Convergent Streams Volume 1 Number 4

Volume 1 Number 4

Fourth Quarter 2013

In this Issue From the Editor.................................................... page 4 A Dominican’s Dithyramb...................................... page 6 What to do when you have lost faith in God........... page 11 Re-thinking Church............................................. page 13 Katholic Kitchens................................................ page 20 Preaching Cross Culturally................................... page 25 Building Parishes................................................ page 29 The Necessity for Academic Formation.................. page 33 Sacred Space.................................................... page 35 Remembering the 1963 March on Washington........ page 38 Lessons in Courage: Women in the Bible............... page 41 Sister Augustine, an Old Catholic.......................... page 43 Opportunities and Barriers To Catholic Unity.......... page 44 All Things Have Small Beginnings......................... page 60 Fourth Quarter Saints Wordsearch........................ page 72 Saints Calendar................................................. page 73

Convergent Streams Vol. 1 No. 4 This publication is an outreach ministry serving the entire Independent Sacramental Movement, operated by the Independent Old Catholic Churches’ publishing office, the Office of Communications and Media Relations. Copyright 2013 All rights reserved.

Executive Editor: The Right Rev. Gregory Godsey

Mrs. Brenda Eckels Burrows Guest Writers: The Right Rev. Nate Prentice Rev. Fr. Tom Shortell The Very Rev. James St. George Rev. Fr. Ronald Stephens Rev. Mrs. Dollie Wilkinson The Right Rev. James Alan Wilkowski Rev. Fr. Brian Wolf

Managing Editor: The Very Rev. David S. Jennings Editor-at-Large: The Right Rev. A. Edmund N. Cass Contributing Editors: The Very Rev. Prior Michael Beckett

From the Editor The Right Rev. Gregory W. Godsey editor@convergentstreams.org

W

e find ourselves inching closer and closer to that most wonderful of solemnities, Christmas. While it is a time of great celebration, time with family and, of course, presents, it can also be an exhausting time of the year for Clergy.

You see, the planning of Advent services, decorating the church, Living Christmas scenes and the preparation and ultimate execution of the Christmas Midnight Mass and the subsequent Christmas Day Masses, makes this an

exhausting time of year for clergy. It is also the time of year when we as clergy have the opportunity to see people who have not darkened the door of a church since last Christmas. It is a time when we can make a good impression on new parishioners who may have dropped by for the first time.

And this fact is not forgotten

in this edition of Convergent Streams. We have the great pleasure of including articles by many accomplished clergy in the ISM about how to build parishes. We also have articles about what to do when you suffer from a crisis of faith

and how to reach out to those who may not speak the same language or have the same national history that we do.

These are important topics as we move into this Christmas Holiday and into the new Liturgical year.

We are also blessed with the final article in the series on Opportunities and Barriers To Catholic Unity as well as a wellwritten report on the ISM Family Reunion. We hope to have more series coming in the near future as well as more Old Catholic Founders and reports on the daily ministries of Jurisdictions within our movement.

With this edition, we decided to try something a little different. We have changed the format of the magazine with this edition in order to make it more user friendly. We hope that you like the new format.

As always, if you have something you would like to write about, we would be interested in running it. We would also like more stories about what other churches are doing to help the people of God. As a bit of a side note, I want to take a brief moment to reflect on our first full year as Convergent Streams. This publication started out as a newsletter for our jurisdiction.

However, as people began to read it, they asked if they could contribute articles to it. This was the start of Convergent

Streams. It has changed some over the last year. We have had writers come and go and we have seen some nasty comments posted about this publication. Despite it all, it has continued to run and grow.

This is the ISM’s magazine.

I can take little credit for it.

Those who take the time to write for our publication, the dedicated editors (Monsignor David Jennings and Monsignor Michael Beckett) who work tirelessly to make our articles sound even better, are the real hero’s of this publication.

And I cannot forget our most loyal advertiser. Yes, we have only one, but they are faithful.

United Spirit Broadcasting Network has committed to a full year of ads in 2014. For that we are thankful.

It has been an amazing ride thus far and I am hoping it will be even more amazing in 2014.

It is my prayer that we see more advertisers (churches and jurisdictions who want to see an ad in the magazine), more writers with regular submissions and more series for the next year.

I will wind this up, but remember, my door is always open and should you ever need to chat, I will be there.

And don’t forget to check us out on the web at http://www. convergentstreams.org. +Gregory

A Dominican’s Dithyramb The Very Rev. Prior Michael Beckett msgrbeckett@myiocc.org

I

n the words of Father Lew, OP, “The Dominican habit is a beautiful thing--black and white to symbolize both purity of life with Christ (white), and penance and mortification (black).” Penance and purity of life are not contradictory, but necessary faith connections.

As the Dominican habit forms a beautiful whole, clothing the friar, brother, or nun in a distinctive garment that expresses devotion to our Lord, so too are purity and penance combined in a life lived in devotion for Christ.

Firstly, the word ‘habit’ comes from the Latin habitus, which, among other things, simply means clothing. However, the religious habit is not just clothing but also has a symbolic value. The habit is worn “as a sign of our consecration”. It is both a reminder to the brother or sister of the consecrated life to which he or she has vowed, and also a sign to others of the commitment to Christ and the vows that have been taken. The Dominican historian, William Hinnebusch says, “its cloth, colour, and cut expressed the poverty, chastity and obedience the religious had promised”.

not mention of what material the habit is to be made. At one time it was stipulated to be of wool; however this is no longer true. People often wonder why there are cream and white habits. This comes down to sheer practicalities: the availability of material, and the tailor. For example, my habit is off white, at the suggestion of my tailor, who makes many Dominican and other habits. It was he who decided from what fabrics my

All Dominican brothers wear the same habit. However, The current rules and traditions do

habit should be made; simply because he knows better than I about what it is that I need. The habits of brothers in the tropics tend to be of lightweight white cotton. In England, the habit is a mixture of wool, cotton, and polyester.

In the United States, habits are made from many different fabrics, depending on the climate in which the friars and sisters live, and their personal preferences. The result is an interesting mixture of habits from different places and tailors. This lack of uniformity is not new. Hinnebusch notes that in the Middle Ages “shades and colours varied from province to province, even from house to house�. There is then notable freedom in the use of the habit.

Some people wonder about whether or not the hood is used (capuce) to cover our heads, and if so, when. As a general rule, there are no customs or rubrics about their use, so that they are raised if an individual brother so desires, at times for purely practical reasons: to keep the head warm in the winter, to minimize distractions during private prayer, or to keep the head dry when it is raining.

Different priories may have different customs and rules when it comes to the use of the hood, which are determined by their General Chapters or the Prior/Prioress of their priory.

The habit of our Order comprises a white tunic, scapular and capuce, together with a black cappa and capuce,

a leather belt and, depending on the preference of the wearer, a rosary. However, and again, we do not go into great detail regarding the textile to be used, nor details like how the cappa is fastened, nor the type and color of one’s shoes, nor the color of the Rosary or even how many decades it should have. These five required items are the white tunic, the white scapular, the white capuce, the black cappa, and the black capuce.

The tunic is a long anklelength garment, with long sleeves that can be simply folded up, or have buttons to hold those folds in place. The scapular is a long piece of cloth with a hole cut in the middle for the head; the cloth then hangs over the shoulders and covers the front and back of the tunic.

The capuce is a hood attached to a circular piece of cloth that falls over the shoulders and often comes down to a point in the small of the back. The hood may be rounded, however, according to personal choice.

The black cappa, from which we get the name Black Friars, is just a large cape that covers most of the white habit. It was at one time, worn for warmth and when travelling. This too had a hood that became detached, resulting in a black capuce.

As in all aspects of a Dominican life of prayer, we remind ourselves of our vows when we dress in the habit.

(Continued on page )

(Continued from page ) A Dominican first puts on the tunic while praying: Clothe me, O Lord, with the garments of salvation. By your grace may I keep them pure and spotless, so that clothed in white, I may be worthy to walk with you in the kingdom of God. Amen. (Isa 61:10) The next element of the habit is the cincture. The Dominican cincture is a black leather belt with a simple silver buckle.

As Saint Thomas Aquinas was girded in chastity his entire life, so to does a Dominican gird himself each day with the cincture of chastity and justice. The cincture became a customary part of the Dominican habit in honor of Saint Thomas, and it is Dominican tradition to ask Saint Thomas for his intercession to protect one’s purity. While fastening the cincture, a Dominican prays: Gird me, O Lord, with the cincture of justice and the cord of purity that I may unite the many affections of my heart in the love of you alone. Amen.

(Isa 11:5) Now the Dominican puts on the scapular. The scapular is a long white strip of cloth (about shoulder width), with a hole for the head, that is worn over the shoulders, extending to near the bottom of the tunic in the front and the back. The scapular was given to Blessed Reginald of Orleans by the

Virgin Mary for him to pass on to Saint Dominic. (We will discuss Blessed Reginald in the next section.) The scapular was traditionally the most important article of the habit, signifying one as definitively a member of an order. The Dominican scapular is put on while saying this prayer: Show yourself a mother, He will hear your pleading, Whom your womb has sheltered, And whose hand brings healing.

Next, the Dominican habit is composed of the white capuce, a short rounded shoulder cape that has a white hood attached to it. The capuce is the only head covering used

by Dominicans liturgically, and fits over the scapular. While donning a capuce, a Dominican prays: Lord, You have set your sign upon my head that I should admit no lover but you. Amen.

(Luke 1:35) The two most distinctive parts of the Dominican habit follow next. Over the white capuce is worn the cappa.

In England, Dominicans are casually referred to as Black friars in reference to the large black cappa. Overlaying the purity of life, because we are human, struggling with sin, lays the cappa magna symbolizing necessary penance. The black cappa magna was part of the original Dominican habit given to Blessed Reginald of Orleans.

While putting on the cappa, a

member of The Society of Saint Dominic prays: We fly to your patronage, do not despise our prayers in our necessity, but free us from all peril. Amen. ... (Psalm 3:3); (Psalm 34) Finally, the Dominican puts on the black capuce, with hood, which overlays the cappa and serves as an outer black shoulder cape and covering for the hood. The black capuce completes the Dominican habit and, along with the cappa, is traditionally always worn by a Dominican while outside, and inside too from All Soul’s Day until the Gloria of the Easter Vigil.

Now, you ask, where did our habit come from? According to our legends and traditions, our habit was given to Reginald of Orleans by the Virgin Mary.

Sister Mary Jean Dorcy, O.P., in her book Saint Dominic, introduces us to Reginald.

Reginald, dean of the church of Orleans was a canonist, and had the chair of canon law at the University of Paris. He went to Rome on his way to visit the Holy Land with his bishop, and it was there that he met Saint Dominic. Hardly had Reginald and Dominic met, and Reginald resolved to enter Saint Dominic’s Order, when Reginald was stricken with one of those swift and deadly Roman fevers against which there was so little help in the thirteenth century.

We read that Dominic, grieved at the thought of losing Reginald when he was scarcely born into the Order, earnestly pleaded with God to spare his life. Tradition relates that while Dominic was praying, The Virgin Mary came to the sick man to answer the prayer in person.

Reginald lay awake, burning with fever; but there was no question of his imagining the vision of the Virgin and her two companions.

Blessed Humbert of Rome (Humbert of Romans (c. 1200, Romans-sur-Isère – 14 July 1277 in Valence, France) the fifth Master General of the Dominican Order, 1254 to 1263) tells the story best: “He fell sick, so that the physicians despaired even of saving his life. The blessed Dominic, grieving at the thought of losing a child ere as yet he had scarcely enjoyed him, turned himself to the divine mercy, earnestly imploring God (as he himself has related to the brethren) that He would not take from him a son as yet but hardly born, but at least to prolong his life, if it were but a little while. And even whilst he yet prayed, the Blessed Virgin Mary, accompanied by two young maidens of surpassing beauty, (Some say these were Saint Cecelia and Saint Catherine of Alexandria) appeared to Master Reginald as he lay awake and parched with burning fever; and he heard Mary speaking to him saying, “ask me what thou (Continued on page 10)

(Continued from page ) wilt, and I will give it to thee.’

And as he considered within himself, one of the maidens who accompanied the Blessed Virgin suggested to him that he should ask for nothing, but should leave it to the will and pleasure of The Virgin Mary, to the which he right willingly assented.

The she, extending her hand, anointed his eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, hands, reins, and feet, pronouncing certain words meanwhile appropriate to each unction of his reins and feet: the first were, ‘Let thy reins be girt with the girdle of chastity:’ and the second, “Let thy feet be shod for the preaching of the Gospel of peace.’ Then she showed to him the habit of the Friars Preachers, saying to him, “Behold the habit of thy order.”

And so she disappeared from his eyes. And at the same time, Reginald perceived that he was cured, having been anointed by the Mother of Him who has the secrets of salvation and of health.”

“The Vision of the Habit” by Fra Angelico Reginald then made these facts known to Dominic because he felt that the vision should be revealed to the whole Order.

However, he begged him out of humility not to mention his own part in the story until after his death. Dominic complied with his request, announced the

change of habit, and we have worn the same habit for almost 900 years.

But what about our sisters in the order? A sister’s habit in the Order of Preachers, OC is almost identical to that of the friar’s, with the exception of the veil. A novice sister wears a white veil. A fully professed sister, or a sister in life vows, wears a black veil, either lined with white, a black veil banded in white around the face, or a black veil over her white novice’s veil. The veil is symbolic of the sister representing a bride of Christ.

Also, a sister in life vows is permitted to wear a sliver wedding band, also a symbol of her being a bride of Christ.

Our sisters today usually forego the traditional wimple and fillet, because in order to wear these comfortably, she would have to cut her hair exceedingly short. The wimple and fillet are also symbols of an enclosed order of Dominican nuns and sisters, and the members of the The Order of Preachers, OC are mendicant, rather than enclosed.

Monsignor Michael Beckett is the Prior of the Order of Preachers, Old Catholic within the International Old Catholic Church. He and his husband, Deacon Scott Brown, live in West Virginia with their two dogs.

