Inspirations

Bulletin for Sunday, February 26, 2011

2012-02-27T10:26:00.000-08:00

1st Sunday in Lent

Friends,

Yesterday in the dining room at St Joe’s we celebrated what Rachael said was the most hilarious Ash Wednesday service she’d ever attended. I forgot to distribute the ashes after the homily, one of the guys offered as his suggestion for ways to observe Lent that we go to the library and get all the free stuff we can, and at the end, Rachael got a fit of the giggles. Wonder why!

I’m glad we had a joyful Ash Wednesday Mass because I think Lent is great. It’s a chance to strip down, get rid of whatever is keeping us from being our truest and best selves, and grow closer to God. Lent gives me the kind of feeling that I get from cleaning out a closet. Doesn’t it feel great when you get rid of a lot of stuff you don’t need, and things are clean and orderly again?

This Lent, as we practice the disciplines of fasting, prayer and almsgiving that hopefully help us to grow and to be more fully alive, I invite you to look outside yourself and to be aware of the ways that we as a society need to grow. Look at our dependence on oil, and what that is doing to our planet, both in destruction of the environment and in the wars in the middle east. Look at the way that we in the first world use so much of the earth’s resources, and the price people in other parts of the world pay for our excess. And with the awareness we have at St Romero’s because of our migrant ministry, perhaps this Lent is a good time to examine and work to change the terrible system that has people working ten hour days, six days a week, for heartbreakingly little money, terrible living conditions, and on top of all that, getting punished for being here. Along with our personal repentance and turning to God, let’s look at how we as a society need to turn around.

Following Jesus is about a whole lot more than feeling good about our own relationship with God. We’ve got to transform the world. Like Dorothy Day said, the whole problem with the world is our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system. Let’s repent that acceptance, and work for change. Here’s God’s word on that:

"Is not this the fast I choose:
To loose the bonds of injustice,
To undo the thongs of the yoke,
To let the oppressed go free,
And to break every yoke?"
Isaiah 58:6

A blessed Lent to you. May it be a time of life, growth and transformation!

Love and light to all
Chava

Here are some ideas for Lenten reading:
"The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne. Also "Jesus for President."
"Jesus and Nonviolence" by Walter Wink
"Becoming Who You Are" by James Martin
If you’d like some meaty Biblical scholarship, "Come Out, My People!" by Wes Howard-Brook or "Parables as Subversive Speech" by William Herzog
And finally, an excellent and very readable book by one of the leading Black theologians of our time, James Cone, on one of the most terrible and most overlooked occurrences in American history:
"The Cross and the Lynching Tree."

Have a blessed Lent, and come visit us, any Sunday!

__________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, February 19, 2011

2012-02-20T09:17:00.000-08:00

7th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

With all the snow we had on Sunday morning, I didn’t think anyone would show up for Mass. Surprise! We had most of our usual folks plus someone new. Annie and Mike O’Reilly were there, all the way from Coneseus!

As we drove up South Ave under the bridge, Capo said "Isn’t that our friend from church?" I was surprised to see one of our regular guys trudging through the snow, thinking the weather was too awful for him to be out in. He is a man who often mentions his brushes with the law. He’s in and out of jail, he says, and has a testy relationship with the police. I never understood it, and wondered what he was doing to get in trouble.

I would have stopped to pick him up but that underpass isn’t a safe spot for stopping. So we went on to St Joe’s and found the parking lot clear, thanks most likely to Rich who works so hard to keep St Joe’s running smoothly. Coming around to the front door, what do we see in the block ahead but our friend, standing in the middle of the intersection at South and Mt Hope, waving his arms and yelling for all he’s worth at the people driving by: "SLOW THE F*** DOWN!!! SLOW THE F*** DOWN!"

On the one hand, it was a public service. And on the other, now I get the in-and-out-of-jail thing. By the time he made it in to Mass, he was calm and there was no hint of what we’d just seen outside.

So that’s one of the things I love about St Romero’s. You just never know what’s going to happen on Sunday morning.

In this week’s Gospel, we see people taking apart a roof to make a hole to get someone in to Jesus. There’s something glorious about those times we jump over barriers for love. Our God does it all the time, trying to get to us. How wonderful when we do it, trying to get to God. And though I don’t recommend standing in the middle of an intersection, waving your arms and shouting at people, how wonderful to break out of our predictable normal to help in whatever way we can. Jesus seems to have accepted that moment of breaking through barriers and destruction of property with total equanimity! I’ll bet all he looked at was the love.

And friends, please do drive carefully in the snow. You are worth so much more than getting someplace on time.

Love and light to all
Chava

"This is what God says, "Forget about what's happened;
don't keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new.
It's bursting out! Don't you see it?
There it is! I'm making a road through the desert,
rivers in the wasteland"
Isaiah 43:18-19 (The Message).

Ash Wednesday Mass with distribution of ashes, Wednesday February 22, 4:30 pm in the St Joe’s dining room. Come celebrate the start of Lent with us!

____________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, February 12, 2011

2012-02-15T18:40:00.000-08:00

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

“The Only Solution is Love.” That’s the slogan on one of my favorite Catholic Worker t-shirts and I absolutely believe it to be true. How are we going to heal the world unless we just love each other? Forgive, leap over our differences, find the person on the other side… and take the adventure that you find there. Quit hanging on to what we’ve got and give our open hands to God. Let God lead.

This week, God’s been leading me into court rooms. A new experience for the guys, and for me. On Friday when Capo and I walked into the waiting room outside of the immigration court in Buffalo, we encountered a roomful of anxious-looking people, all waiting for a hearing, as we were. We stood by the door, waiting for what seemed an awfully long time. Finally the door opened and a group of people came out. Among them was a young woman who looked at Capo with recognition and apparent relief. She was the cousin of someone in our community, and I had been trying unsuccessfully to find her in the system. Now we could tell her cousin we’d seen her. I hope that was a God-moment for her, one of those times when God whispers, “don’t worry! I’m here!”

In that moment I also thought of how Capo is viewed in the Mexican community, the respect and trust that is so different from the way the government views him. Things like integrity and character don’t get measured by the presence or absence of a passport. In the same way, the young man in our community who will have his day in immigration court at the end of the month has sterling qualities that won’t show up, there. The government looks at him and sees his immigration status. I look at him and see a young man carrying the responsibilities of someone much older, working so hard, not even out of his teens.

In the Gospel this week, Jesus breaks the rules of his time and place and reaches out to touch a leper. The encounter changes both of them. The person with leprosy gets healed, and starts telling people about it. Things change for Jesus, too, because since he touched a leper he’s ritually unclean. Now he’s hanging out with the people on the fringes. Personally, I like hanging out with the people on the fringes. Things look different from here.

So we went to court, and it all happened as we were told to expect. Capo was given a date to return, in April 2013. We were the last called, and so watched person after person go before the judge. He seemed reasonably kind. I heard him speak sympathetically to several people. On the other hand, a number of people were chided for showing up in court without their Notice to Appear in hand. Capo had his because I’d thought there was a chance it would be necessary. But how were they supposed to know that? The system is so appallingly unfair to people on the outside of it.

Last night I was visiting as I do every week, to have some Religious Ed time with the youngest member of our community. We noticed lights outside, whirling around. There were two police cars over at the next-door-neighbor’s house, police officers walking around a truck with flashlights. Looking out the window, I noticed the cat was trying to get in, and went to open the door for her. “No, Pastora!” shouted several voices. Good grief, pastor! Don’t open the door when the police are outside! Two realities, two world-views: that on the inside like most of us reading this have, and that of people locked out of the system. Jesus reached across that divide for healing and life, and got changed. Let’s us do the same.

Love and light to all
Chava

PS Ash Wednesday Mass with distribution of ashes, Wednesday February 22, 4:30 pm in the St Joe’s dining room. Come celebrate the start of Lent with us!

PPS Breakfast after Mass will resume when Linda comes back from Ireland in a few weeks.

Come visit us, any Sunday!

___________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11
St Joseph's House of Hospitality
402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, February 5, 2012

2012-02-07T05:10:00.000-08:00

Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

Each time we meet for church, we also meet for fellowship. Since the earliest days at St Romero’s we have shared breakfast after Mass on Sundays. Sometimes it was a pretty fancy breakfast, with eggs and sausage and fruit, and other times just toast and coffee. At Iglesia de San Romero, we always sat and shared cookies together after Mass (remember the story of the time a raccoon ran off with three dozen cookies?) and talked together. Now on Thursday nights, when I go out to have religious ed with the youngest member of our community, I always bring some cookies or something to share. Sometimes we eat together (last week it was tamales!) and sometimes it’s just the cookies, but I do think that sitting and eating and talking is an important part of community life, just as it’s an important part of family life.

Sometimes we learn things. For example, I never knew that tortillas are used to eat lots of things, not just as a wrap for burritos or tacos. Last week I made my own tortillas for the first time. Our young friend was very surprised to learn it was the first time I had made tortillas. "How do people eat eggs at your house?" he asked. "What do they use, a fork?!"

I love that the learning and growing goes both ways. And on Sunday mornings, I love sitting around the tables, just chatting. It is life-giving for the community and for all of us, I believe.

So, it is with sadness that I tell you that we’ve decided not to serve breakfast on Sundays for a while. We’re getting into a situation lately where people are arriving part way through Mass, apparently expecting breakfast, and we are not in a position to feed them. There is a free meal at St Joe’s later in the day, and the house opens at 1:30 for hospitality. Knowing that makes it more comfortable to say, "Sorry, not now." But I am sad to leave off our lovely habit of fellowship, for a while. Hopefully we’ll be able to bring it back in a few weeks.

We extend our deepest sympathy to the family of Sue McVey, and to all who grieve for her. Sue and her husband, George, have been part of the extended community at St Joe’s since the late 1980’s, and losing her is like losing a part of our family. She served on the supervisory committee when I did my field ed at St Joe’s in 2006. What a blessing it has been, to know her. St Joe’s will be closed this Thursday so that the community can attend her funeral, at 10:30 at Spiritus Christi.

We’d also like to ask your prayers this week for our Capo, who goes to immigration court on Friday. We know he is as much in God’s hands as he has ever been, and all is well.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, January 29, 2012

2012-01-30T14:38:00.000-08:00

4th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

We made a good decision, canceling Mass for one weekend. When people work
six days a week, sometimes you just have to change your schedule.

So this past Sunday we scrubbed and scrubbed, walls and window frames and
doors and the ceiling of our friends’ little casita. We rested and had
pizza, and then we painted. We discussed whether the ceiling required two
coats of paint (two hands of paint, in Spanish. Dos manos). And finally we looked around us with satisfaction. “No es perfecto, pero es mejor,” we said. It’s not perfect, but it’s better. White walls, white ceiling, gray furnace box. It does look better.

And all morning long as we scrubbed, and I periodically changed the water in each person’s bucket, asking each time, “Quieras agua con sopa, o agua pura?” nobody, NOBODY told me that I was asking if they wanted soup in the water, not soap!

As we worked, the man we call Capo sang softly to himself. “Alleluia, alleluia...”

And I think it was holy work.

What does it say to your soul if each morning you wake up to squalor? What does that tell you about who you are, what you deserve? And what if you are working long hours, six days a week, standing up all day, and that’s still all you get? I think it’s a little hard to believe that you’re “walking around shining like the sun,” as Thomas Merton said we all are.

I remember seventeen years ago when I was working as a lab technician and trying to buy the house I live in, now. I offered what I could, and got turned down twice. Around the same time, I learned that my co-worker, a post-doc, was earning almost exactly twice what I was. It felt like a message from the world at large: that’s all you’re worth. I remember the socked-in-the-gut feeling: I work so hard, and I can’t even buy a modest city house? My experience was just a tiny taste of what our friends live with, year after year. (and how wonderful it felt, when at last my offer was accepted, and I became a home-owner).

So this cleaning and painting is about a lot of things. It’s about health and dignity and self-worth. It’s about respect, and hope. Doing it together, we begin to see what’s possible. Look, oh look, what love can do. Love and elbow grease.

Thank you to everyone who helped, especially Caroline Kristofferson who gave her Sunday to this work. Thanks to Kevin Slough who donated paint, and Jane Bleeg who gave some rugs, and everyone who sent money. You have made a difference in one tiny corner of the world. Capo said, “How can we pay you back?” Oh, that’s simple, dear friends. Just know in your bones that you are shining like the sun.

Love and light to all,
Chava

PS In the course of moving furniture to the middle of the room, a bookshelf got broken. They were using it for a home altar as well as storage of school supplies. It was about three feet high, a three-shelf unit. If anyone has a bookshelf to donate, please let me know!

_____________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
A Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, January 22, 2012

2012-01-21T13:19:00.000-08:00

3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
NO MASS THIS WEEKEND

Friends,

Have you ever experienced the humiliation of being helped? Had to swallow your pride and let someone do for you what you felt you ought to be doing for yourself? It’s not a great feeling. A lot depends, though, on the attitude of the one doing the helping.

Twenty years ago or so, I was a single mom with three small children. For years I was in school or working, or both, while raising my daughters. The essentials got done – feeding the kids, homework, laundry. One of the things that didn’t get done during the week was washing the dishes. The dishes used to pile up until it was exhausting just looking at them. I was embarrassed to have anyone see the state of my house.

Now and then my Mom would come over. Without a word about it, she would just start washing dishes. It meant so much to me that she would just help like that – non-judgmentally, just doing what I didn’t have time to do myself. It was real help, and the way she did it mattered, too.

I used that story two weeks ago when I went in to paint the bathroom of the little casita where our friends are living. They’re working six days a week I told them that story and said I was just passing on what my Mom did for me. It’s what family does for each other. And now the bathroom feels better (and the mildew is gone so it’s healthier, too).

Next we’re going to tackle the sala, the main room that serves as kitchen/dining/living/bedroom and storage area. That’s too big a job for me to do by myself on a Saturday, though. There’s furniture to be moved, etc. I expect it will take all of us most of a day. Walls need to be scrubbed before painting, and we’ll do the ceiling, as well.

SO, this Sunday, January 22, there will be no Mass at St Romero’s. Wherever you are, you could offer a prayer for our aching muscles as we stretch and bend and lift and paint! And a prayer that the transformation of this room will carry the message: you are worth more than this. You deserve better than this. You are so worth the effort and time this transformation takes!

So are you, by the way. Know it in your bones.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

PS Oodles of thanks to everyone whose donations made this possible. You have helped to make a difference!

PPS hard as these friends are working – six days a week – our friends that went to Florida are working even harder. Fourteen hours a day, seven days a week, hurrying to get the crops in before the frost. Pray for them!

__________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, January 15, 2012

2012-01-16T11:58:00.000-08:00

Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

Here’s a dream as we enter the new year:

What if we had a house in the country – a permanent house, a clean house, big enough for a number of people, where people who need to be here all year ‘round (like our friends in the Alternatives to Detention Program) can live. No more moving constantly, no more degrading living conditions. It could be the place where we celebrate the Mass once a week, and a center for education, as well.

One of the things I have learned in the past year is that there is no point in buying or renting a church. No one will come. La migra has been known to target churches. We need to keep on being small, meeting in living rooms and driveways, building community wherever we can. Same goes for education.

So here’s the dream: what if we did guerilla education? You know how guerilla warfare works. It’s mobile, it’s home-made, it goes where it needs to go, without much equipment or overhead. Suppose we did that with education. Suppose that someone with the time and energy to offer an ESL class were to come to a particular house once a week, where there were people who wanted to learn. What if we had a number of people doing that, bringing whatever they had to offer as teachers to whomever wanted to learn. What if it went both ways? What if folks from the Mexican community offered their skills, as well? Do you know how to kill and pluck a chicken? Would you like to learn some Spanish? We all have things to teach, and things to learn. Maybe it’s not just about teaching and learning: maybe it’s about empowerment. Maybe it’s about new awareness for all of us.

And more: maybe this house could also be a center for advocacy. Maybe there are others who need accompaniment on their journey through the court system. Maybe we could have a library there, with books in Spanish on lots of topics. Or more day-to-day things: maybe we could have a used clothing store, where people could get clothes cheap. (Do you know what farm workers earn? It would break your heart).

Right now, all this is, is a dream. But imagine if several churches were to get together and make it come true. There would be opportunities for involvement, galore. We could have groups at the churches working on their Spanish and on awareness. (how about a study group reading Paolo Friere? Or studying liberation theology?) This could be a mission project for several churches, working together. This weekend I’m going to talk with some Presbyterian churches about being part of this dream… please pray that whatever God is dreaming, will be.

One thing we need is a house. Somewhere in the area between Batavia and Brockport, preferably off the main thoroughfares, preferably with a barn or garage big enough for several cars. Somebody, somewhere, has a house to donate.

So that’s the dream. It will change as it takes shape and becomes reality, just as the idea of the Migrant Mass morphed as the summer went on. If it’s the dream of God, if the call for this is coming from the Holy Spirit, it will be.

Join us for 11 am bilingual Mass any Sunday. We’re having a wonderful time.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

"Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
Howard Thurman

_____________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, January 1, 2012

2012-01-02T12:07:00.000-08:00

Christmas

Friends,

What a wonderful God we do have! These days I am just amazed at all the gifts surrounding us. What a blessing our little community is!

Christmas Eve started off with a certain amount of chaos as we tried to borrow the van from St Joe’s to get everyone, and the seats weren’t in it, and it needed gas, and on and on… by the time we all got to my house it was 5 pm, and Mass was supposed to start at 4! But our waiting guests were patient, and pretty soon we were all having a great time with our Christmas pageant and Mass and then dinner, with eleven people around the table. I love being the pastor of a community small enough to invite everyone to dinner! We had a wonderful time. I’m so grateful to Linda Condon and Martin Linskey, because without their help I don’t think it would have been possible. They drove, they cooked, they showed up! And I’m grateful to Pat Carey who waited a whole hour for us all to arrive.

We sang songs around the piano (or tried to) and took lots of photos, and eventually everyone went to sleep… my next-door-neighbors lent an air mattress and I think everybody was comfortable. And in the morning I made breakfast for everybody, with some really terrible coffee that everyone was most polite about, and leftover tamales. It was a wonderful Christmas.

The hard part was taking them home again. But there is so, so much to be thankful for.

The way things have unfolded this year, the hand of God is so clearly evident, it just isn’t possible to worry. Things will continue to unfold in ways we probably can’t even dream of. A year ago I didn’t dream of this!! 2012 is totally in the hands of God. We’ll just keep walking and listening and saying YES, and let God’s dreams for this community come true. May it be so!

Come and join us any Sunday. This Sunday, New Year’s Day, we will celebrate at 11 am as usual. (We celebrated on Christmas, too!)

May 2012 be full of blessings for you. Feliz año!

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

____________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, December 25, 2011

2011-12-20T19:24:00.000-08:00

Christmas

Friends,

Here’s what’s happened in the past week: One of my co-workers handed me $100 for paint and cleaning supplies. Another filled the chair in my office with three gallons of paint and a smoke detector. A couple promised $200 for eyeglasses. A committee at the Presbytery voted to give us whatever is left in their budget, close to $400. Someone else mailed me a gas card. We received a total of $540, plus the promises of close to $600 mentioned above. And a church voted to make a contribution to our bail fund. And that doesn’t include the wish list items people have told me they are buying. I am overwhelmed with gratitude and awe. You people are amazing.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, there is a noisy furnace in the central room that is so filthy the room gets full of dust particles every time it gets turned on, and the person who sleeps in that room is developing a cough. When I promised to bring a fire extinguisher the next time I came, the response, instead of the usual "you don’t have to do that," was a direct and urgent, "When?" I went and got it and returned that afternoon. But the mildew in the bathroom has been bleached and scrubbed, and there is now a toilet seat. (Can I tell you how angry all this makes me?) Soon we will have a painting day, and everybody will stay at my house overnight to get away from the fumes.

Speaking of my house, that’s where we will celebrate our Christmas Eve Mass. You are most welcome to join us at 4 pm for Mass, and to stay for dinner afterwards. Send me a note if you’re coming and I’ll send you my address and directions. We will also have Christmas morning Mass at St Joe’s at the usual time, 11 am (at Michael’s request!).

In the midst of all this giving and righteous anger and squalor, it is very important to note that, terrible as the situation of injustice is, there is love in that little house. There is togetherness galore (that’s the plus side of living so close together ... the downside is a painful lack of privacy). The more time I spend with these beloved friends, the more my respect grows. I am learning to slow down, and to let go of anxieties I didn’t realize I had. I am learning to recognize how much my own culture is in need of healing. I am one of the learners, here. Much more is being taught than English and literacy, and Spanish for me: the learning, the giving, goes both ways.

This coming week, we celebrate the coming of God, who came bursting into human history in a stable of all places. I think of that all the time: this little house is probably not so far from the kind of place where Jesus was born. The Spanish phrase for "to give birth" is "dar luz," to give LIGHT. Another thing I think about is how small that entrance of God into the world was -- just a few people, in a backwater country. May our little community in a house that ought to be a stable, not a home for human beings, be a light of love and healing and justice and life. May we be birthers of the presence of God, here and now. May we be whatever God is dreaming of us being.

