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eNewsletter 25 January 2003 |
Chi Rho Connection ************************* Contents:
1. 'The Journey is Our Home:' Sharing Our Faith Journeys, by Jim Richards -------------------------------------------------- "O you who believe! Stand out firmly for God, as witnesses to Justice, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from Justice. Be just, that is next to piety." Welcome once again to the Chi Rho Connection, the electronic newsletter of Chi Rho Press. Thank you for passing this Chi Rho Connection on to others. To join our list, send an e-mail message to
ChiRhoPress-subscribe@yahoo.com. Direct all other e-mail to Adam@ChiRhoPress.com. See the end of this eNewsletter for a complete list of e-mail addresses at ChiRhoPress.com. -------------------------------------------------- 1. 'The Journey is Our Home:' Sharing Our Faith Journeys, by Jim Richards -------------------------------------------------- 2. New Book of Lenten Meditations -------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- 4. About our Newest Author, Jeff Lea -------------------------------------------------- 5. Opportunity for Investment in Chi Rho Press -------------------------------------------------- If you've received our Chi Rho Connection as a result of the good offices of someone passing it along to you (which we certainly encourage) and would like to receive it directly from us, please follow these directions: UNSUBSCRIBE: ChiRhoPress-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Copyright 2002, Chi Rho Press, Inc. ******************************************
Vol. IV, No. 1
25 January 2003
2. New Book of Lenten Meditations
3. 'Together in Love'
4. About our Newest Author, Jeff Lea
5. Opportunity for Investment in Chi Rho Press
6. Adam's Last Word:
The Quran, Surah 5: Ayah 8.
Please visit our Web site at http://www.chirhopress.com to see our entire lines of books, handouts, tchochkas, and stained glass.
To continue 'The Journey is Our Home' series, we have called upon the Rev. Jim Richards.
Jim was a Presbyterian pastor for 30 years, first pastoring in Buffalo, NY. He interrupted his pastoral service to be Radio/Television Director and Communications Director for the Council of Churches of Greater Kansas City from 1964 to 1971, and then served as Deputy Director of Communication for the United Church of Christ in New York for six years.
Returning to pastoral ministry, Jim pastored in Tacoma, WA for seven years, and then pastured First Presbyterian Church, Topeka, KS from 1984 to 1991. His coming out led to a major change in his ministry and he left the Presbyterian Church for the Metropolitan Community Churches, pastoring MCC Knoxville, TN from 1992 until his retirement in 2001.
We hope you are blessed by Jim's spiritual insights. Here is Jim's story of faith.
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In 1948 Nephritis, was a life threatening kidney disease. The pediatric ward of the hospital in Topeka was so full, that my bed had to be in a hallway.
As I lay on that bed one day, I became aware of a figure near the ceiling, above the other people in that hallway. He was looking directly at me. I knew, immediately, who it was. Jesus' hands were outstretched toward me and he was smiling. That vision was etched for a lifetime on my brain. It was, I was sure, a call to ministry, but it took me more than 30 years to discover the deepest meaning of that encounter.
I knew I was gay when I was eight, and I wasn't ashamed. But that day, in 1948, I became ashamed of it and I began sublimating it. Hiding from it. I couldn't be gay! God wouldn't call a queer to the ministry! From then on, whenever I found a cute guy attractive, fantasized a kiss, a touch or an affectionate gesture, I would ask God's forgiveness and withdraw into my shame.
At McCormick Theological Seminary, when I arrived, the administration was ridding the incoming class of homosexuals. Several of my new friends packed their bags and left at the behest of the Dean of Students. The Dean asked me to repeat the Rorschach ("Ink Blot") test, I sense that it was because I had seen the wrong kinds of images in those ink blots the first time. The second time I was much more careful, avoiding any recognition of images that I thought might suggest homosexuality.
For more than 20 years I served churches and filled denominational executive and ecumenical agency administrative posts, always hiding from myself who I was, really.
It was as Senior Pastor of a 2000 member church in Topeka, Kansas, when I was in my mid-40s, that friends asked me to join the Board of Directors of the Topeka AIDS Project. They hoped my liberal social leanings would provide them a bridge into the straight community where they needed to cultivate funding. I found myself working very closely with gay males, lesbians, and transgenders of Topeka and I experienced a brand new feeling of being at home, very much at home in the gay community.
