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From the
Pastor...
Dear
Friends,
September
always makes me think of “back to school.”
Last year, this was a reality for me as I began my doctoral
studies at Episcopal Divinity School during my sabbatical.
This year, however, I am finished with course work and working
part-time on preparing my thesis for graduation next May.
Instead I watch as my husband Tom goes off to school several
times each week and comes home laden with homework; I certainly don’t
envy him that, but I share in his sense of anticipation as this fall
begins. For we indeed have
much to anticipate and celebrate here at MCC Rehoboth:
Our attendance remained steady during the summer months; our
Board of Directors has received the informational report on the
questionnaires that were circulated by the Move-On Team and will be
utilizing it for ongoing strategic planning; we have scheduled some
exciting social, worship, and fundraising events; and we have some new
information about how we might occupy our church land sooner than
expected.
All
of this is possible because we have not lost faith!
We have allowed God to move in God’s time, and now, after some
choppy waters, we are ready to set out on a new phase of our journey.
Several events this month will help us to do that:
Our Visioning Day on Saturday, September 9th, will
chart our course for the future. The
folks who attend that important day will be reviewing and possibly
revising the Core Values, Mission, and Vision that we have lived by for
the past several years. If
you don’t attend, there is the possibility that your unique voice and
ideas will not be heard as we chart the future.
On Monday, September 11th, I will be leading a Service
of Prayers for Peace on our church property as we remember the 5th
anniversary of 9/11/01. And finally, on Sunday, September 24th (weather
permitting), we will have a special “Homecoming Celebration” on our
church property—a chance to recommit ourselves to the work of being
church through worshiping outside in nature and then picnicking on the
property with which God has blessed us.
I hope you will make every effort to attend these special events.
Worshiping, working, and playing together we will make things
happen!
Wishing
You Peace and Joy,
Rev. Tom
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Church News
& Thank You's
VISIONING
DAY Don’t miss MCCR’s Visioning Day 2006, to be held on Saturday,
September 9th from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, facilitated by the
Rev. Kharma Amos, Pastor of MCC of Northern Virginia. This is the session that was discussed at the June
congregational meeting: It
is a time of looking back and looking forward in order to determine if
or how we need to adjust our Mission, Vision, and Core Values in order
to minister with integrity and authenticity.
The event will be held at the home of Mary Harris and Roz
Troupin, 73 Gainsborough Drive in Rolling Meadows, Lewes.
Morning snacks and Lunch will be provided.
BLESSING
OF THE ANIMALS will take place again this year on the church property on
Saturday, October 7th, at 10:00 AM.
Any caged or leashed pet is welcome to attend and bring their
human companions with them. The church property is located on Plantation Road (Route
1-D), just north of Route 24, on the west side of the street.
Look for the sign that says “Future Home of Metropolitan
Community Church Rehoboth.”
WORSHIP
& PICNIC As summer ends and we look forward to cooler days and
renewed dedication to our year-long ministries, MCC Rehoboth invites
everyone to a special “Homecoming Celebration” on the church
property on Sunday, September 24th, beginning at 10:00 AM.
We will have a special Worship Celebration followed by a potluck
picnic. Please bring your
favorite cold dish and a chair or blanket to sit on.
The church property is located on Plantation Road (Route 1-D),
just north of Route 24, on the west side of the street.
Look for the sign that says “Future Home of Metropolitan
Community Church Rehoboth.” In
case of rain, our worship will be held at the usual location in the
clubhouse of The Plantations, and the event will take place on the
following Sunday, October 1st.
THANK
YOU
 | To all who contributed
their time and talent to MCCR’s participation in the LRAC-Sussex
County Habitat for Humanity “Apostles’ Build.”
Thanks to your efforts, a deserving family now occupies a
wonderful new home!
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| To all who volunteered for
our Chicken Barbecue fun(d)raisers this summer.
We sold out each time! Special
thanks to our coordinators—Mark Noble (June), Alicia Miller
(July), and Evie Simmons & Barb Thompson (August).