And you, reading this -- you are a part of the dream, the work, the healing. Thank you for reading, praying, giving, loving. God bless you, and Merry Christmas!

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

"Yes," said Lucy. "In our world, too, a stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world."
C.S. Lewis "The Last Battle"

Various people have written to say that they wanted to get something from our amazon wish list but couldn’t find it. Here is a link (sorry I didn’t think of this last week!):
https://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/BNFWKHXXWOSF/ref=cm_wl_rlist_go_o

My neice, Jasmine Staff, is in Ghana for two years with the Peace Corps. I’m amazed at what she’s doing so far. Below is a link to her website about the work there. Jasmine writes, "Please take a moment to allow me to introduce to you the rural African village which has become my home and stolen my heart, and the exciting project I'm creating to help it:
http://empoweringasiri.wordpress.com/

_________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, December 18, 2011

2011-12-15T19:57:00.000-08:00

4th Sunday in Advent

Friends,

Here’s a beautiful bit of Advent light! This Sunday we celebrated our first genuine, bona fide bilingual Mass, combining our English- and Spanish-speaking communities. The church that meets in the dining room at St Joe’s was joined by one of the men from our migrant community, who had a wonderful time, as did we all. After Mass we had breakfast, cooked by Linda Condon, and sat around talking until we were joined by Catie and Jared, our volunteer English teachers.

My daughter-in-law, Catie, and Jared who is a med student at the U of R, hadn’t had a chance to meet beforehand, so the three of them were strangers to each other. I was actually a bit worried as I left the three of them, (I work at St John’s Home on Sunday afternoons) and wondered if they would find enough to do. "Well, this is awkward!" I heard one of them say as I left. At the service at St John’s when we were taking prayer requests, I asked everybody to pray for the three people who hadn’t met before and who were stuck in a room together to work on English for two hours! But when it was time to get them, as I walked in the door I could hear voices, and found the three of them deep in their lesson, having had what sounded like a very enjoyable teaching and learning time. I was so proud of all of them for moving through the awkwardness and into something good. Learning is a wonderful thing!!!

After that we had some great community time back at my house, with folks from St Joe’s joining us for supper. I think this is going to be a wonderful way to spend winter Sundays!

The hardest part of the day, though, was facing the reality of the new living situation our friends are in. The house where they are staying for the winter is cramped and really pretty horrible. Not a fit place for humans to live – any humans – but so awfully much worse when it’s the home of friends, people I’ve grown to love. It’s dry and it will be warm, but that’s about all that can be said in its favor. It made me think of some of the terrible poverty I’ve seen in El Salvador…. It was just like that, only with snow. It made me angry.

I am dreaming of a house… a Catholic Worker house out in the country, where we could provide a safe, clean, loving, stable living situation. Anybody got a house to donate?

If your Advent giving extends to this community, here are some needs: a gallon of good, mildew-resistant paint, white or off-white, two gallons of heavy-duty wall paint, Cleaning supplies. ESL materials (check out our wishlist on Amazon.com under St Romero’s Church). Gas money. A better place to live! One of the men needs glasses. We can always use cookies or other food for get-togethers. There are things we could do with art supplies. A throw rug or two would be welcome. Big needs and small.

There is a wonderful booklet called "Engaging the Word," a series of sermons on migrant spirituality, complete with suggested questions for group discussion. If we were to have a study group this winter, we could read one sermon each week and talk about it. Reading them has helped me to better appreciate some things like the courage, strength and resiliency of our friends. Please let me know if you might be interested in that, and when you might be available if we were to form such a group. The sermons are available in Spanish, too. What might we do with this? We’ve got about a dozen of the books.

Our friend Chris Phillips has asked for prayers for his Mom, Barb, as she nears the end of her life. Please pray for Barb and for everyone who loves her.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

Here’s something to share, a page from my journal last spring:

The world says, "How much money do you have in the bank?"
And God says, "Honey, I am your banker."

The world says, "How many people are coming to church?"
And God says, "I am here with you."

The world says, "Keep your shoes on!"
And God says, "Sweetheart, please do as I ask,"

The world says, "Where are you going?"
And God says, "Honey, just go with me."

The world says, "Do something important!"
And God says, "Come waste time with me."

The world says, "Make a difference."
And God says, "Just be, and be in me."
And God says, All is well
And
All is well
And
All is well
Amen!
　

___________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, December 11, 2011

2011-12-12T20:21:00.000-08:00

3rd Sunday in Advent

Friends,

Thirty years ago this weekend, a horrific massacre began in a little town called El Mozote in El Salvador. Over the course of three days, more than 800 people were killed, half of them under the age of 12. A woman named Rufina Amaya was able to hide under some bushes, pretending to be dead. As she listened to the voices of her own children as they were killed, knowing that to try to rescue them would be death for her as well, she told God that if she survived, she would tell the world what happened.

She did survive, and eventually was able to tell her story to the UN. They sent a team to investigate, and found everything exactly as she said. The children had been herded into the rectory and killed there. Others were where she said they would be. Among the remains were bullet casings that were stamped "Made in Missouri." The leaders of that massacre were trained at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia. Our tax dollars paid for the weapons. We need to know about El Mozote and all the evils that have been done in our name, with our money.

This past January I visited El Mozote with my friends Ruth, Yani, Fabiola, Bernhard and Eglantina (some of you might remember Ruth, Bernhard and Tina, as they were in Rochester for my ordination). We saw the memorial to the victims at El Mozote. Rufina Amaya is buried there (she died a few years ago after years of telling her story to the world). The memorial is beautiful. There's a statue of a family, and lots of flowers, and plaques with the names of the victims. Over by the church is a garden in memory of the children, with a beautiful mural of children playing. On the other side of the church there is a mural of the hopes and dreams of the people who live there, now. For many years it was a ghost town, but now the houses are lived in. The mural on the church shows a school, a hospital, children playing and learning and using computers. There's a surprising amount of hope, there. As we drove away, I noticed the name of the pupuseria in the center of town. Pupusas are wonderful stuffed tortillas, sort of the hamburger of El Salvador, and usually the little stores where they are sold are named after their owners. Not this one, though. The pupuseria in El Mozote is named "Pupuseria Fe y Esperanza." Faith and Hope.

This coming Monday, December 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadelupe, a group of us will hold a demonstration in front of the Federal Building at 4 pm. Please join us if you like. It's all tied together. Our Lady of Guadelupe appeared to a man named Juan Diego just ten years after the Aztec conquest. Note how beaten the native people were: Juan Diego is a Spanish name. He'd even lost his Nahuatl name. This feminine image of God spoke to him in his own language, using the religious symbols he had grown up with. She had dark skin, like him, and spoke to him with respect. The memory of her appearance (and it doesn't matter at all if there was a literal, factual appearance. God is present in the story) has been a source of strength and hope to people in Mexico and Central America ever since. There is a home altar in our little migrant community with a big picture of her.

Let's celebrate her feast day by speaking out for the people she came to visit - a people that has suffered, over and over and over again, and continues to suffer indignity, hatred, isolation and poverty, today.

Let's be a light! And may you be surrounded by light in this season of hope.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

Our friend Gustavo Monzone is looking for funds to help him return to Mexico to work at the Catholic Worker house called Casa Calibri. He used up his savings traveling around the US talking about Casa Calibri and raising funds for a truck for them (Casa Calibri provides overnight shelter to people who come to their little town to visit the health clinic there, so that they don't have to walk back to their own villages that same day). If you'd like to send him some money, his address is 1323 North Ave. 56, Los Angeles. CA 90042

____________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, December 4, 2011

2011-12-04T20:01:00.001-08:00

2nd Sunday in Advent

Friends,

Thirty-one years ago today (December 2, 1980), Dorothy Kazel, Jean Donovan, Ita Ford and Maura Clark were killed in El Salvador. Last night at Iglesia de San Romero, I told their story, these women killed for the dangerous political act of walking with the poor and teaching them to read and write. They knew they were in danger and could have left. Like Rosa Parks, who on December 1, 1955 refused to give up her seat to a white man, being in the words of Martin Luther King, "anchored to that seat by the accumulated indignities of days gone and the boundless aspirations of generations yet unborn," they were rooted to the spot by love and justice. Especially love.

Well. I didn't expect anyone to have heard of Dorothy, Ita, Maura and Jean. I wasn't too surprised that they hadn't heard of Rosa Parks. But they hadn't heard of Martin Luther King, either. Or global warming, I learned earlier in the week during a conversation about weather. Seems I'm constantly learning a little more about what it means to be imprisoned by poverty and isolation and undocumented status. The phrase, "set the captives free" has been burning for me since that day in September when we did just that.

Here's the thing, though. All of us have things to learn. All of us have things to teach. One day it occurred to me that perhaps I'm one of the captives getting set free, here. So I started thinking about that, and about all the things I'm learning. These days I feel like the guys are my spiritual directors, as I learn from them about staying in the moment. Their lives change so fast and unexpectedly, it's hard to make plans. It's like Jesus said in the Gospel reading this past Sunday: Stay awake! Stay alert! You don't know the day or the hour. That's the reality they live with.

This past Sunday morning we were hoping they'd be with us in Rochester for Mass. Folks had to work, though, so it didn't happen. Those of us who were there decided to celebrate a bi-lingual Mass, anyway, for practice. Pretty wonderful, really, that on the first Sunday of Advent we were waiting, preparing, hoping. That's Advent, right? Getting our hearts ready for the advent of the kindom of God. This Sunday they'll be moving, so definitely not with us, then. After that, we'll see. I long for the day when "us" is truly all of us.

On Monday, December 12 at 4 pm, there will be a vigil (co-sponsored by St Romero's) in front of the Federal Building, to commemorate the anniversary of the 1981 massacre of nearly 1,000 people (half of them children) in El Mozote, El Salvador, by soldiers trained at the School of the Americas and using weapons from the USA. John Honeck, who organized the vigil, has been consistent in his efforts to close the SOA for years.

Another consistent voice for peace, St Joe's own Harry Murray, was found guilty yesterday, along with 30 others, for their Good Friday protest at Hancock Airforce Base in Syracuse, protesting the drones. Harry points out that since drones are deployed from Hancock, that means people are being killed from there, which makes upstate New York a war zone. More here: http://www.democracynow.org/2011/12/2/hancock_38_defendants_found_guilty_for

Thank you to all of the Hancock 38, for your strong, clear witness for peace.

Sending love to Olga Lucia Alvarez, the Columbian womanpriest who puts the Spanish version of this bulletin on her blog each week. Olga is fighting cancer and your prayers would be welcome.
Deepest sympathy to Myra Brown, whose husband, Derwin, died yesterday on their 10th wedding anniversary. Please hold the whole family in your prayers.

Come join us, any Sunday you like. We'd love to see you.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

____________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, November 27, 2011

2011-11-26T05:45:00.001-08:00

First Sunday of Advent

Friends,

A delightful bit of news, tonight: the guys at Iglesia de San Romero don’t have to work on Thanksgiving, after all, so we will have Mass at their house at 2 in the afternoon on Thanksgiving Day. You are welcome to join us! – leaving the parking lot at St Joe’s at 1:15 pm.

Another good bit of news, and such a relief, is that those who have left the area for the winter have arrived at their destination safely. We’ve had some joyful phone conversations, with me occasionally saying “Lo siento! Entiendo solo un poco!” (I’m sorry! I’m only understanding a little!) and them talking away, anyway, and somehow the messages get conveyed, with a lot of laughter. The messages being, we’re here safe, I’m glad you’re safe, God is good, we’re working already, give everybody hugs from me. And a whole lot more that I hope some day to be able to understand!

We still don’t know what’s happening this winter, besides the bi-weekly drives to Buffalo. This Sunday, though, we will try a bi-lingual Sunday Mass. If you have been thinking about coming some Sunday, or come now and then – oh, please do join us this week. I would love to have a warm community to welcome them to St Romero’s.

This past week when we drove to Buffalo there was a lot of cloud cover and my gps wouldn’t work, and we got lost. Driving around and around and finally asking for directions, I told them how it’s a joke in my family that I always get lost. “Soy la reina de perdida,” I told them. “I’m the queen of lost.”

I think it’s good to be able to admit when you’re lost. How are you going to find your way without admitting that you’re lost, and asking for help? So right now, I feel like the queen of lost here at St Romero’s. The way forward is not clear. We’re in a muddle. I’m telling you this to ask for your prayers, that we will find a way that is life-giving and manageable. It was pretty simple in the summer, when we could celebrate Mass in the driveway if there wasn’t room in the house.

But in the midst of the muddle, there is joy, and hope, and community. Pretty lovely, really!

Two things to tell you. If you’d like to do something for St Romero’s this Christmas season, we have a wish list on Amazon.com under St Romero’s Church. Mostly it’s materials for teaching English as a Second Language. There are other needs that are less wrap-able. How about having the guys over for supper and a bit of community time, giving them a chance to work on their English – or making a supper to share at my house or somewhere else. Or driving – or teaching – or making cookies. Those are all things going on into the winter, once we get the logistics figured out (once we get out of our muddle!)

And finally, I had a call this week from someone from WXXI am1370 who wanted to interview me about all that’s happened at Iglesia de San Romero this fall. It will be part of the local news on Morning Edition this coming Monday, November 28, airing every half-hour from 5 am to 9:30 am.

Blessed Thanksgiving! I am grateful for you! Thanks for reading this and for caring, thanks for your prayers and your words of support.

And thanks be to God for this lovely little flower, blooming in the desert.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year,
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown."
And he replied, "Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light, and safer than a known way.”
- Minnie Haskins

_____________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, November 20, 2011

2011-11-20T15:48:00.000-08:00

Feast of Christ the King

Friends,

Last month when I was at the National Catholic Worker Gathering in Las Vegas, a man said to me, "women priests, gay marriage – these things are just distractions. Discipleship is what we are really about." It wasn’t until the next day that it occurred to me that the person saying that was both male and straight! It can be pretty hard to hear the cries for justice of the people right around us, especially when we can’t see our own position of privilege.

This week holds three anniversaries. I’m writing this on November 16, the 22nd anniversary of the martyrdom of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter at the University of Central America in San Salvador, because they were speaking for the rights and dignity of the poor. Tomorrow, November 17, is the tenth anniversary of Mary Ramerman’s ordination at Spiritus Christi. Denise Donato, Patti La Rosa, Rachel McGuire and I will all concelebrate with Mary at Thursday Night Mass that evening at Spiritus. And finally, November 19 was the day we began celebrating a regular, once-a-week Sunday Mass at St Romero’s last year.

Clueless though he may have been, that man in Las Vegas had a point. Our strides for justice must not be for ourselves alone. This week of anniversaries might be a good moment to be aware of the movement that is happening around the world, this almost invisible movement of little churches, of women priests, of communities coming into being, springing up like the bits of green that sprout in early spring, almost imperceptibly, but bringing promise of the summer to come. What shall we be? Shall we be connected with each other, holding hands as we go forth into the world? Our joining the Federation of Christian Ministries was a step in that direction. How else can we be connected? Can we build strong bridges between the Roman Catholic Womenpriests, and the ECC, that Mary and Denise were ordained in? Can we love and support each other without recreating hierarchy? And then, what? My dream is that we will be a church – a larger, connected, interconnected church – that is aware of the great disparity between those like ourselves who have what we need for life, and those who struggle in extreme poverty and oppression --- that even as we free ourselves from our own chains of sexism and clericalism that we turn and extend our hands to those still oppressed by poverty and the inequities of a system that has so consistently put people of color last.

As we remember the great joy of November 17, 2001, let’s harness that energy and use it for good. Use it to transform the world. It is never, ever, a Christian attitude to say, "we got ours." Celebrating what we have and how far we have come, lets keep looking around and see who is being left out, and bring them on in to the party… the party of justice and freedom and life for all.

As we move into the beginning of our second year of weekly Masses, I am moved to remember all that has happened, and how many people have helped along the way. Eli Woodbeck was my "right-hand man" in his months at St Joe’s. and now Rachael Morlock is my "right-hand woman." Each of them has been such a blessing. I am so grateful to Librada Paz, without whose help Iglesia de San Romero could not have been. I am grateful to Joe and Caroline, whose early support of the Migrant Mass was like training wheels in our tottering early days, and to Peter Veitch whose later support has made it possible for us to offer Religious Ed to our one young church member. I am grateful to Michael for showing up no matter what, and to Leo whose leadership in the migrant community provided the welcome we needed to keep the Migrant Mass going. I am grateful to Jim Callan for all his encouragement and wisdom. And finally, I am grateful to those whose financial support has helped with gas, various necessary items and a land-line telephone for our guys in the Alternatives to Detention program. And, of course, to all the community of St Joseph’s House of Hospitality, who let us use the dining room for Mass each Sunday. We are so wonderfully, incredibly blessed. Thank you all!

And now we will start something new. On Sunday, November 27, we will welcome those from Iglesia de San Romero who are staying here for the winter, and celebrate our first bilingual Mass in the dining room at St Joe’s at 11 am. I hope you will consider coming that day, and possibly more, so that we can offer a loving, welcoming community on Sunday mornings this winter.

I do not know where we are going, but I know that God has done wonders already. A branch shall grow from the stump, a flower shall bloom in the desert, a light will shine in the darkness, living water will flow.
Come help pour it!
　
Blessings and love to all,
Chava

Bread for All, the job training program at St Joe’s, is offering Thanksgiving pies for $10. Call 775-9135 by this Sunday, November 20, if you’d like to order one.
　

_______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
A Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, November 13, 2011

2011-11-13T07:11:00.000-08:00

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

The times, they are a changing…

This weekend some of the guys from our little community will be heading south for the winter. On Thursday night we’ll have a special supper and give them a blessing. This is a moment of change, not only for them personally, but for the community, as those who stay behind will be moving to a new house, and we don’t yet know if there will be space there to celebrate Mass together. So please pray, as we enter this time of not knowing what comes next.

Oscar Romero said that it is the work of the church to stand with the poor, in order to denounce from the place of the poor the injustice that’s committed against them. He also said that when you do that, you will experience what they experience. And so it is with us. As they move, so shall we, and we’ll take what we get and make the best of it, and find a way to survive. We also share in the worry, watching people we care about make the precarious journey south, praying for them all the way.

Not that it’s not precarious, here. Our friends remind me of those birds that make their nests on cliffs, open to the elements, unprotected. Any wind can knock their whole house apart. You might have seen on the news that a woman was killed in Albion a week or two ago, and her assailant was a man here without documents. Ami Kadar is a migrant advocate who works out of Albion, and is herself an immigrant. Here is what she had to say about the effects of that event on the migrant community:
“… things have been crazy here in Albion. You may have heard: a Honduran immigrant stabbed and killed a woman in the parking lot of Walmart last week, and since then things have been frightening here. The rumours …are that they are going to "clean out" all the immigrants in the area. And they did a good job last week! Another rumour was that ICE was going to have undercover agents at Walmart over the weekend. All this despite the fact that they got the criminal the same day it happened, and he is now in jail!! It's like Mississippi in the 50's!

Can you imagine if a Swede came into Albion and killed someone, do you think they'd come after ME? Or, perhaps by association, my Finnish friend here in town who owns the coffeshop? We all know, of course, they wouldn't! It's infuriating! … there wasn't a Hispanic in sight in Albion, much less Walmart. The Mexican stores were dead.”

In the midst of this atmosphere of fear, we will have a celebration Thursday night. We will say “Adios por ahora” (Goodbye for now) and give our friends a blessing. And we will know that they, and those who stay behind, and all of us, are right where we need to be: in the hands of God.

Please let me know if you are planning to join us on Thursday, as we will be leaving early. Please keep our brothers and sisters in your prayers. May we together step into the light and together transform this crazy world and this filthy, rotten system.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

Looking ahead to Advent: Lots of churches have a giving tree in the weeks before Christmas. That’s not practical for us, so instead we have a “St Romero’s Church” wish list on Amazon.com. Most of the items on it so far are tools for teaching English as a Second Language, and literacy, as we hope to offer those this winter. One thing that can’t go on the Amazon wish list, but that we will need, is people with some teaching skills who are willing to volunteer an afternoon a week during the winter. Might that be you?

Come join us, any Sunday you like!

_______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, November 6, 2011

2011-11-02T09:05:00.000-07:00

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

As we were making our way out to the car after Mass this past Thursday night at the Spanish-speaking iteration of our church, everyone joining us with flashlights and gifts of acorn squash and a huge cabbage, the little boy in our community said, "I wish it could be every Monday and every Thursday." "What?" I asked. "This," he said. This moment, this time of community. It was probably the best compliment our little church ever received.

Of course, I suppose anyone might feel that way if Peter Veitch was their religious ed teacher! Peter, who is an art teacher in the city schools, has agreed to take on the responsibility of religious instruction. The two of them had just spent a happy hour talking about St Francis and the Lord’s Prayer. Sure feels like church, now that we’ve got religious ed!

