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December 31, 2007 at 5:28 am (Uncategorized)
Not Your Usual Missionary Position
December 31, 2007 at 5:04 am (Uncategorized)
For “Tha Bish”….. on google’s blogger is an ancient blog entitled
“Not Your Usual Missionary Position”…. You’ll need to “google” for the blog; I’m sorry I can’t make a link work. Lo siento….Just more of “never an undocumented thought”……. Love, oonie
I hope Rufus Wainwright’s “Hallelujah” plays for you at “Not In Seminary Anymore But Wish I Were”…it’s one of my favorite pieces of music, as is the link to the lyrics of “Remember Me” at the end of the blog.
Cry to Brigid
December 31, 2007 at 4:34 am (Uncategorized)
Some months ago, with encouragement from a very very special person, who shall remain nameless unless said person chooses to identify huself, I began intentional prayer to my patron saint, Brigid of Kildare. In prayer/trance/meditation/whatever one chooses to call what it is that I do when I’m able to lose myself in God’s Love and Presence, I began to write. I’d never shared anything this personal with anyone, not even my beloved spouse. But write I did; and send I did, in an email to this beloved person. I choose to share with you all, my personal “beloved community.”
The Ancients and The Fay both call
Both to nourish my heart and soul
Where the body moves and cries to Justice
To Iona, to Skellig, to Glendalough, to Tara and Meath
To Ulster, to Belfast, to Derry, to Portadown, to Armagh and Oomagh
I call down The Powers of the Ancient Ones
I call down The Powers of the Most High
I call down The Powers of the beehive Saints in Cells
I call down The Powers of the Moon and Sun
I call down The Powers of the Mists and Rain
I call down The Powers of the Green and Her Very Stones
To come….to come….to home….to home….
To circle the wells
To leave the clooties
I come as a Daughter of Erin
I come as the Daughter of Grady
I ask to come as a Pilgrim
I come to walk in the mists
and I come to follow The Way
—————-
If You want me to work alongside others
to raise up the all new Irish
If You want me to work to heal the Troubles
If You want me to stand alongside of
and stand up for the Travellers
Then You have to get me there first
You have to change Kilkenny’s heart
You have to make it beat for You like a bodhran
You have to bring us home!
—————–
Brigid, Come get me
Brigid, Call me
Brigid, Heal me
Brigid, I follow.
Brigid, Take me Home
Brigid, Bring me Home
Brigid, Make my bed
Brigid, Be with me
Brigid, I come
—————-
Irish Dove of God, Columba
Whose Home is and within the Derry walls
The place of the Oak
Bring me to your HomeLand
Move me to the Bogside
So that the Voices of my people
Sing me to sleep
Even into the Sleep of Death
I want to Go Home
I want to Come Home
Our Goddess of Guadalupe
December 31, 2007 at 4:20 am (Uncategorized)
In the very recent past, someone from Albuquerque (for God’s sakes) on the Anglican GLBT site was going on and on about a Rosary prayed during the celebration of the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I got so tired of it all, I had to respond.
It is fascinating, watching and reading the tempest stirred by La Morenita’s light Christian dusting of syncretism. Fascinating to watch and read the controversy stirred by the Goddess Tonantzin, barely cloaked in the Church’s peculiar restraint, tricked out (for some, only some) as Virgin Meek and Mild. I’m delighted to discover the power of the “feminine face of the Divine” still disturbs.
Upon first reading of the rounding Rosary on ‘Lupe’s Feast Day at the Episcopal parish in Albuquerque, I felt as if La Morenita had been insulted. It was as if someone thought, “Oh, here’s a day we do something Mexican and Roman Catholic for a Mexican apparition. There’s nothing more Mexican and RC than a Rosary. And we won’t even pray an entire decade; we’ll do Rosary-lite!” If I were playing word association about OLOG, I’m sure “Rosary!” would never occur to me. When I think of La Morenita, I don’t first think Mexican (in a contemporary sense) so much as I think aboriginal/First Peoples/Indigenous. I think Zapata, Hidalgo, Cesar Chavez, Eduardo Fernandez SJ. How many actions and manifestations carry ‘Lupe’s banner? How many homes bid us welcome from an altar grounded in the image of OLOG, proclaiming hospitality as the bedrock of social justice, social action?
Revolution! yes; perpetual rose-smelling Rosary? Hardly. Unless one remembers and then ACTS the revolutionary, social action call-to-justice of the Magnificat.
But then I’m paternally Irish (maternally Sioux–a double dose of glossed Christianity), raised on Brigid of Kildare (Mary of the Gael) and her beloved Darlughdach (lover, we all hope), Maeve, Maud Gonne, Grace O’Malley, Mother Jones, Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, Rosemary Nelson. My personal Irish Mary is not at Knock; she is in community of a Lavery triptych, wild-haired and barefooted, stomping through RC Belfast’s Troubles and on the Fall Road, a force to overcome Empire’s genocide through Peace, Prayer, Power, and politics, smack dab in the middle of Irish life, incarnate in suffering and redemption.
