The
Gryphon’s Roar
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The
Gryphon’s Roar
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to This September's Articles
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
3100 Murfreesboro Pike
PO Box 741
Antioch, Tennessee 37011
615-361-4100
The Right Reverend Bertram Herlong Bishop of TennesseeThe Reverend Battle Beasley Rector
Debbie Colvin Senior Warden
Candy Burger Junior Warden
Elizabeth Gregory Treasurer
Suzie Abrahamson Clerk of the Vestry
Deadline for submissions to next month’s Gryphon is
Sunday, September 16Please submit articles at the earliest possible date to insure inclusion in the newsletter. Electronic submissions are preferred with text in the body of an email. Email submisions to: submitgryphon@earthlink.net
There is now a bin for submissions in the office. If you submit something, please put your name and contact information on it. I will make every effort to get it into the newsletter. - Shelley Davis, Ed.
Rally Day Report
The Reverend Battle Beasley
Dear People of God,
Rally Day was a whopping success by most accounts. First we Baptised Rachel Robnett and Clara Robnett, then we wandered the sanctuary and Reynolds hall learning about opportunities for education, prayer and service, celebrated the Eucharist and ate lunch!! All this before the sun went down! Many of you signed and returned your time and talent sheets and we thank you, for those who are still reflecting we encourage you to bring them to church this Sunday and put them in the offertory plate. And for those of you wanting more information, well, all you need do is ask and you shall receive. My thanks goes out especially to all who volunteered their time to host the different stations and who are leaders in those areas of our common ministry.
Note: You are invited to use The Gryphon’s Roar to relate your experiences, thoughts and feelings about these and other things happening here at St. Marks. Contact me if you would like to make a submission.—Ed.
An Evening Prayer
O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen
BCP—833.
Here is some great news! St. Mark's will be sponsoring a
Centering Prayer Introductory Workshop on Saturday, September 15, 2001 from 9 am
until 3 pm.
Bring a sack lunch. There is no charge, but we are requesting donations.
Local Contemplative Outreach staff will be presenting the workshop. AND, it gets even better!!! For six weeks, beginning the following Wednesday evening, during our regular Centering Prayer times (6:30-8), there will be Follow-Up Sessions. Each week there will be a 30 minute video, a session of Centering Prayer, and discussion time with handouts. Mark your calendars now; this is your chance to find out what it is all about. Watch for more information. Let me know if you plan to join us.
Peace—Gretchen Miller
A Divine Invitation
You have been invited to meet
The Friend.
No one can resist a Divine Invitation.
That narrows down all our choices
To just two:
We can come to God
Dressed for Dancing
Or
Be carried on a stretcher
To God’s Ward
.
from I Heard God Laughing, Renderings of Hafiz, Penguin USA, copyright 1996.
From time to time, I will be publishing these strange and wonderful little poems by a man named Hafiz. Hafiz was a Persian poet who lived between circa 1320 and 1389. In terms of literary style, Hafiz is in the same school as the Persian mystic poet Rumi, who lived a century before Hafiz.
Hafiz is celebrated as a poet whose clear voice and passion resonate even today, over seven-hundred years later. The author of our bank of Hafiz selections is a man named Daniel Ladinsky These translations are renderings – artful and lyrical interpretations from existing literal English translations from the Persian text.
But what ARE these strange and wonderful little poems which speak of “God’s Ward” and that we are to be prepared for “Dancing.” Daniel Ladinsky calls them “love songs” – songs which express joy in God, joy in the presence of the Beloved, the true Freedom of the spirit in God’s Love – and of course you are free to find whatever meaning you wish. Use the poems as a meditation or as a spiritual hors d’oeuvre, or perhaps even a meal if you are so inclined; discuss them, write about them if you wish, learn them by heart and recite them when your are stuck in traffic.
For me, these poems are a continual surprise. They have the habit of acting as a spiritual crowbar -- prying me open to shine the Divine Light of Love in all those dark places of fear and self-loathing. They unearth all those things in my spirit I don’t want to cop to; doubt, insecurity, fear, anger, sadness. Once recognized and denounced, a few more demons fly from me and the space if filled with incredible hope and light and life, deposited there by the gentle comfort and ebullient joy of the poem. Is that goofy? I don’t know. All I know is that for me, these poems broaden my spirit and satisfy my hunger for God and increase it at the same time. I am fed by these poems; they affect my spirit. I cry, I laugh, I realize I’m alive!
I asked Battle why he liked these poems, challenging him to verbalize something very visceral and tricky. This is what he told me:
“Hafiz expresses joy in the presence of God. He continually invites us to recognize the joy God has in us. Kind of the like the ‘60’s song ‘Wild thing” – Wild thing—you make my heart sing—you make everything –grooooovy! If that doesn’t make you smile, I hope over the years you, too, can find enriching insights in the poetry of Hafiz.”
