Tempest Smith, died February 20, 2001 at the age of 12. A victim of religious bullying

On February 20th, we’ll honor Tempest Kayne Smith. She was a victim of religious bullying in her school. I’ll be incorporating Tempest Smith Day into the Universal Episcopal Church’s liturgical calendar, where she will be honored as a martyr. Yes, that means she’ll be canonized. It also means that those who are victims of bullying, especially religious bullying, might now have a patron.

She played the flute, wrote poetry, and a number of other things which tell me that today approaching her mid-20′s, she would be working to accomplish something. But instead, she was victimized by bullies – who were people who should have been her friends.

But the lessons for Advent give reason for some thought, especially if you understand the basics of Gnosticism (the real stuff, not outsiders’ pre-conceived notions).  Did you notice that they speak about who and what are “coming”?  But in the case of John The Baptist, he told him that they one they were expecting had already arrived – they just didn’t know who it was among them.  A sort of “You know him, but you don’t know who he really is.”  

And that’s one of my perpetual questions.  How often do I (or you or anyone else) long for something that we actually already have, and don’t know it?

And that’s a question that’s above denominational distinctions.

Blessed Be!

Bishop Cal

Well, it conveys a message that I feel the need to get out, so you have it.  And next week, we;ll be back to schedule.

Blessed Be!

Bishop Cal

Speaking of which, did you notice that I’ve made the “Prayer For The Whole State Of The Church” something that the congregation joins in?  I’ve always wondered about that.  The priest says “Let us pray”, and in that particular case it comes across almost as if it were “Listen to me pray”, especially when that is one prayer which every individual in the congregation has a stake it – so why not!  

So good to see all the people who joined in the communion for Jerome Birnbaum.

I can promise you interesting times to come.  

Blessed Be!

Bishop Cal 

And some other differences might be due to the fact that your bishop was recruited from among the mortals. Why don’t I genuflect or kneel more often? Arthritis is one reason. Another is a leg infection that had me in the hospital that I’m recovering from. Kind of like another bishop I knew who didn’t bow before the cross (and it was his tradition to do so). The reason was simply that if he did so, his mitre fell off his head.

And yes, sometimes I find myself doing the Kabbalistic cross instead of the one you learned in confirmation class. It’s kind of ingrained in me, and when you experience the Kaballah, you’ll see what I mean. But I also like the “regular” one as well.

Blessed Be!
Bishop Cal

But, we’re close to being underway!

There’s something to be said for “Universal”.  To begin with, it implies freedom.  But, it is freedom in both directions.  On the one hand, you are free to explore your path and come to your own conclusions.  On the other hand, and here is where folks forget about the other aspect of freedom, you are also free to follow tradition and discipline as you are called.  Nothing is wrong with any path or approach, and people of different approaches need to respect each other.

This has been a problem in some faiths, one notable in my own experience, in which those who followed tradition gradually became the shunned.

There is also the fact that those who have to go elsewhere for spiritual healing and get healing will need to honor the path which gave them the healing.

And those who are exiled because of abuse, shunning, or people who were doing things which they had no business doing, might have a real need for some sort of reconciliation – or at least retrospective.

And that’s a big part of what this is all about.

Blessed Be!

For those whose Latin is as weak as mine, the English words are: “Not to us Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory.”  And I consider it most appropriate.

It seems to me that almost all of the problems and issues people have with religion, religious bodies and churches would disappear if more people paid attention to these words – and followed them.

After all, it is not to our glory that we do this.

Blessed Be!

Bishop Lippitt

“Conquest” implies subjecting others to your own will and ways, and that’s not what we are about.  But “Quest” is something that is necessary for each and every one of us to survive and thrive.  There are none so miserable as those who have everything they ever wanted to the point that they no longer want anything.  And there are none so unwise as those who think that there is no more to learn.

Note that the upper left quadrant is black.  That symbolizes the unknown, or for us, that which is currently beyond our knowing.  Within the black quadrant, there is a pentagram with a cross within it.  The pentagram was once used as a Christian symbol of the five wounds of Jesus, and in honor of that the five points are red.  And within the pentagram, the cross is a coming together, which so many paths have as the beginning of which we know so little.

Blessed Be!