I was asked to do a reflection on my involvement with GLBT issues for the Presbyterian Promise Newsletter.

Here is what I wrote

Back last August Dick Hasbany asked me to consider writing some sort of reflection piece on my involvement with LGBT issues in the 11 years that I have been a member of this Presbytery. Since my tenure with First Presbyterian Church is soon coming to an end (February 1, 2009 is my last day) and I will be leaving Connecticut within another few months, I guess I cannot delay meeting this request much longer. (I do not plan to terminate my membership in the Presbytery until I have voted YES for the “change B” overture at the May 09 Presbytery meeting.)

When I went to Florida in 1990 I was already firmly committed to full equality for GLBT people in the Church and in society. I knew this was not a widely shared commitment in a Presbyterian church in a small town in north Florida and decided that support for this issue would not be a part of my ministry. I felt I had been called to grow this Church located in area with booming population growth and that is what I did. Before the end of my tenure at this Church my views had been revealed in a number of ways including the fact that I spoke and voted against the adoption of the original B overture. The last year of my ministry in that place was a very unpleasant experience. As I was seeking a new call I discovered this Church in Hartford that said on its Church Information Form that they had welcomed people who differ by age, race, ethnic background, sexual orientation, family status, economic situation and theological viewpoint. This sounded more like the kind of place I belonged and I determined that I would not ever again try to disguise my views on this issue, or any other issue of importance.

Being in this Church and having made this commitment to transparency has made it possible for the Church and I to be partners in the cause of justice for LGBT people, as well as other justice issues. During my tenure here we have brought the Shower of Stoles to our sanctuary twice. We have brought or supported several overtures to the Presbytery to change our ordination standards and to recognize marriage equality. I attended the 2006 General Assembly as an overture advocate to support deleting B. This was an opportunity to meet with leaders in the equality movement from across the country. We were among the first Churches to join Presbyterian Promise and the second Church in the Presbytery (by one month) to become affiliated with More Light Presbyterians, to which I had belonged for years. Jane Spahr, Michael Adee and Heather Reichgott have all preached in our pulpit at the invitation of session.

I have been part of the steering committee of Connecticut Clergy for Marriage Equality, and have presided at one Civil Union service. Among my closest friends in ministry are the local Metropolitan Community Church pastors.

In many ways my support for these causes has been an extension of the same commitment to equality that led me to Washington in 1963 as a college senior to demonstrate with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and onto the streets of Louisville with his Brother A. D. Williams King to march for open housing in 1966. All of us regardless of race, ethnicity, income, religion, gender orientation or age are children of one loving creator. When one of our brothers and sisters is diminished because of discrimination we are all diminished and I feel we are all called to work for the equality of all people.

“In our obsessive wish to arrive, we often forget the most important thing, which is the journey.”
The Pilgrimage
Paulo Coelho
http://www.paulocoelhoblog.com/


I have read several more books by Paulo Coelho since writing about The Alchemist back in August. I find his writing absolutely fascinating, a wealth of the world’s wisdom, and a source of inspiration. As you may know he is Brazilian, his writings have been published in dozens of languages. On a world wide basis his works are best sellers, and I am told that he is very widely read and highly regarded in Brazil. Although he had a Jesuit education his spirituality draws from multiple sources, including magic and earth religions which have brought much criticism by the Brazilian Catholic Church. In The Pilgrimage he writes about his experience as a pilgrim on the road to Santiago.

In The Valkyries, another autobiographical book he writes some about his experiences in the world of Magic. His quest to become a Magnus, a spiritual master, took him into the desert southwest in this country where he was aided in his quest by the Valkyries, a group of women on motorcycles who go about preaching about the dawning of a new age, an open door to paradise.

Valhalla, the leader of the Valkyries is preaching in the following passage which should strike a familiar chord to those who have read Coelho.

“Have Courage. …Open your heart, and listen to what your dreams tell you. Follow those dreams, because only a person who is not ashamed can manifest the glory of God.”

“There is no sin but the lack of love…. Have courage, be capable of loving, even if love appears to be a treacherous and terrible thing. Be happy in love. Be joyful in victory. Follow the dictates of your heart.”

… “Remember that you are a manifestation of the absolute, and do only those things in your lives that are worth the effort. Only those who do that will understand the great transformations that are yet to be seen.”

Paulo wants the Valkyries to teach him to see angels. He knew how to speak to his guardian angel but he wanted to see his guardian angel as well. (In The Alchemist Santiago learns to speak the "language of the soul of the world"). Coelho describes the way that he speaks to his angel as “channeling”. This is a form of ecstatic speech, perhaps the verbal equivalent of automatic writing. Paulo teaches his wife Chris to listen to her second mind until it becomes silent, and then in the silence to began to speak without words, to speak the sounds that come to you. She at last makes a break through: “She began to move her head back and forth, wanting to do all that, and suddenly she wanted to make strange noises. And she did so. It wasn’t ridiculous. She was free to do as she pleased.” He describes it as the joy of a warrior entering into an unknown world. She needed to speak the pure language of the heart. “…she had to continue to speak, making the gestures that came to her, singing the strange melodies. Yes, everything must make some kind of sense because she had never heard these sounds before, these melodies, these words and movements.”

One thing that struck me as I read this was the parallel with speaking in tongues, which plays a prominent part in Coelho’s next book that I will review (soon, I promise) By the River Piedra I Sat Down And Wept.

Forty Years Later

In 1968 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed in the spring. In August that year Kathleen and I were in Chicago for the Democratic Convention, protesting the war in Vietnam. She had gone back to Louisville to work but I was still there in Grant Park the night of the “police riot” that filled the air with tear gas and the Chicago jail with protestors, many seriously injured by the police. Last night as over one hundred thousand people gathered in that same park to see Barack Obama proclaim victory in the presidential election it was a great day for the United States and for the world.

I would not possibly have believed forty years ago that I would see the United States elect a Black President. Not in my life time, but yesterday we did.

We said then “The whole world is watching.” Last night the whole world was watching this unprecedented, historic moment.

Thanks be to God!