So this is my invitation, at Battle’s behest, to you to engage with these poems, travel along with them for a while and see where you end up.
A note about copyright. We have special permission from the publishing company to use these poems in the Gryphon and select other publications of the church. Please do not make copies or publish these poems for yourself. If you are as enchanted and delighted by Hafiz as I hope you might be, you can find Mr. Ladinsky’s renderings of Hafiz’ poetry at Amazon.com at a reasonable price. The publisher encourages customers to purchase the books through Amazon.com. I’m sure you could obtain the book(s) from any major bookstore, as well. There are at least two books available that I am aware of.
I invite your thoughts as we go on our journey.
Peace, Shelley – Ed.
Episcopal News Service
US religious leaders divided over Bush's stem cell decision
(ENI) President George W. Bush has received both praise and criticism from US religious leaders for his decision to allow limited federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
In his first televised address to the nation since being sworn in as president in January, Bush said he would permit federal funding for research for a reported 60 "lines" of stem cells already created from embryos.
He also supported funding for non-embryonic stem cell research, such as on cells derived from adults. But he refused to allow federal funding for research that would result in any further "harvesting" of stem cells from tens of thousands of embryos now frozen at US fertility clinics.
Stem cells are cells that are capable of growing into different kinds of human cells, such as liver, skin or nerve cells. A human embryo, a few days old, can be used to create a "reservoir" of stem cells, which is
called a stem cell line. Many scientists argue that embryonic stem cell research can help in medical battles against such diseases as juvenile diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. However, removing stem cells destroys the embryo, and the issue therefore has serious ethical implications.
Bush's decision has been strongly criticized by US Roman Catholic leaders, but has received support from mainstream Protestants, and from the leader of the conservative Christian Coalition.
The president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, likened the existing stem cells to "ill-gotten goods" that had made the US government complicit in what he called
"wrongdoing.'' "The trade-off [Bush] has announced is morally unacceptable," Fiorenza said in a statement. "The federal government, for the first time in history, will support research that relies on the destruction of some defenseless human beings for possible benefit to others."
However, the decision was praised by a key figure in Bush's own denomination, the United Methodist Church, one of the biggest Protestant denominations in the United States. In a statement issued on
August 10, Jim Winkler, chief executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, said that the decision "provides a space to explore the potential of embryonic stem cell research without destroying [any more] human embryos."
The United Methodist Church has not taken a formal position on the issue of embryonic stem cell research. However, the denomination has called for a ban on cloning human embryos, as well as on research that it said "generates waste embryos."
Pat Robertson—president of the conservative Christian Coalition, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network and a one-time Republican presidential candidate--said Bush had provided "an elegant solution to the thorny issue of stem cell research by firmly protecting the rights of the unborn while allowing potentially life-saving research to go forward."
Larry Rasmussen, who teaches social ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, told ENI that the decision on stem cell research and the debate that surrounded it were evidence of a "new phase" in the field of social ethics.
"When you work on the basic building blocks of life itself, that ratchets up the social consequences considerably," Rasmussen said.
However, "social justice questions," such as the issue of access to any medical advances derived from stem cell research, had not been heard in the current debate, said Rasmussen, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
"Is the market going to determine who has the access to these medical advances?" Rasmussen asked. "You also don't have the voices of minority communities in the circles of bioethics, where questions of race, class and gender are not being asked."
The fact that a number of stem cell lines were owned by medical companies, he added, might mean that the field was "wide open for corporate funding" of stem cell research, something that could lead to new ethical questions.
The Irony of Faith
by Lane Denson
Faith, like the tomb at Easter, is empty and yet the source of new life.
Paul told the Philippians that Christ Jesus, "though he was in the form
of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied
himself, taking the form of a servant... and humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even death on a cross." (Phil 2.5-8)
Religion, of course, is full, it is anything but empty. Its cup overflows
with creeds and doctrine, history and liturgies. Perhaps these sustain us
when we are in need, but they are not, as some would make them, ends in
themselves.
The suicide bombers claim it is better to seek self-righteous purity rather than to work for justice, thus becoming a tragic example of how religion can go awry as an end in itself. Though it may often behave as if it is, even the church is not an end in itself. Like the tomb, the church exists not to preserve religion and its hierarchy, but to enable the faithful to empty themselves.
Faith is not a system, least of all, a religion. There is really no such thing as "The Faith," only "the faithful." For faith is a bearing, a style, a disposition, a radical willingness to enter into and live one's life in service to others. Faith is not only why we are here, but it is also why we must leave, why there might well be added to the Liturgy's dismissal the option, Get up, get out, and get lost.
Do
Good Anyway
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered -
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives -
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies -
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you -
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight -
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous -
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow -
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough -
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God -
It never was between you and them anyway.
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