The sermon for Sunday will get us into an area we rarely travel; "male spirituality". The church has had a terrible history in terms of its treatment of women. We have failed miserably until recent years to recognize the important contribution women are making in the field of religion and have consigned them to roles that are subservient.
It wasn't that long ago that we ordained women into ministry. It wasn't that long ago in the Rocky Mountain Conference that Bishops were willing to appoint women to churches as sole pastors.
The church has worked really hard to correct its oversight. It has encouraged women to go into ministry and they have responded. Over half the seminary students presently are women and that has been true for the past decade or more. There are more women than men clergy in the Rocky Mountain Conference. Our Episcopal leader is a woman.
We have been encouraged to have "Women's Ministry Sunday" so that our churches could experience women preachers.
Overlooked in all this is male spirituality. What does it mean to be a man and a Christian these days when we have so much focus on women?
Using some of the thoughts of Robert Bly and the story of Abraham and Isaac I want to explore how it is for men to be spiritual and what is the difference between male and female spirituality. As much as I understand the equality of the sexes I also acknowledge the differences. I am hoping the sermon will reveal some important issues so that the "war of the sexes" will become more of the dance it is supposed to be.
What do you think the difference between men and women is spiritually?
If you have thoughts on this subject write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your thoughts with the readers of this blog click on the "comments" box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
Monday, January 30, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Thursday's thoughts on Sunday's sermon
We can be impressed with the anonymous Egyptian midwives whose job it was to find Hebrew babies and have them killed by order of the Pharaoh. They did their job slowly allowing some of the babies to escape. Moses was one of the babies who escaped because of the Egyptian midwives who carried out an act of civil disobedience.
There are times when we get ourselves caught up in systems that have control over us and there seems to be not very much we can do. This sermon will try to raise the question, "What do we do when there is nothing to be done?"
I'm going to suggest three things:
1. We can search for excellence. We can do what we do with a degree of excellence. If we are forced to living within a system that we cannot escape we can find a way to excellence.
2. We can find a way to innovate. Whatever we have to do we can find a way to do it creatively. We can find a way to do what we have to do in a way that it has never been done.
3. We can discover the means to anticipation. Nothing lasts forever. Sometime things will change. We may see the change or way may not. If we see it coming we can help bring it about. If it doesn't happen in our lifetime we can make the preparations for it to happen for those who follow after us.
Excellence
Innovation
Anticipation
That enables us to take the worst and make it better.
Have you ever been in a situation when you had to do something like that? How did you deal with it?
If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your thoughts with the readers of the blog click on the 'comments' box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
There are times when we get ourselves caught up in systems that have control over us and there seems to be not very much we can do. This sermon will try to raise the question, "What do we do when there is nothing to be done?"
I'm going to suggest three things:
1. We can search for excellence. We can do what we do with a degree of excellence. If we are forced to living within a system that we cannot escape we can find a way to excellence.
2. We can find a way to innovate. Whatever we have to do we can find a way to do it creatively. We can find a way to do what we have to do in a way that it has never been done.
3. We can discover the means to anticipation. Nothing lasts forever. Sometime things will change. We may see the change or way may not. If we see it coming we can help bring it about. If it doesn't happen in our lifetime we can make the preparations for it to happen for those who follow after us.
Excellence
Innovation
Anticipation
That enables us to take the worst and make it better.
Have you ever been in a situation when you had to do something like that? How did you deal with it?
If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your thoughts with the readers of the blog click on the 'comments' box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
Monday, January 23, 2012
Monday's thoughts on Sunday's sermon
This sermon will try to deal with something we all wonder about; how do we make a difference when it seems there is little difference to be made. The Biblical texts that will drive this sermon are:
Exodus 1:8-20 This is the story of the unanimous midwives who saved Moses' life. Had they not done what they did history would have turned out in a very different way. There would have been no Moses, no exodus, no exile, no messianic hope, no Jesus, and no Christian faith.
Romans 12:1-8 In this text Paul is urging his readers not to be conformed to the world. We are encouraged to live in the world but not be of the world. We are told that we don't need to participate in systems that are destructive, dishonest, and unjust.
How do we stand up to that which is beyond our control?
