Four extraordinary women selected to receive inaugural awards named for Episcopal trailblazers (from ENS)

The Rev. Altagracia Perez, Canon Bonnie Anderson, the Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas and Deborah Harmon Hines, Ph.D are set to become the first recipients of the Pauli Murray Humanitarian Service Award and the Verna Josephine Dozier, Anna Julia Haywood Cooper and Mattie Hopkins Honor Awards respectively.  

"As varied as the reasons were for selection of each recipient, the UBE Board and selection committee overall felt that each person's life work and journey exemplified the spirit of their award namesake," said John E. Harris, Jr., president of the Union of Black Episcopalians.

UBE Partners in Mission - Union of Black Episcopalians, Episcopal Women's Caucus, Episcopal Women's History Project, Episcopal Church Women, Episcopal Church Foundation, Church Pension Fund, Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes and others - will present the awards at the Legendary Tribute & Gala set for July 3, at 6pm at the Indianapolis Marriot Downtown.    

The Rt. Rev. Barbara Clementine Harris, retired, and the Rt. Rev. Catherine Maples Waynick of the Diocese of Indianapolis  will serve as honorary co-chairs for the event.

Rev. Perez, rector of Holy Faith Episcopal Church, in Inglewood, CA, said when she learned she had been selected, "I was so proud and moved . . . Pauline Murray is one of my heroes and I was honored to accept."

Rev. Perez is an Episcopal Church Foundation Fellow, and led the faith-based community in the "call to action" against the Walton Family and Wal-Mart Corporation. Her ministry has focused on developing resources to support the work in urban congregations, understanding that leadership in urban multicultural, multilingual, theologically diverse congregations need training and support in order to do their ministries.

Canon Anderson, president of the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church said, "I am surprised and humbled to accept the invitation of the Union of Black Episcopalians to receive the Verna Josephine Dozier Award." She said she met Dozier years ago at St. Mark's when her daughter was part of the community service program at the national cathedral.

 "We went to church at St. Mark's Sunday morning and my daughter steered me into the pew right next to Dr. Dozier. When we exchanged the peace, I told her how much I valued her ministry and saw her as a living saint. After the service, she took my hand and walked with me out of the Church while we talked about being lay people." Anderson said "when the going gets tough" she reads from Dozier's books where she is able to "gain renewed courage and inspiration."

Rev. Dr. Douglas, professor and director of Religion at Goucher College and associate rector, of Church of the Holy Comforter, in Washington, D.C., said, "I am overwhelmed and humbled to be honored in such a way. It is with sincere humility and deep gratitude that I accept the invitation to be so honored as a recipient of the Anna Julia Cooper Award. Her pioneering witness as a proto womanist has been very important to my work. I thank you and the committee for this gracious honor." 

Rev. Dr. Douglas was the first black woman ordained a priest in the diocese of Southern Ohio. Her literary boldness and leadership in the development of a 'womanist' theology are a force to reckon with when discussing the complexities of Christian faith in African- American contexts.

Dr. Hines, vice provost for School Services and professor of Cell Biology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, said "I am humbled to receive the Mattie Hopkins Award."

Dr. Hines was the first elected lay president of UBE and ignited a movement when she joined with Hopkins, Myrtle Gordon and Bishop Barbara Harris (then Rev.) at the 1981 Task Force on Women conference and addressed the distrust of the feminist movement and unveiled what became known as "The Black Women's Agenda" - a challenge to white feminism.  

St. James' Church, Glastonbury, Connecticut, Diocese of Connecticut

Other candidates are: 

The Very Rev. Richard A. Demarest, 55, Dean, St. Michael's Cathedral, Boise, Idaho (Diocese of Idaho); The Rev. Dr. Douglas John Fisher, 57, Rector, Grace Church, Millbrook, New York (Diocese of New York); The Very Rev. Ron W. Griffin, 58, Rector, Christ Church, Eureka, California (Diocese of Northern California); The Very Rev. Mark B. Pendleton, 49, Dean, Christ Church Cathedral, Hartford, Connecticut (Diocese of Connecticut)

 

AND IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

 

 Justin Duckworth has been announced as the next Anglican Bishop of Wellington, New Zealand. The news report stated that Duckworth may be 'the most least likely-looking bishop ever elected in New Zealand' because he has dreadlocks and is usually in shorts and bare feet. But at 44 he has been at the cutting edge of Christian ministry to the lost and least in Wellington for 25 years. The people of the diocese said: 'We discerned you as our bishop. We believe God is inviting you to be the person you are. We don't want you to change.'

