Persist with Faith, Persist with Pride

For the first 42 years of my life, I lived in fear; the fear my true self would be discovered. I had a special place in my Roman Catholic Latino family for I was seen as the oldest son and I grew up a good Catholic boy. As I got older, I worked hard to prove to everyone around me I was the man I was told to be. I prayed and went to mass and prayed some more: “Please Lord, make me the person everyone wants me to be. Please make it so.”

When my prayers were not answered, I pulled a Jonah and ran from my faith. For those who don’t know, Jonah is the prophet who ran from the Lord and ended up in the belly of a fish for three days. Me, I ran and end up in a sea of booze for almost a decade before I found myself lying on the floor in a detox center. I got sober and once again, I tried to be a man. I got married. I got a job in law enforcement; a real job for a real man. I put on a uniform and cut my hair cut high and tight. I learned how to walk and talk like the cops in the movies. My friends and family loved me and respected me because I finally became who they wanted me to be, but I was empty inside. It was like I played a part in someone else’s life and it took a tremendous amount of energy to fake my way through each day. When I put on the uniform, it was like putting on a façade; a façade that was sucking the life out right out of me. I was not surprised when my wife asked me for a divorce. I readily agreed for I blamed my emptiness on an unhappy marriage.

Unfortunately, being single didn’t help and within a few months of my divorce, I finally came to come to terms with the fact I was created a woman. I had no idea the easy part was done for my greatest challenge would be telling my family and friends who I really was. They thought they knew me. They knew where I came from and they knew who they wanted me to be, but when confronted with a new reality, the questions and accusations began. How could you do this to us? I was told I was selfish. I was told it was just a phase. I was pushed and prodded to be the person they wanted me to be, but when they finally saw the real me; when I dared to use my real name, Nicole, and presented myself to the world as the woman I was created to be, they were amazed. For the first time, they saw a real smile on my face; they saw me at peace. Some people rejected me. I shook the dust from my feet and moved on.

At the very beginning of my gender transition, I had a reawakening of my faith. I knew deep in my heart, I could not move forward in my life without my faith. I had grave doubts about returning to the church where I was raised; not necessarily because I was transgender, but because I was divorced. Through a miraculous set of events, I found myself in St. Paul Lutheran Church in downtown Denver.

From the moment I walked into the sanctuary, I was embraced with love as a transgender Latina. My faith was validated by the people who entered my life. My story of the rekindling of my faith and my journey as a transgender woman of color caught the attention of an organization called Lutherans Concerned/North America. Before I knew it, I was a member of the board of directors and was given countless opportunities to relate my story of faith in church halls and basements all over the United States.

It wasn’t long before I came to the conclusion I became a law enforcement officer to prove I was a man. It didn’t work. I decided a career change was in order. I moved into an administrative position at work and started graduate school to earn an MA in Counseling so I could walk with other people through their journey of self-discovery. Halfway through my master’s program for counseling, I discerned a call to ministry. I told myself I had to wait until I finished one master’s degree before I started another, but the idea would not go away, so I filled out the paper work and went through the process to enter candidacy in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Honestly, I thought I could put this idea of a call to ministry to rest when I was rejected because I was utterly convinced the church was not ready to ordain a transgender Latina. It would make for some great speaking material—I was called to ministry, but the church said…YES! I was granted entrance to candidacy for ordained ministry. I was flabbergasted. My out, however, was seminary. I could not possibly leave my home to attend seminary. You see, after my step-father died, I moved in with my mother as she needed help keeping up the house. As she aged, I knew she would need more and more help, so I wasn’t about to leave my mother. Plus, I was already in grad school. How could I possibly go to seminary?

This prayer was answered when I found a distributed learning program; a hybrid online/residential master of divinity program at Luther Seminary. I quit my job, became a counseling intern at CU Denver to finish that degree and took my first online seminary class. Greek. It was as bad as it sounds. I managed to pass Greek and then in 2014 I earned an MA in Counseling. I opened a private counseling practice and kept taking classes online and twice a year, I went to the Lutheran holy land, St. Paul Minnesota, to take intensive residential classes. On May 20, 2018, I earned a Master of Divinity. I am currently working on completing the final requirements for my candidacy committee in order to be approved for ordination.

As a Licensed Professional Counselor in Colorado, I must admit, only 10% of the work I do with clients is helping them come to terms with who they are as a gendered or non-gendered being. They know. Most of the time people only need validation. The hard work is navigating the process of coming out to the world. Ninety percent of my work as a therapist is helping individuals cope with the stress of being disrespected for daring to be who they were created to be. They need help creating positive coping mechanisms to deal with family members who keep saying they are trying to get your name right and then dealing with employers who suddenly discover an employee, who previously had outstanding annual review, had suddenly became an unsatisfactory employee and terminated.

