Things earthly and heavenly

Things earthly and heavenly

St. George Episcopal Church, Georgetown, DE

Facebook: Sirach 26:10

Pentecost XV - Proper XX

September 18, 2022

 

It’s not always the case, but this week’s Collect prayer really sums up beautifully the point Jesus is trying to make in that complicated and complex parable of the Unjust or Shrewd Manager. Jesus says,

“No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." 

Let me remind you of the beginning of that beautiful autumnal prayer, as things are passing away: “Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly . . .”

 

Not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly.

 

Let me tell you a little story about something that happened to me this past Monday.

 

I had just made a visit to one of our Hospice patients over at Atlantic Shores Extended Care Facility. I was parked in that small, unpaved, unofficial, pot-hole filled parking lot on the east side of the building, which, because of the rain the night before, became the autumnal version of what ee cummings described as “mud-licious” and “puddle-wonderful”.

 

Well, if you’re a kid and it’s spring, it’s wonderful. When you’re an adult and you’re working and you’re on a schedule and you feel like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders, well, not so much. To make matters worse, I put my key in the ignition and . . . . nothing.

 

The radio went on, the lights went on, but the engine made absolutely no sound. Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Bupkus. I tried a few more times. Silence.

 

My stomach flipped. No, no, no, no, no, NO! I don’t need this! C’mon, universe! Cut me a break here! I’ve got two more patients to see and it’s 2 o’clock in the afternoon. Ugh! I finally broke down and called Triple A and, after being put on hold and listening to that Gawd-awful muzak punctuated by commercials about the wonders of Triple A, was told by the nice lady that there was “heavy congestion in that area; it will be at least an hour before we can get a tow to you.”

And hour! It was hot. It was humid. It was muggy. The sweat was dripping off my brow. I was annoyed and angry but tried to sound calm and chipper as I called my supervisor and my colleague and my two scheduled patients to tell them of my predicament.

 

The good news is that, an hour later, almost to the minute, the tow truck arrived. Oh, it wasn’t just a truck. It was a HUGE flat bed truck. I looked at it and the small parking lot packed with cars and thought, “OMG! How in the world is he ever going to get me out of here?”

Out hopped the driver, a skinny, scrawny, scrappy young Sussex County man in maybe his early to mid-20s who introduced himself as “Jess.” He was wearing jeans and a white T-shirt and he looked like he had probably caused his momma a few sleepless nights of walking the floor.

 

He quickly sized up the situation and saw the exact same challenges I saw. So, he first asked me for my keys to see if he could start the car. He tried a few times and then looked under the hood. It took him a few seconds to locate the starter – which is what I had feared it was – and said, “Yup, probly the starter. Welp, lemme see if I can get you outta here.”

 

I held my breath as he walked around the car, sizing things up. He looked at the other cars, then looked at the entrance to the parking lot. He paced a bit and then sort of jumped up as the solution seemed to hit his body and then he jumped into action.

 

He put my car in neutral and then pushed it out of the space. Then, through some miracle of physics or geometry or calculus he probably never took in high school but was just born knowing it, he was able to maneuver his tow truck on the street on the side of the parking lot and then, without jack-knifing it, backed that puppy in so that the flatbed was facing the front of my car. He quickly got the chains attached, artfully dodging all the puddles, and then set the hydraulic into motion to move my Jeep onto the flatbed.

 

And, just like that, we were ready to rock ‘n roll and head up the street a short distance to the JEEP dealership which I had already called and they were already waiting for me.

 

I pulled myself up the side of the cab of the truck, put all my gear in front of me, took a seat beside him and fastened my seat belt. When he came in the truck I said, “Well, Jess, I don’t know how much they pay you for this, but it’s clearly not enough.”

 

He smiled and said, “No, ma’am. No, they don’t. But then again, not too many of us get paid enough or what we’re worth. Not even you, and you’re doing God’s work.” He shook his head at the injustice of it all and said, "So, you know, I just do my best. Anyway."

 

I don't know why. Maybe it was the heat and humidity. Maybe it was that combined with my anxiety and anger and frustration and annoyance about the situation I was in. At any rate, my eyes started to sweat. (I'm not crying. You're crying.)

 

So, as he was paying attention to the traffic on the way to the dealership, I fished through my wallet and found two ones and a ten. I shoved the $10 into my pocket. He dropped me off at the service entrance and brought my car round the back. When he came back to give my keys to the service agent, I thanked him for his professional service, pressed the money into his hand and said, "Here, I just want you to keep doing your best."

 

I wish you could have seen the smile on his face. This tough, scrappy, skinny, Sussex County boy who has probably made his momma weep with worry more than a few nights looked at me and smiled like a very angel. Forget the $10. Two ones would just not have done. No, I couldn’t afford the $10. Then again, I couldn’t afford not to.

 

Heavenly things vs. earthly things, you see.

 

Jesus said, “No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

 

It’s so easy to fall into the trap of taking the easy way out, to throw up our hands and cave to the prevailing cultural values which always devalues the common worker, the one who is often more concerned with that which is of value in the heavens more than on earth – mostly because he has to work with his hands and the sweat off his brow and the smarts he’s picked up along the way of the rough road of life he’s had to travel.

 

Things like just doing your best, even if your compensation doesn’t reflect your value and worth. Anyway.

 

Things like stepping up to a challenge, standing up to those who say it can’t be done, and risking being called a fool because you knew the risks and, in the end, didn’t live up to your own hopes and expectations but you gave it your best. Anyway.

 

To love knowing that the love your give may not be the love you get and yet to love. Anyway.

 

Is that being ‘shrewd’? Is that, somehow, ‘unjust’? Personally? I don’t think so. And, I don’t think – not in a million years – that Jesus would have titled that particular parable using words like ‘shrewd’ or ‘unjust’.