"Transparency and Transformation" The Consultation Platform 2012

The Consultation is a coalition of thirteen independent organizations in the Episcopal Church committed to peace with justice. We come to the 2012 General Convention in Indianapolis understanding clearly that The Episcopal Church is facing the challenge to be a vehicle of God's mission in the world in a time of economic fragility, societal upheaval, and an impulse toward rigid religious doctrine. We give thanks for our Church's baptismal identity and common life embodied and expressed in the ministry of all the baptized in the governance of our church. This governance by all the baptized has enabled this Church to respond to the challenges of the times for generations and serves as a model of inclusive and responsive governance to the entire Anglican Communion. As we have been equipped for mission by this baptismal governance, we call the church going forward to strive for the transformation of ourselves, the church, and the world as promised in our baptismal covenant. Therefore, we challenge The Episcopal Church, gathered in this 2012 General Convention, to live more fully into the five promises of our Baptismal Covenant:

1. To continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in the prayers.

*Affirm our baptismal ecclesiology and restore Confirmation as a effective pastoral response to response to significant turning points in the Christian life.

*Support authorization of liturgical rites of blessing for covenants made between two people of the same gender.

*Adopt changes in canons to support marriage equality.

*Work for the elimination of the US federal Defense of Marriage Act and support civil marriage equality.

*Support more gender equality in "Holy Women, Holy Men".

2. To persevere in resisting evil and, whenever we fall into sin, to repent and return to the Lord.

*Work for the abolition of modern human slavery - especially the trafficking of women and children.

*Defend the right of workers to organize.

*Insist on fair and transparent hiring and treatment of individuals who work at the church center, including the maintenance workers as a model of just and humane treatment.

*Actively work to bring about comprehensive and compassionate immigration reform.

*Continue the struggle to dismantle racism and all forms of prejudice and oppression, including sexism, heterosexism, homophobia and ableism.

*Renew the call to every diocese and Episcopal seminary to mandate anti-racism training

*Include in Safe Church training an orientation to domestic violence, bullying and appropriate responses.

*Actively work to end transgender discrimination in all forms.

3. To proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ.

*Encourage new forms of ministry and leadership development, especially among our youth and young adults, communities of color, and multicultural ministries.

*Support participation in the Anglican Communion and respectfully decline to endorse the Anglican Covenant.

*Demand greater transparency in financial reporting from The Episcopal Church

4. To seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbor as ourselves

*Fully support the UN Millennium Development Goals, including the 0.7% allocation of government f

*Continue the church's active involvement in supporting our public schools.

*Promote community investing.

*Work to reform the US tax codes for compliance with justice for all.

*Insist on US foreign aid and military assistance standards to assure that human rights are upheld.

*Engage Episcopalians and inform them of the value of the existing structure of The Episcopal Church's governance.

5. To strive for justice and peace among all people and to respect the dignity of every human being.

* Work for the end of violence against women, children and sexual and gender minorities throughout the world.

*Work for environmental justice, especially as it impacts poor and disenfranchised communities.

*Strive to change US budget priorities that fuel the culture of violence at the expense of health and welfare at home and abroad.

*Continue to support selective conscientious objection in the military.

*Call upon Episcopal ethicists to study the technological changes in modern warfare, e.g. the increased use of drones and emergent technologies.

 YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP DEPT.