10

Guest Writer The Right Rev. Nate Prentice nateprentice@gmail.com

What to do when you have lost faith in God

Weston Priory, a Benedictine monastery in Weston, VT

O

ne of my daughters is turning into a teenager. She admitted that she sometimes has problems believing that God is present. She believes in God, just sometimes questions if God is present in her life. She said that this makes her worry that she is not a religious person.

I laughed and told her that doubt is the mark of the truly religious person. If you have faith without experiencing doubt at some point, then it is cheap

faith, indeed. It hasn’t been bought at a high enough price from you.

I gave her a simple exercise to help, which I would like to share with you, if, like her, you are a person of faith who has doubt from time to time.

We were at Weston Priory, a Benedictine monastery, during our vacation this week in Vermont. Sitting in the chapel, waiting for Vespers (Evening (Continued on page 12) 11

(Continued from page 11) Prayer) to begin, I asked her to repeatedly ask herself the same question as a mantra throughout the service and to answer it repeatedly for herself while we were there.

The exercise is:

loving hands of the brothers who were baking bread for their dinner, which smelled heavenly throughout the service, and in the love she felt from me and my wife.

I told her that, indeed, she was doing it right and letting go of the clutter in her mind and becoming aware of God’s presence in every moment, whether it be good, bad, or neutral.

How was I sure that she was aware of God’s presence?

Because she felt God’s love.

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” I John 4:16, NIV. If you are a person of faith, may you find the same way or a similar way to walk, and thereby find peace.

Stop, be aware of the moment, and ask yourself, how is God making His/Her presence known in this precise moment? When distracted from that question, ask how God is present in the distraction, and thereby continue the cyclical process of asking and responding to the question.

After the service, I asked her how it went. She said that she was aware of God’s presence in the love shown by God for the Earth in a thunderstorm we had during the service, in the

If you are not a person of faith, ask yourself how meaning is found in every moment.

Peace be with you.

Bishop Nate Prentice, OSM, LCSW, CAS-PC is a wandering bishop whose main charism is doing psychotherapy as a clinical social worker and as a pastoral counselor, but who also helps other jurisdictions and solo clergy as the Spirit gives him the opportunity.

12

Guest Writer The Very Rev. James St. George Father.Jim@mysaintmiriam.org

Re-thinking Church A Model for Change, but not for the Squeamish!

I

am joyful to be a priest! OK, so “joyful” (admittedly) is ever so slightly tongue-in-cheek. I am often swamped in paperwork for the beginning of every new week. This article you are reading added to my already busy week of writing, thinking, drawing, discerning, directing, exegetical work, and praying all to keep my parish afloat!

The weekly articles for my parish of Saint Miriam must be completed and sent to editing by the close of every Monday; I perform my chaplain duties every Monday afternoon at a local nursing center and then do my hospital visits. I move on next to begin preparation for my Sunday homily on Tuesday mornings and I teach at the local University every Tuesday and Thursday evenings. I deal with staff coming, and people leaving, and transitions that must be done, and complaints and needs, and…oh, yea…I often need to fill in the things that somehow crept up on me!

I cannot WAIT to actually begin

being a priest as my week opens back up to real ministry and less administration! But, as with any vocation, I think that is nothing more than an illusive dream that has no real legs under it any longer! After all, as a parish priest you spend a good percentage of your time chasing people, solving problems, getting information up-to-date and hearing many, many individual stories about why people can’t come to your meeting, or attend their church, or why they feel they must go someplace else out of the proverbial ‘back door’. The list never ends, but I have learned that while I am willing to sit in all that muck, I cannot solve all the problems of the world.

It has been a hard lesson for me, but one that is increasingly making me healthier and a better priest, pastor, and leader.

Seriously though, the pastoral side of parish life is messy because people’s lives are messy. We are all messy! There.

(Continued on page 14) 13

(Continued from page 13) I said it. Now, can we move on, please? In our particular area, parents can be pushy and intent on getting their own way and some parishioners demand that we adapt Catholicism to fit their schedules. ‘After all’, goes the argument, ‘we are well-off and you are not and

or entitlement or frustration.

But when we sit together, we learn much, solve much, grow much, and love much. In other words, the gospel has a tough time electronically being communicated!

As my years as a parish priest increase, I have witnessed the joys of seeing us grow a new building, begin a school, our young people confirmed, new souls baptized, and the elevating of our parish to a Pro-Cathedral. I have buried the dead, anointed the dying, and held the grieving. I have learned that we are important in the lives of God’s holy The Ruins of the old Kreuzkirche, Dresden Church and of

by Bernardo Bellotto (1765) the people who claim Her as we own you because you work their own. Yes, there are many for us.’ Well, more or less, that opportunities to experience is the underlying premise. The true joy in our companionship priest works for them even with one another in the life of a though they do not care how parish and yet much hardship, I get paid, or if I get paid, too. Our lives are blessed and or if they hold true to their enriched by the opportunity stewardship of the ministry to receive God’s love through and life of the parish. But, Christian fellowship, the Mass, even with all that said, a good Bible study and so many other principle I learned is to be ‘strict opportunities, but none of this on paper’, but more lenient in can happen without a vibrant person! Why? Because people and caring people. In other have a tendency to demand words, the parish is the people more, and understand less, of God working together and when they communicate via ethat demands no free passes. mail or phone, or out of anger 14

Now, please…don’t get me wrong. There are times when people are in need or cannot give of their limited financial resources, but they can always give of their time or talent, even in periods of drought. So then why do we let them off the hook so easily? Do we fail them, and God, when we do? Should we, as priests, demand at least a percentage of what we give in our own calling?

I have struggled with what to do about this phenomenon from the very first month of our founding a brand new parish some 6 years ago, and I have done a lot of reading. I always thought that if I created what people want they would automatically give to support it. I was wrong. Now some authors say that we must ‘seek the seeker’ or ‘adapt to the new church consumer’ or ‘reach beyond our comfort zone’ or ‘aid the lost’, et al. But in the end, with all the ways in which we have tried to grow, it is still only with the dedicated few that we still remain. In other words, because we have catered to the ‘consumer Catholic’ we had placed a huge burden on ‘the few’ rather than a ‘shared sacrifice’ with the many. Well, that stopped some 12 weeks ago. How? Read on. But I warn you: it is not for the faint of heart!

Over the past several months, I took my desire to try and ‘duplicate what works’ by attracting those who give

so much in so many varied ways and I’ve read quite a bit on leading change, church growth, sustainability and yes, sadly, even decline. I stumbled upon an interesting website (ref: http://thomrainer.com/).

The author of the site is Dr. Thom Rainer, a noted church consultant. He shared a story of a church that met its ultimate demise. It is really a sad story.

As one commentator on the story wrote, “It’s not that the church chose to die, it’s that the church chose not to live.”

Perhaps that is an important distinction. Rainer offers a list of 11 things that indicated the church was in trouble. I’m not going to list all of the reasons here, but I did want to highlight a couple that directly impacted my thoughts for the changes we implemented as a parish.

However, I encourage you to visit his site and explore more of the other reasons given to improve your own parish. Please know that I do this not to say, “we’re in trouble”, but rather to remind us that we must be ever vigilant as shepherds when it comes to our livelihood as a parish and a Church. I’d hate for us to inadvertently choose to not live!

For myself, the first important note that Dr. Rainer points out in his list is that churches must look like the community. Thus, if a parish is not as socially, economically, and racially diverse as its surrounding neighborhood, one should be concerned. Our world is (Continued on page 16) 15

(Continued from page 15) becoming more and more global and multifaceted, so must the faces in our pews!

We must acknowledge that we are simply – and complexily - growing more and more diverse. We cannot afford to be a homogeneous place. Perhaps we need to recommit ourselves to living out the core values of diversity and evangelism?

Perhaps there really is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, et al.?

A second core indicator that parishes are headed for decline is when they have no clarity as to why they exist. In his example of the church that closed, there was no vision, no mission, and no purpose.

We must remember that the number one things parishioners want in their pastors are a sense of vision and strong leadership that they not only believe in, but that they model in their own lives, too! At Saint Miriam we took great pains to come up with both a mission and a vision statement to allow us a place to revisit each year and double check if we are on track. It has helped us to stay on target, even though we obviously deviate now and again.

I believe that the global Church is on a path toward death and it is entirely our fault because we have lost our vision and a sense of purpose and created the scariest of all creatures: the consumer Catholic! The truth is that a church without focus is a church

that has no valid reason to exist. That church has, in the words of that commentator, “chosen not to live,” and thus sadly, we may die a slow and painful death where souls are lost. And, we have allowed this sense of entitlement that tolerates parishioners to feel they can ‘take what they want, leave what they don’t, and get it all when they want on their terms all without risk or sacrifice!’ Let’s not forget our reason for being as we recommit ourselves to serving not only God and one another, but our diverse community beyond our parish doors, as well.

So what did we do at Saint Miriam? Well, after considerable months of prayer, thought, planning (and a few arguments!) we made our choices and we became a tithing parish and one in which every member had to belong to some committee or to some small group in order to offer direct and tangible assistance to the parish. Everyone! No tithing, no giving, no time and talent…NO CHURCH! It was that simple and that complex. And we knew that we would say goodbye to a few souls who felt we were too hard or too demanding, but we decided that we were going to create disciples, not attendees.

And we did lose a few, and it has been hard for me to watch them go, but I have learned, too, that a tree often does not grow without some pruning. So, I set the vision, battened down the hatches, cut costs in our 16

new annual budget, and did a lot of praying and lot of crying.

We began this journey of change with a PowerPoint© Presentation to focus us all on the same page and a motto all entitled, ‘Make Church Matter’!

We told people how we needed to grow and what our intent and vision was – clearly. We spelled out the changes that would be coming and reminded them of the mission we all agreed to and how we were not being very good Christians, let alone good Catholics, and how that was all about to change. Then we did the unthinkable: we told them that they could leave.

Yes, we said that these changes would be hard and that they would require us to all re-think church and our life together.

And if they did not feel it was congruent with their mission, they could leave and we would grieve and pray for them as we moved on without them.

So, was it easy? No! After all, it took us 5 years to build up to a parish of over 300 souls and an annual budget approaching $300,000. Now, there I was as a pastor telling people to get out? Yes! It needed to be done. It needed to be said. I am called to speak the truth and to lead. And it was terribly hard and still is.

There is a scene in one of my all time favorite films, The American President, when an advisor to the President (Michael J. Fox) tells the President (Michael Douglas)

that the people want leadership.

He says, “In the absence of genuine leadership, they’ll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They’re so thirsty for it they’ll crawl through the desert to a mirage and when they discover there is no water, they will drink the sand.”

So, I decided no more ‘sanddrinking’ at Saint Miriam. I was going to lead and come what may, we were going to be disciples! I pray every day for God’s blessing, but to be honest, I still feel alone.

I believe as Christians and members of a parish we should not be in the business of ‘tipping’ God. God deserves and demands more. We must learn to give God from our first fruits - in all ways - not what is simply left over and convenient.

So, yes, the proverbial mess the Church is in is our fault! That’s right; those of us in leadership: we are all at fault and the sooner we accept responsibility, the better we will be able to fix it. We have created a culture of ‘preach to me only the smooth things consumer-driven, giveit-to-me on my terms or I will leave Catholics’! I decided no more and it began with our annual appeal.

Our annual Stewardship Campaign began with a renewed sense of movement!

We found that all were excited to roll out ‘Make Church Matter’!

We drove home the point that the care of Saint Miriam is all of our responsibility and that (Continued on page 18) 17

(Continued from page 17) ‘good stewardship’ is the careful and responsible management of all that is entrusted to our care by God. And if we place our needs above our neighbors we abandon our posts as good Christians.

We also asked that everyone tithe. The percentage would be up to them, but it needed to be a sacrifice. Then we also asked that when they made their pledge on-line, they tell us why they are supporting the mission of Saint Miriam. This helped all of us grow and mature into better Christians!

used to ‘do church’. The result: our most successful stewardship campaign ever, despite the loss of a few parishioners!

Additionally, we eliminated the earlier ‘simple’ liturgy with no music and made two Masses on Sundays of a like kind. We added music and a Cantor to the 9:00 am early Mass and allocated our Choir to the 10:30 am. Why? Liturgy is our ‘dance with God’, you don’t pick the quickest one, or the one that doesn’t fill your soul, just to get to brunch! The 9:00 am Mass was the first to hit us with decreased attendance, but we are slowly growing again and

The goals for 2013 campaign were plainly spelled out and included making the entire membership: 1.

2.

3.

4.

Planned Givers Priority Givers Percentage Givers Progressive Givers

We also deepened our ‘green’ policies by eliminating the giving envelopes that we used to receive every other month by pushing for 100% envelopefree giving electronically! This helped us in several ways by: (1) reducing our reliance of paper, (2) allowing for us to budget better, (3) helping us to enhance our mission and, (4) reducing the burden on everyone weekly. We also installed electronic giving kiosks, ended each Mass with a newly developed, Saint Miriam Generosity Prayer, and changed the way we look at the way we

Die Liebfrauenkirche in Esslingen by Michael Neher (1847) folks are now enjoying a liturgy that brings the Spirit of God to them, too. There are no short cuts to loving God, and we remained determined.

We also changed the way we did fellowship after every Mass on Sundays and our fellowship space became the Saint Miriam Café! This was a great way to better use our talent, increase our ability to 18

mingle, better utilize our limited social space, and eliminate the aggravations around scheduling and human resources needed for set up, clean up, et al. It also allowed for those same givers to take a break in some aspects and others to ‘step up’ to lend a hand. It also reduced the burden that was beginning to form around feeding the masses! (No pun intended!)

The Café works very simply: the prices are posted and vary from a mere .25 cents to a $1.00! This small amount covers our cost and is not a fundraiser. It simply keeps our cupboards stocked. We post a menu and provide a fine selection of coffees and teas, specialty lattes and brews, water, juice, and assorted muffins, snacks, bagels and breads! And, each week there is a special something that we will list on the new Café menu board entitled, Today’s Special!

This change provided not only a new way of fellowshipping, but also reinforced the fact that stewardship is not free. Neither is Church!

