November 1, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

Today I officiated at another of those same-sex weddings.  The last one on my list of more than a dozen since June 17, and as touching to me as any of them.

The grooms have been together 25+ years, but had not properly celebrated that incredible milestone.  They were planning a big party for next Spring to at least celebrate 25 years of living together, when Proposition 8 began to scare them a bit.  So they called me and went to get their license.

It would be a simple ceremony, like the one on October 22, and several others before that.  Only a couple of witnesses.  But this is a couple I have known (not real closely) for all of those 25 years.  So I called my husband to make sure he could come on Saturday morning, too.

But when they all arrived, it was two sets of witnesses, plus the surviving mother and her caregiver. 

Mom was absolutely radiant to see her son finally legally marrying his partner, and this is amazing when you find out she is 94 years old.  Don’t tell me that the older generation “doesn’t get it.”  She is older than the older generation, and maybe she gets it better than almost everybody.

What’s not to be proud of?  Her son and his new husband are loving, stable, successful, loyal to her, faithful to God, and charming.  What more would a mother want?  What more could the state of California expect out of its married couples?

As has become my custom in officiating, I ask the witnesses to come up and sign the Marriage License — right there in front of God and everybody — as part of the ceremony.  It is pretty significant and solemn to hold up that bit of legal paper, and to say, “Confident of the blessing of Almighty God and by the authority given to me by the State of California, I pronounce you spouses for life.”

Vote No on Proposition 8.  And keep working to defeat the bigotry that put it on the ballot.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in LGBT Christian, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, LGBT Rights, Public Affairs, Ministry, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

October 22, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

These little private ceremonies are getting to me.  I got emotional at this one again, although I’m not sure my Grooms understood why.

They sent a quick e-mail, and just as I was sitting at the keyboard trying to reply, the phone rang.  It was one of the Grooms, so I quickly got their story.  They had gone to Beverly Hills to pick up their License, but they had two small children in tow, and when they saw the line they would have to wait in for the civil ceremony, they knew it wouldn’t work with the children, ages 3 months and 2-1/2 years.

Since one of them was raised Lutheran, they contacted me. We arranged for a brief ceremony this afternoon at 5:00 p.m. 

Fortunately, they rounded up two Witnesses who could make it at that hour, and the five of us came down the aisle unceremoniously and stood before the Altar.  As it happens with a deeply significant moment, photographs must be taken, so the Witnesses were busy fussing with digital cameras.

The children were in their arms the whole time.  The baby, of course, was quite content to be held by her dad.  Even though she seemed quite oblivious to the importance of the marriage ceremony going on, she was certainly aware of the love that held her securely and surrounded her on all sides.  But Mr. Wiggles never held still for a moment, struggling up and down, in and out of his other dad’s arms, and then on his shoulders, and over his back.

By the time we came to that final kiss, he was literally upside down, being firmly held by one ankle, dangling behind his dads, as they found a way to quickly smooch.

Thank God for the wonderful Witness who snapped that picture.  If it weren’t for confidentiality, I would post it here, because it has all the family values anybody could want put together in one amazing moment.

God bless you, gentlemen.  The children’s futures are secure in your arms, and I am sure that God above noticed that, too.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Lesbian/Gay Marriage, LGBT Christian, LGBT Rights, Public Affairs, Ministry | Print | No Comments »

October 2, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

“Dear friends, marriage is a legal relationship which is one of the foundations of community and society. It is, therefore, a public and civil relationship which expects all other people to honor and respect it, as our Supreme Court has now fully recognized. Marriage is also a spiritual relationship—a covenant of heart and soul, and a shelter for love and intimacy.”

These are bittersweet days as a church pastor. I know I could be spending more time fighting this stupid Proposition 8, which has too good a chance of passing on November 4 thanks to the hateful lies of the “religious reich.” But I am actually still swamped arranging for the marriages of lesbian couples and gay male couples. I have at least five arranged for this month.

They come in all sorts, sizes and shapes. A dedicated, loving lesbian couple, both of them active Roman Catholics, who can hardly approach their priest about getting married! An older male couple who wanted to secure their legal rights before a planned move out of state. A black and white couple, both of them in recovery. Thank God! A Christian–Jewish couple, who met at an A.A. meeting. Thank God again! And the sister of one of them is apparently coming all the way from Jerusalem to attend her brother’s wedding.