As I turned the corner of 9th and Harrison, driving home from the church one evening, I said, out loud to myself, and to my surprise, "Richards, you're gay!"
I will never forget the day, a year later, with tears running down my cheeks, telling Gale Gardner, my therapist, the story about Jesus in the hospital corridor. I replayed that vision of Jesus again with his arms and hands outstretched toward me and the truth dawned: Jesus had been opening his arms and himself, his love, his compassion, his acceptance to gay Jimmy Richards!!! My homosexuality was not an issue with God! Never had been!
I turned another corner that day. I could come out of the closet with the blessing of Jesus! Of God! That's what he was saying to me in 1948!! Jesus was not ashamed of my homosexuality. "What a gift that is!" I exclaimed to Gale.
"It's yours to keep," she replied.
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Written out of the deep faith and learning of a gay practicing Roman Catholic and from a Catholic perspective, "For Another Flock" includes daily meditations for all the days of Lent and Holy Week, beginning with Ash Wednesday (which this year is March 5), and ending with Easter Sunday (April 20, 2003). Scripture readings are provided for every day in Lent and Holy Week followed by a reflection from a uniquely gay and Catholic point of view and a prayer.
Following the daily meditations is a seven-week Lenten Bible Study Guide. Jeff Lea's introduction explores Lent as a penitential season, discussing penance and repentance. Each weekly Bible Study starts with a Gospel reading. There is a Lenten theme for each of the seven sessions. Week One is "An Ash Wednesday Ritual and Discussion of the Nature of Penance." Week Two is "The Nature of Temptation." Week Three is "The Meaning of Sin in our Lives." Week Four is "Faithfulness and Homosexuality." Week Five is "The Joy of Being Gay." Week Six is "The Meaning of Judgement." And the concluding session is "The Last Supper and the Mandatum" (New Commandment).
Seven Appendices conclude the book: Solemnities and Feasts in Lent, Lectionary Cycle Calendar, The Books of the Old Testament of the Various Biblical Traditions, Small Group Study Guidelines, an Ash Wednesday Liturgy, a Maundy Thursday Liturgy, and a Bibliography.
Jeff Lea writes, "Far too many gay women and men continue to view the primary Christian scripture, the Holy Bible, as a document hostile to people whose expression of intimate love is homosexual. Nothing can be further from the truth. While the Bible does condemn the ritualistic abuse of human sexuality it does not ever express a view of same-sex love as an abomination. In fact it affirms it in the love story of Jonathan and David.
"The Bible's primary message is Love. To love God, ourselves, and each other as God has loved us. The Bible is not a handbook on how to hate sin. It is a transcript of the ongoing love story between God and the people of God.
"Lent is the primary renewing and penitential season of the Church year. It is the time of personal examination and purification before we enter into the Paschal mystery on Easter Sunday. We are at the door to salvation during this time. Gay people are also at that door and we too have an experience of conversion and faith. These meditations present the point of view of a gay male Christian exploring the liminal experience of coming out gay, coming out Christian, and discovering affirmation in the Bible. The book provides both a daily meditation on the scriptural readings for Lent, and a seven-week group study that explores penance from a positive gay perspective."
"For Another Flock: Rainbow Meditations and Study Guide for Lent" is spiral bound, 5 ½" x 8 ½", 104 pages, and sells for $10.95 each, $8.95 each for six or more copies, plus shipping and handling.
'Together in Love: Faith Stories of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Couples' is an anthology of LGBT couples, telling their stories of their faith journeys as people in non-traditional relationships. 'Together in Love' has a foreword by psychiatrist Elsie Enns Steelberg, is 360 pages, and contains 26 stories by LGBT couples. It also includes other stories, poems, and a father's message to the church.
(ISBN: 0-9664822-1-2)
Roberta Kreider compiled 'From Wounded Hearts: Faith Stories of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered People and Those Who Love Them,' published by Chi Rho Press in 1998. Now, with 'Together in Love,' Roberta has put together another impressive anthology of LGBT people of faith telling their stories.
Roberta Kreider writes, 'To truly embrace all of God's creation as good and worthy of respect and love is the most freeing experience I know. Never again do I want to judge another person by skin color, status in life, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or by what those in authority determine for me. I am experiencing in a much deeper way than ever before God's unfathomable heart of love for me. May this also be true in your experience.' From 'A Personal Message to Our Readers,' Roberta Kreider's introduction to 'Together In Love.'
