As I get older I sometimes long for home, and a time and place long before this place that is now home. If you have read the story of my first home and early years: The House on Sunny Street, you will know that going home to that exact physical location and visiting with my beloved family of origin there can not happen any more. But, I have learned that, thank God, there are many ways to go home again. Going home is any time we can connect with members of our chosen or given families and loved ones wherever they may be. And going home is when we can return to the place of our birth ,growing years, and earlier lives. Home for me now is in Fort Myers, Florida and it has been becoming my home since 1998 when I retired from fourteen years of being a Professor of Social Work at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work. Then I made my home near the school in West Hartford, Ct. Before that I was on the faculties of Columbia University SSW and NYU SSW and Manhattan was my home.   And before that for thirty-three years Brooklyn was my home. Our Good Shepherd family members and other chosen family here are home for us now. Yet, for me home will always be in Brooklyn, New York and New York City and in connecting with those who were part of that home and will always have a home in my heart. Thomas Wolf was wrong: you can go home again.

When we took our Good Shepherd kids to Washington D.C. in September I was able to connect with a sister friend from my youth,Martha Andrews Gentry. We were close friends throughout our teen years. Martha and I last saw each other at the second reunion of our Bethany church Youth Group in 2007.  Since then both of us faced and overcame serious life threatening illnesses and we both attribute our healing to faith in our loving God as much as to today’s advances in science and medicine. We were so happy to see each other as these photos show.  

We were also so happy to share our friendship with our Good Shepherd Youth. Martha is an artist and taught High School art as well. The teens were so happy to be welcomed into her lovely home, replete with her art and that of some of her students. It was exciting for all of us to join the very senior members of the Bethany Youth Group with the Good Shepherd Youth, coming full circle in a very special way.

Our Girls at Martha’s house with Martha in the background. 

How wonderful to be with Martha again! Martha is also a lay minister in her church, so here are the three pastors. 

Also wonderful was having my closest cousin/sister Jackie Weinmann Marion of Colombia, Maryland join us in Washington for two days.  This was the icing on the cake!

Jackie with Felice and Natasha

It was also a blessing to meet with RCWP Bishop Andrea Johnson who gave a blessing to our young people.

Pastor Judy Beaumont and Bishop Andrea Johnson 

From October 10th -13th Judy B and I  were blessed to be able to go home to New York. The first person we were privileged to see was 90 year old Sim, or Aunt, Way Kam Lee. Sim is my former husband’s paternal Aunt and Sim and I had many wonderful experiences together in the 1960’s and in later visits . We laughed a lot as we helped each other with language and aculturation to each other’s cultures. This is Sim with the literal fruits of her summer’s labor. She grew these extraordinary fruits in her garden in Baldwin, New York and has just finished harvesting them.  Not only are they huge but they are heavy and yet she got each one into her basement for safe keeping. Here she is giving a “shark fin soup melon” to our driver Edward who is also Chinese. She also informed us that last year she got tired of waiting for painters to come so she painted her house inside and out-at 89!!!  She also works out at the gym every other day. She is truly amazing!

Sim, Way Kam Lee

Our next stop was our hotel in Westbury, LI where Cousin Pat Sullivan-King picked us up to pick up Cousin Dorothy Shotwell Stewart in Oakdale for a celebration in Sayeville for the whole family. We were celebrating Cousin Dorothy’s 92nd September 20th Birthday and Cousin Bobby Robinson’s 80th Birthday on October 9th. We were also celebrating the coming together of five generations of Shotwells and three branches of this family that has been in America since 1650. We were overjoyed at  having so many of the younger members joining with us.

This is Cousin Bob with his wife Barbara and Cousin Pat and Cousin Dorothy(seated). Cousin Dorothy is the daughter of our Grandmother Ella’s brother Henry Shotwell. Cousin Pat is my Grandmother Ella’s sister Augusta’s (Gussie’s) granddaughter. We met each other about eight years ago through the genealogical studies of Bob, and Dorothy’s sister, Lorraine Edith Shotwell Walton, now gone home to God, and Pat’s daughter in law, Beth. How blessed it is to be united with family. At 92 Cousin Dorothy is still doing her very beautiful and accomplished art work and caring for herself and her cat. Her sons and grandchildren live nearby and visit often. She is also truly amazing. And suddenly Bobby and I feel young!