“God bless you and guide you in your faithful commitment to one another. God defend you and shelter you in your tender love for one another. God uphold you in all life’s challenges, and shower you with all life’s rewards, that you always find strength and delight in each other, and grow in love until your life’s end.”

I speak kindly to them about their plan to marry, and reassure them that both God and the community stands with them. We pick out readings, prayers, blessings and vows. And I recommend my new “custom” this past summer, of including the signing of the marriage license as the last ritual act during the ceremony itself. Why? Because we can! And so that the importance of this legal right is not lost on any of their guests, inviting their applause and approval of the really important reason they are coming to a same-gender wedding—just before they all get into a party spirit at the reception and forget how significant that license is.

But I am not getting enough time to volunteer in the “No on Prop 8″ campaign. At least I am reassured, during this proposition fight, that the California Attorney General’s office has already issued a legal opinion that, even in Proposition 8 passes, the marriages being done right now will remain valid. How much do we want to bet that will get litigated anyway? . . .

I started writing this weeks ago, but was interrupted. That marriage of the older couple has come and passed. When the arrived at the church door, the younger man was pushing his partner in a wheel chair. (Thank God our building entrances are completely step-free!) They wanted a very simple civil ceremony. But when it came time to exchange their vows, it took on a sacred character anyway. In order to hold hands and look at one another, the younger man simply knelt down on the floor next to the wheel chair.

“I (Name), take you (Name), to be my husband; to have and to hold from this day forward, in joy and in sorrow, I plenty and in want, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live.  This is my solemn promise.”

How can anyone argue that this kind of love and commitment are not valid or should not be recognized in the state of California?  I will continue to officiate over weddings big and small, modest or grand, as part of my campaign to defeat bigotry and homophobia.

“With confidence in the blessing of Almighty God, and by the authority given me by the State of California, I pronounce you spouses for life.”

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in LGBT Christian, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, LGBT Rights, Public Affairs, Recovery, Ministry | Print | No Comments »

September 23, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

It is high wedding season for the lesbian and gay couples in California. We’ve had several months now to get weddings planned and guests invited. So I am very busy, doing several weddings per week from now until election day November 4. (Do I need to remind anyone to vote NO on Proposition 8?)

But our national churchbody, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is apparently rattling its sabers about gay marriage. The word has leaked out that the top national official who is responsible for interpreting the ELCA’s constitution between biennial churchwide assemblies is saying that ELCA pastors in California (and Massachusetts I presume) should not be performing the legal ceremonies even if they preside over “blessings.” He (it always seems to be a he) is interpreting the rules by making a real stretch of logic that because our pre-existing guiding social statements about marriage and family see a marriage as two of opposite genders that pastors, who have pledged to obey the rules should not be presiding over gay and lesbian marriages. According to sources I heard yesterday, he is even suggesting that a pastor who performs a gay or lesbian wedding could be subject to disciplinary charges — even to the extent of being removed from the professional roster.

It is a stretch because the pre-existing documents did not even contemplate the possibility of legalized same-sex marriage. It is a stretch because he is suggesting that broad social statements must control and limit every individual pastoral act on the local level. It is a stretch because he leaves no wiggle room for the individual’s conscience. It is a stretch because he is trying to keep his juridical rubber-band around a world which is rapidly changing.

It is beyond me why he would want to take the ELCA down the road which is so rocky and pitted and filled with land-mines that have endangered the United Methodist Church, the United Presbyterian Church and the Episcopal Church.

Why he would want to take the path of conservative control, when the ELCA is in very close and significant agreements with the United Church of Christ, is equally beyond me. The United Church of Christ is much more open-minded about gay/lesbian marriage and the presence of gay and lesbian people in its membership and professional ministry. In recent years that national body has produced and broadcast some amazing television ads that use the slogan ”God is Still Speaking.”

In other words, the book is not closed on the will of God.  God speaks in our changing world. We should be listening to and discerning what the word of God is for our changing world.

