7 Quick Takes

One

We are having lovely family visit and don't have barely any seconds to spare for anything. So far baby Cousin J is surviving our massive toddler and we're (or at least I am) eating way too much and enjoying the little bit up sun we've had this week.

Two

Happy Birthday Matt!!!!
We'll all be eating brownies this afternoon and Matt will watch us because of his remarkable self control. Also, I believe there is a balloon to be given to him, and a jar of purple cabbage.

Three

Here's a very interesting article in the WSJ about the ongoing Anglican crisis in the US which mentions Good Shepherd. 

Four

Our main Sunday School program is Catechesis of the Good Shepherd but I've been unhappy with the fettucia and other "creation" lessons. So we bought the two creation lessons from Godly Play. But, um, wow, really really amazingly bad theology. Does anyone else have experience with these lessons? (Like in has already rewritten them and is willing to share?) The "Falling Apart" one is so bad it makes me feel unwell to read it.

Five

I wish I had time to create a reformed/Anglican version of something with all the ease of Godly Play but all the depth of beauty of Catechesis and really good reformed theology and deep and wonderful exegesis. I would have a little atelier in my back garden and create beautiful materials (just like Sofia next to the vatican but mass produced on some tiny cute assembly line) and put up my own little youtube videos.

Six

Gladys is this moment being very unkind to her brother and not playing with him. I'm not sure why he wants to play with her but he does and she's figured out that she holds the upper hand. They're like these miniature dysfunctional old married people from an Onion headline--Area Toddler Insists on Playing Princesses Alone.

Seven

Alright, all the other children are wanting to wrap up a variety of strange objects for Matt and if I don't go help them they'll take all my kitchen towels.

Go check out Jen!

article from One News Now

A very nice article was just written up in OneNewsNow. Here is the link.
And here is the reporter talking about the whole matter.

Perhaps what we were thinking

but didn't have the gumption to say out loud. The Anglican Curmudgeon fisks Judge Lebous.
Here's a little taste:

For the latest example of such a judicial shortcut, see this decision by Judge Ferris Lebous in the lawsuit brought by the Diocese of Central New York against the Church of the Good Shepherd in Binghamton. Earlier, Judge Lebous granted summary adjudication to the Diocese on its claim to own by forfeit the parish's real and personal property after the parish voted to leave the Diocese. (Never mind that there were not enough parishioners remaining to allow the building to stay open; it's the principle of the thing, don't you understand? "People may leave, but buildings stay put, even if they are empty. We can always sell them---but not to those who left, you understand---and put the cash to good use in suing other parishes for their property.")

By granting summary adjudication, Judge Lebous necessarily found that there were no facts in dispute that needed a trial to sort them out. No, all was clear from the respective affidavits submitted on either side.

A Great Comment over at SF, and a Request for Prayer

Chancellor, over at Stand Firm, posted this very helpful comment last night, concerning our current situation at Good Shepherd.

A propos of “turning my Father’s house into a market” (John 2:16, referenced in the good Bishop’s sermon), the recent decision by Judge Ferris Lebous in the case of the Diocese of Central NY against Fr. Matt’s Church of the Good Shepherd (http://www.standfirminfaith.com/media/decision_and_order_03_20_09_good_shepherd.pdf) provides a textbook example of how to misconstrue motives. As I read the Judge’s rather cursory opinion, the parishioners of Good Shepherd are to be punished by further legal proceedings for having the temerity to decrease---nay, even withhold---their voluntary contributions to the Church while the Diocese sought to confiscate all of its property and assets in a lawsuit. The Judge says that he is “troubled” to find that parishioners stopped putting money into the collection plate beginning about April 2008, and that this decrease meant that the parish “was doing everything it could to spend down the assets, divert new income, and perhaps even actively interfere with the Diocese’s right of ownership.” (Bold emphasis added.)

Could any words more appropriately convey the sense of what Jesus was doing when he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and ordered the dovesellers to get out? Notwithstanding the Dennis Canon, which expressly states that all parish property is to be used for the benefit of the parish while it remains in ECUSA, Judge Lebous (and apparently the DCNY, which asked him so to find) thinks that a parish has no right to spend down its assets if parishioners stop contributing because the Diocese is suing them to get all their property. Instead, the poor parishioners must continue “business as usual"---making their Sunday contributions as though nothing was wrong---all the while that the Diocese plots how quickly it can take over everything they have.

Under this view, a parish is nothing more than a local business which finds itself on the “market” once the Diocese sues it, and must continue with its “business” as though nothing was wrong (pending its confiscation by the Diocese). But this “market” is completely rigged from the get-go by the Dennis Canon: “heads ECUSA/the Diocese wins, and tails you (the parish) lose.” So by all means, suckers, keep putting your money in the plate, otherwise the Court will see to it that you have to spend even more money to explain why you weren’t overjoyed to do so while you were being sued.