In the end, the changes so far have made us operate more efficiently, dedicate our resources more appropriately, and work smarter, not harder. Again, is this easy?

No. Change is never easy.

I know that because I have lived it many times. The changes affected almost everything we do as parish: from giving and stewardship,

to Mass attendance and events, evangelization and marketing, the manner in which we teach and educate, to leadership changes, the way we do hospitality, welcoming, fellowship and music, too. But, at the core of each of these changes is the heart of Saint Miriam, and the heart of a good and strong disciple. And, we pray, the heart of God. We decided that if we failed, it was up to God, and if people wanted a church like the others around us, there are plenty of choices to just ‘attend’. We were going to be different. Stronger.

More vital. We look forward to a bright tomorrow as we continue to build our parish community based in an inclusive and welcoming love of God, but recognizing that being a disciple comes a cost, but the reward is eternal. Together we remind ourselves why we exist and how much God has done for us.

Together, we will be better!

God is not one to allow us to sit idle. There is work to be done. Let’s get moving!

Monsignor Jim St. George is an educator and pastor of Saint Miriam’s Church in Blue Bell, PA. He and his husband Shawn live in Pennsylvania. Monsignor St. George will be consecrated a Bishop in June of 2014.

19

Katholic Kitchens Convergent Streams Staff and Readers staff@convergentstreams.org

Maryland Cream of Crab Soup - never out of season!!!

INGREDIENTS: 1 pound Maryland jumbo lump crab meat 1 tablespoon fresh parsley 3 teaspoons OLD BAY Seasoning 1/4 cup butter 2 pints heavy whipping cream 1 quart half and half cornstarch 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper 1 pint milk DIRECTIONS: Bring milk, half and half, and heavy whipping cream to a boil.

Add crab meat, fresh parsley, Old Bay Seasoning, butter, salt and pepper. When it starts to boil, make a paste of cornstarch and water to thicken soup.

Haricots Verts and Grape Tomato Salad with Crème Fraîche Dressing Ingredients 1 pound haricots verts, trimmed 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil 2 tablespoons minced shallots 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 2 tablespoons crème fraîche 1 tablespoon honey 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved 1 tablespoon pine nuts, toasted 20

Preparation Cook haricots verts in boiling water 2 minutes or until crisptender. Drain and rinse with cold water; drain.

Combine basil and next 5 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add haricots verts and tomatoes; toss gently to coat. Divide mixture evenly among 6 plates; sprinkle with nuts.

Salmon Burgers Ingredients 1 cup finely chopped red onion 1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 (1-pound) salmon fillet, skinned and chopped 1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce 1 large egg white Cooking spray 8 (3/4-ounce) slices focaccia, toasted Preparation Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Combine hot pepper sauce and egg white in a small bowl; add egg white mixture to salmon mixture, stirring well to combine.

Divide the mixture into 4 equal portions, shaping each into a 1/2-inch-thick patty. Heat a large nonstick skillet over mediumhigh heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add salmon patties, and cook 3 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness.

Serve patties on toasted focaccia.

NO DOUGH PIZZA Gluten Free, Low Carb, Diabetic Friendly!

Crust 1 (8 oz) package of full fat cream cheese, room temperature 2 eggs 1/4 tsp ground black pepper 1 tsp garlic powder 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese 21

Topping 1/2 cup pizza sauce 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese toppings - pepperoni, ham, sausage, mushrooms, peppers Garlic powder Preparation Preheat oven to 350.

Lightly spay a 9Ă—13 baking dish with cooking spray. With a handheld mixer, mix cream cheese, eggs, pepper, garlic powder and parmesan cheese until combined. Spread into baking dish.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, our until golden brown. Allow crust to cool for 10 minutes.

Spread pizza sauce on crust. Top with cheese and toppings.

Sprinkle pizza with garlic powder. Bake 8-10 minutes, until cheese is melted.

OUTBACK STEAKHOUSE BLOOMIN ONION Batter 1/3 cup cornstarch 1 1/2 cups flour 2 teaspoons garlic, minced 2 teaspoons paprika 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon pepper 24 ounces beer 4 vidalia onions Seasoned flour 2 cups flour 4 teaspoons paprika 2 teaspoons garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon pepper 1/4 teaspoon cayenne Creamy Chili sauce 1 pint mayonnaise 1 pint sour cream 22

1/2 cup tomato chili sauce 1/2 teaspoon cayenne Outback Dipping Sauce 1/2 cup mayonnaise 2 teaspoons ketchup 2 teaspoons creamed horseradish 1/4 teaspoon paprika 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon dried oregano 1 dash black pepper 1 dash cayenne Preparation Combine flour, paprika, garlic powder, pepper and cayenne-mix well.

--------Creamy chili sauce---Combine mayo, sour cream, chili sauce and cayenne-mix well.

--------Dipping sauce----------.

Blend everything together well and let sit for 2 hours refrigerated or overnight.

--------And for the batter---------.

Mix cornstarch, flour and seasonings until well blended.

Add beer and mix well.

Cut about 3/4 inch off top of onion and peel.

Cut into onion 12-16 vertical wedges but do not cut through bottom root end.

Remove about 1 inch of petals from center of onion (You can place the cut onions in cold water for a few hours to help “open� them up -- just make sure that you drain them well).

Dip in seasoned flour and gently shake to remove excess.

Separate petals to coat thoroughly with batter.

Gently place in a fryer basket and deep fry at 375-400 for 1 1/2 minutes.

Turn over and fry 1 1/2 minutes more or until golden brown Drain on paper towels.

Place onion upright in a shallow bowl and remove center core with a circular cutter or apple corer.

Serve hot with chili sauce and dipping sauce.

23

CHOCOLATE COVERED BACON DRIZZLED WITH WHITE CHOCOLATE (For those of you who “get” this, you know how good this is. For those of you who have not tried this yet, don’t say YUK until you have tried this at least once! Minds are changed with this recipe! ) Ingredients: 6-8 slices thick cut, best-quality bacon 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips 4 ounces white chocolate, melted Directions: Preheat the oven to 375°F. Place the bacon on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake in the oven, until bacon is cooked to your liking. 15 minutes for soft bacon, 20 minutes for crispy bacon.

Let bacon cool on the parchment paper for 5 minutes then transfer to a plate lined with paper towels.

Meanwhile set up a double boiler. Heat a large saucepan filled with water over high heat until boiling. Reduce heat to a simmer.

Set a heat-proof bowl over the simmering water. Add the chocolate chips and stir with a fork until smooth and completely melted.

Cover another baking sheet with parchment paper.

Using tongs, carefully dip the bacon into the melted chocolate turning to coat all sides in chocolate. Transfer to the clean sheet of waiting parchment paper. Repeat with remaining slices of bacon.

Drizzle with the white chocolate.

Refrigerate until chocolate is hard.

Once cool, enjoy!

Makes 6-8 slices of chocolate-covered bacon.

24

Guest Writer The Rev. Fr. Tom Shortell uaccmex@gmail.com

Preaching Cross Culturally

I

n homiletics, especially for purposes of contextualization, there needs to be a tangible connection between the homily and the real life experiences of the listeners. Even though studies have shown that the race of the priest or minister in not a big factor for the Hispanic congregation, it is also true that there will be a perceived disconnect by the congregation in the pastor’s ability to really understand and connect to them. “Hispanic people hunger to hear the Good News as reread through the lectionary and applied to their cultural and class realities. Preachers who rely only on their own interpretation of scripture or solely on the applications suggested in erudite commentaries are spoiling new wine with old skins.” The homilist must connect the Hispanic audience to their religious experience and vice versa. You will not be able to guide them or lead them if you cannot grab them by the hand. This of course is

one of the great challenges to cross cultural ministry.

The word homily means conversation or discourse.

Unfortunately in most cases, the homily or sermon is in one direction only...priest to congregation. How can the homilist guide and engage those gathered in such a way that is culturally appropriate and begins a conversation, even if the conversation is an individual’s intrapersonal one regarding the meaning and application of the homily?

For starters, the homily if possible, should be given in Spanish, even if there are many bilinguals in the congregation.

Why? Because you will be speaking the heart language, the mother tongue, using words that carry specific meanings for the listeners. In my ministry I had many young Hispanics who spoke English most of the day, even among themselves. When we were celebrating Mass or were engaged in other spiritual functions, I would ask if they (Continued on page 26) 25

and God’s continued interaction (Continued from page 25) with him. preferred to speak in English or Spanish. The answer usually For purposes of homiletics came back, Spanish. In their and the idea of conversation, it day to day interactions, English is useful to have an idea about was the language of choice how Hispanics converse or tell but when it came to private or stories. Americans for the most intimate things such as faith, part are very direct in their they always wanted to use dialogue. We generally state our their native tongue. Language purpose, develop the argument is the first skill humans learn and come to a conclusion, a in order to interact with the straight line method. Often world around them and express times Hispanics take a detoured their wants and needs. When route. I have experienced a child makes that first real communication with another human being, the language and its concepts become imprinted in the child. It is that language that talks to the inner self. Words and expressions are representations of the world as they see and experience it.

Consciously or Raphael, St Paul Preaching in Athens. 1515 unconsciously, religion is part of who Hispanics this often and for those want are and it is reflected in their to ‘get to the point’ and move daily speech. Expressions on, the detoured route can such as, Primero Dios, Así sea, be frustrating at best and Dios mediante, Gracias a Dios, confusing at worst, particularly Bendito sea Dios, Válgame when dealing with a foreign Dios, Que en paz descanse, Si language. The individual Dios quiere, No lo quiera Dios, will begin talking and as the Quiera Dios, and Así quiso monologue progresses s/he is Dios, dot daily conversations. reminded of something that A typical reply to “Cómo está?” takes the topic into a different (How are you?) is “Bien, gracias direction. This process may a Dios”, (Fine, thanks be to continue for several detours God). These phrases represent but somehow there is always a a deeper reality for the Hispanic 26

connection back to the original topic. The entire route leads to the final destination. A lot of side information, pertinent or not, is brought into the mix.

What is suggested here is that more importance is placed on the time spent with another person in conversation than the topic of the conversation itself. The essence of the conversation may be in building relationship. This is seen frequently when conducting business in Latin American countries. In a business setting or meeting, Hispanics will spent a fair amount of time in ‘small talk’ regarding family, wives, children, health etc. with you long before they get down to the business of business.

This convoluted way of conversing perhaps is reflective of the incongruence of life itself and for the Mexican in particular whose past and national evolution and identity have been one big detour. Davis identifies three skills needed to master a good homiletic experience for and with a Hispanic congregation. The first skill needed is to be able to enter the world of social displacement and disorientation that Hispanics live in. Caused by a lack of a social and legal infrastructure that meets their needs, they learn to become immune to a disoriented world.

For this reason, a suspended meaning in a homily is needed to catch and hold the listener’s attention. Since most people want to hear answers to their questions or problems in a

homily, Davis says by creating an element of threat or cognitive dissonance, interest in what the homilist has to say will be piqued. Scripture asks, who can understand the mind of God? How do we make sense of God and our experience of him in our disoriented world?

The homilist needs to deviate from his or her own view and open a space in the minds of the listeners for the Spirit to influence and direct the understanding of the reality of God in their current life circumstances.

The second skill according to Davis is analysis. The homilist must seek the wisdom of the Holy Spirit in trying to piece together the puzzle that is life, always digging deeper to understand the real world, not our cultural assumptions of it. The homilist must seek to understand the incongruities and social injustices in society.

Social dislocation experienced

by Hispanics opens a floodgate of options for the homilist to help the congregation bring into focus the problems that they face caused by disparity.

There are no easy solutions, obvious or canned answers.

The homilist worth his/her salt will through much prayer and reflection find ways to isolate a particular issue, make it less painful to talk about or at least numb the effects of the problem so s/he can then lead the congregation in a search for understanding. Analysis leads (Continued on page 28) 27

to comprehension that in turn leads the listeners in finding the answers for themselves in an experiential way.

The last skill is revelation in finding a solution. The revelation comes from the artful use of metaphor, symbol or parable in the same way that Christ used them. Christ took seemingly unequal things and found points of congruence and similarity between them so that the people would experience that “Aha” moment. In his divinity, Christ understood humanity. He knew how to express ideas and concepts that were different from the general understanding of the day in such a way that his followers could connect the dots. In the connection the resolution was revealed. In crosscultural ministry, non-Hispanic ministers must be willing to lose themselves culturally speaking.

They need to disconnect themselves temporarily from the Anglo world and become one with the Hispanic experience. In so doing, they too will have a revelation.

Fr. Tom Shortell, OSFC, D.Min., is Vicar for Mexico for the United American Catholic Church. He lives in the State of Guerrero, Mexico where he ministers to the local population. Fr. Tom has been elected by his jurisdiction to be raised to the episcopacy. Ad Multos Annos!

Guidelines If you would like to submit an article or if you have a comment or complaint, you may send them to editor@ convergentstreams.org in Microsoft © Word format or Adobe © PDF format.

You may also mail submissions, query letters or comments to Bishop Gregory Godsey, 118 Frances Drive, North Augusta, SC 29841, USA. All submissions will be considered, but no guarantee or promise is made that said submission will be published.

The editorial staff of Convergent Streams reserves the right to publish, refuse to publish or hold for publishing at a later date any submission without explanation. if you require materials returned, please enclose SASE. Advertising Advertising space can be purchased for ads that are considered relevant to members of the Old Catholic Church or Independent Sacramental Movement. Please contact Bishop Godsey at bishopgodsey@myiocc.org for more information.

As always, for more information, you can visit our website at http://www. convergentstreams.org.

28

Guest Writer The Rev. Fr. Ronald Stephens stephens44@me.com

Building Parishes

I

was asked recently if I would give a talk on what I was doing to build my parish since it was one of the few Catholic Apostolic churches to be increasing its numbers.

I was a bit taken aback by the question since I had not been doing anything to attract more people - at least anything different from the other parishes I knew well.