But apparently high-ranking ELCA officials believe that God is not still speaking, or that the pre-existing documents written more than 20 years ago have the last word. I think it may be closer to the truth that the ELCA is not listening, but God is still speaking.

In the meantime, I am conducting marriages, invoking the blessing of Almighty God with confidence that God is present wherever love is lifted up and where commitments are made and kept.

On Sunday afternoon, I presided over the wedding ceremony for two men who have been partnered for 16 years. One of them is in a wheel chair now, and could not even stand to recite his vow of love and fidelity for life to the younger man who had pushed him down the aisle and whose tears streamed down his cheek. So that partner knelt beside the wheel chair for them to exchange their vows in front of the altar of our church.

Go ahead, mister high-ranking official: Try to tell God not to be present in that sacred moment. Try to tell me that I should not announce the unconditional love and blessing of God on these two brave men. Try to tell me I am in violation of 20 year-old documents which I pledged to uphold, or that I could be subject to discipline for signing a document which certifies that these two men have freely and without coercion decided to accept responsibility for one another for the rest of their lives. But while you are trying to tell me this stuff, I can scarcely hear you, because I am listening for a voice which is louder than yours. God is still speaking.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Ecumenical Issues, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, LGBT Rights, Public Affairs, Ministry, ELCA | Print | No Comments »

August 7, 2008 by PD.

Lutherans and Catholics remain far apart on many religious issues, and the reality of same-sex marriage in California is proving to be yet another one of those issues.

On August 1, the Catholic Bishops in California endorsed Proposition 8 — the proposed constitutional amendment that would take away civil rights form gay and lesbian people which the Supreme Court has established.  it was not enough for the Catholic Bishops to oppose same-sex marriage on theological principle — according to their medieval theology which includes the teaching that marriage is a sacrament — but no, they had to actually endorse the right-wing efforts to deny civil rights and roll them back.

So the Catholic Church in California contributes to the muddle which has been created by other “Religious Reich” folks — ripping into the wall of separation between church and state.  The Catholic leaders in California are trying to tear this wall down, by imposing fundamentalist, medieval Roman Catholic views of marriage on all citizens of this state.

Lutherans have so far avoided such bad politics and bad theology.  The three ELCA Lutheran Bishops in California have issued advisory letters to their pastors which discuss and wrestle with the issue of same-sex marriage, but they remained silent about Proposition 8.  In addition, the Lutheran Office of Public Policy has decided to take no position on Proposition 8, even after a face-to-face discussion with one of the Lutheran bishops.

While the national ELCA Bishops in 1996 said that marriage is between a man and a woman, it was indeed only that, when the statement was drafted.  Such a statement is of course no longer accurate, because “gay marriage” does indeed exist, whether Christians like it or not.

Interestingly, the most conservative of California’s three Lutheran bishops, the Rev. Murray Fink in Orange County, took the trouble to cited Martin Luther’s views of marriage, in his advisory letter.  Finck, who was present at the LOPP Policy Council meeting on July 26, said in his letter,

From the time of the Reformation, Lutherans have regarded marriage primarily as a civil matter. Martin Luther said, “Marriage is outside the church, is a civil matter, and therefore should belong to the government” (Table Talk No. 4716, Luther’s Works, Volume 54 [Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967]).

So Lutherans divide with Catholics on marriage precisely where they did in the Reformation era 500 years ago.  Although Luther supported the Christian family, and was himself proably what we would classify as “homophobic” today (he repeatedly condemned the “vile practices” which were going on in monasteries at the time without explaining them), he believed that ultimately civil marriage was irrelevant to the church and its Gospel.  He believed priests should be able to get married — which at the time was against the law. 

In 1519 three priests decided to take Luther’s views seriously, and informed him they were about to be married (to women).  He struggled at first with whether or not to participate by preaching for the nuptial mass.  Only several years later Luther himself decided to marry, still in defiance of Roman Catholic canon law but protected from civil penalties only by the power of local German princes who believed Luther was right and the Catholic church was wrong.

Our own bishop here in Los Angeles, Rev. Dean Nelson, has asked his clergy to inform him and discuss the pastoral conditions in their parishes before performing any same-gender weddings.  While this is a far cry from banning the pastoral participation in such marriages, Nelson’s careful and conservative word to his clergy may be having a chilling effect on some pastors in his jurisdiction.  Personally, I am not in his jurisdiction or under his authority.  His office considers my pulpit to be “vacant” and did not even send me his letter of cautious guidance until it was requested.