Not only that, but we will find you blameworthy of even daring to think that you might have a right to take certain property which you donated to the Church when the Court orders you out on just a few days’ notice. For that property was not donated to the parish, don’t you see? No, it was donated to the people who were suing you---because you are a Christian, are you not? You are supposed to give the people who are suing you the shirt off your back, and then to be ashamed that you didn’t think to leave them your coat, too.

The problem with Judge Lebous’ thinking is that it requires Fr. Matt’s parishioners to live fully up to the Christian ideal while it rewards the DCNY for insisting on the terms of a very un-Christian, unilateral contract (once you join our church, all your property is ours when you leave) that the parishioners never knew about or assented to. (Cf. Bishop O’Neill in the recent Colorado case: “Oh, we don’t expect the average parishioner to know anything about the canons.") Well, Matt is fully up to the standard laid on him by Judge Lebous. If you want a perfect example of Christian charity while under siege for all that you have (and then some), you have only to read the letter Matt+ wrote to his parishioners (http://binghamtongoodshepherd.blogspot.com/2009/04/letter-to-church-of-good-shepherd.html) explaining why they had to hand over all the things they thought were theirs to control, and to let the Diocese have all that it wanted. Blessings upon you and your parishioners, Matt+ --- you have set an example for all Christians to emulate, and have demonstrated the simple truth of our fathers’ adage: “A good example is the best sermon.”

I want to particularly ask for prayer that we as a church, and me in particular, would be able to maintain a steady calm in the ongoing roller coaster of this legal mess. After an unhappily cold winter, and the pain of sudden loss, and the difficulty of a complete move in a short time, we are settling in brilliantly and contentedly to our new house and church. The swing set is up, the older children are eager to study and learn, Romulus has stopped asking to go home every day, the baby is her cheerful exhausting self, and we need to keep our eyes fixed forward, on Jesus, and on the work he is giving us to do. I need a super natural miracle to maintain a steady spiritual life as daily we continue in this battle waged against us.

For those of you who often forget to read the Good Shepherd Blog

Please go check out this letter that Matt has just written to Good Shepherd. We finally got word from the Judge concerning the Brennan Estate. Not surprisingly we lost. But the decision was troubling on other respects, and Matt deals with that in the letter. Please do check it out, and please also pray for the Episcopal Church, for the Judge, and for all those who so desperately need the grace and truth of Jesus in their lives.

Sunday in Review

None of the children are sleeping any more, at night. Even the baby, our best sleeper, was up much of the night. Elphine has been sleeping on a mattress at the end of our bed, and Romulus in our bed, without exception, breaking our hard and fast rule of NO Children in Bed, only a few cats. So we're all a little tired and raw today, and facing a serious bout of cleaning before we can start filling boxes.

Yesterday was like so much of the Christian life-rich, heartbreaking, beautiful, painful. It was hard to find someone who wasn't crying, but the service was probably our best yet, in that building, apart from the Pageant and the last Easter Vigil. Micah switched music around, we managed to organize incense in the ten minutes before the service started, Matt preached the best sermon that I have ever heard, I could go on and on.

I would go on to say a lot more but everybody else needs attention.

A Quiet Friday Evening

Thank you all, so much, both here and on Stand Firm, for your prayers, well wishes, support, everything.

I've had a glass of wine and I'm all weepy, but its been an intense 24 hours. I've cleared out our offices at church of all our books, the picture of my grandfather a few months before he died, the big wall of pictures my kids have taped up over the last six years, and I have the promise of some SERIOUS boxes to be delivered tomorrow so that we can begin to pack up this house.

I indulged us in some comfort food-sausages, cauliflower with cheese sauce-and I've been thinking through, all evening, which rooms need to be packed first, and which last. I think the kitchen needs to packed last and unpacked first (wherever we end up, because that's still Totally up in the air), and the basement needs to be packed first and probably stay packed for a long while.

Elphine wanted to know two things.
1. Whether she and Gladys (what I'll be calling her baby sister from now on) will be able to have a pink and purple princess room wherever we go, and whether they
ll be able to live together FOREVER.
2. How will we get to heaven? Will God lift us up in his own hands?

Aloysius and Romulus dressed up as Good and Bad Spidermen and care not what happens in the future.

Gladys wants to be held all the time and talk, even though none of us know what she is saying, whatever it is, its VERY important.

Tomorrow I'm going to lead the Women's Bible Study, as usual, and then go buy more femo (easy bake clay stuff), because my Sunday School class are making their own nativity scenes. And then I'm going to start filling boxes with books, toys, summer clothes, and socks.