What else might we do, in time, I wonder? How about help with literacy, or English? This past weekend I visited the Rural and Migrant Ministries house called "Liturgia" in Lyons with a group of Presbyterians. It’s a place for learning and advocacy, as well as a base for RMM folks. I wonder if we could do something like that, west of the city. Maybe a church! – but I suspect Masses will continue to need to be held in people’s homes. Maybe in partnership with RMM... maybe a storefront, or a house. How can we bring abundant life, hope, vision, joy where there is hiding and fear and long hard hours of work? Chris Phillips called what we’re doing "bringing friendship in a friendless world." How can we do that, more?

On Saturday we also went to visit a group of H-2A workers in Sodus. H-2A means the workers are here legally, on a work visa, and they get to go home for the winter (this Friday!). No worries about la migra, no years of separation from their families. I wish that was possible for everyone. Best moment of the day: one of the men from Presbytery, a minister who has a 9 year old and a 6 year old himself, asked, "Who’s looking forward to seeing their kids?" and every man there raised his hand.

Oh, life, liberty, home, family, work, education for all... all creation is groaning with it. May it be so, oh, may it be so.

One more happy story. The two men we liberated from detention share a house with a man who is already in the system, and has been wearing the gps ankle bracelet for some time. St. Romero’s is paying for a phone line in the house so the other men can use the phone reporting system, and today, hurray! the third man got his ankle bracelet taken off! One more captive with a bit more freedom. Thanks to those whose generosity makes this possible!

Please join us on Thursday at 4 pm to hear Gustavo Monzone talk about his Catholic Worker house in Mexico, in the dining room at St Joe’s. Also this week: panel on immigration at ROCLA, 7 pm Wednesday at Downtown United Presbyterian on Fitzhugh St, and another such on Friday at 6 at Friends Meetinghouse on Scio Street. Also the documentary, "After I Pick the Fruit" at St John Fisher, 6 pm Thursday. Wow, what a week!

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

"There are no borders on capital as it swirls around the world but people are branded "illegal" fleeing the destruction it wreaks."
- Catholic Worker Ciaorn O'Reilly, speaking on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral at Occupy London

Come join us, any Sunday you like!

____________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
A Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, October 30, 2011

2011-10-30T19:54:00.000-07:00

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time
　
Friends,

Each Sunday morning at about five minutes to eleven, I have a moment of wondering if anyone will show up for Mass. So far, someone always does. The one person who is always there – Sundays and Thursdays, both – is Michael Swan. Mike will be 60 this Thursday! – and we will celebrate with a cake for him and two of the guys at Iglesia de San Romero who also have birthdays this week. Thanks for always being there, Michael!

When a suggestion was made this week for a radical change in the way we do things, I thought Michael should be the first person to run it by. …and he has given it an enthusiastic Yes! The idea we are considering is that in the Spring, we’ll move the Sunday morning Mass out west of the city, and have that be our Spanish Mass (or a bilingual Mass, if we were to decide to do it that way). We are a small enough community to make this decision by consensus – and there is no hurry. Spring is a long way away. So please pray. May we be the church God dreams of us being, and may we get there together.

This idea came about because I had lunch with Mimi Youngman this week. Mimi has often had a prophetic role in my life, and it was she who first suggested that we hold Mass in the dining room at St Joe’s. This week, after hearing the story of our Migrant Mass this past summer and how it has evolved, she said she had a concern for the people who told me back in June that they would like a Mass, but never came. It is very likely that they weren’t comfortable leaving their homes. We certainly have seen this fall that people’s fear of "la migra" is based in reality. I don’t know if a Sunday Mass would be any more comfortable, but perhaps we could change the location each week. Another thought is that we could have more than one…could go out multiple times each week and celebrate in different people’s homes. (realistically, I don’t see myself doing that while working three part time jobs… another thing to put in the hands of God).

Each week our bulletin is translated into Spanish (with a lot of help from Mary Wilkins) and then put on a blog in South America by Rev. Olga Alvirez, the first Columbian woman priest. Here is a link to an article about Olga:
http://iglesiadescalza.blogspot.com/2011/10/first-colombian-woman-priest.html
It took some courage for her to allow herself to be interviewed, but she says she’s had some surprising and lovely support since it came out.

Our friends in El Salvador, along with the rest of Central America, have been dealing with heavy rains and flooding. They would appreciate our prayers. Donations to Shekina Baptist Church in Santa Ana for flood relief can be made on line at
http://cieloazulfund.blogspot.com/2011/10/shekina-responds-to-national-emergency.html

We invite you to come to St Joe’s next Thursday, November 3, at 4 in the afternoon to hear Gustavo Monzone and Alicia Rouch speak about their Catholic Worker houses in Mexico.
Also next week, there will be two evening talks on immigration. I’ll be speaking as part of panels at both of them: Wednesday, November 2, 7 pm at Downtown United Presbyterian, and Friday, November 4, 6 pm at Friends Meetinghouse on Scio Street.

Hope you’re getting a chance to enjoy all the gorgeous fall colors. I saw a tree near my house today that was entirely bright, flaming red. Let the changing seasons be a reminder that God isn’t done with us, yet! There is always hope of change and new growth!
　
Blessings and love to all,
Chava

Two quotes from facebook this week:

"Church isn't community in the Sanctuary but a sanctuary in the community"
Rev. Colin Pritchard

"Be wary of great leaders. Hope that there are many, many small leaders."
Pete Seeger at Occupy Wall Street

Come join us, any Sunday you like!

_______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
A Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, October 23, 2011

2011-10-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

This week I did something I really hate to do. I had to be assertive! - in order to help our friends at Iglesia de San Romero get the telephone they need in order not to have to be plugged into a charger in the wall for three hours every day as part of their "Alternatives to Detention" monitoring system. I made the call, spoke to the person about freedom and dignity, and ultimately got a "yes." As I put down the phone, my eyes fell on the reading I was preparing for Morning Prayer at the nursing home next week. It was Matthew 10:16-22: "See, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. So you must be as clever as snakes, but as innocent as doves...do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say... for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of our loving God speaking through you."

Let me tell you, the scriptures are on fire these days. Walking with some of the most powerless people in our nation, things look different. The words of the Gospel come alive! Here's one from Exodus 22, the first reading this Sunday: "Thus says the Lord: You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves." Or how about Exodus 3, God speaking to Moses at the burning bush: ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them" (That one made me cry).

Then there is the prodigal son, getting his dignity back. It's all about dignity! Yesterday I gave the men at Iglesia de San Romero a handout from the ACLU called "Conosca sus derechas" ("Know your rights.") One of the men looked at me with such a defeated depth of sadness. "Ilegales no tienen derechas," he said. ("Illegals don't have rights.") (Does that punch you in the gut, the way it does to me?) I said (choked out), "Nadie es ilegal en los ojos de Dios" (no one is illegal in the eyes of God). Unfortunately, he was almost right. People who are here without documents have very few legal rights – not even the right to an attorney. But they do have some. And everyone, everywhere, has basic human rights. And most importantly, there is no such thing as an illegal human being.

Saturday we met at the bakery for the first Visioning Day of St Romero's. We worked on a newspaper ad for the church, and people let me know how important it is to keep the word "inclusive" in our self-description. It's not actually a given, is it? We decided to become a member church of the Federation of Christian Ministries, a move which will eventually enable us to use FCM's 501 (3)( c). All decisions were made by consensus. The group agreed that I can use the title "pastor," when needed (as in, "I'm their pastor, and I'm here to bail them out.") We came up with a system of accountability around funds. I've been reluctant to reimburse myself for anything because there was no way of maintaining accountability. Rachael is going to be the person keeping an eye on that.

Finally, we had a proposal that we change the time of Sunday Mass to 10 or 10:30 am. There is one regular attendee who would strongly like an earlier time than 11, and another who would strongly like it to stay at 11... how do others feel? Many thanks to Bill, Caryl, Linda, Don and Rachael for giving up your Saturday morning to work on some of the nuts and bolts of being church together!!

We note with sadness the passing of Jesuit Fr. Dean Brackley in El Salvador. Dean was one of the priests who volunteered to take the place of the six Jesuits killed on November 16, 1989. When I first visited El Salvador in 2005, he said of people from the States: "They come here, they fall in love, they go back, ruined for life." He was right!

And lastly, Fr Roy Bourgeois is in Rome, where he and two women (Erin Hanna of WOC, and Miriam Duignan) were arrested at the Vatican for protesting without a permit. Three women priests were with them, and they were not arrested – because they were wearing vestments! Pretty wonderful, I think.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

"I invite you to discover your vocation in downward mobility. It's a scary request... The world is obsessed with wealth and security and upward mobility and prestige. But let us teach solidarity, walking with the victims, serving and loving. I offer this for you to consider - downward mobility. And I would say in this enterprise there is a great deal of hope. Have the courage to... lose control. Have the courage to feel useless. Have the courage to listen. Have the courage to receive. Have the courage to let your heart be broken. Have the courage to feel. Have the courage to fall in love. Have the courage to get ruined for life. Have the courage to make a friend." Dean Brackley, S.J. (He was right!!)

Also of note:
Barrett Smith was one of the people that Eli and I met in El Salvador last April. His community, Carpenter's Church in Lubbock, Texas, is a church of and with the poor of that city. For some months they have had a Tent City which has been life-giving for many people, and they are petitioning City Hall to have it declared a shelter. If you'd like to sign a petition showing your support, go to http://signon.org/sign/lubbock-city-council?source=s.em.mt&r_by=1384353

It hasn't been in the news here, much, but Central America has been suffering from some extreme weather: El Salvador has had more than 4 feet of rain in just the past week. To learn about what our friends at Shekina Baptist in Santa Ana are doing to help, and to donate if you wish, go to http://cieloazulfund.blogspot.com/2011/10/shekina-responds-to-national-emergency.html
(St Romero's has given its first tithe to Shekina for this purpose)
　
Two talks and a movie, all on immigration, in the first week of November (all free):

Wednesday, Nov. 2 - "The Faces of Immigration - How our Unjust and Broken System Destroys Lives - and
What We Can Do About It." several speakers, including myself and a high school teacher who is trying to organize support for disappeared people, and a family member of someone who was detained. At 7:00 pm, Downtown Presbyterian Church, 121 N. Fitzhugh Street Rochester.

Thursday, Nov. 3 – documentary "After I Pick the Fruit" by Nancy Ghertner, St. John Fisher College Basil Auditorium, rm. 135, 6:00pm – follow the lives of five farmworker women over ten years.

Friday, Nov. 4 – Wally Ruehle, a teenager who has been working for immigration rights, and I will all speak at Friends Meetinghouse, 84 Scio St, 6:00 pm

_______________________________________________________

Oscar Romero Church
A Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, October 16, 2011

2011-10-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

Hoo-boy, what a week!

First, the best news. Today I went with our two guys from Iglesia de San Romero to see their detention officer. We were afraid they were going to have to wear the gps ankle bracelets that help the powers that be keep track of where they are, but because I was able to tell them that the church could pay for a land line in their house, they don’t have to have the indignity and pain in the neck of that (the ankle bracelets involve having to be plugged in to the wall for three hours a day to recharge – every day, sitting by the wall for three hours) – now they have to stay home one night a week and wait for a phone call, a much better situation. Thanks very much to our (anonymous by choice) donor whose recent check will cover that completely. The other piece of good news is that the system is currently so slow that they are not likely to actually see a judge until 2013.

Okay, that was the good news. The bad news, and it’s not so bad, is that they also have to go to Buffalo every other Tuesday to check in, until they see the judge. If you’re interested in helping with the driving every now and then, kindly drop me a note.

We are also still looking for people who might be willing to put up at least $1,000 in a hurry, should more arrests happen. Another piece of good news is that if instead of being on that list you would like to make a donation to the bail fund, you can make a (tax deductible) check out to St. Joseph’s Hospitality with a note that it’s for the St. Romero’s bail fund, and mail it to St Joe’s at PO Box 31049, Rochester NY 14603.

The other bad news is simply that although we are able to accompany these friends in their walk through the system, the system still stinks! – not only the laws in our country, but the situation of poverty in Mexico that drove them to come here in the first place. But, not to lose heart – God is so much greater than our broken human systems. Get close to God, listen, say yes, and get busy healing the world. There’s a lot of work to do!

We met a whole bunch of wonderful workers for the healing of the world this weekend in Las Vegas, of all places! Five of us from St Joe’s were there at a National Catholic Worker Gathering. One of the people we met was Gustavo, a gay man from Mexico. He was in this country without documents for fifteen years until the church that was helping him get legal found out he was gay. They dropped him immediately and he ended up being deported. Currently he’s in the US on a religious worker visa and is traveling the country, speaking about his Catholic Worker house, Casa Colibrí, in Jalisco Mexico. HE WILL BE HERE NOVEMBER 2 – we don’t have a plan yet for a speaking time, but please save the date!

Oh, another bit of good news. Harry Murray, Tom Malthaner, Joe Lavoie and I were arrested, along with 55 other Catholic Workers and friends, for trespass at the Nevada Test Site on Sunday (right about the time people were gathering at St Romero’s!) Later in the day, 18 people were arrested for blocking traffic at the Creech Airforce base, protesting the drones that are deployed from there. Harry says that getting arrested at the test site is so easy and painless these days that it doesn’t count as civil disobedience! – but the 18 arrested at Creech face more serious consequences. Hooray for our sisters and brothers, putting their well-being on the line for the well-being of all.

We hope to see you this weekend at our Visioning Day, 10 am Sat Oct 15 (until 12 or so) – at the bakery, 220 Mt Hope Ave (the former Savory Thyme building). There is an exciting new possibility for us, of connecting with the Federation of Christian Ministries (of which I am a member) and being able to be covered by their 501 ( c) (3) without going through lawyers and all that. The FCM is the organization that certifies me and lots of other priests-on-the-margins so that we are legal to do weddings, etc... it is also a wonderful network of like-spirited people. We’ll talk about it on Saturday... hope you can come.

So, like I said...Hoo-boy, what a week! Thanks be to God.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

____________________________________________
Oscar Romero Inclusive Catholic Church
A Community of Liberation, Justice, and Joy
St. Joseph's House of Hospitality
402 South Avenue Rochester, NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, October 9, 2011

2011-10-06T06:04:00.000-07:00

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

We hope you will join us on Saturday, October 15 at 10 am for our Visioning Day (more accurately, Visioning Morning!) which will be held upstairs at the Bakery in the old Savory Thyme Building at 220 Mt Hope Ave. Help us dream what this community might be. Please let me know if you are coming!

I have loved our first year as a church. Our church seems to me a beautiful, tiny jewel. Being tiny seems at this time to be part of our charism. One of the questions for our visioning day is, do we leave it like that, or shall we try to grow? Another question is whether it is time to begin the process of becoming a 501 (c )3, which some folks would like to see us do as they believe it will bring in more donations. Others think it would be better to keep flying low to the ground, with small numbers and no money to speak of. (We do have some. Donations have come in for the Migrant Ministry, in particular, which are mostly going towards gas money and other small expenses.) Once about six months ago we tried to decide together how to use our tithing money – where to give 10% of what we have been given. We couldn’t come to an agreement. One person thought we should give everything we get away. Another thought we should wait to tithe until we had a substantial amount to give (at the time, it would have been $12). It became apparent that we had a number of different opinions around the table. It also became apparent that we can’t decide things like that over breakfast.

One thing that is clear to me is that these decisions are not for me to make, alone. They need to be shared by those who consider themselves a part of this community --- whether you come once a week or once a year, if you care about this community and want to be part of dreaming about its direction, you are welcome.
We will have another opportunity for empowerment of the community this Sunday, as I will be away at a Catholic Worker National Gathering, and there is no one to cover for me. So, those who come will share the readings, talk about them together, share the Our Father and any other prayers they care to offer, and celebrate communion with some already consecrated hosts… and then have breakfast, as always. You are welcome, as ever!

Please do keep the members of Iglesia de San Romero, our migrant ministry, in your prayers. We won’t be meeting this week because I will be away, but next week two of our number have to go to Buffalo to meet with their detention officers. We are praying that this meeting will not mean that they have to wear the ankle bracelet that people have to wear sometimes for tracking. Besides the indignity of it, it means being plugged into the wall for three hours a day for charging. Please pray for their detention officers, for open hearts and minds, for listening. I will go with them, and hope by doing so to send a message that these men are not alone.

Here’s a link to a piece in the NYTimes about what’s been going on in Alabama, which is trying to turn itself into the most hostile state in the union for undocumented people:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/opinion/alabamas-shame.html?_r=1

Sending you love and prayers, wherever you may be. Our church may be tiny, but our circle of support is huge!

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

“The migrants have no lobby. Only an enlightened, aroused and perhaps angered public opinion can do anything about the migrants. The people you have seen have the strength to harvest your fruit and vegetables. They do not have the strength to influence legislation. Maybe we do.”
-Edward R. Murrow, “Harvest of Shame,” 1960

Two upcoming events:

On October 6, Paul Finkelman will speak on Constitutional rights and immigration, first at St John Fisher at 3 pm, later at MCC at 7:30 pm. This looks like an excellent talk!

On Wednesday, October 12, Fr Anthony Ruff will speak at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School at 7 pm, on the upcoming changes to the Roman Missal: “What do we do NOW?”

This bulletin is being written on the Feast of St Francis, October 4, and it is Jim Callan’s 37th anniversary of ordination. So if you see Fr Jim, wish him a happy anniversary!

And many thanks to Rev Denise Donato, who helped me figure out what to do when I realized there was no one to cover for me this week!

________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
A Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, October 2, 2011

2011-10-05T06:56:00.000-07:00

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

One of our guests at St Joe’s is a woman who has been homeless for many years. Recently she had a nice surprise: a relative in England had sent her a round trip ticket to come and visit. She was excited and happy, but there was just one problem: although she had a passport, she had lost it. We joined with her in her efforts to replace her passport quickly, and succeeded – hurray! She’s in England now. But we learned a little about the kind of things homeless people have to deal with, along the way. One poignant moment came when she mentioned that for something she needed to do, there was a thirty dollar fee: "And that’s my entire savings," she said. "I do like to keep some money saved for an emergency. Well… I guess this is an emergency."

When your entire income is redeemed cans and bottles, $30 is a lot of money. She told us about a conversation she had on the phone with a woman in the passport office, trying to determine what identification she needed in order to replace her passport. "Driver’s license?" the woman asked. "No." "Birth certificate?" "No." "Social Security card?" "No." "What, do you live in a box?!"
Well, no, she doesn’t – but she could. It seems that to be homeless is to be a non-person, as far as the "together" world sees it. Later someone else told her that she didn’t deserve to go to England, because she was homeless.

When you start spending time with people outside your normal orbit, people that typically you just read about in the paper or hear about on the news, when you walk with and become friends with people who are non-people to "together" society, things look different. People become people to you, instead of social problems to be solved. You begin to get a clue what they are up against.

In this morning’s paper there is an article entitled, "Fugitives in area arrested." It tells of a national sweep by immigration officials, picking up people with a criminal record that are here in the US illegally.

We at St Romero’s know that not everyone picked up in that sweep was a criminal. Some of them were people who, in the words of the farmer who employs them, "just want to pick cucumbers and show up for work." People who are here for years, separated from their families in order to send money home, because there is no work in Mexico. People who are doing work that people who are born here generally do not want to do. (The farmers say that when they do find a person born in the US who is willing to work on their farms, they typically last three hours). Our friends tell us that workers are leaving the area in fear, because of this recent sweep. Who do we think is going to pick our crops?

Stories about public issues like homelessness and immigration look very different when you know the people involved. There is a young man named Jared, a medical student who has spent time with an organization called "No More Deaths (No Mas Muertes)," that goes out into the Sonora desert looking for people that might need help, bringing them water and medical care. He sent me a report they recently produced about conditions in short term custody with the Border Patrol in the southwest, called "Culture of Cruelty." It’s a pretty horrifying read, all the more so when I read it realizing that this could have been the experience of our friends. Having a personal connection takes reading things like that to a new level. (Send me an email and I’ll send you a link to a pdf of the document. It’s a tad long, 72 pages, but I recommend taking a look at it. We need to know what is being done in our name, with our tax money).

Here at St Romero’s, we don’t have a long-term plan. So far we’re taking it one moment at a time, saying "yes" to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and seeing where they take us. Right now they’re taking us into deeper relationships with people on the outside in our society. What a gift, to be able to walk alongside these new friends. I don’t know what God is dreaming, but may it be. May we have the grace to keep saying yes.

