December 10, 2011 Subversive Alliances

Winter. The embrace of darkness and light.
Roses in winter.....
We gathered on Saturday, Dec. 10. And we celebrated the Magnificat!
Why not! We will not gather again until Saturday January 14!
So this was both our Advent and Christmas!

My being glorifies the Holy
and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.......
.....The Holy One throws the powerful off their thrones....
.....God elevates the humble and fills the hungry with good things....
In this reading from Luke, the Magnificat, speaks about the Transformative and Subversive Alliances among such wonderful pairs as Maryam and Elizabeth, Our Lady of Guadalupe/Tonantzin and Juan Diego and Immigrantes into the U.S. and their families in Mexico. We heard how one mother asked her son who would attempt to cross the US border from Mexico to make two promises: hike the mountains daily near their village to get in shape and secondly, memorize the Magnificat and recite it over and over throughout his journey. This prayer of risk taking and subversive alliances was our inspiration as we gathered for Eucharist.

What you see here are pictures, close ups, of faces amongst Sophia in Trinity. Catch in these faces the spirit of our community--a community of celebrants! Catch in these faces the Spirit that leads us forward.....

Sept. 10, 2011 An Understanding of Forgiveness & a Celebration of Ernest!

On this day that preceded the nation's 10 year remembrance of 9/11, we spoke about
what forgiveness means to each us, the struggle for it, the need for it, the peace that occurs
when forgiveness is found. It was fitting then that two young people among us, Nina and
Caitlin, both of whom hardly remember 9/11, offered the prayers of blessing for our bread
and wine.
We also celebrated that one year ago, Sept. 10, 2010, Ernest Camisa began his transparent translations of the lectionary year. We honor his commitment, his knowledge and his
passion for opening up the Bible readings and making them new in our ears and hearts through his transparent translations!

Our next gathering will be Sept. 24 and we will Break/fast with one another and our Eucharist

will emerge from it!

July 23, 2011: The Feast of Mary Magdalene at Sophia in Trinity

We break-fasted, we improvised Magdalene's community yesterday and today, we celebrated Eucharist, we sang,
we anointed each other, we saw the future of women in the Catholic Church in the faces of young women, and we signed a ribbon that will represent us at the national retreat of Roman Catholic Womenpriests.
A blessed day of community!!!

July 9, 2011 The Sower & Seeds, AKA The Roman Missal Crisis

The Holy One is sowing grace and wisdom everywhere among us--it is taking root in our communities and will flower and will eventually feed many. Our problem is we cannot see it right now. But seeds are surely coming to the surface, even cracking through cement.

These are not Monsanto seeds God is sowing: " the word will not come back to me empty" Isaiah says. The promise of each seed--is life.

I was talking to a disheartened Catholic woman the other day:

She had stood up in a meeting of 100 liturgy leaders from parish communities in the Monterey diocese. She said ………

So much energy, time and resources have been spent on these changes in the Eucharist liturgy with the missal. What if we were to expend all this energy, time and resources to help to meet the needs of people suffering all around us?

She was amazed when everyone broke into applause.

Next day the deacon in her parish said to her:

Maybe this is the time when finally it will be apparent that the emperor has no clothes. People are upset. Complying or leaving are just ways of letting the naked hierarchy win. A lot of people are just not going to put up with it.

The seed of life in this story--is seeking the real life of the church. The Magisterium is not fertile soil. You all know that when the seed hits, and you hear the word of God--you know the Word of Life when it opens you up and helps you to be real and compassionate.

The new liturgy is like Monsanto seed. It's dead. It's not the word of God. The people, the liturgists are all saying--- we want what gives us life, the real seeds. We know the Sower. And these are not the seeds of the Sower.

June 23: Break-Fast and Eucharist

What a joyous break-fast and Eucharist! We all welcomed Olivia Doko, the bishop of the western region of Roman Catholic Womenpriests [RCWP]. Olivia shared that she was elected bishop by the women priests,deacons and candidates of the western region. She is a pastor to the priests/deacons/candidates [not administrator, and not modeled on the RCC model of bishop as a kind of "ceo"]. She is in discernment with the various communities served by women priests as to what her relationship might be to those communities. "This is all a work in progress" she said. We also welcomed several guests from the East Bay community that has formed, Namaste Catholic Community.

Victoria started the break-fast noting that it was SF Gay Pride Weekend and so we might ask the question--how have each of us been called "out" ? Some spoke of how they came out as LGBT persons, others spoke of how they came out as Jesus followers. And then Victoria "outed" Maria Eitz who was announced as a candidate for priesthood in RCWP! There were shouts of joy and sustained applause for Maria! What a wonderful gift to our community she is and will be! All covenanted with her to support her through the process.

