Unexpected Grace : May 23 & 24

Sand dollars are gifts from the sea. Unexpected graces. And that is what Sophia in Trinity, in gratitude, gave to Trinity Episcopal Church this last Sunday, May 24 at their 11am Mass. It is through Trinity's creative generosity that we worship twice a month in Mary's Chapel--Mary's womb. The day before, Saturday May 23, during our Eucharistic Celebration, Sophia in Trinity members created cards of blue with sand dollars attached and wrote of our gratitude to Trinity. They are in so many ways our "Unexpected Grace." An Episcopal community that invited a new Catholic community to be born in its midst. Thank you indeed! After the Mass at Trinity, members of their community, placed some of the sand dollars on their side altar--their healing altar.

On Saturday May 23, Lucy and Greg Garcia created our beautiful space for Eucharist. Felipe brought flowers. Evelie offered music with the theme of gratitude woven throughout our Eucharist: "Breathe Through Me, Blessed Spirit," "The Ocean Refuses No River" "Song of the Flower" [K.Gibran, adapted & arrg. by Evelie] and "This is my Thanksgiving Day." And Felipe brought a pan of his famous cheese puffs for our community hour following the Eucharist.
As you can see, the morning celebration was full of "unexpected grace!" Sophia is truly among us, guiding us, inspiring us.

June 13, 10:30am, will be our next gathering. It will be a special worship service, coordinated by Janice Del Fiacco, since Victoria must be back east to preside at a wedding.

We also want to thank Kathleen Kunster for being our guest presider on May 9 at Sophia in Trinity. It's was a wonderful opportunity for Sophia in Trinity to experience the many different gifts of the organization: Roman Catholic Womenpriests [www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org] of which Victoria is also a member.

April 25, Celebration of the Earth

Our Eucharist was devoted to restoring our relationship with the earth.
It began with Evelie Delfino Posch sharing this beautiful song :


"Breathing In, Breathing Out"
{Poem: Thich Nhat Hanh; Music: Betsy Rose; Arr. Evelie S Posch}

Breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, breathing out
I am blooming as a flower, I am fresh as the dew
I am solid as a mountain, I am firm as the earth
I am free, I am free, I am free

Breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, breathing out
I am water reflecting what is real, what is true
And I feel there is space deep inside of me
I am free, I am free, I am free

Throughout the liturgy we reflected on Mother Earth. Some of Alan Weisman's thoughts from the book THE WORLD WITHOUT US were also part of our liturgy.

The Mass was dedicated to Tom Seagraves, pastor of St. John of God parish, who is undergoing surgery this week. We ask your continued prayers for him.

We welcomed many new faces and hope that if you attend our next Mass on May 9, celebrating Mother's Day, that you will bring a friend. We will be very happy on that day to welcome woman priest Kathleen Kunster as presider at our Eucharist.

April 11: Ritual for those Wounded by Religion

Holy Saturday Morning
A Ritual for all those wounded by religion.

The chairs in the circle were turned out, not in. It tipped us off that something different was going to happen. We began with intentions of why we are here:
• We are drawn to this healing ritual today by the pain of those times
we have been made to feel less than…..
• We are drawn to this healing ritual today by the pain of those times
we have been abused by those in religious power that we trusted
• We are drawn to this healing ritual today by the pain of those times
we have been hurt, misguided and lied to by religious authorities
• We are drawn to this healing ritual today by the pain of those times
our voices have been silenced…..
• We are drawn to this healing ritual today by the pain of those times
we have not been heard….
• We are drawn to this healing ritual today by the pain of those times
we have been angered by the closed mindedness of religions

Michael Busk then led us in a game of musical chairs—that was really about experiencing disempowerment and exclusion by religious authorities.
Afterward, we drew pictures and wrote about the pain of this disempowerment.
But we didn’t leave it there. We got on our feet and each of us made gestures of resistance to this pain.

Evelie Delfino Posch led us with heart beat drumming out the doors of the chapel into the courtyard where we individually repeated our gesture of resistance and then burned our drawings and writings in an act of cleansing and empowerment.
“Fire, bright fire, burn, cleanse, release!”

When we re-entered our chapel we were all invited for additional healing. In each of the four directions there were two sound-healing artists, and two prayer-healing persons. People went to one or the other or all four! One participant said she had never felt such deep healing enter her through the vibrations of sound.

After, we anointed each other with precious oils to seal in our healing.
Evelie sang from J.C. Superstar: “Everything’s All Right.”

And finally we reclaimed with candles---
We reclaim fire and light and darkenss. We reclaim the wholeness of our bodies.
And we light candles to reclaim our faith, whatever that is:
I reclaim the joy of the Holy
I reclaim the inclusivity of the Holy
I reclaim Love
I reclaim my spirit—holy joyful, arms wide, full of love
I reclaim my healthy suspicion of all power not fueled by Love….
And on it went

Perhaps the litmus test for any ritual is whether people stay around afterward.
Not only did the candles remain lit, everyone stayed and spoke with each other, sharing what they had received from the morning---which was Holy Saturday morning.

April 11: Opening the Heart

Opening the Heart

Institutional religions through the years and centuries have wounded many in the name of God. Through ritual we will open our hearts to release old pains and hurts that block us from our relationship with the Holy. We will be led in this ritual by a lesbian Roman Catholic woman priest.

The ritual will take place at 10:30am, April 11, in the chapel of Trinity Episcopal Church, Gough and Bush. The sponsor of the ritual is a new Catholic community-- Sophia in Trinity.

Our ritual will be both an individual and collective effort. All are welcome.

