be pressuring the White House Wednesday and lobbying Congress later to support an Iraqi-lead international effort to rebuild Iraq and care for the five million people displaced by the war.
With the economic crisis overshadowing everything (except perhaps swine flu), it is important to remind people that the occupation of Iraq is not over, that Iraqi people continue to suffer and that American lives are still being lost. Perhaps, if nothing else at all, the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq this year is a service of remembrance.

Why I Love My Church

I was at an evangelism conference last fall when someone brought up an interesting factoid: 75 percent of pastors would not worship at the church they currently serve.
I found that rather depressing, and I also thought that aside from the obvious vocational/professional/decent-and-orderly concerns I would certainly worship at the church I serve.
This weekend I am reminded of why.
I spent about six hours today helping rehab the Arlington home of a 90-year-old woman. We worked with a crew from The Falls Church Episcopal. I don't know what the church from which they splintered a few years back would have made of the Clarendon crew: four gay men, a lesbian, a straight married couple, a straight single woman, another straight man and his 18-year-old son. I don't think the homeowner cared a bit. She was just thrilled that her extremely run-down home now has a new kitchen, new floors in the living room and hallway, repaired plaster and windows, a refurbished and refloored bathroom and painted bedrooms.
Friday evening, about a dozen of us gathered at church to watch the award-winning documentary For the Bible Tells Me So. As the movie's web site says,

Through the experiences of five very normal, very Christian, very American families -- including those of former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt and Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson -- we discover how insightful people of faith handle the realization of having a gay child. Informed by such respected voices as Bishop Desmond Tutu, Harvard's Peter Gomes, Orthodox Rabbi Steve Greenberg and Reverend Jimmy Creech, FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO offers healing, clarity and understanding to anyone caught in the crosshairs of scripture and sexual identity.

It is a beautiful and powerful film, and our wonderfully diverse group thoroughly enjoyed it.
Tomorrow morning we will gather in worship in the morning, and tomorrow afternoon our spring CALL group, a life-direction lab that we conduct in cooperation with the Center for Pastoral Counseling, will hit its stride.
Praising God, learning justice, discerning call, serving the least of these -- all in one weekend. Yes, I would be part of this community even if they didn't pay me. (Not that I object to being paid, mind you!)

Seeking Light: Updated

Hold National Capital Presbytery in the light today. We meet this afternoon and evening to vote on the proposed amendment to change our Book of Order (church constitution) to remove its current implied ban (G-6.0106b) on ordaining partnered gay or lesbian church officers (deacons, elders and ministers). I anticipate that the vote here will support the change. At the same time, I also anticipate what poet (and Presbyterian) Ann Weems might call a "meeting at which very little meeting takes place." I hope that my guess on the vote is accurate but that my prediction on the tenor of the meeting is wrong.
Presbytery met, and did as good a job as possible at creating space and time for Bible study and conversation. The parliamentary part of the meeting was not crafted with as much care and some chaos ensued. In a more closely divided body I suspect there would have been considerable anger, but patience prevailed. A "no action" motion from the Bills and Overtures Committee was defeated, and the Presbytery voted 222-102 to affirm the motion to amend G-6.106b to remove the language about fidelity and chastity.
At the same time, however, the vote nationally moved a bit closer to defeat of the amendment. While more than two dozen presbyteries have switched their votes from the most recent (2001) time the issue came before them, it is all but certain that this amendment will not prevail in the necessary 87 presbyteries. No doubt, we will be voting on this again.

Blue Jean Bonus Babies

Did you see George Will's column in Thursday's Post? He used the space for a rant about blue jeans.
Among other declarations about the demon denim, he wrote, "Denim is the infantile uniform of a nation in which entertainment frequently features childlike adults ("Seinfeld," "Two and a Half Men") and cartoons for adults ("King of the Hill").
Cheryl read it and thought that surely it was sartorial satire, but the punch line was missing.
I tested Will's opinion with the three octogenarian women with whom I have lunch most Thursdays. They are mature enough not to need advice from a whippersnapper such as Will. Of course, two of them were wearing jeans to lunch.
We decided that perhaps Will has worn a tie so long that it cut off the blood flow to his brain.
Our brain-dead theory got us to thinking about the well-dressed men (and it was mostly men) who brought Wall Street tumbling down and cut deeply into the retirement savings of many of our nation's elderly. Perhaps we would be better off if the masters of the universe, who seem to worry more about bonuses and Brooks Brothers than they do about their fiduciary responsibilities with other people's money, were replaced by some good ol' boys and girls in jeans and flannel shirts.