What do we do when we sense there is little we are able to do?
I'm guessing every one of us has had or is having some sense of a lack of control. This sermon will attempt to address that.
I maintain there is never a situation that completely shuts us down. There is always something that we can do to make it better. There are subtle changes we can make in every environment and if we cannot make changes in our outward circumstances we can make changes internally; attitudinally.
What is the most impossible place you have ever been in your life? How did you get through it or out of it?
If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your thoughts with the readers of this blog click on the 'comments' box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
Exodus 1:8-20 This is the story of the unanimous midwives who saved Moses' life. Had they not done what they did history would have turned out in a very different way. There would have been no Moses, no exodus, no exile, no messianic hope, no Jesus, and no Christian faith.
Romans 12:1-8 In this text Paul is urging his readers not to be conformed to the world. We are encouraged to live in the world but not be of the world. We are told that we don't need to participate in systems that are destructive, dishonest, and unjust.
How do we stand up to that which is beyond our control?
What do we do when we sense there is little we are able to do?
I'm guessing every one of us has had or is having some sense of a lack of control. This sermon will attempt to address that.
I maintain there is never a situation that completely shuts us down. There is always something that we can do to make it better. There are subtle changes we can make in every environment and if we cannot make changes in our outward circumstances we can make changes internally; attitudinally.
What is the most impossible place you have ever been in your life? How did you get through it or out of it?
If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your thoughts with the readers of this blog click on the 'comments' box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
Friday, January 20, 2012
Friday's thoughts on Sunday's sermon
There is a concept that Whitehead offers suggesting the God is a process and that we can sense this in our lives. It comes to us as an invitation not a demand. It lures us but doesn't coerce us. It invites us to participate rather than force us.
Whitehead writes, "It is as true to say that God is permanent and the world is fluent as that the world is permanent and God is fluent. It is as true to say that God needs us as it is to say that we need God. God does not create the world. God saves it or, more accurately, God is the poet of the world leading it by the vision of truth, beauty, and goodness."
What I want to do with this sermon is to talk about how God works in the world in the context of a theology that doesn't put God up as a force or coercive power, but as the subtle influence that works in our lives and in our world to save it and to save us.
What I plan to have us consider is three elements; "the poet and the rhyme"
What is the impact of truth? We knew it when we hear it and it will set us free, but it may disturb us first.
What is the impact of beauty? When we see beauty we are inspired by it. The sunrise on most of these mornings will inspire us to a better day. The beauty of the a breath taking painting will drive us to be a better person.
What is the impact of goodness? When we encounter a person who is so completely good we cannot walk away from that person without some of that changing the way we act.
"God is the poet of the world leading the world by a vision of truth, beauty, and goodness."
Let there be no doubt that there is God as long as we can experience or sense the influence of something that is within us and beyond us that lures us to be a person better than we ever imagined but within the direction of a greatness that we were able to attain for the good of all.
How do you experience God through TRUTH, BEAUTY, AND GOODNESS?
If you have some thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your thoughts with the readers of this blog click on the 'comments' box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
Whitehead writes, "It is as true to say that God is permanent and the world is fluent as that the world is permanent and God is fluent. It is as true to say that God needs us as it is to say that we need God. God does not create the world. God saves it or, more accurately, God is the poet of the world leading it by the vision of truth, beauty, and goodness."
What I want to do with this sermon is to talk about how God works in the world in the context of a theology that doesn't put God up as a force or coercive power, but as the subtle influence that works in our lives and in our world to save it and to save us.
What I plan to have us consider is three elements; "the poet and the rhyme"
What is the impact of truth? We knew it when we hear it and it will set us free, but it may disturb us first.
What is the impact of beauty? When we see beauty we are inspired by it. The sunrise on most of these mornings will inspire us to a better day. The beauty of the a breath taking painting will drive us to be a better person.
What is the impact of goodness? When we encounter a person who is so completely good we cannot walk away from that person without some of that changing the way we act.
"God is the poet of the world leading the world by a vision of truth, beauty, and goodness."
Let there be no doubt that there is God as long as we can experience or sense the influence of something that is within us and beyond us that lures us to be a person better than we ever imagined but within the direction of a greatness that we were able to attain for the good of all.
