I Want To Know What It’s Like
By Br'er Abbot | March 2, 2012
I was so moved by this that I wanted to draw particular attention to it on the Briarpatch.
Virginia says it best:
“This video is a reminder that we live in the Land of the Brave and the Home of the Mostly Free.
When will we determine that the rights granted to some should belong to all?
It is rediculous that there are more states in which you can marry a close cousin than there are states in which people can marry their same sex partner.
In America, we seem to be forcing the religious belief that God disapproves of homosexuallity on the entire society.
I am no longer a silent supporter of gay rights. Homosexuals are people who have the right to love the person that their heart loves. And they have the right to love that person in all the ways heterosexuals love one another.
You see, the question is not “Should homosexuals have the right to…”. No, my friends the question is “Who are you, to deny another person the right to love, to marriage, to a family, to happiness?”.
God Bless America. God Bless each of you.”
Anyway, the video was so beautiful that it moved me to tears and I hope it moves you as much and that maybe, just maybe, you look at what we as a country, as a church, and as a community, are doing to GLBT folks by trying to suppress, manipulate, criminalize, demonize, and or just plain marginalize their lives, their loves, and their God given sexuality. Just watch the video.
Topics: Poetry | No Comments »
Manamana!
By Br'er Abbot | October 30, 2011
Life has become a little too serious of late and I need a little fun so I thought I’d share with you a video I’ve never seen before today of a great song that came out the year I was born. I’ll be seeing it all day now…thanks Virginia!
I absolutely love the song and have long been a fan of Animal, the muppet who sings it. I assume this is the early version of Animal seeing the song. He’s less colorful and a little smaller than what he eventually became. Interestingly enough he kinda looks like a simple “hippy” puppet of the day.
What a great tune to just be a kid with…
Manamana…doot-doo-doo-doot…manamana….doot-doot-doot-doot…
Topics: Multimedia and Such | No Comments »
Say Hallelujah! Bishop Mary Ann – RIP
By Br'er Abbot | October 26, 2011
“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” -Revelation 21:4
On the verge of tears I listened to “Say Hallelujah” by Tracy Chapman the other night. Tracy is one of my favorite musical artists and a person who exudes a deep love of life and an ever present compassionate understanding of the human condition. In so many wonderful ways she’s an activist for the poor, the oppressed, the down trodden, and an incredible empowerer of women. Her spirit is fierce, her heart loving and her personality exuberating.
Well, why the tears? A few days earlier I had just been at the bedside of a very dear friend, Bp. Mary Ann Croisant (Mac to her friends). As I sat by her bed she slipped into the arms of her loving God and away from her bishop who held her frail hand. When I heard Tracy Chapman sing this song I was reminded of Mary Ann, in oh so many ways, and I couldn’t help myself as tears finally fell for the loss of my dear friend and colleague.
You see, Mary Ann embodied all of those attributes that I ascribed to Tracy Chapman and so much more and the song itself was a remembrance of Mac’s life and her ministry and mission and how she would want us to respond to her life and her passing.
Let me go back a little ways…
Mac and I met years ago on the internet as we both began to explore the Independent Sacramental Movement (ISM). We had a lot in common in terms of spirituality and how we saw the world and we both felt a strong call to the priesthood and to service in the Church universal (catholic). She was a cradle Episcopalian and I, a much later convert, but both of us came from that venerable Anglican tradition and we shared a typical “via media” approach to being church in terms of polity and ecumenism. I think we actually met in an egroup for the Celtic Catholic Church. A deep love of Celtic Christianity was awaking in us and we felt its natural pull along our path, a pull that drew us into that wonderful Christian tradition of the Celtic people of long ago but also a pull that drew us closer to one another. I read her posts to the egroup with great admiration and joy, as I had found someone who thought and felt much like I did. We became fast friends, or perhaps a better way to describe our relationship was that of “anam cara,” the Celtic “soul friend.”
After the Celtic Catholic egroup we discovered the Thomasines and shared in the development of the Community of the Companions of St. Thomas. While we were never officially a part of that community we counted them amongst our friends and companions on the path. We wound our way around the internet exploring different jurisdictions within the ISM and finally wound up on slightly separate paths, Mary Ann with an Anglican group and I with the United Catholic Church and later Christ Catholic Church. We finally came together with a shared ministry in Christ’s Catholic Church: An Ecumenical Free Catholic Communion and that’s when our relationship bloomed.
On its positive side, the ISM is full of people with hopes, dreams, drives, motives, passions, exuberance, creativity, wisdom, compassion, and a desire to put all of that to work serving within the greater Commonwealth of God. They are people of great spirituality and insight who only want to serve for the sake of service by answering a calling whispered in their ear and placed upon their heart by God. They serve in many different ways and from within many different traditions as lay people, religious brothers and sisters, deacons, priests, and bishops. They work tirelessly often with no thought for themselves or their own well being and they take to heart the command from Jesus to love God and to love one another regardless. They do wonderful things helping many, many people when often no one else will. They more often than not live on the edge searching for those who have fallen through the cracks from the mainline churches. They minister as they can, where they can, and as needed. They do so at great personal costs and with usually little to no financial help. They live on faith and trust in grace.