Here I am with Bob’s family, his daughter Kathy and son Ken and his wife, Lisa, and Kathy’s children, Jordan, just returned from Naval deployment in Afghanistan,Michelle and Travis Jay,15, and his grand children with Viviana Arcos, Jordan’s Colombian wife and and Efren Johannes Knoppert, his great grand son.  

This is Ken and Lisa, Kathy and George and Lori Whitlatch Post, who was present at my Ordination and visits us in Florida. 

This is Bob and me with Richie Dougherty and Lillian Dougherty Ebner,our cousins. 

This is Lillian with her daughter April and her son Mason Gerald who is just a year old.

These are our newest cousins meeting for the first time, Efren Johannes Knoppert and Mason Gerald Andresen. 

 And this is our five generations of the Shotwell clan and spouses gathered for a group photo. What a blessed evening! 

The next three days were spent in New York City and Brooklyn. Here we stayed in an apartment of a friend of Danny’s on the 32nd floor in the West Village.This is the view from the window. We could also see the Empire State Building and both rivers!

  This is Bob and Danielle and Laura our chosen family members. Danielle is a retired social work practitioner and educator and long time special friend. When 911 occurred she was one of the social workers who gave her time to work with those who experienced tragic losses. Her other passion is youth group work and she is looking forward to meeting our Good Shepherd teens. She and Bob contribute generously to our ministry. Bob is a retired Distinguished Professor of Business at NYU. Danielle and I met Laura when we worked with homeless women in New York in the early 1980’s. Through a series of events Laura, a devout Jew found herself in a women’s shelter. We helped her to move on and she in turn gave her life to helping others who faced homelessness. Her mitzvot life teaches us about giving oneself for others. Each time we come to New York  Judy B and I visit with her and she is our inspiration.

Here we are exploring the HIgh Line Park in Chelsea, an area turned into an urban forest like garden on an elevated railroad track. And so we learned that even a big city can become green and change for the better. Judy B. with Danielle and Laura

Of course, Brooklyn never lags far behind Manhattan and the next day we explored DUMBO, the new waterfront area of Brooklyn Down Under Manhattan Brooklyn Overpass, meaning under the Brooklyn Bridge. This area is reclaimed from garbage, and decayed buildings and rats. It is now very upscale, but one wonders where the ordinary folks can afford to live. We also wondered about the many homeless people sleeping in the streets in lower Manhattan. Some of it is attributable to the affordability of new and powerful synthetic street drugs but, as Laura said in outrage, this is unacceptable. We reflected that to have a home is a blessing and a human right that everybody deserves.  Encountering the number of homeless sleeping on the streets of the city is how I was called by God to serve the homeless in the early eighties. I just could not tolerate the inhumanity in permitting this. It is clear that homelessness remains a major social justice issue NOW. How sad-and what a challenge!

One of my joys was to visit the NYU faculty housing where I initially lived while teaching at NYU.   I loved this third floor apartment with the tree in the windows and balcony over the court yard. This bit of green kept me sane in the city.

It was hard to leave my beloved New York City and extended family there, but I was equally happy to get home to Fort Myers and my family here.

with love and prayers,

Pastor Judy Lee, RCWP,

Good Shepherd Inclusive Catholic Community of Fort Myers

This is a very good article by Tyler Huckabee relevantmagazine.com  that is well worth pondering. I have been struggling with these ideas for several years and from several perspectives. Several years ago (1994 and 2001) I wrote a book about the personal, interpersonal , communal and political empowerment of people and groups within a social work perspective (The Empowerment Approach to Social Work Practice: Building the Beloved Community, Columbia University Press. ) Actually it was broader than “social work” as the re-visioned Second Edition (2001) included the spiritual perspective and the direction of building the beloved community-a concept Martin Luther King, Jr. made popular but borrowed essentially from the Gospel. The beloved community is ultimately the reign of God,which we long for and work for. When I began street ministry with the poor and homeless in 2007 and was ordained a Roman Catholic Woman Priest in 2008, I continued struggling with ideas of empowerment, of people having the power on every level including being empowered by God’s Spirit to speak and moreover to act for themselves. Although we provided a meal for people in the local park weekly, what we were trying to develop was the power, including the resources needed, for people to feed themselves AND one another on every level of being. We were concerned that many religious and caring people give food and alms to the poor but few take the longer and harder road of helping people to get out of poverty and do this for themselves and others. After interviewing over 125 homeless and poor people about their views on life, on God and on the church and how it could help them, and getting to know people week after week, it was clear that they wanted us to stand by them and assist when necessary as they got the material and spiritual resources to empower themselves and one another. In the words of one person “stand by us, and help us and when we can’t go any farther,then you can go for us”. My book Come By Here: Church With the Poor, written in 2010 and published in Spanish this year as Ven Aqui: Iglesia de los Pobres (AmericaStarbooks)is a story of these very spiritual and struggling  people and their empowerment. I am happy to share this article as it reminds us well not to primarily do for but to do with. I thank Rev. Deniray Doulos for sharing this with members of Ecclesia Street Ministries.

