Q&A with Rev. Durrell Watkins

Question: Why do we sometimes have strange readings in church?

Answer: I don’t recall any strange readings (well, no stranger than what we find in the bible anyway). But I’m guessing you’re wondering why we include extra-biblical literature in some of our worship services. The reason is fairly simple – God didn’t just speak to the ancient Hebrews, and God didn’t stop speaking at the end of the first century. God continues to speak through art, music, poetry, imagination, acts of kindness, nature, and the sacred writings of the world’s religious traditions.

Of course, the majority of our readings come from the Judeo-Christian scriptures, and my sermons focus almost exclusively on biblical texts and principles, but other sources echo many of the truths we find in our bible, and we invite those sources into our worship experience to remind ourselves that God has always spoken in many ways and continues to speak in many ways still.

Question: We don’t believe God is a boy’s name, so why did Jesus call God “Father”?

Answer: We need to remember several things:

(1) Our time, place, and culture are all very different from Jesus’. What was appropriate to Jesus’ social location may not be as appropriate to ours.

(2) Jesus never wrote anything that wound up in our bible. So, the Gospel writers who are placing certain words and phrases in Jesus’ mouth are doing so decades after Jesus’ life and ministry. It’s hard to psychoanalyze Jesus (in the way we can St. Paul) because we don’t have any of Jesus’ thoughts that don’t come to us (at best) second-hand. So, I not only don’t know “why” Jesus called God “Father”, I can’t even be certain that he did (though, I suspect that he did and my guess would be that the image isn’t meant to suggest God is male but rather to suggest that God is accessible, caring, and can be known in intimate relationship).

(3) Finally, there are many names and images for the divine Reality in scripture. “Father” is one such name and image, but one of the names of God means “Almighty Breasted One”. God is “Spirit” and is our “Rock” and a “Fortress”. God appears to Job as a stormy presence and to Ezekiel as a Rainbow in the sky (that’s my fave!). In Deuteronomy and Isaiah, God is pictured as a mother eagle. God is the “still, small voice” within, and Paul (according to Luke) is comfortable quoting a Greek, pagan poet to describe God as the invisible presence in which we “live and move and have our being”. So there are many images and names for God in the bible. Some of those names / images are masculine, others are feminine, and others are gender-neutral. God is more than any of them, and all of those symbols point away from themselves and toward the God that is beyond any particular image or understanding. When we remember that image is not essence, then we are free to play with a number of images. Whichever image we prefer is about our comfort more than it is about God’s nature. The images are for us; they cannot limit, contain, or even adequately explain the ultimate reality we call “God”.

Question: This week’s question is a composite of two letters I received this week. The question is whether or not it is appropriate to make references to sexuality in church.

Answer: The issue is complex, and whether or not one feels comfortable having it mentioned in church largely depends on one’s social location. In a church as large as ours, opinions will vary. That having been said, I must confess that I do feel that such discussions are both appropriate and necessary.

Sunshine Cathedral is part of the Metropolitan Community Church movement, and MCC’s gift to the larger church is our willingness to integrate spirituality and sexuality. We have experienced our bodies and our consensual adult relationships to be among God’s good gifts.

Secondly, I love the bible and I want people to read it with boldness and gladness and to be willing to discuss any part of it at any time. To honestly discuss the bible will include grappling with some very “earthy” material. I sometimes feel the need to “clean it up” when I present it in church, but I refuse to ignore it. Whether we are discussing the highly erotic Song of Songs (aka Song of Solomon), or King Solomon’s HUNDREDS of wives and concubines, or the three-way marriage between Jacob and Leah and Rachel (and the two other women with whom Jacob has children), or the very provocative imagery that is included in the book of Revelation, or the seemingly homoerotic relationship between Jonathon and David, or the woman at the well who had been married multiple times… well, space won’t allow me to mention every erotic story in the bible, but you can easily see that if we avoided them all there wouldn’t be much bible left to discuss!

To be true to the history of MCC and to the contents of the bible, we will sometimes bring up human sexuality, and we may even dare to do so in playful ways that demonstrate how joyful that part of our lives can be.

The story of Job tells us that “in my flesh I shall see God” (19.26). Once we believe that our bodies are holy temples we will insist on being our whole selves all the time. Perhaps that is the mystery of the Incarnation (God expressing in humanness), and perhaps we are the ones to understand it properly.

If you have questions about faith, the bible, the church, or sexuality & spirituality, you can email your questions to durrell@sunshinecathedral.org, or go to the Cathedral web site at www.sunshinecathedral.org and click on the link there. Rev. Durrell Watkins will answer your questions and publish the answers in this column. Your name will always be withheld, so only the actual question and the response will be printed.