I have, of course, performed numerous “blessings” or “holy unions” (without the knowledge or the permission of the ELCA), over the last 20 years.  I have done so with absolute confidence in God’s blessing of these relationships.  But now that same-sex marriage is a reality in California (and Massachusetts, Canada and other European countries), I find it kind of fun that the first actual wedding of two lesbians I conducted, on June 17 in West Hollywood, was of two Roman Catholic women who are very much in love.  They are now happily married in the sight of God and in the records of the State of California.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Doctrine, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, Ecumenical Issues, Ministry, ELCA, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

June 18, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

There will be no sudden rash of lesbian weddings or gay weddings in our congregation.

That’s not because the leadership or membership are opposed to same-sex weddings. The Council voted, before I was even considered as their pastor, to permit the use of the Sanctuary for same-sex ceremonies. So the commitment of the church is there to see this as a real ministry.

And it would not be because we have no lesbian or gay members. The percentage of the membership has been steadily growing for years, because lesbian and gay people see this church as open, welcoming, supportive and genuine in our commitment to try to follow Jesus.

It would be because there are very few couples—five at last count, another one or two of whom one member of the couple belongs to the church. Largely, our lesbian/gay membership are singles.

Some are happy being single, and aren’t particularly interested in explaining further. Others will make casual comments that the right man or the right woman has not come along. Either they have been unlucky in love, or are perpetually shopping.

I cannot help but wonder, not about these as individuals, but about lesbian and gay people as a group, that we are still so submerged by social rejection, a.k.a. homophobia, that we cannot fall in love or make commitments—or if we’ve made them, are emotionally and spiritually unequipped to care for and feed those relationships to keep them healthy.

Internalized homophobia was a big subject twenty years ago. It has been used to explain everything from male promiscuity to broken relationships to low self-esteem, to the evasive way in which even permanent partners would refer to one another obliquely, to conceal the nature of the relationship. Internalized homophobia and being closeted were cloaked with the same dark covering, stained with the same black ink. Things deeply buried, we theorized, kept us from recognizing our true self-worth, and our entitlement (yes, entitlement) to breathe the same air, inhabit the same planet and pursue happiness the same as everybody else who is living.

Nowadays, there is nothing fresh to be said about internalized homophobia. While the larger society is still wringing its hands about the causes and the effects of sexual orientation (as recently as this past Monday’s Los Angeles Times Health Section), the lesbian and gay community have essentially stopped thinking about. We believed that we had somehow gotten over it, taken care of it, put it aside as a relic of our past along with shag carpeting, oversized playpen sofas and Princess telephones.

What does gay look like?, Los Angeles Times, June 16, by Regina Nuzzo

But the dearth or absence or paucity of love is palpable. At last count there was something nearing 100,000 domestic partnerships registered in the state of California. Domestic partnership more or less resemble marriage (not enough to suffice for the Supreme Court), bestowing a lot of rights and responsibilities on same-gender couples. But only 100,000? California has a population of 30 million, of which we can safely assume 3–10% are gay or lesbian. That would suggest there should be a million domestic partnerships, if we really want to secure our rights and protect our family through legally-recognized relationships.

Where is everybody? Alas, I suspect that 90% of everybody feel unloved or are still looking for love in all the wrong places, or like the long-term unemployed have simply given up looking.

I can only hope that the legal permissibility of marriage will encourage those who are unsure of themselves. It moved me deeply to see the majority opinion of the Supreme Court repeatedly reference the respect of the community as a necessary part of equal recognition for same-sex couples. Maybe the language of respect and honor will begin to undo what deeply-buried internalized homophobia has done to us — at least in the younger generation. We can hope.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Lesbian/Gay Marriage, LGBT Christian, Public Affairs, Ministry | Print | No Comments »

June 15, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

These twelve [disciples] Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. . . . Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. As you enter the house, greet it. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. — Matthew 10 

The closer we get to legal gay marriage in California, the more the fundagelicals will rant and rave. They have already written us off as “lost”—damned for sure, going to spend all eternity in the fires of hell. They will continue to look for clever new ways to pronounce shame on people who are now largely impervious to new shame. Meanwhile, we are getting married, and are finding new ways to feel proud.

