ADVENT Winter 2001

Contents

• RIC Congregations and Friends to Join Together in SF
• RIC2001 - March 16-18
  Workshop Options
  Agenda
  Airline
  Hotel
  Street Map
  Registration Form
  
• Events of Interest
• What are Homosexuals For?
• Executive Board
• Membership Form

Click here for a printable version in Adobe Acrobat format.

Reconciling in Christ Congregations and Friends to Join Together in San Francisco
March 16-18, 2001

Register now for RIC2001, the popular national conference presented by Lutherans Concerned/San Francisco Bay Area. This year's theme, "Claiming the Promise! Our Journey into Hope," will be explored through music, art, drama, worship, workshops, speakers, and panel discussions.

Some of the questions to be explored are:

• How can we celebrate and use the diversity of our Church to enrich one another and build bridges of understanding between us?
• How do we open ourselves and our Church to "justice-love" through the dynamic power of the Gospel?
• How does the Hebrew-Christian story inspire sexual minority people and allies to envision a fully inclusive Church for all people?
• How does scripture equip gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people to "come out" and claim God's promise of authenticity and wholeness?
• How can the use of rituals for healing and celebration support sexual minority people and strengthen congregations?

Featured speakers include The Rev. Dr. Herb Chilstrom, former Presiding Bishop of the ELCA; The Rev. Barbara Lundblad, professor and speaker from Union Theological Seminary in New York; and The Rev. Jeff Johnson, speaker and activist from University Lutheran Chapel in Berkeley. Workshop leaders include Pastor Corrine Chilstrom and Dr. Robert Smith of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary.

A registration form, airline and hotel information, and other details are included in this issue of ADVENT. RIC2001 promises to be an exciting time of fellowship, growth, and renewal in our journey toward full inclusion. We hope you'll be there!

WORKSHOP OPTIONS

• Disarming the Power of Secrets in the Church
• Becoming a Welcoming, Supportive, Gospel-Centered RIC Community of Faith
• Creating Ceremonies and Blessing the Relationships of Same Gender Couples
• Creating Support for Diverse Families
• How the Spiritual Community can be Present in Suffering and Loss
• Discerning Christ in Unfamiliar Places and Familiar Faces: Outreach to and Advocacy with Marginalized People
• Extraordinary Candidacy Certification and Placement for Extraordinary Seminarians and Clergy

AGENDA

AIRLINE

United Airlines is the official airline for RIC2001. For round trip into San Francisco you may request (1) a 5% discount off any United, Shuttle by United, or United Express published fare in effect when the tickets are purchased, subject to all applicable restrictions, or (2) a 10% discount off full fare, unrestricted coach fares in effect when tickets are purchased 7 days in advance.

Reservations, schedule, and ticketing information may be obtained by calling the Meeting Plus Reservation Center at 1-800-521-4041 and referring to the Meeting Code 594XB. Mileage Plus members will receive full credit for all miles flown when attending the conference.

HOTEL

Holiday Inn, Civic Center, at 50 Eighth Street (near Market) in San Francisco is holding a block of rooms at $109 per double room per night for the nights of March 16 and 17. There is an additional charge of $20 per guest per night for triple or quadruple occupancy utilizing existing bedding, and a charge of $15 per night for a rollaway bed. The hotel will provide parking at a daily rate of $10 which includes in and out privileges.

To reserve at the above rate, you should call the Hotel Reservations Department at 1-800-243-1135 and identify yourself as an attendee of the RIC Conference. All reservations should be made by February 16, 2001.

(click the map for a larger version)

St. Mark's Lutheran Church (ELCA) is conveniently located
on Cathedral Hill in central San Francisco, is handicapped
accessible--and has plenty of free parking.

February 4, 2001 (2 pm) LC/SFBA Board Meeting "Goal Setting," St. Mark's SF

February 18, 2001 (3 pm) LC/SFBA Board Meeting, St. Mark's SF

March 16-18, 2001 RIC2001 in San Francisco

April 3-4, 2001 Lutheran AIDS Network (LANET) National Conference, Adam's Mark Hotel, St. Louis, MO

April 28-29, 2001 Scheduled Services of Ordination and Installation of Anita Hill, St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church, St. Paul, MN

June 14 - 16, 2001 Sierra Pacific Synod, Synod Assembly, Reno, NV

June 24, 2001 "Queerific"-The San Francisco Pride Parade and Celebration

July 15, 2001 San Francisco AIDS Walk‹LC/SFBA is coordinating RIC contingents

Aug 8 - 14, 2001 ELCA Churchwide Assembly, Indianapolis, IN

Ordination

The Rev. Donna Simon was ordained and installed at Abiding Peace Lutheran Church, Kansas City, MO on October 28, 2000.