How do you experience God through TRUTH, BEAUTY, AND GOODNESS?
If you have some thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your thoughts with the readers of this blog click on the 'comments' box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Wednesday's reflection on Sunday's sermon
There is something important for us to consider as we think about what gives our lives meaning and wholeness. It has to do with the difference between existence and getting by on the one hand, and living and thriving, on the other.
One of the more interesting texts is Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel is trying to help his people face the hard times and is asking the question, "Can these bones live". Portions of the prophet's text come before the fall of Jerusalem and portions come after the fall.
Chapter 37 was written after the fall of the city and at a time when the people pondered their future and wondered if there would be one. Could they ever recover what they had lost? Ezekiel is trying to tell them they would survive and those bones would live. They would thrive.
How do we come to a point in our lives when we discover what it means to truly live even when there is adversity and grief?
Alfred North Whitehead wrote, "To experience faith is to know that in being ourselves we are more than ourselves: To know that our experience, dim and fragmentary as it is, yet sounds the utmost depths of reality: to know that detached details merely in order to be themselves demand that they should find themselves in a system of things: to know that this system includes the harmony of logical rationality, and the harmony of aesthetic achievement: to know that, while the harmony of logic lies upon the universe as an iron necessity, the aesthetic harmony stands before it as a living ideal moulding the general flux in its broken progress toward finer, subtler issues."
We are not unto ourselves and we are not the first of all but in a long line of every thing that has been. Fullness of life and happiness will be found when we discover the context from which we come and the end toward which we are moving and can discern the way in which everything is related to everything.
People like Loren Eiseley open up the option that puts us into a context and enable us to live out of that context to the point that we can find meaning and wholeness through it.
What is your context? What does your life have to do with birds of the air and fish of the sea and the beauty of the world?
How do you find meaning in your life in the context of your life? If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to have others read your response click on the 'comment' box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
One of the more interesting texts is Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel is trying to help his people face the hard times and is asking the question, "Can these bones live". Portions of the prophet's text come before the fall of Jerusalem and portions come after the fall.
Chapter 37 was written after the fall of the city and at a time when the people pondered their future and wondered if there would be one. Could they ever recover what they had lost? Ezekiel is trying to tell them they would survive and those bones would live. They would thrive.
How do we come to a point in our lives when we discover what it means to truly live even when there is adversity and grief?
Alfred North Whitehead wrote, "To experience faith is to know that in being ourselves we are more than ourselves: To know that our experience, dim and fragmentary as it is, yet sounds the utmost depths of reality: to know that detached details merely in order to be themselves demand that they should find themselves in a system of things: to know that this system includes the harmony of logical rationality, and the harmony of aesthetic achievement: to know that, while the harmony of logic lies upon the universe as an iron necessity, the aesthetic harmony stands before it as a living ideal moulding the general flux in its broken progress toward finer, subtler issues."
We are not unto ourselves and we are not the first of all but in a long line of every thing that has been. Fullness of life and happiness will be found when we discover the context from which we come and the end toward which we are moving and can discern the way in which everything is related to everything.
People like Loren Eiseley open up the option that puts us into a context and enable us to live out of that context to the point that we can find meaning and wholeness through it.
What is your context? What does your life have to do with birds of the air and fish of the sea and the beauty of the world?
How do you find meaning in your life in the context of your life? If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to have others read your response click on the 'comment' box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
Monday, January 16, 2012
Monday's thoughts on Sunday's sermon
"A New Pair of Glasses"
My grandfather had a huge influence on my life. When my father died I was nine years old and we moved from Miamisburg, Ohio to Morgantown, West Virginia and into my grandparent's home.
Charles Baker was a judge, a lawyer, and a poet. He ran for Congress in 1942 and was defeated by Jennings Randolph by less than 200 votes. He could have asked for a recount but he didn't.
My grandfather introduced me to the writing of Loren Eiseley. Loren Eiseley was a naturalist, who was lived in Nebraska. Eiseley's book The Immense Journey will be the subject of the noon study beginning next Wednesday.
I wanted to introduce the congregation to the thinking of Loren Eiseley through the sermon this coming Sunday.