In this most recent crisis, we were able to come up with the money to bail out two men. It would be good to know that that would be possible should it be necessary in the future. One way to do that would be to establish a bail fund, but I think what might be more practical right now would be to have a list of people who would be willing to put up large amounts of money, $1,000 or more, in a hurry should that be needed. If you might be willing to do that, please send me a note and we’ll talk about the details. It would be great if we knew we had the ability to raise twenty or thirty thousand dollars quickly, should there be another such raid. Getting and keeping people out of detention might not prevent them from being deported in the long run, but it gives them, first of all freedom – detention is pretty bad on the psyche – secondly, a chance to earn and save as much money as possible, to build a court case if they can, and to decide what they are going to do, especially when families are involved. One of the hardest things in this latest event was watching family members suffer, not knowing what would happen to their youngest family member. If you could have seen the faces of father and son when they were reunited, I think you would be willing to do whatever it took to bring about setting the captives free. Like the VISA commercial: toll to Batavia, $1.10; gas for 80 miles round trip: $12; bail for one 19-year-old: $10,000; proclaiming release to the captives: priceless.

So let me know if you might be willing to help in the future.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

Join us on Saturday, Oct 15 at 10 am at the bakery on Mt Hope Ave for our Visioning Day. If you care about this community, you are welcome!

Two upcoming events:

On October 6, Paul Finkelman will speak on Constitutional rights and immigration, first at St John Fisher at 3 pm, later at MCC at 7:30 pm.

On Wednesday, October 12, Fr Anthony Ruff will speak at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School at 7 pm, on the upcoming changes to the Roman Missal: "What do we do NOW?"

Hope to see you on Sunday – please keep everybody at Iglesia de San Romero– and all those they work with – in your prayers.

______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
A Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, September 25, 2011

2011-10-05T06:49:00.000-07:00

26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

If I didn’t believe in miracles before, now I surely do. Last week we went from getting the news that the entire community of la Iglesia de San Romero was in detention, to one by one hearing that individuals were safe, to finally bailing out the two who were in fact detained. The community is together again, and I think it is a miracle. On Sunday I went in to work at the nursing home and found my desk covered with cookies to use at the coffee hour after Mass on Thursday nights, gifts from folks at Churchville United Methodist. It felt like a blessing, and a sign of hope. All is well.

On Thursday, Peter Veitch and I drove out earlier than usual and brought supper to the community. When this first happened I asked God to use it for a blessing, and you know what – God can use anything for a blessing! Mexican Independence Day was the next day, so I made a cake and decorated it like the Mexican Flag, and we stood around eating supper and then cake, and talking. We had a serious talk about the terrible situation they are in, and then we celebrated the Mass.

The reading was the one about the guy who gets forgiven a huge debt, then turns around and threatens someone who owes him a little bit of money. When I preached about that on the weekend, I talked about how we are a nation of immigrants, mostly people who came here to find a better life --- and yet now, we turn around and deny hospitality and safety to people who need a better life as much as our own ancestors did. (And we harm ourselves with it, wasting gazillions of dollars on a wall that doesn’t work, only brings more harm and waste).

I told them, "you already know all that!" and they nodded. Then I gave them a different sermon, and talked about Oscar Romero. No one had heard of him, or of liberation theology. We will have a lot to talk about in the weeks to come. So that’s one blessing to come out of this!

Another thing that will happen in the weeks (or months) to come is court dates in Buffalo. And I think St. Romero’s needs a bail fund. But for now, we can breathe and be grateful. Thank you, God of Love, God of the Poor, for walking with us every step of the way. Amen!

We had a lovely, loving first anniversary Mass on Sunday. Boy do I love this little church. Do you realize what a gift it is, to be such a little church? No budget worries, no personnel issues. Just worship and love and service. What a gift.

Sending prayers for Wally Ruehle, who suffered a bit of a health crisis this week but is on the mend. Thank you for all you have done for our immigrant brothers and sisters over the years, Wally! All shall be well.

Mary Wilkins and I continue to have breakfast each week, conversing only in Spanish. You are always welcome to join us. Usually we meet at 8 am on Wednesdays at Pat’s Coffee Mug on Clinton Ave, but this week it will be Thursday at 8:30. Bienvenidas/os!

If you are thinking of joining us for the migrant Mass, kindly send me a note or call.
On Wednesday, Sept 21, we will have a table at the GRCC fair at Asbury United Methodist (5-7, with Jim Wallis speaking at 7).

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

This quote has been in my heart all week:
"The world is desperately in need of people who are building deep, genuine relationships with fellow strugglers along the way, and who actually know the faces of the people behind the issues they are concerned about." –
Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution
　
If you are receiving this on Tuesday night, it is not too late to sign an on-line petition in defense of Troy Davis, who is scheduled to be executed tomorrow in Georgia:
http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/Stop_the_Execution_of_Troy_Davis.php

Two upcoming events:

On October 6, Paul Finkelman will speak on Constitutional rights and immigration, first at St John Fisher at 3 pm, later at MCC at 7:30 pm.

On Wednesday, October 12, Fr Anthony Ruff will speak at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School at 7 pm, on the upcoming changes to the Roman Missal: "What do we do NOW?"

Hope to see you on Sunday – please keep everybody at Iglesia de San Romero– and all those they work with – in your prayers.
　

_______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
A Community of Liberation, Justice and Joy
Worshiping in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, September 18, 2011

2011-10-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Friends,

This weekend we will celebrate our first anniversary with a pot-luck lunch following the 11 am Mass on Sunday. I hope you can come… bring a dish to pass if you like but don’t let that stop you from coming. We would love to see you.

I am very sorry to tell you that besides having something to celebrate this week, we have something to mourn.

Last Thursday night at Iglesia de San Romero, our Mass with migrant farm workers west of the city, we learned that one of our number, Santiago, had been taken by immigration – at four in the morning. Imagine being awakened at 4 am and taken to a detention center. We prayed for him at Mass, and Librada and I tried to see him (without luck) on Saturday.

Today we received the sad news that not only Santiago, but almost the entire community, have been taken. Leonardo, Pedro, Marconi and others, including the mother of young Rafael, (who is, I believe, in the care of the one adult member of the community who was not detained).

These are hard-working men and women, who have left their homes and families because they had no other way to support them, came at great risk to this country to work long, hard hours, live in constant fear of deportation --- they come to this place that we so proudly believe to be the land of the free, and get taken from their homes at night, separated from their children ----- my friends, this is not justice. It is not justice that there is such poverty in Mexico and Central America that people are driven to leave their loved ones – often for years, decades even– poverty that is abetted by the policies of the United States, such as NAFTA and CAFTA. It is not justice that people die in the desert, trying to get here. It is not justice that once here, they are doing work that people who are born here will not do – it is too hard, there is no status – work that we need done – and yet they are treated so badly, living fifteen people in one small house with one bathroom – living in fear – and finally, hounded down and put in detention – which is basically, jail. In fact, the women probably are in jail, as the detention center houses only men.

This is not the bulletin I wanted to write this week. I meant to write about the past year and the things we have done so far. Like our friends, I am not doing what I wanted to be doing right now. I think of them – bored, lonely, scared, sad, muscles sore from sudden disuse – their lives suddenly turned upside down. Pray for them, please.

And pray for our little church, in both its incarnations: the little church that prays in English on Sundays, and the little church that prays in Spanish on Thursdays. God has walked with us and cared for us in beautiful ways this year. I know that God is close, now, and is with our friends as they wait to see what the future holds.

Whatever the future holds, God will be there.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

Two upcoming events:

On October 6, Paul Finkelman will speak on Constitutional rights and immigration, first at St John Fisher at 3 pm, later at MCC at 7:30 pm.

On Wednesday, October 12, Fr Anthony Ruff will speak at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School at 7 pm, on the upcoming changes to the Roman Missal: "What do we do NOW?"

Hope to see you on Sunday -

______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, September 18, 2011

2011-09-15T06:59:00.000-07:00

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

This weekend we will celebrate our first anniversary with a pot-luck lunch following the 11 am Mass on Sunday. I hope you can come… bring a dish to pass if you like but don’t let that stop you from coming. We would love to see you.

I am very sorry to tell you that besides having something to celebrate this week, we have something to mourn.

Last Thursday night at Iglesia de San Romero, our Mass with migrant farm workers west of the city, we learned that one of our number, Santiago, had been taken by immigration – at four in the morning. Imagine being awakened at 4 am and taken to a detention center. We prayed for him at Mass, and Librada and I tried to see him (without luck) on Saturday.

Today we received the sad news that not only Santiago, but almost the entire community, have been taken. Leonardo, Pedro, Marconi and others, including the mother of young Rafael, (who is, I believe, in the care of the one adult member of the community who was not detained).

These are hard-working men and women, who have left their homes and families because they had no other way to support them, came at great risk to this country to work long, hard hours, live in constant fear of deportation --- they come to this place that we so proudly believe to be the land of the free, and get taken from their homes at night, separated from their children ----- my friends, this is not justice. It is not justice that there is such poverty in Mexico and Central America that people are driven to leave their loved ones – often for years, decades even– poverty that is abetted by the policies of the United States, such as NAFTA and CAFTA. It is not justice that people die in the desert, trying to get here. It is not justice that once here, they are doing work that people who are born here will not do – it is too hard, there is no status – work that we need done – and yet they are treated so badly, living fifteen people in one small house with one bathroom – living in fear – and finally, hounded down and put in detention – which is basically, jail. In fact, the women probably are in jail, as the detention center houses only men.

This is not the bulletin I wanted to write this week. I meant to write about the past year and the things we have done so far. Like our friends, I am not doing what I wanted to be doing right now. I think of them – bored, lonely, scared, sad, muscles sore from sudden disuse – their lives suddenly turned upside down. Pray for them, please.

And pray for our little church, in both its incarnations: the little church that prays in English on Sundays, and the little church that prays in Spanish on Thursdays. God has walked with us and cared for us in beautiful ways this year. I know that God is close, now, and is with our friends as they wait to see what the future holds.

Whatever the future holds, God will be there.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

Two upcoming events:

On October 6, Paul Finkelman will speak on Constitutional rights and immigration, first at St John Fisher at 3 pm, later at MCC at 7:30 pm.

On Wednesday, October 12, Fr Anthony Ruff will speak at Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School at 7 pm, on the upcoming changes to the Roman Missal: “What do we do NOW?”

Hope to see you on Sunday

__________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, September 11, 2011

2011-09-09T08:19:00.000-07:00

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Friends,

We're coming up on our one-year anniversary here at St Romero's! On Sunday, September 18, join us for Mass at 11 followed by a pot-luck lunch. Bring a dish to pass and come help us celebrate!

Seems to me that a first anniversary is an excellent time for a visioning day. Like a new-born infant, our first year has been mostly occupied with the business of existence... finding a place to worship, coming up with a name, beginning our first outreach program... establishing who we are, right from the start. What's next? Should we turn our focus toward trying to grow? What questions do we bring at one year? Even if you are only a member-in-spirit, receiving the bulletin each week, or only come now and then, if you care about this community you are welcome to join us on Saturday morning, October 15, over at the bakery on Mt Hope Ave, upstairs in the “Upper Room.” Come help us dream!

This past weekend, Joe Lavoie and Rachael Morlock were in Washington DC protesting the oil pipeline. Both were arrested, along with about a thousand other people, but they're both home and safe and well. What a beautiful witness, you two. Thank you for putting your own well-being on line in defense of our planet and the vulnerable indigenous people of Canada. Here is what Joe had to say about the experience:

“I went down to DC with the intention of getting arrested because of the integrity of those who gave the call to action. Wendell Berry and Bill McKibben were enough to encourage me to research this pipeline more. The more I read, the more I knew I had to be present at this action. What I didn't expect from reading the statistics and scientific analyses was the delegation of the Indigenous Environmental Network who were arrested next to us on Sept 2. This whole issue shifted for me when I met these men and women and heard them speak of how these tar sands were destroying their villages. These tar sands in Canada affects those living near and downstream when dug for oil. The process creates daily as much CO2 as one million cars.

"These indigenous persons described how the destruction of the forests near their villages through clear cutting and poisoning of the soil is destroying their culture, which is interdependent with those sacred grounds. They described the tar sands work as ethnocide and attempted genocide, as unprecedented occurrences of toxin related cancers are becoming the norm and as the animals they hunt are becoming sickly and covered in sores. The tears of this one woman describing the deaths of two of her companions hit by oil trucks on the road spoke to me more than any statistic could. I was proud to stand in solidarity with those threatened, marginalized people, against the key to expansion of the tar sands: the Keystone Pipeline Expansion, brought to us by TransCanada.

"I was charged with failure to obey a police officer, arrested, zip tied, driven to the station with 9 other rascals, processed, then was shown the door. It was essentially a very expensive van ride. We were placed under arrest around 11:30 and I was taken around 3:00 and released a little after four.” Thanks, Joe and Rachael!

Attached is a photo from the Labor Day Parade. The woman with me is Librada Paz, who has come almost every week to Iglesia de San Romero, our Migrant Mass, and served as interpreter. This ministry would not be possible without Librada's help. I would never have known how to find the people without her! Our friends have had to move, and this week we will be leaving early so that Librada can direct us to their new location. If you are joining us, please be ready to leave from the St Joe's parking lot at 6:45pm.

The parade was great, by the way! It was good to see a lot of great support for the farm workers – and to see a lot of old friends from Spiritus who were there to march with them, thanks to the organizing efforts of Marilu Aguilar!

This Sunday, September 11, a reporter from Inter Press Services News Agency in NY City will join us at Mass. Hope you can come, too!

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

Peace activist Kathy Kelly is coming to town, again. She and David Smith-Ferri will give a talk entitled “The Cost of War, the Price of Peace” at Downtown United Presbyterian Church, (same building as Spiritus), 121 N Fitzhugh St, on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011 at 7:00 pm.

This Sunday is the tenth anniversary of the 9/11/01 attacks in New York and Washington, DC. Join people of many faiths for a service on the grounds of the Eastman House, 900 East Ave, at 4 pm. Bring a lawn chair if you're coming!

________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, September 4, 2011

2011-09-09T08:13:00.000-07:00

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

Each week when we go out west of the city to celebrate Mass with a group of
migrant farmworkers, we start the Mass at about 8 pm. I had thought that as
the days grew shorter we would start earlier, but I learned that their
workday stays the same even though it’s dark earlier. Folks get home at
6:30 and everyone needs to eat and shower before Mass – fifteen people
living in a house with only one shower – so we’ll keep starting Mass at 8.
These days, we open the door of the house to have light to see by. It’s
okay, we still have a lovely Mass!

There are several men who are there every week, and several other men and
women who are there now and then. One of the men who is always there is
Santiago, a man of about 60. One week I was surprised when he wasn’t there,
and asked why. The others explained that he was working late, planting
onions. About 9 pm he came in, just as the Mass was ending, covered with
dirt and sweat and not having had his supper. When we sing that hymn with
the line, “all who labor without rest,” I think of Santiago.

This coming Monday we will celebrate Labor Day. Some of us will march with
the farmworkers’ contingent in the parade, wearing red bandanas to show
solidarity with the farm workers. Meet at the corner of Sibley Place and
East Ave by 10:15 on Monday morning, September 5, if you would like to join
us.

Last week I went with a group from the Presbytery to visit some farms. One
of the questions people asked was, “Why do you hire people from other
countries to do this work?” The farmers explained that they can’t find
people from here that are willing to do the work – and when they do, they
usually last about three hours. (A man named Tom Rivers wrote a great
little book called “Farm Hands” about his experience trying to do the work
the migrants do. He stuck with it, lost 40 lbs, and by the end of the
summer was almost as fast as the slowest of the migrant farm workers. It is
hard work!) One of the farmers offered her opinion that besides being
difficult, farm work doesn’t have much status.

Without farm workers, there would be no food on our tables. Someone needs
to plant it, weed it, harvest it, package it. Let’s recognize the dignity
and worth of that work. Let’s work to change the laws, so that people don’t
get punished for coming here to do it! Thank you, farm workers, for all
that you do.

And thank you to all workers. Where would we be without the work you do?
The work that everyone one of us does, paid and unpaid. Work is love made
manifest – that positive energy that creates and maintains the things we
need for life. Thank you for the work you do.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

Two of our workers from St Joe’s, Rachael Morlock and Joe Lavoie, are in
Washington DC to protest the oil pipeline that is proposed to take oil from
the tar sands in Canada all the way to Texas. Blessings on your journey,
Rachael and Joe. May it bring a bit more light to the world.

Peace activist Kathy Kelly is coming to town, again. She and David
Smith-Ferri will give a talk entitled “The Cost of War, the Price of Peace”
at Downtown United Presbyterian Church, 121 N Fitzhugh St, on Tuesday,
Sept. 13, 2011 at 7:00 pm.

St Romero’s is almost one year old! Our first Mass was held on September 19
of last year. Shall we celebrate? Come and join us for Mass on Sunday,
September 18 at 11, and bring a dish to pass if you like for lunch
afterwards. Maybe we could have a cake in the shape of a 1!

Lastly, a message for Theresa who offered to help with the Migrant Masses.
There was a problem with my email system and I lost all of my old messages,
including yours. Would you kindly write again?

Many thanks to Mike Reimringer who is sending out the bulletin this week,
while Rachael is in Washington protesting the pipeline.
Come and join us, any Sunday you like!

___________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, August 28, 2011

2011-09-09T08:05:00.000-07:00

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

This weekend I had the peculiar blessing of an experience of powerlessness. A blessing because it was an opportunity to see the goodness of God in action –
Sunday morning I woke up with a debilitating migraine. It was Sunday morning – Mass to get ready for, stuff to do, service at the nursing home in the afternoon – and I couldn’t do any of it. All I could do was sit and look out the window and hope the pain would pass. I remembered to be grateful that they’re not usually like that. Normally I take a couple of pills and the pain recedes, but not this time.

Look how good God is. This day when I could not preach or lead a service or even drive to church, was also the day that Rev. Patti LaRosa came to preside and preach for us in celebration of her recent ordination. (and she led us in a lovely Mass! The church has another terrific priest!) I was reminded of the story about the morning a priest in ordinary clothes knocked on the door at Mother Teresa’s convent, and the nun who opened the door said, “Come in, Father!” “How did you know I was a priest?” he asked. “The priest who was supposed to say Mass for us had to cancel, and Mother Teresa said not to worry, God would send us another one!” So you see, God does that for St Romero’s, too!

The other blessing in the experience was that it got me thinking about powerlessness. I’m a pretty busy person, always with a list of things to do. And here I was, unable to do a thing. One of the questions chaplains are taught to ask is, “Where is God in this for you?” Well, we who are Christian believe in a God who enters into our experience of powerlessness, who chose to become one of us, to suffer, to experience rejection and loss and all the pain of being human.

There is a woman at the nursing home where I work who also teaches me about powerlessness. She has lived her whole life with a brain injury and now has dementia on top of that. She doesn’t own anything, doesn’t produce anything, doesn’t accomplish anything, and as far as I know, she never has. But she loves God. One of the things that seems to mean a lot to her is receiving ashes, like we do on Ash Wednesday. I keep a little packet of ashes in my pocket so I can give her ashes whenever she asks for them. It’s a little ritual that moves me so much: I make a little cross on her forehead, and say, “remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return…and know that you are God’s own beloved.” And then she sings. Maybe she sings an Alleluia. Maybe “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know,” or “Just a Closer Walk with Thee.” Whatever it is, it comes straight from her heart. She has never crossed an item off a “to-do” list in her life… but she gives God joy. I know she does. All of us give God joy just by being.

I hope your summer has included some time to just be! You are God’s own delight, just as you are.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

St Joe’s carwash was rained out, two Sundays in a row. Stop by and get your car washed some sunny weekend day! Suggested donation $5 or $10 for an outside wash, $20 for inside vacuuming as well.

Our migrant masses continue… join us some Thursday night, leaving the St Joe’s parking lot at 7, best to let me know if you’re coming. Always looking for people to bake some cookies! …Which we promise to protect from the raccoons.

And many thanks to Rev. Patti for leading us in such a lovely Mass this past Sunday.

________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, August 21, 2011

2011-08-17T14:29:00.000-07:00

21st Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

This Sunday we will welcome newly ordained Rev Patti La Rosa, who will preach and preside at the 11 am Mass. Hooray! The world gained four great new priests on June 4, when she, Caryl Johnson, Ann Penick and Marellen Mayers were ordained in Baltimore. More and more women are answering God's call. It was great to be with so many of them, including Ann and Marellen, in Chicago earlier this month.

Seems to me that with all these new priests around – over a hundred of us women priests world-wide in the past ten years or so – seems to me we need to be thinking hard about the role of a priest. The question I carried with me all through Divinity School was, “what is the role of a priest in a community of equals?” I believe this so strongly – that the church must be a place where we recognize the worth and dignity of each person, not only with our words, but with our structures. The church must be a place where each person can begin to see the possibilities in themselves and to recognize them in others, as well.

When I first encountered the Roman Catholic Womenpriests in 2007, I was overjoyed to discover an entire movement of women asking the same question! One of the ways we have wrestled with that question is in determining the role of our bishops. We decided that bishops have a liturgical role (in ordinations, particularly) and are “pastors to the pastors” - but they do not have a decision-making role. There's no council of bishops making decisions for everyone else.

