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A Conversation on Gay Unions
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From the Rector Dear Friends, As most of you know, in April the parish engaged in an educational series entitled, "A Conversation on Gay Unions." Several of us gave presentations, and there was much discussion. This issue gives you a summation of the presentations and a flavor of the conversation. In addition, the text of my reflections in booklet form was mailed to all active parishioners several weeks ago. I hope that all of this will be helpful to us as part of the Church, which is struggling to discern the presence and direction of the Spirit in this complex and pastorally very sensitive matter. Despite the pain of conflicting convictions on all 'sides', I sense a new vitality coming out of these discussions. For me personally and, I think, for the parish as a whole, there seems to be an unleashing of energy that had previously been occupied with worries and unspoken anxieties. I do not mean that we collectively or even all of us individually have resolved all the concerns or made all the necessary decisions in this regard. But for a significant number of us, having at least confronted the issues involved and voiced our hopes and concerns to one another has unbound energy in us that was previously tied up in these anxieties (which Jesus encourages us to let go of!). Without diminishing the importance of the discerning work we still have to do with regard to gay unions, this new energy is now available to us for other significant efforts. I recently experienced this one evening in an unexpected way. A month or so previously, some of us had gotten together to try to organize a sustained and vital international dimension to the parish's outreach ministry. There have been wonderful projects like the Namibian library collection and our mission trips by youth, students, and adult parishioners; but we have not had a steady, cohesive, well-organized effort. We decided to have a second meeting and invite the chair of our diocesan Companion Diocese Committee to address us, letting word of mouth draw whoever might be interested. Twenty-five dedicated, talented people showed up, most of them with international experience! Many of us might have come whether or not the parish had engaged in this thoughtful conversation on a controversial subject, but speaking for myself and from what I sensed around the table, there was a new energy there, some of which, at least, was unleashed by this communal engagement. To me, that was a validation of the fruitfulness that comes when we as the Church make the necessary effort and take the inherent risk of facing controversial and divisive issues together. Let us all give God thanks for this most recent grace to do so and ask for the grace to persevere in faithful, undaunted response. Stephen Vestry Actions - April 21, 2005 At its April meeting, the vestry:
(Note: The reports on the educational series, A Conversation about Gay Unions, on the following pages are abbreviated versions of all presentations. The rector's reflections have been mailed to all parishioners and full texts of the entire series are on the parish Website at http://www.thechapelofthecross.org/2005/GayUnions.html.) A CONVERSATION ABOUT GAY UNIONS - Part One: "The contexts of the Conversation," April 3, 2005 Presenter: The Rev. Dr. Richard Pfaff, Priest Associate, the Chapel of the Cross and Professor of History, UNC-CH Summary by Martha Schütz Lo Parish dialogue on the issue of same gender unions and the role of homosexuals in our denomination has been encouraged by the General Convention, the Windsor Report, and our own Bishop Michael Curry. The rector proposed launching this conversation with a series of discussions, open to the community, to be held over three successive Sunday mornings and evenings in April, following the framework of
Dr. Pfaff's contribution on April 3, titled, "Contexts of the Conversation," paralleled the rector's framework in its format: it guided participants on an exploration of the issue from the abstract (textual interpretation) to the concrete (the role of experience in formulating moral theology). Advocating a pursuit of common terminology and clear premises, Dr. Pfaff hoped throughout his remarks to aid unambiguous discussion. He then set out three "contexts" in which to consider same-sex unions and the Church. I. Exegesis (or critical explanation or interpretation, especially of Scripture). Dr. Pfaff cautioned that, in approaching the texts considered most pertinent to the issue, a) there are no "unfiltered" encounters with Scripture; b) all biblical witness has been transmitted through mutable physical objects; c) all formal divisions in the Bible (chapter, verse, etc.) are post-13th Century constructions (not original to the texts' authors); and d) the vocabulary of biblical writers needs to be respected for both its character and limitations. Applying these "hermeneutical principles" to passages often cited as of special relevance - Leviticus 18:22, Genesis 19:4-5, Romans 1:27 (and 26), and I Corinthians 6:9 - Dr. Pfaff