I think it’s being human. I think it’s being the best human being we can be. I think it’s like what Jesus did in risking his life for the debts we owe and paying for them on the holy cross.

 

I think it’s like French scientist and theologian, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, once wrote, “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

 

Anyway.

 

It occurs to me that our collect prayer for today is also perfect to say and, perhaps, remember on this beautiful autumnal Sunday; this, my second to last Sunday with you,

“Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.”

And let the church say, “Amen.”

If you want to change the world

  

"If you want to change the world"

A sermon preached on Facebook Live Broadcast

Sirach 26:10 The Headstrong Daughter

Christmas II - January 3, 2020

 

In May of 2014, one Navy SEAL and Admiral William H. McRaven, delivered a commencement speech to the 8,000 graduates of the University of Texas. His speech “If you want to change the world” was so well received that it became a book.

 

The book was not titled by the title of his speech. It was titled “Make Your Bed” because of the first piece of advice was this:

“If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.”

 

Now, I know some of you are thinking, “Right. Good. That's terrific. But, what does any of that have to do with this Gospel Story of the Three Kings?”   

 

I’m going to get back to this idea, I promise, but first I want to talk about how the world is changed not by gold and incense or power and might but by dreams and intuitions and vulnerability and how, sometimes, we are off by nine miles.

 

Before I begin, I want to credit theologian and author Walther Brueggemann for this idea which I heard him lecture more years ago than I can remember but has stayed with me all these many years later.

 

To begin, it’s important to know that Matthew was not the first to imagine three rich wise guys from the East coming to Jerusalem. The whole story line comes from the 60^th chapter of Isaiah in a poem recited to Jews living in Jerusalem. 

 

It was about the year 580 and the Jews had been living in exile in what is now present-day Iraq. After several generations, they had returned to Jerusalem only to find it bombed out, torn down and in despair.

 

Isaiah anticipates that, no matter how bad things look right now, things will change for the better. “Rise, shine, for your light has come,” he invites his depressed, discouraged fellow Jews. He envisions a renewed Jerusalem with a new center of international trade.

 

“Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn,” writes Isaiah.

Isaiah even tells them that there will be caravans loaded with trade goods like gold, frankincense and myrrh, carried on camels, which will come from Asia and bring prosperity and celebration and joy. This is God’s promise, promises Isaiah.

When The Three Intellectuals from the East come and pay homage to King Herod, they ask him  "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage."

Herod does what all incompetent rulers do when faced with a challenge and a threat to his power and control: He panics.  In his panic, a strange thing happens: Herod invites the leading scholars of Torah and Talmud and Mishnah to tell him about Isaiah 60.

 

They tell him that, well, see, actually, Isaiah was talking about the return of Jerusalem to a place as the center of global economy. The urban elites can recover their former power and prestige and – honestly? – nothing will really change.

 

Well, says Herod, do you have a better text? Well, yes, they say – afraid of their King who is clearly unhinged by the thought of losing his power. However, they are more afraid not to tell him the truth.

See, they say, the more accurate text is Micah 5:2-4:

 

`And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.'

 

This is the scene we pick up in today’s gospel. Herod tells the Three Intellectual Men from the East about Micah’s prophecy and charges them to go to Bethlehem and “search diligently for the child and when you have found him, bring him to me so that I may pay him homage.”

 

Bethlehem is about nine miles south of Jerusalem. It’s a very quick ride. An easy day's walk. Well, it used to be. Now, there’s a wall that physically divides the country, a reflection of the deep divisions that have brought so much suffering and pain to Palestine and yes, even Israel.

 

The traditional intellectuals and scholars that had studied Isaiah but had forgotten Micah had been off by nine miles - nine physical miles and galaxies of thought apart.

 

It’s difficult to fathom how the story might have be different if Herod’s interpreters had not remembered the prophecy in Micah 5 – how the world might NOT have changed.

 

What would have happened if The Three Scholars from Asia had not had a dream about the King’s directions and did not return to Herod, not even with the child?

Indeed, what would have happened if Joseph hadn’t had a dream warning him about Herod and how he should flee to Egypt? 

 

How might the story be different if Joseph hadn’t been later told in a dream that Herod had died and it was safe to return to Palestine, to the district of Galilee to the town of Nazareth?

How might the world NOT have changed? How many more millennia might it have taken for the story of salvation to unfold?

 

Matthew’s story of the Visitation of the Magi (the Epiphany which we celebrate Wednesday, January 6) is, in once sense, the story of these two ancient places: Jerusalem, with its great pretensions, and the “little town of Bethlehem,” with its modest promises.

 

And, here is the message found in the middle of these two places, separated by only nine miles: We can choose a “return to normalcy” in a triumphalist mode, a life of self-sufficiency that contains within it its own seeds of destruction. Or, we can choose an alternative that comes in innocence and a hope that confounds our usual pretensions.

 

Isn’t it funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same? How it is that the very choices faced by those in ancient times are not much different from the ones we face today?

Here’s the thing: Most of us are looking for a new start in a new year in the wrong places. We are off by at least nine miles. As we look with joy into the new year of 2021, we find on January 1 that we still have many of the same problems and crisis we knew on December 31<sup>st.

There is no magic bullet. No miracle cure. No magic wand</sup>.

 

The pandemic is worse and promises to take even more lives, despite the availability of a vaccine. 

 

White supremacist groups are, even now, gathering in the nation’s capitol for a large demonstration on Wednesday - and they're not there for the Epiphany.  

 

Despite a controversial pandemic relief package, two million people have not regained the jobs they lost to COVID – millions more are facing eviction.   

