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THE MONTHLY CAUCUS
The Episcopal Women's Caucus:
Advocating for women since 1971, theologically, spiritually and politically.
APRIL 2011 |
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In this issue: EWC signs on to Interfaith Statement regarding women's health; report from Women's Gathering in Delray Beach Florida; reflections on new life through Easter Eyes;coming events in May; new life through extreme changes;focus on our Veterans;and Holy Women for April.
We try to offer views from different women, lay or ordained, throughout the Church and to hold up celebrations, events, achievements, or struggles that involve women. If you are interested in contributing - whether through an article you have written or a newsworthy item - please contact either Karen Bota, the editor of RUACH KDBota@aol.com or Gigi Conner, The Monthly Caucus gigipriest@prodigy.net
We hope your Holy Week experience brings a deeper understanding of where Christ still suffers in our world today and that the new life of Easter offers resurrection to the withered places in our hearts, countries and the earth itself.
Contributors this month:
Julia Spencer-Fleming, author, who is also a cradle Episcopalian, active member of the Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Portland, ME, and the proud mother of it's youngest vestry member ever, Spencer Hugo-Vidal.
Suzanne Guthrie, author of Praying the Hours, and, Grace's Window:Entering the Seasons of Prayer. She's the mother of four grown children. She and her husband Bill live with the sisters of The Community of the Holy Spirit on their organic farm in Brewster, New York. www.chssisters.org She posts weekly self-guided retreats at www.EdgeOfEnclosure.org.
Rachel Taber-Hamilton, rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Everett, Washington. She is a Board Certified Chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains and currently serves on the Executive Council Committee on Indigenous Ministries. Her academic background in cultural anthropology and research in ancient symbol systems seems to keep her sermons interesting.
The Rev. Paula M. Jackson, rector of the Church of Our Saviour/La Iglesia de Nuestro Salvadorin Cincinnati, Ohio, which has a vibrant outreach ministry to the community and is designated as a Sanctuary Church.
Karen Carroll, Episcopal Missionary in the Domincan Republic.
Susan Guise, AWE (Anglican Women's Empowerment) member, Diocese of Southwest Florida.
The Episcopal Women's Caucus is on Facebook and we have a website website: www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org.
Please feel free to pass along articles to friends or forward this email ... and let us hear from you. And if you are a member and would like to "re-up" your membership, please do so by filling out the coupon at the bottom of the page. If you are new to the Caucus and would like to be a member, please use the same form.
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MAY EVENTS NEAR YOU?
May 14, 10:30 AM at St. John the Divine in New York. PLEASE COME AND CELEBRATE the 15th Anniversary of Bishop Catherine Roskam's Consecration as Bishop Suffragan ALL ARE WELCOME!! Bishop Roskam retires at the end of 2011.
M ay 21 - Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia. Please come remember The Rev. Paul Washington, who opened the flood gates for women to be ordained as priests on July 29, 1974 at Church of the Advocate. This service will not only honor Washington, but will recognize area African Drummers as well. This event serves as a yearlong fundraising effort to allow the Church to keep its mission of Advocacy to the 'Other Sheep' alive and well. For more information contact Kemah C. Washington kemahcw@gmail.com
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NOTICING OUR VETERANS
by Julia Spencer Fleming, author of One Was A Soldier, the seventh Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery.
 Have you noticed how depressing the news is lately? Japan leaking radiation into the Pacific, revolutions in the middle east - and don't even think about the cost of gas. The government is going broke and there's a new Twilight movie your kids are going to drag you to. And did you know there's a war on?
Yeah, I know if you click on Google News headlines, you won't see anything about it. But it's out there. Let me give you a story from a different source, KPBS in San Diego. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has released a new, unpublished report on Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans to Veterans for Common Sense (VCS) under the Freedom of Information Act. Here are the numbers:
625,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran patients have flooded into VA. That's 10,000 new patients per month, or a new patient every five minutes. 313,000, or more than half, are diagnosed with at least one mental health condition. The average lifetime cost in healthcare and benefits per patient is $1,000,000. -Jan. 25, 2011
Think about that for a second. In the time it takes you to read this, another soldier, sailor, airman or marine will have come to the VA looking for treatment. Treatment for depression. Addiction. PTSD. Traumatic brain injury. Disability due to puncture wounds, shearing wounds, shrapnel wounds. If you break for a cup of coffee, it'll be two veterans. Check your Facebook status? Three.
