At the Table: Reflections on Corpus Christi and LGBTQ+ belonging

Jun 4, 2024 | #Stories, #Uncategorized

Article and icon by Communications Associate Elizabeth (Ellie) Simpson-Falck

This week, I spent time reflecting on Corpus Christi, a celebration that did not exist in my Evangelical upbringing. My church, Church of the Ascension in Chicago, observed the feast on Sunday, June 2, which we moved from May 30 so more folks could participate. Within the overlap of celebrating Corpus Christi and the month of Pride, I found myself overwhelmed with absolute wonder and love, knowing that I, as a queer person, was welcomed by Christ to the table.

My queerness, my spouse’s, and many of my friends would have been reason enough in many traditions (including the one I grew up in) to be excluded from the table. I would have been told to give up my queerness or repent of it, lest I drink damnation on myself. Or I would have been refused the bread and the cup altogether.

Yet, that is not what I hear in the words of Christ we read together on Sunday from John 6. I heard a call to believe, a call to eat the bread, Christ’s flesh. But no condemnation for being who we are.

Nor did I hear condemnation on the lips of the preacher, Mtr. Megan Murphy-Gill, who spoke on the unity that the sacrament draws us into. She said it much more beautifully than I: “All bodies are called to this table. Nobody is too young, too old, too fat, too thin, too black, too white, too brown. Nobody is too sick or too ill, too well, too gay, too straight, too trans, too binary, too feminine, too masculine. All bodies, ALL bodies, beloved and blessed by God’s body, the body of Christ, Corpus Christi. All bodies are called to receive and experience the unity of this most holy sacrament of the altar.”

To be in a tradition that not just welcomes, but calls all of us to take this bread and this cup every Sunday is deeply spiritually moving. To feel the call of Christ and know I can follow, more than that, that I am welcomed to follow Christ in this place. As Mtr. Murphy-Gill so aptly said, “Because, when you eat this bread and drink this cup, you let this holy sacrament shine its brilliant light not just on you, but IN you. You become a sign of that sacred unity of Christ’s body to everyone. Your body becomes a beacon of the light of Christ. Your life shines Christ’s light in all of the places and on all of the powers that would like to have their say as to whose body belongs and whose body doesn’t.”

As I reflected on the mystery of Christ in the blessed Bread and Wine we consume together, on the welcoming of each of us to take, eat, remember, and believe, I was struck with awe. Christ in the bread, Christ in the wine. A holy mystery. A life-transforming mystery.

I found the image of an icon in my mind, something I felt compelled to make. Something that drew together the lines of Christ’s welcoming countenance upon all who partake in these Holy Sacraments. An icon that would be a reminder that all bodies are welcome and belong at the table.

It was to be made in the style of a stained-glass window, an art form that adorns many of our churches. It was to recognize the mystery of Christ in the elements and show through bright and recognizable colors that all are indeed welcome to partake and be reminded of these holy, life-transformative mysteries: Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again!

CDSP Commencements 2024

May 29, 2024 | #Stories, #Uncategorized

Story by Canon Debbie Low-Skinner

Canon Debbie attended the 129th Commencement ceremonies at Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP) in Berkeley on Saturday, May 18th. This graduating class is the last of those attending only residential/in-person classes on campus. Starting this fall, all classes will be hybrid.

The ceremonies were presided over by Dr. Stephen Fowl, the new Dean and President (who will be officially installed on June 11th).

Of the eighteen Masters of Divinity degrees awarded, the following were given to DioCal persons in the ordination process: The Rev. Calvin Payne-Taylor, The Rev. Erin Wiens St. John, and John McLean Wolff.

The Rev. Dr. Fran Toy Prize for Multicultural Ministry at a Field Education Site was awarded to MDiv Graduate Margaret Stivers. She did her field ed at St. Michael’s Church in Riverside, CA, whose outreach center ministers to Indigenous and Spanish-speaking persons who are food and housing insecure.

In addition, CDSP awarded three honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees to the following:

• The Rev. Becca Stevens, who is a priest, Vanderbilt University chaplain, non-profit entrepreneur, and founder of Thistle Farms, which helps women survivors overcome and heal from systems of prostitution and exploitation.
• The Very Rev. Dr. W. Mark Richardson, who is the former Dean & President of CDSP and who helped facilitate the acquisition of the seminary by Trinity-Wall Street and helped establish the non-residential MDiv program.
• The Rt. Rev. Elizabeth (Betsy) Lockwood Hawley Monnot, who is the first woman Bishop of the Diocese of Iowa.

Here are highlights of the Commencement Address by the Rt. Rev. Elizabeth Lockwood Hawley Monnot (based on Matthew 14:22-33):

We are called to get out of the boat and come to Jesus. To risk without knowing where we will be going in 2, 4, or more years from now. It is not uncommon to be hurt by the Church and to experience fear, despair, doubts, and anger. We worry at times that the boat we’re in will capsize. And, somehow in our panic, Jesus doesn’t look the same as he used to. But, when we fear we are sinking, Jesus will reach out his arm to save us as he saved Peter. We are all disciples in that boat (that is, graduates, family, laity, clergy, everyone) who are called to do something we have never done before. Even to leave the boat and walk on the water. And Jesus Christ will be ever with us.