It’s never too early to start thinking about next
summer’s barbecue events: Can
YOU help?
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| To all who made the August
Bingo-a-Go-Go such a success. You
are appreciated!
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| To Bob Smith for hosting
our August Mid-Week Potluck; Wayne Baker & Jim Harrison for
hosting our August Movie & Munchies Night; and Mary Harris &
Roz Troupin for hosting the organizational meeting for the new Seascapes
team.
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| To Miles Slatcher and Tim
Bush for assisting with the August Seascapes mailing.
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| To all who have worked so
hard to maintain the church property looking so beautiful this
summer, especially Terry Wilkerson, Barb Thompson, Alicia Miller,
and Rocky Reisinger.
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| To the Move-On Team (Dan
Bevington, Liz Bowman, Robert Dellanoce, Judy Gibson, Joy Glass,
Shila Hayden, and Butch Hovis) for their dedication in circulating
and tabulating the recent questionnaire and for their presentation
to the Board of Directors at its August meeting.
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Rainbow
News from Other Faiths
[Contextual
Note from Rev. Tom Bohache: The
Episcopal Church in the United States has had ongoing struggles for
some time regarding ordination of gays and lesbians, full
participation of women, and the eligibility of gays and lesbians to
serve as bishops. With the consecration of the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, an
openly gay man, as Bishop of Vermont, and the recent election of the
Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori as the first woman to serve as
Presiding Bishop, these issues have become matters of discussion in
the Anglican Communion worldwide.
These articles are printed here for information about the
struggles religiously minded GLBTQ people face outside of MCC.]
“On
Being a Prophet in a Not-for-Prophet Church”
by the Reverend Canon Elizabeth Kaeton
(reprinted with permission of the author)
See
if you can identify the author of this quote:
"A prophet is meant to be a nuisance, asking such questions
precisely when we think we have so ordered our Church, community,
society or relationships as not to exclude."
How many think it was Bishop Jack Spong?
Nope. How many think
it was our Presiding Bishop Elect, Katharine Jefferts Schori?
Nope. Actually, it
was the present Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. He wrote those words eight years ago. I suspect he never thought he’d have to eat them.
You may know from reading the New York Times or listening to NPR
that he has just revealed his grand scheme for the unity of the Anglican
Communion, which looks to be designed to exclude nuisances from the
Church – that would be people like you and me. “Revisionists,” we’re called – the newest way to say
“nuisance.” . . . Many of the historic prophets were nuisances.
Their job, as someone once said, is to “comfort the afflicted and
afflict the comfortable.” You
can hear that in the words of Ezekiel, calling the people of Israel “a
nation of rebels,” and their descendents, “impudent and stubborn”
– asking difficult questions on behalf of the God of mercy and justice
while assuring them of God continual presence among them.
Ezekiel was a priest who wrote as a prophet to the exiles, who
literally ate his words – or, more accurately, God’s words.
So that he will speak only what the Lord has written, Ezekiel
must eat a papyrus scroll filled with words of woe.
I kid you not. . . . I have always loved reading the prophets.
There’s lots of passion and poetry in their prose.
They always ask the tough questions, but they never ask them
before wrestling with the questions or the issues long and hard
themselves. . . . Jesus tells us, “Prophets are not without honor,
except in their own hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own
house.” So, we ought not
be surprised to hear him instruct his disciples with this admonition:
“If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you,
as you leave, shake off the dust that is on you feet as a testimony
against them.” One of
these days, I’m going to write a book, the title of which will be:
“On Being a Prophet in a ‘Not-for-Prophet’ Church.”
Actually, I like my prophets – like my angels – with dirty
feet. I like the ones like
Jonah who try to run away from their call.
I like the ones like Ruth, who hang around even when they are not
wanted. I especially like
the Davids and the Samuels, the Miriams and the Esters, the Zacheuses
and all the unnamed and unnumbered women who were persistent in enacting
what they knew they were called by God to do, even when there were those
to whom they were merely nuisances.