Chances are, though, you don't know any of these men or women. Military enlistment as a percentage of the American population has been trending downward ever since Congress ended the draft in 1973. Right now, only about one-half of one per cent of the American population is under arms. That .05% comes from economically disadvantaged families, from small rural towns, and from the south. They come from places and homes where the tradition of military service maintains a precarious toe hold.
It used to be different. Between the end of WWII and the start of Vietnam, hundreds of thousand of men (it was almost all men in those days) were drafted or enlisted. Everybody had a dad, a brother, an uncle in one of the services. Everybody had a picture of some shaved-bald young man in a starched uniform hanging on the wall or propped up on the sideboard. If you heard of a serviceman who died or who was injured, you'd think, Thank God it wasn't Eddie. Or Ralph. Or Dennis. In my mother's generation, every one of her brothers-in-law served. Her brother was career navy. She married an Air Force lieutenant--my father--whose B47 bomber crashed during a training mission in the Adirondacks. When she married again--my adoptive dad--he was an Air Force vet. My sister and I both married veterans, and two of our stepbrothers served.
But we're a rarity. Most of my friends have to go back to WWII before they can name a family member in the military. Over the past eight years, all my children have been in classrooms where everyone sends a card to "Any Soldier"--but no one in those classrooms writes to an uncle or big sister overseas.
So what happens in a country where everyone is proud of Our Armed Forces but almost no one knows a soldier? We throw wonderful parades and allow mentally-ill vets to spiral into homelessness. We slap magnets on the back our SUVs and shake our heads at news stories about the number of post-deployment suicides. We vote for politicians who wave eagles and flags and we vote for spending cuts that freeze medical benefits for veterans.
Does this bother you? It bothers me. This is what I did about it: I wrote a book about five vets from one small town in New York struggling to come to terms with life after war. I'm pretty good at writing characters, and my hope is that some of the people who read my novel leave it feeling as if they know and care about a soldier or a marine. Personally. Intimately.
What can you do about it? Consider donating to the National Military Family Association or the Disabled American Veterans Charitable Service Trust Volunteer one day a month to your area VA hospital or the local homeless shelter. Use one of the local or national job-search boards to hire a veteran. Pay attention to how your representative's votes affect services to military men and women and their families.
How long has it been? Five minutes? Okay, we've got a marine waiting. Hello, corporal. Welcome to the health care system the American people have set up for veterans. How can we help you?
Julia Spencer Fleming is the Agatha and Anthony-award-winning author of the upcoming One Was A Soldier, the seventh Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery. You can find her on
Facebook and on Twitter. One Was A Soldier is available for preorder at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Borders, Powell's Books and your locally owned independent bookstore.
Start at the beginning of the story with In the Bleak Midwinter.And don't miss Letters to a Soldier, a free ebooklet with exclusive content and an excerpt from One Was A Soldier, now only $2.99 as an ebook. |
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STARTING OVER: BETTER THAN FICTION
by Suzanne Guthrie, priest, author, consultant and educator.
The editors of this newsletter asked me to write about leaving parochial ministry and "starting over"  with a new life in a new place. And I thought, what's the big deal? People do this all the time. Maybe what's interesting and unusual is that my husband and I chose to live with nuns at a convent.
Bill and I met at Holy Cross Monastery, a men's Episcopal Benedictine community in West Park, New York. I worked there as the guesthouse administrative assistant and he was the ranger at the local nature sanctuary. We were both divorced single parents. We dated for a while, but then Bill felt the call to enter another religious community. After four years, rather romantically, he left one night and I burned a candle in my window waiting for him. We married within the week. One thing we both knew from the beginning of our marriage: when we retired we wanted to live alongside a religious community, Roman Catholic or Episcopalian. Why? Bill loves community. I love laughter, and I'm attracted to the humor I find among religious. I'm also devoted to a life of prayer and find it less exhausting to explain this to people who also have a vocation to prayer.