On the darker side, the ISM also offers a home to dysfunctional people with over-sized egos and immature passions, who all too often pontificate as arm-chair theologians in order to simply hear the sound of their own voices. These would-be clerics quite possibly suffer from a borderline personality disorder and are almost always full of schemes, ulterior motives, and out right fraudulent behaviors. These hacks suffer from an obscure and curious disorder we call, “scarlet fever,” which manifests as an all-consuming desire to be a catholic bishop, sport a pointy hat, and wear purple while collecting titles and paper mill degrees. Most all of them in time become archbishops, metropolitans, patriarchs, first among equals, et cetera ad nauseum. In my time in the ISM I have run into many, many on the darker side of the ISM and to my own ever-lasting shame and great sadness I have been duped into participating in consecrating a few of them myself. God forgive me.
Even though those poor souls on the darker side of the path were ever present in our respective ministries, Mac and I were still drawn to this wonderful mismatch movement of misfits called the Independent Sacramental Movement. Though we each thought about turning back to our roots in the Episcopal Church the spirit of the ISM wouldn’t let us go. We realized independently of one another that ministering to the misfits was what we really wanted to do, what we were called to do, and indeed misfits were who we were called to be.
It took some time and some talking and praying but Mary Ann finally answered the call to serve the Church as a bishop and I was honored and humbled to consecrate her and welcome here into the historic episcopacy on April 18, 2009. I laid my hands upon her head, and the High King of Heaven Himself, through the power of Holy Spirit, marked her as a bishop in His Church forever.
We served together with Bp. Eugene Kyle as the three Convening Bishops of Christ’s Catholic Church. I leaned on her, learned from her, and valued her wisdom, compassion, and loyalty. She, Eugene, and I were almost always of a single heart and mind in our corporate vision of how and where we wanted to shepherd Christ’s Catholic Church. We made a wonderful team and the Council of Three will not be the same without her. She was a clear voice – always calling for compassion, inclusivity, and ecumenical understanding. She celebrated the freedom of being “free catholic” and never once shrank from her responsibilities as a bishop of Christ’s Catholic Church. Though once she did tell me that while she had been a perfectly happy priest, that could not always be said of her tenure as a bishop.
On a more personal note, Mary Ann was a fiercely loyal friend and confidant. She was encouraging when things were uncertain or were looking down within the communion or life itself. She was empowering when my strength or resolve sometimes seemed to fade and I just didn’t know what to do next. However, her greatest gift was just simply the unconditional love that she gave when I needed a friend and someone I could count on. When Mary Ann loved you, you knew you were loved no doubt about it, and that love never wavered.
While I would not want to rob her of one moment with the God she loved so dearly, nor would I want to drag her away from heaven, I will miss her so very, very much. I look forward to celebrating with her in heaven where once again, as we all gather on the other side, we will be able to cry out together, in one voice, hallelujah!
She was by every definition a Child of God and a Good Shepherd of His people. May she rest in peace and may we all be inspired, encouraged, and empowered to follow the shining example given us by St. Mary Ann Croisant.
Amen.
Topics: News and Events | No Comments »
Day Seven: Day of Rest of The Seven Days of Creation
By Br'er Abbot | September 23, 2011
“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. ” -Genesis 2:1-3
“Day of Rest”
24″ X 36″ Acrylic on Canvas
By Bishop Brian E. Brown, OSH
“The Painting Bishop”
When was the last time you rested? I mean, REALLY rested? I bet you don’t know do you?! Or if you do remember it was more than likely some time ago. God thought it was important enough to do it and in fact He thought so much of it that He blessed the day and made it holy. It should be equally important to us. One day of the week to enjoy creation, one another, and ourselves. What’s that worth? Priceless! Take time off and keep the day holy. None of us own our next breath. I know that I’m really bad about taking time off but I intend to turn over a new leaf and would invite you to do the same. It’s never too late until it’s too late! Enjoy!
Topics: Paintings | No Comments »
Day Six: From His Hands of The Seven Days of Creation
By Br'er Abbot | September 20, 2011
“And God said, ‘Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.’ And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’
Then God said, ‘I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.’ And it was so.
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. ” -Genesis 1:24-31
“From His Hands”
24″ X 36″ Acrylic on Canvas
By Bishop Brian E. Brown, OSH
“The Painting Bishop”
From His hands we were made, in His image, and he said we were very good. God delighted in our creation even with the certain knowledge of our culpability in His crucifixion. I imagined the nail marks in those life giving hands as He sculpted us from the earth and the bittersweet moment of our creation as I worked with the paint on the canvas. If God has such unconditional love for us, and we were made in His image, why do we find it so hard to have unconditional love for one another, also made in His image, regardless?
Topics: Paintings | No Comments »
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