On Saturday, June 26, the Cathedral Chapter met in Washington, MO for a daylong strategic planning meeting to look at two major issues in our Cathedral life:
*How can we better welcome newcomers and draw them into our community?
*How can we continue to draw current parishioners more deeply into our community life?
The morning session on newcomers used materials from the Rev. Stephanie Spellers on moving beyond being inviting or even inclusive to what she calls “Radical Welcome”: What does it really mean to embrace people as who they are without expecting them to become who you are. (Go here - http://vimeo.com/4378280 - to hear more about this concept). They then spent time identifying more than 30 different points of contact we already have with visitors entering our space, discussing what our core message is that we want to communicate, looking at the existing means of communication (and talking about the ways everything from the way someone is greeted to the structure of our liturgy and what hangs on the walls is part of communication), and finally identifying immediate tasks to move us forward.
The afternoon session included an examination of the four orders of ministry (lay, bishop, priest and deacon) and a discussion of church involvement as opportunity to grow deeper into Christ. There was also a discussion of the work of author Daniel Pink’s work on what really motivates people and how the matches up with our call to ministry (for a sense of Pink’s work watch this 20-minute talk here - http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html. The day completed with conversations about the importance of personal relationship and invitation and Chapter members’ commitments to model this behavior for the congregation in getting to know people and specifically inviting them into ministry.
Chapter workdays will happen twice a year and are times for in-depth, strategic work that monthly meetings cannot hold. Got questions? Want to know more? Ask the provost or a Chapter member!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Sermon for Pridefest 2010
Please make yourselves comfortable. If you brought chairs please sit, or if you feel comfortable enough, just sit on the grass. Of course you can remain standing as well.
I want to take this time to wish all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender persons and our wonderful friends and allies, a very happy Pridefest!
I remember my very first Pride Event, I was living in Chicago, I had not come out of the closet to my family, and to be honest I was a bit apprehensive. You see fear was really holding me back. I was caught in that old trap of “what if someone I see from work is here?”, “what if this makes the news and my fundamentalist preacher grandfather sees me?!, heck what about my mom?!” You see Fear is so big of an emotion that it can utterly paralyze us. But I bucked it up and marched with the Integrity Chapter of the Diocese of Chicago. I took that first step away from being paralyzed with fear. I was being cheered on, by people watching the parade, it made me elated. It gave me courage! I hadn’t realized just how held back I had become. How much of my life I was hiding from my family.
You see it was that paralysis that persuaded me to come out of the closet. From my baptism and confirmation at Calvary Church in Columbia at 22, I was a very devout church go-er. I moved to Omaha, Nebraska, joined a parish there, helped to start a young adult campus ministry, then moved to Chicago, became involved there. I was the GO TO guy for helping out at church events. You need a volunteer for Happening or for Vocare, count me in. Work the parish picnic sure no problem. I knew that I was gay, but I sort of figured if I immersed myself with many activities, then I wouldn’t have to deal with that aspect of my life that cause me such fear and anxiety.
That is until, I started some education for ministry classes, and it was the exercise of writing a spiritual autobiography, that got to me. I was just hit with the realization that I could not become the man I was to be, the man that God wanted me to be. Until I came clean with whom I was.
Being held back by fear and shame is a way that the world inhibits us. Heck it’s the way we inhibit ourselves.
It prohibits us from claiming our faith, and our due place as a child of God, and as a true part of the body of Christ on earth!
If we are to truly follow the gospel as Christ proclaims, humankind cannot set up boundaries, between those in society who are different , or to whom we may judge to be ‘unfit’ to associate with.
Those whom others would judge too wicked to even walk through the doors of a church.
For you see that type of thinking truly limits God, it hamstrings God into only saving those who have somehow followed all the rules and have done everything right, those who have checked every task off their to-do list, adhered to every formula.
The truth is that those types of people who follow the rules and live a truly godly life, are saved, but God in Christ didn’t just come to save those types of people. God came to save the worst of us.