Rev. Dr.Judy Lee

The Trouble With ‘Being a Voice for the Voiceless’

Speaking out for injustice is a good thing, but how can you speak for the oppressed before you listen to them?

By Tyler Huckabee

October 3, 2014

Tyler is something else. He’s a writer who loves blue jeans, camping, hamburgers and rock and roll. He’s also the managing editor at RELEVANT. You can read all about his fascinating life over at The Unbearable Lightness of Huckabeing, or read every dumb thought that comes into his brain onTwitter.

For many teenagers raised in the church, going overseas is sort of a rite of passage—a “Global Perspective” you achieve like a challenge in a video game.

For me, that challenge was in Japan. I made a few friends over there, but none closer than a boy about my age named Ken, who was positively giddy about the idea of freedom. He said the word “freedom” like a magic spell, and told me of the ways he felt trapped in his own native country.

“When I go back,” I told him when we said our goodbyes, “I’ll tell people your story.”

“Or,” he said, “I could come to America and tell my own story.”

They Already Have a Voice

I was too young then to grasp the importance of what Ken had told me, but recent events have brought it to my mind again. As hashtag activism has gone from an Internet oddity to a full-on force for change, we have become enamored with what what we either call “being a voice for the voiceless” or “giving a voice to the voiceless.”

And this has often been helpful. Be it war in Africa, slavery in India, terrorism in the Middle East or even discrimination in the United States, Twitter users have made waves by empathizing with the oppressed and suffering. When news of an atrocity breaks the news, we rush to our social media platforms to sound the gong of injustice, and set our hashtags from stun to kill.

There’s a difference between being a voice for the voiceless and giving a voice to the voiceless. They are not interchangeable. And one is far more compassionate.

The sort of righteous anger we feel when we hear about injustices is a good thing. Bringing these issues to the world’s attention is often the first step in the right direction. There are people out there who are hurting. They need help. They need to be rescued.

But, in reality, they don’t need a voice. Not most of them. They have a voice. What they need is for more people to really listen. They need people to carry their cries further than they can.

There’s a difference between being a voice for the voiceless and giving a voice to the voiceless. They are not interchangeable. And one is far more compassionate.

Being a Voice for the Voiceless

Sharing our opinion on an issue isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes, when we are trying to be a voice for those who are suffering, we end up speaking over them, shouting our own view without first really stopping to listen to their experiences.

Think to the NFL’s Ray Rice debacle, a mess if there ever was one. I, like any right-thinking person, was appalled at what certainly appears to be, at best, horrid mismanagement and, at worst, gross deceit and a calloused attitude towards domestic violence.

Social media was taking aim at the NFL, so I was all too eager to join in and cry foul. But a funny thing happened when I signed on to Twitter.

I started seeing stories of women who had come from abusive relationships. Women explaining #whyIstayed, and sharing their heartbreak, their pain and—for many of them—their newfound freedom.

I realized that my voice was not necessary in this particular story. People were already telling their stories, and their stories came from a place of honesty and vulnerability and had the ability to create true impact. They were the real story.

What I needed to do was listen, learn and amplify their stories instead of my own.

When Your Voice Isn’t Needed

When our hearts are sensitive to pain and injustice, we have a tendency to charge in. It’s easy to assume we’ve got the basic layout of the problem. Whether it’s sex trafficking or racism, it’s easy to assume we understand what the victims are going through.

Instead of presumptuously firing our voice off into the Internet’s ether, desperately seeking to be seen as a champion for justice, take a moment to listen.

That zeal is good, but it often takes the place of real listening. Instead of presumptuously firing our voice off into the Internet’s ether, desperately seeking to be seen as a champion for justice, take a moment to listen. Offer your ear instead of your voice. For a moment, be a student instead of a cheerleader.

As Proverbs 18:13 tells us, “If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.”

That’s not to say you shouldn’t ever speak out: Your voice is important. But it is not always the voice that is needed.