Then there is the home where they prayed and worshiped. “All Are Welcome” does not apply to the transgender, non-binary, and queer members of the congregation. Church hurt is the worst hurt. That is where all of us in this sanctuary have to get to work. I refuse to let any human being tell me I was not created in the image of my Creator. I am a Lutheran because a rabbi who lived two thousand years ago tells me to love the Lord with all my heart, mind and soul and to love each as the Lord loves me. There are no conditions. There is no footnote with the exclusions listed. I am to love the people around me and treat everyone with dignity and respect.

It isn’t easy. Sure, I can love the people who love me, but the people who are different, well that is where it gets tough. I cannot truthfully say I get it right all the time, but I have to try. I have faith in the one who created me and I see my creator as a Christian, but I also believe in an almighty and infinite deity. My mind cannot comprehend the immensity of a creator spirit. I see my creator as the Holy Trinity, but I also realize the creator spirit is capable of reaching out to each and every one of you in a way you can comprehend. I believe the love of the Lord is infinite. There is no reason to worry about the Lord running short on love for there is plenty to go around.

Believe and have faith that the one who created you loves you just as you are. So many people have tried to condemn me for daring to be who I was created to be, but my faith persists. My faith has enabled me to help push open the doors of my church. My faith has enabled me to stand here and say I am blessed by my creator and I am proud to be a transgender Latina of tremendous and persistent faith. Stand with me and all my siblings in the transgender, non-binary, and queer communities. Lift up people of color in your churches, synagogues, temples and houses of worship for our Faith Persists and together we shall all Persist in Pride.

 St. Paul’s Cathedral, San Diego CA 
Light Up the Cathedral—Keynote Speech—
July 11, 2018 
Nicole M. Garcia, M.Div., M.A. LPC

The Sunday Sermon: Just Love

You know, we’re still talking about it!

A certain African American cleric preaches at a certain family wedding in the UK, albeit one watched by billions, and proceeds to turn the world quite literally upside down.

Indeed, just last week, the Archbishop of York started his Presidential address to the General Synod of the Church of England by asking what was so remarkable about the Presiding Bishop’s wedding sermon on love? As the Archbishop told us, “the topic of his address was hardly controversial” and then went on to say that “from the reaction, it seems that the general public’s expectations of life, excitement and witness from the Church of England are still very low.” The following day, The Times newspaper reported that the Archbishop had “called on (British) Anglicans to abandon their English reserve and spread the gospel with some of the energy shown by Bishop Curry.”

I can’t help reflecting that your Presiding Bishop has made a far more lasting impact than another US visitor to Britain this week – but we shouldn’t stray into politics!

So coming back to the Archbishop of York’s question, what was it about Bishop Michael’s sermon that made it so utterly remarkable and unforgettable?

If you haven’t seen it, I really urge you to watch it on YouTube. You see, it wasn’t so much what he said, but the way that he said it. Preaching from an iPad in full view of the Royal family, he broke free from traditional British protocol. He waved his hands, spoke from his heart, smiled and – bravely – chose to make eye contact with people. Indeed, he seemed to create the very fire that he advocated needed harnessing – a fire created by capturing the “energy of love”. God’s unconditional sacrificial love. It seemed to me as if a touch paper had been lit, and the whole world was set on fire.

And just look what happened…

Within minutes people were tweeting and posting about God’s love; media outlets around the world wrote editorials and features on the power of love; newscasters and talk show hosts couldn’t stop talking about the need for love. They had heard what they saw to be Good News - it was contagious, infectious and life-giving.

And the reaction of the Church?

Well, to be honest, our reaction in the UK was pretty mixed – in some quarters, even negative. A well-known Christian Radio station ran a poll to see if people thought it was too long. Traditionalists said it was inappropriate given the occasion. A number of senior evangelicals said he had “failed to preach the Gospel” as there was not enough mention of sin and repentance, others that he had failed to define what he meant by love. One went as far as saying “it wasn’t Christianity at all – it was Christianity-lite.” I was appalled and ashamed by these criticisms.

So, I can’t help but ask again, what was really going on? Why such polarised responses? Was it really just because Bishop Michael is an advocate of same-sex marriage, making him an apostate in the eyes of some and theologically unsound to others? Well, there might have been a little bit of that, but I believe there was something far deeper going on – which was beautifully demonstrated in our Old Testament reading in Michal’s response to King David’s show of pure abandonment before the Ark of the Lord. Indeed I believe the Archbishop of Canterbury hit the nail on the head when he described Bishop Curry’s sermon as “raw God”. You see, “raw God” can make people feel quite uncomfortable. If there’s one thing that Bishop Michael was that day, it was that he was authentic. He didn’t pretend to be anything other than what he truly was and is. It was a perfect example of what was explained in our psalm – those who can stand in God’s presence are those who have “not pledged themselves to falsehood nor sworn by what is fraud”. He was just Michael. He spoke with joy about a God of Love, who he himself seemed to embody. It was real, it was raw, and it was passionate.