 

Millions of men, women and children – some of them in our neighborhoods – are living with food and shelter insecurity

 

Into this time in our lives we are invited into a new Epiphany. We are bidden to enter into this story and to travel those hard, demanding nine miles away from self-sufficiency and into mutual dependency which we have had to learn during this pandemic, symbolized most poignantly in the wearing of a face mask.   

 

We are being asked, once again, to join the Jesus Movement and change the world.

 

Which brings us right back to Navy Seal and Admiral William H McRaven’s suggestion that if we want to change the world, we start by making our bed. Here’s what he said:

If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can't do the little things right, you will never do the big things right. And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made — that you made — and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better. 

NB: You can find a transcript of the entire speech here.  Don't miss what he has to say about hope and singing while up to your neck in ice cold mud in the middle of the night.

You have to start somewhere, my grandmother always said, reminding us frequently that the longest journey always begins with the first step.

Scripture is a good place to start, but as this gospel shows only too well, a lot depends on how scripture is interpreted. You can be wise and learned and scholarly, but if you don’t trust your self and take the risk of your own intuition, you can still be nine miles off.

 

A dream is a good place to start but only if you put your dream into a plan and your plan into action. As my grandmother would also say, “Wishes don’t wash dishes.” (usually with a dish towel thrown over her shoulder and one hand in her apron pocket while the other pointed the way to the kitchen sink).

 

I once worked with a hospice nurse who never left a patient’s room without emptying the trash and cleaning off surfaces, sometimes even washing the dishes. I asked her once, while we were walking to our cars, why she did that.

 

She smiled and said, “I had a nursing supervisor who once said to me, ‘If you are not willing to empty the trash for a patient, you better start looking for another job.’ A leader serves. And a servant leader is not above the one she serves.”

 

The voice of Micah is the voice of a peasant hope for the future, a voice that is not impressed with high towers and great arenas, banks and urban achievements. 

 

The voice which called to The Three Wise Men is the same which first called to Mary and then to Joseph, and called to Jesus and knocked Paul off his horse and calls to us all: the well-being of a people is not brought by high, lofty, political ambition but by attentiveness to those on the ground.

 

So if you’ve not yet made your New Year’s Resolution, here’s one for you: If you want to change the world and make it a better place, start with yourself.

 

If you want to continue what was begun thousands of years ago with the birth of Jesus, if you want to be like The Three Scholars from Asia, The Three Wise Men, and have your own epiphany and transform yourself, thereby setting in motion your participation in the plan to change the world - or, at least, your role in it - well, make your bed.

 

Amen.

Integrity is dead.

Integrity is dead.

I’m talking about the organization, IntegrityUSA. I’m also talking about the value, the character, of integrity which animated the creation of this once noble and highly esteemed organization.

The compromise of one has led to the death of the other.

For those of you who may not know, IntegrityUSA is an independent justice organization of Episcopalians who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and their parents, family, and friends, which is widely credited with the advocacy efforts that secured the most significant victories for LGBTQ Episcopalians, including official support for access to the sacramental rites of holy orders and marriage.

Many people believe that IntegrityUSA was founded by Louie Crew Clay. That is not exactly accurate. In 1974, while teaching in San Francisco, he and his husband Ernest Clay were excited to attend services at Grace Cathedral and become members.

Thinking that he and Ernest had moved through ‘The Cotton Curtain’ in their home in rural Georgia to arrive at the ‘gayest city in America,’ he called the cathedral to ask if they could help him connect with other gay Episcopalians. 

As Louie told the story, he was put on hold and transferred from person after person who asked him to repeat his question; he could then hear them laughing ‘derisively’.

Louie’s response was to envision the creation of a newsletter that would become a forum for gay and lesbian Episcopalians to connect, organize, express themselves and support each other. He called his publication Integrity because he felt that was what had been taken from LGBTQ people who were compelled to hide the fullness of their humanity from God in the church. The first Integrity newsletter was published in 1974.

Louie understood himself as a writer and his gifts as an evangelist. He never intended to found an organization. Indeed, he never worked in any official capacity with Integrity. 

His writing and evangelism did inspire others to do so and they organized into a handful of chapters and gathered, 200 strong, for a national convention in 1975. Ellen Barrett and Jim Wickliff served as founding co-Presidents.

By 2011, there were 58 chapters and about 2,000 members. At this writing, Integrity has refused to report (if it actually knows) the number of members and chapters currently in existence.  

Integrity has been an active presence at General Conventions since 1977, helping draft resolutions and gathering support for their resolutions as well as the other members of The Consultation, a consortium of justice organizations in The Episcopal Church. The Triennial Integrity Eucharist has undoubtedly been one of the highlights of General Convention, attracting several thousand people in attendance.

IntegrityUSA became a respected voice – in print media and then in social media, as well as in local, state, national and international churches, courts and legislative bodies – for equal civil rights, working collaboratively with other religious and secular organizations. 

There was never any doubt in anyone’s mind that Integrity was a Christian justice organization in The Episcopal Church.

That is, until recently.

Over the past decade, organizational instability, incompetent leadership, and fiscal mismanagement have been growing concerns. Financial questions have remained unanswered for several years. According to IRS filings, the total income for 2011 was reported at $767,123. Income declined steadily after that: Income for 2012: $225,830; 2013: $153,591; 2014: $98,016. In 2015, Integrity reported $134,029 in net assets and just $54,574 in revenue, but $225,225 in expenses. 

As of October 17, 2019, the current (appointed, not elected) treasurer of Integrity reported that Integrity has "about $53,000 on hand," $30,000 of which was a bequest which is reportedly earmarked to assist local chapters after a census has been completed. (Treasurers Report October, 2019, can be found here.)

