Wisdom worth repeating.

FranIAm posted this unforgettable quote, but some things are too important to leave hidden among the comments. Now how can we go about shouting this from the rooftops?

"Isn’t the problem with sexism, not what it says about women but what it says about God? Doesn’t sexism really imply that God is all powerful except when it comes to women, at which point the God who could draw water from a rock and raise the dead to life is totally powerless to work as fully through a woman as through a man?"
-Joan Chittister, OSB

This blog needs an anthem.

Lots of the real blogs have anthems, so (just like Israel wanting a king) I've been hunting around for something the Duck Noodle Gang can rally around here.

This is one of the leading contenders at the moment. Aside from it being a great song, I especially like the way Natalie Merchant disproves in just a few minutes the years of "teaching" we've endured that purports women can't bring a message of inspiration and leadership.



And how great is that woman's drum line??!!

Archbishop Jensen & Scripture

“If you get the big picture straight, you won’t be led astray as easily by the details of Scripture.”

Stop laughing.
I swear I have not made this caption up.
Click the link and read the article for yourself.
And then try to stop crying.
Please.

We live in interesting times.

Frequent visitor and honorary Duck Noodle Gangster Lapinbizarre left the following comment on a previous post:

"Did you notice the comment posted by 'Ren' (Renato Aguila) on Mark Harris's "Goodbye Network?" thread?

'The local Anglican seminary in Manila will, according to a reliable source, have a new dean who is close to Sydney in both theological and liturgical terms, is opposed to ecumenical dialogue especially with Roman Catholics, and is generally the kind who doesn't use incense in the Mass (and may not even want to call it that!).'

If true, suspect the gentleman will object to more than incense and the word "mass", but wondered if you have any background on what is going on in the Phillipines - it's less than a month since Mark Harris was over there getting an honorary doctorate, after all."

This is interesting, since I hadn’t heard of any Matthian moves into the Philippines, but as a tactic it sounds very familiar. It’s entirely in keeping with current “Strategic Ministry” policies, which are a curious evangelistic interpretation of Thatcher/Reagan’s “trickle down” economic theories. “Target tomorrow’s leaders” the dogma goes, “and tomorrow you’ll have the masses who’ll have followed them.” Except, of course, that after more than a decade this rhetorical tomorrow still hasn’t come. Sure it’s delivered factional control of Synod, but by God’s grace the hearts and minds of Sydney still appear happier embracing the GLBT Mardi Gras parade than they do neo-Gnosticism, and we’re still a long way from becoming a puritan theocracy.

In either case Ren is quite right; the Eucharist certainly isn’t called “Mass” around here. “Holy Communion” (although recently the ”Holy” part has started being dropped from church signage) or “the Lord’s Supper” seem to be the currently approved nomenclature. And genuflection at any point of the service is a sure sign of someone who’s never heard “the gospel”; how all this will sit with the rest of the Philippine church is anyone’s guess.

If Manila’s new Dean is indeed connected with Sydney then the silence is not so surprising. Just as local congregations are being kept in the dark about their new best friends’ Anglo-Catholic predilections, the Matthian vision of expansion and its accompanying triumphalism are being downplayed in dialogues with those beyond our evangelical borders. The Sydney satellite Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches’ web site reveals no forays into conservative (read “antediluvian”) Catholic dioceses such as Ballarat, which might upset the tenuous treaty formed to block the appointment of women bishops. The spearheads these congregations unquestionably represent are pointed firmly at those places which elsewhere in the world would be described as “broad church” and “moderate”. For now the “smells & bells brigade” (as they’re often referred to around here) seem off-limits, and making too much noise about a move into the Philippines might alarm Sydney’s strange bedfellows.

"Come, Bishop Jensen. Let us stand and speak of the splendour of our vestments. What will your brother be wearing when he arrives to join me in the Mass?"

Another Sydney Blogger!

Someone else is speaking out in Sydney, and this time (shock, horror, gasp) they're a woman!

Not only that, but anyone who can say:

"Jesus never said blessed are those who are biblical scholars but he did say "blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness" and that the law and the prophets can be summed up in Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind and others as yourself."

... in what's only their second post(!) is off to a pretty good start.

Please take a moment to drop by Aussie Life and say hello to Melinda Menzies - women in Sydney like her need all the support they can get.