March 28: World Day of Prayer for Women's Ordination

March 28, Saturday, the Fourth Week of Lent
Excerpts from the Shared Homily…..
Today we celebrate “The World Day of Prayer for Women’s Ordination.” The Women’s Ordination Conference [WOC] designates this time each year. And WOC is 33 years old, and counting!.........

The gospel we choose for this day is Mary’s ANNUNCIO! Not only an announcement, but in fact a calling.

There is a long tradition of Mary as priest in the church. However, in 1916, Benedict the XV forbade the use of any images of Mary as Priest. In 1927 any devotion to Mary as priest was also prohibited. What was the Vatican afraid off? A tradition of women priests perhaps?

What does it mean to be priest? According to Michael Morewood,’s new book From Sand to Solid Ground: Questions of Faith for Modern Catholics: “The priest’s role is not to bring God’s presence to people. The priest’s role is modeled on Jesus’s example of affirming God’s presence in people.”…….”A priest’s sacramental ministry should emphasize God’s presence in people.”……”A priest’s role is people centered not theology centered.”

Perhaps this is what the Vatican is afraid of.
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Our guest musician for March 28 was Evelie Delfino Sayles Posch, a well known composer and performer in women’s spirituality circles of the Bay Area. During the presentation of gifts she sang her own composition of the Ave Maria. A gift indeed.
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We had our first community potluck that followed our Eucharist. There were so many delicious foods! Of course Felipe’s cheese puffs were totally unique with their added zing of jalapeno! Thanks to all for your generosity!

March 28:Next Eucharist Theme: "Break the Silence on Women's Ordination. Shatter the Stained Glass Ceiling."

Our Saturday Liturgy will celebrate the World Day of Prayer for Women's Ordination.
We will gather at 10:30am in the chapel of Trinity Episcopal Church [Gough & Bush, SF].
Following the Eucharist we will have a potluck and continue our second community meeting. Please be in touch with Victoria for what you might like to contribute to our meal. Emails can be sent from this website.

The most recent gathering of Sophia in Trinity was March 14 for a Lenten Eucharist. All of us were particularly grateful for the deep insights offered by all members during the shared homily.
The parable of the Prodigal "Son" or "Child" was definitely re-imagined and reminded us who is left out of the story.

Our guest musicians were Vick, Tina and Lynette. The hymns they chose, particularly "Christ be our Light," led all of us to a place of new reflection.

Saturday, March 14, 2009 Our Next Eucharist

We had a lovely Eucharist on Feb. 28. Our theme was "Communitas."

Part of the shared homily offered by Victoria :
The anthropologist Victor Turner created this word, communitas. Communitas is created in situations where individuals are driven to find each other through a common experience of ordeal, or transition, or marginalization. It involves intense feelings of social togetherness and belonging brought about by having to rely on each other in order to survive.

Perhaps some of us are here to simply survive. Perhaps some of us belong to multiple communities in order to survive. Or we might be here because Sophia in Trinity: A New Catholic Community is a way to survive in the Catholic Church. Or
perhaps you are an LGBT person and hope that you will experience a Queer God in this round chapel. For others, perhaps you are here out of curiosity because you wonder what a woman priest looks like, let alone a lesbian priest!

And our guest musician Evelie Delfino Solis led us in a powerful closing hymn "C'mon people now, smile on each other...everybody get together, try to love one another, right now!" These thoughts took us into our first community meeting. I am including below some of the thoughts that were shared:

WHAT BROUGHT YOU TO SOPHIA IN TRINITY? WHY DO YOU KEEP COMING?

• The liturgy is alive: inclusive language, bodied prayer, silence, music
• I came to be part of the full inclusion of women in the RCC and because this is non-hierarchical
• I want to be all of me when I come to church, and I can be here
• I like the music, the call and reponse, the circle and eye contact
• We are seeing the implosion of the RCC, just look at how they are now investigating Catholic nuns!
• I like the preaching and teaching of Victoria
• In the early church there was no mention of priests, only the leadership of elders and house leaders
• This is an emerging community that will hopefully help in creating the emerging church
Richard Rohr tells us there are mediating institutions already happening in the emerging church:
--prayer groups
--Bible study groups
--Service groups
--Centering Prayer groups
--Just Faith groups [you pray and work for justice]
--The New Monasticism
He asks: which ones are we involved with today
• I think the above categories of R. Rohr are further down the path
• I am interested in the ecumenical Jesus and inter-faith work
I would like to see one additional reading from another faith tradition
• I would like to see a Bible Study group
• What I think we are doing here is communal prayer—and I want to learn more about this.
• Answering the question “why don’t we use unleavened bread?” Victoria said she believes the bread should be nourishing on every level.
• All are invited to join John of God parish for Friday nights’ Soup & Scriptures, 6;30p—8:00p
• How are the scriptures chosen that we hear? Victoria responded: so far I have chosen the Saturday readings from the USCCB Lectionary, but we can choose readings from any part of the Hebrew and Christian Bibles
• I would like to see a healing service take place, perhaps ahead of our 10:30a.m. time
• Perhaps we could have breakfast ahead of time?
• I would like to see us create a liturgy for all those “wounded” by the Christian Church [someone added: perhaps all those wounded by religion!]
• At some time, I would like to see us have a healing service without the Eucharist
• Perhaps we could have a healing liturgy once a quarter –without a Eucharist, perhaps followed by a potluck

Following the discussion of 1 hour we decided two items:

1. We will have a potluck following the March 28 Eucharist and continue our community discussions

2. Since we all will gather on Holy Saturday, April 11, at our usual
10:30am time, this would be a good opportunity for us to create a healing service without having a Eucharist.