The session has affirmed my participation as a national board member of the Covenant Network. I am in my second year of service, focusing my efforts on strategies for change in denominational policy and on creative planning for Cov. Net’s annual conference, held in early November. Both Michele Ready and I will volunteer at General Assembly this July to support the legislative efforts of the Covenant Network.

For those who may be interested in learning more, the national co-moderator of Covenant Network, the Rev. Dr. David Van Dyke, will be sharing about our organization with a group over dinner and drinks on April 14. If you are interested in being included in this evening of fellowship and learning, please email Laurie Kraus, Michele Ready, or
Richard Jimenez-Alicea for a reservation and details.

The letter which follows contains the thanks of the Covenant Network, together with a description of an important milestone for one of our brothers, made possible through the work of Cov Net churches and individuals, including YOU–the generous people of Riviera Church. This is where some of your mission dollars have been allocated–to make advancements like these possible–so give in gratitude and grace!
– Laurie

Laurie Kraus, Pastor
Riviera Presbyterian Church
5275 Sunset Drive
Miami, FL 33143

Dear Laurie,

We had some very exciting news over the weekend, and I want to share it with you and the Riviera session and congregation.

On Saturday, the Presbytery of John Knox (at the intersection of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota) voted 81-25 to approve the ordination of Scott Anderson to the ministry of Word and Sacrament. Scott is a gifted pastor, preacher, and leader; and he and his partner Ian have been together 19 years.

The John Knox presbyters made this decision using the authority affirmed by the 2006 General Assembly and reaffirmed by the 2008 G.A. – permitting presbyteries to consider a ministerial candidate’s declared “scruple” about one particular point of faith or polity in the context of everything else they know about the candidate’s life, faith, gifts, and fitness for the call. In Scott’s case, they decided that his refusal to follow the common understanding of G-6.0106b did not constitute “a failure to adhere to essentials of Reformed faith and polity.”

You can read about the presbytery meeting and its decision on our newly redesigned website, which I commend to your attention: www.covnetpres.org. (And please let us know what you think!)

Scott’s gifts for pastoral ministry were clear to an overwhelming majority in John Knox Presbytery. They considered his life, his service to the church, his faith statement, and his Affirmation of Conscience, enclosed here.

As you know, San Francisco Presbytery reached a similar determination in November when it voted to ordain Lisa Larges, a greatly gifted, “out” lesbian who has been under care for 23 years. As in Scott’s case, the presbytery considered her life, gifts, service in the church, and faith statement, as well as her Statement of Departure, in deciding to approve her ordination. (Her Statement of Departure is also available on our new website.)

Both presbyteries were able to proceed with these examinations because of a GAPJC decision in November 2009. Covenant Network director Doug Nave won that case; and he is also defending the challenges to both San Francisco and John Knox Presbyteries’ ordination decisions.

The process and legal reasoning both presbyteries used to examine and decide to ordain a candidate “with a departure” have also been followed in several other cases of minister ordinations or transfers (not as high-profile as Scott’s or Lisa’s, and most not challenged in church courts). They can also be used by sessions. These principles are laid out and explained in our booklet Guidelines for Examination of Church Officers. If you’d like a copy, please call or e-mail our office. Or you can order multiple copies for $3 each.

All our work of equipping, advocating, educating, and connecting for change depends on the support of congregations like Riviera. As we look ahead to another very important General Assembly, I am grateful indeed for your financial support as well as your critical local leadership.

We still have a long way to go to the just and generous church for which we long; but I want to celebrate with you this important step along the way. Thank you for your partnership in bringing closer the church we envision!

Faithfully yours,

Pamela Byers
Executive Director
Covenant Network
encl.

http://www.covnetpres.org/

Earlier this summer (in late June) Michele Ready and I participated in the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) in San Jose, California, representing Riviera Church as volunteers for the Covenant Network of Presbyterians (see RPC web site for links and info). One of the tasks I was privileged to accomplish was to address two different committees of the Assembly on matters related to congregations which have diverse membership, including membership of lesbian and gay families. There were a variety of overtures addressing the place of LGBT persons in Presbyterian Church life: the social witness response of Presbyterians toward equal civil rights for LGBT families and their children in the U.S.; as well as how to provide fair support for all individuals, couples and families in churches, crafting a congregational life that reflects the inclusive love of God for all. One of the committees was especially concerned with marriage and legal rights of families and children in our congregations … and how advocating for equal civil rights and adopting more inclusive policies at the national Presbyterian Church level would affect the common life of local Presbyterian congregations. For my two minute speech (yes, I actually made a two minute sermon!) I chose to share about the four baptisms Riviera celebrated in 2007. Here’s what I said:

Thank you for making time to hear testimony from Presbyterians whose lives are affected by the actions you will take regarding the participation of GLBT people in Presbyterian congregations. Many of today’s witnesses have spoken eloquently about their partners in life, and how important the blessing of church community is to sustaining a healthy, faithful, covenanted relationship. I would like to speak about children, particularly, the four children who were baptized last year in Riviera Presbyterian Church in Miami, where I serve as pastor. The first little one baptized is the adopted daughter of a couple in our church. She was brought here from Kazakhstan, and we were thrilled to celebrate the beginning of her faith journey with Riviera by adopting her into the family of faith through baptism. I’m grateful that Morgan’s mom has joined me at GA this week, volunteering for our denomination; a choice she can make without anxiety since her co-parent, her husband Robbie, has the legal right to have adopted their daughter and see to any legal or medical concerns she might have in her mom’s absence.

This is not, unfortunately the case for the parents of our next two baptized children of God; twin boys for whom our congregation watched and prayed during their biological mother’s pregnancy. The parents of these beautiful boys worked extensively with me and with others to set up legal and practical parental access to protect the children and their family: since the non-biological parent is a woman, the state of Florida does not permit her to adopt her sons, nor hold legal custody of them. She must carry a paper around (as do other parents in our congregation) giving her permission to pick up her child, or approve medical treatments if necessary.

Whenever the boys are in church for communion Sunday, their moms bring them forward to receive a blessing…reminding all of us how precious the lives of our children and their families are to a healthy church. The fourth baptism was blessedly uneventful, which was in marked contrast to that of her older sister, two years previously. The older sister was diagnosed with some congenital heart difficulties that caused her to be born early and very small. She was in neo-natal intensive care unit the first couple of months of her life. The session gave permission for me to take an elder and baptize this little one in the hospital because we were certain she needed, and we needed, the claim of God to be on her fragile young life. The day we baptized her was the first time she was permitted out of the isolette that had protected her from infection while she gained strength and size. It’s fitting, we thought that this child leaves an isolette-literally, her isolation-into the arms of the family of God, making promises on her behalf. We had to receive special permission for extra people to be at the baby’s bedside…and there was a question whether both parents could answer the baptismal questions for their daughter…because, since both parents were women, the non-biological mom’s presence at the crib of her daughter was only given by the kindness or whim of the attending medical personnel, as lesbian or gay non-biological parents cannot adopt the child of their life partner. How strange that this sacrament of becoming family of God, should be threatened with fragmentation because of the unequal and unjust legal treatment of GLBT persons and their families. As Presbyterians, when a congregation stands to affirm its responsibility in baptism, we do so on behalf of the whole church. Please help Riviera fulfill its baptismal promises to these four beautiful children, and vote to support equal rights for GLBT families and couples. Thank you.

I was doing some reading on the sacraments recently, and came across this notion about what it is we do in baptism: that is the church’s responsibility to teach our parents that the sacrament of baptism does not so much anchor our children to a Rock as it casts them on the waters to commit age-appropriate crimes of passion and acts of subversion for the sake of God’s justice. And it went on to encourage congregations to help their young parents see baptism as an act of introducing their child to meaningful participation in the body of Christ, the church.

I liked that notion very much, because after twenty years at Riviera, I have the privilege to see how some of the children we have initiated have turned out: as young adults committed to justice, to kindness, to making a difference in the world … as young people whose friends and companions come from all walks and ways of life. These kids you have raised in the church know what matters, and they know how to love and care with openness and justice.

So I have confidence in how these four children of last years baptismal class will turn out. They will be well taught by our Sunday School teachers; welcomed in worship, nurtured by the older children who are a part of their family of faith. Baptism, after all, isn’t holy magic: it is the concerted effort of parents, children, and the church family to see to it that a child learns with their life to reflect the path of Christ. If we do our part to make sure our children always feel welcome in church; if we attend church and Sunday School frequently enough that our presence makes an imprint and a difference in their lives, and as we do our parts as older children and adults to nurture little ones along the path of Christ; if we do this, Riviera and its young will continue to be an important part of the light that shines even in darkness.