Spirituality for Mii

I'm breathing out the deep sigh of relief that hits pastors post-Easter, and breathing in some spiritual practices for the coming 40 days.
We got Cheryl and Wii Fit for her birthday last week. It's a total hoot, with all kinds of silly games that, if you follow the instructions, actually give you a good workout. The games include some yoga movements -- most of which cannot actually be done in our basement without crashing fingers into the ceiling. But the ones that can be done feel surprisingly good. I've long thought that yoga would be good for me because I am among the least flexible people ever. I suppose I make up in "closed-bodyness" for my open-mindedness! In any case, stretching and breathing deeply is a lot more invigorating than I would have guessed.
Alas, my Wii Mii is a rather squat fellow because the sweet voice of the Wii tells me that I need to loose weight. No surprise in that, but did my doppelganger have to get so rotund so quickly?
Ah, well, perhaps by Pentecost he will have slimmed down a bit.
In the meanwhile, I'm stretching body and spirit in a 40-day journey with Sister Joan Chittister. I'm following a little book that is one of Augsburg Press's 40 Day Journey With ... series.
I began this morning, and, perhaps not surprisingly, the first reading concerns the nature of spirituality. Sr. Joan writes, "Spirituality is about the hunger in the human heart. It seeks not only a way to exist, but a reason to exist that is beyond the biological or the institutional or event the traditional."
Those words leaped out at me this morning because I'd just read Michael Gerson's column in the Post, in which he responds to neuroscientist Andrew Newburg's new book, How God Changes Your Brain.
Gerson writes,

Using brain imaging studies of Franciscan nuns and Buddhist practitioners, and Sikhs and Sufis -- along with everyday people new to meditation -- Newberg asserts that traditional spiritual practices such as prayer and breath control can alter the neural connections of the brain, leading to "long-lasting states of unity, peacefulness and love."

In other words, some combination of my reflections with Sr. Joan and Wii Fit breathing my lead me to be more loving. Hm ... time will tell.
The more challenging part of Newberg's findings, as Gerson reports them, comes with the insight that the kind of God one imagines determines the part of one's brain that is strengthened through religious practice. In other words, if one imagines a God of love, the part of one's brain where empathy resides. On the other hand, if one imagines a God of wrath the part of the brain where aggression resides is strengthened.
As Gerson puts it, "The God we choose to love changes us into his image, whether he exists or not."
As for me, I'm holding fast to the God of love I know through Jesus. No other god is worthy of my time -- especially if such a god is going to get inside my head and rot my brain!

Going Dark

I know that Lent extends through Holy Week, but keeping to a devotional practice that includes time for writing through Holy Week just isn't working for me. So, who am I kidding, other than myself. I'm just going dark till after Easter. Journey well through the remains of this week and enjoy and grace-filled Easter.

Holy %@!%*!

Clearly it is almost Holy Week. It's not the calendar that tells me, but rather the busyness that makes Holy Week the least worshipful, contemplative, spiritually filling time of the year for church professionals. This will not be a blog post; it barely qualifies as a Facebook status or a tweet.
Early in Lent it was easy to keep to the commitment of a daily discipline, but when Easter and a major peace witness come so close together ... well, time runs out.
Next week will be ... better?

Should we? Can we? Will we?

Plan to join us April 29. The worship will be powerful and beautiful, as will be the witness at Lafayette Park. Please share this with your networks.

Praying With Our Feet

After the Selma march in 1965, Rabbi Abraham Heschel wrote, "For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are not lips and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying."
Yesterday morning at the intersection of Rt. 123 and Braddock Road, love and hate crossed paths as People of Faith for Equality Virginia stood in peaceful vigil while the hate-filled folks from Westboro Baptist showered the morning rush hour traffic with their message that "God hates America" and "God hates fags" and, well, God hates just about everything that they don't like.
I was asked by a reporter what I thought about their Biblical interpretation. I said, "we interpret scripture according to the rule of love, but they seemed to have missed that part." Indeed, yesterday morning, "God is love" was more than enough theology for the day.
We were praying with our feet, as we stood in the blustery cold alongside George Mason students whose Pride coalition had invited us to join them.
I had a brief conversation with one of the kids, Carl -- or Carly, as this transvestite-for-a-day-of-solidarity introduced herself. Carly spoke of growing up in the Roman Catholic church and leaving it behind because the church has so little tolerance for so many friends.
I thought about Carly reading the prayer invitation for today, which includes Jesus sending forth his disciples and telling them that where they are not received and the good news not welcomed to shake the dust of such towns off their feet and move on.
I wonder if much of the church hasn't become those dusty towns whose exclusive orthodoxies are being shaken off and left behind by an entire generation.
Yesterday I prayed with my feet. Today I will pray for Carl and his friends, but I'll pray even more fervently for the church that we might hear in the voice of Carl and Carly a generation longing to hear good news. And, I'll pray for the Westboro Baptist people -- children of the same loving God -- that they might feel that love even in their hardened hearts.
Indeed, seeing the young people of Westboro (and their tiny band included several teenagers) was incredibly sad. To be raised in the context of so much hate and narrow-mindedness is tragic.
I often leave public demonstrations renewed and refreshed. They feed my soul and are, for me, deeply spiritual times of prayer. Yesterday, though, seeing the kids of Westboro, was soul searing.
Monday being my day off, I went home and spent a few hours watching Milk, which I'd not yet seen.
It is a film of deep and beautiful hope. Though the tragedy of his murder and the sadness of a life cut short on the cusp of dramatic cultural shifts deepened my funk for a while yesterday, I am rejoicing today that Rt. 123 and Braddock Rd. was, for a brief while in the early hours of Monday morning, the intersection of love and hope.