Passion.

Many can have quite a problem with displays of passion, especially in public. We Brits for instance would much rather keep a stiff upper lip, where we ensure that everyone plays by the rules – particularly at Royal events, where the establishment is out in force and protocol is the order of the day. It takes great courage to stand up in public and be passionate, to stand up against social conventions, to be true to ourselves despite the expectations of all those around us – and to just be our natural God-given selves. Passion versus protocol.

For me, that’s what lies at the heart of the Pride movement. A movement that has enabled millions to stand up and be themselves despite the expectations of those around them. It has helped break through the norms and protocols that have imprisoned so many, empowering people to choose a courageous path of being open about who they are rather than hiding away their true selves for fear of being despised. Whilst for many in “the West” Pride has become a march that seeks to joyfully celebrate inclusivity, often with the same exuberance that King David displayed, we should remember that there are still many countries where it is incredibly dangerous to march. Where participants are accompanied by armed police, where the level of hate and abuse is such that people fear for their very lives, and where to stand up against the norms that seek to force people to conform is to risk losing everything.

This was the case just a few weeks ago in Istanbul, where for the third year running the city governor banned people from holding a Pride march. Traditionally, Istanbul has been a relatively safe haven for the LGBTI community, with tens of thousands of people previously marching. Sadly, though, things have been getting progressively worse and yet despite this people still bravely gathered for a rally, at which the organisers made the following statement: “Like every year, we are here, on these streets. Our laughter, our exclamations, our slogans still echo in these streets…we miss the marches attended by thousands where we celebrate our visibility. We make fun of those who try to place boundaries on us by the pride of our existence and the strength of our pride.”

Why do people choose to do this? Why do they choose to stand against the odds?

We are assured in today’s psalm that “they shall receive a blessing from the Lord”, and I pray that that will be so, but I fear that few have yet to see it. They do what they do because they can do no else – because something within them compels them to stand up and not be silenced. Because their role is to be prophetic, to speak out with actions as well as words against tyranny and oppression. Here in the West, we owe so much to those who went ahead of us, people like Harvey Milk and Gene Robinson, along with my heroines Audre Lorde and Martina Navratilova. They did so and many continue to do so – often unknown and unacknowledged - no matter what the cost.

The truth, however, is that it can be highly costly to be a prophet, to be at the vanguard of speaking truth to a nation – or a Church - by standing up for what we believe is godly and right. Just look at what happened to John the Baptist – killed for speaking truth to a woman who held a grudge against him for daring to say what no one else would say.

I must admit that I have known a fair bit of the cost myself, particularly recently when challenging the Church over its attitude to homosexuality. Luckily, I still have my head!

As you may know, I am heavily involved in the debate on sexuality within the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion. Indeed, my Foundation, the Ozanne Foundation, exists to tackle prejudice and discrimination within religious organisations around the world based on sexuality and gender. As such, I am only too aware of how critically important it is to stand up and speak out for my fellow lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer siblings in countries where they have so little voice. This was brought into sharp focus in a report – In the Name of Love - published last year, which contained some shocking statistics with regards to the LGBTI community in Britain – a country that is thought to be leading the way in LGBTI acceptance: 42% of young LGBT people have sought medical help for anxiety or depression
52% of young LGBT people report self-harm either now or in the past
44% of young LGBT people have considered suicide
I understand the figures are unfortunately very similar here in the USA.

The report concluded that “the Church” and local churches are one of the biggest sources of direct discrimination against LGB people and the biggest contributor of negative views to debates about same-sex relationships in society and the media. Sadly, in many parts of the world, the Church has so much to repent of, particularly the harm it has inflicted and continues to inflict on so many vulnerable people.

That’s why I am so incredibly grateful to the Episcopal Church of the USA for taking its own prophetic stance on this critical issue – again at quite a cost - and its willingness to stand up to so many churches both at home and abroad who have refused to be in communion with it. Indeed, I was thrilled that I was able to give my heart felt thanks just a few days ago at the Episcopal General Convention in Austin to Presiding Bishop Michael Curry himself for taking the stand that he has on behalf of the global LGBTI community. He was so lovely. On seeing my tears, which embarrassingly seemed to appear from nowhere, he literally climbed across the table that separated us to give me a huge hug and a kiss. He looked me squarely in the eyes and said: “Encourage people to tell their stories, Jayne, for it’s that encounter that has the power to change people.”