showed that the language used uniformly expressed disgust with the homosexual activity the writer thought he was talking about; but that condemnation of the behaviors alluded to did not constitute a blanket condemnation of "homosexuality," a word not known in biblical times. It was not useful to separate exegesis from theology. II. Theology. Dr. Pfaff then compared the contributions that branches of theology, principally Ascetical (striving toward 'perfection' in relation to God) and Moral (coming to terms with 'imperfection,' especially in assessing sin in relation to human beings), make to reflections on homosexuality. Moral theology, in its most traditional structure, can be particularly helpful, not least because it takes into account the third context, that of human experience. III. Experience. Dr. Pfaff began consideration of this context by focusing on the 'accepted norm' of heterosexual marriage against which same-sex union is frequently set. He observed that few contemporary marriages satisfy all received understandings about heterosexual marriage, notably, about 'consummation' of marriages and fulfillment of the procreative function; and then questioned how same-sex unions, which exhibit many of the same characteristics of non-conformity to the stereotyped norm, can be singled out as wrong per se. He then returned to Scripture, citing three passages about (heterosexual) intimate relationships - Genesis 2:24; Song of Solomon/Songs; Ephesians 5:21-31 - all of which involve ambiguity and raise issues in sacramental theology. He concluded by suggesting that traditional moral theology could help the Church deal sensitively with the experiential dimension of specific relationships. These remarks engendered discussion on topics as wide-ranging as whether the married state continues into the afterlife; when the church became involved in the practice of marrying couples (largely in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries); why the issue of same-sex unions has gained more attention than pressing social and economic justice issues the Church faces; whether multiple marriage (polygamy) is condoned in some parts of the Anglican Communion; and how necessary and important it is for our parish to engage in these conversations now, nine years after they were called for by General Convention. A CONVERSATION ABOUT GAY UNIONS - Part two, April 10, 2005 Presenter: The Rev. Gray Temple, Rector, St. Patrick's Church, Atlanta, Georgia Summary by Barbara Day Gray Temple, a Morehead Scholar and UNC-Chapel Hill graduate (1965), author of Gay Unions-In the Light of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason, and rector of St. Patrick's Church in Atlanta, Georgia, spoke to a group of parishioners and others who filled the chapel at the Chapel of the Cross on Sunday evening, April 10, 2005. His presentation focused primarily on his book which had been synthesized in a morning presentation (see review by Day on p. 11 of this issue of Cross Roads). Temple, described as a liberal charismatic who prayerfully came to the conclusion that his homophobia was not a stance favored by God, went through a period of turmoil at St. Patrick's, now described as having become one of the conspicuously vibrant worship centers in the Episcopal Church. Temple began the conversation by asking each of us to look at who was on either side of us. He asked, "Do you think you agree with God about them? See if you are able to turn to them in boundless affection. Ask their God to bring each of them to the peak of their powers." Expressing joy in being back in Chapel Hill and at the Chapel of the Cross, and emphasizing that good people mostly do good things, Temple said that he favors sacramental equality for gay people in the church. By this he means all of the sacraments including the sacraments of Holy Matrimony and Ordination, believing that those who participate faithfully should not be denied these sacraments. "Tune me out if you like," said Temple, "but tune God in and pray that the one who is made manifest to us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth would be here and apprehend us. We talk too much about God when we are too distant to have been apprehended." He asked us to keep our hearts rubbing up against God's heart.He asked us to pray for him and for one another now. The Episcopal Church, he said, has been asking us to talk and pray with one another about the topic of gay unions for a long time. He has formed some conclusions: The two sides are not morally or intellectually symmetrical. There is a distinct advantage to one side and he believes that he represents the advantageous side and that in God's good time it will prevail. In the area of Reason, the matter has been debated and neither side has found the argument persuasive. We have not found ourselves drifting toward the middle. Debate is endless. People say same-sex marriage will alter and pollute marriage. The response is, how? How does that impact your marriage? The response is repeated. Something other than reason is going on. Temple said we have failed; "We must open ourselves to the mystery of God in humble submission