Unfortunately and all too typically, most Episcopanglicans fail to leap into mentioning, much less acting, out of a position of social justice, even when given an opportunity to speak of Catholic Social Teaching, Liberation Theology, and the power of the Arts to heal and transform. Even when CST could be the springboard to a common heritage of Anglicanism’s unique Social Gospel. In terms of social justice, Rome does it best (no offense to Quakers, UU’s, and Mennonites. I’m thinking liturgically here, folks). All those mighty Jesuits, super Franciscans, edgy Maryknolls.
Many have written about her symbols. Learned articles attempt to explain away her unusual shape, when every feminist/womanist knows a vulva when she sees it, ‘Lupe’s head the Universal Clitoris. Our Lady of Guadalupe is sensual, overtly pregnant. She seems grounded, earthy, strong. ‘Lupe examplifies my personal Mariology. This is no perpetual virgin, I pray. To birth the godhead with hymen intact seems ludicrous. Yes, there has been much power for women in the power of Virgin in community (John Dominic Crossan says “whore” means not connected to a man through marriage, father, or mother of a famous son), throughout the history of Christianity; again Rome still does it best! But the history of “The Feminine Face of God” in Christianity was practically FORCED, early on, by those who came to Xanity out of Isis and her Goddess Sisters; Christianity, the Institution, dusted off Mary to give those who needed a goddess, and if not a goddess, then, at least SOMETHING. And The People have made Her their own; and womyn, feminists, and womanists claim her power in many forms. Even secular feminists have been known to rave.
I, for one, have always thought that monasteries and convents were Rome’s gift to gays, Lesbians, etc.–or the equivalent for the time and culture–as a way to be and live in community of like-minded and gendered souls. Sure, there is a call to celibacy, I believe. Just as there is a call to abstinence. It’s that whole channeling the fires of desire stuff, the Divine energy of Creation the same energy as sexual energy. Sex, being more than actual intercourse, at least in my opinion. Some of the sexiest people on the planet are celibate.
Myth, Symbol, Metaphor. To me it’s ALL Myth, Metaphor, and Symbol, at a great great power it is intended. To me, we trivialise when we literalise. There is mighty M/mystery surrounding La Morenita’s Numinous Inexplicable.
Even though Rosemary Radford Ruether takes issue with this poem, Clarrisa P. Estes, Jungian, feminist, and activist paints our Guadalupe as the guurrrl many of us adore:
“Mi Guadalupe is a girl gang leader in heaven.
She is unlike the pale blue serene woman.
She is serene, yes like a great ocean is serene.
She is obedient, yes, like the sunrise
is obedient to the horizon line.
She is sweet, yes,
like a huge forest of sweet maple trees.
She has a great heart, vast holiness
and like any girl gang leader ought,
substantial hips.
Her lap is big enough
to hold every last one.
Her embrace
Can hold us,
All.”
published in panama…
December 11, 2007 at 4:10 am (Uncategorized)
from The Panama News
Gay church in Panama
Yes, Virgin-ia, there is a gay church in Panama. We all know there are umpteen gay priests; but only this church claims it loud and claims it proud. She may be bi and married to a man, but Our Lady of the Rainbow is here.
Last February 1, on the Feast of Brigid of Kildare, Bishop William C. “Rusty” Clyma, III, bishop of St Savior’s Inclusive Celtic Episcopal Church-San Francisco, and his spouse/partner, the Rev’d. George McCauslan, traveled to Panama City to ordain the then-deacon oonagh to the priesthood. In attendance, as presenters were members of AHMNP and UNAIDS, her husband — “my true tribe.”
Since then (and before) Amma oonagh has traveled the length and breadth of Panama, carrying the church “in the streets” for those who ask. Weddings, blessings, baptisms, adoptions, hand-fastings, Pride eucharists, World AIDS Day memories and vigils, house blessings, bar blessings, labyrinth walks. “You name it,” she claims,”we’ll write and pray a service! And I do mean ‘we.’ I’m not very good at being ‘Tha Man.’ This is your life; I’m your humble servant and people have a right to agree and disagree on what is said and done in sacred spaces…There is a common denominator of a ‘gay spirituality’ that speaks out of oppression and speaks from Liberation Theology, and most especially a way of thinking-being-and living in the world. My favorite book is Marcella Anthus-Reid’s ‘Indecent Theology;’ my other favorite theologian is Ivone Gebara. Both of these women come from the tradition of Liberation Theology, born right here in Latin America, speaking deeply from our experiences here that have always been deeply rooted in ‘The New World’ and the ‘Old Old’ of the New World that’s powerful and aboriginal, not Spanish, English, French, or US.”