Four years ago, after serving the church as a parish priest, children's priest and Christian Education consultant, a college and then university chaplain, (and burning out several times along the way) Bill and I found ourselves with no place to live. We asked the sisters of the Community of the Holy Spirit whether they'd like us to renovate a building on their property and then live along side them on their small organic farm in Brewster, New York. I'd been close to the sisters for over twenty years, and Bill had been helping as a volunteer as often as he could. We spent holidays and vacations with the sisters. We had no illusions. We knew each other well. But they agreed anyway, and we came to live at Bluestone Farm and Living Arts Center in the early fall of 2007.
The farm is a ministry of the Community of the Holy Spirit, an Episcopal monastic community founded in 1952. The sisters strive to live a life reflecting sustainable living, social justice, and spiritual fulfillment. Daily life involves organic farming, (maple sugaring, planting, tending, gathering and preserving food), singing the monastic offices (Lauds, Noonday Prayers, Vespers, Compline), meditation, fellowship, service to others, and "eucharistic living." This latter enterprise unfolds in awareness of both the environmental crisis and living thoughtfully upon earth, watching the process of genesis, growth, transfiguration, self-sacrifice, death, and re-birth all around us.
Bill, now retired from computer programming, raises chickens and bees and does general handy-man work and heavy lifting. The sisters say I'm "in charge of beauty." Among other chores, I grow and arrange flowers for the chapel, I re-designed and tend several gardens on the property (none of the useful gardens - I don't grow the food!) and run our summer intern program. (This summer we have five interns, three of whom are graduate theological students.) I also write, lead retreats, and maintain a website that posts a weekly "self-guided retreat" based upon the coming Sunday's Gospel lesson. www.EdgeOfEnclosure.org
Life in community has changed me for the better, drawn Bill and I closer, and I'm happier and certainly less stressed than I have ever been. My prayer and Christian life deepen. Together we lean into tough awareness of the state of the planet and respond in our continual choices about food, food justice, our carbon footprints, our love and awe of nature.
How could I ever imagine that I'd be living on a small farm with beloved sisters and a husband I met at a monastery? It's why I don't write fiction. You can't make this stuff up.
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Through Easter Eyes and Ears 
by Rachel Taber-Hamilton,rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, Everett, Washington
The words may vary, but the tone is the same. I've heard it many times in a variety of situations. "Oh, you sweet dear; it's alright. It's alright," murmured the aid worker who gently and patiently washed each feather of a frightened blue heron rescued from the BP oil spill. "Here, Billy, you missed a Cheerio! That's my handsome boy!" as his mother carefully fed him breakfast in the brain injury unit of the pediatric hospital in which her 6-year-old son struggled to coordinate his movements. "Teddy-Binky doesn't need a bath; he's perfect just the way he is!"" exclaimed 18 month old Elise, after having dropped her stuffed friend into a mud pie. And then there was, "Aren't you gorgeous!" as Steve Irwin genuinely effused to every cranky crocodile he ever encountered.
The tone of all such encounters is love. Hopefully, if we're very lucky, we learn its gently spoken music early on in life. Then, with the ability to firmly tether our heartstrings to what we adore, we are able to journey through life seeing the subject of our love shining within the golden beauty of our joy at its very existence. However, if we do not first hear the lilting voice of love directed at us, if we do not have anyone in life who views us within the intense gaze of valuation and appreciation - then we can lose (or never learn) the skill of how to see and sing love. Love calls all creation into true being (through intentional relationship) in ways that nothing else ever can.
God's love sings to us always, and the omni-centric subject of His love is fixed exactly where you are at this very moment.
"Hello, gorgeous!"
(Can you hear it?)