and look around at our gay brothers and sisters and bask in that affection. Our hearts will be transformed. It may take a while for our minds to catch up."Reiterating his stance in his book, Gay Unions, he indicated that he did not know anyone whose mind was changed by reading, rather we change when we find someone we love who is gay. This question, he said, will not be resolved scientifically or legally; it will be resolved personally as each of us is apprehended by the person of God and as we permit the love of God for us to radiate out to men and women whom we discover to be as lovable as ourselves. Regarding Tradition, Temple wants to discuss a couple of outrageous things, "I personally will miss Anglicanism a great deal more than God will," he said. He reported that he had served in several provinces of the Anglican Communion in the Third World in Africa and Southern Asia. He had the title of Honorary Canon in a diocese in Southern Kenya and loved those people. He regretted to say that the practice of Anglicanism in their provinces is difficult to distinguish from Islam; women sit on one side, men on another. Men get the benefits he said. When there is movement to improve (nationally or locally) the lot of women, the Anglican Church is silent or opposed to it. Whom else do we betray if we say to our gay brothers and sisters, we postpone you for several generations in order to make peace with that? "There is, however, a big tradition that we should embrace in Anglicanism and that is an understanding that we are bound together sacramentally, not confessionally," Temple said. We don't always agree with each other, but we can all kneel down together and receive the Eucharist together. Turning attention to the Scripture, Temple proposed that "We must pay attention to what the Bible says is important; St. Paul was interested in how people could get transformed ... by turning in to the presence of God who is right here in this room tonight." What did the writers in Leviticus 18 or 20, Genesis 19, or Romans I think they were talking about? Temple proposed two considerations (without which we will not understand Biblical writers):
The presentation and discussion ended with prayer: "O God and Father of all, whom the whole heavens adore: Let the whole earth also worship thee, all nations obey thee, all tongues confess and bless thee, and men and women everywhere love thee and serve thee in peace; through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen." A CONVERSATION ABOUT GAY UNIONS - Part three: "Pastoral reflections," April 24, 2005 Presenter: The Rev. Stephen Elkins-Williams, Rector, the Chapel of the Cross Summary by Patty Courtright Until recently, the Church has given people who are gay or lesbian two options: change or be celibate. Both are much easier said than done, and neither option is necessarily in the best interest of the individual or the larger community. This dilemma, reflecting the Church's longstanding struggle with the issue of homosexuality and how we as Christians are called upon to respond to it, was the focus of the third presentation in the series "A Conversation about Gay Unions," given by the Rector, Stephen Elkins-Williams. Mr. Elkins-Williams' talk, "Pastoral Reflections," explored the issue from his perspective as a pastor for the past 30 years, and specifically as Rector of the Chapel of the Cross for much of that time. He addressed three topics: his perspective of homosexuality from a Christian viewpoint, the wider Church perspective, and what God calls us to be and to do. Personal Perspective Scriptural passages dealing with homosexuality condemn the behavior, not the individual - a point on which the Church, except for the lunatic fringe, has reached consensus. Most Christians would agree that sexual orientation in itself is not a sin. Surprisingly, Jesus is recorded as not having addressed the issue, and our most revered scriptures, the Gospels, do not mention it either. "Maybe it was not as central to Christianity as I had thought," Mr. Elkins-Williams said. Instead, Jesus' emphasis on tolerance and acceptance, his chastisement of the self-righteous, and the ways in which he sought out the identified sinners of the day are at the core of the life-giving, loving, generous, and passionately just God revealed to us through Jesus. Has the predominantly straight Church been correct, then, in charging gays and lesbians to change or remain celibate? Whether it is truly possible to change a critical element of a person's identity, like homosexuality, is still the subject of debate by psychologists as well as ministers. And whether it is appropriate to ask anyone to forfeit the call to lifelong companionship seems contrary to God's wish for us to live the fullness of the lives with which we have been graced. Lifelong companionship is "a primary way for us to grow beyond ourselves, to learn to love another sacrificially, to allow ourselves to realize some sense of God's love for us, and to be able to contribute to the building up of the community," Mr. Elkins-Williams said. The needs and rights of the individuals involved are one aspect of the issue. Perhaps