Members have repeatedly asked for an accounting of what happened to the almost $400,000 that was spent in two years. Presidents Caro Hall (2011-2014), Matt Haines (2014-2015), Bruce Garner (2015-2018) and Gwen Fry (2018- November, 2019) have never provided direct answers to those requests. 

It should also be noted that 2015 was the last year Integrity filed a full return to the IRS.

It should also be noted that one of Integrity's members discovered that the board neglected to file Integrity's report with the IRS of the State of Illinois in 2018 so the incorporated status was involuntarily dissolved. It has been reported by the current treasurer that the appropriate report has been filed and Integrity's status has been re-instated.

In June of 2018, Gwen Fry was elected President of Integrity and announced at General Convention that Integrity’s name had been changed to The Episcopal Rainbow. This was done without any input from the members or a process that involved the inclusion of various perspectives as one would expect from a justice organization. This would be the first but not the last manifestation of this ham-fisted style of leadership. 

It should also be noted that no legal action has ever been taken to officially change the incorporated name of Integrity.

Shortly after that election, all members of the board, save for the VP of local affairs, resigned.   
Sometime after that, the President went on medical leave. 

None of this was ever made known to the members until July of 2019 and that was only after repeated questions from members about the absence of the President or a statement from Integrity during PRIDE month (June).

The President announced her return to her position in September of 2019 as well as the appointment of replacement board members, none of whom were known by the membership. 
 

Amidst protests, complaints, and turmoil in the membership, Ms. Fry then resigned on November 25, 2019.

Instability, incompetence, lack of transparency, outright duplicity and mendacity and an autocratic, ham-fisted leadership style have been the hallmarks of the present board. An “internal audit” was ordered by the board and was completed by two (appointed, not elected) board members who did not provide so much as a balance sheet and pronounced – and I quote directly - “no discernible irregularities were discovered”. 

No answers were provided concerning previous financial irregularities. It should be noted that neither of these two board members is a CPA or have other discernible credentials to conduct a financial audit. However, it has been reported that a man named John Lennox, MBA, a contract diocesan auditor with the Episcopal Diocese of East Carolina, had reviewed the 2019 internal audit and pronounced it "accurate and well-documented".

Comparing that 2019 internal audit with the independent audit filed in 2015 by Smith, Sullivan & Brown is very revealing in terms of what it does and does not document. 

Indeed, there is no comparison between the audit of 2015 and 2019. Perhaps this is why Integrity's bylaws call for an audit by a CPA and not MBA. While this board likes to talk about bylaws, they only adhere to their interpretation of the bylaws. Sometimes, they even make some up (more on this later.).

A member of Integrity, a corporate attorney, has filed a request for “books and records,” so that he might try to make some sense about the financial questions that have remained unanswered. This request is within the purview of organizational members. The board, specifically the treasurer, ignored that request. 

Several months later, that member was informed by the treasurer, that he was not, in fact, a member. He was thanked for his financial contribution to the organization but told that it was not considered payment for his membership dues.

I am not making this up.  

It needs to be asked: What are they afraid of?  
 

**Bylaws are interpreted according to the particular perspective of the board members, typically the treasurer, who, for example, has declined to make known the names of the members of the Stakeholder’s Council because, he says, the bylaws do not allow it.

That is not true. The **bylaws state that the names of members may not be shared with those who are not members. Which makes sense. There is no reason not to share the names of the members of the Stakeholder’s Council with other members of Integrity. 

Indeed, the old Integrity web page still has posted the then members of the Stakeholder’s Council as well as, in some cases, contact information.

But, the treasurer stuck to his interpretation, despite several challenges from several members and did what incompetence always does: He created a form. Incompetent bureaucracies LOVE forms. It's a pathetic power move, just to demonstrate who really has the power. Got a question? We got a form for you to fill out. If it's really insignificant, in triplicate. And, will need to be notarized. 
 
This particular form was to provide the board with permission to share a member’s name with other members. Which the bylaws already allowed. 

See also: I am not making this up.

The names of the members of the Stakeholder’s Council is important information for members to have because, according to the bylaws, in the absence of an elected President, it is the members of the Stakeholder’s Council who elect the new President. Without providing that information to members, the board can hold an election in the same way it conducted the internal audit and then report that there were “no discernible irregularities” in the election process. No one would know the difference.

Before I continue, I want to I remind you that IntegrityUSA is a Christian justice organization in The Episcopal Church.

There have been four members who have been silenced on Integrity’s FB page. Some have been blocked, others have been muted and/or their FB membership on that page rescinded. The reason? Their comments were deemed to be in violation of the FB rules. And those rules are to be ‘kind’. 

If comments are arbitrarily deemed to be ‘unkind’ they are removed and silenced. If a post is considered to be ‘unkind’ it dies in the moderation graveyard without reason, much less an apology. As near as anyone can figure, it is ‘unkind’ to speak the truth or to ask an uncomfortable question, or to say something with which the Moderator of the Day (who is anonymous) disagrees. 

So much for justice. 

Silencing dissenting voices is the behavior common to the oppressor. It is not the way the oppressed interact with each other.

Unless, of course, the oppressed have internalized their oppression and have become the oppressor.

Another example of this can be found in the exchanges between one member of Integrity and the illicitly appointed chair of the Stakeholder's Council who used homophobic slurs ("pissy old queens and bitter old dykes") to describe some of those Integrity members who have raised questions and concerns. 

His behavior and language were excused by the board as being "generational".(Note: At the very end of this blog post, I have provided the exchange and the letter written by President Fry to document this. It is a study in internalized oppression.)

Perhaps one of the most outlandish examples of privilege was seen when the illicitly appointed Interim Chair of the Stakeholder’s Council announced that, as a “parliamentarian with over 20 years of experience,” it was his position that Robert’sRules of Order allowed the board to create bylaws for special circumstances. 