Theological Reflection on Gay Marriage Ruling in California

By Rev. Durrell Watkins, Canon Pastor

“[On the Sabbath] Jesus said to the man with a withered hand, ‘Come here, stretch out your hand.’ And he stretched forth his hand and it was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately took counsel with the Herodians against Jesus.” (Mark 3.3-6).

The religious rule was unambiguous; no work on the Sabbath, and that included healing. But Jesus wasn’t one to be tyrannized by traditions, or rules that were oppressively applied. And so when Religion tried to keep people out, Jesus redefined Religion to be more inclusive, life-giving, and affirming.

Whenever prejudice would try to cloak itself in Religion, Jesus would challenge it and dare to allow Religion to become liberating rather than legalistic. Deuteronomy 20.17 calls for the destruction of Canaanites (among other enemies of the Israelites). So, it’s no surprise in Matthew 15 that Jesus is initially dismissive of a Canaanite woman who comes to him for help. What is surprising is that he listens to her and changes his attitude toward her. Instead of using scripture as a defense of his prejudice, Jesus chose to see his “enemy” as a child of God and he responded with compassion rather than with religiously sanctioned hatred. The scene ends with Jesus praising the woman’s faith and offering the help she sought.

In the gospels, we see Jesus embracing women, children, Samaritans, Canaanites, people who were mentally and physically ill (at a time when illness was thought to be caused by demons), even a Roman centurion (when Rome was the empire that occupied his homeland and would execute him). Jesus consistently pushed past the temptation of demonizing difference. Even when his own scriptures seemed to allow for hatred of the “Other,” Jesus chose to think in new ways.

Yesterday, we received some very good news about California upholding the dignity and equality of its gay and lesbian citizens who wish to marry. In the weeks and months ahead, we will hear religious voices condemning this liberating act, and we will hear them quoting scripture, church law, and tradition to justify their fear and revulsion of same-gender love and attraction. What we will want to remember through it all is that Religion can be wrong; and when Religion uses God’s name in vain in order to exclude, marginalize, control, or demonize a group of people, we can be certain that it is wrong.

There are religious voices conspiring against “liberty and justice for ALL”, but like Jesus we can remain faithful to the values of empowerment and healing. I am very grateful for yesterday’s news. I’m grateful for places like Vermont and Massachusetts and California that have led the way in the pursuit of fairness and equality. And I call on all progressives, those who embrace religion and those who do not, to continue working for equal opportunity for all people. Heterosexism has worn the mask of religion long enough. Let’s be like Jesus. When Religion tries to demonize difference, let’s insist on thinking in new and empowering ways.

LGBT rating system for hospitals

By The Associated Press

(New York City) Just over half of 88 hospitals got top marks under a new rating system created by two national gay-rights organizations which hope the standards will result in more compassionate treatment of gay and lesbian patients.

Policies addressed in the ratings include patient nondiscrimination, visitation and decision-making rights for partners, diversity training for staff, and nondiscriminatory employment practices.

The hospitals participated voluntarily, and the groups behind the report said there will be no effort to rate hospitals which don’t want to respond. Instead, they hope many hospitals will strive for high ratings as the survey recurs annually.

Called the Healthcare Equality Index, the ratings were designed by the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association.

The index is modeled after the HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, which rates corporations on policies for gay and lesbian workers. It has tracked a surge in the number of Fortune 500 companies offering benefits to same-sex partners.

Some responses to the new survey came from hospital networks. Kaiser Permanente, answering on behalf of 31 hospitals in California and Hawaii, said all met the survey’s 10 criteria. They were among 45 hospitals in all with top marks.

University Hospitals of Cleveland, representing 10 Ohio hospitals, said they fully met only two criteria — domestic partner benefits for employees and a patient nondiscrimination policy that includes sexual orientation.

The HRC and the medical association said their goal is to highlight hospitals with high rankings and induce others to abandon inequitable practices.

“Too many times, a gay man has been unable to comfort his partner, a transgender person has been ridiculed instead of treated, or a lesbian mom has been barred from seeing her child at the hospital,” the groups said.

In one example cited by the HRC, attorney Kenneth Johnson described his struggle to verify his relationship with his partner, James Massey, in 2006 when Massey was rushed unconscious to Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Johnson said he had to travel back to his home in Virginia to fetch legal documents before the hospital allowed him to join in medical decision-making for Massey, who had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and died the next day. The two men had registered as domestic partners in California and had an adopted son.

The healthcare index includes recommendations for hospitals, starting with the forms filled out by patients. It recommends that “transgender” be an option for gender and that relationship status include the term “partnered” as well as “single”, “married”, “divorced”, and “widowed”.