The Eucharist is always a surprise in how it unfolds from the break-fast, is revealed, erupts! [and it does at 10:30am]. We spoke of the mystery of the Eucharist, and how it is revealed in every cell of the universe, that it is an intimacy with the Christ in which we realize we are flowing from God as the body of God.

JUST SO IT'S CLEAR.....We are experimenting! And so we have this break-fast/Eucharist on the 4th Saturday of each month. The break-fast starts at 9:30am, Eucharist 10:30. And our regular Eucharistic Celebration occurs on the 2nd Saturday of each month at 10:30am.

April 23: Holy Saturday at Sophia in Trinity

As a community we decided to gather for breakfast on Holy Saturday morning at our usual time of 10:30am in order to reflect together about what this day means for each of us. In the exact place where the cross had been for Good Friday services the previous day, we created a long table with purple tablecloths and vases of beautiful irises. This poem, by Kim Rosen, was brought to us by Linda Hutton and shared during the breakfast, along side the gospel that speaks of how Jesus' body was placed in the cave.
Between
But its the cave I want to know.
Not how He left, rose, became a something
again. But what happens in the cave.

Not blood, not body, not wine stamped with the memory
of blood, but the space between breath
and breath where we are nowhere

to be found.
Someone weeps outside.
Someone tugs at the boulder.
Someone clings to a torn lock of His hair.

And inside, in the still, lightless air
the turning back
into everything.

At a certain point in our reflections, remembering that in the Holy Saturday Vigil the Church-gathered baptizes people into the Catholic community, Victoria asked all of us to recommit to the path of Christ before we meet the Christ on the path to Emmaus.

In that same spirit, Barbara and Kevin, were invited to stand and lite their wedding candle because theywished to renew their wedding vows to each other, in the presence of their daughter Monica and the community. Victoria offered: "Just as we support those approaching the waters of rebirth tonight across the world in the Easter Vigil Liturgy, so too do we ask all of you to witness to Barbara and Kevin's renewal of commitment and offer them our support and joy." Afterward, Victoria offered a blessing as the community surrounded Barb and Kevin, laid their hands upon them and offered blessings as well. And then of course we sang our blessings to one another!

What a beautiful Holy Saturday!

April 9: A New Ministry Begins!

On Sunday, March 6, Victoria was invited to offer a sermon at the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco. This historic congregation has been in existence as an LGBTQ
congregation for 40 years! Here is an audio link to the sermon: "Prophets of a New Christianity"

Rev. William Knight, being the good pastor that he is, said that there were a number of former Catholics in MCC who desired something more from their worship. He then invited Victoria to begin a monthly Eucharist at MCC-SF, 150 Eureka St., San Francisco. The first one was April 9--and will continue on the second Saturday of each month at 4:00pm.

Feb. 11, 2011: A Saturday in Ordinary Freedom Time

On this day after the Egyptian Youth Revolution has succeeded our Freedom Eucharist used symbols such as the Egyptian flag, a Palestinian chalice, a crystal chalice commemorating Victoria's ordination, and bread from Tunisia - all symbols of a peace-filled liberation.

DECEMBER 5 & 9: BAY AREA PREMIERES OF "PINK SMOKE OVER THE VATICAN"

Blogs are intermittent: September 25, 2010: Two Eucharists: San Francisco & East Bay

These blogs have been intermittent and hardly a reliable source for our liturgies!
However, given this, much has transpired since our last blog of July 10. We have continued our liturgies, twice a month. The second and fourth Saturday mornings of each month @ 10:30am. We welcome you to join us!

We are also happy to announce the forming of a new community, in the East Bay. The Women of Magdala, already a vibrant group of concerned Catholic women, have invited Victoria to preside at a Eucharist once a month, to coincide with the same Saturday that Sophia in Trinity meets. This new East Bay group, composed of women and men, gathers on the 4th Saturday of each month at 4:00pm in different houses. To join in these Eucharists contact Gwen at animo3@pacbell.net Here is a photograph from our first liturgy together at the end of July in the backyard of John Kiefer.

July 10: Who is the Good Samaritan and Why Should I care?