The sermon will promote the idea that the best way to convey the Christian faith is not through conversion but through the method of conversation. Christianity is a way of life and a way of looking.
I want to share with you a method of looking and, if I do it successfully, it will lead to a new way of seeing. I think it was this approach that Jesus had when he said, "Consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air."
How we look determines what we see. Christianity is a way to look that leads to a new line of sight that leads to a new way to live.
Have you ever looked at the wonder and beauty of nature and had thoughts that were profoundly religious? Did you see the sunrise yesterday? Did it give you the inspiration that there is God?
What do you think? If you have some insights about how we look and what we see write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your thoughts with the readers of this blog click on the 'comments' box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
My grandfather had a huge influence on my life. When my father died I was nine years old and we moved from Miamisburg, Ohio to Morgantown, West Virginia and into my grandparent's home.
Charles Baker was a judge, a lawyer, and a poet. He ran for Congress in 1942 and was defeated by Jennings Randolph by less than 200 votes. He could have asked for a recount but he didn't.
My grandfather introduced me to the writing of Loren Eiseley. Loren Eiseley was a naturalist, who was lived in Nebraska. Eiseley's book The Immense Journey will be the subject of the noon study beginning next Wednesday.
I wanted to introduce the congregation to the thinking of Loren Eiseley through the sermon this coming Sunday.
The sermon will promote the idea that the best way to convey the Christian faith is not through conversion but through the method of conversation. Christianity is a way of life and a way of looking.
I want to share with you a method of looking and, if I do it successfully, it will lead to a new way of seeing. I think it was this approach that Jesus had when he said, "Consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air."
How we look determines what we see. Christianity is a way to look that leads to a new line of sight that leads to a new way to live.
Have you ever looked at the wonder and beauty of nature and had thoughts that were profoundly religious? Did you see the sunrise yesterday? Did it give you the inspiration that there is God?
What do you think? If you have some insights about how we look and what we see write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your thoughts with the readers of this blog click on the 'comments' box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
Friday, January 13, 2012
Friday's thoughts on Sunday's sermon
This sermon will try to explain one of the concepts of Paul Tillich.
He said, "Nonbeing makes God a living God. Without the "No" God has to overcome in God's self and in God's creation, the divine "Yes" to God's self would be lifeless...
Where there is nonbeing there is finitude and anxiety.
If we cay that nonbeing belongs to being-itself, we say that finitude and anxiety belong to being-itself...
The infinite embraces itself and the finite, the "Yes" includes itself and the "No" which it takes into itself, blessedness comprises itself and the anxiety of which it is the conquest."
The words seem confusing when you first approach them but, on further study, they have a depth that speaks to our world with clarity and wisdom.
This is some of what it says and this is what I will try to get across on Sunday.
There are those factors and forces that put us down. We need to deal with them but more than that, we need to take them into ourselves. Most of our external problems have an internal source. People of faith have the courage to know that and to deal with the internal source that is causing the external problem.
The forces of nonbeing are not enemies to our lives but are resources that can lead to our growth if they are dealt with.
The Biblical narrative is Job. The particular text is Job 1:1-12. That text points out the mythic story between God and Satan and the bet that Job's faith would fail him if bad things happened.
How would you interpret Tillich's statement?
One of the goals I have for my life is to write a book that takes some of these theologians and to interpret them in a way people can understand. I can break their code and make their ideas available to people who are not accustomed to reading heavy theology.
If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to have your response available for the congregation to see and respond to click on the 'comments' box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
He said, "Nonbeing makes God a living God. Without the "No" God has to overcome in God's self and in God's creation, the divine "Yes" to God's self would be lifeless...
Where there is nonbeing there is finitude and anxiety.
If we cay that nonbeing belongs to being-itself, we say that finitude and anxiety belong to being-itself...
The infinite embraces itself and the finite, the "Yes" includes itself and the "No" which it takes into itself, blessedness comprises itself and the anxiety of which it is the conquest."
The words seem confusing when you first approach them but, on further study, they have a depth that speaks to our world with clarity and wisdom.
This is some of what it says and this is what I will try to get across on Sunday.
