Bonnie Anderson to visit St. John's Episcopal Church in Lodi, CA

Bonnie Anderson, President of the House of Deputies in the Episcopal Church, will visit St. John's on Saturday, February 10. She will preach at Holy Eucharist at 11 a.m. Lunch will follow, provided free for all attendees. The afternoon session will begin with a presentation by Anderson entitled “I Will, With God’s Help: Our Mission and Ministry in the World.” A panel discussion will follow. The event will end at 4 p.m.

The theme for the event is “Celebrating and Proclaiming the Gracious Love of Jesus Christ in and through the Episcopal Church."

The parish address is 1055 S. Lower Sacramento Road, Lodi, CA. If you live within the Diocese of San Joaquin, please contact St. John's to register. The phone number is 209-369-3381; you may also e-mail the church.

If you live outside of the Central Valley and you wish to attend, please call the parish a day or two in advance, to confirm available space.

A press release with full details can be found here.

I Have a Dream

Almighty God, by the hand of Moses your servant you led your people out of slavery, and made them free at last: Grant that your Church, following the example of your prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of your love, and may secure for all your children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Keep on, strong heart.

Yesterday, I rescued a bag of old cassette tapes from the floor of my car. On the way to a counseling appointment this afternoon, I pulled out one of them. I listened to this song obsessively ten years ago, and it touches me again. I’m doing serious soul work just now on my own needs and boundaries, and also taking a week-long class on preventing boundary (i.e., sexual) violations in the church. I give this to everyone who needs strength for their own struggle.

“Keep On Strong Heart,” by Libby Roderick. (Turtle Island Records, copyright 1993.)

I know you’re tired, I know you’re weary
I know you want to give up some days
Some days are so hard, some days are too lonely
But I love you so, and there’s no other way.

So keep on, strong heart, don’t fail me now,
We must keep going a little bit longer
Keep on, strong heart, I know somehow
That you will be there when the great new day dawns.

You have been toiling what seems like forever
Sometimes you feel you’re right where you began
Your mind starts to ache, your body, it trembles
It’s only your heart that tells you, you can.

So keep on, strong heart, don’t fail me now,
We must keep going a little bit longer
Keep on, strong heart, I know somehow
That you will be there when the great new day dawns.

And the fight will go on, we’re talking about freedom
We can, so we must, and we must, so we dare.
If your body gives way, I will carry you homeward
When that new day dawns, my love, you will be there.

So keep on, strong heart, don’t fail me now,
We must keep going a little bit longer
Keep on, strong heart, I know somehow
That you will be there when the great new day dawns.

And if you need courage, I’m right here beside you
If I need strength, I will look in your eyes.

And the fight will go on, we’re talking about freedom
We can, so we must, and we must, so we dare.
If your body gives way, I will carry you homeward
When that new day dawns, my love, you will be there.

So keep on, strong heart, don’t fail me now,
We must keep going a little bit longer
Keep on, strong heart, I know somehow
We will be there when the great new day dawns.

Happy New Year!

I don’t really do resolutions; it’s too easy to break them and get depressed about it. I hope to stay whole-heartedly on the path I’m on, and if God has any relevance whatsoever, I can hardly help but do that.

I was talking with my friend and classmate Debbie at a New Year’s potluck last night. Speaking about herself, she said, “When you get serious about spiritual life, God gets serious too. Things get brought up that need healing.” I nearly choked, in knowing exasperation. Both of us knew that I know what that’s about. Normally, I go along with life pretty happily most of the time. When something bumps or bruises me, I’m fragile and thoughtful until I can find my balance, and learn whatever I need to. I had a lot of fun this Christmas—but I also was, and am, really struggling. I think I’m on the cusp of scrapping through it—but it will take some more work. The holiday sharpened the usual aches; I forget every year that this will happen. It also awakened a pain that I didn't know I had. Time, work, and love will heal it; I know this, but I also don't know it. I've always gotten stronger on the other side of "growing experiences," but it's hard to trust that I will.

The neatest thing about Christmas was something I could not have predicted. My friend Jeanne from St. Aidan’s auctioned off a Christmas vest, as a fundraiser for the afterschool program housed at our church. It was all done silently by e-mail. I bid $5 and didn’t win.

However, the winner—anonymously—gave it to me. Apparently I had expressed more enthusiasm than I knew. I found out when I served at Christmas Eve, that it had all been announced at our Advent IV service that morning. I served again yesterday, and wore it around at coffee hour. I’ve had a lot of fun with it. (I’m momentarily in Berkeley, and my camera’s in Stockton. I can add a picture tomorrow.)

I also caught up with the vocations chair yesterday. They’re meeting in a couple weeks to discuss discernment models that would fit the parish, the diocese, and people in situations like mine. (I’ve been a member for less than the usually requisite time.) I don’t know yet what will happen. He said that they meet every couple of months, and will invite me after this upcoming meeting. So by that reckoning, I will start real honest-to-goodness discernment work... on or around the Ides of March.

Yes, that is a wry grin on my face.

Here, as seen on Possible Water, is 2006 in a paragraph of nonsense. Take the first sentence from the first post of each month of the past year, paste them together, and see what you get:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. I got tagged. I must be in now! Thank you, Dixie Blue; I haven't been here in ages. I posted this on a discussion board I visit, and thought I'd repeat it here. What are you proud of yourself for? Since I came back from Spring Break (a week ago Monday), I've been feeling like each of my limbs is caught in its own separate riptide. I've been generally restless with my blog for awhile. What I've accomplished today: Got out of bed, fed myself breakfast and lunch, and brought in four boxes from the car. I'm supposed to be writing a sermon... and I'm stuck. Yes, I’m still alive. The subject of an e-mail I haven’t answered yet reads, “Are you home?” Yes, you never hear from me anymore; you just read my homilies. I preached this morning at St. Aidan's. It’s been a busy week.

Yet another blogger who blogs about blogging; that’s me. Peace to all in the New Year!