Theologian Karl Barth, in his voluminous writings titled Church Dogmatics, states and I paraphrase, that “God so wants to be with us, that God does not desire to be God without us.”
And in my understanding of God’s actions toward humanity through Christ, that means ALL OF US, LGBT, Straight, and questioning, closeted, etc!.
The Gospel of Luke which we read today, shows Jesus instructing the disciples in the manner they are to act. They are not to act out of malice and destroy the city that doesn’t welcome them. This is what we may like to do at times to those who disparage us, or who call our faith “unchristian”. Jesus tells them that they should just move on to another city. And certainly LGBT persons have moved on to other towns, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Heck some even coming from small town Missouri to the bigger cities of St. Louis or Kansas City. But what if we stayed? What would it be like if we “tried to convert” those who preach a different exclusive gospel to us? For centuries those brothers and sisters in Christ have tried to convert us from our lives. Using the “Christian Faith to condemn others”, preaching to us of the separation of sin and always assigning that sin to us. And they preach very little about the reconciling love of God! What if we confront a shaming fearful gospel with one of hope and love!?! Shouldn’t we feel obligated to save them from perpetuating this hell that they are creating for their neighbors, save them from placing stumbling blocks in front of those who want to walk with Christ?
That my friends is what the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered persons in our community are looking for, to walk with God and to take a rightful place as an adopted child with the support of their church families. And for many of our allies, it is important to them that they belong to such an open and welcome family of faith!
We who for so long have been told we are not worthy of God’s grace. We who are told that we are steeped in sin, and that we are unforgiveable.
We as children, in our rooms prayed to God to change us, to make us like everyone else.
The shame so great, that we dare not tell anyone. We retreat to our closets, to protect ourselves, and ultimately perpetuate that lie and shame over and over in our lives.
Until finally the gospel comes to us!
The gospel that Christ preaches and proclaims and the Gospel that this church here proclaims, that grace and forgiveness come to all.
That each of us no matter where we are or where we have been is capable of receiving forgiveness and love.
That who we love is NOT sinful.
That love is NEVER sinful.
That it is the abuse of power that is sinful.
But even those who abuse power are forgiven, because God doesn’t wish to be God without them either.
Next in our service we will approach the table of god, and receive even more grace; we will receive those things that will nourish us: The Blood and Body of Christ.
Those gifts, that unite us with all the community of believers past and present as EQUALS, equals in receiving the grace and forgiveness that flows down upon us.
And that is what this church has chosen to do by expressly welcoming the outcast LGBT person into our congregations, proclaiming the reconciling love of God to them.
Especially through our Oasis Congregations, Christ Church Cathedral (Downtown St Louis), St. Mark’s (St. Louis Hills), Trinity (Central West End), Church of the Advent (Crestwood), Washington University Campus Ministry, Church of the Transfiguration (Lake St. Louis), Trinity Church (Kirksville), and our newest Oasis Congregation Hope Church (Columbia), along with the Integrity Proud Parish Partner St. John’s (Tower Grove), we explicitly state that LGBT persons are welcome in our congregations as worshiping members, lay leaders, and clergy!
For we now banish those feelings of shame and fear from our lives, so that we may take our spot as faithful fully participating members of the body of Christ.
May the rest of the body of Christ come to realize fully the gospel that “Oasis Congregations” and “Believing Out Loud Partner Congregations” have discerned, in the name of God the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of the world. Amen.
I want to take this time to wish all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender persons and our wonderful friends and allies, a very happy Pridefest!
I remember my very first Pride Event, I was living in Chicago, I had not come out of the closet to my family, and to be honest I was a bit apprehensive. You see fear was really holding me back. I was caught in that old trap of “what if someone I see from work is here?”, “what if this makes the news and my fundamentalist preacher grandfather sees me?!, heck what about my mom?!” You see Fear is so big of an emotion that it can utterly paralyze us. But I bucked it up and marched with the Integrity Chapter of the Diocese of Chicago. I took that first step away from being paralyzed with fear. I was being cheered on, by people watching the parade, it made me elated. It gave me courage! I hadn’t realized just how held back I had become. How much of my life I was hiding from my family.