There are those factors and forces that put us down. We need to deal with them but more than that, we need to take them into ourselves. Most of our external problems have an internal source. People of faith have the courage to know that and to deal with the internal source that is causing the external problem.
The forces of nonbeing are not enemies to our lives but are resources that can lead to our growth if they are dealt with.
The Biblical narrative is Job. The particular text is Job 1:1-12. That text points out the mythic story between God and Satan and the bet that Job's faith would fail him if bad things happened.
How would you interpret Tillich's statement?
One of the goals I have for my life is to write a book that takes some of these theologians and to interpret them in a way people can understand. I can break their code and make their ideas available to people who are not accustomed to reading heavy theology.
If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to have your response available for the congregation to see and respond to click on the 'comments' box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Wednesday's reflection on Sunday's sermon
How do we confront the power of nonbeing? What do we do to put the things that put us down?
I have thought there are four things to consider. I wonder it this is helpful because when we are in the battle with nonbeing these answers may appear to be too easy.
First of all we have to confront the power of nonbeing. We have to see it for what it is and we have to own it. We have to face it. We have to realize how much a part of ourselves it is.
Secondly, we have to embrace it. Not only do we have to see what it is we have to see what our part has been in our having it. Much of the problems in our lives and a whole lot of what puts us down that seems to come from beyond us actually begins within us. We have to face it and embrace it.
Thirdly, we will want to grace it with God. No issue that is our issue is our's alone. We look for God's part of the problem and how God is involved in our finding a solution to it. God does not send us nonbeing but nonbeing is a part of being and God is the creator of being. We can grace what happens to us and bless it and put it into perspective.
Finally, we will be able to erase it. There will come a time when it no longer has power over us. It may take a whole lifetime before it happens but when it happens there is no liberation like it. We can erase it and we can be done with it.
Nonbeing has no power over us if we face it, if we embrace it, and if we grace it with God, and if we erase it. There is nothing, in nonbeing's power we ever have to be afflicted with; ever.
What do you think?
If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to have the readers of the blog see your thoughts click on the 'comments' box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
I have thought there are four things to consider. I wonder it this is helpful because when we are in the battle with nonbeing these answers may appear to be too easy.
First of all we have to confront the power of nonbeing. We have to see it for what it is and we have to own it. We have to face it. We have to realize how much a part of ourselves it is.
Secondly, we have to embrace it. Not only do we have to see what it is we have to see what our part has been in our having it. Much of the problems in our lives and a whole lot of what puts us down that seems to come from beyond us actually begins within us. We have to face it and embrace it.
Thirdly, we will want to grace it with God. No issue that is our issue is our's alone. We look for God's part of the problem and how God is involved in our finding a solution to it. God does not send us nonbeing but nonbeing is a part of being and God is the creator of being. We can grace what happens to us and bless it and put it into perspective.
Finally, we will be able to erase it. There will come a time when it no longer has power over us. It may take a whole lifetime before it happens but when it happens there is no liberation like it. We can erase it and we can be done with it.
Nonbeing has no power over us if we face it, if we embrace it, and if we grace it with God, and if we erase it. There is nothing, in nonbeing's power we ever have to be afflicted with; ever.
What do you think?
If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to have the readers of the blog see your thoughts click on the 'comments' box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Monday's thoughts on Sunday's sermon
Sunday, January 15th is Martin Luther King weekend and I thought an appropriate time to think about one of the important ideas of the theologian Paul Tillich.
Tillich believe that we encounter the forces of, what he called, Non-being. I want to preach a sermon on what those forces of non-being are, how they hurt us, and how we can confront and defeat them.
Of course, it will be different for each of us but what are some of the forces of non-being?
I think there are people who judge us and who will put us in their box and won't let us become who we are. Those are the factors of non-being and they must be confronted.
I think there are circumstances beyond our control and they continue to put us down. For some of us it is something that happened in the past that we cannot overcome. For some of us it is the fear of the future. We have no control over those things unless we confront them but when we confront them we can defeat them and they must be confronted.
What are the factors in your life that deny you your fullness of being? Is it the past or the future? Is it a job that's dehumanizing or a bias against you? Is it your own insecurity or fear that is a factor that defeats your sense of being?