Shalom, Laurie

Since this morning our Jewish neighbors celebrate Rosh Hashana, the beginning of the new year, it is perhaps felicitous that the Christian common lectionary has served up for our consideration the story of Queen Esther. Buried in the middle of the wisdom literature in the Hebrew scriptures, and only presented for Christian consideration on this one Sunday out of three full years of appointed readings; it tells a story that provides the backdrop for the Jewish midwinter festival of Purim. This melodrama in ten short chapters tells the tale of the deliverance of Jewish exiles in Persia from extermination at the hands of a powerful enemy, Haman, thanks to the wisdom of the old man Mordecai and the wily, devious courage of the beautiful Queen Esther.

Here’s the story, told in brief: Esther, a virgin Jewess, wins a contest and joins the harem of King Ahasuerus, whose main talent seems to be for partying. Her uncle Mordecai cautions her to hide her religious identity, and, doing the same himself, becomes one of the king’s trusted advisors. His colleague, the evil Haman, has an overweening ego and malice to spare. He tricks the king into passing a law that will result in the extermination of all Jews in the kingdom. Mordecai, griefstricken and hysterical, appeals to the girl Esther: if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the people from another quarter, but ou and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this. Though Esther risks her life if she comes uninvited into the king’s presence, she nevertheless devises a plan, relying heavily on intrigue, the king’s lust and drunkenness, and her own sexuality to expose Haman and save her people. When all is said and done, Esther’s cleverness and adaptability to circumstance and necessity have won the day, and the feast of Purim is instituted as a perpetual memorial to the power of the downtrodden when pushed to the wall: (that day) had been turned for them from sorrow into gladness and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and gladness, days for sending gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor.

Purim is not your granny’s church holy day. It is, like the story that spawned it, a boisterous celebration, replete with eating, drinking, and playful, outrageous behavior. Many synagogues observe Purim with a carnival: children and adults alike dress up in costumes, and frequently the "megillah" of Esther is acted out as well as read, with enthusiastic audience participation-it is the Rocky Horror Picture Show of scripture, a place where the bible and vaudeville share the stage, and everybody gets involved.

Good thing someone likes to play at religion-if it had been left up to the majority voices of Christendom to choose, this book of Esther-rich in satire, filled with burlesque, robust with court intrigue and bursting with a cast of wild characters-would have been relegated to a position of utter obscurity in the canon, if not removed from the bible altogether. It was not until the latest revision of the common lectionary, in fact, that the book of Esther even showed up once on the three year cycle of readings-for like the Song of Solomon, the canonical value of Esther has oft been discussed in a somewhat prim tone of disapproval. Here’s a portion of the book’s introduction in my study bible: the book has frequently been faulted for its moral tone.

Not only are such basic Judaic values as kindness, mercy, and forgiveness lacking; but, as many Jews and Christians have lamented, the story evidences a vengeful, bloodthirsty, and chauvinistic spirit. Intrigue, deceit, and hatred abound, regardless of whether the spotlight is on Haman, Esther, Mordecai, or on their enemies. The Persian king is mentioned 190 times, but the God of Israel, not once.

If you prefer your dose of bible moralistic, straightforward, somber and =
sacred-Esther’s not your cup of tea. Neither, for that matter, is the =
teaching of Jesus recorded in this morning’s text from the 9th chapter =
of the gospel of Mark-a cutting, satiric partner to Esther’s playful, =
yet deadly serious admonition that folks who want to make a difference in the world can’t afford to be too picky about ways and means while advancing the cause’s of God’s forgotten peoples.

Esther is a story that comes to us from the time of the Jewish exile in Babylon. It was created by losers, for outsiders who had lost whatever prestige and economic power they had, who were abandoned by a theology of God’s preferential option for his chosen, and who had been shaken to the core by social circumstances that seemed certain to destroy their faith and the fabric of their identity as a people. Because it comes from this place, this culture of desperation, it has little tolerance for the niceties of an Establishment Faith shaped by rules and regulations and watched over by a God who never alters his stern adherence to the System. The people-and the God-of Esther (whether mentioned by name or not) has more pressing needs.

It reminds me of a story Gillian’s dad told me when he phoned me on the eve of 1992′s Hurricane Andrew. He had been on retreat at Ghost Ranch-a place so admirably remote that a television, telephone, or newspaper was hard to find. On the morning before Andrew struck, he was in a worship service at the retreat center, praying, along with others, for the needs and concerns of the world. Being a concerned citizen, and a new-ish pastor recently awakened to the social struggles of Miami’s diverse community, Rick’s prayer that morning was theologically, politically, and spiritually correct: he prayed for the racial strife in our city, for strength to do justice, for a new spirit of tolerance and so forth to come upon us. When the service was over, a stranger approached him and began to speak. You’re from Miami? You got more immediate concerns today than social harmony, buddy. Rick, somewhat offended, said, What do you mean? I think these problems are of utmost importance. The man replied, I guess you don’t know it, but there’s a category 5 hurricane heading straight for Miami.