You see it was that paralysis that persuaded me to come out of the closet. From my baptism and confirmation at Calvary Church in Columbia at 22, I was a very devout church go-er. I moved to Omaha, Nebraska, joined a parish there, helped to start a young adult campus ministry, then moved to Chicago, became involved there. I was the GO TO guy for helping out at church events. You need a volunteer for Happening or for Vocare, count me in. Work the parish picnic sure no problem. I knew that I was gay, but I sort of figured if I immersed myself with many activities, then I wouldn’t have to deal with that aspect of my life that cause me such fear and anxiety.
That is until, I started some education for ministry classes, and it was the exercise of writing a spiritual autobiography, that got to me. I was just hit with the realization that I could not become the man I was to be, the man that God wanted me to be. Until I came clean with whom I was.
Being held back by fear and shame is a way that the world inhibits us. Heck it’s the way we inhibit ourselves.
It prohibits us from claiming our faith, and our due place as a child of God, and as a true part of the body of Christ on earth!
If we are to truly follow the gospel as Christ proclaims, humankind cannot set up boundaries, between those in society who are different , or to whom we may judge to be ‘unfit’ to associate with.
Those whom others would judge too wicked to even walk through the doors of a church.
For you see that type of thinking truly limits God, it hamstrings God into only saving those who have somehow followed all the rules and have done everything right, those who have checked every task off their to-do list, adhered to every formula.
The truth is that those types of people who follow the rules and live a truly godly life, are saved, but God in Christ didn’t just come to save those types of people. God came to save the worst of us.
Theologian Karl Barth, in his voluminous writings titled Church Dogmatics, states and I paraphrase, that “God so wants to be with us, that God does not desire to be God without us.”
And in my understanding of God’s actions toward humanity through Christ, that means ALL OF US, LGBT, Straight, and questioning, closeted, etc!.
The Gospel of Luke which we read today, shows Jesus instructing the disciples in the manner they are to act. They are not to act out of malice and destroy the city that doesn’t welcome them. This is what we may like to do at times to those who disparage us, or who call our faith “unchristian”. Jesus tells them that they should just move on to another city. And certainly LGBT persons have moved on to other towns, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Heck some even coming from small town Missouri to the bigger cities of St. Louis or Kansas City. But what if we stayed? What would it be like if we “tried to convert” those who preach a different exclusive gospel to us? For centuries those brothers and sisters in Christ have tried to convert us from our lives. Using the “Christian Faith to condemn others”, preaching to us of the separation of sin and always assigning that sin to us. And they preach very little about the reconciling love of God! What if we confront a shaming fearful gospel with one of hope and love!?! Shouldn’t we feel obligated to save them from perpetuating this hell that they are creating for their neighbors, save them from placing stumbling blocks in front of those who want to walk with Christ?
That my friends is what the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered persons in our community are looking for, to walk with God and to take a rightful place as an adopted child with the support of their church families. And for many of our allies, it is important to them that they belong to such an open and welcome family of faith!
We who for so long have been told we are not worthy of God’s grace. We who are told that we are steeped in sin, and that we are unforgiveable.
We as children, in our rooms prayed to God to change us, to make us like everyone else.
The shame so great, that we dare not tell anyone. We retreat to our closets, to protect ourselves, and ultimately perpetuate that lie and shame over and over in our lives.
Until finally the gospel comes to us!
The gospel that Christ preaches and proclaims and the Gospel that this church here proclaims, that grace and forgiveness come to all.
That each of us no matter where we are or where we have been is capable of receiving forgiveness and love.
That who we love is NOT sinful.
That love is NEVER sinful.
That it is the abuse of power that is sinful.
But even those who abuse power are forgiven, because God doesn’t wish to be God without them either.
Next in our service we will approach the table of god, and receive even more grace; we will receive those things that will nourish us: The Blood and Body of Christ.