even more importantly, though, are the ways in which gay unions might fulfill one of the traditional purposes of marriage: to help build up the community. Committed gay couples help build up the community through relationships that are characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, honest communication, and the love that enables them to see in each other the image of God - traits that are laid out in the language of General Convention. "If they were all living singly, the Church and society would be the poorer for it," Mr. Elkins-Williams said. As in most moral dilemmas, putting a human face on the larger issue can go a long way toward resolving it. "This is incarnational Christian theology, I believe, seeing Christ in the face of another and opening our hearts to them in love," he said. "As gay and lesbian people are given more support and encouragement to be honest about themselves with others, we will all be changed and grow more fully into the loving children of God we are all called to be." Wider Perspective For the past three decades, the Church has tried to reach consensus on this issue. The 1976 General Convention resolved that "homosexual persons are children of God and have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church." Since then, the Church has struggled with the resolution's meaning and vision. Subsequent resolutions established that no one should be denied full participation or ordination in the Church based on sexual orientation and acknowledged the existence of couples living in lifelong, committed, monogamous, and respectful relationships outside of marriage. However, resolving to develop a rite for the blessing of same-sex relationships has narrowly failed twice. In 2003, the 74th General Convention affirmed the election of Gene Robinson as the Bishop of New Hampshire and called for continued prayer, study, and discernment about the possible inclusion of rites to bless same-sex relationships, noting that "local faith communities are operating within the bounds of our common life as they explore and experience liturgies celebrating and blessing same-sex unions." Both actions evoked strong reaction within the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican Communion. The Eames Commission, appointed later that year by the Archbishop of Canterbury, was asked in part to address the means of union within the Anglican Communion in the face of divisive issues. The commission's findings, known as the Windsor Report, included a call for a moratorium both on ordaining bishops living in same-sex unions and on authorizing public rites of blessing for same-sex unions. This spring, the House of Bishops resolved that it would not consecrate anyone elected to the episcopate and would not authorize any public rites for the blessing of same-sex unions until the General Convention of 2006. In our diocese, Bishop Curry has issued pastoral guidelines for any congregation that discerns a call pastorally to support gay couples by blessing their unions. Our Call We must ask what God calls us to be and to do, a purposeful order of questions. We are first called to be God's children. "God calls us to be the Church . . . to open our doors and our hearts to all people, not simply to band together as like-minded people, but to seek our unity beyond ourselves and even our convictions in the love and the grace of God," Mr. Elkins-Williams said. "As the Body of Christ, we are not to say to others who disagree with us, 'I have no need of you'." As a parish, we must recognize our common identity with one another in the Chapel of the Cross as well as in the Church and the Anglican Communion. "We have a pretty good record of making that love and acceptance real at the Chapel of the Cross," Mr. Elkins-Williams said. Whether the General Convention's specified "full and equal claim within the Church" involves the blessing of same-sex unions is the subject of continued discernment and clarification. "Will we eventually come to some acceptance in the wider Church and in this parish of the fruitfulness of blessing gay unions?" Mr. Elkins-Williams asked. "I think quite likely we will; out of my personal convictions, I hope and pray that we do." Synopsis of the Rev. Gray Temple's book on gay unions Barbara Day Gray Temple, Gay Unions - In Light of Scripture, Tradition and Reason (2004), New York: Church Publishing Inc., 445 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016 ISBN 0-89869-457-4. (http://www.churchpublishing.org) Temple's book makes several important contributions:
While some Episcopalians want to talk more than others, Temple says that for more than 30 years we have been talking about the sacramental equality or inequality of our gay and lesbian fellow worshipers. By sacramental equality/inequality, he means that, like the rest of us, gay and lesbian church members are entitled to Baptism, the Eucharist, Confirmation, Penance, and Unction, but their access to Ordination has been restricted to the celibate until quite recently, and the church as a whole has not officially changed her mind about that access yet. Holy Matrimony is still officially, if no longer uniformly, denied by the church to gay members. As long as homosexual members are not equally entitled to seek these two latter sacraments they are not sacramentally equal to the rest of the church. Temple considers Scripture, citing it as coming in for the severest misuse these days. He acquaints the readers with recent research in several fields that indicates that our whole apprehension of sex and sexuality has undergone so radical a shift in recent centuries that we simply no longer get what the biblical writers thought they were talking about discussing sex. Temple examines the political nature of Tradition - who decides what it is and what it is not and why. Giving particular attention to the connection between tradition and privilege, he examines some essentially Anglican traditions that Temple believes we are in peril of jettisoning. And in discussing Reason he proposes to be gently inserting developmental considerations into the differences between liberals and Evangelicals and offers suggestions about how both sides might meet one another on a common level of values and maturity. Temple asks: "So how can people say they favor the Episcopal Church's move toward sacramental equality for gay people in the face of what appear to be clear, uniform, and unambiguous biblical prohibitions of same-sex genital relations?" He explores two answers:
We are in danger of abandoning an Anglican tradition, a treasure God has entrusted to us until the rest of the Church universal is mature enough to claim it...it is our identity as a via media, a middle way. We are a sacramental church and the formulae for membership as an Episcopalian are in our prayer book. Temple warns that "if we get pulled off the middle path, something essential will be lost...and the Holy Spirit will reforge it elsewhere at another time among more faithful people. At the General Convention of 2003 in Minneapolis the Episcopal Church embraced the profoundest tradition Jesus left us: the tradition of the Cross, the tradition of laying down our lives for our friends. That's a tradition worth preserving." Further, says Temple, the Spirit has re-presented to the Episcopal Church what the authentic Church tradition has always been: so to love one another as Christ has loved us that we lay down our lives for each other, contemplating denominational extinction if need be in service of God's truth. "The Holy Spirit is introducing an alternative to us: to sit at the table with one another until conviviality produces a new community where partisanship had previously estranged us from each other,...God's gift to us takes the form of new friends and colleagues to treasure." Loving god in all things A Sermon Preached by the Rev. Stephen Elkins-Williams on May 1, 2005, the Sixth Sunday of Easter [We prayed in today's collect:] O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire. "Pour into our hearts such love toward you, that we may love you in all things." While that commendable prayer sounds sweet and harmless, be careful of praying it. It is a costly prayer. To want deeply to be filled with God's love and to love God in all things means that we have to be prepared to give up all that is not loving in us: all the resentment and bitterness, all the non-forgiveness, all the condemnation and judgment of others, all the pride and exaggerated sense of self-importance, all that keeps us from the love of God. Do you want to give all that up? At my deepest level I know that I do, although with great fear and trembling. I know that that is what I am created for. I know that love is ultimately stronger and more life-giving than hate. I know that when confronted with injustice and hatred, either aimed at me or at others, that is when I most need to let the love of God pour through me and displace my resentment and my need to punish and my drive to return evil for evil. At my deepest level I want to be filled with God's love that I may love God in all things, but I do not often live there. At a much shallower, daily life level, I find those instincts to refuse forgiveness or to punish those who have the gall or the bad sense or the stupidity to offend me (!) or to threaten back when I am threatened, very strong, a part of my identity that I cling to in relating to the world. But it is the part of the old self to which we are to die, beginning with our baptism. It is the sin in us that we are to let Jesus redeem. It is what we are to let God empty in us that we might be filled with divine love and love God in all things. Peter exhorts us in today's epistle, "Do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling; but on the contrary bless, for to this you have been called, that you may obtain a blessing.... Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence." Wonderful words for a Christian to live by, wonderful and yet very hard in the midst of conflict and disagreement. This coming weekend an infamous so-called Christian group from Topeka, Kansas, will be in Durham to picket at Duke's East Campus, at the Durham School of the Arts, and at seven Durham churches, including St. Luke's Episcopal Parish, to publicize further their "God Hates Fags" campaign. It is hard to exaggerate the venom and hatred of this one-family-dominated group. I observed them at General Convention in Philadelphia in 1997. It was a sad and disturbing sight. Men, women, and children, held graphic signs both depicting and denouncing gay sex in words and pictures. Their Website not only totals up daily the amount of days that Matthew Shepard, murdered in Wyoming, has been burning in hell (now almost 2,400), but goes on to declare that Pope John Paul II has now been tortured there for over a month and that even Jerry Falwell will soon land in the eternal flames. Ironically, this group came to Chapel Hill to picket exactly six years ago, just after the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year A, when the same readings and the same collect were used. I preached then out of these same propers about our response to them and how we should oppose such vicious bigotry, not out of our selfishness and need to punish, but out of our love of God and our love for others. Fortunately, six years later, their message seems old and tired and more ludicrous than genuinely threatening. It is not such lunatic fringe that truly test our Christian love and discipline, but those more close to us in faith and outlook, who disagree with us on moral perspectives or politics or other significant issues about which we feel strongly. How are we to respond to these others, often brothers and sisters in the faith, who seem a much more real threat to what we perceive as God's truth? "Pour into our hearts such love towards you that we may love you in all things." If we are sincere about this prayer, we must let God slowly but steadily empty us of our need to be right, of our need to prevail, of our need to punish others for their short-sightedness. We are still to speak the truth in love as it has been given to us, of course, but "in love" is the operative phrase. Love involves humility about our own opinion. Love calls for respect for the integrity of the other person. Love urges us to strive to speak our truth in ways that others have the best chance to hear it. Love stretches us to pray that these others may receive and spread God's love in the way that God calls them to, not just in the way that we would have them do. If God is to pour divine love into our hearts, to make room there must be a commensurate emptying out of us all that is not loving. That is a painful but life-giving process. Trust God to sustain you with the grace you need - but do be careful what you pray for. I Peter 3:8-18 Why God Expects Green Churches Linda B. Rimer, Environmental Stewardship Committee Chair The environmental stewardship article in the May Cross Roads described the impacts that buildings have on the natural world, specifically, the enormous amounts of energy, water, and materials consumed, and waste generated. We quoted numbers from the Department of Energy: buildings in the US account for approximately 39% of the energy used, 68% of total electricity, and 12% of the total water used. The energy required to heat, cool, and operate buildings also generates 49% of sulfur dioxide emissions, 25% of nitrous oxide emissions, and 10% of particulate emissions (all into the air we breathe) while producing 35% of the country's carbon dioxide emissions, the primary greenhouse gas that contributes to global climate change. The article also described the impacts of storm water run-off from all the impervious surfaces associated with buildings (roofs, parking lots), the contribution to the creation of "urban heat islands" that increase energy needs by concentrating heat in warm weather, the destruction of habitat for non-human creatures, which can lead ultimately to a reduction of biodiversity, and the negative impact on human creatures from indoor air pollution created by building materials, furnishings, and paints. Since early in the new year, the Next Step Committee has been interviewing master planning and architectural firms as potential partners in the creation of office, education, and hospitality space that will allow the Chapel of the Cross to accommodate the program needs that have been foreseen in the parish's long-range plan. Knowledge of the impact of buildings on the natural environment has been informing those interviews and discussions. In February, two members of the Next Step Committee attended a conference: "Holy and Beautiful: Greening Sacred Spaces," sponsored by the Duke Divinity School and the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences. Conference presentations featured information on the environmental, economic, and social benefits of 'green' or sustainable buildings. But presenters also challenged participants to consider the proposition that people of faith have an obligation - articulated in the Bible - to live in harmony with creation and that this obligation includes building ecologically sound churches and church-related buildings. What could this mean for our Chapel of the Cross? While the Next Step Committee, along with every member of our parish, contemplates this question, consider the description of a church that could serve as a model of ecological responsibility, written by Dr. David Rhodes, Professor of New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, and director of the Web of Creation as he envisions a parish and congregation fifty years from now (http://www.webofcreation.org/):