Martin Luther King, Jr. in his "I've Been to the Moutaintop" speech, on the day before he was assasinated, described the road from Jerusalem to Jericho that is the place of the Good Samaritan parable--

I remember when Mrs. King and I were first in Jerusalem. We rented a car and drove from Jerusalem down to Jericho. And as soon as we got on that road I said to my wife, "I can see why Jesus used this as the setting for his parable." It's a winding, meandering road. It's really conducive for ambushing. You start out in Jerusalem, which is about 2100 feet above sea level. And by the time you get down to Jericho fifteen or twenty minutes later, you're over 800 feet below sea level. That's a dangerous road. In the days of Jesus it came to be known as the "Bloody Pass." And you know, it's possible that the priest and the Levite looked over that man on the ground and wondered if the robbers were still around. Or it's possible that they felt that the man on the ground was merely faking, and he was acting like he had been robbed and hurt in order to seize them over there, lure them there for quick and easy seizure. And so the first question that the priest asked, the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?

But then the Good Samaritan came by, and he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

On the one hand we are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

APOLOGIES !!

We have been having wonderful worship experiences and I have been off the mark in not keeping up with our gatherings on this blog. My apologies to all!

We will be meeting for worship this Saturday, July 10, at 10:30am.

Hope to see you all there.

Blessings
Victoria

March 27: Oscar Romero Presente!!

March 27: We will Gather at Grace Cathedral

Dear Sophia in Trinity Community--Instead of meeting for Eucharist, we will gather as a community at 10:45am at the labyrinth core in Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. At 11am we will celebrate Bishop Romero's life with many other inter-faith sisters and brothers. Come to the Celebration Commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador. Following the reception there will be a 2:00pm Immigration Forum.

March 13: Sherri Maurin to Lead our Homily

Following our Eucharist, we will also hear from Sherri about her recent trip to Palestine/Israel and Egypt.

February 13 And February 27, 2010

The time since Roy Bourgeois was with us has flown by! February 13 we celebrated a Valentine Eucharist and celebrated all of the good heart work that Judy Liteky, Susan Powers and Michael Bush did in organizing Roy's visit to the Bay Area. Our great thanks as a community to each of you and all the volunteers for creating an inspiring event that featured Roy, Anna Lange-Soto [Episcopal priest] and myself/Victoria. A very special thanks to Judy for coordinating all of the Northern California speaking engagements for Roy. What magnificent work! Thank you!


Our Eucharist on February 27 opened our season of Lent together. We are following a theme: Listening, Deep. We looked at the landless movement in Brazil and discussed what a birthrite might be: a place to live, food, shelter, education. We understood that hope drives one's birthrite. And hope emerges from discontent. Perhaps many of us share a Sacred Discontent--for the Holy One has given us a spiritual birthrite: the land of ourselves to plant and to grow.
We asked ourselves what are our discontents and our hopes for ourselves, our church and our world.

January 23: Opening the Stained Glass Ceiling

On this joyous day, we celebrated Eucharist and among us
was Fr.Roy Bourgeois, Maryknoll priest. Fr. Roy Bourgeois is calling for the ordination
of women priests in the Roman Catholic Church. On this day we gave thanks for the
ordination of women priests as a matter of justice,
and pray that the Vatican sees the Light and recognizes the "sensus fidelum"
---that the People of God want women priests.
The reading from Corinthians says it well:
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.

Jimmy Carter also says it well:
Today, when religious institutions exclude women from their hierarchies and rituals, the inevitable implication is that females are inferior. "The Elders" are right that religious groups should stand up for a simple ethical principle: any person’s human rights should be sacred, and not depend on something as earthly as their genitals.

January 9, 2010: Epiphany and Baptism

At our Eucharist, we celebrated the Nativity, the Epiphany, and the Theophany all in one. We were reminded in our shared homily that the in breaking of G-O-D into time is sometimes brilliant LIGHT, but just as often, beholding life in a soft LIGHT, even sometimes slightly out of focus. And too that the rupture, the parting of the clouds over our brother Jesus in the Jordan was most astonishing in saying "This is my Beloved." That this in breaking heralds for all of us if we but claim it that we too are called "Beloved" by the Holy. Yes, astonishing!

James Joyce wrote that the epiphany was the sudden "revelation of the whatness of a thing," the moment when "the soul of the commonest object ... seems to us radiant."
Yes, we, as our brother Jesus has shown, are all radiant to the Holy in our common humanity.

And now, sisters and brothers, as radiant beloved people let us turn our Light and Love to the needs of others in our world as Howard Thurman reminds us:
The Work of Christmas?
When the song of angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the wise men and wise women are back home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild nations,
To bring peace to all,
To make music in the heart.
Howard Thurman (adapted)