The gay rights groups said the ratings are intended to create a best-practices standard that would counteract the patchwork nature of state laws and hospital policies affecting gays and lesbians.

For example, 20 states prohibit employment discrimination based on sexual orientation, and 12 also ban discrimination based on gender identity; hospitals in other states theoretically can refuse to hire people because they are gay or lesbian.

Ten states extend legal recognition of some sort to same-sex partnerships, and hospitals there already offer those couples equal visitation and decision-making rights. In other states, hospital practices on those matters vary widely.

Among the hospitals completing the survey was Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., where there is no state recognition of same-sex partnerships.

Joel Lee, the hospital’s associate vice chancellor for communications, said the facility nonetheless has a policy respecting same-sex partners’ rights. It honors the wishes of patients who can express themselves and encourages staff to “sort it out in a humane way” in cases where one partner is incapacitated, Lee said.

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said he was pleased by the response to the survey, even though hundreds of hospitals did not reply to an invitation to participate.

“It’s the beginning of a dialogue,” he said. “We’re not calling out the bad guys — we’re trying to show them the way.”

©365Gay.com 2008, http://365gay.com/Newscon08/05/051308hosp.htm

GoodSearch

What if Sunshine Cathedral earned a penny every time you searched the Internet? We can!

GoodSearch.com is a search engine that donates ad revenue, about a penny per search, to the charity its users designate. Use it just like any search engine, and it’s powered by Yahoo!, so you get the same reliable results.

Just go to www.goodsearch.com and enter Sunshine Cathedral MCC as the organization you want to support. Just 400 of us searching four times a day will raise almost $6,000 in a year without anyone spending a dime! Please spread the word!

Volunteer opportunities

God is truly doing great things here at Sunshine Cathedral! Over the past month, we have been blessed with so many new smiling faces helping out as volunteers. This Eastertide season, happiness and the joy of God is really rising up in people’s hearts so much so that people are actually excited to be helping out wherever they can.

Some people help out an hour a week, others a few hours a week. Some volunteer for a few weeks, others on a regular basis. Many give 15 minutes of their time a week to volunteering here at church and those 15 minutes bless us all more than you’ll ever know! If you want an opportunity to be a part of what God is doing through our volunteers, we have many opportunities for you to get involved.

Here are just a few:

For the next month right after our 10:30 am service on Sundays, we need people to help move chairs, risers, and the altar from the chancel area. With only five people helping volunteer, it takes 15 minutes total!

Every Friday at 3:00 pm for the next month, we’ll take time to set up the sanctuary for our Sunday services. This involves setting up the altar, sweeping, and vacuuming. This only takes an hour or two at most with 3 – 5 volunteers.

We are also looking for individuals to answer phones at our receptionist desk in the bookstore Monday thru Friday. You could help out for an hour, an entire day, or even more — whatever you like!

We have opportunities to help with Sunshine Cathedral’s MySpace page, our weekly SunBurst, and much more. If you’re interested in these or want to learn more about other volunteer opportunities, you can contact Michael Diaz, our Pastoral Intern, at 954-462-2004 or by email michaeldiaz@sunshinecathedral.org.

SunBurst publishing deadline

SunBurst is published on a weekly basis. If anyone wishes to submit an article to the SunBurst, it needs to be sent to sunburst@sunshinecathedral.org by 12:00 Noon on Tuesday in order to be considered for publication on the following Sunday.

Jamaican update

There were 236 worshipers at Sunshine Cathedral in Jamaica last weekend (an all time high). 22 people were brought into membership in Jamaica, which means Sunshine Cathedral now has 147 members living in the Caribbean!!! Rev. Robert Griffin was present at Sunshine Cathedral in Jamaica over the weekend and participated in radio interviews, a prayer breakfast, and a prayer vigil for human rights in Jamaica. He was joined by Rev. Pat Bumgardner of MCC-NY, Tom Scaringellie (security) from NYC, and Councilman Ken Reeves of the Cambridge, MA, City Council. (Councilman Reeves is the former mayor of Cambridge and is originally from Jamaica. He will now be using his contacts and influence to help our efforts in Jamaica.) Our work in Jamaica continues to be nothing short of miraculous and our MANY members who live in Jamaica are very grateful for the comforting, encouraging, empowering word of hope that Sunshine Cathedral has brought to their lives. We continue “…sharing the light with the world.”

E-Vangelism: thousands reached in April

By Pastor Durrell Watkins

“Jesus said… ‘Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.’” — Matthew 28:18-19

Matthew 28:18-19 is often called the Great Commission. It calls for disciple making (helping people be “seekers and students of Truth…”) and for greater inclusion. To baptize is to ritually welcome someone into the community of faith. So, the text is really saying that agents of Christ are meant to communicate a message of inclusion and welcome to as many people as possible, inviting them into the sustaining relationship of community.