Those gifts, that unite us with all the community of believers past and present as EQUALS, equals in receiving the grace and forgiveness that flows down upon us.
And that is what this church has chosen to do by expressly welcoming the outcast LGBT person into our congregations, proclaiming the reconciling love of God to them.
Especially through our Oasis Congregations, Christ Church Cathedral (Downtown St Louis), St. Mark’s (St. Louis Hills), Trinity (Central West End), Church of the Advent (Crestwood), Washington University Campus Ministry, Church of the Transfiguration (Lake St. Louis), Trinity Church (Kirksville), and our newest Oasis Congregation Hope Church (Columbia), along with the Integrity Proud Parish Partner St. John’s (Tower Grove), we explicitly state that LGBT persons are welcome in our congregations as worshiping members, lay leaders, and clergy!
For we now banish those feelings of shame and fear from our lives, so that we may take our spot as faithful fully participating members of the body of Christ.
May the rest of the body of Christ come to realize fully the gospel that “Oasis Congregations” and “Believing Out Loud Partner Congregations” have discerned, in the name of God the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of the world. Amen.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
"Naming Our Demons" -- Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Preached by the Very Rev. Mike Kinman at Christ Church Cathedral on Sunday, June 20, 2010
Click below to stream audio
Click below to stream audio
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Miracles -- Second Sunday after Pentecost
Preached by Mr. Peter Linck at Christ Church Cathedral on Sunday, June 6, 2010
Help me, O Lord, to keep guard over my lips. Save me from words that hurt, from gossip and slander and lies. Let me speak only to encourage and cheer and to keep people on their feet, so that all my words may minister grace, to your honor and glory.
I’ve known this church my whole life, and as the church has changed, I’ve changed right along with it. And as I’ve grown up, much like everyone else, I’ve started thinking. Thinking really is the mark of maturity, and it’s all I’ve been doing for the past couple of years. And I suppose Reverend Kinman noticed that I’ve been growing up and he wanted to know a little more about my perspective on things, so here’s my own personal take on today’s Gospel.
In case you were a little less attentive than you would have liked to have been during today’s Gospel reading, as I myself have done many times in the past, allow me to give you a brief synopsis. Jesus goes into a town and notices a funeral procession going on. He touches the bier (which means the stand on which a corpse or coffin is placed), utters a few magic words, and the dead man rises. Everyone is astonished and begins glorifying God claiming that a prophet has risen among them.
So I get asked to preach. And I decide to preach on this gospel reading. Why this gospel reading, you might be asking yourself? “Mostly because I just sort of randomly picked it,” I reply.
This is a gospel reading about Jesus performing a miracle. Darn it. Why didn’t I pick the gospel reading where Jesus gives money to the poor or uses good table manners or helps an elderly woman to cross the street? Those would be easier sermons to give. I’d give some light, plucky message about how we should all do exactly what Jesus did thousands of years ago, and in repeating his actions, we’d all win at the game of being good Episcopalians.
But no; I have this story. The other reason I decided on this reading because it sort of mimics my confusion about spirituality. Nowadays, I don’t really spend too much time thinking about religion…mostly because it makes my head hurt. When it comes to spirituality, at the end of the day, I’m just a confused little kid. Questions always arise like: What is God? Why do I exist? Why the Bible? But specifically, as I’ve pondered this reading, the question has been “What is a miracle, and how do I perform them?” I’ve asked myself this question time and time again as I’ve re-read this passage. Can any of us bring people back to life like Jesus? No, we can’t. So if we’re trying to aspire to some ideal-level human being and we’re really looking at the Bible as some sort of template for our lives, then it’s going to be hard to be like Jesus if we don’t even have the same abilities that he had. But what if the definition of miracle was broadened? What if miracles are more prevalent in our lives than we think?