My parish of St. Andrew’s is in a small town in Virginia some 40 miles away from the nation’s capital. It was opened 10 years ago and the first liturgies were celebrated in homes, motels and schools. Only two years ago we began a sharing agreement with a small, underfunded Episcopalian parish, and we now share the facilities of a beautiful century old, parish in the woods and among the horse farms. I was appointed as pastor to the parish three years ago, and it has quadrupled in size since that time.

We advertise locally in the newspaper there, but have always done that. We are visible at events that we sponsor in the community such as the Bluemont Concert series, but

we had begun that before I arrived. What was it that was happening that was causing growth?

Trying to analyze this, I have come up with a few things that might account for it. First of all, I am a liturgist, and love nothing more than a well-put-together service where everything flows logically and metaphorically from the readings of the day. The liturgy is designed to do what liturgies are designed to do - praise and worship God. When I arrived the parish had no music ministry - and still doesn’t actually - and any singing we had was weak and uninspiring.

Using my computer, I played and recorded all of the hymns in the hymnbook so that we would have access to any of the hymns there, and orchestrated a few of them for fullness. I carefully chose the hymns each week to reflect the themes of the day, and I was not shy at introducing hymns - I just made sure we repeated them until I felt the congregation knew them. I believe that the psalms are meant to be sung, not read, so I became the (Continued on page 30) 29

(Continued from page 29) psalm cantor as well, and will continue to be until I find a parishioner who can do that.

The refrains were easy enough for the congregation to learn, and so we always sing the Psalm response, and Alleluia.

Three years later, my parish is a singing parish. I can start the

on - a wedding anniversary, a baptism, deaths of friends and relatives. The themes of the day get repeated in many ways, and hopefully make an impact on the worshipper. The liturgy should flow from one thing to another.

One of the high points each week is not something that

Father Ronald Stephens presiding over first communions at his parish.

Offertory and leave the singing to them and it sounds joyful. As we grow we are getting some very good voices, and they are not afraid to sing out, because everyone is singing pretty well.

We have no choir - just one voice!

Staying on the subject of liturgy, I devote many hours each week to my homily and the choice of hymns to reflect the readings and my preaching.

I also try to incorporate into the liturgy any events going

I have done but has been a development - the Prayer of the Faithful. In most parishes I have been to, there is a list of names read of people we are to pray for, and the readers run through the list, and it all seems very rote and “let’s get this over with”. That hasn’t happened at St. Andrew’s. They have divided the prayer list into particular ailments - AIDs, Cancer, Serious Illness - and the names are read under those categories.

They are not rushed, they are very prayerfully read, and 30

many have commented on the feeling that we are truly asking God for help for these people.

And we are! And we also try to celebrate the fact when our prayers have been heard, a remission granted or a full cure.

on, and have even had parish votes at this point, instead of a sparsely attended parish council meeting. I never preach about money. If something has to be said, it is treated by the parish council. It works well.

The Kiss of Peace in the Catholic Apostolic Church was moved from the communion rite to occur just before the Offertory. It seemed more proper to be placed there, earlier in the Eucharist. We confess our sins, we hear the Gospels and we make amends and greet our neighbors before we come to the altar for Eucharist. At our Kiss of peace, which again developed without my input, everyone is greeted by each member. It became a problem when the church grew and the greeting of everyone was beginning to be very chaotic and hit-andmiss, so it developed into a a circular movement in the centre aisle where everyone just went around the circle and greeted the person opposite in passing.

Everyone gets greeted, there is no chaos, and it is a chance for everyone to meet whoever is there. Many comment on its effectiveness and on being able to talk with each other each week.

But Sunday liturgy, which I think is very important isn’t the only thing. I have been a teacher in schools for 48 years, and so it logically follows that my teaching becomes a great part of who I am as a priest.

My homilies are little lessons - in anthropology, psychology, theology, morals, history, and so on - which try to give parishioners an overview of the Gospels and the readings of the day in the context of when and how they were written. I also use the readings to advance ideas that I think would better the parish, and I stress them over many weeks. A few examples:

The announcements are made in their usual place after communion and the final prayer. For the most part, these are led by the parish council or individuals who are running particular events. We try to keep the whole parish informed on what is going

When I arrived, there was not much being done in terms of outreach and community service. We were very small, and the parishioners were already doing a lot just keeping the parish going, setting up the rooms for liturgy, etc. But our Christian faith insists that we must help those in need. When we arrived at the Episcopalian community, we saw a chance at joining them in outreach since there were also very small. Together we could do so much more. My homilies began to stress the importance of bringing Christ to the world, (Continued on page 32) 31

(Continued from page 31) that Christ’s message was a social one. In those three years we have done many things to strengthen our outreach and along with our sister church parishioners have really made a difference in our community.

Last June we raised $6000 and sent many thousand meals to Haiti through Stop Hunger Now. We stock the local food bank with peanut butter each month, we go on walks to raise money for various charities, just as examples.

Another example of ‘teaching by preaching’ came from my seeing how many people missed Sunday services and would only show up once or twice a month. I began to develop a theme in the readings trying to show people that we are primarily not a religion about the relationship between oneself and Jesus, but that the relationship was you, Jesus and the rest of the world, beginning with the parish community.

The other parishioners needed their presence - it gave them strength. The readings from St. Paul were great that year in that they constantly stressed the oneness in Christ. After three years, the parishioners are taking this much more seriously and only seldom miss the services.

Each Lenten season I looked at what the parish might need and tried to direct a series of workshops around that need.

The first year I was preaching Mark’s Gospel, a favorite of

mine. I gave the workshop on Mark’s Gospel, focusing on the social message of Jesus. The next year I looked at the letters of Paul - the actual Pauline letters only - and directed my remarks to Paul’s idea of church and worship and oneness.

The third year I conducted a program looking at the parish and analyzing it to see what we were doing, what we could do better, what areas were missing, and how we could fill those gaps. It was very fruitful and well attended. We looked at issues in our own local parish and made recommendations for it and the larger church.

When the new translation of the words of the Eucharist were mandated by the Roman church, we decided that the translation was just too antiquated and anti-Vatican II for us to adopt. We knew that eventually this would separate us more from our Roman friends, but it was more important for us to follow what we believe to be the more accurate translation, and one that made sense. Apparently others felt this way, too, because this has also brought us a few new parishioners.

SO I wonder if I have answered the initial question - what have I done that my parish is still growing? I have done very little except maybe keep my eyes on the truth that liturgy is first about praising God, getting all to participate in it, while preaching Good News (Continued on page 37) 32

Guest Writer The Most Rev. James Alan Wilkowski bishopjames@evangelicalcatholicchurch.org

The Necessity for Academic Formation

W

hen the major external critics of the autocephalous catholic movement launch into the litany of indictments of us, one of the inevitable counts of their indictment is the collective theological ignorance of our deacons, priests and bishops. Sadly many elements of the autocephalous catholic movement have, over the years, contributed to this criticism used against us.

Unless a fully trained cleric comes to one of our jurisdiction, the majority of deacons, priests and bishops within autocephalous catholic movement are grossly illprepared to professionally assume any role in public ministry and the victims of such illiterate individuals in collars and miters are the people of God. Because of

the historic lack of investment in academic formation within the autocephalous catholic movement, we continue to mass ordain individuals who cannot utter a simple theological fact or concept, but are able to quote what is currently in the C M Almy catalogue.

Before McDonalds or 7-Eleven permits a new employee to serve the public, they must meet certain proficiencies and standards. In my nearly twenty years as a cleric within a jurisdiction of the autocephalous catholic movement, I have wondered why we have so often dispensed ourselves from requiring basic proficiencies and standards from those we ordain.

For years I have had calls form potential candidates seeking clerical incardination within the Evangelical Catholic (Continued on page 34) 33

(Continued from page 33) Church informing me that prior to their ordination their “academic formation” consisted solely of reading for Orders. In listening to these individuals I have to seriously wonder what they read during this process.

Referring back to my citing the necessary proficiencies and standards required for McDonalds and 7-Eleven employees – when a member of the public enters these establishments they do so with do degree of expectation that whoever serves them has a clue regarding their products and services. Should not the people who comes and attends Masses offered by the various autocephalous catholic jurisdiction do so with the expectation that the clergy servicing them has a clue as to their product and services?

The number of individuals who have been shocked and often scandalized by the liturgical and sacramental incompetence of so many “representatives” of the autocephalous catholic institution is staggering and shameful. The scorn and ridicule which we receive by our critics and detractors often comes as a result of our own making. I believe that anyone who comes and attends any of our liturgical services has a right to expect our clergy to possess a certain expected degree of proficiencies and standards.

I am left to wonder when the day might come when the autocephalous catholic movement will, on some generic level, embrace the need for academic formation.

Over the years I have seen a small handful of attempts to offer some aspect of academic formation. Regrettably most of these “seminaries” advertised the most anemic of course offerings which were undermined with the most superficial of course contents.

As long as academic formation remains a non-priority within the autocephalous catholic movement, we cannot lament at the scorn and ridicule our detractors heap upon us – for we deserve every word said which is spoken against us.

For in the end it is not ourselves who are being hurt by our professional ineptness – it is the People of God. Bishop James Alan Wilkowski has been the Evangelical Catholic Bishop for the Diocese of the Northwest since July of 1997. He has been awarded a BA from Governors State University, a Masters in Pastoral Studies from Loyola University of Chicago and a Masters of Divinity from Kenrick Seminary.

34

Guest Writer The Rev. Father Bryan Wolf frwolf@myiocc.org

Sacred Space

F

or those of you who might have had the opportunity to read my article, Where is your church?

(Convergent Streams magazine, First Quarter 2013. Volume 1.

Number 1), I am going to build upon those thoughts. If you have not read it, the premise is simple- there are many clergy who do not have a “physical church building” in which to worship. There are some options, limited as they maybe.

There are hospital or nursing home chapels to be solicited, other houses of worship willing to open their doors to other congregations (United Churches of Christ, as an example) or outdoor venues; such as parks or beaches. Initially I tried such an option, a nearby hospital chapel, but was met with courteous questions: how many people did I expect and what were my insurance protections for limited liability? Needless to say, two questions without adequate answers.

We should always be reminded of the most basic, Christ tells us: “For where two or more gather in my name, there am I also.” (Matthew 18:20) So in the worship and

adoration of God, it shouldn’tand needn’t, be a concern as to where worship, praise and prayer takes place. For that matter, form and format should not be a concern either. Again Christ tells us: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners so they may be seen by others.

But when you pray, go into your room alone and close the door and pray to your Father in heaven. For your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:5-6) Nevertheless, for those of us clergy and religious- it is a spiritual comfort and inspiration to have a sacred space in which to pray, reflect and be at one with God. Surprisingly, it is something easily achieved and maintained. We have all seen those outdoor tributes, statues of the Blessed Mother or Christ in gardens or in front of homes. Forgive me for being judgmental, but I wonder if these ever receive the attention and inspiration they deserve.

I digress. As a resident of the seasonal and temperamental (Continued on page 36) 35

(Continued from page 35) northeast- not to mention restrictions places upon me by apartment community restrictions, such outdoor tributes are not possible.

So I- we, need to set apart a sacred space within our homes where we can go and be with God- to worship God. It does not have to be grandadorned with the trappings of

a cathedral, but it does have to be reverent, respectful and sincere. A place or area within the home where a visitor would know- you are a Christian and indeed, Christ is present in this

place.

For me it is a sacred space in the corner of our dining room.

A high top table which supports a wine rack underneath. On this table sits a collection of green plants surrounding my most prized religious possession- a ceramic and porcelain statute of Jesus on the cross. (Such a simple statue purchased in a hospital gift shop to watch over my mother in her final days.) And to the side my husband’s most prized possession, a porcelain statute of our Blessed Mother.

(A statute that was his mothers and may be perhaps eighty years old.)

Together the sight and placement of these holy statutes, demand the reverence and respect.

It is here, or from a nearby chair, that I can worship and pray.

To add to the beauty and adoration of this sacred space, I ensure that Christ is always present and mindful.

36

This is done by the purchase and placement of a ‘seven day’ religious candle. (The kind easily purchased at any supermarket) Lit in transition and prayer- the “light of Christ” never goes out in our apartment.

In a useful pastoral handbook, The Book of Occasional Services (2003), there is even a format- “Setting Apart Secular Space for Sacred Use”.

“Blessed are you, O God, ruler of the universe. Your gifts are many, and in wisdom you have made all things to give you glory. Be with us now and bless us as we dedicate our use of this space to your praise and honor. As often as we worship you here, precede us and abide with us. Be known to us in the Word spoken and heard, in fellowship with one another, and in the breaking of bread.

Give us joy in all your works, and grant that this space may be a place where your will is done and your name glorified; through Jesus Christ our Savior, in the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen.” (BOS p.245) So dedicate such a place within your home, apartment or even your room. A place for reflection and reverencefor you Mass Sine Populo, to pray for the Church Suffering and celebrate the Church Triumphant! We rejoice

for those who have actual churches- to call the attention of the world to the love and promise of our Lord, but no less is the splendor and majesty of our Sacred Space in a Secular Place!

Oh yes- for those of you that did read my “Where is your church?” I am still praying and searching for that church building to celebrate a beautiful Mass. Nothing extravagant mind you, but a pipe organ would be nice.

Father Wolf is a priest in the International Old Catholic Churches, Inc. He lives with his husband in Aberdeen, New Jersey.

Building Parishes (Continued from page 32) more than any “bad news”, and allowing my parish a voice in being what it needs to be. If my parishioners are feeling the ‘oneness” they will tell others, and they have and will come.

Father Ronald Stephens is the pastor of St. Andrews Church in Warrenton, Virginia. He is set to be consecrated as a Bishop on September 14, 2013. He and his partner live in Reston, Virginia.

37

Friar’s Fancy The Right Rev. Aaron Edmund N. Cass metropolitan@myiocc.org

Remembering the 1963 March on Washington Editor’s Note: Bishop Cass has been gracious enough to grant his permission to publish this that he gave at the 50th Anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s March on Washington Rally in Greenville, South Carolina. This speech was give on August 24, 2013.