These are the men and women who were “holy nuisances” in
their day and time, so that you and I could stand in that great
tradition in ours. We, the
baptized, need to ask questions, tough questions, of our church –
indeed, of all of our institutions. . . . And, clearly, this church of
ours is not your father’s Oldsmobile. . . . St. Paul reminds us that,
in the economy of God, not only is God’s power perfected in our
weakness, but that God often chooses the weak to shame the strong.
Prophets are like that. But,
here’s the thing my friends, we are all called to be prophets in this
not-for-prophet church of ours. Even
though we feel inadequate to the task, the vocational call of our
baptism demands that we speak out against injustice, that we ask the
difficult question – even if (no, especially when), it is disturbing
to the status quo. Don’t
worry if you feel that you aren’t smart enough or articulate enough or
qualified. God has promised
us grace – abundant grace – whenever we do a work of justice or
mercy in his name. And,
sometimes, by God’s grace, you don’t even have to think of clever
words yourself. Sometimes,
you just have to remind prophets of the words they, themselves, once
spoke. . . . Pray that God send us more prophets with dirty feet; more
holy nuisances to ask annoying questions. It’s the only way I know to
bring an end to hatred and division, injustice and oppression, and help
us to live more fully into the unconditional love we know in Christ
Jesus. Amen.
The
Reverend Canon Elizabeth Kaeton is Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal
Church in Chatham, New Jersey. She
is a longtime supporter of MCC Rehoboth’s ministry.
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Habitation
Ceremony
MCC Rehoboth recently celebrated completion of the building of the house
on Beale Street in Georgetown, DE, that we have been working on since
late last year. This was a joint effort of the Lewes-Rehoboth
Association of Churches and Sussex County Habitat for Humanity.
Fourteen churches from the beach resort towns joined with
Habitat to build a two-story, 4 bedroom, 2 bath home for a family in
need. Rev. Tom Bohache, Pastor of MCCR, participated in the
Habitation Ceremony on August 12, where the home was blessed and
the keys officially handed over to Maria Lagunas and her five children.
Prayers, foods of several cultures, and tears were plentiful on this
day, as well as the participation of many butterflies, who made
their resurrection presence known! MCCR was mentioned frequently
in the ceremony, because we were the church that began the process by
clearing the land last December and completed the build in August
by helping with landscaping; in between our church, under the
leadership of Judy Gibson and Liz Bowman, participated in several work
days, "setting the standard" (in the words of one of the
speakers) for the participation of the other churches. This is an
example of what it means to “do the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Habitat for Humanity has expressed interest in helping MCC
Rehoboth to erect our building on the land we are buying on
Plantation Road, just outside the city limits of Rehoboth Beach.
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The
New Seascapes
Mary Harris of
our congregation will be assuming editorial responsibilities for the
monthly Seascapes newsletter, beginning with the October issue.
Of course, this will mean that the newsletter will probably appear a bit
different than it has been over the past years, but change indicates
that we are alive! Amen?! We
solicit articles, poetry, book/movie reviews, etc.—whatever YOU would
like to see in YOUR newsletter. We ask that content be
spiritually-related or GLBT-themed. The quality and diversity of
the newsletter will really be determined by what we receive from the
congregation. The deadline will remain the 15th of each
month. You may send your submissions to Mary at meh4evr@juno.com or to Rev. Tom at tombohache@att.net. Once
again, a special "thank you" to Wayne Juneau for his eight
years of faithfulness to producing a quality, award-winning newsletter!
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Oklahoma
Elects First Out State Legislator
(Planet
OUT) Oklahoma elected its first openly gay member of the state
legislature Tuesday as Democrat Al McAffrey defeated two opponents to
represent Oklahoma City in the state House of Representatives.
McAffrey, 58, is a funeral director, member of the Choctaw
Nation, Navy veteran and former Oklahoma City police officer.
He won 51 percent of the Democratic primary vote for the state
House's District 88, which includes downtown Oklahoma City.
No Republicans filed for the seat, meaning McAffrey will
automatically gain the post barring a successful write-in campaign.