I couldn’t have agreed more – incarnational truth, raw passionate truth, real truth about who we are, what we are, how we love and how we know that we are loved.

“Tell your stories – for it’s that encounter that has the power to change people.”

Be brave, be honest, be real.

You see (and this is the crux of it all) when people see raw faith embodied in raw love - they encounter raw God and it’s irresistible – as the world saw with Bishop Michael.

In my recently published memoir, Just Love, I tell my own story about my 40-year journey of reconciling my faith with my sexuality. I, like many others, have spent years struggling to accept who God has created me to be, believing that I was an abomination in need of healing rather than a wonderfully unique human being made in the image of God, with a God-given desire to love and be loved. Central to my journey was my acceptance of a God of Love over a God of Law, a God that wanted to “save my life rather than kill it” – although it took me being hospitalised twice to understand this.

I start the book with a story that explains the turning point of this – and indeed the reason why I felt compelled to call the book “Just Love”. It centres on an incident that happened at one of the darkest points of my life, just after my first breakdown. It’s an important part of my story, and if you don’t mind, I’d like to share it with you now: I’ve just woken, and I’m lamenting the fact that I’m still alive, having begged God to take me the previous night because I couldn’t take the pain and stress any more:

“I feel like an animal!”

I felt a surge of anger course through me and shouted out aloud into the empty room. “What makes me any different to an animal, heh God?”

Tears of sheer frustration rolled down onto my pillow as I encountered deafening silence.

And then, a voice – so recognisable and so familiar, so quiet and yet so reassuring, which said:
“Your ability to love, Jayne.” I thought about this briefly then, emboldened by my anger and the painful memory this had touched, I snapped back: “No, I’m not having that. Harry (my kitten) loved me! Animals can love you know!”

“Ah Jayne, but you can respond in love to any situation I put you in, because I AM love, and I AM in you, and you are in Me!” Was it an audible voice? I still don’t know. It was as loud and clear as someone standing right next to me. But whether real or imagined, this articulated truth turned my life upside down.

“I AM love.”

I finally understood. It was so simple but so profound.

I could respond in love to any situation that I was in, because God IS love. It really is just that simple.

We are called to JUST LOVE – no matter who, no matter where, no matter how, no matter why.

JUST LOVE! That’s all.

The rest is up to God.

Jayne Ozanne
San Diego Pride Sunday 

The Pride Homily: The Light Shines

Happy pride!

Pride is a time when people come out. Come out of hiding. Come out of dark places and into the light. When people celebrate things that for many years were visible only in secret places.

This reading today is part of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount. He is talking to a people, the people of Israel, who have been beaten down. They have been taken over and occupied by Rome, and others before Rome, all the way back to the time of the Babylonian conquest. Time after time they had thought they would be able to come forth, and live in their identity as God’s people, and time and again they retreated to their ghettos, beaten back again by the powers of empire, gone into dark places; able only to celebrate who they were in secret.

Jesus makes an argument. He argues on the one hand against the zealots, who wanted to fight back against the empire with violence. He says that’s not how the kingdom of God works. That’s not the way to win.

He makes his argument against the Pharisees, too: that the kingdom of God-- which lives under the law of neighborhood instead of empire’s domination-- that God’s law of love isn’t in some far off place but the kingdom of God’s love starts right here, right now. Jesus fulfills the law and he tells his audience that love is already at hand, seeping from those ghettos and those hidden places and those refuges where the people of God had been hidden for so long. Love will shine and spill over into the rest of the world.

My friends, the kingdom of God’s love is at hand today as well, and it is fearless! God is here, and love abounds.

Just as it was true so long ago, the kingdom of God’s love originates in the hidden places and comes to fruition when the light comes out from the bushel and shines brightly.

The first LGBT march in San Diego was in 1974. Some of those folks marched with paper bags on their heads because they could not let their light shine. We have come a long way. Just look at the radiant light all around us today! It is hard to even call this a gay ghetto, but here we are.

And talk about salt! Salt is what gives food its flavor. It makes food more interesting. If you look around us today, I’d say we’ve got a lot of salt, a lot of flavor, here at the pride today, and I’d bet we will see a lot more flavor as the day goes on. The LGBTQ community is some of the salt that makes humanity interesting.

Sadly, somebody put up a sign near the cathedral the other day that questioned whether our community needed to have a bushel put on it, whether we as an LGBTQ people were embraced fully by the love of God.