One of the measures of any organization is if it lives up to its own standards, if it “walks the walk, not just talks the talk.” Something I have noticed, at the retreat this month and at other retreats, is that although the women present are priests, deacons, bishops and women discerning their call, if you were to sit in a circle with us I don't think you would know who was who. Everybody's voice counts. Everyone is valued. We are clearly not a movement about personalities.

There's a lot more to say on all this, probably a book or so's worth of things to say. But for now I just wanted to share that with you – how happy I am with this group of women who really are walking their talk.

Come worship with us on Sunday, if you will – and pray for Patti, that her priesthood may be a blessing to many.

What a wonderful age we are living in.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

All summer long, there is a car wash in the St Joe's parking lot on Saturdays and Sundays from 9-5 as part of the St Joe's Employment Training Program. Come get your car washed! Recommended donations are $5-10 for outside cleanings, $20 for inside and out. Give your car some TLC, and help our guys earn some cash and learn some job skills!

________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, August 14, 2011

2011-08-16T07:12:00.000-07:00

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

What a week this has been for women priests. Thirty-five women from around the country gathered in Chicago for an RCWP-USA national retreat. Then we came home to find that Fr. Roy Bourgeois is at the point of being ousted from the Maryknoll order and from his priesthood for supporting us. (He’s already been excommunicated for it, and this next step has been looming for a while). Roy has been such a strong and prophetic voice for justice, founding the SOA-watch and keeping us aware of what our country is doing in Central and South America. He’s an exemplary priest! How can such a thing be?

We who lived through the crisis at Corpus Christi in 1998 know this --- when you stand with the people who have been excluded, you end up excluded, yourself. Thank you, Roy, for standing with us, your sister priests.

When I was in Chicago I heard this story from Alta Jacko, a priest from the mid-West region. We were talking about Howard Thurman, the great African-American prophet and mystic who was a big influence on Martin Luther King, Jr. Once Rev. Thurman was traveling in the South with his family during the time of the Jim Crow laws there. His two little girls had never encountered legalized discrimination like that before, and didn’t understand why they weren’t allowed to play on a certain playground. He explained it to them this way: “It takes the whole police force, the mayor, the national guard and the entire legislature of this state to keep you from playing on this playground. That’s how powerful you are!!”

Something powerful is happening in the church right now, so powerful that the powers-that-be are trying to keep people from even speaking of it! And as is so typical of the way God works in the world, it is a small, fragile, hidden power --- like mustard seeds. Like yeast. Like dandelions. The powers that be can’t keep it down, no matter how hard they try. Look at the people God has used in history to change the world. Stuttering Moses. Little David, the shepherd boy. An unwed teenage mother. And here we are, a bunch of middle-aged women with our little communities meeting in living rooms and other people’s churches, or in an old bank like Mary Magdalene church or the dining room of a soup kitchen, like us at St Romero’s. A bunch of women all saying YES to God and following where the Spirit leads. And God is going to use us to turn the church upside down, just like in 1998 when the Spirit blew into Corpus Christi – and look what came of that. LIFE. I am so grateful for all these yes-giving, life-giving women. What a great adventure we get to be part of!

If you would like to speak up on behalf of Fr Roy, you could write a letter to Fr. Ed Dougherty, the Superior General of Maryknoll, and ask him not to expel Fr. Roy Bourgeois for advocating for women priests. Here is the address:

Fr. Edward Dougherty
Maryknoll Fathers
PO Box 303
Maryknoll, NY 10545-0303
Email: mklcouncil@maryknoll.org

If you write to him, Fr Roy’s attorney is requesting copies of letters sent to Maryknoll:
Bill Quigley, Attorney for Fr. Roy Bourgeois,
7214 St. Charles Avenue, Campus Box 902,
New Orleans, LA 70118
Quigley@loyno.edu

Another way to support Fr Roy is to sign an on-line petition from the Women’s Ordination Conference: http://www.womensordination.org/component/option,com_chronocontact/chronoformname,form/

And finally, here is an article from the National Catholic Reporter if you’d like to know more: http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/bourgeois-facing-expulsion-maryknoll

On Thursday some friends from the Presbytery of Genesee Valley will be joining us as we travel west of the city for our Migrant Mass. You are welcome to join us, too! We leave at 7 pm from the St Joe’s parking lot.

On Sunday, August 21, we will welcome newly-ordained Rev. Patti LaRosa, who will preach and preside at the 11 am Mass at St Romero’s. Come celebrate Patti! Yay!

I hope you are enjoying these beautiful summer days. As I write by the open window I can hear the crickets chirping all over my neighborhood. What a peaceful and happy sound that is!

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

"The culture of bullying within the Catholic Church cannot be tolerated any longer," said, Erin Hanna, Executive Director of the Women's Ordination Conference. "It is contrary to the gospel itself to bully and dismiss faithful priests who dare to break the silence in support of women's rightful role in the Church." --- WOC statement in support of Fr Roy

________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, July 31, 2011

2011-07-31T19:48:00.000-07:00

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

In the Gospel this past Sunday we heard Jesus talking about his favorite subject, the kingdom of God... As some of us like to call it, the kindom of God, taking away the patriarchal/hierarchical kingship imagery and replacing it with the connectedness that permeates that world God dreams of. Joseph Moore once said, "The kingdom of God is what happens between you and me."

At the Migrant Mass this past Thursday, at the end of that dreadfully hot day, we stood outside the house of our friends who had worked all day in the heat and celebrated the Mass. Just as we sang the Alleluia before the Gospel, a sweet breeze blew all around us and cooled us off. I offered the sermon that Mary Wilkins had helped me translate. We used the Mass guides that Caryl Marchand laminated for us so everyone could say the responses. After Mass we shared the cookies that Rachael Morlock had baked. Pedro went in the house and brought out sodas for everyone, and we stood or sat and chatted about how the day had been. Librada Paz helped Caroline and Joe and I understand that some of the men had been picking cabbage all day, and that one of them had felt weak from the heat but still could only take a five-minutes rest every few hours. Pedro went back in the house and this time brought out a cabbage, one of those they had picked. It was a present for us. We laughed about the raccoons and tried to figure out why the chalice was leaking. And in that back and forth, the giving that went both ways, the sharing of hard times and of laughter, I believe we experienced something of the Kingdom of God. The Kindom of God.

We're such a little church, St. Romero's. Every Sunday as I get ready for Mass, with no one there yet at five to 11, I think, "uh-oh, this is going to be the week that nobody shows up." But week after week, people do show up, and it's never happened yet that no one came at all. Somehow, we are church, our little rag-tag church that meets in a soup kitchen. Something beautiful is happening, just like Jesus said. Like a grain of yeast, like a mustard seed... Did you know that mustard was a weed in Jesus's time? He was saying that the Kindom of God is like dandelions, like kudzu -- you can't get rid of it! it keeps on growing in places where you least expect it. Shane Claiborne speaks of the "frightening smallness and hiddenness" as well as the "unstoppable growth of the reign of God." He says it "starts small, grows silently, faces setbacks but nevertheless permeates the world with love."

Let's permeate the world with love. You've heard of SBD, "silent but deadly"-- let's be SBL, "Silent but life-giving." I so believe in community -- Scott Peck said, "In community lies the healing of the world." And the rule of community is, Show Up! Hang in there! Forgive! Keep on Going! Don't worry about money, don't worry about numbers - just get in there and love.

Thank you to all of you who are making this tiny and nearly invisible seed of the Kindom of God be the loving, persistent presence that it is. I am so grateful for every one of you reading this bulletin. Do you know that every week the bulletin gets translated into Spanish - with help from Mary Wilkins and from Olga Lucia in Columbia - and then put on Olga's blog where it is read by people in Columbia and Peru and El Salvador -- and here in the states, in Florida and Boston and Utah and many points in between? - as well as Rochester. A beautiful web of connection. And there are hundreds of little communities like this one, all these little seeds of the kindom, permeating the world with love. It gives me joy.

Next week I will be in Chicago for a retreat with other Roman Catholic Womenpriests, connecting with others who have little communities like ours. Please pray for us! There won't be a bulletin next week, or a Migrant Mass on Thursday August 4, because I'll be in Chicago. Sunday, however, will go on as usual.

Come and join us, if you like!

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

"...any renewal of Church that is not a return to some kind of community, loyal relationships, family, isn't renewal. We do not think ourselves into a new way of living; we live our way into a new way of thinking."
---Richard Rohr, Radical Grace

Joe Lavoie is organizing a poetry night, Saturday August 13 starting at 4pm. If it's sunny out, we'll be at the Bakery, which is the former Savory Thyme building at 220 Mt Hope Ave; if it's raining, at St Joe's.

All summer long, there is a car wash in the St Joe's parking lot on Saturdays and Sundays from 9-5 as part of the St Joe's Employment Training Program. Come get your car washed! Recommended donations are $5-10 for outside cleanings, $20 for inside and out. Give your car some TLC, and help our guys earn some cash and learn some job skills!

Thanks very much to Karen and Mike Reimringer, Lynne Hamilton and Caryl Marchand, all of whom have dropped off camp chairs for use at the Migrant Masses. It will be good to be able to sit!

________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, July 24, 2011

2011-07-20T19:01:00.000-07:00

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

This past Saturday was the day of the annual Gay Pride parade here in Rochester. I'm very happy to tell you that four churches marched together: Mary Magdalene Church had a car with balloons and people throwing candy, Spiritus Christi and Immanuel Baptist had big banners, and Saint Romero's had ...me, because I didn't think to organize anything. Maybe next year. I was so glad that we were all walking together!

Other churches were there as well: First Unitarian, Lake Avenue Baptist, a big group of Episcopalians, and others. My daughter Bridget watched the parade and said, "The churches just kept on coming!" That's the way it should be! The Democrat and Chronicle pointed out that the church people in the parade way outnumbered the protesters in the block between East and University, carrying signs with Bible verses and yelling things like, "You're all going to hell!" I love that nobody lets that ruin the day.

Today, July 19, is the anniversary of the beginning of the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls in 1848. It was over 70 years before women got the right to vote. How discouraged those suffragettes must have been, sometimes. The civil rights movement, too, took a long time. And we all know that legal rights, civil rights, the right to marriage - these things are great progress but they don't end prejudice. There is still racism, sexism, homophobia, other ways that we try to hold each other back. But like Martin Luther King said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice" - I know I quote that a lot, but it's true!!

This week we heard the parable of the weeds and the wheat. Did you ever notice that the parable starts out, "The kingdom of heaven is like a field..." That is, the kingdom of heaven isn't the part at the end where the wheat and weeds get separated. It's all along, right now, right here, the weeds and the wheat all together. The kingdom of God is right here in the mess of it! And the kingdom of heaven was marching down the street here in Rochester this past Saturday, joyfully celebrating, singing, throwing candy. It was marvelous.

Last week we successfully brought cookies to the migrant Mass, without losing them to any enterprising raccoons. This week Rachael offered to make cookies for us, even though she can't come to the Mass. That gave me an idea. Have you been wanting to come with us but not been able? Would you like to bake cookies for us to bring some week? Let me know! Also, Karen and Mike Reimringer donated some camp chairs. If we had about six more there would be enough for everyone to sit down. Do you have an unused camp chair you'd like to donate? Still looking for a camping tarp, as well. Hooray for our Masses! They are a joy.

Enjoy these hot summer days. Relish every breeze, every glass of ice water. Rest as much as you can. It's a great time of year for ice cream, too!

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

All summer long, there is a car wash in the St Joe's parking lot on Saturdays and Sundays from 9-5 as part of the St Joe's Employment Training Program. Come get your car washed! Recommended donations are $5-10 for outside cleanings, $20 for inside and out. Give your car some TLC, and help our guys earn some cash and learn some job skills!

Friday, July 22 at 7pm, the Center for Sustainable Living will present a dvd on Thomas Berry at St Joe¹s, followed by a talk and discussion led by Tim McGowan.
You are welcome to join us for Mass, any Sunday. We would love to see you!

___________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, July 17, 2011

2011-07-13T07:29:00.000-07:00

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

One of the best parts of our time together on Sunday mornings is the coffee hour. Sometimes it's fancier than others, depending on what's around and what people brought. It's not the food that's the highlight, though; it's the conversation. This week, just as we were sitting down, Javier asked, "so why do you have communion every week? What's that all about?"

That turned out to be a good opportunity for people to share what communion means to them. No one seemed to feel that receiving communion was something they had to do; rather, they talked about things like respect, and connection. I enjoyed hearing the different points of view.

I think conversations like that happen best when we're relaxing together over food. It's a great opportunity to build community. That's why I'd like to bring a "coffee hour" aspect to our Migrant Masses on Thursdays. I'm hoping we can relax and maybe bridge that language barrier a bit.
So, last Thursday afternoon I went to the store and bought flour and chocolate chips, and came home and made a batch of cookies. Three dozen cookies fit into one of those plastic containers with the blue lids. We brought them along to share after Mass that night.
As usual, we were standing in a sort of semi-circle, celebrating the Mass. I was just about to start giving the homily when people started shouting and pointing behind me. There was a raccoon, running off with the entire bin of cookies in its mouth!

So, no cookies, but a really good laugh. (...and a party for the animals!) And then I spilled grape juice down the front of my alb... The hilarity just never stops. It was so good to laugh together. Laughter doesn't happen in English or Spanish! Javier was with us that night, and he understands Spanish. Driving home in the car he told me that he heard one of the men say, "Not bad, for a Caucasian woman!"
I love being a priest... Stolen cookies, spilled grape juice, and all!

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

All summer long, there is a car wash in the St Joe's parking lot on Saturdays and Sundays from 9-5 as part of the St Joe's Employment Training Program. Come get your car washed! Recommended donations are $5-10 for outside cleanings, $20 for inside and out. Give your car some TLC, and help our guys earn some cash and learn some job skills!

Jeff Wilson is giving a concert at Mary Magdalene Church in East Rochester, this Sunday, July 17 at 2 pm. $10 and sure to be a wonderful time!
Friday, July 22 at 7pm, the Center for Sustainable Living will present a dvd on Thomas Berry at St Joe¹s, followed by a talk and discussion led by Tim McGowan.

You are welcome to join us for Mass, any Sunday. We would love to see you!

_______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, July 10, 2011

2011-07-11T18:28:00.000-07:00

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

Last Thursday night, Caroline Kristoffersen, Joe Lavoie and I drove out to a little town west of the city. We stopped on the way to pick up Librada Paz, then went on out to a little house in the middle of some enormous fields, where a group of people live who work all day on the farms. Folks in the house were finishing supper, so we had a little time to stand around, waiting. A man named Leonardo cleared off a crate for us to use as an altar, and Caroline and I got it set up. Leonardo showed us the beautiful kitchen garden that the people who live there had planted, with peppers, tomatoes and other things all up and growing strong. There was a toy lion tied to a stick in the middle for a scarecrow. It was hanging limply on the ground, and Leonardo took it down, laughing that the scarecrow was scared. (I only know he said that because Librada was translating!)

Pretty soon, the nine or so people who live in the house were done with supper, and a couple more pulled up in a truck. We gathered for Mass. Everybody stood, because there weren't any chairs. The week before we had to cancel because of rain, as there is not enough room in the house for us all. This week, though, the weather was beautiful. We could hear the birds singing in nearby trees while we prayed and sang.

Caroline and Joe passed out worship aids to everybody. Because I knew that it was likely a long time since some folks had been to Mass, I made a guide with the all the responses on it, and Caryl Marchand laminated a set of them so we can use them all summer. Even though it's in Spanish, Caroline and Joe were able to follow it! A man named Marconi did the first reading, and then I preached the sermon that Mary Wilkins and I had worked on together over breakfast the day before. We are the body of Christ, I said. “¿Cómo seremos el pan los unos por los otros?” How will we be bread for each other? I saw heads nodding. That's always a relief for a preacher, but even more so when preaching in another language.

Last April when I was in El Salvador I looked everywhere for a chalice, and finally found a wooden one with a lid. The lid turns out to be important: it keeps the bugs out. Note to those who might join us in the future: bring bug spray. (and a sweater). At the end, after the final song, everyone claps. It's a beautiful, friendly group of people.

After Mass we stand around, talking. We're trying to solve the problem of what to do if it rains. If they had a tarp – one of those camping tarps with poles – they could set it up next to the house for a shelter. It would also serve to keep their shoes dry, because they leave them outside the door. Anybody got an old camping tarp to give away?

This week we're leaving at 7:15, Thursday night. You're welcome to join us. This week I think we'll bring cookies, so we can have a snack together after Mass. And then we'll be on our way back home, getting back about 10 or 10:30. It's a lovely way to spend the evening!

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

On Sunday, July 17 at 2 pm, Jeff Wilson will give a concert at Mary Magdalene Church in East Rochester. $10 and sure to be a wonderful time!
Friday, July 22 at 7pm, the Center for Sustainable Living will present a dvd on Thomas Berry at St Joe’s, followed by a talk and discussion led by Tim McGowan.
You are welcome to join us for Mass, any Sunday. We would love to see you.

___________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, July 3, 2011

2011-06-29T18:50:00.000-07:00

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

This past Monday at Morning Prayer, Joseph Moore said, "It feels so good to have my pride and dignity back." After years on the street, his life has been coming together again, with a job and self-respect. I remember the day he got his driver's license back. He said, "I feel like a person again." It just feels better when you're a recognized part of society, no longer invisible and on the margins. (Joe gave me permission to share what he said with you).

Last week, hundreds of thousands of New York residents got told they were people by the state of New York, people with the same right to marry the person they love as anybody else. Hooray! At the same time as rejoicing, I want to point out that all the state has done is to legitimize a reality that was already there. Gay and lesbian people have been in loving, committed relationships, raising families, being together for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, all along. I look at my daughter and daughter-in-law, Bridget and Catie McCabe-Strong. They were married in Massachusetts last October, and they live with me, now. They are like any other young couple, struggling to make ends meet, sharing the chores, figuring out who needs the car when, supporting each other through life's ups and downs --- and loving each other through it all. How can anyone look at a couple like them, and not be in awe at the beauty of their love and commitment?

A woman named Jamie L Manson writes a blog for the National Catholic Reporter called "Grace on the Margins." Today she wrote, "I have been struck by the effect that the passage of the marriage bill has had on my own sense of dignity. Though I am blessed not to carry any guilt or shame about my sexuality, walking through New York City streets on Pride weekend with my partner, I did experience new, unexpected feelings of legitimacy and integrity. I can finally appreciate how good equality is for the spirit."

Congratulations, New York State, for doing the right thing! As Martin Luther King said, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." Indeed, it does. There is still much to be done. One state's legitimizing gay marriage, while a huge step in the right direction, doesn't end prejudice. It doesn't give gay couples the right to file their federal income taxes as married people. But it will make a difference.

One of the steps along this road was taken by Corpus Christi Church in the 90's. Celebrating gay unions was one of the issues that got us in trouble back then, and I believe that our refusal to bend and our willingness to pay the price for that, contributed to this latest wonderful step in the journey. Rev. Denise Donato, in particular, has been a stalwart and life-giving supporter of the gay community for many years. Doesn't it feel great, to see things unfold like this?!

I pray for the day when every young person who realizes that he or she is gay or lesbian will be able to joyfully embrace their sexual identities with the full support of family, church and state. May each of us be, utterly and completely and joyfully, the person God made us to be.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

On Sunday, July 17 at 2 pm, Jeff Wilson will give a concert at Mary Magdalene Church in East Rochester. $10 and sure to be a wonderful time!
Friday, July 22 at 7pm, the Center for Sustainable Living will present a dvd on Thomas Berry at St Joe's, followed by a talk and discussion led by Tim McGowan. Free come and join us!

_________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, June 26, 2011

2011-06-23T08:04:00.000-07:00

Corpus Christi Sunday

Friends,

I'm writing this on the longest day of the year, here in the northern hemisphere. Did you get out and enjoy the day, today? Sometimes it's easy to miss the really wonderful things in our lives, just because they are ordinary.

This Sunday is the feast of Corpus Christi, the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. Yaay! Back at Corpus we used to celebrate this day as the birthday of the parish. The Body of Christ is both the Eucharist, and all of us together who make up this wonderful body, the hands and feet and heart and lungs and voice and eyes of God in the world. It's a good day to remember that we are one body, even though we may worship God differently, or understand what's going on in the celebration of the Eucharist differently. Sometimes I get asked about that, because it's often a dividing point between Protestants and Catholics.

Here's what I always say: I do believe that God is truly present in the Eucharist. Absolutely, truly present. I also believe that God is truly present in you and me, in that tree and this flower, in the sun and the moon and in every cell of every living thing. I believe that what happens when we celebrate the Eucharist is that we become aware of the reality that is already there. The veil gets stripped away and we can be for a bit in the wonder and awe of an awareness that would be hard to walk around in. Everything cries holy, yet we still have to wash the dishes.