The Least of These

Jesus’ parable about giving the seat of honor away at the table is an interesting one. It’s often interpreted as being about humility, and it is, but humility is a tricky thing. It doesn’t always look like you think it will.

Sometimes, it means putting your best intentions aside so that others can take the spotlight.

Sometimes that means investing your energies in giving a platform to the marginalized instead of taking the platform yourself.

Sometimes that just means learning more before you start speaking out.

Eventually, Ken came to America and he did get to tell his story—and he told it better than I ever could have.

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/reject-apathy/stop-being-voice-voiceless

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This beautiful poem by Benedictine Sister and prolific author Joan Chittister lifts up the place of animals in our lives and the wonderful spiritual,personal and social meanings they have for us. As she says, their faithful presence and love without reason teach us about the very love of God. And yet so often these gentle creatures are cast aside, forgotten and abandoned. We can help them directly by inviting them into our lives,making room in our homes for them, or learning how to feed feral cats (see AlleyCat.org on this). We can help indirectly by contributing to rescue organizations like the ASPCA, The Humane Society, Alley Cat, and local no-kill shelters and rescue efforts. And we can teach our children to love and care for animals in gentle and responsible ways.

This Saturday October 4th is ST. Francis’ Feast Day. St. Francis was attuned to all of God’s creation and he called all animals as well as all natural things “Brother and Sister”. Our Good Shepherd Ministry attends to our homeless brother and sister human beings. We count on God’s help to make sure that they are fed and housed. We are happy to share their stories in this blog. But the throwaway animals in our area are also of great concern to God and to us. So, we also work hard at feeding and finding homes for them. We call this our St.Francis Ministry and we have reported in this blog on finding homes for homeless animals and assisting homeless and poor people to be housed with their pets. It is remarkable to note that like people who must live outside, domestic animals who live outside also struggle with illnesses and violence of all sorts. This particular blog is focused on our work with cats, but we have also rescued distressed dogs,birds and turtles and one ferret who belonged to a homeless woman who could no longer keep him. I thought that I would never find a home for him, but I was wrong. This was the easiest one as one of our Vet’s Technicians knew a wealthy woman who had lost her ferret to illness. Very quickly this little guy went from eating popcorn and living on a heap of debris to a delighted owner giving the best food and a four hundred dollar condo was also purchased for him.  I will resist a comment on that except to say he was one fortunate ferret.

This is our Veterinarian Dr. Terry Sutton and her current Vet Tech Joseph at Three Oaks Animal Hospital here in the Three Oaks Parkway area. I have written about them earlier in this blog as Joseph adopted Tiger, one of our older rescues who desperately wanted a home and someone to love him. Joseph and his wife live in the country and have turned a special barn into a home for 5-6 cats, replete with climbing posts and cat trees and individual spaces and beds. Tiger loves it there.

Dr. Terry is our angel. She has assisted medically and supportively in almost all of the more than 30 cat rescues we have done.  Her wisdom, caring and generosity of spirit make our work possible. From spaying and neutering to preventive tests and shots and follow up care, she is there for us. Recently one of our cats,Brooklyn, had a bad kidney infection and needed a shot but the car was not available to take him there. She came and gave him the shot and also visited with our newest rescue and family member,Velcro, and an old patient Skye who met her at the door. Velcro is a lively happy older kitten who makes us laugh all the time. He also tested positive for Feline AIDS. But like our others with this, he is fine in the open population because he is not a fighter who will deeply wound and infect another. Skye is the most trusting and loving being who has forgiven much in his life. When he came to us his tail had been mangled (pulled, caught,worse?) and the necrotic tissue was creeping up toward his spine and  had to be removed. Whatever had done him this harm also paralyzed his intestines so that he needs medicine and sometimes assistance from Dr. Terry to evacuate his bowels and sometimes his urine. Due to the medicine he is holding his own now, but his condition is difficult. Yet he is the friendly ambassador greeting all who come to our home.

In the picture below, Dr Terry is holding Lola, a cat that was rescued by Lili Randazzo four years ago and subsidized by our mission. When Lily moved into her Habitat for Humanity Home Lola got out and “disappeared” for over a month. so did another of Lily’s rescues, Timmy. Timmy had gone back to her former apartment and had to be rescued again from the woods near there. Lola returned on her own in a weakened state, but she is well now.