But let me tell you something, the LGBTQ community doesn’t need somebody’s sign to tell us whether to let our light shine. Just as in those ghettos of old, God has always been here. We march today as the church not because the LGBTQ community needs the church. We march today because the church needs the LGBTQ community! The church needs the salt of LGBTQ people and all kinds of people to mirror God’s own creativity as we shine our light in the world. Because make no mistake, being gay is a gift from God, a treasure, a light to let shine. And the church needs straight allies to witness to power of love across difference, to vulnerability, and to openness in difference and for their own fearless love in shining their light on us in this long struggle for equality. We all of us together make up the many flavors of this human family.

So keep your eyes open for the light that, on this day, on this pride day, is revealed-- God’s kingdom that is already at work in the world: the bonds of community that love each other; the fellowship that is created when different kinds of people come together; the kingdom that is already happening right here right now.

And church, let’s taste that salt of the earth and let it make us thirsty: thirsty for the love of God that is already at work in the world, and let us use it to allow our own light to shine more brightly in a world that needs it desperately!

The Rev Jeff Martinhauk
15 July 2017

More pride photos here

Save the Date: Light up the Cathedral /Interfaith PRIDE Celebration!

Save the date:  July 12, 7pm

Metropolitan Community Church Founder, the Reverend Troy Perry to keynote this year's Light Up The Cathedral- An Interfaith PRIDE Celebration!

St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral and San Diego Pride will celebrate the history of Pride in San Diego on July 12th at the "Light Up The Cathedral Interfaith PRIDE Celebration! In a show of solidarity and to highlight the history of the connection between the LGBT Community and the role played by affirming faith based organizations in the 1974 LGBT protest, Metropolitan Community Church, Dignity and The Imperial Court de San Diego will be honored. To highlight the faith connection the Rev. Troy Perry, Founder of Metropolitan Community Church and internationally acclaimed Human rights activist will be our keynote speaker!

Rev Troy Perry, Founder of
Metropolitan Community Churches and Gay Rights Activist

In 1974, when homosexuality was still a criminal offense, three local LGBT activists, Nicole Murray Ramirez a drag queen, Tom Homann, a civil rights attorney and Jess Jessop, a Vietnam war vet and peace activist who would later found The LGBT Center, went to the local police department seeking a permit to hold an LGBT Pride March in the streets of downtown San Diego to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots and make a public demonstration for civil rights and equality for LGBT people. The sergeant at the desk refused their request and told them " there will never be a homosexual event in San Diego." That sergeant's comments were the spark that lit the fire of an organized March on the sidewalks of downtown San Diego to City Hall and set the stage for what would become San Diego Pride.


There were only 3 organizations holding public meetings at the time because of the law. As a result of the connection and partnership that developed between these three activists, the San Diego community found safe affirming meeting spaces to organize more than 200 people to a Sidewalk March through downtown In protest to demonstrate and acknowledge the existence and civil rights of the San Diego LGBT Community at City Hall, many with paper bags over their heads to hide their identity for fear of arrest. The following year 1975 a permit for a parade was issued and today San Diego Pride is the largest one day event in our City!

Please join us and The Gay Men's Chorus, numerous faith leaders, dignitaries and community personalities as we recognize Rev Troy Perry of MCC, Fr. Don Greene of Dignity and Nicole Murray Ramirez of the Imperial Court de San Diego and present them with the Light of Pride honor and Light up the Cathedral for Pride!

The Sunday Sermon: The Challenge of God's Grace

St Paul's welcomed the Rev Michael Kinnamon for both the forum and the sermon on Pride Sunday.


Grace and peace to you in the name of our savior, Jesus Christ! I give thanks for the ministry God has done through the St. Paul’s community, including your ministry to the homeless, your support of Dorcas House, your concern for the environment, and your active, outspoken welcome of persons who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, or queer. The original St. Paul instructed the Romans to “welcome one another, just as Christ has welcomed you, to the glory of God.” I understand that you take this to heart by making sure there are no “visitors” at St. Paul’s. Thank you for making me, and others, feel at home.

Of course, I think you’ll agree that if through this cathedral people are welcomed, the needy are served, and justice is done, it is not our accomplishments we celebrate, but God’s gifts for which we give thanks. In this sense, the Pride parade yesterday, seen through Christian eyes, was not simply a celebration of gay rights and dignity, but a testimony to the welcoming, liberating grace of God.

It was with this in mind that I decided, when your wonderful Dean first invited me, to preach about grace. But then came Orlando, a horrifying assault on the LGBTQ community, followed by Dhaka and Istanbul and Baghdad and Baton Rouge and Minneapolis and Dallas and Nice and the brutal murders of homeless men here in San Diego. And so I need to preface my sermon by reminding us that grace is so precious because the world remains so broken. One thing I love about the Episcopal Church is your insistence on taking seriously the whole Christian tradition. That tradition, on the one hand, is realistic: It knows about the depth of sin and the toll it can take on the human family, on God’s creation. We should never “get used” to the violence and exclusion of this world, but neither should we be caught off guard by it. The world is, by no means, as God would have it. The Christian tradition is realistic about this. The church has a heavy agenda as participants in God’s mission.