Imagine if we had the same reverence for every person that we have for that little white disc of bread. We should! Every person we meet is as infused with the presence of God as the bread of the Eucharist. Just as profoundly holy, every one. Every annoying, smelly, needy, lying, cheating, you-name-it one. A carrier of God. Julian of Norwich said there is no between in our relationship with God. Nothing in between us. God is as close as our breath, the energy driving our cells, the light that gets turned into food by photosynthesis. Thomas Merton said that we don't know that we're all walking around shining like the sun. Glory, glory!

Bask in the light of this time of year. And remember, that light is in you and in me. Let the Eucharist be a reminder that everything cries holy.

We had a pretty wonderful experience this past Thursday, going out west of the city to celebrate Mass with some Migrant workers, there. Many thanks to Librada Paz who helped with interpretation. I was delighted that Linda, Marty and Caroline came. We met Pedro, Santiago, Rafael and several other people and had a lovely Mass together. We will leave St Joe's at 7 pm again this Thursday, and every Thursday until the days get shorter and we move the time of Mass earlier. Hooray for this new ministry! Keep us in your prayers, please.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

Some dates to save in July:
On Sunday, July 17 at 2 pm, Jeff Wilson will give a concert at Mary Magdalene Church in East Rochester. $10 and sure to be a wonderful time!
Friday, July 22 at 7pm, the Center for Sustainable Living will present a dvd on Thomas Berry at St Joe¹s, followed by a talk and discussion led by Tim McGowan. Free. Come and join us!

"Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect?
Let me keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished."
- Mary Oliver

______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, June 19, 2011

2011-06-17T12:08:00.000-07:00

Trinity Sunday

Friends,

We had such a lovely Pentecost celebration at St Romero's. Rachael really made the day with her flaming peaches at coffee hour! Real tongues of fire! We celebrated part of the Mass in Spanish, in preparation for our first Mass in the migrant camps this Thursday. A man came in during the service who needed our help. At the kiss of peace he told us what was going on with him, and at the end of Mass we gave him a blessing. After Mass, Rachael and Linda helped him find some new clothes, and we all had scrambled eggs (that Linda made) and sausage (that Louie brought and made) and big slabs of pineapple that made me think of El Salvador. He looked a lot better by the time he left, and really I think it was the community, at least as much as the clothes and food, that fed him. I thought of something one of the guests at the Corpus Christi supper program said, many years ago --"If you all stopped serving food, we'd still come. We'd come for the love."

We're living in an age of amazing things, including the ability to communicate across distances, to build relationships via computer. Saturday night when I finished making my "cheat sheet" for saying Mass in Spanish, I sent it off to Olga, a woman priest in Columbia --- whom I have never met, but who helps translate the bulletin into Spanish each week [as does Mary Wilkins] and then posts it on her blog! --- and pretty soon she had sent it back to me with corrections. Isn't that wonderful? I have found myself instant messaging with a friend in El Salvador while having a facebook conversation with someone from my hometown I never expected to see again. Our church is even made possible in part by the internet --- over a hundred people get the English bulletin, another half dozen get it in Spanish, and it doesn't cost us anything. It really is amazing. (And even the translation starts out on the internet!)

So in this age of wondrous forms of communication it is more important than ever to remember to interact one-on-one, to build relationships of caring and trust. You can't touch a person through the internet, can't hold their hand. Tonight in the hospital I sat at the bedside of a woman who could talk but not hear. All the comfort I could offer was with my eyes, and holding her hand. And it was enough. You can't do that in cyberspace. I was called to the bedside of a Spanish-speaking man (imagine being in the hospital and not understanding what is being said around you) - and held his hands and prayed --- again --- there is a lot of wonderful stuff you can do with computers, but nothing replaces the human touch. Nothing replaces being able to look into someone's eyes, to laugh and cry together.

This Thursday we'll be going west of the city to offer that human touch, and leap over language barriers, and hopefully make some new friends. Please pray for us! Life feels rather barren out there. I pray that our Masses might be water in the desert, a source of life.

Sending love to our sister churches, Mary Magdalene and Spiritus Christi - MM celebrated two years on Pentecost, and Spiritus is twelve years old! How great God is, and what a wonderful journey we have been on in this last decade plus two!!

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

__________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

A Force For Good

2011-06-14T13:22:00.000-07:00

By Chava Redonnet

On Wednesday, April 6, a mixed group of people sat in a circle, upstairs on a terrace of the “popular market” - el mercado popular, what we in the States might call a public market - in Santa Ana, El Salvador. Twenty-five or so red plastic chairs held Salvadorans as well as we visitors from around the United States, all here at the behest of Alex Orantes, Baptist pastor, organizer, director of the popular market, and friend to us all.

One by one, Alex introduced people to us: the man in the pink shirt, who would succeed him as director, as Alex was about to promoted to greater responsibility; a woman who spoke words of welcome; another woman whose birthday it was, and we all sang. I looked around the crowd, thinking of what we’d heard prior to the meeting, that at least one of the men here had been a torturer during the war [“the man with the scar” – but there were several men with scars], that others were members of gangs. Police officers, looking formidable, stood in a wide circle at the perimeter of our group. Alex introduced us all to each other as “good people,” as “my brothers and sisters.”

No one’s past behavior or current choices were on the table for judgment or accountability. All that was of interest was, what might we do together to make things better? All these good people, these people who are so much more than the worst thing they’ve ever done - how might we together make a better world, a better city, a better market?

Everybody knows Alex, and everybody knows he believes in them. Children, youths, tired families, police officers, gang members, visitors from the States – we’re all “good people” and potential partners in the work of healing this place, this world. Like the others in the room, I’m here because Alex asked me. Five years ago on my first visit to El Salvador, he asked me to come back. This past December on my fifth trip here, he asked me to come back in April for this study trip. Always, when Alex asks me to do something, my first response is, “it’s not possible.” Then I go away and think about it, and wonder if perhaps it might be possible, after all. Then I do it. I’ll bet that’s a pattern for lots of people, with Alex. He asks for impossible things that turn out to be possible, once we start dreaming.

After all the introductions, we are taken on a tour of the market. Twenty or so Salvadorans, including five police officers, accompany us seven North Americans as we talk to people in our broken Spanish, explore unfamiliar fruits, and each get our own coconut, with a straw to drink the slightly sour but refreshing juice. As our tour draws to a close, we are suddenly hurried away, as there has been an incident somewhere in the market.

Before I came on this trip, I prayed that I might be shown the ways that I need to grow. That prayer was answered with a resounding “Yes!” as I came flat up against some prejudices that I didn’t know I had. It would not have occurred to me that a former torturer could be an ally in the work of healing Santa Ana. Alex stretched my world with his embrace of every person as a friend and brother or sister. My companions on this journey stretched me, too. One of the great gifts of this trip was the mix of people: two American Baptists, two radical Catholics, and two Evagelical young men. I was forced to confront my prejudice about Evangelicals as being rigid in their spirituality and having a narrow theology – that prejudice got smashed to smithereens by these two, so eager to explore all the riches of Christian spiritual traditions. It gives me great hope for the church – for all the God-lovers together. May we break down the walls and find friends on the other side.

Don’t ever give up on anybody. I want to be like Alex – ready always to see “good people” and “my brothers and sisters” in every person – ready to work together to heal the world.

Chava Redonnet

May 14, 2011

Bulletin for Sunday, June 12, 2011

2011-06-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

Pentecost

Friends,

This week we celebrate Pentecost, that wonderful moment when the Holy Spirit came barging in to a roomful of frightened disciples and set them on fire to spread the love of God, bursting over barriers of language to bring God's mercy and love and goodness to people in their own native tongues. Things get messy when the Holy Spirit comes barging in! But it's all about love, and communication, and including everybody, and joy. Hooray! It reminds me of a line from that movie, "Moonstruck." "Love don't make things nice! Love ruins everything!" The Holy Spirit isn't worried about our nice neat ways of doing things, the Holy Spirit is all about growth and love, and reaching people. What joy.

Given that the first act of the Holy Spirit among those early Christians was to break down language walls, it's with much joy that I tell you that our first Spanish Mass in the migrant camps will be in Pentecost week, on Thursday, June 16. We will leave from St Joe's at 7pm. Mass is late because people work late on the farms. As the days grow shorter we hope to start earlier.

Please pray for us! Pray that we will break down walls of language and fear and strangeness, and that our Masses may be life-giving for all who come. Pray for safety for all. Please pray that my often-clumsy Spanish will be more of a bridge than a barrier. Pray that our country will become a welcoming place and that we will end the hypocrisy of punishing people we depend on to plant and harvest our food, for being here. May we all be a blessing, each to each other, and may we all be blessed by our Masses together.

This past Saturday I was in Baltimore for the ordinations of four new women priests! Congratulations to Patti La Rosa, Marellen Mayers, Ann Penick and Caryl Johnson. It was a lovely ceremony, as always. My favorite parts are the opening procession with clergy of all denominations, and the part where the ordinands lie on the floor while the Litany of Saints is sung. Those moments connect us both with the church across the world in the present moment, and with the church through history. As Mother Teresa said, we are a drop in a mighty ocean --- but if that drop was not there, it would be missed!

Come and celebrate with us on Pentecost! Rachael is going to make her family Pentecost tradition, flaming peaches!

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

_______________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, June 5, 2011

2011-05-31T10:36:00.000-07:00

7th Sunday of Easter

Friends,

Yesterday morning at St Romero's we were once again celebrating in the hospitality room instead of the dining room at St Joe's, this time because people were getting ready for the Memorial Day Picnic. I loved our Mass; because of the picnic we had more people than usual coming in off the street, and it was a lively bunch.
We talked about the difficulty of Memorial Day for pacifists: that desire not to glorify war, but at the same time to honor the choices and sacrifices made by our sisters and brothers --- often times quite literally our sisters and brothers --- and how very many of our guests at St Joe's are veterans. I talked about the man I met in El Salvador who had been a guerilla during the civil war there, who said, "During the war, I believed in what we were doing. But now, years later, I see that on both sides, rich people were profiting from the sale of arms, and poor people were killing each other. And in the end, things are not better for the poor."

This morning, Memorial Day, there was a "Memorial in Time of War" at the Sister Cities Bridge, led by Karen Keenan and Tom Moore. They have done this every year since the war began in 2003. There is a simple inter-faith service, then everybody lines up and takes turns reading out loud the names of people who died in the war --- soldiers from the U.S., children and adults from Iran and Afghanistan. As each name is read, a bell is rung. Then we go up on the bridge and drop roses in the river. It always seems such a waste, throwing that beautiful rose in the river. But the waste is nothing compared to the waste of the human lives we commemorate.

Life is hard. Honest people can disagree about how we go about solving the problems of the world. I want to be careful that, sure as I am about some things like that Jesus calls us to non-violence, that the way to change the world is the way that Jesus did, changing hearts, taking on pain instead of inflicting it sure as I am, I don't want to inflict more violence by disrespecting my sisters and brothers who believe in other ways. How do we live with each other? That seems to me both the most challenging and most exciting question there is. How do we love?

Here at St Joe's we have welcomed our second Muslim staff member in a year. Trying to find ways to pray together, we decided that while he is here, we will change our New Testament reading at morning prayer to one from the Sufi mystic, Hafiz. The Sufi poets are a great source of spiritual nourishment for me and I am happy to make the substitution. We heard from another Sufi, the poet Rumi, this morning at the memorial. Let me share that poem with you. (The translation is by Coleman Barks):

Out beyond ideas of wrong-doing and right-doing,
there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense.

Much peace to you- however you believe. May we find that place beyond ideas and "isms," and live in respect and awe.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

This Wednesday night, June 1 at 7 pm, the Rochester Committee on Latin America will be showing the movie, "Return to El Salvador" at Downtown United Presbyterian Church. This documentary features Ruth and Alex Orantes of Santa Ana; some of you met Ruth when she was here last year for my ordination. One of the issues featured in the film is that of gold mining. People are dying for their resistance to this ecologically disastrous exploitation of the land. After the film I'll talk about the visit Eli and I made to El Salvador in April, and the people we met there who are trying to stop the gold mining. Please join us, if you can.

Please keep our four RCWP ordinands in your prayers this week. Patti La Rosa, Ann Penick, Caryl Johnson and Marellen Meyers will be ordained to the priesthood in Baltimore this coming Saturday, June 4. I'll be there but will be back in time for Mass on Sunday at 11!

Please come and join us, any Sunday that you like! We would love to see you.

___________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603

Bulletin for Sunday, May 29, 2011

2011-05-27T06:27:00.000-07:00

6th Sunday of Easter

Friends,

At a recent community meeting at St Joseph's House of Hospitality we realized that there was a need to look at one of our rules, which didn't seem to be working well. After talking about it for a while, we realized that the people who would be impacted by the decision needed, not just a voice in the decision, but as much as possible to make the decision themselves. So today we gathered the people most affected, and sat in a circle together. What a world of difference it makes, talking as equals. There's just a whole different spirit when we can say, "let's talk together and find a way that is just and that works for everyone," instead of one person or group imposing rules on others.

When we do that at St Joe's, we are not only making a decision that is owned by the people it impacts. We are also providing an opportunity for people who don't have much power in our society to see themselves as people who have an equal voice, who can make decisions. I hope that such a way of doing things not only has a positive effect on St Joe's, but on everyone involved, and that it plants a seed that will bear fruit in the slow, day-by-day transformation of our society.

I don't believe that the world will be healed without the empowerment and self-determination of the people who are currently on the bottom economically and socially. I don't believe that healing will happen without people like me and you sharing the power that we have. Very few of us are totally at either the top or the bottom of the heap. Most of us are somewhere in between, having more than some and less than others. We need to both claim our own power, never buying into seeing ourselves as "less than" because we are women or poor or physically challenged or young or old or because of the color of our skin or the language that we speak ---- and at the same time we need to be aware of our own power and not treat others as "less than" because of our own level of education or authority or financial comfort, and mindfully walk in equality with all.

This is why it is so important that as we move into a time of transformation in the church (and I absolutely believe we are in such a time!), we are not only about justice, inclusion of all, empowerment of women, but also about equality in the church. Healing is not going to happen without individuals discovering the power that is within them, and where better to nurture that discovery than in church? Let's see the gifts in each person and call them forth. Everyone has something to offer.

I am grateful for organizations like Call to Action, or We are Church over in Europe, where lay people are so clear that it is the people who are the church. I look forward to exploring what that means for us in practical ways as we grow at St Romero's. May our little church be whatever God is dreaming for it to be!

Come and celebrate with us some Sunday. It's different every week, but we are always here!

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

This coming Monday, May 30, is Memorial Day. Ever since the war in Iraq began in 2003, Karen Keenan and Tom Moore have been organizing "A Memorial in Time of War" at 9 am at the Sister Cities Bridge at Genesee Crossroads Park, behind the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Downtown Rochester. You are welcome to join in this moving ceremony and pray that it will be the last time we need to do it.

_______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603

Bulletin for Sunday, May 22, 2011

2011-05-18T06:55:00.000-07:00

5th Sunday of Easter

Friends,

When I was 12 or 13 I went with others from my church youth group one night to hear a Christian singer named Larry Norman. One of his songs stayed in my head, a song that said "The Christians in Russia all live underground" and went on to describe how it wasn't safe to be Christian in communist countries.

I was thinking of that today because I would like to tell you about the group I'm going to be speaking to on Saturday, but one of the other speakers would lose his job if his employer found out he had spoken at the same event as a woman priest. If that seems farfetched, well, think of Fr. Roy Bourgeois. The second phase of his trouble began when he was a member of a panel speaking about the documentary about women priests, "Pink Smoke Over the Vatican." One of the women who will be ordained a priest in Baltimore on June 4 lost her job at a Catholic college last year when someone found out she had been ordained a deacon. Last week a bishop in Australia was forced to resign for questioning whether perhaps women should be priests. There are women priests who have been ordained in South America, whose names and even the countries where they live are being kept secret.

Someone who is reading Matthew Fox's new book, "The Pope's War," which tells about Ludmila Javarova, a woman priest ordained in secret in Czechoslovakia in 1971 at a time when the church was persecuted there, said, "What's happening now is like what happened to the church under communism!"
Which is pretty ironic, isn't it? Our last two popes experienced the tyranny of communism as young men. It seems pretty clear that their opposition to Liberation Theology stemmed from a fear that what happened in Eastern Europe would happen in Latin America, without understanding the different situation there. And now here's this new movement for life and renewal in the church, being persecuted in turn. I don't mean to point fingers. What I do want to point out is the danger for all of us, of becoming like the thing we resist. That's a human trait, and it's not just limited to people in the Vatican.

We are part of a wonderful movement in the worldwide church a church that's bigger than Catholicism, bigger than the United States. God is doing something new in the world, with little communities all over that are empowering women, working with the poor, a church of equality that breaks down denominational boundaries. Let us be sure not to become the thing we resist. Let's be sure to be open, transparent, and unafraid to look at our shadow side. Let's celebrate the movement of the Spirit more than trying to control each other. Let's celebrate each other! and all the different ways the Spirit breathes in the world.

Each Sunday at St Romero's I include a prayer for our sister churches, Spiritus Christi, Mary Magdalene, and Shekina Baptist in El Salvador. Lately I've been adding Carpenter's Church in Lubbock, Texas, and The Simple Way in Philadelphia so many pockets of hope, lights for the world. We need to appreciate each other, encourage each other. We need to celebrate the different ways we go about building the Kindom of God, and learn from each other. We are part of a huge network of women priests and Catholic Worker houses and little Evangelical congregations, all on fire to change the world. God bless us all.

This weekend we will have a visitor from El Salvador, Pati Chacon from Shekina Church in Santa Ana. Come and welcome her on Sunday, and help to build those ties!

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603

Bulletin for Sunday, May 15, 2011

2011-05-12T06:22:00.000-07:00

4th Sunday of Easter

Friends,

This is such a pretty time of year in Rochester! The magnolias are blooming, there are tulips everywhere, and we have the hope of lilacs very soon. There is a lilac in my back yard that is about to burst into bloom. It was planted for me by my friend Jimi Waffle before he died fifteen years ago of AIDS. I have often wondered how Jimi's life might have been different, had he grown up in a gay-friendly world -- or a gay-friendly church. Imagine a world in which every teenager growing up knows that their sexuality is a healthy and good part of the person that they are, and where there are good role models for healthy relationships of all kinds, among church leaders and other adults they know. Imagine a world in which the AIDS virus had been taken seriously right from the beginning and not dismissed as a “gay disease.” How many precious people like Jimi would still be here to grace the world?

The Presbyterian Church (USA) took a giant step forward this week by voting to allow gay and lesbian people to serve in ministry. There have been many long hard years of struggle by people like the Rev. Janie Spahr, who started a ruckus here in Rochester in the 1990's when she came out as a lesbian minister and Downtown United Presbyterian Church tried to hire her as its co-pastor. The highest Presbyterian court ruled that she could not serve. Janie and DUPC creatively found another way for her to minister, traveling around the country as an evangelist, in a ministry called “That All May Freely Serve.” In the early days of the 1998 struggle at Corpus Christi that led to the formation of Spiritus, Janie told us that in her travels around the country, she heard the name of Corpus Christi whispered with hope. And that gave me hope! Blessings and gratitude to Janie and all whose courageous witness has at last borne fruit in the Presbyterian Church (USA). May all of our churches be safe places for everyone.

One of the gifts of being a woman priest, and thus being on the outside and forced to find alternate ways to serve in ministry, is that I have sometimes found work with other denominations. For the past two years I've served the Presbytery of Genesee Valley as its Peacemaker. I've been so impressed by the way the Presbyterians do process. They are so careful to hear all the voices, to include as many voices as possible in their discussions. Every two months they have a big meeting with pastors and representatives of all the churches, and staff members like me. Those meetings have often felt as holy to me as any church service. The way we make decisions is an important part of who we are as church. I am delighted to see this wonderful new move toward justice for all in their denomination. Hooray for the Presbyterians!

Join us this Sunday for Mass at 11 am. We are enjoying the quiet space in between Easter and the beginning of our new ministry of bringing Mass in Spanish to migrant workers near Rochester. Let me know if you might be interested in participating in that!

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

____________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
402 South Ave. Rochester, NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, May 8, 2011

2011-05-05T08:56:00.000-07:00

3rd Sunday of Easter
Friends,

How has your week been? There are a lot of feelings in the air following the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden: sadness, jubilation, hope, relief, confusion. For me, remembering all the deaths these past ten years, those terrible deaths on September 11, 2001, and all the deaths in the wars since, the children, families, soldiers, so many many lives ended by violence and hatred and fear and now the death of bin Laden, well, as one of the young men who went to El Salvador with Eli and me said, it makes my heart hurt.