F

ifty years ago this next week, people of all races, faiths, social status, genders and sexual orientations stood boldly and proudly in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. Out of that march we have the well known and often recited I Have A Dream speech by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. While we have come far as a nation, we still have a long way to go. We are not truly equal until everyone is equal. That equality must be extended to all

people, regardless of their race, faith, gender, sexual orientation or social and economic status.

This last week, in this very state, another group of people were added to the list of those who are oppressed by the government. In Columbia, South Carolina, the city council voted to accept a plan that would make it a crime to be homeless. They have accepted a plan to move all homeless people into camps and require that they stay there or be arrested. They have even accepted that a permanent solution will be implemented

by April of next year. What this permanent or final solution may be has yet to be revealed, yet the city council has accepted it sight unseen!

Equality is not equality if it does not apply to everyone.

Today in our nation, women still make less than their male 38

Bishop Cass at the Rally counterparts. In many states, you can be fired for being gay or transgendered. In Iowa, the courts have ruled that if you are a woman and you are too pretty, you can be fired because of your looks and the temptation you supposedly present to your male coworkers.

Women who are raped or who get pregnant out of wedlock are slut shamed by society. They are considered by the government to be a burden and their support, after they give birth, of course, is systematically being taken away. This is not equality, this is bigotry.

Sadly, too many of those who practice this kind of bigotry do so in the name of Christ. Yet,

we know that Christ taught us to care for all people that Christ ministered to everyone regardless of who they were.

We also know that Christ believed that all people were equal in the eyes of God from his interactions with those who were considered the outcasts of his day: the Samaritans, tax collectors and prostitutes. So much did he value equality that the first people he appeared to were those who were not treated as equals in his day: Mary Magdalene and the women who accompanied her.

And today the fight for equality continues. This fight started before the great march on Washington and ended well after it. However, that event (Continued on page 40) 39

was a pivotal moment for this march for equality. It was a moment that helped to cement in the minds and hearts of many Americans the need for all people to be equal.

On that day, the newly appointed and first ever Archbishop of Washington DC, Archbishop Patrick O’Boyle, who was himself a firm supporter of Dr. King and the effort to bring equality to all people, stood up and prayed for God’s blessing on this rally.

Today, I wish to share with you those inspired words. “Our Father, Who art in heaven, we who are assembled here in a spirit of peace and in good faith dedicate ourselves and our hopes to You. We ask the fullness of Your blessing upon those who have gathered with us today, and upon all men and women of good will to whom the cause of justice and equality is sacred. We ask this blessing because we are convinced that in honoring all Your children, we show forth in our lives the love that You have given us.

Bless this nation and all its people. May the warmth of Your love replace the coldness that springs from prejudice and bitterness. Send in our midst the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of all to the great truth that all men are equal in Your sight.

Let us understand that simple justice demands that the rights of all be honored by every man.

Give strength and wisdom to our President and Vice President. Enlighten and guide the Congress of these United States. May our judges in every court be heralds of justice and equity. Let just laws be administered without discrimination. See to it, we implore, that no man be so powerful as to be above the law, or so weak as to be deprived of its full protection.

We ask special blessings for those men and women who in sincerity and honesty have been leaders in the struggle for justice and harmony among races. As Moses of old, they have gone before their people to a land of promise. Let that promise quickly become a reality, so that the ideals of freedom, blessed alike by our religious faith and our heritage of democracy, will prevail in our land.

Finally, we ask that You consecrate to Your service all who in this crusade are dedicated to the principles of the Constitution of these United States. May we be sensitive to our duties toward others as we demand from them our rights. May we move forward without bitterness, even when confronted with prejudice and discrimination. May we shun violence, knowing that the meek shall inherit the earth.

But may this meekness of manner be joined with courage and strength so that with Your (Continued on page 70) 40

Guest Writer The Rev. Deacon Dollie Wilkinson dolliewilkinson@gmail.com

Lessons in Courage: Women in the Bible Editor’s Note: This is the continuation of a multipart series by Deacon Dollie Wilkinson on Women in the Bible.

Martha

I

n another time and place, Martha might well have been called “the hostess with the mostest.” She had taken on the task of managing the home of her brother Lazarus, who provided for her and her sister Mary. Since the family enjoyed a position of some prominence in Bethany, it was incumbent upon Martha to ensure the house was always presentable and that Lazarus was always ready receive guests. It was a task that made the most of her natural gift of hospitality. And she attacked it, we can imagine, with great gusto.

walk over the Mount of Olives to the Temple in Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples apparently were frequent guests when they visited the Temple. They would have been welcomed by this attentive woman, who would have immediately leapt into action to provide everything a visitor could want. She bustled around her home attending to the many duties required to care for her friends.

On one memorable occasion, Martha was so intent on her duties that she was bustling around the house during Jesus’ teaching, even as her sister Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and learned. As much as Martha enjoyed being a hostess, she was annoyed about doing all the work herself.

“Lord, do You not care that (Continued on page 57)

Since Bethany was a short 41

Book Review Convergent Streams Staff staff@convergentstreams.org

Sister Augustine, an Old Catholic Fantastically Engrossing Biography By: Christine Hoinigen-Huene (freifrau von). Authorized Translation from the German Memorials Of Amalie Von Lasaulx. Published January 1881 by H. Holt. Available on Google Play as a scanned book.

A

s an American Old Catholic, I had asked many more learned than I if there were any martyrs in the Old Catholic Church. At the time, I was thinking more of Old Catholics who had died because they were Catholic, were preaching the Good News, or simply for being Christian.

It simply did not occur to me that there might be Old Catholics who were tortured or died simply because they refused the “novel new dogma” of Papal Infallibility that was more or less ordered into being

by the extremely dysfunctional Vatican I council. After all, it was the 1870’s, and tempers would have flared, but surely the times would have precluded anything more than the threat of excommunication!

How wrong I was, and how majestic, holy, and deserving of emulation is the example given us by this Holy nun, Sister Augustine of Bonn. While her life as a Sister of Charity provides ample examples of a holy nature and spiritual works that alone would make her a candidate for sainthood, it is in those final paragraphs as she lay dying in extraordinary pain- undergoing inquisition, interrogation, threats, and tortures of the spirit and mindthat the saint most purely shines through. A “must read” for Catholics!

43

Guest Writer Brenda Eckels Burrows, aMGC brendaanneckels@gmail.com

Opportunities and Barriers To Catholic Unity Essay Three: What’s That Smell?

I

n Essay One, the following graph was discussed (fig. 1) and among the items discussed was that it purported to show the number

Figure 1

of adherents of various groups of followers of Jesus throughout history. It was, in essence, denominational propaganda designed to reinforce a dogma of triumphalism. We are the only true church.

That belief has been the bringer of division and death since the earliest days of its inception, and if one were to present a similar graph with icons of skulls for every 100 people who died because of that belief throughout history, both for and against, it would be fairly easy to see the 44

Satan we should be most concerned with is us humans for coming up with the idea and slapping words like dogma on it. It is one thing to believe that you have found the best truest path for you to become, as Roman writer Matthew Kelly famously puts it, “the best version of yourself”. It is another thing entirely to hold the delusion that what works for you works for everybody.

So, how did it come about that some unknown hardworking person back decades ago sweated and labored so long and so hard over this graph to, in less than delicate words, scare the members of his denomination against even thinking about worshiping elsewhere? One reason is a bad word being made semi-famous by a comedian actor and former political speech writer. It roughly translates into trash, in this case trash data.

Data is a funny thing. While it is a concrete item, existing in space and time, it is also a lot like plastic. You can bend it, twist it, paint it in funny colors, look through it, and join it with other data to create anything from a Lego castle to a propaganda brochure. You can drown humans in it, deny humans access to it, or create it out of thin air. Data can be as fictional as a face-book name, or as real as a date of birth and anywhere in between.

Yet, data is one of the most important tools in measuring, enumerating, categorizing, and

making what looks like chaos into something recognizably Catholic.

Imagine we wanted to update the graph in figure 1 for the community that was presented in red. This was, of course, the Roman Catholic Church.

They were the producers of the dogma and the graph, the spiritual home of the unnamed man who worked so hard on it believing in his heart that he was going to save people from hell. This is not to say that Romans have some lock on the propaganda market – they don’t. Each and every Catholic denomination has to walk a fine line between what is Proclaiming the Good News to them and symbolically beating people over the head with dogma sticks. For every “Christian” romance novel in a US Walmart, there is at least 10 Westboro Baptist church signs and a few Jack Chick booklets.

Pre-Vatican II Romans that held the belief that there was no salvation outside the Roman Church are as deserving of the right to hold that belief as those Romans who choose to believe it are today. Where things go wrong is when this trash data is used to justify a claim to be “the biggest”, “the best”, or “the most right”. Each of those titles is a sign that the denomination using them has become to focused on things of this world, and not enough on the things of the next world.

The first problem is the (Continued on page 46) 45

(Continued from page 45) footnotes. Especially the missing ones. In this day and age, when so many humans can go to Wikipedia and see bright banners that warn them of missing inline citations, original unproven research, or too much reliance on one text, we forget that for most of Catholic – even Christian – history no such thing existed.

Here in the US, when asked how big a parish is, most of the time the spokesperson replies with something along the lines of “We have x registered parishioners, and an average of y people at Sunday mass.”

No one really knows how many Romans are in a parish because there is no direct correlation between memberships and attendance, nor between baptisms and attendance. To rely just on parish registrations would perhaps give a lower number than what the pastor actually has to work with each Sunday, but to only quote the attendance would arbitrarily assign as Roman Catholics the non-catholic spouses, visitors, and folks from other Christian churches that happen to be there that day.

In fact, even Wikipedia has to rely on a blog to list membership statistics for the Roman Catholic Church.

The entry there begins with “The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world’s largest Christian church, with 1.2 billion members. [note 1]”

The footnote does not (as one might expect in a church with a governmental system as big and complex as the Vatican) cite Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (the Vatican statistical yearbook). Instead, the footnote clarifies that 1.2 billion really means 1,214 million, that the figure is from 2011, and that it is the number of baptized Catholics worldwide.

It then indicates that 17 million of the baptized Catholics are members of the various Eastern Catholic Churches that while having a separate rite, theology, governance in the lower levels, have chosen to become part of the Vatican system with the Pope as infallible leader over them.

Wikipedia then directs the reader to a sub footnote, which is where the reader finally finds out “Who said that?”

In this case, the who is still rather murky. In a May 13, 2013 blog entry titled “World’s Catholic population steady; up in Africa and Asia, down in Europe and Americas” at catholicculture.org, it states “On May 13, Pope Francis received the first official copies of the 2013 Annuario Pontificio, the annual Vatican directory, along with the statistical yearbook, the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae. The statistics show the world’s Catholic population rising from 1,196 million in 2010 to 1,214 million in 2011.

The Catholic proportion of the world’s overall population remained steady at 17.5%.”

Who is Catholicculture.

46

org? As taken from the About section: “The mission of CatholicCulture.org is to give faithful Catholics the information, encouragement, and perspective they need to become an active force for renewal in the Church and in society, working to shape an authentically Christian culture in a secular world. This information helps readers cope with the full range of spiritual, moral, political, social, cultural, and ecclesiastical challenges with which sincere Catholics must daily contend in every aspect of their lives—including the family, the inner life of the Church, education, the workplace, public policy, and the interplay between faith and culture. CatholicCulture. org is run by a non-profit (501 c 3) corporation, Trinity Communications.

The board and officers of Trinity Communications are Catholic laymen faithful to the Magisterium of the Church, who seek to enrich faith, strengthen the Church and form Catholic culture according to the mind of the Church.”

Huh? Who the heck is Trinity Communications?

In 1985, Trinity Communications was a little print house that made various booklets and other Catholic ephemera. As of 2011 it had become a very profitable business for the Mirus family along with a popular blog on Roman Catholic topics. Jeffrey, Barbara, Peter, and Matthew Mirus run the company,

with Matthew making a little under $12,000 a year as an employee. Peter, the Secretary of the board, makes just under $7,000. Barbara is the Treasurer, and does not get paid to do so. Jeffrey makes $100,000 a year to run the charity that spends just over $100,000 a year to Domus Enterprise of Lancaster, MA for website content. What content?

Well, Domus Enterprise lists as directors Philip F. Lawler, his wife Leila Lawler, and Elizabeth Day Edwards. Phil is a writer, not a supplier of web content like news feeds, Java applets, or those awesome graphics that end up on Facebook and Tumbler. He writes books, including one that posits the existence of a “lavender mafia” of gay clergy as one reason sexual predators were allowed to wreak the damage they did.

Trinity Communications has two reviews at guidestar.org, a nonprofit ranking service used by many grant foundations and donors. One from 2009 says “There is something fishy about this organization.

It seems to use a business in conjunction with a non-profit organization in unseemly ways, running money through one or the other, transferring funds between the two,, all for the sake of gain for the family that owns the business and runs the non-profit organization.

They are constantly soliciting donations, saying they need $30,000/month to run the website catholicculture.org, and (Continued on page 48) 47

(Continued from page 47) this website is not even close to a little site like fisheaters. com in terms of internet traffic (see Quantcast). I get an e-mail asking for money every two or three days, it seems, and enough is never enough. I would love to see an investigation of Trinity Communications and Catholic Culture to see what is really going on. My guess is that they’d lose their non-profit status if the facts were known.”

The other, from September 21, 2012, says “Like the other reviewer, I’d like to know what this place does with the money they get. They claim to need thousands and thousands of dollars a month to run a website that only has a few writers.

My guess is that they also get money from political groups also to push GOP type politics.

They are all the time sending emails asking for more and more money and it strikes me as off somehow.”

Now, it is entirely possible that Catholicculture.org is a fine resource for Roman Catholics who are interested in promoting adherence to the Magisterium.

However, one has only to read sociologist (and Roman priest) Andrew Greeley’s various reports to know that only one subset within the Roman system is interested is even hearing what the Magesterium has to say, never mind following it or promoting it. Why then would other Catholic Churches, in discussing unity, be interested in how big or small a

blog owned by one family thinks the Roman side of the Catholic church is?