On the other hand, Christians are also insistently hopeful, trusting that the Holy Spirit is at work around us. If you didn’t see the presence of the Spirit when Ireland voted to approve same sex marriage, or the Boy Scouts changed their membership standard to exclude exclusion on the basis of sexual orientation, or the Roberts’ court ruled that same sex couples have a Constitutional right to marry in all fifty states, then you may not have been paying enough attention! Realistic and hopeful. Actively lamenting the tragedy of human sin; actively celebrating the presence of God’s grace. End of preface.

***

I don’t think I’ve ever started a sermon with an axiom before, but here goes: If you want to be sure of being wrong, try to determine the boundaries of God’s grace. We learn in scripture that Israel’s identity was rooted in a special relationship with God, the One who had delivered them from bondage. But listen also to this word from the Lord as delivered by the prophet Amos: “Yes, I brought Israel up from the land of Egypt. But didn’t I also bring the Philistines from Caphtor and the Arameans from Kir? Are you not like the Ethiopians to me?” What a shocking thought that must have been! Almost as shocking as the Book of Ruth in which the instrument of God’s saving work is a Moabite woman, or the Book of Jonah in which the prophet learns to his horror that God cares for the people of Ninevah with the same generous compassion that God has shown toward Israel. How, he frets, can God be so indiscriminate?!

Please say it with me: If you want to be sure of being wrong, try to determine the boundaries of God’s grace. One of the seminal memories in the development of early Christianity is that recorded in the passage we heard from Acts 10. Peter, you recall, has a dream that challenges his inherited notions of what is clean and what is unclean; and it opens him to associate with, of all things, a Gentile. “I now understand,” says Peter, “that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to the Lord.” Finally, he goes to the great council in Jerusalem where he tells them, “Yes, I know what parts of scripture say about Gentiles. But, you see, there is this man Cornelius–and the Spirit is in him.” We know what parts of the Anglican Communion have said about sexual orientation. But, you see, there is this bishop named Robinson– and the Spirit is in him.

Communities throughout history have set up boundaries to determine who is in and who is out, who is worthy and who is not. But, as Peter learns, God’s grace doesn’t operate according to rules of our devising. And, thus, our identity, as those who live in thankful recognition of such grace, should be marked by an expanding sense of wholeness, not fearful, defensive contraction.

This brings us to our other reading for this morning, what may be the most astonishing text in the entire New Testament. The key figure, as recorded in Mark 7, is a Gentile woman of Syrophoenician origin–the ultimate outsider, little more than a dog in the eyes of many of the contemporaries of Jesus. And, in fact, when she pleads with him to heal her daughter, Jesus responds with an anti-Gentile cliché: “Let the children [that is, the descendants of Abraham] be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food [the good news of God’s grace] and throw it to the dogs”!

In order to understand this disturbing passage, we need to acknowledge how the basic sickness of human society has much to do with “zero-sum thinking,” what some call the  “economy of scarcity.” Racism, sexism, class prejudice, homophobia–all those attitudes which force some people to live as underdogs in our midst–get their impetus from this idea that there is not enough wealth or respect or power or grace to go around. In order for me and my group to be up, someone else has got to be down.

But, says Jesus throughout the New Testament, it is not this way in the household of God. In the household of God, there is more than enough forgiveness and joy for everyone. In the household of God, where there are no “visitors,” no one need go hungry because even the crumbs of God’s banquet are satisfying.

The irony, of course, is that this outsider must remind Jesus of his own message. Okay, the nourishing food of the gospel may have been served to others first, but (notice the imagery) it spills over the table, and there is more than enough for everyone. For far too long, Christians have used the gospel to declare that God loves especially us and our kind. But the logic of the gospel is that God has been gracious, not only to us, but even to us–though we may have gone to work in the vineyard (you remember the parable) late in the afternoon.

If you want to be sure of being wrong, try to determine the boundaries of God’s grace. You know as well as I that the Bible is frequently used to validate our various prejudices, to pronounce with certainly that God’s favor is here and not there. But it is a monstrous misuse! Taken as a whole, scripture repeatedly exposes the narrowness of our affections and the pettiness of our exclusions, including those sometimes found within scripture itself.