But there is something that has given me hope, as well. On Monday, person after person posted on facebook, "I can't rejoice in the death of anyone." That's God's response! "As I live, says the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live." (Ezekiel 33:11) God is always hoping that we will turn around and embrace life. God is love, remember, and we know what St Paul said about love: that it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and it never gives up. That needs to be our attitude with each other: don't ever give up on anybody. Ever. The deepest desire of God is for healing and life for all of us! No matter what we've done.

It was a beautiful thing, to read so many people expressing their confusion and pain as they watched people celebrating, and struggled with their mixed feelings of relief and sadness. I see the presence of God in our collective inner conflict, our struggle to know what is right. May that struggle lead us into the light.

Martin Luther King said, "The chain reaction of evil--hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars--must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." My prayer following the death of bin Laden is to break that chain reaction in my own heart. May all of us break the cycle of hate and revenge and turn our minds and hearts to finding ways to bring peace. It is possible but each of us must turn from death to life in our own lives and hearts, and we must also do it together. Life! May there be life, and love, and healing for all. Amen!

We took some steps toward life and healing here in Rochester last week, walking with Myra Brown, Roseanne Fabi and Mike Bleeg as they led us to various sites around downtown to talk with community leaders about racism. Walks like that do make a difference. They make each of us who participate more aware and more committed to change. They help to bring the conversation out into the open. For me as an educated white middle class woman, that walk helped me to be more aware of the privileges I take for granted, the acceptance that comes my way every time I walk into a store or a hospital the privilege that is part of the air I breathe. Thank you, Myra, Roseanne and Mike, for your leadership!

This past Sunday about ten people gathered in front of the Cathedral to demonstrate support for Fr Roy Bourgeois and for the ordination of women. It was a peaceful and friendly demonstration and I'm grateful to Marilu Aguilar who organized it. It was for me a good way to mark the first anniversary of my ordination. I love being a priest and am grateful, grateful, grateful for every opportunity to serve --- and for this lovely community, Saint Romero's.

If you would like to join Mary Wilkins and me on Wednesday mornings at 8am at Pat's Coffee Mug on Clinton Ave, to eat breakfast and practice speaking Spanish, you are most welcome!

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction."
Martin Luther King, Jr

_______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, May 1, 2011

2011-04-28T07:31:00.000-07:00

2nd Sunday of Easter

Friends,

On Good Friday, thirty-seven people were arrested at Hancock Air Force Base, near Syracuse, after lying in the road wrapped in red-spattered sheets to protest the drones that are deployed from there. Harry Murray said, explaining his participation, that "the war is now being waged right here in upstate New York not just across the seas." On our end it is bloodless, but on the other end it is deadly.

People sometimes think that when we call for non-violence, it means being passive in the face of evil. It doesn't mean that, at all. Non-violence means absorbing suffering, instead of inflicting it. In their act of "obstruction of governmental process," which carries the possibility of up to a year in jail, these 37 friends are participating in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Remember how Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to God except by me"? I believe that means that the only way to life is through the cross, through our own participation in the way that Jesus demonstrated. Whether that is in big ways, like actually laying down your life for others like Monseñor Romero did, or by facing time in jail like these 37, or facing expulsion from your community like Fr Roy or in small ways, as simple as accepting the pain of looking at our own behavior and saying "I'm sorry" when we've hurt someone, rather than telling them it's really their own fault. In big ways and in small, we participate in the healing work of God by walking through the pain. That's the way to life!!! We don't get to healing by inflicting pain or denying it or running away from it but by going through it, letting go of ego and power and control, dying to ourselves in big ways and in small.

With a mixture of sadness and joy, we are saying goodbye to one of the founding members of our little community, Eli Woodbeck. He is returning to Michigan after seven months at St Joe's. I am so grateful for his time here! Eli has been my "right-hand man" here at St Romero's. From making our Advent wreath to advertising our Masses to cooking eggs for our coffee hour, Eli has been part of the fabric of our little church. God bless you, brother we don't need to tell you that you've always got a home here!

On Sunday morning, May 1, some folks will be gathering in front of Sacred Heart Cathedral on Flower City Park to show their support for Fr Roy Bourgeois, who faces expulsion from the Maryknoll order and being stripped of his priesthood, because of his support for the ordination of women. May 1 is also the first anniversary of my own ordination, and I plan to mark it by joining Marilu Aguilar and others in front of the cathedral, then coming back to St Romero's to pray for life and healing in the church. It is not enough to pray for the ordination of women: we must also pray for transformation, for a church that stands with the poor, that reaches across boundaries of nation and denomination to stand together with all those who love God, a church that can acknowledge its own shadow side and admit when it is wrong, and a church where all are empowered to be the people God dreams of them being. Come celebrate with us --- we have the added joy of music, this week, as Bill Welch is going to come and play for us!!

So if you've been saying, "one of these days I'm going to visit St Romero's"... this is a great Sunday to do it!!

It gives me a lot of joy when I meet people who are dreaming of a transformed church (there are many, and that is one of the things that makes right now a very exciting time to be alive). One such person is Matthew Fox, who has just written a book called "The Pope's War: Why Ratzinger's Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved" he has a chapter
called "The Inquisitor's Enemies: Casaldaliga, Javorova, and Callan" and he tells the story of Corpus and Spiritus Christi. What I find moving is that he links our story with the squashing of Liberation Theology by the Vatican, a connection that is plain to anyone who lived those events, but it's lovely to see someone else recognize it. The book can be found at:
http://www.amazon.com/Popes-War-Ratzingers-Crusade-Imperiled/dp/1402786298/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303764280&sr=8-1

Come walk with Myra Brown and the Spiritus Anti-Racism Coalition on Friday, April 29 in support of the YWCA Stand Against Racism initiative. Meet in front of the Downtown United Presbyterian Church at 121 N. Fitzhugh St. at 5:15pm for this hour-long walk through downtown.

I hope you are enjoying the Spring! Daffodils, tulips, hyacinths and lots more to come!!

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

"God challenges us through Jesus never to accept as-it-is as much as what-God's-love-can-make-it."  Richard Rohr

_________________________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church 
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition 
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality
402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14620

Bulletin for Sunday, April 24, 2011

2011-04-21T10:49:00.000-07:00

Easter Sunday

Friends,

This Thursday we remember the night that Jesus gave the church some last-minute instructions about how we were to go on. He gave us a precious ritual that we've been celebrating ever since, remembering him with bread and wine with lots of variations on the ritual and with different understandings of what's happening in it, but all of us Christians united, nonetheless, by this simple act of sharing bread and wine in memory of the One who loves us.

Jesus also gave us an example of how we are to treat each other, by washing the feet of his disciples. That one we haven't imitated quite so consistently. Sometimes it's easier to love and serve people we've got a little distance from: the poor, people in other countries. Really loving the person who sits across from us at the dinner table or the person at work that drives us crazy takes actually more humility. In church, especially, we often hold each other to impossible standards instead of being in awe and wonder at the gift each person... each flawed, annoying, aggravating,  wonderful person.

I believe the work of the church is two-fold: to nurture the spiritual growth of the people of God, and to build the world God dreams of, the world where everyone has what they need for fullness of life. How do we nurture each other's growth? Well, I firmly believe that one way to do that is by treating each other as equals. The church has a long way to go on this, but one small way to start is if on Holy Thursday, all of us wash each other's feet, and get our own feet washed, as well.
So this Thursday if you care to join us, we'll be up on the second floor at the bakery, 220 Mt Hope Avenue, at 7 pm for Holy Thursday Mass and a foot-washing free-for-all. Try to get there a little early, or be prepared to bang on the door so we can hear you! It's the former Savory Thyme building, with a parking lot in back that is entered from Hamilton Street. If you want to bring a basin, pitcher or towel, great! Hope to see you there.

We will not have a service on Good Friday, but some of us will be doing the Stations of the Cross through downtown. This is a Good Friday tradition of St Joe's, House of Mercy and Pax Christi. Meet in front of Kodak Office at 11am for the two-hour walk.

We will celebrate Easter Sunday Mass at 11 am in the dining room at St Joe's. It was so much fun having a shared homily a few weeks ago when we talked about the woman at the well, that I think we'll do it again. Come with a story about where you've seen an example of resurrection, lately! We will celebrate life together and remember that love wins.

The very last thing Jesus told the church before they dragged him away to be put on trial was, "Put down your sword." Among the horrendous "swords" human beings have invented lately are drones, instruments of destruction that can be deployed from thousands of miles away. This week people are walking towards Syracuse from all over New York State, to converge on Hamilton Air Force Base on Good Friday to protest the drones deployed from there. Peg Gefell and Paul Frazier have been walking with them, and Linda Condon and I will join them for a while on Tuesday, walking between Seneca Falls and Auburn. If you'd like to join them, they'll be walking along route 20 to Syracuse. Please pray for all our walkers, and for peace.

Here's another walk that's coming up: on April 29 there will be a Walk for Racial Justice through downtown. Meet in front of the Downtown United Presbyterian Church at 121 Fitzhugh Street North at 5:15pm for this hour-long walk with the Spiritus Christi Anti-Racism Coalition.

Our fish fries for Joe are done! Thanks so much to all who participated, especially to Peg Gefell for her wonderful cooking. We thank Bill and Fred Welch for singing this past week, too. It was such a lovely time, people talking and eating, just being together and supporting our Joseph as he tries to stay in the country that has become his home. We raised about two thousand dollars with the fish fries, which is a good start towards paying for his lawyer (although there's still quite a ways to go).

Have a blessed Holy Week and a joyful Easter!

Blessings and love to all, 
Chava

"The church is the heart in a world without a heart
a rose amidst the thorns the sigh of the poor."
- Alex Orantes , Santa Ana, El Salvador

_________________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition 
Mass: Sundays, 11 am 
St. Joseph's House of Hospitality
402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603

Bulletin for Sunday, April 17, 2011

2011-04-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

Palm Sunday

Friends,

This past week, Eli Woodbeck and I were in El Salvador with a group of people from around the country. Many thanks to Deacon Patti LaRosa, who filled in for me, and to Rachael Morlock who assisted her.

The most exciting thing for me on this trip was the encounter with others who are building alternative communities both here in the States, and in El Salvador. There are many common threads: empowerment of women, working with the poor, ecumenism, inclusivity, equality. Over and over we heard about living like the early Christians, about going back to our roots as church. The vision that binds us is so much stronger than our denominational differences. I believe God is doing something new in the world. A new church is being born: one where we focus on building the world God dreams of without worrying so much about our different theologies. Together we are loving God and working for justice and peace and life for all.

The Kindom of God is among us! It is already here. It is in every place where the poor are loved and empowered, where all are encouraged to be the people they were meant to be without telling anyone they're the wrong race or gender or age or sexual orientation. We're living it! Imperfectly, with our shadow sides always there but it's here, it's now, don't miss it!!!

There were seven North Americans in our group: us two radical Catholics, two American Baptists, two from Evangelical communities, and our interpreter, plus several members of the Shekina community in Santa Ana. It would have been exciting to be with this group of people even if we weren't on such an interesting journey together. The main focus of our trip was on community,  and we visited several. I'd like to share some of what we gleaned from those encounters.

Our hosts were members of Shekina Baptist Church. Shekina broke away from the larger Baptist community in Santa Ana in the 1990s, because they wanted to empower women in leadership and to be able to focus more on justice, as well as including the youth more. Sound familiar? They met in living rooms for years before hiring a female pastor, Ruth de Orantes, and building a church. They have dreams of a community center that would serve the neighborhood, and on Sunday we sat in the backyard, in the space that will one day be that center, and heard from them about what it was like starting the church. Listening to my friend Yani as she described the pain of leaving their original community, I was both sad and comforted. Hearing their experience normalized my own sadness at leaving Spiritus Christi. You can't create a new reality and stay in your old one at the same time. Shekina is today a joyful and vibrant community, where women are strong and youth are integral to the governance of the church.

On Monday morning we went to the University of Central America, where the six Jesuits, their housekeeper and her daughter were all killed on November 16, 1989. We met with theologian Soyapa Perez, and wow! we had a great discussion. We talked about how the church should be if it wants to be founded in Jesus. Is our focus on the Kindom of God, or on the institution of the church? She spoke of Ignatio Ellacuria's dream of "a poor church, focused on service, that includes everyone." Soyapa said, "You need to believe in the people. You need to believe in the poor."
In the afternoon we visited the parish of Maria Madre de los Pobres in San Salvador, where people are living the theology we had discussed at the UCA. Imagine Spiritus Christi with all its outreaches but without the budget. They have responded to the needs around them with child care, elder care, a primary school, a library, community banks for women, all on a shoestring.  We heard about ecumenism, working with other churches in the area, and saw their efforts at empowering women by using inclusive language.

Tuesday we traveled to the west of the country to visit "La Pequeña Comunidad," a non-canonical community of nuns who walk with the poor, there. Here, too, we met people whose desire to live the Gospel could not be met within existing institutions, and had branched out on their own. They had shared the risks taken by the people around them, the terrible suffering during the war, and are now experiencing life and hope as they send the young people to college, and collectively farm the land and share what is needed for the good of all.

I could talk for a week about all that we experienced and learned! On our last day, Friday, we held worship on the steps at Cuscatlán Park, where there is a memorial to the 75,000 martyrs of the civil war. We are used to the combined Catholic/Baptist Masses that Spiritus celebrates at Immanuel Baptist on Tuesdays: I think this might have been the first Catholic/Evangelical joint celebration! Barrett Smith of Carpenter's Church in Lubbock, Texas, preached, and I presided as we shared communion with a tortilla and some tamarind juice. We felt the presence of God and broke down barriers between north and south, rich and poor, Protestant and Catholic, liberal and conservative, male and female. We are called to love and serve our God and each other, together. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing. The Kindom of God is among us.

There will be another such group going in November... are you interested? It would be great to send a group from here. Keep our vision growing!

On Holy Thursday, April 21, we will meet at 7 pm upstairs in the bakery (the former Savory Thyme building) on Mt. Hope Ave, for a foot-washing free-for-all and Holy Thursday Mass. You are most welcome to join us.

This Sunday we will talk about our plans for Easter: whether to have an Easter vigil service, a sunrise service, or meet at 11 as usual. Think about it, and come on Sunday with your opinion!

Please join us this Friday night, April 15, for the last of our Lenten Fish Fries for Joe. This week we will have music by Bill Welch, and afterwards Eli and I will talk about our trip to El Salvador. The fish fry is from 6 to 7:30 pm. $8 per dinner, no one turned away. Talk starts at 7:30 hope you can join us for either or both!

It is not too late to join the people walking to Syracuse during Holy Week to protest the drones that are deployed from Hancock Air Force Base. Call Peg if you are interested: 313-6674.

Fr. Roy Bourgeois faces expulsion from the Maryknoll order after 38 years of priesthood because of his support of women's ordination. I and so many other women priests are grateful for his solidarity and willingness to suffer this indignity in order to stand with us. Thank God they're not burning people at the stake any more. Thank you, Fr. Roy.

You might have noticed that this bulletin is now being sent by Rachael Morlock, who offered to take over the mailing each week. Many thanks to Rachael, and know that if you send a reply note to her, she will forward it on to me.

Blessings and love to all,  Chava

"I hope they'll do what is just as a Christian community. But I see this with such clarity that rather than recant, I'd rather eat at a soup kitchen and live under a bridge, and do that with deep inner peace and a clear conscience."
- Fr. Roy Bourgeois

_______________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality
402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603

Bulletin for Sunday, April 3, 2011

2011-04-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

4th Sunday in Lent

Friends,

How is your Lent going? We're about halfway through so it's a good moment to take stock. I hope you have found life-giving ways to pray, fast and give alms, because Lent can be such a rich time for spiritual growth. With three weeks left to go, it's not too late to start doing something if you haven't...spending more time with God in prayer, giving more, letting go of some things... may this time be a blessing to you!

This Lent I've been reading Richard Rohr's book, "Wondrous Encounters: Scripture for Lent," which has a reading tied to the lectionary for each day. Sometimes it amazes me how the readings fit with whatever I'm thinking about at the time. Today was one of those days, because I'm thinking about smallness and tha's what he was writing about.

We experienced the gift of smallness this past Sunday, celebrating Mass up on the third floor at St Joe's because of the pancake breakfast for Haiti that was happening downstairs. We were such a small group that I decided to do a shared homily. We read through the story of the woman at the well, bit by bit, and shared our thoughts on each part. I'm so glad we did that, because Linda Condon had an insight I liked a lot, about how vulnerable Jesus was at the beginning of the story; hot and tired, needing to rest and
ask for water. Lately I've been thinking a lot about love's humility, and there was a lovely incidence of it: think of God asking you for a drink of water!

This coming week we've got another example of that in the story of the court official who comes to Jesus to ask for healing for his son. What did it take for a big shot member of the royal court to come to this simple carpenter and beg for healing? It took the love of a parent for a sick child. God is like that. Love is not proud; in fact, I believe in a God who has no pride at all, who will do whatever it takes to reach us, to offer healing and life.

Love is patient and kind, never proud or rude; blessed are the meek and the poor in spirit and the lovers who just want healing and life. We say these things over and over because we need to, because they stand in complete opposition to the wisdom of the world that says, be successful, be on top, be significant, be powerful. That's not how God operates in the world, not our God who shows up as a helpless baby in an oppressed backwater country and grows up to die the shameful death of a criminal. Our God turns the world upside down.

Jesus also said, "blessed are you when you are persecuted for my sake." One of the friends of the women's ordination movement is experiencing that now. Maryknoll priest Fr Roy Bourgeois has been given 15 days to recant his support of women's ordination or be expelled from his order. It's a long time now since our crisis at Corpus Christi, when we watched person after person lose their jobs, standing for justice in the church. It ought to be a red flag to the powerful when they're losing their most creative and spirit-filled people, a big red sign that says, "Wrong way!!" But to Fr Roy we say what Ched Myers said when all of us were ousted back in 1999: "Welcome to the outer darkness, and the church of the great renewal!"

On Saturday, Eli and I will fly to El Salvador. Please pray for us and the others in our group may God's dreams come true, may we grow and learn and get set on fire for healing and life and love for all God's people. Deacon Patti LaRosa will fill in for me while I'm gone Patti's ordination to priesthood will be Saturday, June 4 in Baltimore, so please pray for her and the other deacons, Marellen, Caryl and Ann, as well!

No bulletin next week as I'll be in El Salvador -

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

This link is to an article about Fr Roy in the National Catholic Reporter:
http://ncronline.org/news/women/maryknoll-gives-bourgeois-notice-removal-order

And this is the email address for the Maryknoll Order, if you'd care to write them a letter:
mklcouncil@maryknoll.org

Friday night our Lenten Fish Fries for Joe continue, from 6 to 7:30 pm. $8 per dinner, no one turned away. We've been having a lot of fun at these and hope you will join us.

"Great Contents must be held by smaller holding tanks."
Richard Rohr

Have a blessed week, and come visit us some Sunday!

_________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603

Bulletin for Sunday, March 27, 2011

2011-03-24T07:16:00.000-07:00

3rd Sunday in Lent

Friends,

This week in El Salvador President Obama will visit the tomb of Archbishop
Oscar Romero, after whom our church is named. It is said that Romero, who
had been elected in the expectation that he would be the sort of bishop who
would not make waves, had something of a conversion experience over the body
of Fr. Rutilio Grande, the first Salvadoran priest to be martyred. Some
people believe that when he realized that his friend had given his life for
the poor of El Salvador, he became aware that he, too, had to stand with the
poor. After that, his voice grew stronger and stronger. He made many enemies
as he fearlessly began to walk with oppressed people and speak in their
defense. He said things like, "The church that does not unite itself to the
poor in order to denounce from the place of the poor the injustice committed
against them is not truly the church of Jesus Christ." The whole country
listened to his sermons. On Sunday morning you could walk down the street
and hear his voice coming out of every house, as he spoke about the truth of
the situation in El Salvador. Finally on March 23, 1980, he spoke a direct
challenge to the soldiers who were torturing and killing people. He told
them that God's law outweighed orders from their superiors. "In the name of
God," he told them, "I beg you I ORDER you STOP THE OPPRESSION."
The next day an assassin shot him through the heart as he stood at the altar
at the Divine Providence Hospital offering Mass.

Before he died, Monseñor Romero said, "If they kill me, I will rise again in
the Salvadoran people." And it turned out he was right. His memory is alive
and life-giving. There are statues, memorials and murals in his memory all
over the country. His name is like a code word for caring about the poor.

In 2005 I visited his little house on the grounds of the Divine Providence
Hospital in San Salvador. It is full of relics of his life all his little
possessions, lovingly preserved and on display. Most of them seemed strange
to me, kind of foreign. But then something stopped me in my tracks. It was a
pair of clip-on sunglasses, very ordinary. I could have bought them at the
grocery store here in Rochester. I looked at those sunglasses and felt the
immediacy, the reality and closeness of his life and work. His work is not
foreign. His concerns are still concerns today. The poor still suffer, in El
Salvador and all over the world. That horrible dichotomy between the people
who have much materially and have the power to shape the world their way,
and the voiceless, powerless poor that's still ours, today. What are we
going to do about it?