It always amuses and annoys me that people who are losing influence talk more and more stridently about the “dire consequences” if the world does not listen to them. The panicked, angry voices of hateful Christians has been too loud for too long in America—and they will continue to insist that we are sick or “of the devil.”

As we get closer to Tuesday’s new marital opportunity, even lesbian and gay people are having some misgivings. The media have been picking up on this more and more, since they’ve run out of steam about queer euphoria. Some same-sex couples have determined to sit this one out at least until the November ballot is over. Others are dusting off retro-thoughts from the 1970s that “marriage is an institution—who wants to live in an institution?”

We ourselves still live with some of the internalized homophobia of the early gay rights movement a half-century ago, fearful that we are somehow sick or lost or pathetic, or don’t deserve to be free and happy and gay. We wonder out loud if we are really fit for marriage, or that the (especially male) gay character is inherently commitment-phobic—that we are tramps to the core. “All men are pigs.”

Well, no, really. Thousands of us can’t wait to pay our $70 for a license to accept responsibility for one another for the rest of our lives.

For those right wing folks (who still pretend they don’t know any of us personally), we will remain society’s lepers. They insist we are not only unworthy of enjoying the rights, privileges and respect of the mainstream, but suited only for living in our pathetic ghettoes (creative neighborhoods and designer-perfect abodes filled with high-end consumer products).

It was easier for prejudice before our sense of pride emerged. We were dangerous social lepers when we skulked around truck stops, tea rooms (now reserved for Republican senators) or elementary schools. We were lepers in our pathetic promiscuity.

We were lepers when HIV and AIDS killed off our young, bright and beautiful. The right-wing fundagelicals enjoyed trying, and were highly successful for a long time, in shaming us with such terms as “sodomites” and “homosexuals.” They could describe us with words of seeming precision to elicit immediate understanding and financial support within their donor base.

And the whole reason that straight, right-end Christians portray us in such terms is their desire to keep us isolated by our shame, because of their fear of contamination (by our good taste? our open-mindedness? our sculpted abs?).

But it will be harder and harder to isolate and condemn us when we are highly visible as out couples, husbands, and wives, and when it becomes clear that California is not being incinerated under God’s wrath or falling into the ocean.

In Matthew 10, Jesus says that on the day of judgment God will look with greater tolerance upon Sodom and Gomorrah that upon other places that do not receive Jesus’ word or turn away Jesus’ offer of peace, who refuse hospitality to those who come in his name. The contrast between the self-righteous Christian and the compassionate Christ couldn’t be more stark. Today we are finding that lesbian and gay people are open to Jesus’ word of compassion, and to our offer of peace in his name. It is the right wing which rants and warns of damnation.

In this same chapter Jesus recognizes that ministry will almost certainly trigger controversy. The wolves out there may try to tear us apart, and we should be prepared.

It will not be any different for those of us in the Christian church who welcome couples who want to marry and to revel in the sense of God’s blessing.

Less than 48 hours from now, it will be legal for two women or two men to tie the knot in California. “Gay marriage” will become the new leprosy to the Religious Right. They are expected to spend at least 10 million dollars by November to fight the Supreme Court’s decision. This will be a summer of great controversy because the religious right is seeding it into our society.

In our congregation, there have been, and there will be many more wedding ceremonies for women and men who love one another against all odds. Our hospitality to the lesbian and gay community will never be more thoroughly tested than it will with the legalizing of marriage. But our doors will remain open to lesbian and gay couples simply because Jesus sends us his disciples to serve the outcasts, the lepers and those rejected or harassed by others, and to offer a word of peace, not dire warning.

— Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Bible & Interpretation, HIV and AIDS, Lesbian/Gay Marriage, Fundamentalism, LGBT Christian, Coming Out, Public Affairs, LGBT Rights, Ministry | Print | No Comments »

April 12, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

My friend Roberta was ordained to today. It’s a start.