How do we defeat those forces?
I think we name them and we look beyond them?
What do you think about this?
What are the forces for non-being in your life?
If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your ideas with the readers of the blog click on the 'comments" box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
Tillich believe that we encounter the forces of, what he called, Non-being. I want to preach a sermon on what those forces of non-being are, how they hurt us, and how we can confront and defeat them.
Of course, it will be different for each of us but what are some of the forces of non-being?
I think there are people who judge us and who will put us in their box and won't let us become who we are. Those are the factors of non-being and they must be confronted.
I think there are circumstances beyond our control and they continue to put us down. For some of us it is something that happened in the past that we cannot overcome. For some of us it is the fear of the future. We have no control over those things unless we confront them but when we confront them we can defeat them and they must be confronted.
What are the factors in your life that deny you your fullness of being? Is it the past or the future? Is it a job that's dehumanizing or a bias against you? Is it your own insecurity or fear that is a factor that defeats your sense of being?
How do we defeat those forces?
I think we name them and we look beyond them?
What do you think about this?
What are the forces for non-being in your life?
If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your ideas with the readers of the blog click on the 'comments" box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Monday's thoughts on Sunday's sermon
Sunday, January 8th Reverend Rebecca Mcfee will preach in the 8, 9:15, and 10:45 Sanctuary services. I will post her theme later this week.
We will be involved in a look at the United Methodist Church's issues with homosexuality at 9:15 each Sunday for the next four Sundays. We are looking at the issue in terms of the "Wesleyan Quadrilateral" (Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience).
My task next Sunday is to look at the issue with respect to "Tradition". We will look at the question of ordination, appointment, and holy unions. What does our church say about the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy? What does it say about the responsibility of clergy to do holy unions in the church?
Does the church affirm gay and lesbian people and grant that human sexuality is a God given gift?
I have been invited to look at the tradition as it has developed from the decisions made by the General Conferences of the church that meet every 4 years. I have been a delegate to those conferences since 1988 and have been a voting member for 6 of them. I was elected as a voting alternate to the General Conference in April in Tampa, Florida. Will look at the same issues we always do and consider making changes in our Book of Discipline.
Our meetings will take place at 9:15 and will meet in the parlor. I am given the responsibility of speaking on tradition. We have engaged a medical doctor to look at reason. David Dalke will speak on experience and Rebecca Mcfee will speak on scripture.
Each week a different resource of faith on the same issue. United Methodists do not conform to a common creed but we employ the resources of the quadrilateral to help us deal with issues such as this.
I invite you to join us in this four week discussion. It should be interesting.
If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your thoughts with the readers of this blog click on the 'comments' box below.
I look forward to seeing you Sunday and I hope you will write your opinions on this subject to me or to the readers.
Charles Schuster
We will be involved in a look at the United Methodist Church's issues with homosexuality at 9:15 each Sunday for the next four Sundays. We are looking at the issue in terms of the "Wesleyan Quadrilateral" (Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience).
My task next Sunday is to look at the issue with respect to "Tradition". We will look at the question of ordination, appointment, and holy unions. What does our church say about the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy? What does it say about the responsibility of clergy to do holy unions in the church?
Does the church affirm gay and lesbian people and grant that human sexuality is a God given gift?
I have been invited to look at the tradition as it has developed from the decisions made by the General Conferences of the church that meet every 4 years. I have been a delegate to those conferences since 1988 and have been a voting member for 6 of them. I was elected as a voting alternate to the General Conference in April in Tampa, Florida. Will look at the same issues we always do and consider making changes in our Book of Discipline.
Our meetings will take place at 9:15 and will meet in the parlor. I am given the responsibility of speaking on tradition. We have engaged a medical doctor to look at reason. David Dalke will speak on experience and Rebecca Mcfee will speak on scripture.
Each week a different resource of faith on the same issue. United Methodists do not conform to a common creed but we employ the resources of the quadrilateral to help us deal with issues such as this.
I invite you to join us in this four week discussion. It should be interesting.
If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your thoughts with the readers of this blog click on the 'comments' box below.
I look forward to seeing you Sunday and I hope you will write your opinions on this subject to me or to the readers.
Charles Schuster
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