Oklahoma becomes the third red state this year to elect its first
out gay legislator. . . . "Al's win is more proof that what
fair-minded Americans care about most are issues that directly affect
their lives," Chuck Wolfe, president and CEO of the [Gay and
Lesbian] Victory Fund, said in a written statement.
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"Miko
Thomas, 2006 LGBT Local Hero"
Miko
Thomas received the KQED public broadcasting station’s LGBT Local Hero
Award. The
award is given to outstanding LGBT community members of Northern
California in honor of LGBT Pride Month.
Past Two-Spirit awardees include L. Frank (activist and artist)
and Randy Burns (founder of Gay American Indians).
Miko Thomas is the co-chair of the Bay Area American Indians
Two-Spirits (BAAITS).
BAAITS exists to restore and recover the role of Two-Spirit
people within the American Indian/First Nations community by creating
forums for the spiritual, cultural and artistic expression of Two-Spirit
people. As
co-chair of BAAITS, Thomas has made the visibility of Native Americans
in LGBT community his priority.
Last year, BAAITS hosted the International Two-Spirit Gathering
where Thomas aided in the planning and fund raising.
As his drag persona, Landa Lakes, Thomas has created the first
Native American Drag ensemble, the Brush Arbor Gurlz (BAGz).
The BAGz have put on several performances which helped to fund
the budget for BAAITS and the Two-Spirit Gathering.
Thomas grew up in south central Oklahoma within the borders of
his tribe, the Chickasaw Nation.
His first exposure to Native American politics began early on in
his life, after his father became active in the American Indian
Movement.
These formative years helped to mold Thomas into a leader seeking
inclusion, justice and visibility.
He is an ordained minister and was able to preach acceptance and
inclusion to several Chickasaw charge churches in Oklahoma.
As a veteran of the US Navy, Thomas served aboard the USS Flint
AE 32 during Desert Shield which became Desert Storm.
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Pastoral
Letter from the Moderator of MCC
Dear MCC
Members and Friends:
We live in
such perilous and promising times.
And both realities—peril and promise—call us to
prayer. Sometimes events of
such magnitude happen, that we just have to stop, as a global church,
and pray. In the face of
war and violence in the Middle East, I am asking you to do that . . .
Rev. Elder Cecilia Eggleston, whose Region 4 includes the Middle East, .
. . wrote, "The cities and countries we read about in scripture
are those we now recognize each day in the news.
For people of all faiths living in this region, these are
frightening times. Homes, lives and communities are being torn apart by
violence. Spiritual faith
can bring people together—regrettably, it can also be misused to
keep them apart. Now is the
time for all people of faith to seek peace and to unite in prayers for
an end to the violence." And
. . . we heard from Rev. Isabel Pires de Amorim and Cristina Linguel,
two former members of MCC Glendale (California) and longtime friends of
MCC, who live and work in Beirut, Lebanon.
Isabel, who works for the Brazilian government, reports that Chris left
by bus this week for the "frontier," and that the
bombings in Beirut continue day and night.
They are blessed by good friends and neighbors, who are doing all
they can to support one another, but they deeply appreciate the prayers
of MCC members and friends in facing this new war on a daily basis.
I
encourage you to pray today:
·
For world leaders to work around the clock on a cease-fire that
will stop the violence and begin working anew on the roots of the
systemic problems for the Middle East as a whole;
·
For the safety of civilians, in Lebanon and Israel, especially
children;
·
For safe evacuation of non-combatants;
·
For the friends and families of MCCers who are at risk.
Members of the
LGBT community are mindful that all of this occurs in the
context of World Pride, scheduled to take place in Jerusalem . . .
Rev. Pat Bumgardner, Chair of MCC's Global Justice Team, who is among
those scheduled to represent MCC at World Pride, notes, "It is so important
for all people of faith pray for peace and join with
those who will bring God's vision of peace and harmony to one
Holy City."