A well educated, mature woman, with a theology degree and a Ph. D., Roberta became Roman Catholic and sought her theological education at a time, fresh after Vatican II, when thousands of women thought that the Roman Catholic Church was going to start ordaining women to the priesthood any day now. In the meantime, Robert is a writer, teacher, and professional mediator.

Forty years after Vatican II, she’s still waiting, of course. I can’t help wondering if we are now all waiting for the present Pope to die for things to finally change, or for the church itself to die. Hmm.

Today Roberta was ordained as a Deacon, not a Priest— in the American Catholic Church, one of those independent churchbodies that traces their line back to the Old Catholics who broke with Rome in 1870 over last-straw dogmas which they would not accept: papal infallibility and the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven, etc.

Roberta was ordained in our Lutheran parish sanctuary, of course. Welcome, my friend to the original “old” Catholics – the churches of the Reformation, who have been waiting 500 years for reconciliation.

We have little to brag about, of course. We didn’t start ordaining women to the ministry in this country until 1970. It’s almost as if Vatican II made more of an impression on us than on the Roman Catholics. At any rate, 38 years is a long time to wait for ordination.

As desperately as the whole church of Christ needs servants and ministers, it continues to find ways to drag its feet. My friend Scott, an ELCA heterosexual seminary graduate, waited about two years for a call and ordination to serve a congregation. What as wrong with him? Is he chopped liver? And in the meantime, dozens of congregations in our geographic area are dragging their feet, unable to work the process to select and to call a Pastor. Why? Scott wanted a call very much, and continued to be a servant of the church in a non-ordained position while he was waiting. On hold, as it were.

“Your Call is important to us. Please hold.” This seems to be the church’s message to its seminary graduates.

Then I got to thinking: Was there something wrong with this guy? I mean, did he fail some key courses? Does he have an attitude problem? Is he a closeted heretic? Why are they overlooking him? I finally asked him one day at a clergy gathering face-to-face, “Whom did you piss off?”

“That’s what I’m beginning to wonder,” he said with a sad chuckle in his voice.

Women routinely have to wait a long time to get the Call. And for their second call (if— God forbid—they should ever want or have to move on to a new opportunity to serve), there are “on hold” for a very long time.

It’s especially true of course for lesbian and gay, bisexual and transgender students and graduates and pastors. The institutional church has spent the same forty years ditzing around with its LGBT children.

“Are we welcome in the church, or not?”

“Well, yes, sorta,” they tell us.

“We have faith, and we have been loyal to a fault to an institution which really doesn’t know what to do with us, so are we welcome to participate fully in the life of the church or not?”

“Well, yes.”

“Does that participation include professional ministry, under Call, as ordained servants of the servants of God?

“Hello?”

“Your Call is important to us. Please continue to hold.”

It really isn’t a matter of whether the church will ever finish studying us, like butterflies pinned under glass. It is a matter of whether the church of Christ will ever get on with its mission to follow Jesus, serve people, and move on to new and exciting opportunities. But sadly, the institutional church seems to be incapable—institutionally—of carrying out real ministry and stepping up to anything new.

So here’s to you, Deacon Roberta. Congratulations!!

She has selected her area of missional concentration as a Diaconate for Spirituality and the Arts in the Los Feliz area of Hollywood/Los Angeles. I don’t think it’s been tried before, and of course there’s no money for it, but knowing Roberta, it will happen. Like thousands of women, minorities, lesbian and gay people, renegades and troublemakers within the body of Christ, she has the vision while the whole church seems to be blind. You go, Roberta!

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

Posted in Ecumenical Issues, History, Ministry | Print | No Comments »

April 8, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

The Good News of Christ’s reconciling mission in the world has been unbelievably snagged in the nonsense of papal counter-reforms. His Bavarianess, Pope Benedict XVI is trying to rip out of the Catholic cloth all the tailoring which was sewn by the Vatican II reformers two generations ago. The Latin Mass is back—strongly encouraged by Benedict. Apparently continuity with the irrelevant past into an irrelevant future is more important than the participation of the faithful.

And now even his choice of liturgical vestments is going retro. An opinion piece, “Papal Dress Code“, —by former altar boy and senior editorial writer for the Los Angeles Times, Michael McGough —ventures into the world of papal vestments which Benedict prefers and likely will model when he comes to the United States later this month.