Let’s switch gears for a moment. High school for me was pretty terrible. It was exhausting and frustrating and monotonous and most any other bad adjective you’d like to assign to it. Teen angst complicates any situation by about twenty fold, and I practically lost my sanity every couple weeks due to some person or event or test or something. But I got through it. It dragged on day after day, but I got through it, and that’s probably a miracle. A miracle doesn’t have to bring someone back from the dead. Jesus was just doing what he could. And if the idea is to follow him and be christ-like, then we need to do what we can. The first step should be just noticing all the miracles around us.
A miracle doesn’t have to be huge. What’s miraculous to me is any number of things I see and experience on a daily basis. This congregation that I’ve known for 18 years is a miracle. A black president is a miracle. Waking up each day is a miracle. There’s soooo much music that I find to be miraculous. And considering how pessimistic I’ve become about a lot of things and how bogged down I can get, I bet just living is hard for a lot people. But the fact that human kind continues on day after day it is miraculous.
I think we exist because of miracles. I don’t know why the world is full of catastrophes and terrible people and monotony, but I do know that some things are just so breathtaking that they have to be miracles. We exist because whatever deity there is out there can do nothing but make miracles, so he created us and our world. That’s the only real conclusion I’ve ever reached about my stance on religion; God is perfection. Now, what does that mean exactly? There’s so much that is wrong and terrible and flawed in the world that the only thing that makes sense to me that can be perfect is God. And this God that I believe in performs miracles, all day every day. I’m not sure exactly what form this takes, but I can see its products. I can see gorgeous people and hear beautiful music and feel profound emotions that must be some divine creation.
So I’ve reached this conclusion. We’re all just a bunch of miracles. So what now? Do I just tell you to count your blessings? Nah, counting isn’t enough. Marvel at your blessings. Be inspired by your blessings. Ponder your blessings. And then, if you really want to be Christ-like, then it’s time to start creating some miracles. It’ll make living a little bit easier for someone else, and it’ll hopefully make you feel a bit stronger. Lots of people believe that faith is nothing unless you act on it, and I think creating miracles is a good way to get started.
So in conclusion, I’d like to implore everyone here to do small things like tell people that you love them or stop and smell the roses once in a while. Because the fact that that person or those roses are there in the first place could be much more miraculous than you know.
Famous poet Walt Whitman tends to agree in his poem befittingly titled “Miracles.” And it reads:
Why, who makes much of a miracle?
As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love, or sleep in the bed at night
with any one I love,
Or sit at table at dinner with the rest,
Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet
and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring;
These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,
The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.
To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,
Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same,
Every foot of the interior swarms with the same.
To me the sea is a continual miracle,
The fishes that swim--the rocks--the motion of the waves--the
ships with men in them,
What stranger miracles are there?
Amen.
Help me, O Lord, to keep guard over my lips. Save me from words that hurt, from gossip and slander and lies. Let me speak only to encourage and cheer and to keep people on their feet, so that all my words may minister grace, to your honor and glory.
I’ve known this church my whole life, and as the church has changed, I’ve changed right along with it. And as I’ve grown up, much like everyone else, I’ve started thinking. Thinking really is the mark of maturity, and it’s all I’ve been doing for the past couple of years. And I suppose Reverend Kinman noticed that I’ve been growing up and he wanted to know a little more about my perspective on things, so here’s my own personal take on today’s Gospel.
In case you were a little less attentive than you would have liked to have been during today’s Gospel reading, as I myself have done many times in the past, allow me to give you a brief synopsis. Jesus goes into a town and notices a funeral procession going on. He touches the bier (which means the stand on which a corpse or coffin is placed), utters a few magic words, and the dead man rises. Everyone is astonished and begins glorifying God claiming that a prophet has risen among them.
So I get asked to preach. And I decide to preach on this gospel reading. Why this gospel reading, you might be asking yourself? “Mostly because I just sort of randomly picked it,” I reply.
This is a gospel reading about Jesus performing a miracle. Darn it. Why didn’t I pick the gospel reading where Jesus gives money to the poor or uses good table manners or helps an elderly woman to cross the street? Those would be easier sermons to give. I’d give some light, plucky message about how we should all do exactly what Jesus did thousands of years ago, and in repeating his actions, we’d all win at the game of being good Episcopalians.