Prayer
God of
Jesus, who visited Tyre and Sidon,
God of the prophets and psalmists who so long ago prayed
"for the Peace of Jerusalem," our whole world is in anguish
today about the chronic violence, injustice and threat to well-being
that surround holy cities and a whole region of the world. God, we
know you are grieved today, and we ask you to protect all whose lives
are touched by war, including the innocent, the poor and the vulnerable.
Be with those who have no safe place to evacuate to, and no
resources to leave dangerous areas.
Spirit of the Living God, we rebuke the selfish, deluded forces
of greed for oil or power or land, and all misguided religious
fanaticism and ethnic hatred that impede your dream of peace.
We ask for a new vision, and for leaders to emerge who will
propose a new paradigm of justice and hope.
A miracle is needed today, O Holy One, and we are bold to ask for
it, in your many names. Amen.
Grace
and Peace,
The Reverend Nancy L. Wilson
Moderator and Presiding Elder of the Metropolitan Community Churches
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Events
Calendar
The Pastor is available for meetings with congregation and
community every day of the week except Monday.
However, due to a summons to Jury Duty, this availability may
be affected between September 11 and 22.
To make an appointment, please call his cell phone at
302-745-7909. In an emergency situation, the Vice Moderator and Treasurer
are always able to contact the Pastor.
Worship services (UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED) are held in
the banquet room of the clubhouse at The Plantations on Plantation Road (Rt 1-D), north of Postal
Lane, south of Lowe’s.
Fri
9/1
Sat
9/2
Sun
9/3
9:00 AM Worship Set-Up; 10:00 AM Worship and Celebration
featuring special 1st Sunday Benevolence Fund offering and
gathering of non-perishables for clients of the Sussex County AIDS
Council; 11:15 AM Social Time with 50/50 Raffle Drawing, followed by
Clean-Up
Mon
9/4
Tue
9/5
Wed 9/6
7:00 PM People Connection: Dining
Out Group at Blue Plate Diner in Lewes
Thu
9/7
Fri
9/8
Sat
9/9
10:00 AM to 4:00 PM Visioning Day with Rev. Kharma Amos at Mary
& Roz’s home, 73 Gainsborough Drive in Rolling Meadows, Lewes –
ALL ARE WELCOME to come and chart MCCR’s future course!
Sun
9/10
9:00 AM Worship Set-Up; 10:00 AM Worship and Celebration; 11:15
AM Social Time, followed by Clean-Up
Mon
9/11
6:00 PM Special Commemoration of the 5th Anniversary of
9/11 with Prayers for Peace with Rev. Tom on the church property on
Plantation Road
Tue
9/12
Wed 9/13
7:00 PM People Connection: Monthly
Mid-Week Potluck hosted by Tom Negran at the clubhouse of The Landing in
Rehoboth Beach; feel free to come early (from 5:30 PM) to swim!
Thu
9/14
Fri
9/15
Sat
9/16
Sun
9/17
9:00 AM Worship Set-Up; 10:00 AM Worship and Celebration
featuring special 3rd Sunday Building Fund offering; 11:15 AM
Social Time, followed by Clean-Up
Mon
9/18
Tue
9/19
Wed 9/20
7:00 PM People Connection: Dining
Out Group at Crabby Dick’s on Rt 1
Thu
9/21
Fri
9/22
Sat
9/23
Sun
9/24
SPECIAL EVENT! 10:00
AM Homecoming Worship Celebration on the church property; 11:30 AM
Potluck Picnic – ALL ARE WELCOME!
Please bring chairs or blanket to sit on.
PLEASE NOTE SPECIAL LOCATION.
(In case of rain, worship will be held at our regular location at
The Plantations.)
Mon
9/25
Tue
9/26
7:00 PM Board of Directors Meeting in the Great Room at 34186
Woods Edge, Lewes – open to all!
Wed 9/27
7:00 PM People Connection: Movie
& Munchies Night at Tim & Miles’ home in Millsboro
Thu
9/28
Fri
9/29
Sat
9/30
7:00 PM Monthly Weekend Potluck at Ben and Don’s home in
Rehoboth Beach
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