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NEW LIFE THROUGH EASTER EYES
by the Rev. Paula M. Jackson, rector of the Church of Our Saviour/La Iglesia de Nuestro Salvador, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Church of Our Saviour is a Sanctuary Church.
For the past sixty of her seventy years, she has lived in a mausoleum.
Father was distant when dry and violent when drunk, but died anyway.
Brother who made life bearable went off to war and never came home.
Mother's instability became rigid and demanding, her house a tomb;
The dolls he had sent must stay in their display boxes,
And no guests could ever come in.
Mother is gone these twenty years, still judges every motive, every move.
A whisper of opportunity beckons: even now you could begin a new life
among friends who enjoy you -- bequeath those treasures to delight young eyes,
sell the big house to a family for living.
If there is a resurrection life for your hero brother and redemption for your tormented father,
Will not God have found a way to repair the heart of your stricken mother?
Jesus stands at the door and calls, "Come out!"
Anxious, loving faces wait around; it is only for you to come out. |
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Challenged beyond Imagination
by Karen Carroll, missionary in the Domincan Republic
Six years ago I embarked on a wonderful journey that has deeply affected by life. Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought I could take on the challenge of living in the Dominican Republic and working for the Episcopal Diocese here, but God had this planned for my life.
I have experienced at times, of doing without the usual comforts of hot water, loss of electricity, very hot weather and most importantly - leaving behind family and friends. But how can you discount the joys received in the love and acceptance of my new Dominican friends, their patience with my "spanglish, " and the chance to witness their unconditional love and faith in God. I have also seen how giving the American teams that come here for short term missions are and how everyone goes home changed.
My boundaries have been stretched, and I have witnessed and seen God's love in some of the poorest of poor. I was given a gift to work in a country where the church is growing and strong, and I am blessed to be here.
Follow-up questions from the Editor in blue, Karen's answers in red:
What do you miss most?family and friends / the familiar "girl's night out" with easiy interchange of conversation What has been the biggest surprise for you?I guess that I actually did this! That I had it in me - that I had courage I didn't know I had - that the faith and love others showed to me got me through all the hard and lonely times What advice would you give to someone who is contemplating leaving a job - changing vocations - traveling to a new place or country to live.Go for it! It is scary, but worth it. Oh, and I did lots of praying !
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 Episcopal Women Gathering
by Susan Guise, Member of Anglican Women's Empowerment (AWE), Diocese of SW Florida, St, Ann of Grace
On the weekend of March 18-20 a Gathering of Episcopal Church Women, twenty-one women from all over the country gathered to create a community of hospitality, vision, and action at Duncan Center in DelRay Beach, Florida. The women represented many women's groups within the Episcopal Church and as women of faith shared their life stories, wisdom and gifts to form a circle community. The opening ceremony in the chapel, with women gathered in a circle on the marble labyrinth, began with each woman placing an article which symbolized her life and contribution to the gathering on an altar. Each woman spoke of what had brought her to this gathering and of the organizations, memories, and passions that she brought to the table. Often voiced was the concern about the General Convention of the Church eliminating the women's desk on a national level and what this said about the history and contribution of women through the years. It was a time to reflect upon all the ways in which women of faith could best respond to the changes of the time... together.
The Convenors were: The Rev. Ginny Doctor- Educator of leadership development for the Diocese of Alaska, Episcopal indigenous people and Episcopal women, co-creator of Indigenous Women's Pathways program and Episcopal Native Alaskan women's leadership program; The Rev. Joy Mills: Pastoral counselor and therapist, writer, educator, priest, member of Anglican Women's Empowerment (AWE); Katherine Tyler Scott:Managing partner of Ki ThoughtBridge, board member of the International Leadership Association, author of Transforming Leadership; and Ann Smith; Co-Director of www.circleconnections.com, past director of Women in Mission and Ministry of Episcopal Church.
Conversations were continuous and sharing of stories as well as laughter and singing were highlights of the occasion. A discussion led by Katherine Tyler Scott focused on the leadership styles and changes within the work of women of the Episcopal Church and amission statement was formed to define the concerns of the group.