But no; I have this story. The other reason I decided on this reading because it sort of mimics my confusion about spirituality. Nowadays, I don’t really spend too much time thinking about religion…mostly because it makes my head hurt. When it comes to spirituality, at the end of the day, I’m just a confused little kid. Questions always arise like: What is God? Why do I exist? Why the Bible? But specifically, as I’ve pondered this reading, the question has been “What is a miracle, and how do I perform them?” I’ve asked myself this question time and time again as I’ve re-read this passage. Can any of us bring people back to life like Jesus? No, we can’t. So if we’re trying to aspire to some ideal-level human being and we’re really looking at the Bible as some sort of template for our lives, then it’s going to be hard to be like Jesus if we don’t even have the same abilities that he had. But what if the definition of miracle was broadened? What if miracles are more prevalent in our lives than we think?
Let’s switch gears for a moment. High school for me was pretty terrible. It was exhausting and frustrating and monotonous and most any other bad adjective you’d like to assign to it. Teen angst complicates any situation by about twenty fold, and I practically lost my sanity every couple weeks due to some person or event or test or something. But I got through it. It dragged on day after day, but I got through it, and that’s probably a miracle. A miracle doesn’t have to bring someone back from the dead. Jesus was just doing what he could. And if the idea is to follow him and be christ-like, then we need to do what we can. The first step should be just noticing all the miracles around us.
A miracle doesn’t have to be huge. What’s miraculous to me is any number of things I see and experience on a daily basis. This congregation that I’ve known for 18 years is a miracle. A black president is a miracle. Waking up each day is a miracle. There’s soooo much music that I find to be miraculous. And considering how pessimistic I’ve become about a lot of things and how bogged down I can get, I bet just living is hard for a lot people. But the fact that human kind continues on day after day it is miraculous.
I think we exist because of miracles. I don’t know why the world is full of catastrophes and terrible people and monotony, but I do know that some things are just so breathtaking that they have to be miracles. We exist because whatever deity there is out there can do nothing but make miracles, so he created us and our world. That’s the only real conclusion I’ve ever reached about my stance on religion; God is perfection. Now, what does that mean exactly? There’s so much that is wrong and terrible and flawed in the world that the only thing that makes sense to me that can be perfect is God. And this God that I believe in performs miracles, all day every day. I’m not sure exactly what form this takes, but I can see its products. I can see gorgeous people and hear beautiful music and feel profound emotions that must be some divine creation.
So I’ve reached this conclusion. We’re all just a bunch of miracles. So what now? Do I just tell you to count your blessings? Nah, counting isn’t enough. Marvel at your blessings. Be inspired by your blessings. Ponder your blessings. And then, if you really want to be Christ-like, then it’s time to start creating some miracles. It’ll make living a little bit easier for someone else, and it’ll hopefully make you feel a bit stronger. Lots of people believe that faith is nothing unless you act on it, and I think creating miracles is a good way to get started.
So in conclusion, I’d like to implore everyone here to do small things like tell people that you love them or stop and smell the roses once in a while. Because the fact that that person or those roses are there in the first place could be much more miraculous than you know.
Famous poet Walt Whitman tends to agree in his poem befittingly titled “Miracles.” And it reads:
Why, who makes much of a miracle?
As to me I know of nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,
Or stand under trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love, or sleep in the bed at night
with any one I love,
Or sit at table at dinner with the rest,
Or look at strangers opposite me riding in the car,
Or watch honey-bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon,
Or animals feeding in the fields,
Or birds, or the wonderfulness of insects in the air,
Or the wonderfulness of the sundown, or of stars shining so quiet
and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring;
These with the rest, one and all, are to me miracles,
The whole referring, yet each distinct and in its place.
To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,
Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with the same,
Every foot of the interior swarms with the same.
To me the sea is a continual miracle,
The fishes that swim--the rocks--the motion of the waves--the
ships with men in them,
What stranger miracles are there?
Amen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