Perhaps it might be easier to get a handle on how many Catholics are Roman if the Academic world is researched.

In the US, the second most quoted source after beleaguered pastors is CARA. CARA is a national, non-profit, Georgetown University affiliated research center that conducts social scientific studies about the Catholic Church. Founded in 1964, CARA has three major dimensions to its mission: • to increase the Church’s self understanding • to serve the applied research needs of Church decision-makers • to advance scholarly research on religion, particularly Catholicism In light of the lofty words of the mission statement, surely here one could find some reliable data about Catholics, be they Roman, Slovakian Orthodox, Old, Anglican, or Independent. Yet, the frequently requested statistics list the 2013 population of US Catholics at 66.8 million people as per The Official Catholic Directory and 78.2 million people as per the “selfidentified, survey-based” methodology.

Again, footnotes are missing.

An e-mail request with the following questions was sent May 22, 2013: 1. Do the CARA surveys at 48

any time identify that they are owned/operated by the particular denomination Roman Catholic Church?

2. Do the CARA surveys at any time ask respondents what denomination of Catholic they consider themselves to be?

3. Do the CARA surveys provide examples of denominations such as Greek Orthodox, Melkite Catholic, Old Catholic, Episcopalian, Anglican, or Independent Catholic? If so, what denominational examples are given? If not, why not?

As of August 10, 2013 no one at CARA has responded to a request about the questions.

So, the first problem is that just in the number of Roman Catholics in the United States there is a discrepancy of over 11 million people in just two of the data sets. If that percentage of error were to hold true across the world, the possible number that CARA would use to compare to Phil Lawler and the Mirus family could be quite a bit smaller.

In essence, both with Catholicculture.org and any survey done by CARA, there is the same problem: bad data that arises from bad methodology.

A CARA survey may or may not be talking about Roman Catholics. If someone who is Old Catholic gets a phone call survey that lets them say what they are, they can say “Old Catholic”, but many survey companies don’t use real people

anymore for telephone surveys, they use auto prompt multiple choice questions. If the choice is “Press one for Catholic, Two for Protestant, Three for Jewish, Four for Muslim, Five for Buddhist, or Zero for none of the above” what is an Old Catholic going to pick? How about your average Anglican or Episcopalian? This is why methodology of a survey to collect data is one of the first places trash data can be created. Now, this is not to say CARA’s surveys (or Phil Lawler’s creative writing) are trash data.

They may in fact be very useful data, but without the footnote cluing us in, without being able to see the full methodology, including the sample survey, the reader has no idea what value the data or the conclusions it is supporting have.

Trash data in Catholic denominations causes all sorts of problems for Catholic unity.

Let’s start with: • defining the term “Bishop” as being a consecrated member of the denomination responsible for the administration of a diocese, • defining the term “diocese” as being a geographic area with at least one faith community or parish.

• Defining the term “faith community or parish” as an assembly of believers who are members of the denomination, who attend services at least once per month, and who have within its number at least 3 human beings, of which at least (Continued on page 50) 49

(Continued from page 49) one is a lay person.

How many current Catholic Bishops get left out? It would include not only the much maligned Bishops with apostolic succession but no laity, but also a good number of Bishops now retired in many denominations.

It would also exclude all the Bishops who hold “sees” that no longer exist. Finally, it would exclude all the Bishops in the entire Catholic world who have only missions or scattered faithful in the geographic area that his or her diocese covers.

Is that going to result in a true count of Catholic Bishops?

What if we change the definition of ”bishop” to being a consecrated member of the denomination responsible for the administration of a diocese, or retired from such a position, or holding some other concurrent office within the denomination?

This would add back the Independent Bishops who are also board members, or corporation officers of the denomination, but also would include Bishops like Bernard Law. Does anyone outside the Vatican walls still consider him to be a true Catholic Bishop?

One barrier to unity is not just the stench of the criminals, it is figuring out how to detect the sweeter smell of a real bishop in terms of the One Holy Catholic Apostolic

Church. Another barrier is that each denomination defines membership differently, and there is currently no accepted answer to the question “Who is a Catholic?”

The Mirus Family use baptized Roman Catholics.

Considering that http://www. interaksyon.com/article/56781/ infographic-roman-catholicchurch--fast-facts lists that baptisms increased by over 6 million in Africa alone, it is not so surprising that the number they come up with is massive.

However, by looking at some data from France, it is fairly easy to see that merely being baptized is not in and of itself a good marker of whether someone is Catholic, Roman or otherwise.

In 2010, there were 833,654 live births in France. 583,600 of these were to parents that both lived in France. 129, 025 of the births were to couple with one parent born in France and one parent born elsewhere.

The total number of possible Roman Catholic newborns can then be estimated at no more than 712,625. Because only 10% of French Roman Catholics reported being active churchgoers that year, the number of newborns in households that had at least one parent actively attending church can be estimated at 71,262. That year, only 64% of French people self identified as Roman Catholic, and the number of those that attended services regularly was a mere 4,029,760 (6.4% of the 50

population). There is a clear difference between people who consider themselves Roman Catholic, but do do not actually attend services and those who do. Moreover, if the number of baptized newborns is only around 71, 000 there will be in 16 years only that many new adult Roman Catholics who have been confirmed AND who have any actual history of being an active participant in the community of believers.

For the Roman church – either officially or unofficially – to claim that in France in 2010 had a large population of members is to include those who never set foot inside of a church after baptism. Is that really what constitutes a member?

In many Independent Catholic denominations in the US, on the other hand, the statistics are reversed. It is not unusual to find that the mass attendance actually exceeds the number of registered members of the denomination.

This happens in part because many IC’s have an open table, meaning that they welcome everyone to fully participate in the mass, including communion.

Because the sacrament of communion, the benefits of community, and the experience of communal worship are not restricted to official members it is more likely that there will be folks who regularly attend mass, go to the coffee hour after, even sometimes support the denomination financially, but who actually maintain

a membership in another denomination. When the pastor of such a community is asked “How many Catholics are in your church?” She or he will respond with the registered member number, and then mention the mass attendance.

Why would someone be a member of one denomination, but worship somewhere else? The reasons are varied.

Sometimes, there may simply be no nearby church community of the person’s denomination.

In some areas of the country cemeteries are owned by denominations, and there is an implied pressure to remain part of that denomination because of that. Finally, it is a sad reality that some denominations are so triumphalist that they teach members to fear changing membership to another denomination, even within the Catholic faith, so they worship and donate where they are spiritually fed, but avoid actually joining the community they worship with.

The concept of a diocese, on the other hand, is a holdover from the Roman Empire.

During that time, a diocese was a particular collection of provinces. When the empire collapsed in the 5th century, church officials filled the vacuum that occurred. Today, the definition of diocese has been changed by the 9th century Carolingian empire and by it’s association with parishes as a definer of a bishop’s (Continued on page 52) 51

(Continued from page 51) jurisdiction. To this day some denominations, such as the Old Catholics that belong to the Union of Utrecht and the Roman Catholic Church have specific rules that prohibit one diocese from overlapping another, or from more than one Bishop to have jurisdiction over a geographic area. In addition, some denominations will not create or name a diocese until a particular number of faith communities or parishes have been established.

These differences present other barriers to Catholic unity.

If the the mechanism used by the Catholic Church to express unity is the Catholic Council, and such a council is defined as being a gathering called by one or more Bishops of the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church, there has to be some commonly agreed definition of what a bishop is, what a bishop actually oversees, and who a Catholic who might stand beside such a bishop is. Without some sort of means to measure each of the three, the squabbles over succession, jurisdiction, and authority will continue.

In order to be able to properly account for what a Bishop is, what bishops actually oversee, and who the Catholics are standing with a bishop, there is another barrier. That mountain yet to be climbed is of the heart. Catholics from the highest prelate to the new confirmed member must grow in the spirit to talk and

think in honesty, humility, and truthfulness about what those three parts of Catholic life are.

It is past time for humans to set aside all those things that have been used as an excuse to main and kill, to harass and persecute, and to inflate the collective egos of hundreds of denominations, bishops, and Catholics.

A Catholic is not just a person who completes a registration form. A Catholic is a human being who actively walks with his or her community toward Jesus. A community can be a mission, a parish, a fellowship, a monastery, a convent, or an association. Jesus said “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” (Matthew 18:20 NRSVCE). If a man, his spouse, and their child are the only people at mass, well, Jesus spoke pretty clearly, and no human should be in the business of saying that does not constitute a community.

On the same note, claiming to have hundreds – or billions – of members solely based on a baptism certificate is dishonest.

Denominations of all sizes need to come clean about just who the actual members of the church denomination are, and all Catholics need to get over the fact that the largest single group of Catholics in many areas of the world are those who are not active or part of a community.

The next area that must be clarified then is that of the Bishop’s relationship to 52

the community. The endless debates about overlapping jurisdictions, how many parishes in a diocese, and how many priests per bishop are all of human origin, and all have to do with power. The single most efficient way to separate what concerns are ego and power based versus those that are not is to remove power and it’s cousin, authority from the equation.

There is a difference between an inquirer who is unsure of whether they wish to become Catholic, a baptized but uneducated person like a child or an illiterate, a catechumen who has decided he or she wants to be Catholic, but who hasn’t been baptized, a non active or cultural Catholic, and a active educated Catholic.

This is one area of opportunity – Catholics are creative, and it would be useful to create terms for each of these types of humans in our communities.

Perhaps something like Inquirer, Student, Catechumen, Non Active, and Active Educated could become standard categories that humans completing a survey for CARA or for a parish yearbook could choose from when completing the survey. For a busy Bishop overseeing a large diocese with many parishes, it might be tremendously useful to know that parish A only has one educated active member trying to help the pastor with 20 Inquirers and students so that said bishop could send beginning religious education materials there and systemic

theology according to St. Augustine to the parish that has 20 active educated members who don’t need basic religious education materials.

Within the larger Catholic world, Catholics think nothing of requiring, for example, that Bishops be baptized and confirmed in the Catholic faith. However, far too many denominations require nothing more to be counted as a Catholic and a member of the community than a birth certificate. While two or three people may, in God’s eyes, be a community, it is entirely up to us, as Catholics, to decide what constitutes a Bishop . Might it not be time to separate the role of Bishop from the authority and power of being the deciding vote at a Catholic council, or a denominational synod, and instead invest that group of active educated Catholics with the communal holding of that power and authority?

How different would a Catholic Council look and act if it were comprised not of bishops alone, but each bishop being required to attend with active educated members of his or her denomination in direct proportion to that denomination’s size? A denomination can claim 100,000 members and 20 bishops, but those 20 bishops cannot participate based on their own authority. They must each have at least 1 active educated member for (Continued on page 54) 53

(Continued from page 53) every 100 members attend a council with them. Saying you are the bishop of 10,000 without disclosing that 9,000 of these are children under 16 and people baptized but not active or educated is just plain dishonest. Those 9,000 would have no way of knowing better if you pronounced the sun revolves around the earth! To issue a proclamation on behalf of your denomination about civil marriage equality that contains beliefs 70% of your active educated members don’t hold is fraud.

Could Catholics further agree that none of those representative members be related to or in a subordinate position to said bishop? You can certainly have a house church with your spouse and child, but that doesn’t make you a Catholic bishop. Just the same, a bishop cannot just bring along a seminarian who is entirely dependent on his superior for education, ordination, and assignment.

What if Catholics agree that the member representatives must reflect the entire diversity of the denomination? This means that denominations like the Roman Catholic Church would have to include adult educated members who were black, female, and gay.

Denominations that were created to serve the GLBTQ community would have to include straight people, and denominations that had 50%

of their members living in poverty would have to include them. How much more weight, authority, truth, and believability would a document on human sexuality or poverty produced by such a council have?

Because power corrupts and authority is such a seductive tool, it may be many more generations before such a gathering could actually be contemplated. However, every day we can get up and try to slowly put one foot in front of the other and follow the model Jesus gave in not lording authority or power over others. By dividing the authority in a Catholic denomination, or indeed the entire Catholic Church, over all the members instead of just a Bishop, a protected class , or simple loudest squeakiest wheel, the Holy Spirit would have room to move us in becoming a better version of ourselves both personally and as a church.

Honesty in what we call Catholic, in what we call member, in how we define Bishop, church, diocese and parish is important. Data matters, and one small step forward could simply be a commitment by denominations both large and small to a more accurate portrayal of where in the spectrum of discipleship each denomination’s members are, how many there are, and who actually stands behind each Bishop as an active educated member. Once there is a clear, objective picture of 54

who is Catholic, what Catholics believe, and where Catholic denominations are going, the How to be One Holy Catholic Church will become that much more clear to us all.

As promised, Foot Notes for the data: According to a poll conducted in 2001 for French Catholic magazine La Croix, numbers are: Roman Catholic 69% (only 10% being listed as regular churchgoers). Author questions the date of 2001, and is using the 2007 date.

“Yesterday’s poll showed that only 10 per cent go to church regularly — mainly to Sunday mass or christenings.

Of the 51 per cent who still call themselves Catholics, only half said they believed in God. Many said they were Catholics because it was a family tradition.” The Telegraph, France ‘no longer a Catholic country’,

By Henry Samuel in Paris.

Assumptions: • That the age of confirmation for those born into the denomination is generally 16.

• That the majority of confirmations are of regular Roman Catholics born into that denomination.

• That the birth rate among Roman Catholics in France from 16 years prior to the confirmation statistics is roughly equal to the number of

baptisms for that time period.

• That since only one overseas department of France does not have a population that is majority Roman Catholic, birth rates in France, and Roman denomination information are in total of metropolitan and overseas France.

• That the number of Roman Catholics in France who have children confirmed are part of the % of regular churchgoers for that particular time period.

• That the number of Roman Catholics who choose to baptize a child are part of the total population of Roman Catholics, including both regular churchgoers and non-regular churchgoers, and are those that have some underlying belief in God. The formula used to project for 2015 is as follows: =SUM(2010 figure+(#2010 figure*((#1985 percentage change+1990 percentage change+1995 percentage change+2000 percentage change+2005 percentage change+2010 percentage change)/6))) The percentage of Roman Catholics in France who attended mass regularly in 1985 is estimated at 15%, in 2010 at 10%, and in 2015 at 10%.