Let’s come at this another way, with specific reference to our focus on this Pride Sunday. Recent years, as we noted earlier, have seen a tremendous change in public attitude toward persons whose sexual orientation or gender identity is not that of the majority. For which we say, “Thanks be to God!” That’s the hopeful side; now the realistic. Far from being in the vanguard of such social change, such social liberation, much of the church in this country continues to regard the newly-public support for gay rights as a sign of moral relativism that must be opposed in the name of biblical truth. Gracious welcome is treated as a sign of weakness, as if those with firm convictions about the gospel will always want to draw firm boundaries to exclude persons who are different.

Thus, friends, it is crucial for us to say “No!”. If you want to set boundaries on God’s favor, if you want to treat people as categories instead of looking for the Spirit at work in them, then you are sure to be wrong! You have missed the good news.

I was privileged to preach at Riverside Church in New York City on the 25th anniversary of Stonewall. It was a joyous service! And at its conclusion, a thousand persons in the congregation, maybe more, left to join the parade through mid-town Manhattan. But the previous evening, I had gone with a group from Riverside to Yankee Stadium for the closing of the Gay Games (a kind of parallel to the Olympics), where throughout the festivities the church was, understandably, the butt of jokes, not a source of inspiration. It was incredibly painful.

Allow me one other memory. Twenty-five years ago, I was the search committee’s nominee to be the General Minister and President (to translate that into Episcopalese, the Presiding Bishop) of my denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)–a nomination that was defeated at our General Assembly (the only time that has happened) because I was a member of GLAD: Gay Lesbian and Affirming Disciples. During the period between the nomination and the assembly, I had a number of interesting encounters–including an invitation to speak at a forum hosted by our church’s right-wing group, where I was received as warmly as President Obama would be at a convention of the NRA.

I have to tell you, however, that we immediately found common ground, because the moderator began by declaring that “Homosexuality is the defining issue of our age.” And I told him: “For once, I think you’re right!” This struggle is an opportunity to proclaim again, in our generation, the superabundance of grace. Paul faced the challenge of exclusivity, the push to put limits on grace, over the issue of circumcision. Peter faced it over questions of what is clean and unclean. Our 19th century ancestors faced it over slavery. During the past century, our churches have wrestled with it over questions of racial justice and the role and status of women–struggles, I add, that are clearly not finished. And now it is our turn to keep faithful witness to the One who has made us as we are, who values us all equally, and who loves without limitation.

Those of us who marched yesterday under the glorious banner of St. Paul’s Cathedral were not there as single-issue people, but as gospel people. It is not simply the rights of an often-excluded and demeaned community that we proclaim, but the wondrous news of the unboundaried grace of God–to whom be the glory forever and ever!


The Rev. Michael Kinnamon, Ph.D.
St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral San Diego

July 17, 2016

Blessing the AIDS quilt

On Saturday, Dean Penny went to South Bay Pride and blessed the AIDS quilt

Loving God, you created us to be in relationship and to care for one another. As we view this quilt today, we ask you to open our hearts to the loving relationships that are recorded and reflected in the craftsmanship and beauty of this work. We bring before you this morning all who have been affected by the plague of HIV/AIDS: those who have died, those who live with it, those who live in fear of it, and those whose families and communities have been stretched and torn because of our inability to recognize the humanity and dignity of every person. We ask your forgiveness for the ways in which we have oppressed and stigmatized those with HIV/AIDS. We ask your forgiveness for the smallness and hardness of our hearts. We pray for the healing of memories, relationships, and individuals. We pray for medical breakthroughs that will bring an end to this scourge and for a cure for AIDS. We pray for the grace to celebrate the beauty and worth of every human being. May the beauty of this quilt lift our spirits to contemplate the beauty of all your creation. These things we ask in your holy name.

Photos by Susan Jester

Remarks from Nicole Murray-Ramirez on lighting the Cathedral

Good Evening …it is my deep honor to have been asked to speak tonight ... These are indeed historic times for our great nation and all Americans ….

The confederate flag is coming town in many southern states and the white house for the first time was lit up with the colors, of the LGBT community’s Rainbow flag….. And tonight one of our city’s oldest and historic cathedrals …ST. Paul’s is also going to display the Rainbow colors … As an old queen from the 1960’s and 70’s I continue to have to pinch myself to make sure I am not dreaming ….

In 1974 when Vietnam veteran Jess Jessop, ACLU attorney Tom *Homann and I organized our city’s first pride march … … the police refused to issue us a permit but we marched anyway … homosexuals were classified as : perverts *deviants with a mental disorder … just with a stroke of a pen your parents or a judge could send you to a mental hospital were many homosexuals were given electrical shock treatment … It wasn’t till 1976 that homosexuality was made legal un the state of California..