These are two of our most recent “rescues”-Potsy(Peter Potter) and Velvet Velcro named because he has soft as velvet fur and sticks to us /Velly. Potsy was so scared when he came in that he had to be carried out of the bathroom where he stayed for a long while initially in a carrier to get some air and sunshine. Both are great cats who also have Feline AIDS but relate very well to our other kittys.
This is Socks, a beautiful and gentle Maine Coon cat who was the most frightened of all yet came every day twice a day to eat for over six months before I could get near him. He was the only one I had to catch in a humane trap. The others could eventually be picked up and put into a carrier for their first visit to Dr. Terry. Once inside he hid under a shelf in a back garage room for almost four months. Every day three times a day I would visit and talk to the shelf. Eventually he sat on top of a wardrobe and let me  touch him  just once. He responded to my kneeling on the floor near his shelf and reaching out. That picture is below. Then one day, he walked out of that room, came up to me ,rubbed my legs and has never left my side since. He is the most affectionate cat we have now. It took a long while to build that trust and a lot of patience, But it paid off. Indeed, that was the same method used when reaching out to very frightened mentally ill homeless people when we do our street ministry. In my book The Flamekeeper and other Poems America Star Books) I wrote a poem about standing on the outside looking in, and how similar it is with people and animals who have been hurt and frightened. Ultimately, it is easier with animals for when they trust, they seem to let go of the past and live in the warmth of a better now.

Below are the group on the front lanai, Velcro, and Star who is a perfect loving little cat who joined us in 2009, even charming Angel, our big dog who did not like cats! Socks and Velly, who are now close friends and Henry, one of our older kittys who came to us in 2003 with his brother Timid Tim who did not show up for a photo. Then there is, Lady Guinevere and her kittens(now 5 years old) who were given to me by a homeless couple who lived in the woods and could not care for them. When I entered the woods to get them, Lady Guinevere purred and walked into the carrier with five kittens following her. It was the easiest rescue ever! They had been loved in the woods but Lady G knew a better home was waiting. It turned out that Lady G had Feline AIDS as did three of her kittens. The other two little beauties were soon placed in homes, but Lady and these three,Winter, Elana and Sir Gallahad, along with  Brother Maurus,their brother who came to us two years before are still with us. They remain together as a family on one side of our house. The pretty black and white, Sammy sitting in the grass is the next to be rescued and I am hoping that I have a home for him. We are hoping for a home for him and for two more of the brothers who come to eat morning and night. Sammy may be able to find a loving home with Diane, who was homeless and is enjoying her new home and wanting a kitty. Sammy is Velly’s brother and Velly greets him through the screen each day. He seems to be saying-trust, brother, it is good to be inside and have a home!

And so it goes, thank you St. Francis for teaching us to love all of our little brothers and sisters.

Skye (the last here) and all the others are saying: thanks to all the people who care enough to give us a chance. They will surely find love with us!

Happy St. Francis Day,

Rev. Dr. Judy Lee

Work in the Vineyard-God’s Cherished Plant or Wild Grapes? Rev. Judy’s Homily for OT 27 10/5/14

For the last three Sundays we have contemplated life and work in the vineyard with Jesus. God is good, deeply loving and giving to all of us, expecting only that we will tend the garden, work in the vineyard and produce the good fruits of service, compassion and justice.  According to the writer of Matthew Jesus teaches about working in the vineyard right before and after his Palm Sunday entrance into Jerusalem. His time is near and he knows it and foretells it, much the same as Moses, and prophets like Martin Luther King Jr. said that they would not be crossing over into the promised land with the people for whom they labored so hard.

In Matthew 20, we saw that God loved and rewarded all of the workers in the vineyard generously and equally. And we saw that some of the earlier workers resented the success and rewards of the later workers and they resented the generosity of God.   The newcomers were not welcome as equals in the vineyard. Bitter fruit for God, not the yield God wanted. Then, placed after Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on the back of the foal of a donkey, in a second parable as told by Matthew (21), we saw that the son who said that he would work in the vineyard was all talk. He never went while the one who mouthed off saying he would not go, did go and worked at producing good fruit. Jesus notes that reviled tax collectors and prostitutes were entering the reign of God before the religious (those who said they would build the reign of justice but did not). Well, it pleases God to include the outcasts who came to do the work and at least one of the disappointing sons was working in the vineyard. Once again God is including everyone in the kingdom (kin-dom) and noting also how the kin-dom is lost by the very ones who entered the covenant to build it and care for it. More bitter grapes.