If one or both parents of a newborn was born in (Continued on page 56) 55

(Continued from page 56) France, then that child could be considered culturally Roman Catholic based on the percentage of self identified Roman Catholics for that time period in France.

The number of self identified Roman Catholics in France in 2010 (64%) is based on data from “The Collapse of the Church in France ”http://roratecaeli.blogspot.com/2010/01/ collapse-of-church-in-france. html The number of self identified Roman Catholics in France in 1990 (75%) and 1995 (75%) are estimated.

Statistics on mass attendence in France in 1980 (15%), 1990 (16%), 2000 (12%) and 2005 (12%) from http://cara. georgetown.edu/CARAServices/ intmassattendance.html Statistics On Roman Catholics In France from Wikipedia http://www.eglise.catholique.fr/ download/1-1792/statistiqueseglise-catholique-en-france2008.pdf Statistics on France Population & Live Births, data from French Catholic Magazine from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Demographics_of_ France#After_World_War_II

Other Resources consulted: http://www.dici.org/en/news/ the-catholic-minority-in-france/ When not writing for Convergent Streams, Brenda blogs at brendaanneckels. wordpress.com, is chief cook and bottle washer at Tender Mercies Ministry, and runs a Facebook group called Not All Catholics Are Roman...But All Catholics Are One (NACAR for short). In 2013 she began filming for a documentary on Catholicism in America. She is a passionate advocate for domestic violence prevention, mental health care, and vegetarian cooking. Disabled since 1993, she has had careers in banking, mental health care, retail, information technology, and has owned several businesses. A lay Franciscan religious in the ecumenical Mercy of God Community, she is an Old Catholic, a bride to be, a Steampunk fan, a Mom, and a Babka (Slovak for Granny).

Brenda enjoys riding Black Cherry, a 2005 Harley Davidson Roadking, crafting, slam poetry, and getting dressed up to sing karaoke. She lives in a tiny cabin by a lake in Southern New Hampshire with her fiance Brian, dog Booker, and every other weekend the last of the kids, Jamie. The other 14 kids – which she categorizes as “my baked, bought, and borrowed’s” are scattered around the US in careers ranging from culinary to health care and lots in between.

56

Lessons in Courage (Continued from page 41) my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”

And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” -- Luke 10: 40-42 Martha may have felt embarrassed by the Lord’s correction, but she redeemed herself when her brother died.

Now Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

-- John 11: 20-27 In this way, Martha became the first person He declared His

Martha, Jesus and Mary by Harold Copping cira 1927 true purpose to. Martha and Mary are very much different sides of the same coin. Mary’s rapt attention to Jesus can still serve as a model of worship to believers today, while Martha’s mix of pragmatism and faith is an object lesson to those who might become so holy that they are no earthly good.

Elizabeth Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has (Continued on page 58) 57

(Continued from page 57) been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” The angel answered, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.” -- Luke 1:9-19 Elizabeth was a righteous woman striving to obey all the commandments of God, but she had reached an advanced age without receiving the blessing of a child. Many believers today can relate. Haven’t you prayed long and hard for God to fulfill the desires of your heart, only to grow discouraged when no answer seems to be coming?

Maybe you’ve made the mistake of associating an unanswered prayer with sin or something else wrong on your part.

had dearly longed for a child.

They had prayed for one and the culture of the day had demanded they needed one. There are a multitude of reasons for barrenness. In this case it had nothing to do with sin, demonic oppression or even a medical condition. It had to do with God answering a prayer in a way that demonstrated His love and His power. There was no way Zacharias and Elizabeth could have produced an offspring without God’s intercession.

It’s instructive to compare Zacharias and Elizabeth to their Old Testament forebears, Abraham and Sarah. Both couples had waited years for a child, and with each passing year, their hopes grew dimmer.

When Sarah learned of God’s plans, her response was a mirthless laugh. Zacharias also found it hard to believe the angel who told him that he and Elizabeth would have a child. Do you blame him?

But while Sarah concocted a scheme to bring God’s plan to fruition on her own terms (becoming, in some guys’ estimation: Best. Wife.

Ever.), Elizabeth and Zacharias remained steadfast in their commitment and dedication to God. Their faith was not based on what God had done (or not done) in their lives, but on their love for Him. This love sustained them when others might have abandoned their beliefs.

Elizabeth and her husband

Sarah’s plan didn’t cause 58

God to renege on His pledge to Abraham, but she never could have imagined that her plan would lay the foundation for enmity between Jews and Muslims that persists to this day.

Elizabeth’s unquestioning faith, like that of her cousin Mary, yielded huge rewards.

Both women are examples of the importance of motherhood.

Too often this vital ministry has been overlooked. Some women have even been known to get ‘angry’ with God because they think they have ‘wasted’ their lives bringing up children while others have been involved in more “worthwhile ministry”.

What a mistake. God kept Elizabeth to bring up John at the right time. He trusted Elizabeth and that’s why He gave her John. What has God entrusted you with?

The life of Elizabeth is a beautiful example of an obedient believer being open to God’s plan and a clear picture of Christian ministry.

Let’s not forget that Elizabeth was probably old enough to be Mary’s mother. Yet they both had children at the same time.

Elizabeth had her child six months before Mary.

What can we learn from Elizabeth’s example today?

Age is no hindrance to ministry or God’s blessing. Keep loving the Lord out of a pure heart and His will for your life, will be fulfilled.

Christ’s birth, two generations were brought together, represented by Mary (still in her teens) and Elizabeth (probably over 60 years). Christ had come to bridge the generation gap.

Indeed, for any ministry to be truly effective, it must span all generations -- The children, parents, grandparents and great grandparents all are being touched by the movements of God. Sister Dollie Wilkinson is an Archdeacon in the International Old Catholic Church. She is also the Director of their Office of Staffing and Vocations. She and her spouse live in West Virginia.

Prayer of Saint Francis Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen 59

Guest Writer Brenda Eckels Burrows, aMGC brendaanneckels@gmail.com

All Things Have Small Beginnings The story of the ISM Family Reunion

O

ne fine day in August 2012 Bishop John Plummer, author of The Living Mysteries, set up a Facebook invitation for an event titled Independent Sacramental Family Reunion for the following July. The dates were listed as “Friday, July 5, - Monday, July 8, 2013 -- Or thereabouts.

Come and go as you wish!”

This was about as diametrically opposite from the recent Roman Catholic conclave of Cardinals at the Vatican as you could get.

That in a nutshell, is what you first notice about Catholic Churches in the Independent Sacramental Movement. They are different. There are many thousands of Independent Catholic Churches in the world today, encompassing all the continents except Antarctica.

An Independent Catholic Church

is a denomination of Catholicism that is marked by the fact it does not belong to a larger governing body.

While the Roman Catholic Church often claims to be the largest Catholic denomination, in reality the Vatican is comprised of many different Catholic Churches that all receive support and governance from the College of Cardinals and the Roman Pontiff. Vatican is the only major Christian denomination that is also a political and geographic entity, a carry over from the days when the roles between Conqueror, Emperor, Pontifus Maximus, and Pope were much more blurry than today’s modern world.

Anglican Catholics belong to the Anglican Communion, which is not a legal entity at all. While the Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of The Church of England, maintains an Anglican Communion Office in London, 60

it’s function is more of a supportive and organizational one. As per Wikipedia, The Communion is held together by a shared history, expressed in its ecclesiology, polity and ethos and also by participation in international consultative bodies. Orthodox Catholics look to the Holy Synods – gatherings of Bishops – for a form of governance.

It has been said that the problem with the Independent Catholics Churches is that they don’t answer to anyone. That is not, strictly, true. Independent Catholic Churches answer to the laity. They either have a form of governance where the laity directly participates, oversees, or directs the denomination, or they have a reality that regardless of how hierarchical or, at worst despotic, the governance is, if they do not attract and retain lay members, they quickly become hollow shells.

In addition, in theory at least, all Catholic denominations would participate and receive support and guidance from an ecumenical council of the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church (OHCAC). The hitch is that there has never been one. In fact, some Catholics within the ISM feel there can not be one because the head of the OHCAC is Jesus Christ, and he isn’t back yet.

Confused yet? It gets better.

Not every faith community, religious order, or denomination of faithful in the ISM are

even comfortable calling themselves Catholic. Bishop Plummer and the others who came up with the idea wrote it thus: “The Independent Sacramental Movement (or Independent Catholicism, Old Catholicism, Autocephalous/ Non-canonical Orthodoxy, Free Sacramentalism, Alternative Anglicanism, the world of the Wandering Bishops, etc.) is a big, complicated, and sometimes dysfunctional family – and we love it! Despite our considerable differences, we are related to each other, sharing a history and a devotion to sacramental practice. Some of us thought it would be fun to vacation in the same place with the intent of hanging out together. The best opportunities for support and collaboration often arise from friendship, regardless of jurisdictional membership or theology.”

While this would become the first such gathering of ISM people in what has come to be termed IRL – In Real Life – Independent Catholics and other faith communities that are part of the ISM had been visiting, sharing, calling, talking, making inter-communion agreements, and more for years in many parts of the world.

It all changed when a young man from White Plains, New York was sitting in his dorm at Harvard and met Divya Narendra, and twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. They had an idea for an internet based (Continued on page 62) 61

(Continued from page 61) dating site, and the young man was known as the go-to software developer on campus.

Whatever became of the dating site isn’t germane to this article.

Mark Zuckerberg’s FaceBook is.

By the end of 2004, Facebook had one million users, and today boats over 1 billion users.

Since 2004 it has become easier and easier for members of ISM communities all over the globe to not just find out about each others existence, but comment, discuss, debate, argue, and develop online with relationships with each other.

The Independent Sacramental Movement Facebook Group may only have 78 members, but there are other groups with close to 600, and some like the womenpriests.org page – which, while Roman, often attracts ISM members interested in nondiscrimination, have thousands.

Facebook hosts groups on Gregorian chant, Gnosticism, Celtic Christianity, and more, and all over the the world people who formerly just talked online have been traveling on an individual basis to get to know other like minded folk.

The invitation welcomed everyone. No matter what denomination they were, what clerical status, no matter what kind of governance they favored, all were welcome. All it asked was “We trust that all attendees will approach one another with an open and hospitable spirit, willing to learn

from those who are different (or at least be entertained by them!), even if we continue to disagree.”

Along with the explanation that any travel, accommodations, or other expenses were entirely up to the person accepting the invitation, the invitation laid out this ambitious plan, ”Our only agenda is to spend time with one other and foster friendship.

Attendees are welcome to offer liturgies, talks, social outings, or other events if desired. The organization of any event will be the responsibility of the person offering it. If we just sit around with beer and iced tea, telling stories and jokes, that’s fine, too.”

Shortly after launching, Bishop Plummer added John Treat, Bishop Timothy Cravens and Tom Simota as co-hosts, but in essence this was a ”leaderless event” so similar to some of those in the Occupy movement that it was as if someone had borrowed the game book. The first person to decide they wanted to go was Christian Medaglia. Within a few hours there was a small group, within a few days more than 20.

Shortly after launching, the event, someone asked the question “Why?” to which William Timlin posed the question “Why Not?” Not long after this exchange, Frank J. Stubits IV chimed in “That really doesn’t answer the question???

Are you the organizer?”

62

It remained a theme even up into the last days before the event. After announcing that I had gotten the doctor’s permission to go via motorcycle, one private message I received was along the lines of ‘Why can’t someone just send me a list of who is definitely coming?’

Another cleric complained that a Celtic denomination had offered to host a potluck.

‘Why should they be permitted to do anything without a Bishop’s approval?’ One Utrechtian-leaning Old Catholic cleric insisted that none of the ISM “events” actually

with their families and their churches, and looking into the area’s amenities. Like most people on the invitation list, I was not familiar with Asheville or nearby Black Hills, North Carolina. Having no major destination like Disney World or Six Flags, no horribly infamous unsolved crimes, and not being a home to the type of celebrities that grace the supermarket tabloids each week, it was something of a mystery.

Asheville is located in Buncombe County, where the current slogans at the Economic

Natural Bridge happen, they just talk about gathering. Others derided the ISM movement as ‘a bunch of loonies’, ‘nothing but liturgical drag queens’, and worse.

Quietly, however, a small group was clearing the dates in planners, debating whether to do a presentation, talking

Office are “Succeed Where Life Is a A Pleasure” and “Love What You Do, Love Where You Live”. The area is located in the western part of the state in the French Broad River valley.

According to www.hikewnc. info, the valley “basically (Continued on page 64) 63

Loading up the motorcycle (Continued from page 63) lies in the center of North Carolina’s Mountain region. The area is part of the southern Appalachian mountains, and the mountains in the region are the highest of the Appalachian chain.”

With a slightly higher number of people age 65 and older than the national average, plus it’s generally mild climate (see sidebar), and a fairly even distribution of age groups, Asheville has become a popular location both for retirees and growing families. For visitors, the Southern Charm of this city, which Good Morning America named Asheville one of the top three most beautiful places in America, is certain to inspire both adventures and interaction with the laid back locals. There is a thriving arts community, and American Style ranked Asheville #1 small city among

Top 25 Arts Destinations for the second year in a row. From the historic Biltmore Mansion, to the shopping and dining, to the over 3,000 miles of hiking trails in the area, Asheville is well deserving of the moniker “Paris Of The South.”

There was, indeed, a Celtic Church holding a potluck.

St. Andrew’s Celtic Church is reached by traveling east from Asheville on Route 40 into the community of Black Mountain.

Located less than 30 minutes from the city in the Swannanoa Valley, Black Mountain is the kind of community that once you have discovered it, you can not wait for an opportunity to return. While there are several conference centers in the vicinity, many come to Black Mountain for rest and relaxation. It is a very walkable town, with beautiful tree lined streets, upscale gift shops, galleries and Appalachian style 64

craft stores. The old fashioned general store has over 35,000 items in it’s inventory, and visitors are encouraged to plan on being an hour to see everything they have. With a population just under 8,000, the town has all the conveniences of city life nearby, but enjoys a down home country lifestyle.