We are a gathering of Episcopal Women who have recognized the power of our spiritual leadership to transform the church and world. Grounded in the Gospel, guided through action and prayer and emboldened by our faith we seek to bring about racial, sexual, monetary and economic equality for all women.
This conference provided a context for the change we want to see in the world; began the clarification of our calling and how our gifts could be used to bring about change; provided the tools and processes for leading change and bringing about the conversion of minds and hearts so that Episcopal women can celebrate the diversity of leadership and commit to responsible action wherever we live, worship, and work!
As my grandchildren would say...the weekend was Awesome.... delightful women with amazing strengths and skills. I am sure we would each write a different evaluation of the event itself and the important connections emerging. Discussions were switching often between process and content and on many levels........global, national, diocesan, even deanery, parish and yes individual. Hopefully this Gathering will not become another Episcopal women's organization but rather provide an opportunity and mechanism for further collaboration and understanding.
Editor's Follow-up Question in black. Response in Red.
What did you take away personally?Women really care and need to hear each others stories with respect. Old leadership loyal to their past but willing and eager to enter a sacred place and share their stories....how open to change could be debated...and what change would look like a question....and now enter younger voices....at least 5 or 6.....convinced of their own path....at least there was an attempt to meet in a place of openness within the circle configuration. Hierarchy in whatever form seemed to give safety to some...but at least there was discussion.....consensus maybe? Let's see..... in a post meeting at a local church....I saw some of this reflected by two of the younger ones as they reported to their priest.....also had to look inward... at my own feelings of concern about leadership. Mentoring or some call it coaching works in both directions.
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The Episcopal Women's Caucus signed on to the Interfaith Statement opposing restrictions to women's reproductive health care choices. Attached is the final version which was to be delivered to members of Congress tomorrow (April 7) during the Stand Up for Women's Health Lobby Day in Washington, DC.
More than 25 faith based or religiously affiliated organizations and communities signed on, and, thanks to all signed, advocates will be able to deliver a strong message to Congress that millions of people of faith support women's access to comprehensive reproductive health care.
Interfaith Statement Opposing Restrictions on Women's Health Care Options
The undersigned religious, religiously affiliated, and faith-centered organizations and communities represent millions of people of faith committed to women's health and reproductive choices. We are deeply troubled by current legislative efforts to restrict women's access to comprehensive reproductive health care options, including abortion, contraception, HIV/STD testing, cancer screenings, and other essential health services. Legislation currently being debated would curtail access to comprehensive reproductive health care. Current proposals include: the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act (H.R. 3), the Protect Life Act (H.R. 358), the Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act (H.R. 217), and other attempts to de-fund the Title X Family Planning program and key implementing organizations. We recognize that issues surrounding women's reproductive choices -- and those regarding abortion in particular -- are complex. Although we come from diverse faith traditions, we all agree thatthese proposals would have devastating consequences for women and their families, particularly low-income women. We call on the U.S. Congress and President Obama to reject these intolerable measures.
As people of faith, the following common principles compel us to speak out together against these proposals: Striving for social justice and equal rights to health care: Restrictive legislation, like the proposals now moving through Congress (H.R. 3, H.R. 217, and H.R. 358), would create significant barriers to women's access to reproductive health options and make it harder for women to make their own reproductive choices based on their individual beliefs and consciences. We are especially concernedabout efforts to de-fund the Title X Family Planning program and those organizations, such as Planned Parenthood, that serve as a key part of our social safety net. H.R. 217 and other proposals aimed at de-funding these health centers would harm those with few affordable options to obtain basic health care. Title X health centers and clinics are on the public health front lines, serving low-income individuals and other vulnerable populations. These centers help men and women of limited means prevent unintended pregnancies; they promote prevention of, and treatment for HIV and other STDs; they offer life-saving cancer screenings; and they provide crucial medically-accurate information about sexual health. Title X providers ensure that women who want to have children get the information and care they need to promote a healthy pregnancy. As faith-centered organizations, we are committed to the most marginalized and the most vulnerable of our society, especially those with limited financial means or those who live in areas with limited access to services. Reducing health care options for some, based on their economic strata or geographic location, is profoundly unjust.