On this day and historic events like this that I especially think of my pride Co-horst Jess and Tom who we lost both to AIDS …
I think of Gloria Johnson, Al Best, Brad Truax and many others who are no *longer with us … whose shoulders we stand on … As I’ve said so many times before… A Community that doesn’t know where it came from.. Does not know where it’s going……

Every study and every survey has shown that a vast majority of LGBT Americans Are very spiritual ….be they Christian, Jewish or Buddhist …
And every study shows how for decades we have been condemned by the religion of our parents … our childhood..
Yet a vast majority of us have held on to our faith.. Our God… I believe if Jesus Christ came down to earth today.. He would weep for what so many are doing in his name…
But I believe in my heart and soul that Jesus is smiling down this evening on St Paul’s Cathedral..
Very Rev. Bridges your church’s denomination has in the last decade been in the forefront of change and acceptance that we are ALL indeed Gods Children
While many churches turned us away at the beginning of the AIDS crisis.. This Cathedral and its Parishioners DID NOT …

I will never ever forget that when my Catholic Church and its Bishop refused to say a Funeral Mass for one of our young community leaders.. John McCusker
You Welcomed without hesitation John's Funeral, the McCusker family and our community here We will Never forget ever forget..

My traditional Catholic Latino Family almost all of them turned their back on me when they found I was Gay.. Even my beloved Grandparents… Though I have hope in Pope Francis..
I’m not sure I will be granted a Catholic Funeral.. So I hope to have my Memorial here in this Beautiful loving Cathedral But for those of you in the audience getting excited over the thought of my demise …This old queen still has some years left in her…I hope in closing ..

When I think of St Paul’s Cathedral, its Bishop, it’s deacon, clergy and parishioners..
I think of Mathew 25 verse 35, 36

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat …
I was thirsty and you gave me to drink..
I was a stranger and you invited me in..
I needed cloths and you clothed me..
I was Sick and you looked after me..
  I was in prison and you came to visit me..

St Paul’s Cathedral you truly walk in His shoes…
Thank you so very much for your true Christian values
God Bless you ALL

Remarks by Keynote Speaker: City Commissioner Nicole Murray Ramirez 

Pride 2015

We got record breaking rainfall during the Pride celebration, answering the prayers of California firefighters.  What's a little downpour for a good cause?

See all the photos (available for download) here:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/stpaulscathedral/sets/72157656027891636

 

Lighting up the Cathedral!

We lit up the Cathedral last night to kick off Pride week!  The story was picked up by CBS-8 news. 

Dean Penny received many commendations, including from Councilmember Todd Gloria.  The Imperial Court and others were also very generous, with substantial donations to Showers of Blessings (our homeless outreach project).

More photos are here. 

Happy Pride!

On Saturday, St Paul's marched in the Pride Parade, accompanied by several other parishes and Bishop Mathes.  A great witness!

More photos (and higher resolution versions of these) can be found on Flickr

SPC at Pride

St Paul's and friends fielded over 120 people at the San Diego Pride Parade.  Our guest for Pride and Sunday services was suffragen Bishop Mary Glasspool of the Dio. LA .  We had a great turnout and can honestly say "SPC rocks!"

Thank you Bishop Glasspool for joining us for the parade, both services on Sunday and the forum.  We look forward to seeing you again!

Walk with us on Saturday

Join clergy, parishioners, friends, family and allies as we march in the Cathedral contingent at the Annual Pride Parade! Help show the more than 150,000 onlookers that we mean it when we say, "Whomever you are, wherever you find yourself on the journey of faith, you are welcome here!"

We regularly field one of the largest contingents in the parade so come and join in on the fun. This is an event in which the entire Cathedral family is invited to join in -- bring the kids, bring your neighbors!

 Meet at the Cathedral between 9am and 10am and walk over to the starting point of the parade - near University Ave. and Normal St. The parade begins at 11am and finishes in Balboa Park. Following the parade, join us at St. Paul's for a BBQ and refreshments!

 To sign up and/or order your official St. Paul's T-Shirt, stop by the table at coffee hour or email Chris

Harris at harrisc@stpaulcathedral.org


 

Come meet SF Pride Grand Marshall, Bp Chrisopher Senyonjo!

Bishop Christopher Senyonjo is stopping by in San Diego to greet his friends en route with Canon Albert Ogle to the San Francisco Pride celebrations, where Bishop Christopher will be Grand Marshall. Their winning theme “Global Equality” was adopted by the San Francisco Pride Board following a community wide selection from 30 suggested themes.

Parishioners David Reicks and David Kochs are hosting a brunch for the bishop on Saturday 16th June from 10.30-2pm at their Kensington home. They hope members of the congregation and friends of the bishop’s will drop by to congratulate him on this great honor.  Reservations can be made here.  Join us!