The McDonald's difference.

Recently Sydney Anglican media has been looking at McDonald's, and discussing what the faithful of this fair city can learn from the way the Golden Arches structure and market their business.

It's sad that no mention is made of McDonald's refusal to discriminate against employees or customers on the grounds of gender, sexuality or marital status. I wonder how many burgers they'd sell if GLBT customers were routinely excluded? Or if divorced people were prohibited from purchasing fries and drinks, and women forbidden to rise above the position of assistant shift manager?

Aside from the fact that this sort of discrimination is illegal under Australian law, and the resultant fine substantial, my guess is Mcdonald's would be laughed into insolvency within weeks.

When Ronald McDonald has a greater commitment to justice and equality than the Sydney Anglican diocesean leadership is it any wonder they're no longer taken seriously?

Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed.

To be perfectly honest, the past few days have been pretty exhausting. Partly that’s because the week began with a mis-launch while kite-boarding that left me getting dragged 50 metres in a move technically known as “doing a snow-plough”. I wasn’t hurt (memo to anyone interested in the sport: always wear an impact vest), but I still can’t clear my throat without getting sand in my mouth, and my back and shoulders feel like I’ve been a volunteer for students of the Charismatic Christians Amateur Chiropractors Association (Motto: “Crackin’ Bones Anyways the Spirit Lets Us”).

Which combined with the fact that my company is in the process of launching a new project that's more work than I could have dreamed possible, and the sleep-deprivation which all new parents whine about, hasn’t made for the easiest Holy week.

In all honesty too, the current lunatic rhetoric flying around the denomination I love has also been taking quite a toll: the sheer vitriol spouting from the orifices of people who should surely know better (how can anyone possibly spend that much time reading the bible and still miss the point so totally?) can grow wearying.

Good Friday had the bright point of my being asked to preach somewhere which must remain nameless: I explained to the Rector the risks he was running by asking me but he was adamant – which has touched me greatly. I’ve only preached on one other occasion since my breakdown and divorce, and the fall-out from that was substantial: naturally none of the complainants were in the slightest bit interested in what I’d actually said.

Still, even though more of than a few of the congregation recognised me from days long past, and were wonderfully supportive afterwards (never underestimate how many people here in Sydney don’t support the Matthian's gospel of exclusion), by the end of the day things were still feeling a struggle.

Saturday wasn't any better. “God” I was thinking by the afternoon, “if it’s all so important to You, fix things Yourself. Find someone else to bang their head on this wall – I’m tired of caring about everything.”

Mrs. Caliban (who’s tremendously insightful when it comes to such matters) surprised me with a bottle of cheap red and a bag of potato chips, which did wonders to improve things. Until there was a knock on our front door: it was the young couple from two doors up. They’d baked choc-chip cookies and were distributing them through the street as Easter presents.

They’re lovely people, who never complain when our dogs bark at their cats, and are always ready to stop and chat. They're certainly not what Sydney Evangelicals would describe as "Christian", nor do they attend any church, but they're always warm and welcoming, and a joy to meet. And they realise that Easter is a time of celebration in a way few church people I've ever met can comprehend, and were determined to share this joy with their community.

Not only were the cookies absolutely delicious (as is evidenced by there only being one left by the time I thought of taking a picture), but they whole incident completely lifted my spirit.


Their act of genuine friendship reminded me that Christianity really is something to celebrate: that humanity has been intrinsically changed by the incarnation of a God who died and was then resurrected, irrespective of how we may choose to understand that event. Just because the many of our society's religious elite choose to subvert that message into a means of alienating and rejecting others doesn’t mean the God who sings can be silenced. While the Pharisees are busy closing one gate God has already danced through another. And thus will it ever be.

So with the warm taste of chocolate in my mouth I resolved to keep blogging, and speaking out, and annoying the crap out of those who’d see the Gospel of Christ subverted into something which denies God’s power to forgive. To carry on just the same as most of you do: the strength and wisdom of so many of you who comment here never ceases to leave me humbled.

No matter how dreary the struggle may at times appear, the Spirit still moves across the land and waters: touching whoever has ears to hear, blessing just as the lesbian couple two doors up in turn blessed us, and empowering others just as these two “unchurched” women brought my family the most powerful (and sweetest) Easter sermon we’ve ever experienced.

Christ is Risen.