Therefore, since the Stakeholder’s Council had been rendered essentially defunct and the election of members had been “postponed” (by this same person when he was President of Integrity, which was also not allowed in the bylaws), it was perfectly fine for the board to “appoint” him as interim Chair of the Stakeholder’s Council.*

This, of course, is fantasy. This has been confirmed by no less than three corporate lawyers and one corporate paralegal, all members of Integrity. That made no difference to the Board or the illicitly appointed interim chair of the Stakeholder’s Council. 

Facts don’t matter to the privileged who become arrogant and self-serving as they insulate themselves from the very people – the members of Integrity – they are supposed to serve. 

Indeed, a petition was circulated to amend the bylaws to make board meetings open to members. The bylaws state that amendments can be made by petition of 10% of the members. However, since the board refuses to reveal how many members there are on the books - and, apparently arbitrarily determines how to apply membership dues as "donations" or dues - it was thought but not known that the required threshold of signatories had been reached.

No matter. The board has ignored that petition.

If any of this style of leadership sounds even vaguely familiar, one need only look to the Oval Office in Washington, DC for comparison.

Puerto Rican activist Carlos Rodriguez is quoted as having said, “When we’re not hungry for justice it’s usually because we’re too full with privilege.”

There are many, many other examples of abuse of power and the priority of privilege over justice, each one more outrageous than the next. 

Documenting them all would only prove to be an exercise in overwhelming disbelief that that much incompetence, arrogance, duplicity, and mendacity could exist in the leadership of an organization named Integrity.

There are more important truths to tell, prime among them are these:  

Integrity is no longer hungry for justice. It is no longer a justice organization. 

Privilege has become more important than integrity. 

It is barely a shadow of its former self which is monstrously painful to those of us who have generously and joyfully given so much of our lives to an organization – a movement, a dream – which has accomplished so much for so many.

Integrity is dead. Of this, there is no doubt. 

As Christians, we are people who believe in resurrection. It is central to our faith. And yet, many of us are so afraid of death we live in denial, feeding our sense of privilege to numb the anxiety or shame or fear of admitting that Integrity is dead. The irony is that as long as we continue to deny death, we cannot participate in, much less celebrate, resurrection.

My fervent hope for Integrity is that there will be a fair, transparent election that will bring us competent and qualified leadership with a deep commitment to justice and inclusion, transparency and open process. 

I pray for leadership with a clear eye on the reality that the Integrity brand has been irreparably tarnished. 

I pray for leadership who will understand the desperate need for healing and reconciliation and pastoral care within the membership of Integrity.

I  pray for leadership who will understand his (and I have no doubt that the next President will be male – and, no doubt, Caucasian) role as a hospice chaplain to a national organization which has died while simultaneously working as a midwife to newly resurrected justice ministries at local levels.

I pray for leadership who understands that the best leadership style is to "get right in the middle and then get right out of the way" - gradually phasing out Integrity at a "national" level.

As long-time Episcopal leader and Civil Rights Activist, Ed Rodman, has so often said, leaders in justice movements know to "have their fingerprints on everything and their name on nothing."

I pray for leadership with enough integrity and strength of character to speak a hard word of truth: 

Integrity is dead.

Perhaps then, once truth is spoken, reality acknowledged, and healing and reconciliation begun, we may reclaim a sense of integrity and begin to continue Louie’s dream of new ways for LGBTQ people to return to wholeness and holiness of life in the church and in the world.

Integrity is dead.

Long live integrity! 

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Note: The following news outlets have published stories on the current crisis of leadership in Integrity.

 

Episcopal News Service: Facing financial struggles and board resignations, Integrity apologizes for lack of transparency.

The Christian Post: Episcopal LGBT advocacy group head resigns amid allegations of mismanagement

Episcopal News Service:  Integrity president resigns amid mounting criticism

NOTE:  

1.  Here are the results of the MEMBERSHIP SURVEY October 22, 2019.

2. Here is a copy of the Books and Records Demand

* Note that the last time Integrity financials were filed with the IRS was 2015. Note the term of the president who is presently the illicitly appointed chair of the Stakeholder's Council was 2015-2018.

**Link to the bylaws can be found at the bottom of this page.

*** There is a new Integrity Webpage: "Integrity Listens and Speaks" where one may kindly post questions or comments to a particular board member who will kindly respond.

**** Integrity's FB page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/integrityusa/  

*****Integrity's old, sadly outdated Webpage can be found here:  https://www.integrityusa.org/

Note: The board of Integrity has announced that "an official list of candidates for President of Integrity and Chair and Vice-Chair of the Stakeholder's Council will be issued and released by Friday, January 3, 2020. Integrity USA will host a live Zoom town hall meeting "shortly after the list of candidates is issued."  It will be an opportunity for members to see and hear from candidates running for president."

"Official ballots will be issued on Monday, January 20, 2020, and due back by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday, January 25, 2020. The ballots submitted will be certified by Integrity USA’s outside auditor and results announced by Monday, January 27, 2020. Integrity USA’s new president, Stakeholders’ Council chair and Stakeholders’ Council vice-chair will take office on February 1, 2020 and serve through September 30, 2021."

Note: I was with Louie the day before he died (on the eve of Thanksgiving, 11.27.19). We briefly talked about the state of Integrity which brought him deep distress and anger and tears. I promised him that I would try to make things right. Making sure the truth is told and documented in this blog is part of my effort to keep my promise.