When people’s lives are at stake, other concerns-however just, right, or proper-must take a back seat. And that is what Esther proves by her creative interpretation of laws meant to destroy her people; in her wily, economical use of the poor resources available to her as an outsider, a woman, and an insignificant orphan; and in her triumphant seduction of the Powers that Be, the King Ahasuerus, into seeing the world through her eyes. Esther proves that there is a time and place to stop following the rules and start thinking for yourself. For when people’s lives are in danger, unquestioning obedience is the wrong attitude. Indeed it is the sin of omission that opens the door to wholesale destruction: to neglect of the forgotten, to systematic extermination of the Other; to a careless disregard of any value, any community, anyone who isn’t part of Us.

The book of Esther is subversive: not only does it insist that the outcast and the outsider are worth saving-it makes the astonishing claim that salvation itself comes from the outsiders. It avers that slavishly adhering to "the unchangeable law"-whether that law is Persia’s the Torah, or the Christian scriptures-is a dangerous path to follow, one that leads to a soulless, heartless obedience to a set of rules and regulations at the expense of the safety, even the survival, of some of God’s children—outsiders, minorities, the powerless, the poor. It says that, rather than being preoccupied with our powerlessness and our scarcity, we might do better to assess our gifts and graces—however little they may be valued in the Grand Scheme of Things-and use them for good, however and whenever we can, for as long as we can. It promises that, if we will only try, the God who works unseen will not let our cries for justice, wholeness and peace go unanswered.

Jesus himself in the ninth chapter of Mark says much the same thing-and surely practiced what he preached in his own life and ministry. When the disciples, still stinging from their failure to heal a child stricken with epilepsy, discover a stranger healing in Christ’s name, they stop him. Proudly they tell the teacher: we saw some nobody healing in your name, and we stopped him, because he wasn’t one of us. Jesus, who only just had finished reminding the disciples that if they couldn’t love God and do God’s work with childlike trust and humility, they were goners just about loses it in his response to their self-righteous adherence to the rules. He tells them that if their correctness loses one soul for the kindom of God, they will surely pay with their own souls. He suggests that if their own correctness is standing in the way of loving and knowing God, they would do better to chew off their own leg than march, correctly dressed and impeccably credentialed, into the gates of orthodox hell. He reminds them that after all, everyone is going to suffer something, sometime-so why borrow trouble, or cause it for others? Use the trouble you have to season your compassion for another’s sorrow.and be at peace.

We who want to serve the poor, the dispossessed, the outsider.who walk prayerfully along the margins of our increasingly narrow Presbyterian practice and polity, trying to find a canny and crafty way to celebrate our Christ’s gospel of wild inclusivity-we would do well to listen to the voices in Esther, and celebrate the place-however small-organized religion has for scrappy, wily outsiders who don’t have too much power, but use what they have for God with impressive imagination and verve. We might take heart when we listen to that other outsider, Jesus, as he walks toward his own salting with fire with head held high and a heart full of trust that the least of these will be the ones who will get it right for all of us, at last.

It takes a lot to be an Esther kind of community, a Jesus kind of church-but here we are, I hope, trying to do it. Standing this morning on the side of Esther, striving to be players for good in those small insignificant stories involving the kinds of people most folks would rather forget exist. Knowing that somehow, our life, and our salvation, depend on theirs. We’re a small church in a big world, and it’s all good. We will, like uncle Mordecai, find partners who are willing to assist us toward those goals. We are willing, like Esther, to use whatever resources we can find to help the homeless, feed the hungry, comfort those who suffer, extend the warmth of God’s Light to people of all conditions and orientations, celebrate our unity with the communion of outsiders and outcasts. Like Esther and Jesus, we ‘re not too picky about the way the job gets done. We can work with anyone who wants to work with us. We will set aside our doctrinal differences, and our theological imperatives if they get in the way of serving justice and love as Jesus commanded. We enter creatively into dialogue with our tradition and our polity, our law that cannot be changed, because we know that anything that cannot change will die. We want to live, and we can learn from this plucky little book buried in the back seat of the bible that there is no skill, no idea, no quirk of personality, no circumstance so trivial or so undervalued that it cannot somehow be used for tikkun olam, for the healing of the world.

Let us pray: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference; living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will, so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you in the next.

Amen.