no door, no line…

rather than repeat myself, i’m cutting and pasting this comment, that i made in response to this post by Jules, over at Queermergent following the Christianity21 conference.

jules
i’ve been buried under a pile of books at school the past couple of months. so nice to get back here and read this wonderful post.
thanks for sharing this. sounds like it was a great conference. i’m sorry i missed it but and much more than that i am so glad it was such an enriching experience for you.
i’ve been thinking a lot recently about one’s means being one’s ends. that ‘being the change you want to see’ (i think that was Gandhi…) understanding – of acting like the justice you seek has already happened.
seems from what’s been written here that the conference embodied that… and as i think about it, i feel the need to push that further… that we are called as humans desiring to understand G-D as being drawn into a reality of welcome that already is…
once again, i keep coming back again and again to Nadia’s phrase, “it’s not our tent, it’s God’s tent”. the door is wide open (and i’m beginning to think there isn’t a door at all – maybe churches of the 22nd century will have removed their doors off their hinges) and all *are* invited and all *are* welcome since the very beginning and everyone’s already included. inclusiveness then, is not a choice for the church to create, unless by that we mean we are involved in recreating a reality that *is* the very fabric of G-D’s be-ing. “all are welcome” is then a statement of truth, a testament to that reality that in G-D ‘everybody’s in’.
in that light, i’m just the moment starting to see the feeding of the 5,000 in a whole new (to me) way…
the job of the church is not to choose to include, but to bear witness to the inclusion that “is”. G-D is inclusion as a given. so deep that there is no alternate reality as far as G-D is concerned. an alternative to inclusion is something *we* make, that goes against the very nature of what the divine happening is all about…
as we go on this journey, it’s only our job to keep asking, who am “i” not seeing as already being fully welcome in the way G-D is welcome itself? how do i humbly witness to every single human i encounter that welcome that is G-D? and if i understand Seth’s session correctly, “do i witness to myself as fully welcome and respond by welcoming all of me?”
the more i think about it the more absurd it seems to ask questions about being affirming and inclusive – as if we had a choice…
i grew up in a tradition that not only literally shuts the door but even in many congregations locks the door once the Sunday morning service is underway… that to me my whole life has seemed like a violation of all that is sacred. an act of heresy, if not in fact active blasphemy. to completely miss the point. it’s taken me 36 years to even begin to find the language to express that… as more and more i see how we persist in putting a door where there is no door…
thanks again for sharing…
be well, friend

and i’m adding to it, lines i have posted here before, more than once, a track we used at ikon’s gb06, Fundamentalism…

come help me out im sick from the fight
from inserting a laugh where theres none
show me where this joke got tired
tell me you know cause im slow catching on..

your trying to break me down with your tuneless song
that kept me up all night
take me to the fair where the lifeless singers
will let you ride up beside them sometimes

and your putting a line
where there should be not a line
and your building divides..

come cut me out i got caught in the wire
from believing the filtering downs
show me where the stakes got higher
just goes to show how slow weve become

and your putting a line
where there should be not a line
and your building divides
and putting a line 
why are you building divides.
is it some failing in your life.

source: burn the map sleeve – even the lack of apostrophes and question marks seems to add to the subversive implicit

five years on somehow these lines persist in reminding me of the eternal-question-meets-

unfurling-answer-always-happening that is G-D...

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there
is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

LB 

in the shelter of each other, the community celebrates

it was a weekend of nuptial celebrations… while Jude and Steve tied the knot in Nashville (congratulations folks!), Mark and Sara held a marriage blessing ceremony in NI for those of us who weren’t able to make it Nashville for their own wedding last month. the ceremony was absolutely beautiful, as was the bride. Hillsborough parish church is one of the most lovely churches in one of the prettiest settings i’ve ever seen. Mark, Sara and Ian (who officiated) had crafted a gorgeous liturgy, Padraig delivered a sermon of pure poetry and i had a lump in my throat as i read, with a feeling of deep honour and privilege, John O’Donohue’s blessing for marriage from Benedictus.

it was a real community effort – Jayne, aided by Willow, Emma and i transformed the church hall with candles and flowers and fabrics from our community ‘party box’. if i say so myself, it looked lovely… surrounded by table cloths created with dozens of colourful fabrics gathered by friends over the years from all over the world was like being in a collective home. i hear the dance floor was packed in Nashville and in Hillsborough we too stomped with abandon. Ben gave us a fantastic set that seemed to have been taken straight out of Mark’s undergrad days and once i got on the dance floor i couldn’t stop and we enjoyed delicious cakes made by the wonderful queen of cakes, Harriet.
it was a day suffused with the collective personality and hands of creative community sharing in our interweaving story and all working joyously together to create something beautiful.

i got to catch up with many folks i was so looking forward to seeing, and there were many more i didn’t get to speak to at all (Shirley – i’m looking at you and regretting we didn’t get round to exchanging more than a wave across the room. you looked gorgeous. 🙂 ) it was so good to be able to share good news and exchange stories of the last few months with those who will always be my family-of-choice.

so, all in all, a truly fabulous day.

here’s a few photos… being on “team hospitality” and knowing the cake-maker has distinct advantages. tip: want to ensure you get some? head to the kitchen and offer to help serve it. 

::

so, back in Dublin after lovely time spent with Jayne and Willow on Sunday, which was warm and nourishing like the cozy slipper socks and gorgeous stripey woolen sleeves Jayne gave me for my birthday, this is Reading Week. i’ve a week without classes and without proscribed* prescribed reading in which we are meant to be… well, reading, funnily enough. given the number of hours i’ve been reading for the past couple of months, having a thing called Reading Week seems slightly bizarre. some are calling it a week off. i’m calling it cleaning week. Halloween will be spent in the company of the incomparable Joel Dark, who is making a visit to Dublin. i figure that’s worthy of finally getting round to giving this place an out-of-season spring clean.

(* doesn’t matter if you spell it right if it ain’t the word you want!)

i’m hoping the grocers have finally got some pumpkins so i can do some spooky carving.
there’s some genuinely useful tips at this website

and hoping too wherever you are and whatever the season is bringing, you find nurture and care and love in your midst…

oh, and finally, happy birthday to beautiful Anniebananie.

LB

the light of civil rights Pt 2

i was in a conversation last night about the civil rights movement in the US – about the choice to not fight hatred with hatred…to instead make the means the same as the ends being sought… you make peace by being peace… what i’ve taken to calling,
re-enacting the future…

here’s a unique and valuable conversation those in Nashville should make or steal time for… i’m sorry i can’t be there for this. the panelists are the very embodiment of living history.  full details of the line up available by clicking HERE for the Nashville Sister Cities website. 

even if you can’t attend, please help spread the word today… tweet it, flag it, digg it, blog it, ‘book it…

LB