:::ADDENDUM NOTE::: I am deeply grateful to the Integrity member who provided this FB post regarding the board's decision concerning the homophobic slurs ("Pissy old queens" and "bitter old dykes") he used to describe Integrity members who expressed their concerns and frustrations with board leadership:


Statement by Integrity USA’s President Regarding Bruce Garner’s Private Facebook Comments – November 15, 2019

Dear Integrity friends,

The board met with Bruce Garner today after receiving inquiries about language he used in a private Facebook chat. The concerns surfaced after an individual posted screenshots of that private conversation in our Facebook group in reaction to our announcement that Bruce was appointed Integrity USA’s Interim Stakeholders’ Council Chairperson.

Historically, the use of certain words describing members of the LGBTQ community have evoked a variety of reactions. The reactions often vary by, and sometimes within, generations.

This is something the LGBTQ community has debated for many years. You may have seen that Bruce posted a response this afternoon in that Facebook discussion clarifying that his comments were made as a private individual and do not reflect the thoughts of anyone else or any organization.

We appreciate his clarification. Bruce Garner was appointed Interim Stakeholders’ Council Chairperson because of his many years of service and institutional knowledge of Integrity USA. This includes two terms as president.

Integrity USA’s board of directors believes he is an asset to the organization and will play an important role in shaping its future. Let’s not allow our personal differences divide us during a time when there is still so much work to be done. (Italization added for emphasis.)

Integrity USA envisions a church where people of all sexual orientations, gender identities and gender expressions are welcomed and affirmed. Together, we can make that happen. 

Blessings, 
 Gwen Fry Integrity USA President

Sleeping through the revolution.

April 4, 1968.

I was in the lounge of the dorm of the nursing school I was attending, drinking coffee and playing a game of Bid Whist with some of my classmates while preparing myself for work on the 11-7 shift on the medical surgical ward.

We were just killing time before we would be on the front lines of our altruistic dream: Saving the world, one person at a time.

Such is the rhythm of life when you are in your twenties - intermittent waves of altruism and nobility lapping at the shores of boredom and listlessness.

Someone - I can't remember who - came into the lounge and yelled, "Dr. King has been assassinated!" I remember that the atmosphere in that room went from ho-hum to surreal in 0.5 seconds.

We were shocked. Stunned into silence. The information refused to sink into our consciousness. Someone turned on the television. The obvious, painful, horrible truth was there for everyone to see and yet we stared in disbelief.

The balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN. Dr. King on the ground. Someone tending to him. Everyone else pointing their fingers at the brick building across the street.

Even so, we stood around the television, hands covering our gaping mouths. Heads shaking slowly in terrible sadness and disbelief.

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy had been shot five years earlier, in November of 1963. Could this be happening again?

As hard as the present was to imagine, little did we know that Robert F. Kennedy would be assassinated two months later, in June of 1968.

It was a time of turbulence and unrest in the country. The battle for Civil Rights had been won but racism was still very much alive. The war in Vietnam was still raging.

Dr. King had just preached the previous Sunday - Palm Sunday, March 31, 1968 - at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. In what would be his last Sunday sermon, the title was, “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution".

His text was taken from the 16th Chapter of the Book of Revelations, "Behold I make all things new; former things are passed away." He wrote:

I am sure that most of you have read that arresting little story from the pen of Washington Irving entitled "Rip Van Winkle." The one thing that we usually remember about the story is that Rip Van Winkle slept twenty years. But there is another point in that little story that is almost completely overlooked. It was the sign in the end, from which Rip went up in the mountain for his long sleep.

When Rip Van Winkle went up into the mountain, the sign had a picture of King George the Third of England. When he came down twenty years later the sign had a picture of George Washington, the first president of the United States. When Rip Van Winkle looked up at the picture of George Washington—and looking at the picture he was amazed—he was completely lost. He knew not who he was.

And this reveals to us that the most striking thing about the story of Rip Van Winkle is not merely that Rip slept twenty years, but that he slept through a revolution. While he was peacefully snoring up in the mountain a revolution was taking place that at points would change the course of history—and Rip knew nothing about it. He was asleep. Yes, he slept through a revolution. And one of the great liabilities of life is that all too many people find themselves living amid a great period of social change, and yet they fail to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses, that the new situation demands. They end up sleeping through a revolution.

We were not sleeping through a revolution. We knew that we were in the midst of one.

Many of us were in nursing school so that we could go to Viet Nam and tend to the soldiers there. Others of us came to nursing school having been Peace Corp volunteers and had been inspired and persuaded to continue our education in ways that would make a difference in people's lives.

We all knew we had to shake off our grief and shock and get ready for our assignment. The night supervisor was Ms. Duffy, and she would have none of this.

Ms. Duffy wore a starched white pinafore over her white uniform - with stiffly starched collar and cuffs. She was a legend at the hospital. Everyone knew that sh had tried to get into medical school but that she had been denied admission because of her gender. So, she went to Mass General Hospital School of Nursing Program - "The General" as it was known in those days - and graduated top of her class.

She went on to serve as a nurse in the Army, earning the highest rank possible to women in those days. She had served in Korea and Viet Nam and had seen hideous injuries and evidence of "man's inhumanity to man" first hand and up close.

There was no question that she was a "hawk", but she was curiously silent when the conversation came 'round to Viet Nam. Some of the doctors joked she might be "getting soft". One of the head nurses wondered out loud if she might have been traumatized by what she saw in Nam.

Ms. Duffy was stern and strict. Everything by the book. She took the position of Night Supervisor because she knew that she could handle most any situation that arose, while the doctors slept in the lounge. She would only awaken them when she knew the situation was beyond her legal limit.

When Ms. Duffy walked into the nursing station, everyone - E.V.E.R.Y.O.N.E., including the doctors - stood up until she nodded for us to be "at ease" and we were able to return to whatever it was we had been doing.