Respecting women's moral agency: We affirm women as moral agents who have the capacity, right, and responsibility to make their own decisions about sexuality, reproduction, and their families. Legislation that eliminates health coverage for and limits the availability of reproductive health care services through funding restrictions would severely limit a woman's ability to make decisions about her own health care and about how best to care for her family, guided by her own conscience, her personal circumstances, and her own moral or faith tradition.
Valuing compassion and the obligation to protect every woman's health and life: Restrictions on women's health care options endanger women's lives. In particular, H.R. 358 would allow hospitals and individual health workers to refuse to provide abortion services to a woman, even when such care is necessary to save her life. We are deeply disturbed by this drastic expansion of so-called "conscience protections," protections that do not include safeguards or recourse for patients seeking care. As people of faith, we strongly believe that a health worker's right to refuse to provide certain services must not infringe on a woman's right to access the health care she needs. Above all, that refusal must not endanger her life. Health professionals and the organizations that support them have an obligation to ensure access to necessary services, whether directly or by referral to an accessible alternative health care provider.
Safeguarding religious liberty: We believe that one person's religious viewpoint must not be imposed on others. Different faiths, and even groups within a single faith community, hold varying views and opinions. Time and again, our nation has answered this diversity of opinions by upholding the founding principle of religious freedom. Reproductive freedoms are integrally bound with religious freedoms-a connection recognized by the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. Women have a right to make reproductive health choices based on their own faith tradition, free from constraints imposed by those seeking to legislate one religious viewpoint or another. These restrictive legislative proposals (H.R. 3, H.R. 217, and H.R. 358) would erode Americans' constitutionally protected right to religious freedom.
As people of faith, we believe in compassion, justice, and the dignity of all women. We understand that those who would restrict women's access to comprehensive reproductive health care are often motivated by their religious beliefs and seek to impose their views on others. However, freedom of choice means that every woman and man is valued as a moral decision-maker, free to make personal decisions about their reproductive lives based on their own religious beliefs and consciences. We cannot presume to tell others how best to inform and listen to their own consciences as they make decisions about whether and when to have children or how best to care for their families. Today, and every day, we stand up as people of faith for women's health and reproductive choices-and we urge our government to do the same. |
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HOLY WOMEN APRIL CELEBRATIONS [ ] means trial use
from Holy Women, Holy Men.
April 15:[Marianne of Molokai] Religious, 1918. Ministered to the lepers abandoned on Molokai in the Hawaiian Islands.
April 16: [Mary (Molly) Brant (Konwatsijayenni)]Witness to the Faith among the Mohawks, 1796. Known as a wise and prudent clan mother in the household of the Mohawk nation
April 27: [Christina Rossetti] Poet, 1894 expressed the mystery of the Incarnation through her poems
April 29:Catherine of Siena 1380 devoted her life to the poor and the sick, and to the peace and unity of the Church:
April 30: [Sarah Josepha Buell Hale] Editor and Prophetic Witness, 1879, advocated for the ministry of women who helped to support the deaconess movement.
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Be a Caucus Companion:
* Pray daily for the inclusion and acceptance of all people.
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* Support the EWC through a yearly donation.
* Support the ministries of women in your own parish and diocese.
* Forward the Monthly Caucus to a friend. Just click the blue space
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AND | | | The Episcopal Women's Caucus wants to know: In what ways might we gather (in person or online) to support one another, the Caucus, and all Women's Ministries? Over the next few months, help the Caucus board envision how to grow our important advocacy work in new and lively directions. Please send your thoughts, ideas or insights to ewcaucus@yahoo.com. We'll share your comments in upcoming "Monthly Caucus" e-mails and in future issues of Ruach.
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Use this form to join the EWC, renew your membership, or make a donation. Make check out to EWC and mail to: Episcopal Women's Caucus, 413 Buffware Court, Charleston, SC, 29492-8212.
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