In Memoriam

The Rev. Dr. Katherine P. Keller, died November 10, 2000. She was a long-time advocate for the GLBT community. Services were at Augustana Lutheran Church in Phoenix, AZ with ELCA Grand Canyon Synod Bishop Howie Wennes preaching.

Reconciling in Christ is a program of Lutherans Concerned/North America that seeks to identify Lutheran congregations engaged in a ministry inclusive of lesbian and gay people. Reconciling in Christ (RIC) congregations affirm that gay and lesbian people share with all others the worth which comes from being unique individuals created by God; are welcome within the membership of their congregations upon making the same affirmation of faith that all other people make; and that as members of a (RIC) congregation, are expected and encouraged to share in the sacramental and general life of the church.

WHAT ARE HOMOSEXUALS FOR?

What a question! When I read it in Andrew Sullivan's book Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality, I was startled, and I thought about the deep feelings that inspire someone to question their existence. I'm sure most of us can recall a time when we wondered seriously what we were for.

Andrew Sullivan's book is sitting on the corner of my very messy desk along with A Path With Heart, Jack Kornfield's "guide through the perils and promises of spiritual life," with a Buddhist flavor. Right on top is The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I've been reading this book because we are discussing it in our parish's Sunday morning Adult Forum.

These three books address life issues far messier than my desk. Sullivan uses "What are Homosexuals For?" as the title for the epilogue in his book. Here he grapples with the role of the homosexual person in society, often comparing or contrasting it with that of the heterosexual. It is an excellent discussion, but spiritually speaking, his answers left me with a certain empty place in my heart. It is such an enormous question‹what is a being for? It needs an enormous answer.

Staring at that stack of books, I remembered the first chapter I read in Kornfield's book; it was called "Did I Love Well?" This is another big question. The author says, "All other spiritual teachings are in vain if we cannot love." Sound familiar? He goes on: "Out of love, our path can lead us to learn to use our gifts to heal and serve, to create peace around us, to honor the sacred in life, to bless whatever we encounter, and to wish all beings well." Well, that sounds pretty good.

And then there's that book on the top of the stack, with a chapter called "The Great Divide." Here Bonhoeffer sifts through Matthew 7: 13-23, contem-plating the final division of folks on that last day. His reflections climax when he writes: "Here is the crucial question‹has Jesus known us or not?" Now that's an enormous question! It can really raise the hair on the back of your neck when Bonhoeffer helps you visualize yourself before Christ weighing the answer.

I just returned from a winter camping trip in Yosemite National Park, with my friend Kelly. As campers often do we began working out solutions to life problems on our hikes and around the evening campfires. One question we mulled over was, "What changes a prejudiced heart?" We found answers as messy as the question, but as we explored different remedies, we kept returning to one‹love. Nothing else we could think of overwhelms prejudice like the passion of love . . . nothing.

So, what are homosexuals for? And, for that matter, what are heterosexuals for? What answer might we find by connecting the dots painted by Sullivan, Kornfield, Bonhoeffer, and a couple of campers ? Is it too intellectually absurd to say that homosexuals are "to love," and, for that matter, so are heterosexuals? Isn't this answer big enough to satisfy the question? Isn't it so simple that it's almost scary! (Maybe I still have too many of those Yosemite stars in my eyes.) And yet, if we want to let everything else go and just love, we have the power to reduce pages and pages of writing, and long, long discussions into one simple act.

What we are for will be affirmed when we stand before Christ, the great teacher of love. Let us pray that Christ will celebrate each of us as a being that loved well and receive us saying, "I know you."

Love well !

Executive Board
Gary Wolfe, president
Steven Krefting, vice-president
Mark Showalter, secretary and webmaster
Charles Lewis, treasurer
Joseph Haletky, RIC chair
Judy Streets, ADVENT editor
Max Kirkeberg
Barbara Lembcke
Raymond Vickers-Traft

Address correspondence to:

Judy Streets
ADVENT Editor, LC/SFBA
566 Vallejo Street, #25
San Francisco, CA 94133-4083
415/956-2069