One need not be Christian either. “We are all sacred beings of The Divine One. I use Christian language because that is my tradition, but I’m far from what is usually considered traditional, thank the God/dess!” she grins. “I believe we might be closer to what Jesus had to say about people…Early Church meeting 21st century people meets monastic prayer meets Gaelic and English..and now Spanish…My personal theology is as much a blend of my DNA, a Sioux mother and an Irish father, as it has to do with eight years in seminary; much of who I am has as much to do with Earth-based spirituality as it does with so-called Christian anything. We adapt lots of liturgy from Iona and other Celtic-Christian work and prayers. We practice a way of being church, a verb, as God is a verb, that’s about small groups and house church intimacy and safety; we call it ‘Brigid’s Mantle.’ You can read the story on the website. The ‘old’ of the Earth and Creation never left Ireland; it’s still there, underground, but it’s alive. Just as many RC nuns walk the sacred wells as lay people. Mary Daly is in Ireland. Starhawk danced the Spiral Dance in Ireland. If I don’t honour my Irish heritage then I’m doing a disservice to who and how I am. It’s one of the reasons I’m a member of ICEC, that intentional Celtic connection. The primary reason I’m a priest in this gay church is I couldn’t wait for my former Church to quit arguing about the full rights of Baptism with GLBT folk. A bumper sticker reads: Women, if we’re not going to ordain them, then stop baptizing them.’ The same has been said of GLBT folk; certainly my favorite t-shirt claims that. I’m not here to convert anyone…to anything! I’m here to walk with people, to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with people in their lives. For me, that’s the real sacred, in the day to day. That’s where the real miracles are. And besides God is Metaphor, Mystery, and Something Greater Than We That’s About Love And Relationships. That’s how I see it anyway, this day. Ask me tomorrow when I might not be able to say there is a God, whatever G/god is.”
Our Lady of the Rainbow/Nuestra Senora del Arco Iris and the Inclusive Celtic Episcopal Church use inclusive language. They honour the gay saints of Christendom and some of those like William Stringfellow, Martin Luther King, Jr., the s/heroes of Stonewall, and Harvey Milk are not officially canonized, “but that doesn’t matter…a saint’s a saint and a martyr is a martyr. Anyone here can speak to the life of Oscar Romero, the blessed, brilliant, and wonderful Jesuits, the Maryknolls, the ‘Disappeared.’” The liturgies and homilies are specifically addressed towards GLBT rights. “I’ll wear a collar into a gay bar in Panama City; I’ll have a few drinks; I’ll smoke a cigar; I’ll wear a collar to a GLBT movie showing. But you’ll usually find me in a nahua, whether I’m wearing a collar or not. They are beautiful walking rainbows and I love the Ngobe. They’re my other community.”
She hopes all her work in life reflects social justice. “I’m not so much interested in social works, although that is important. Churches with only ‘feeding programs’ raise my eyebrows. I come from the Father Robert Warren Cromey School of Church that lives and teaches an actual change in poverty, homelessness, hunger, education, housing, and health care — especially for women and children. Otherwise, what is the point? Sure a feeding program is important and necessary. But without the other, you’re just only making yourself feel less guilty.” The words of a hero, Camera say: When I gave food to hungry people, they called me a saint: when I asked why people are hungry, they called me a Communist. “I don’t know if anyone could call anyone from the US a real live Communist, but I could certainly pass as a Christian Socialist.” A life-long gay rights advocate and “fag hag,” her work before ordination was in hospice and AIDS-advocacy. She’s been working with WPA before we called it HIV, before ARC, before GRID. Her most “fun” job was as a chaplain on the NAIAD, the San Francisco Neptune Society’s yacht, where five days a week you’d find her blessing cremains scattered into the San Francisco Bay. She dreams of establishing a hospice in Panama.
Included are pictures of the cathdral/bishop’s see in San Francisco. The other picture is most of us ordained folks at San Francisco’s Pride. The silver-haired man is oonagh+’s spouse Kenny, an Episcopal priest in Bocas. Mother oonagh struggles with Spanish. “Language is not my gift; I was in terminal remedial Old Testament Greek” but with twenty-four hours notice, I can read the Mass in Spanish and in 72 hours, with translation assistance, I can preach in Spanish. On a good day and with lots of assistance from mi amiga Meri Elvia, I might be able to utter a few Ngobe words.”
For more information, please email: ammagh.oonagh@gmail.com or check http://www.myspace.com/ammaoonagh for ongoing revisions, music, images, thoughts. Celtic Advent reflections are at http://www.ammaghoonagh.wordpress.com named “Fay, Gay, and On The Way”.
The Rev’d. oonagh Ryan-King
The Inclusive Celtic Episcopal Church
http://inclusivecelticchurch.com/stsavior1.aspx