This week, we have two Vineyard stories, one from Isaiah 5:1-7 and one told by the writer of Matthew to the Jewish Christians of his community. The story in Isaiah is beautiful poetry and full of meaning. In the story Isaiah’s friend (what an appropriate theology-God as friend) has a beautiful vineyard that he cares for in every way, doing everything that can be done to make the preconditions for growing good grapes. But, alas, it is not tended and it yields wild grapes. So he, regretfully, lets it go to seed and briers and does not send rain upon it.  Then Isaiah explains:

“The vineyard of the God of Hosts is the house of Israel,

And the people of Judah are God’s cherished plant;

Our God looked for justice, but found bloodshed,

For integrity, but only a cry of distress”.

So clearly God dearly loves God’s people who are God’s “cherished plant”. That is so for the house of Israel (and also for the followers of Christ ) who agree to work in the vineyard and produce love, justice and peace. But they rest on their laurels and do not exert themselves to do the hard work of peacemaking and of serving those in need or challenging the oppressive structures that create poverty and need. They are to produce the fruits of justice and compassion. They are to be in right relationship with God and their neighbors. Instead they lack integrity, fight, promote war, and shed blood and cry in distress.  Sounds a lot like us in the present time. The witness of the religious so often falters in peacemaking and justice making.  So, sadly, God is disappointed once again.

It is this story that Jesus embellishes in what is often called the parable of the tenants (sharecroppers) who get greedy and kill those the owner sends to collect and distribute the profits. Now, I am usually sympathetic with those who are share croppers, they work hard and only make a small portion of the profits that they often owe back to the owner. But these tenants are downright ugly and mean-they beat, stone and kill to keep the profits. And, it becomes clear in Matthew, they even kill the son and heir who is sent to them. Not only is the work God asked not done, but those who remind the tenants of this are killed. And here, Jesus steps outside of the parable and forecasts again his own rejection and death. The stone that the builders rejected…..becomes the cornerstone.

Let us think about rejection.  For Jesus is asking us to stand with the rejected of society, those deemed so much less than and so expendable that there is no safety net to catch them when they fall through the bottom and spiral downward without an income or a home to call their own. Jesus knows what rejection is. He went from the high of acclamation on Palm Sunday to the horror of the cross within a mere week. He knew deeply what it was like for his mission and ideas and challenges to be rejected. He knew what it was like to be caught in a political net and have all he worked for ridiculed. He knew what it was like for friends to turn their backs and look the other way as he suffered. He knew what it was like to be the excluded one. The crucified one is the stone rejected by the builders.  And in each of the excluded and crucified ones we find God, we find Christ. His experience of horrific injustice unites him with all of the cast away and excluded. And it unites us, his followers, those who love him as well. And that is the work yet to be completed in the vineyard, the work of justice and love. It is very hard work, no wonder some redefine love on a light, abstract and almost ethereal level. No wonder we speak of being star dust rather than those who die with lungs full of coal dust.  But the work of love IS the work of justice. And justice work is not what a friend of mine calls “fru,fru airy fairy love”. It is love that gives itself away even unto the cross and beyond. And yet it is there as we stand by the cross of another outcast human being or accept it for ourselves that we are lifted by the experience of Immanuel-God with us in a way that is so profound it can only be defined as Love.

Amen.

Rev.Dr.Judy Lee,RCWP

Co-Pastor Good Shepherd Inclusive Catholic Community, Fort Myers

I did not preach this Sunday as Pastor Judy Beaumont and I took five of our teen and young adult group members to Washington DC from Thursday 9/25-Sunday 9/28. We had a prayer service on Sunday morning then continued our meditations on the hallowed ground of Arlington Cemetery visiting not only the graves but the slave quarters of the Washington-Custis, Robert E. Lee home there.  Soon we will share the highlights of this wonderful trip with you.

Today we received Rev. Deniray’s excellent Sunday sermon from her blog, the Deni Doulos Blog. Rev. Deniray is a member of Ecclesia Street Ministries as we are. She ministers regularly to the homeless and hungry in Columbus, Ohio. I am pleased to share her sermon here.

Once again we thank Bob Shine of New Ways Ministries and Bondings 2.0 blog for bringing the behavior of Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia to our attention. While it was highly appropriate to fire the part time Catholic HS coach involved the response needed to name the crime as a hate crime against a gay couple by Catholic HS alumnae and coach. Also other incidents of anti-gay actions are sadly noted. Let us continue to shine the light on the church and the LGBT community.

