Rectors Message
June 2010
Dear People of God,
Summer is truly
upon us, and as you can see our garden is taking off which means weeds are
taking off too! The sign-up sheet for helping in the garden is still up, so
please consider participating in this important ministry this summer.
You will also notice a white "peace" pole going up in the
near future. This internationally recognized pole has 4 languages on it with
simply the word peace. It was proposed by Sherry Walker and Kathy Larson who
teach the 7 to 12 year old children. You also will have noticed, I hope, the
word peace on the railing leading into the portable classroom. Each person
who enters that building is asked to agree to enter in peace and sign their
name to the railing as witness. This act echoes a long Biblical tradition of
marking sacred spaces with signs of the Covenant made between God and God's
people. We are people of the “BOOK", the "Way" and the covenant made between
God and God's people.
We covenant to worship, praise, and serve God, and we
covenant to share as the Body of Christ the Good News of God's love. I
invite you this summer to reflect on how we, as individuals and as a
community, live out that covenant, and how we might more visibly show our
lives to be signs of God's peace and reconciliation in this World.
Peace,
Battle +
A concern has been raised about the
announcements Amy Harwell has made concerning Gail Owens, the Governor and
the death penalty. As you all know Amy is my wife. That said, it is not the
reason I have supported her in making those announcements. The Episcopal
Church is on record for over 70 years as being opposed to the death penalty.
Ten years ago when the state of Tennessee was about to begin executing
people again I submitted to our Diocesan convention a resolution affirming
the Church's opposition to the death penalty. That resolution included a
clause to make this known to our Governor, and calling on all Episcopalians
to support our Bishop in his opposition to the Death penalty. Our current
Bishop has communicated with the Governor expressing the Church's and his
opposition to the death penalty. If these announcements disturb you I would
invite you to come and talk to me, not that I might persuade you to believe
as I do but that we might acknowledge our differences and seek to be
reconciled .
God's Peace,
Battle +
Life at
St. Mark's . . .
Saint Mark's is, simply put, a wonderful congregation. I became
Rector in February, 2001.
back to the top
The
Rector's passion . . .
Family, the music of the Grateful Dead, justice, New Mexico [especially
the pueblo's , the Jemez mountains,
Bandalier National Monument, the church at Chimayo,…] Kentucky basketball, travel,
movies.
back to the
top
Provocative
Thoughts . . .
I intend to place a provocative thought here from time to time. This is an
invitation to you to engage me in conversation. I will respond as priest and person,
thoughfully and truthfully, to all comments sent to me in good will.
As we head into the season of
Lent I’m wondering why, generally, people view Lent as a time to beat
themselves up. Most of us look to see what we can give up during Lent or the
seeming opposite, what can we take on. Both of these activities presume that
by “Doing” more or less of something I will become a “better” Christian. Is
that really true or is it a case of the institution telling us to “do” because
the institution needs to justify its existence?
The west is one of two
cultures that believe we can make progress towards spiritual perfection over
time. (The other culture is Korean/Japan) Everyone else in the world believes
we simply are, and God simply is. We don’t get better or worse we just “Be”.
So perhaps this Lent we need
simply to make time in our lives to “Be”; to “Be” with ourselves, with God. No
expectations, no conditions, no improvement necessary, simply allow yourself
to Be.
Happy Lent.
Peace,
Battle - February 2002
Send your responses to or questions about this passage to Rev.
Beasley
|
"I
am dying
Because of a divine remembrance
Of who-I really am.
Hafiz, tonight,
Your soul
Is a brilliant reed instrument
In need of the breath of the
Christ.”
from
the poem, In Need Of The Breath. The Gift, Poems
by Hafiz, printed by permission Penguin Press.
|
What is your longing for God? We live in a country that claims great
belief in God, [80 + percent say they believe in God, fewer than 30 percent
actually worship anywhere] and yet there is very little "God talk"
anywhere outside the church. Further, most of the institutional God talk is
carried on by the "professionals", the ministers, Sunday school
teachers etc. And a lot of that talk seems to me to be its "my way or
the highway" pronouncements. All this makes me very sad. We are all
images of God, but we seem to take the importance of that very lightly. I
think this is in part because we are still so unconscious of our absolute
need for the breath of Christ to blow thru us. So I ask, what Is your
longing for God? If you don't know shouldn't you want to find out? And for
the church, shouldn't we be encouraging people to articulate this for
themselves instead of doing it for them?
Peace, Battle - January 2002
Send your responses to or questions about this passage to Rev.
Beasley
. . . It strikes me that the institutional church is sliding further and further
towards irrelevancy in the USA. Not as some would say, because of the "liberal
agenda", whatever that may mean: rather we are in danger of being irrelevant because
our religiosity in no way connects to people, where they live and work and play. Our
religiosity does not speak to the struggle to see, taste, feel, experience the presence of
God in their life, whether it fits our definition of God's presence or not. We have no
authentic voice articulating the life of the spirit in today's language. The word
"spirituality", much in vogue again these days, has been taken over by a wide
variety of folks, few of who have any connection to the institutional church. The serious
question for me is not how are we going to "convert " these folks but rather how
are we providing support & nourishment to any and all who are striving to articulate
their own spiritual journey? -July 2001
Rector's
Message