In her way of quiet but strong authority, she was part of the revolution. She changed minds and hearts. Everyone I knew - including the doctors - wanted to be just like Ms. Duffy. When Ms. Duffy was on duty, no matter what your shift presented you, you knew everything was going to be more than okay - it would be handled with skill and expertise and professionalism.

That night, as the hour came for us to report for duty on the 11-7 shift, we walked onto the wards - 10 minutes early, as Ms. Duffy required - we were met with a sight none of us ever imagined we'd ever witness.

There was Ms. Duffy - in the medication closet - and she was weeping. The door was closed - locked, as it always was - but we could see her through the window on the door. She was bent over the counter, her starched white collar embedded in a spot under her jawbone. Her shoulders were slumped and shook as she sobbed into her arms.

Eventually, she stood up, threw her shoulders back, blew her nose, fixed her hair, and then noticed us, all gathered 'round the window, watching her. Doctors. Nurses. Nursing Students. Lab technicians. Secretaries.

She smoothed her starched uniform and straightened her nursing cap and then opened the door, passing through us like Moses parting the Red Sea.

When she got to the end of the crowd, she turned and said, "A great man has been taken from our midst. It is right to grieve and mourn. But we do his legacy no honor by standing around, sleep walking through our grief. So, dedicate everything you do tonight, to his honor. Be especially tender and kind and compassionate to the poor you care for. Dr. King would be most pleased by that."

Here was a woman - a white woman - who had served in the military on the front lines in Korea and Viet Nam, an admitted "hawk" who was mourning the loss of a man of peace.

Then, she said something I'll never forget. She said, "Dr. King was against the war in Viet Nam. He preached on it just this Sunday. I suspect this is, ultimately, what got him killed."

Someone among us gasped.

She paused and then said, "In his sermon Dr. King said we need to 'learn to live together as sisters and brothers or we will die together as fools'. He also said, 'I can't be what I ought to be unless you are what you ought to be'. So, let's help each other be the best we can be. That's just the way God made the world."

And then, she picked up her clip board, cleared her throat, and said, "Carry on."

I think, in many ways, Ms. Duffy was right. Many thought Dr. King had gone too far. That he should have stopped when the Civil Right's Amendment was passed. But, he wouldn't. He was in Memphis to help to organize a worker's strike there. He was planning another March on Washington. A "Poor People's March".

He was called a Marxist and a Communist for those activities.

But, criticizing the War in Viet Nam put him over the line, in the view of his opponents. He mentioned this in his Palm Sunday Sermon:

One day a newsman came to me and said, "Dr. King, don’t you think you’re going to have to stop, now, opposing the war and move more in line with the administration’s policy? As I understand it, it has hurt the budget of your organization, and people who once respected you have lost respect for you. Don’t you feel that you’ve really got to change your position?" I looked at him and I had to say, "Sir, I’m sorry you don’t know me. I’m not a consensus leader. I do not determine what is right and wrong by looking at the budget of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. I’ve not taken a sort of Gallup Poll of the majority opinion." Ultimately a genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.

On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient? And then expedience comes along and asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it right?

There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right. I believe today that there is a need for all people of goodwill to come with a massive act of conscience and say in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "We ain’t goin’ study war no more." This is the challenge facing modern man.

It is the challenge that faces us, still.

We are now engaged in three wars - Afghanistan, Iraq and now Libya. I believe that, if Dr. King were alive today, he would be speaking out against those wars and calling us to study peace.

And, I believe Ms. Duffy would be in the front row, cheering him on in her own quietly dignified but powerful way.

We would all do well to listen to or read Dr. King's sermon today. You can find it here. You can either read it or listen in.

It's time to take the position that is not safe or politic or popular. We need to do what our conscience tells us is right.

We need, as Dr. King preached, "to develop the new attitudes, the new mental responses, that the new situation demands".

We can not afford to sit around, killing time, waiting to do what's right. The waves of altruism call to us from a sea of nobility, beckoning us to swim for our lives and the life of the world.

We dare not be caught sleeping through the revolution which is sweeping the Middle East. The time is always right to do what is right. We need to end these immoral wars, not because it's easy or expedient - because it is decidedly neither. We need to end these immoral wars because it is the right thing to do.

The time has come and now is for us to learn how to live together as sisters and brothers in a global Beloved Community, lest we die together as fools.

Here's how Dr. King ended that Palm Sunday Sermon:

We’re going to win our freedom because both the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of the almighty God are embodied in our echoing demands. And so, however dark it is, however deep the angry feelings are, and however violent explosions are, I can still sing "We Shall Overcome."

We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

We shall overcome because Carlyle is right—"No lie can live forever."

We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant is right—"Truth, crushed to earth, will rise again."

We shall overcome because James Russell Lowell is right—as we were singing earlier today,

Truth forever on the scaffold,

Wrong forever on the throne.

Yet that scaffold sways the future.

And behind the dim unknown stands God,

Within the shadow keeping watch above his own.

With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair the stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

Thank God for John, who centuries ago out on a lonely, obscure island called Patmos caught vision of a new Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, who heard a voice saying, "Behold, I make all things new; former things are passed away."

God grant that we will be participants in this newness and this magnificent development. If we will but do it, we will bring about a new day of justice and brotherhood and peace. And that day the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy. God bless you."

I delight to imagine Ms. Duffy and Dr. King in heaven. 

I have this sneaking suspicion that, when she walks into a room in the heavenly palace, everyone - including Dr. King - stands up. 

Heavenly Hosts

In their spare time, when they are not engaged in "Mitregate" or otherwise making a mess of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York are apparently watching reruns of The Vicar of Dibly.

Apparently, Dr. Rowan Williams and Dr. John Sentamu, have written new guidelines: "Seven Heavenly Ways to Welcome Wedding Guests," in which they direct clergy that they must "learn to smile" when they meet the happy couple.