The Ripped, Bikini-Clad Reverend By THE REV. DR. AMY RICHTER

as it appeared in the New York Times Magazine section

 The Rev. Dr. Amy Richter is rector of St. Anne's Parish in Annapolis, Md., and author of "Enoch and the Gospel of Matthew," to be published this year by Wipf and Stock, and looksat how another ancient Jewish myth about the origins of evil, based on the story of the fall of the angels to mate with "the daughters of humans" (from Genesis 6:1-4), serves as a backdrop for the Gospel of Matthew and shapes how that evangelist tells the story of Jesus and many of the women in the Gospel.  The women's stories  examined include the women in Matthew's genealogy (Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary) and the Canaanite woman.

I stood by the mailbox holding a package that weighed about as much as an apple. Inside, I knew, there was a bikini. I was almost afraid to open it. How could something so small hold such a big risk?

As an Episcopal priest, I am usually more interested in what is going on inside a person than in what shows on the outside. Most days, if I have official duties, I put on my black clergy shirt, my white collar and a suit that looks decent and head out looking like a priest.

Now here I stood with my package, wondering how "priestly" I would look in its contents. The fabric was fire-engine red; a sprinkling of rhinestones along the edge caught the light.

I needed the bikini for the physique competition at the Wisconsin State Fair. I started training the year before. I loved how strong it made me feel. Now I was about to compete in front of hundreds of people.

The competition would be on a Sunday morning, a day I had requested off for "a personal enrichment experience." I would not know many people in the crowd. No one from church would be there. Men and women would perform poses of "front double biceps," "side triceps" and "back lat spread," while at the other end of the exhibit hall, judges would award ribbons for apple pie and pickled beets. This was a wholesome environment; still, I knew I couldn't share widely what I was doing.

Decades ago my church decided that the ordination of women was a just and morally responsible thing. Some people left over the decision. Some people still tell me they struggle with the idea. Now many women serve as priests, and many parishioners applaud this fact.

But somehow, despite our belief that both sexes can serve the church, it seems there's still something unnerving about a priest who is a woman. It has to do with having a woman's body.

A parishioner told me that he thought I was a great priest, but that if I became pregnant, it would be too weird for him to see me at the altar. Merely holding hands with my husband, even when I am not in clerical clothes, has elicited the comment "Can you do that? I mean, in public?" Another parishioner told me I was too petite to be a priest. I'm 5-10. I have never been called "petite." I think he meant "female."

What about when a priest wears a bikini? What if she complicates the picture by having sizable biceps or well-defined lats? Can "buff" and "holy" go together? "Ripped" and "reverend"? If the "reverend" is a woman?

On the day of the competition, when I put on the bikini, I felt almost giddy. The stealthy nature of my mission - to win the title of Ms. State Fair, with few people knowing I even entered - added to my excitement.

Competitors hurried to do final preparations. We checked our makeup and did calisthenics to make our muscles stand out. We passed around spray cooking oil to give ourselves a thin coat.

The competition started with the judges calling out poses. We performed them in unison. The similarities to liturgy stuck with me: in church, the smells of beeswax candles and furniture polish. Here: Pam and tanning lotion. In church: gestures called out by the celebrant (usually me). Here: poses called out by a judge.

For our solo routines, each of us was introduced to the crowd as we came onstage. "Next we have Amy Richter, from Milwaukee. She is 37 years old, and she works as . . . a priest! Well, hallelujah!" The applause was loud. I performed my routine perfectly to a song by Macy Gray. I couldn't stop smiling.

I came in second. Third went to an amateur wrestler. I wonder if she tells people she was beaten by a priest as quickly as I say I beat her. I carried my three-foot-high trophy proudly through the fairgrounds. The trophy was so flashy that children stopped to ask how I won it. "Tell them you got it for reading a lot of books," my husband advised. Noble, but no way.

I wanted to say I won it for being the strongest priest in the state, for being a woman who is a priest with a really strong and healthy body. I wanted to tell them I won it for being brave, but that wasn't really true, because I hadn't been brave enough to tell the people it would be the biggest risk to tell.

"I got it for being myself," I said.

O Dios, A ellos que tienen hambre, dales pan; y a ellos que tienen pan, dales sed para justicia. Amén -- Latin American Prayer