Rev. Dr. Judy Lee,RCWP

SAINTS NOT MARTYRS !

Alumni from a Philadelphia Catholic high school were allegedly involved in a hate crime last week, accused of attacking a gay couple on the street that left one victim with a wired jaw and broken eye socket, and the other one badly bruised.

In the aftermath, a school coach has resigned but reactions to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s statements are mixed. Ultimately, the response has been insufficient and this is a missed opportunity.

Fran McGlinn coached basketball at Archbishop Wood High School, in the Philadelphia suburb of Warminster, from which several of the assailants including McGlinn had graduated. Archdiocesan spokesperson Kenneth Gavin confirmed the assistant coach’s resignation on Wednesday, saying he was further banned from employment at archdiocesan schools. The identities of McGlinn and the others became known after social media users viewed surveillance footage which was made public to find the assailants.

In a statement reported by the Bucks County Courier Times, the Archdiocese also said:

“This afternoon, administrators communicated with the entire Archbishop Wood school community to make it emphatically clear that the school does not, under any circumstances, tolerate or condone the violent and hateful behavior displayed by those who took part in this senseless attack.

“Administration also stressed that Catholic schools are centers of learning where students are expected to treat each other in a Christ-like manner at all times and that everyone deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. The actions of those who took part in the attack are reprehensible and entirely unacceptable.”

 Archbishop Charles Chaput also commented on the September 11th assault, saying in astatement:

“A key part of a Catholic education is forming students to respect the dignity of every human person whether we agree with them or not. What students do with that formation when they enter the adult world determines their own maturity and dignity, or their lack of it. Violence against anyone, simply because of who they are, is inexcusable and alien to what it means to be a Christian. A recent beating incident in Center City allegedly involved, in some way, a part-time coach at Archbishop Wood High School. After inquiries by school leadership, the coach was contacted regarding the matter and he resigned. Archbishop Wood’s handling of the matter was appropriate, and I support their efforts to ensure that Catholic convictions guide the behavior of their whole school community, including their staff.”

First, Archbishop Wood administrators are to be commended for quickly dealing with McGlinn’s employment when his involvement in hate crime became apparent. In twenty LGBT-related employment incidents at Catholic institutions this year, this is the first resulting from a church worker’s actual failure to uphold human dignity and the common good.

However, both Chaput and the Archdiocese’s statements fail to recognize openly the specific nature of this attack. Reports claim the assailants asked the couple if they were boyfriends and yelled homophobic remarks while beating the two men. Though Pennsylvania hate crime laws may not be LGBT-inclusive, in this incident it is essential for Catholic officials to acknowledge the homophobia seemingly at the core of the attack.

Yet, neither the word “gay” nor any variation is used in the statements which simply condemn violence. One interesting note is that the archbishop said no one should be attacked “simply for who they are,” a possible shift from the language of same-sex attractions in vogue with American bishops back to language of sexual orientation. This, however, does not directly name what happened as a hate crime specifically targeting a gay couple and is therefore insufficient.

Archbishop Chaput has a record of acting against LGBT people. He is known for expelling a child of a lesbian couple from Catholic school and denying Communion to LGBT advocates. Chaput recently aided efforts by the Pennsylvania Catholic Conferenceopposing a non-discrimination bill that would make sexual orientation and gender identity protected classes.

Further, this incident is a missed opportunity for Archbishop Chaput and archdiocesan officials to make an unequivocal statement in support of LGBT people who face discrimination and violence. Though Chaput was critical of Pope Francis in the past, this incident could have provided a moment for the archbishop to change his tone and implement a more pastoral approach when dealing with the LGBT community. Catholics United has called on him to do as much when it comes to Philadelphia’s transgender community. Why not use a moment of horrendous tragedy to build a bridge and reach out with love for lesbian and gay Philadelphians as well?

Thankfully, the story is still in the news and there is time for Archbishop Chaput and Archbishop Wood H.S. officials to make a more explicitly LGBT-focused condemnation of this attack. Let us pray they will finally feel the ‘Francis Effect’ now spreading in the USand do the right thing.