I only have one more thing I really have on my heart. And that is how in awe and in love with my husband I am, today, as always. He has so carefully and lovingly steered this congregation toward the Word of God, toward Jesus, so that 100 or so people, here in Binghamton New York are able to say unequivocally, and unwaveringly that they will go all the way to the cross for His sake. There is no hesitation, no blinking of the eye. These people love God first and they are willing to stake all that they own on it. And Matt has patiently and truly lead us, as a congregation, to this moment. He has walked, step by step, vestry meeting by vestry meeting, sermon by sermon, bible study by bible study, to this moment, and God, this very night, is glorified. I'm totally delighted. I feel a little like Bilbo, running out of my house without my shoes, on an amazing adventure.

Matt sent this letter out to the church this morning

Dear Good Shepherd,
As you may or may not have heard, the judge has ruled and we have lost our building and all of our assets. There is, at the moment of this writing, no time specified for our departure. We expect an order to arrive sometime in the next few days that will give us some indication of how long we will remain here. It could be a matter of days, it could be a month or more, we simply do not know. When we do, we will get the information to you as soon as possible. Pay attention to the website, the blogsite, Sunday announcements and your phone messages for news. In the meantime, we must prepare our hearts and minds to go.

This little white church on the corner of Livingston and Conklin has been a part of all our lives and the lives of those in our neighborhood for many years. Some of us have spent our whole lives here. This is painful news.

This may seem especially difficult given the fact that there is no discernible good in the future of this building. It will, we presume, no longer be used to feed people or to proclaim the Gospel. It seems as though we have lost. But we must remember what we know about God, what He has revealed about His character:

The Lord passed before him [Moses] and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” Exodus 34:6-7

God is gracious, merciful, loving and provident towards his children. His greatest provision was sending his own Son, Jesus, to die on our behalf. As sons and daughters of God through faith in Jesus Christ, the darkness is never final. The light is greater than the darkness. God's providence is greater than the destruction of sin. Jesus died but he also rose from the dead. So it is for His people. There is no “end” or “death” or “despair” for us because we know that in all things God works for his glory and for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28). Because God is faithful to his promises, we look to our future knowing it to be one full of hope. God has been faithful to us in the past. He is faithful to us now. He will be faithful to us in the future.

We have been praying for the better part of a year now, asking for God's guidance and direction. God has answered our prayers. He has closed one door and now all that remains is to go forward into the new future and new home God has prepared. Our location will change. Our mission will not. We will continue to share the good news of eternal salvation won by Jesus Christ. We will continue to serve our neighbors, feed the hungry, and help the poor, just as we have in the past.

But there is something else that we must do that, at least for the moment, may be far more difficult: Love those who are forcing us out. Perhaps they do not know what they are doing. Perhaps they do. Either way, ask God to forgive them and pray that he will give us the grace to do the same. Anger is not always sinful but it can easily and quickly become so. Unchecked anger leads to bitterness, hatred, and resentment and all of these things hurt our relationship with God and damage our capacity to reflect his love and beauty into the world. Just as God has been merciful to us, daily forgiving our sins and wickedness, so we must, by his grace and help, return good for evil and pray for those who persecute us.

The vestry is very sad, but we are also thankful. Our future is now clear. What wonderful things God has in store for us. He has set us free from the bondage of this lawsuit and free, finally, of the turmoil in the Episcopal Church. We are not only thankful to be free, but thankful that we have been tested and found worthy by his grace of suffering loss for the sake of Christ, of being purified by sacrifice. We know that what we have been enduring is only preparation for greater things to come and that all of this being worked out for the good of those who love Christ.

And we love Christ. This has been the defining mark of our church body. Let Christ be our banner and our seal, the Rock to which we cling. Let Christ go before us and behind us. Above all let His holy name be praised.

In Christ,
The Vestry, Warden, and Rectors of the Church of the Good Shepherd

How it Went

Matt has written pretty thoroughly how the hearing went this morning. We took the two oldest with us and they were golden and perfect even though we had to wait for a lot of other cases to be heard.

Now they are shouting and running laps and jumping off the furniture and I am googling, of all things, for a Magical Princess Talking Chair which my daughter unhelpfully saw somewhere and appears to have prayed to Santa for. It is interesting that Santa, apparently, can be contacted spiritually, in their hearts as it were, and not in person (they wouldn't talk to him in the mall, or go near him, sensibly).

Anyway, I have nothing to say about the hearing except that I think it is so funny, and a little weird, that the prosecuting lawyer seems to feel so persecuted by the long process we have put him through, as if it isn't his job to do the work he is doing, and he isn't being payed by the hour. I mean, I'm really sorry we didn't just sign everything over and give up. I think its sort of amazing that they expected us to. But I find it a little whiny that he would take it personally. Also, due to the razor like perception of the judge, it is ridiculous that so many of us (well, I was a baby so I don't count) sat quietly by while 1. women were ordained illegally, 2. the Prayer Book was "revised" and 3. the Dennis Cannon was 'passed'. But, God is patient, even with me, and even if it is 30 years late, better now than not at all. Not that we're trying to take it back, but certainly not to prosper it in all its weird and whiny works. As for me and my household, we look forward to our new life in a new church.
Here's the Video