'Together In Love' is $24.00 each, $18.00 each for six or more copies, plus shipping and handling.
Author Jeff Lea was recently employed as a social worker in Washington, DC, where he worked with young men coming out of jail and young women coming off of welfare as they sought to reeducate themselves and integrate into society. He found their experience a powerful gift and a frequent headache; and he developed a deep appreciation for the spirituality expressed by people living permanently on the margins. As a gay man, it helped him to the realization that it is on the margins where the saving work of God is made an historical reality, and that as a white man it showed him how we all have an experience of moving between the margins and the center where the material deprives us of our connection to God and each other.
Jeff is a graduate of the George Washington University where he studied European History, Classics, and Spanish Literature. He currently resides in Falls Church, Virginia, where he lives with his husband, writes, and teaches public school part-time.
Promissory Notes in $1,000 increments are available from Chi Rho Press, at 6% simple interest, repaid in eight quarterly payments over a two year period.
e-mail Adam@ChiRhoPress.com for the text of the Promissory Note, and send your check for $1,000 (or $2,000, $3,000, or even $5,000!). We will send a signed Note upon the receipt of your check.
We delayed getting this issue out because we wanted to feature our newest book, "For Another Flock: Rainbow Meditations and Study Guide for Lent," by Jeff Lea.
An active Roman Catholic, Jeff brings a unique new perspective to our community of authors. We have published books by Presbyterians ("Called OUT! The Voices and Gifts of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Presbyterians," edited by Jane Adams Spahr et al. and "Come Home! Reclaiming Spirituality and Community as Gay Men and Lesbians," by Presbyterian author Chris Glaser).
Our best selling book, "Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse," is by former Southern Baptist Dr. Rembert Truluck. Many people from the Anabaptist tradition (Mennonites and the Church of the Brethren) were included in our anthology "From Wounded Hearts: Faith Stories of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered People and Those Who Love Them," compiled and edited by Roberta Showalter Kreider (the wife of a retired Mennonite minister).
"The Road to Emmaus," the daily devotional which is the source of our Chi Rho Reflection sent to our subscribers each Sunday, includes writers from a wide variety of religious backgrounds. Our other authors come from a variety of Christian backgrounds.
And now we have our newest book from a uniquely Catholic point of view and history. We are very pleased to have Jeff Lea among us and part of the Chi Rho Press community. I know you will be blessed by his book, "For Another Flock." Please order it today!
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The holidays were exhausting but good here in Gaithersburg/Montgomery Village. I hope you all had a blessed time. Winter has visited the Washington DC area with a vengeance this year. We have actually had a few snow storms, which we seem to have missed last year. And this past week has been bitterly cold.
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I am working on the Annual Report for our Guardian Angels. Won't you consider becoming an Angel for us here at this ministry? Tax deductible contributions can be made right on our Web site at
http://www.chirhopress.com/sponsor.html, or by sending a check or money order to our post office box. A minimum contribution of $150 makes you a Guardian Angel!
*****
Like increasing numbers of others in the faith community, I am troubled by the increasing tolling of the bells of war in the United States. The current administration seems hell-bent on pursuing what is essentially a Bush Family War against Iraq, started by Saddam Husein's insulting thumbing of his nose at President Bush Senior after the last Gulf War and spurred on by the lure of oil in Iraq.
The elusive search for Saddam's alleged stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction has not yet located the much-desired "smoking gun," just a few empty shell casings!
Meanwhile North Korea openly defies the United Nations, breaks the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, and already possesses nuclear weapons and seems intent on making more, yet we wisely choose the path of diplomacy. Interesting how the US government approaches Iraq and North Korea so differently. Butof course, North Korea isn't sitting on a great deal of oil, and the Bush family are, after all, oil men.
The impending war with Iraq is obviously so personal for the Bush Family, I humbly propose a solution. Rather than send even more thousands of brave, young men and women into harm's way, why don't George W and Saddam just duke it out, man to man?
If the old men in power had to really fight the wars, there would be no war.
Let us pray for peace.
R. Adam DeBaugh, Director, Adam@ChiRhoPress.com.
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Chi Rho Press. We are eager for your comments, your
suggestions, your assistance with selling our books,
and your own purchases! And of course, we covet your
prayers for this ministry.
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