Coming from the Northeast, I was more than a bit jealous that almost 80% of the residents surveyed recently reported that they spent 30 minutes or less on commuting to work.

The people we met from the town were unfailingly cheerful, helpful, and inviting. From the laundromat, where we met a musician, a mom, and a small business owner to the gas station attendant who took time to chat with us about where to best pull over on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we felt more at home than we had on any leg of the trip that far.

To reach the church, one passes numerous faith communities, including those of another Christian community with many different kinds of denominations. Within a few miles, we passed a Full Gospel, a Primitive, and a Free Will Baptist Church, merely three of the over 146 Baptist communities in the area.

During our visit there and in Asheville, we often saw two vastly different types of Baptist communities literally side by side on the roadway. God speed the day, I thought, when we Catholics can harmoniously do the same!

While we had every intention of being there and reporting from the very first bite of the Friday night potluck at St. Andrew’s, our trip down had been nothing less than an miniepic adventure. It was late Sunday afternoon when, having watched our beloved Harley, Black Cherry, get loaded into the the Roanoke dealer’s truck, we pulled the rental car into the parking lot and first laid eyes on the sign for St. Andrew’s over the door.

As we followed the little blue arrow on the GPS, we passed through a commercial area and entered a more residential one.

Many ISM faith communities are based in homes, barns, and small chapels on private land, but in my conversations with Bishop Ron Shelton, I knew we were seeking a storefront church. Wondering if we had gotten ourselves lost, the road dipped under an overpass of one of the highways, and suddenly the building became visible on the right. The small parking lot was, amazingly, still over half filled with cars, and through the window I could see figures standing up and looking out toward us.

On tape, it is hard to understand how exciting it was to finally be arriving to meet the people I had been talking, chatting, messaging, e-mailing, and getting to know for months.

I had begun to feel, the previous Friday night, that there (Continued on page 66) 65

(Continued from page 65) was an unseen hand trying to prevent us from being able to break bread, in more ways than one, with the folks who a year later had actually been able to travel and stay there.

St. Andrew’s is a very neat and tidy church, and the first moment I stepped in I felt a sense of relief, welcome, and happiness. By the time we made it there, the laity and some of the clergy had already left, but the priest in residence, Rev. Gerry Galbreath along with Bishop Ron, moved quickly to make both Brian and I feel welcome. As I was quickly introduced, the names fell about me: Fr. Tony from The Apostolic Johannite Church, Abbot David Galbreath and Bishop Ed Morrow (also from Apostolic Celtic Church). I barely had

time to smile at the young seminarian with that knowing look of “Oh, I can tell you are a Mom too!” I laughingly introduced Brian, my fiance, as “the token Roman” only to discover that St. Andrew’s also had one!

Soon Abbot David and Brian had the cameras ready, I was given an alb to replace the one that I had shipped down that hadn’t arrived on time, and the prayer service I presided at started. We gathered around the cross, read the passion, and came together as Catholics and for just a little while all the various facets of our differences just faced away and we were just together with Christ.

After the service, we all just sat and talked and the older and wiser members of the little group listened with patience to

Prayer Service at St. Andrew’s 66

the vision I had when I formed my Facebook group that there really was a future in which all Catholics could come together like we had during the service, even if only for a short time.

I got a chance to hear about the discussions they had had the previous day about how to grow communities, and we all talked about the idea of having a repeat event next year. Ron and Tony both brought up some excellent ideas about putting an event invite out and this time asking for feedback and input from the people invited, especially those like the United Independent Catholic Church and One church in Ohio that was the victim of the severe storms that damaged their building, who were not able to attend this year.

All too soon, it was time to go, and we took Phil up on his kind offer. Philip Biesi is a semiretired engineer, a passionate believer in healthy whole food, and equally involved with a love of peace and justice concerns in this world. With others from his Roman parish, St. Marge Mary, along with like minded people he has encountered along the way, Phil was busy actively developing a peace and justice themed ministry while also preparing to preach on how the Sermon on the Mount could be the basis for a Christian life, running his engineering firm, mentoring an engineering intern from a local college, and attempting to keep the flowers around his home in bloom.

Despite that laundry list of to do’s, he very generously offered

Philip Biesi to house us for the evening.

The short trip to his home seemed to be taking us up a mountain on a successive series of roads that were more and more primitive, and having lived in NH’s North Country I half expected that soon we would be on a country dirt path. However, the final turn swept us down and around a circular drive and into what could only be described as a Celtic nature lover’s dream. The home, done is a Spanish stucco, was nestled into the side of the mountain as if it had grown there instead of being built by human hands. An ancient unnamed saint stood guard over a small grotto built into the stone retaining wall that kept the mountain from falling onto us, large shade trees provided a canopy overhead, and flowers greeted us along the walkway to the door. By the end of the evening, Brian had developed a serious love affair not just (Continued on page 68) 67

Philip Biesi’s Home (Continued from page 67) with the cool air, but also the covered patio with comfortable lounge chairs just perfect for resting and considering all the glories of God. There is nothing worse than two tinkerers discovering each other, and long after we had shared conversation about my church, his churches, ministries, and all sorts of things religious, Phil and I delved into conversation about rain barrels, gardens, creating solutions with great engineering (him) and with nothing but bubble gum and duct tape (me). We chatted about college age men and women and the unique and sometimes mystifying ways that generation does things, about being widowed, aging, disability, and death.

Brian gave up on the two of us and headed to bed, laughing that he would not be surprised is he woke up in the morning to discover the two of us bent over some half finished gadget that would change the world and cost less than a dollar. It was one of the most satisfying and enjoyable nights of conversation I had experienced in months. As I went to sleep in the comfortable guestroom his late wife had decorated with impeccable taste, I thought to myself “How good it is to be alive and able to be here now.”

We spent the next day at Phil’s in a sort of working mini retreat, with me taking my usual daily office while tending to flowers and trees just as I do at home. All too soon, it was time for us to head back into Virginia to the hotel room we had left, and we had to say our goodbyes to this new friend.

68

We decided to take the famous Blue Ridge Parkway, and just about 5,000 feet, watched the sun set over the peaceful valley below.

In the end, my experience at the ISMFR 2013 was much shorter than I wanted, but much richer than I could have imagined it would be. I have learned from Fr. Tony so much more about Gnostic Catholics, that I feel more likely to understand some of the unique ways they live out their faith.

Phil taught me more than one lesson, from that old tinkerfanatics and engineers never stop tinkering and creating, to the importance of living that most difficult commandment from Jesus: Love One Another means everyone, even your enemy. I found such comfort in knowing that at St. Andrew’s, there is another not-so-old

woman living her vocation, who knows what it is like to have wiggly children next to you during a meeting or service.

Bishops Ed and Ron had such a natural way of working together, that they are a fine example of how merely having an episcopal ring doesn’t necessarily mean you have to compete for power.

Abbot and Rev. Gerry gave me incentive to think that I might still be doing reporting, lay services, ministry, or all three even into my 50’s. Bishop John taught me that even when everyone thinks your idea is crazy, you should go ahead, because it just might – like it did here – work. I am glad that those of us who stayed until the end that Sunday agreed that the ISMFR could and should be repeated next year. I sincerely like the idea of opening the (Continued on page 70)

Brenda overlooking the Blueridge Mountains 69

(Continued from page 69) invitation again, and soliciting input on everything from place to format to whether there really could be one phone number and email to contact with questions.

I have no doubt that there will be some, just like there were when TOCCUSA was formed, just as there were at the very first meeting after Carlos Duarte ordained his first bishops, who will insist that Asheville was not significant. I will continue to disagree with them. As Jesus said, “where two or three are gathered in my name....”

Amen.

When not writing for Convergent Streams, Brenda blogs at brendaanneckels. wordpress.com, is chief cook and bottle washer at Tender Mercies Ministry, and runs a Facebook group called Not All Catholics Are Roman...But All Catholics Are One (NACAR for short). In 2013 she began filming for a documentary on Catholicism in America. She is a passionate advocate for domestic violence prevention, mental health care, and vegetarian cooking. Disabled since 1993, she has had careers in banking, mental health care, retail, information technology, and has owned several businesses. A lay Franciscan religious in the ecumenical Mercy of God Community, she is an Old Catholic, a bride to be, a Steampunk fan, a Mom, and

a Babka (Slovak for Granny).

Brenda enjoys riding Black Cherry, a 2005 Harley Davidson Roadking, crafting, slam poetry, and getting dressed up to sing karaoke. She lives in a tiny cabin by a lake in Southern New Hampshire with her fiance Brian, dog Booker, and every other weekend the last of the kids, Jamie. The other 14 kids – which she categorizes as “my baked, bought, and borrowed’s” are scattered around the US in careers ranging from culinary to health care and lots in between.

MLK Rally (Continued from page 70) help, O Heavenly Father, and following the teachings of Christ, Your Son, we shall now and in the days to come live together as brothers in dignity, justice, charity and peace.”

Today, we continue that struggle to see equality for all God’s children. We continue to pray in the words of Archbishop O’Boyle, “Send in our midst the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of all to the great truth that all men are equal in Your sight.

Let us understand that simple justice demands that the rights of all be honored by every man.”

That is my prayer today and my prayer for all who struggle for equality. May God bless you all, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Amen.

70

Bishop Cass speaking at the Rally

71

Fourth Quarter Saints Wordsearch S L E G N A N A I D R A U G J O E S A R

E L O O T O E C N E R W A L A U L L L N

Z O Y N O M E R E A H C X L M R I O P A

L I N O I P M A C D N U M D E L Z S H O

I G B W U R L L U K E R X A S A A A O E

E N G O R B F O D R A R E G I D B N N D

T A E R G E H T T R E B L A N Y E N S A

GERARDOFBROGNE JOHNBERCHMANS STEPHEN OURLADYOFTHEROSARY ADELAIDE GUARDIANANGELS SYLVESTER LAWRENCEOTOOLE ELIZABETHOFHUNGARY EDMUNDCAMPION LUKE LUCY ALPHONSUSRODRIGUEZ ANYSIA LEOTHEGREAT

I T U N A N N A L F O W C B T O T S U M

S I R I V E A N Y S I A S R E F H Y S B

A U B L T C D A B P Z A C U R T O L R R

A S A P A S I I H C L Z E E C H F V O O

C O N E E A A Y A O S X C I I E H E D S

J F V K R M R P H L T D I D S R U S R E

O A F K G A S C V K E L L T U O N T I N

G N A S E D I W F Q P D I Q S S G E G O

U T J O H N B E R C H M A N S A A R U M

E I Q E T H C J U N E Y C U L R R V E I

S O U D O O Q J G W N T O R Q Y Y Q Z S

NICHOLAS JAMESINTERCISUS FLANNAN MARGARETMARY IGNATIUSOFANTIOCH AMBROSE JOHNOFTHECROSS CHAEREMON SIMON JOHNDAMASCENE ALBERTTHEGREAT URBANV ISAACJOGUES CECILIA JUDE

72

X C V U E J T W M A R G A R E T M A R Y

Y H U J L E J O H N O F T H E C R O S S

Saints Calendar October October October October October October October October October October October October October October October October October October October October October October October October October October October October October October October October

01: 02: 03: 04: 05: 06: 07: 08: 09: 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: 15: 16: 17: 18: 19: 20: 21: 22: 23: 24: 25: 26: 27: 28: 29: 30: 31:

St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Guardian Angels St. Gerard of Brogne St. Francis of Assisi St. Flora of Beaulieu St. Bruno Our Lady of the Rosary St. Simeon St. Denis and Companions Eleven Martyrs of Almeria, Spain St. Kenneth St. Felix and St. Cyprian St. Edward St. Callistus I St. Teresa of Avila St. Margaret Mary St. Ignatius of Antioch St. Luke St. Isaac Jogues, St. John De Brebeuf & companions St. Paul of the Cross St. Hilarion Blessed Timothy Giaccardo St. John Capistrano St. Anthony Claret Blessed Richard Gwyn St. Evaristus Blessed Contardo Ferrini St. Simon and St. Jude St. Narcissus St. Alphonsus Rodriguez St. Foillan

November November November November November November

01: 02: 03: 04: 05:

All Saints Day All Souls Day St. Martin De Porres St. Charles Borromeo St. Bertilla (Continued on page 74) 73

(Continued from page 73) November 06: St. Theophane Venard November 07: St. Willibrord November 08: St. Godfrey November 09: St. Theodore Tiro November 10: St. Leo the Great November 11: St. Martin of Tours November 12: St. Josaphat November 13: St. Frances Zavier Cabrini November 14: St. Lawrence O’Toole November 15: St. Albert the Great November 16: St. Margaret of Scotland November 17: St. Elizabeth of Hungary November 18: St. Rose Philippine Duchesne November 19: St. Nerses November 20: St. Edmund November 21: Presentation of Mary November 22: St. Cecilia November 23: St. Columban November 24: St. Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions November 25: St. Catherine of Alexandria November 26: St. John Berchmans November 27: St. James Intercisus November 28: St. Catherine Laboure November 29: Blessed Francis Anthony of Lucera November 30: St. Andrew

December December December December December December December December December December December December December December December December December December

01: 02: 03: 04: 05: 06: 07: 08: 09: 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: 15: 16: 17:

St. Edmund Campion St. Bibiana St. Francis Xavier St. John Damascene St. Sabas St. Nicholas St. Ambrose Immaculate Conception of Mary Blessed Juan Diego St. John Roberts St. Damasus 1 Our Lady of Guadalupe St. Lucy St. John of the Cross St. Nino St. Adelaide St. Olympias 74

December December December December December December December December December December December December December December

18: 19: 20: 21: 22: 23: 24: 25: 26: 27: 28: 29: 30: 31:

St. Flannan Blessed Urban V St. Dominic of Silos Peter Canisius St. Chaeremon & St. Ischyrion & Other Martyrs St. John of Kanty St. Charbel Christmas, the Birthday of Jesus St. Stephen St. John the Apostle The Holy Innocents St. Thomas Becket St. Anysia St. Sylvester

75