Several of these characteristics may ultimately describe our own Chapel of the Cross.Though we are unlikely to have a community garden near by, we could have a 'green roof' that reduces storm water run-off, helps to keep the building cool, and sequesters carbon. And the commitment is strong to take far better advantage of the ever-changing beauty of the Coker Arboretum, with large windows that blend the inside with the outside, reminding us always of the magnificence of God's creation and our call to be good stewards of that creation. ASKED AT THE CHURCH DOOR Q : "During communion people line up at the baptismal font for healing and the laying on of hands. What is going on there and why?" Vicky Jamieson-Drake's reply: People who come to the healing station, before or just after receiving communion, come for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they are troubled in spirit, sometimes they are dealing with physical illness, sometimes they just want a 'spiritual vaccination' or individual prayer reinforcement. They come for the grace and comfort of receiving anointing with oil of healing and the laying on of hands. Anointing of the sick, or unction, is one of the sacramental rites of the church. (See p. 860 of The Book of Common Prayer) The oil used is a light olive oil that has been blessed by a priest for this purpose. (The prayer for blessing the oil is found on page 455 of the BCP.) As with other sacramental rites, through an outward, visible sign, an inward, spiritual grace is bestowed. The sign is the oil and the laying on of hands. As with other sacraments, the signs remind us of the nature of the inner grace given. Human touch, such as a pat on the back, a gentle hand on the shoulder can give assurance and comfort. Oil, scented with healing herbs, was once widely used for medicinal purposes. With prayer, the laying on of hands upon a person's head conveys the assurance of God's loving presence and the healing and strengthening power of that love. Usually people don't identify their need, though sometimes a person will specify a prayer request. "I've been struggling with depression." "My father has just been diagnosed with cancer." They kneel, or stand if kneeling is difficult, and the priest makes the sign of the cross on their forehead with oil, places hands upon their head, and says a prayer such as the following: "N., I lay my hands upon you and anoint you with oil, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, beseeching our Lord Jesus Christ to sustain you with his presence, to drive away all sickness of body and spirit, and to give you that victory of life and peace which will enable you to serve him both now and evermore. Amen." (BCP p. 456) My preference is to use each person's name as I lay hands upon his/her head, but sometimes my mind goes blank. I really appreciate it when people tell me their names as they kneel. When I've been asked to pray for healing for another person as well, I'll add that person's name in the context of the prayer."...that Christ uphold you and N., that you both may know the healing power of his love." If you have a particular question, you'd like addressed in this column, please send it to info@thechapelofthecross.org From the parish mailbox Dear Mr. Elkins-Williams, Thank you for the Chapel of the Cross's recent gift of $1,000. Your gift will be designated for our South Asia Relief Fund. In December 2004, the most powerful earthquake in forty years rocked the Indian Ocean, claiming over 300,000 lives. Episcopal Relief and Development provided emergency relief within the first critical days of the tsunami tragedy. Children and families received life-saving food, clean water, medical care, and shelter kits in places such as Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and Indonesia. We recently sent two staff members to South Asia to conduct a needs assessment in affected countries. "ERD was the first to respond after the tsunami. We are overwhelmed by ERD's support and solidarity." said Dr. Pauline Sathiamurthy, of the Church of South India. ERD's long-term partnership with the Church of South India will help people support their families by rebuilding their fishing boats and through a vocational training program. A multi-year trauma care program will train counselors in nine dioceses. The partnership will also offer long-term care and education to children orphaned by the tragedy. Your gift makes both an immediate and a long-lasting difference for families suffering in the aftermath of this catastrophe. Please visit www.er-d.org/tsunami for news and updates about how gifts like yours are being used in South Asia. Through your ongoing partnership with Episcopal Relief and Development, lives are being changed. Please thank all those who helped make this generous gift possible. Sincerely, Sandra Swan President, Episcopal Relief and Development |