Besides learning to smile, Vicars are being ordered to offer the bride and groom and members of their wedding parties ample opportunity to have a "paparazzi moment" with cameras flashing and videos rolling to their heart's content.

Clergy are apparently told to give guests guidance on how to behave in a “permissive” fashion. This could include saying: “Make sure you turn your mobile back on after the service.”

Worshippers, who might rarely, if ever, have been in a church before, must be encouraged to “make themselves at home," say the guidelines. “Let people know where they are free to move about, let children come forward or stand on a pew for a good view.”

"Their Ruthie" - that would be, of course, Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent for The (London) Times - reports that

"marriages in the Church of England have slumped from 110,000 in 1982 to 54,000 in 2006 — less than a quarter of all marriages. To encourage couples to return, the Church has taken a number of measures, including running stands at wedding shows, and promoting itself as a cost-effective but spiritual venue. It is too soon to judge if the moves are having any effect on church wedding statistics."

Oh, dear. Oh, my. Wherever to begin?

Alright then, straight away, allow me to say the first word that comes to my mind.

"Bleech!"

There, now that I have that out of my system, please do allow me to continue. You'll notice, please, that I am smiling. Yes, yes. My teeth are grit together, but it's a smile, see? Look, bishops. I'm smiling here. As ordered.

Ahem.

Where was I?

Oh, yes: Clergy as "heavenly hosts".

It seems to me (and, it could be - indeed, would no doubt be - asked by these two fine doctors of theology "What do you know?" I mean, being a mere woman and of a 'certain orientation', this is 'none of my business' as it were) that they have embarked on a course of treatment before making a thorough assessment and accurate diagnosis.

Then again, that's probably not fair, is it? I'm not sure about the Sentamu, but I know Williams has never been a parish priest or vicar.

So really, how would they know?

Besides, they are not Americans (poor lambs), so who could expect them to understand the principle of 'separation of church and state'?

Put the two together and what you have is the business of marriage. Not the spirituality of marriage. Not the sanctity of marriage. Not marriage as a sacred covenant between two people in the sight of God and blessed by the Body of Christ.

No. Rather, what we have here is a business.

It's not a "theology of marriage". Rather, it's a business plan for marriage.

"Consumer religion" at its best - or worst, depending on your point of view.

All form, no substance.

Mind you - it is "teh gays" who are a real and present danger to the institution of marriage, all that is sacred and holy about family life, and are, in fact, singularly responsible for the downfall of Western Civilization.

I mean, how cheeky of us to want a sacramental rite of the church when everyone knows that what every happy couple wants is for the Vicar to look a little less dour for the wedding pictures, allow little cousin Roddy to run wherever he wants to in the church, give the ladies an opportunity to continue the great British tradition of wearing their marvelous hats, and then never darken the door of the church ever again - after they write that generous check.

How very rude of us to remind the church that marriage should not be entered into "unadvisedly or lightly but reverently, deliberately, and in accordance with the purposes for which it was instituted by God."

No, no, no. Bad form. Bad homosexuals.

Everyone knows that you are promiscuous.  Never mind that we can say that because we deny you the civil right and sacramental rite of marriage.  The world is a complicated place.  Buck up, you beggars.  No whining. Stiff upper lip, and all that.

But we would be ever so pleased if you would smile while we oppress you.  There you are. Well done.

Perhaps someone should press upon these two fine Doctors of Theology that, rather than superficial guidelines for the ceremony of marriage, they need to write a definitive Anglican Theology of Marriage.

You know. A wee bookie that could be given to Vicars to teach prospective brides and grooms and handed to them as part of a "Pre-Cana" course of instruction.

It seems to me that if we helped people understand the Grace of God as we know it through the administration of the sacraments and sacramental rites of the church that no one would need to be ordered to smile. It would come quite naturally.

If we understood that Jesus is always a guest at every wedding, transforming the waters of baptism into the wine in the cup of salvation and feeding us from His very body, we'd want lots and lots of pictures to capture this miraculous moment.

If we understood the joy that being part of sacramental grace brings, everyone - not just little children - would want to stand up on their pews to see the newly married couple seal their vows with a holy kiss.

Instead, what we have here is the Body of Christ being sold, once again, for thirty pieces of silver.

This is another sad bit of evidence that the Anglican Communion is being led by incompetence, fueled by anxiety, and driven by ignorance dressed up as theology and 'catholic' spirituality.

Jonathan Hagger, a priest in the Church of England known as 'Mad Priest' on his blog, "Of Course, I Could Be Wrong" illustrates this quite well with his little spoof on the Archbishop of Canterbury.

We need to be certain to order one for the Archbishop of York as well.

Jonathan's spoof makes me giggle, but I think Jesus weeps.

The world is facing serious problems, none the least of which are environmental dangers due to global warming and human arrogance (see also: The Oil Disaster in the Gulf), economic crisis, Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the escalation of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, human trafficking, AIDS and malaria, genocide, rape as a weapon of war, poverty, the oppression of and proposed death sentence for being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered, interreligious tensions and warfare - and all the Archbishops of Canterbury and York can concern themselves with is whether or not Vicars smile at weddings?

Begging your pardons, sirs. I don't mean to be rude, but I would like to suggest that this is why people are rejecting Christianity in general and the Anglican Church in particular.

It isn't because people are questioning both the authority of scripture and the authority of the church hierarchy; rather it is because the church is absolutely out of touch with the reality of the very people it has taken sacred vows to serve.

Let's worry about our own sacred vows taken at baptism and renewed at confirmation to engage in the mission of the church to "restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ."

Not adding more sheckles to the collection plate and a few more bums in the pews.

Even the Vicar of Dibly understood that.

And, you may have noticed, her smile is quite naturally lovely.