In trying to find suitable graphics with Google, I have followed the threads into an arcane world of medieval repristinators who, like sleeping dogs, should probably be left to their own dreams.

(Above) Here you see Benedict celebrating mass with an enormous host (I guess everything papal can be super-sized), surrounded by attendants dressed in what appear to be clear plastic raincoats. Hmmm.  A blog comment identifies these as “Shantung silk.” What would Jesus wear?

If you want to peek further, there are sites and blogs such as “Save the Liturgy Save the World“ which devolves quickly from believing that the Eucharist is the source and summit of Christian life (okay, I can’t disagree), to stating that violations of rubrics, like a pebble tossed in a pond, create spiritual ripples in the Church and the world!

Violation of rubrics? Does anybody but the gay boys in the Sacristy remember what rubrics are? They are the little ceremonial notes, usually written in red ink, which ride along with liturgical rites in those big, dusty altar missals, to help the ministers perform the services “decently and in order.”

Rubrics are like stage directions for a play—lines which the actors don’t deliver but must remember (”cross to stage left, waving right arm and shouting …”). But apparently for some faithful believers, violations of these stage directions are tantamount to irreverence and cause spiritual ripples felt around the world.

Is it any wonder that bumper stickers (which are also seen everywhere, at least everywhere around my world) poke such fun, “Jesus Save Me from your followers!”? Is it any wonder that the Barna Group research says today’s young adults admire Jesus and avoid the Church?  (see also: “Spirituality: Do We Look Like Jesus?“)

Could it be because the Church takes its eyes off of its Lord and starts gazing at its own embroidered navel? I was frankly aghast last year to see a photo of Cardinal Mahoney washing the feet of his disciples on Maundy Thursday in full liturgical vestments,

after having read the same Gospel passage he did, where Jesus took off his outer vestments and simply tied a towel around his waist (John 13:3–4). Can’t we serve Christ with humility, boys?

I say these things not to beat up on traditional Roman Catholics, or to put the Pope down for his three-times-head height miters, but to call the true church to repentance and faith in the Christ who empowers us to serve God by serving others, not serving ourselves. I myself wear a chasuble for the Eucharist. But I remember the good counsel I received more than 30 years ago about the reform of Christian worship practices – there are three criteria which should not be out of balance with one another: historic precedent, ecumenical consensus and contemporary need. Benedict has apparently decided to blow off the latter two.

I have always tried to keep my high church tendencies in check (”must control the wrist of death”), and only recently have allowed a little more elaboration and festive stuff in our parish worship because of the large number of recovering catholics in our community. But at the same time I am committed to proclaiming Gospel, not navel, and to prayer from the heart, and to serving the community around us with compassion and humility. If anything causes spiritual ripples in the world, it ought to be the deeds by which we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, visit the prisoners, and proclaim liberty to the oppressed. Benedict, would you care to join us?

But who am I? I am only the voice of a heretic (demoted from “separated brethren” under Vatican II) who belongs to a nearly 500 year old movement (the Evangelical Lutheran Church) that the present pope does not consider to be a church.

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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March 31, 2008 by Pastor Dan.

The honor of your presence is requested by his Grace

The Most Rev. Robert Mary Clement, Archbishop of the American Catholic Church

at the Archbishop John Darcy Noble Center

to Celebrate the ordination of Roberta Morris to the Diaconate

Saturday, April 12, 2008 1 p.m.

Hollywood Lutheran Church 1733 N. New Hampshire Blvd., Los Angeles

Join us for Dr. Roberta Morris’ ordination and the inauguration of this LGBT-friendly ministry with the arts community in the Hollywood/ Los Feliz/Silver Lake area, across from Barnsdall Art Park.

Dr. Morris trained for this ministry, obtaining her Masters of Divinity from St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto, and her Doctorate in Philosophy at York University. She has worked as a writer, university chaplain, instructor, director of religious education, mediator and peace activist.

As a deacon with the American Catholic Church, she will work ecumenically in a LGBT friendly environment to support the spiritual lives of artists and other members of our community.

Come celebrate the Ordination Mass with us.  Reception follows 

RSVP 323-668-0008

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