At Sunshine Cathedral, we are trying to honor this Great Commission in a variety of ways, including being very present in the electronic universe.

In April our audio sermon podcasts got 6,520 hits. The SunBurst RSS (“Really Simple Syndication”) received 6,340 hits and the video sermon podcasts received 1,641 hits. The home page of our website got 4,195 hits. That is all in addition to the more than 1800 homes each week that receive email communications from Sunshine Cathedral; and those numbers do not include the people who visit us at MySpace.com. Our website traffic is about three times greater than it was last September. Of course, hundreds worship with us on the campus each Sunday, over a hundred more worship as Sunshine Cathedral in Jamaica, about 500 copies of Spirit & Truth go out each month, and more than 20 groups call the Sunshine Cathedral campus their home. Our progressive, positive, practical message is literally reaching thousands of people each month!

Your support of Sunshine Cathedral is empowering all kinds of people to be students and seekers of Truth and is making them feel welcome in the many names of God.

Cathedral Board selects officers

Every seat on the Board of Directors is now filled with an elected member, and new officers of the board have been selected. The board and its officers are as follows:

Congratulations and best wishes go out to the Sunshine Cathedral Board of Directors!

Oh snap!

By Marc Dickerman, Cathedral Photographer

It is always such a treat to me when The Rev. Elder Troy Perry speaks. As many of you were greeting Rev. Perry, I was right there snapping away photographs. I may not have captured everyone, but perhaps I did capture you and Rev. Troy. These photographs are on display in contact sheet form in the social hall at the Welcome Table. As always for a small offering to the Sunshine Cathedral, I will be more than happy to produce a print for you by simply filling out the order form. The photos are also on display on the Cathedral’s Flickr site.

CAMP for your health

The Community Acupuncture Massage Project (C.A.M.P.) is one of the more than 20 groups that call the Sunshine Cathedral campus their home. During the week, C.A.M.P. is located behind the Green Door on the second floor of the Graves Building on the south side of our campus (above the Social Hall). Students, clients, and practitioners of acupuncture claim that the ancient healing art is good for many things — including pain management, stress reduction, relieving minor depression, improving digestion, and helping people quit smoking. Fees for acupuncture at C.A.M.P. are offered on a sliding scale, making acupuncture a low cost, non-invasive, complementary therapy available to anyone who wants to give it a try. If you believe acupuncture could be a good addition to your health maintenance program, call C.A.M.P. (954-566-2416) to set up an appointment or to get more information.

Let’s stay strong this summer

Summer is a time for travel and many of us will be away for part or most of the summer. And yet, Sunshine Cathedral will remain a seven day a week / 12 month a year worshiping community. If you are away this summer, you can remain connected to Sunshine Cathedral by reading the electronic version of the SunBurst, watching our streaming video sermons on the website, praying for the people on our prayer list (which can be found on the website), and by contributing to the Cathedral through the summer. Whether you mail in your contributions or sign up for “Giving with Ease”, your generosity will help us stay strong in the summer and will ensure that we begin the fall in a healthy, vibrant way. And for those of us who are in the area this summer, let’s continue to worship together week after week (and let’s invite friends to join us, too).

Whether you are here all year long or for only part of the year, we are proud to be your Sunshine Cathedral. Help us remain healthy and strong all year long.

AIDS Walk team says “Thanks”

Robert Faust and Eric Petrusha would like to personally thank everyone who donated to the Taking Steps for New Friends team for the third annual Florida AIDS Walk that was held on April 27th. The walk was a huge success; with 37 people on our team we had the biggest turnout for Sunshine Cathedral, raising $6,367! Thank you to all who participated and donated!

The winners of our raffle are: David Rouse — two-night stay at Ronny Dee’s Resort Motel, Al Lamorges — private dessert tasting at Stork’s, CJ Ashton — collection of fragrances, and Tom Gifford — men’s haircut at Grum Salon for Men. If you have not picked up your prizes, please see Marcie Fox in the church office from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm (Monday thru Thursday) to claim your prizes.

This team is very important to the Sunshine Cathedral and helps us continue our involvement with raising money to advance the fight against HIV / AIDS. The Cathedral is grateful for the efforts that Robert and Eric have made over the last few years and would like to have one or two more congregants who would be willing to take on the roles of co-captains in the future to expand our team and involvement with the AIDS Walk. If you would be interested in working on this team in the future, please contact Michael Diaz at the church office at mdiaz@sunshinecathedral.org or 954-462-2004 x 208.