The message of liberation theology is that such questions are appropriate
for the church, are in fact crucial to the life of the church. We cannot
claim to be following Jesus, and ignore the desperate cries of the people,
the poor of Latin America, of Africa and India and our own cities. We need
to ask hard questions about economic justice. We need to be willing to
suffer, ourselves, to let go of the excess we take for granted. And first of
all, we need to leave our comfort zones and walk with people who are
different from us, and be in relationship, and learn, and see our sisters
and brothers for the people that they are God's own beloved children, just
like us.

Here at Oscar Romero Church we hope to do that in our small way by bringing
Mass in Spanish to people who are not attending church because they are
afraid of deportation. You are welcome to join us in that project, which
will begin later in the spring.

My prayer for President Obama as he visits the tomb of Monseñor Romero this
week is that he, too, will have a conversion experience, and be on fire for
the poor. May we as a nation become aware of our neighbors to the South as
our neighbors, as people with the same desires we have for life, for
education and health care and houses, for hope --- and not as the possessors
of resources to take for ourselves, or as a threat to our own well-being.
May our relationship change, for better and for good.

I am so grateful for the example of Monseñor Romero. A newspaper headline
called him a "human rights activist" which is kind of like calling Gandhi
a community organizer. He was a priest, a bishop, a shepherd, a martyr and a
prophet. Above all, he was a pastor who walked with his people, who gave
them his voice, his energy, his life. Saint Romero, pray for us.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

We hope you will join us this Thursday, March 24, as we celebrate the memory
of Oscar Romero on the 31st anniversary of his assassination. Please come at
5:30 for pot luck (bring a dish to pass) and at 7 pm for Mass.

Friday night our Lenten Fish Fries for Joe continue, from 6 to 7:30 pm. $8
per dinner, no one turned away. We've been having a lot of fun at these and
hope you will join us.

The links below are to articles about two of my sister priests, Theresa
Novak Chabot in New Hampshire, and Gabriella Velardi Ward in New York City.
Take a look and see some of the wonderful things that are happening!
http://www.concordmonitor.com <http://www.concordmonitor.com/>
and
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2011/03/18/a-priest-finds-her-own-flock/?mod
=google_news_blog

"The Church cannot remain silent before injustice. To remain silent is to be
an accomplice."
~ Monseñor Oscar Romero

Have a blessed week, and come visit us some Sunday!
____________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603

Bulletin for Sunday, March 20, 2011

2011-03-19T05:27:00.000-07:00

2nd Sunday in Lent

Friends,

This past Sunday after Mass as we sat having breakfast, we attempted to make
a decision about what to do with our tithing money. Having $120 in the bank
($50 of which was donated specifically towards Eli's trip to El Salvador),
we were trying to decide what to do with the $12 we will give away. One
person wanted to wait until we had $200 in the bank, so that our tithe would
be $20. Another thought we should tithe on our funds as they come in: if
someone gives us ten dollars, we'll give away one, and not worry about how
small an amount it is. Someone else thought that we should just give it all
away, perhaps to Joseph for his asylum appeal. One person said that I should
do that, and I told him it's not my decision to make. The decision belongs
to the group.

Some things became clear as I listened to the discussion. First, we can't
make decisions over breakfast. It's too chaotic, too casual, and besides, at
breakfast we should just chat and find out how each other are doing. It's a
disservice both to whatever we're trying to decide, and to the community
breakfast time. We need to set a time aside to focus on decisions.

And then, before we decide anything we need to talk about how we make
decisions. Do we want to try for consensus? Do we want to vote? Or, possibly
some mixture of the two. When we chose our name, we came to consensus but
there were only four people making the decision, and we came to it easily.
The past two Sundays we've had fourteen people, and now there are
differences of opinion. How shall we be church in this? How about if we take
a little time in between Mass and Coffee Hour this Sunday, and talk about
how we make decisions together. I'll bet there are some great ideas just
waiting to be born!

This week will be our last "normal" Sunday for a few weeks. On March 27
there will be a Pancake Breakfast happening all morning in the dining room
(it's a fundraiser for Haiti--come!) so we will celebrate Mass up on the
third floor. If you come late that week, just keep going up until you run
out of stairs. The living room is just around the corner and I'm sure you'll
be able to hear us! The two Sundays after that, April 3 and 10, Eli and I
will be in El Salvador and Deacon Patti LaRosa will come and lead a
Communion Service. Please do come and celebrate with Patti!

This past Friday we had our first Fish Fry for Joe. I have to tell you, Peg
Gefell is one of the best cooks in Upstate New York, and this might be the
best fish fry you've ever had. $8 per dinner, no one turned away. 6-7:30 pm
every Friday in Lent. This is a fundraiser for our friend and brother Joseph
Moore, so he can appeal his asylum decision. We hope you'll come and support
Joe and have some truly wonderful fish and cole slaw.

Our Feast Day Mass is coming up soon, Thursday March 24. We hope you will join us on the 24th. 5:30pm Pot Luck, 7:00 pm Mass. We are still looking for musicians for that day. Please let me know if you'd like to play.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

"You shall walk your days in joy and you shall begin each day in peace. The
world around you, even the mountains and the hills shall not restrain their
song and the trees shall dance with you. Rather than injury there will be
strength, instead of harm there will be healing." Isaiah 55:12-13

Wednesday morning breakfasts are back on, if you'd like to practice your
Spanish. 8:00am, Pat's Coffee Mug on Clinton Ave.

Have a blessed week, and come visit us some Sunday!

__________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603

Bulletin for Sunday, March 13, 2011

2011-03-12T15:37:00.000-08:00

1st Sunday in Lent

Friends,

Hooray! It's Lent! I love this time of year. For one thing, spring is
coming! This afternoon there were birds flying around and singing on my
street, and daffodil shoots are showing where there are bare patches in the
snow. Before we know it there will be crocuses and tulips and forget-me-nots
and lilacs and roses, even. The snow is still falling but we all know what's
true about spring: you can't hold it back!

The other great thing about Lent is Lent itself. It's such a great time for
getting close to God. I like to think of Lenten disciplines as a chance to
clean out the clutter. You know how good it feels when you get a closet all
cleaned out, and you can find things in it again? That's Lent!

Some years I've taken Lent seriously, and other years I've let it slide.
When Easter comes around I find it feels a lot better if I've had the kind
of Lent with lots of letting go of unnecessary things, and bringing in some
good new things.

The three disciplines of Lent are prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Here's a
suggestion for prayer: have a set time each day, even if it's just five
minutes, to be quiet with God. Just open your hands and heart and let God
in. Bask in the presence of the One who loves you. God will be basking in
your presence, too!

Here's another thought: pray with others. Come to Mass more often, or join
in Lectio Divina, or join us for morning prayer at St Joe's on Mondays and
Wednesdays at 7:30 am. There's a wonderful energy when we pray together.

Lent is a great time to do some spiritual reading, too. Pick a book and make
it yours. Mark it up, write to God in the margins. (Um, if it's your own,
that is!) I'll add a list of some good books at the end of the bulletin
maybe one of them will speak to you.

Lenten fasts can take lots of different forms. Besides fasting from sugar or
coffee or meat or snacks or whatever, one can fast from complaining or
from buying extra things or from negative thoughts. If there's someone who
particularly drives you crazy, spend some time praying for them each day in
Lent. Ask God to give them a great day! I find praying like that helps me to
be softer with people I find difficult.

Lastly, almsgiving. Find some ways to give beyond what you normally do.
Maybe set some money aside each day. Skip buying coffee and give that money
away. Be generous! Let it be a generous, giving Lent.

The point is not spiritual calisthenics. The point is getting close to God!
There's a very old prayer: "Who are you, O God? And who am I?" Find out a
bit more about yourself and about this God that's so crazy about us all,
this Lent.

One way to do a little giving this March and April is to join us at St Joe's
on Friday nights for a fish fry. Our friend and brother, Joseph Moore, is
trying to stay in this country. He came here about twenty years ago from
Liberia. His asylum petition was recently denied, and it's going to be
expensive to appeal. But we want to do everything we can to help him, so on
the Fridays of Lent we'll have a fish fry. $8 per person, no one turned
away; eat in or take out. We're hoping to have music some of these Fridays so stay tuned! And make sure to tell anyone you think might be interested.

And remember to save Thursday, March 24 if you'd like to join us for a 5:30
pot-luck and 7pm Mass.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

Here are some suggestions for spiritual reading this Lent just some books
I've liked and want to recommend:

"The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne is one of the
most electrifying books I've read. Read Shane and get all excited about
changing the world!

"An Altar in the World" by Barbara Brown Taylor has some lovely reflective
pieces and would be good to read either alone, or with others you could
talk about one chapter at a time. Read her on suffering

Another book that would be great for a Small Christian Community to read
together is "The World as it Should Be: Living Authentically in the Here-and
Now Kingdom of God" by Gregory Pierce

"My Life With the Saints" by James Martin is a good read. And if you like
saints, Robert Ellsberg's "All Saints" is excellent.

If you like something structured, Joyce Rupp's book, "Open the Door," has
prayers and things for each day for six weeks. I got a lot out of that book.

Lastly, just about anything by Richard Rohr, Anne Lamott or Robert Wicks
will take you deeper and enrich your Lent.

Our Wednesday morning Spanish-practice breakfasts will start up again on
March 16.

Have a blessed week, and come visit us some Sunday!

_______________________________________________________

Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603

Bulletin for Sunday, March 6, 2011

2011-03-01T14:06:00.000-08:00

9th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

This past Friday was a very snowy day here in Rochester, and driving down my
street I slid on some super-compacted snow and got stuck in a snow bank.
Independent me, I tried and tried to get out, but finally had to admit I
needed help. One of my neighbors came and pushed me out. People on my street
seem to help each other a lot like that. So often I come out in the morning
and find that someone has cleared out my driveway. My next-door neighbor
mows my lawn in the summer, and when I bake bread I bring a loaf next door
to his family. Connections like that are part of what makes life good.

After I got out of that snow bank on Friday, I drove on in to work at St
John's Home where I'm a chaplain. I almost didn't go in, because of the
snow! But I was so glad that I did, because it turned out to be the day of
the annual Talent Show. People were singing and dancing and acting silly,
performing for each other. It reminded me of years ago at Corpus Christi
when we had some very silly Variety Shows, with ridiculous skits and
hilarious versions of movies like "Gone with the Wind." Laughing together is
one of the great treasures of community. It's gold in the bank for the hard
times that all communities go through.

Here at St. Romero's our Coffee Hour after Sunday Mass has turned into a
communal breakfast. Linda or Eli make some scrambled eggs. Rachael makes
toast, and Mark puts the coffee on. Then we sit and eat and talk. It's one
of the benefits of being such a small community! I believe that relaxing
together and enjoying each others' company is as important to community as
worshiping together, or working together to heal the world in more serious
ways. This helps to heal the world, too.

I hope that on Thursday, March 24, some of you who get this bulletin will
join us for a special Mass and Pot Luck. That day is the 31st anniversary of
the day Monseñor Oscar Romero was shot and killed while celebrating Mass,
because of his courageous voice in support of the poor of El Salvador. So
that means March 24 is our feast day. We will celebrate our newborn
existence as a community. You are most welcome to bring a dish to pass and
join us at 5:30 for supper, and to be here for Mass at 7pm.

Scott Peck said, "In community lies the healing of the world." Whether it's
the communities of our neighborhoods, or our workplaces, or our churches, we
need to be connected to each other. We need to dig each other out of snow
banks, and laugh together, and sit and eat and talk together. I'm so
grateful for all the community in my life! And I hope you'll come and help
build community with us, too.

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

"If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution!"
--Mother Jones

At 7 pm on March 9 you are welcome to come out to East Rochester to observe
Ash Wednesday with Mary Magdalene Church. I'll be celebrating Mass there
that night. Come and make a great start to Lent!

Our Wednesday morning Spanish-practice breakfasts will start up again on
March 16.

Have a blessed week, and come visit us some Sunday!

_____________________________________________________________
Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603

Bulletin for Sunday, February 27, 2011

2011-02-24T12:02:00.000-08:00

8th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friends,

Do you remember that book, "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in
Kindergarten" by Robert Fulghum? He said, "When you go out into the world,
hold hands, and stick together." I thought of that last night, visiting Mary
Magdalene Church to hear Bill Welch sing at a coffeehouse. Mary Magdalene is
a community that gives me hope! I love their by-laws that talk about
transparency, participation, empowerment and accountability. I love the way
they are working together to build the church they dream of. Our two
fledgling communities are indeed holding hands and sticking together,
offering moral support and encouragement that goes both ways. I think it's
wonderful that there are these little churches springing up here, and
around the country. The larger church is like a great big garden with all
kinds of flowers in it big ones, little ones all beautiful. In the
garden of the church I think we're the forget-me-nots!

On Ash Wednesday, March 8, I will celebrate Mass at Mary Magdalene Church,
401 Main St in East Rochester at 7 pm. You are welcome to come and receive
ashes with our sister community.

Our reading this Sunday is what has been called "the Gospel in a nutshell":
"Seek first the kingdom of God and Go's justice, and everything else will be
given to you besides."
That seems to me not so much a challenge, as simply the truth. We've lived
that. In my thirty years at Corpus/Spiritus Christi and St Joe's, we've seen
over and over the truth in the words of Jesus: don't be afraid. Put God
first, love each other, love the poor and all the people on the outside,
make sure everybody is included you won't do it perfectly but IT DOESN'T
MATTER just keep doing it. And all is well.

And now, I hear that as a call to us at St Romero's. Don't worry about
numbers, or money, or even having a church to celebrate Mass in. Just do the
work of the church: nurture the spiritual growth of the people of God, and
work to build the world God dreams of, where everyone has what they need for
life and growth, and you will have whatever you need to get that done.

We ask your prayers for our friend and brother, Joseph Tamba Moore. He has
been trying for many years to get his asylum petition granted, has been
turned down and is facing deportation to Liberia. There is a slim hope of
appeal, but it is very expensive. In addition, Joseph is grieving the death
of his brother, Fayiah, in Africa. In his seven years with us, Joseph has
become our brother. He was the best man at Sarah and Kevin's wedding in
2004, and in 2010 he was one of the people who laid hands on me in blessing
at my ordination. He has worked so hard recovering from a stroke as well
as years on the street. He has gone to school, worked as a greeter at
Wal-Mart, made many friends. There was a glad day about two years ago when
he got his driver's license. We are so proud of him, and now, we fear we
will be saying farewell. Please pray for our Joe.

We invite you to come and hear Kathy Kelly speak at the UR Interfaith Chapel
this coming Sunday night, February 27, at 7 pm, as part of the Gandhi
Center's Season for Non-Violence. I heard Kathy speak at Corpus Christi
years ago, and she was wonderful. She has been a part of the Christian
Peacemaker Teams movement, people willing to put their bodies in the way, to
stand with those being victimized by war. A group of us will leave from St
Joe's at 6:30 on Sunday, and you are welcome to join us.

Some folks are planning on a Peace Walk to Syracuse during Holy Week to
protest the drones that are based at Hancock Air Field, there. People will
be walking from around New York State, converging in Syracuse on Good
Friday. The need right now is for someone who can take on organizing places
for the Rochester walkers to eat and stay each night. If you would be
interested in helping with that task, or in walking, please contact Peg
Gefell at Peg.Fink.Gefell@gmail.com

For more info on drones, here are two websites:
http://www.peacecouncil.net/drones/index.htm
http://www.nevadadesertexperience.org/issues/uavs.htm

Blessings and love to all,
Chava

Save the date: Thursday, March 24, 5:30 pot-luck, 7pm Mass in honor of the
31st anniversary of the martyrdom of Monseñor Romero. A filmmaker in Mexico
has made a new documentary about him called"El Cielo Abierto" (The Open
Sky). Here is a link to the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIOkVwyMMEc
It's in Spanish but you can hear Msgr Romero preaching!

Our Wednesday morning Spanish-practice breakfasts will be on hiatus for two
weeks, and will start up again on March 16.

Have a blessed week, and come visit us some Sunday!
_______________________________________________________________

Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603

The Sacrament of Self-Doubt

2011-02-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

Three days after Christmas I went with friends in El Salvador to one of the most painful places to visit there, the village of El Mozote. In 1981, soldiers came into town and rounded up all the villagers, and methodically massacred nearly a thousand people, almost half of them, children. One woman lived to tell the story. Her name was Rufina Amaya, and eventually she was able to get an international team to come in and examine the site. Among the bodies they found, among the remains of children and mothers and fathers, they found bullet casings that were stamped with markings identifying them as having been made for the United States Government at Lake City, Missouri. US military advisors had trained the battalion that committed the massacre.
Sometimes I find it difficult to walk around in my North American skin in El Salvador. My country has done a lot of damage, there.
That same day, we went to the Museo de la Revolucion in the town of Perquon. Museum displays in El Salvador might break your heart, not just for what is displayed but for the poverty of the presentation. Old photos and posters were lovingly swathed in thin plastic wrap and hung on the wall, with hand-typed captions in Spanish and English. Over and over again in El Salvador I am bowled over by how much people can do with almost nothing, like those houses made out of sticks and bits of plastic. Here was a museum made of old posters and baggies. And it knocked me over.
After the first room, with its pictures and posters of Monsenor Romero and other, less recognizable, martyrs and heroes of El Salvador, we came to a room of posters from around the world, supporting the Salvadoran people during their years of struggle. I remembered my first big anti-war march in Washington in 1981, shouting "US out of El Salvador!" Somehow, driving all night to a protest march, a very big deal at the time, now felt like a tiny drop in a hole-y bucket. We protested the war," I told my friends. But we didn't stop it.
The next room was even more uncomfortable, and for a different reason. Here were proudly displayed guns and other armaments. Out back was a downed, captured chopper, and we heard the story from our guide. This pacifist Catholic Worker was not at peace. Vulnerable, oppressed people fought a well-supplied army for twelve years using bombs made out of old pipes and handkerchiefs, digging holes in the ground to bury their wounded alive until it was safe to retrieve them, living in tents made of bark out in the jungle. And made enough of a difference to get some dignity in the peace accords, becoming a recognized political party that is now in power both nationally and in Santa Ana. I walked around the room, looking at the displays, my pacifism struggling with my respect for people who did what they believed they had to do. What do I do with this?
My friend Ruth is a Baptist pastor in Santa Ana. It was a comfort to find her struggling in the same way that I was. How does one respond? How did the priests respond when the fighting people wanted to use their churches as a safe place to hide? Where does one stand in such a moment? How do you be true to yourself, and respond in love to the people around you? Are we only on the side of the oppressed as long as they are victims? Do they lose our support when they begin to fight back? It's a pastoral question that all idealists have to confront: what happens when our ideals come up against what someone else perceives as their necessity?
There is violence in a self-righteous perfectionism that says, "I'm following the way of Jesus," while my sisters and brothers suffer. I don't think so. That just can't be as perfect as it appears. I think perfection gets its hands dirty and makes mistakes and learns and suffers and bleeds.
I don't know where I would have stood in the midst of that conflict. My own heart insists on non-violence - and also on honoring the struggle of those who see violence as the only way out. Especially, we must not equate the responsive violence of those breaking out of deeply entrenched oppression with the violence of powerful governments and armies.
Our guide on the second part of our tour was a man who was once a guerilla. From the age of 16 to 28, he fought, he told us, and he believed in what they were doing. But now, at 47, he wonders. "On both sides," he said, "Rich people got richer, selling arms, while the poor killed each other. Poor people were both soldiers and guerillas, but the soldiers got paid. And for the poor, nothing has really changed."
War is not a solution. I have no doubt about that. I believe there is another way, a third way, as Walter Wink says, *neither acquiescing in oppression, nor responding with violence. That, I think, is the great challenge for the church to find that non-violent response that lays bare the injustice, to absorb suffering and transform it. We need to be very clear that we are never telling oppressed people to just take it, or to cooperate in their own oppression. And for me, as a North American woman among people my own government helped to repress, I think I need to remain in awe, to listen, to learn. I need to stand with broken heart and ask, each moment, what it means to love.

Oscar Romero Church
An Inclusive Church in the Catholic Tradition
Mass: Sundays, 11 am
St Joseph's House of Hospitality, 402 South Ave, Rochester NY 14603

________________________________________________________________
(to learn more about the El Mozote Massacre, see the UN Truth Commission Report at * HYPERLINK "http://dagmar.lunarpages.com/~parasc2/articles/0197/el_moz05.htm" **http://dagmar.lunarpages.com/~parasc2/articles/0197/el_moz05.htm*)
I am indebted to Walter Wink for the light his ideas have shed on this struggle: Walter Wink, Jesus and Non-Violence: A Third Way (Fortress Press 2003)

Rev. Chava Redonnet
* I am indebted to Walter Wink for the light his ideas have shed on this struggle: Walter Wink, Jesus and Non-Violence: A Third Way (Fortress Press 2003)