–Bob Shine, New Ways Ministry

Pastor Judy Beaumont and some of our Good Shepherd Workers

Once again in the Gospel for this week, Matthew 20: 1-16, Jesus turns the religious and social order upside down and  shows us we cannot possibly understand the mind of God nor fathom the depth of God’s love for everyone. The prophet Isaiah addresses this theme as well: “… For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,’ says your God´(Is 55:8). Just before this Isaiah offered God’s invitation to those who were thirsty and hungry to come and drink and eat “without money and without cost” (Is 55:1). God is again promising the same “faithful love” God promised to David and the children of David. And we read the invitation on two levels: when the prophet says “listen to me and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest fare” (Is 55:2) he is saying listen and LEARN what our God is teaching, RECEIVE the teaching that is good and live! This invitation is also the preface to hearing the Gospel today, this is how we find our God.  And, it is also a specific invitation to those who have no money to buy. Consistently throughout the Scriptures God provides for those who have the least of this world’s goods and is concerned about the poor and outcast, those who are usually left out.

Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard is not a treatise on labor relations for as much as I support Unions in obtaining just pay and benefits for those who work they may not approve of Jesus’ teachings here. Jesus wants to give everyone the same wages and benefits no matter the hours worked. To understand this parable we need to put ourselves in the shoes of the last to be hired, or even those who will probably not be hired at all.

Here in Fort Myers there is a Labor Pool that assembles on a street corner at 5 AM. It is made up of men and women who want to work and have no regular job.  They want to work for the day or, preferably, for as long as possible. Many of our homeless people are part of this Labor Pool. Some ask us for work boots or boots with steel tips because the labor boss wants only those who could actually survive on a construction site. For a while when we served in the local Park we were known as the boot ministry because we would take sizes and deliver boots to these people. The saddest part of this was that the boss took only the youngest and strongest of men and older men, sickly men or women were hardly ever chosen. Yet they would go day after day as once in a while there were “easier” jobs to be given out and they just may get one. There were always many more people waiting to be hired than were actually hired. There is a similar waiting place at another place in Fort Myers and in nearby rural Immokalee where farm workers are chosen for the day.  Once again hundreds may stand there and fifty be chosen for the day. Indeed the first are chosen first unless someone younger and stronger is behind them. Some just give up and stop going. We know an older man who went every day hoping to be chosen. Once he was chosen to sweep on a site.  That was the first smile we ever saw on his face. It hurts to be overlooked and cast aside.

Unemployment is improving in the USA with 6.2 as the current unemployment rate (Reuters.com Lucia Mutikani 8/1/14). The Obama years are comparable to the Roosevelt years in improvement of the depressed economy inherited from a previous era for the working person(Chart in Wikipedia.com article on Unemployment). This is truly remarkable but not for those who remain unemployed and in need, including those who have given up. In the world there are places with the unemployment rate nearing 50% of the population able to work. Many cannot even survive without UN and other sources of outside help.  In a country, like the USA where the upper 1% have 90% of the highest income resources many are overlooked whether in competing for a job and wages or in the esteem of others. This parable is a comment on that. It follows in fact the story of the rich young man who was asked to sell his possessions and give to the poor to have “treasure in heaven” and to follow Jesus. The young man “went away sad for he had great wealth”.  So Jesus then teaches that with him, with God, equal wages (rewards/gifts of love and money) are given to all no matter when they come to God. The not chosen and outcast deserve to be first, they have borne the burden of need and want and the stigma of the outcast.

Jesus knew that, he deeply loved the unchosen of this world and told us before and after this parable that “the last shall be first”.  Those who are usually left out in this world will be first in the reign of God. The economically poor and those left out because of mental illness, physical difference, race, color, class, caste, national origins, sexual orientation, or any other difference judged by mainstream others to be not good enough will be first with God. The gift of life, eternal life and God’s unfathomable love will be given to all in equal measure. And that should begin now, not sometime later as now is when we are asked to be laborers in the Vineyard. The labor of Christ’s followers is our effort to bring justice, compassion and love to fruition here and now so that those waiting in the labor pool may be duly rewarded for their wait as well as their work.  This parable is also about God’s endless and overflowing generosity.  If we are stingy and not generous with our time, money, resources, and effort in working for justice and inclusion we are like the workers who were envious of other’s just wages. Justice in God’s dream means that all throughout the land and throughout the world eat and have shelter and respect, dignity and love. We may hold the secret belief that we deserve all good things but “those others” do not. God’s way is generously giving gifts that none of us merit: life, health, love, ample means, and joy- freely given to all.  That is God’s way–what is my way? What is your way? We are asked to reflect on that this week, and to be thankful for God’s boundless love. Amen!

Rev. Dr. Judy Lee, RCWP

Co-Pastor Good Shepherd Inclusive Catholic Community, Fort Myers, Florida