Miracle

Yesterday, at about 5:00 pm, I became a granddaddy for the second time. Our daughter, Allyson, gave birth to Hannah Cole Jones - 6 pounds 9 ounces, 19 and 1/2 inches long, with lots of red hair. Now Naomi has a baby sister, and Allyson and Philip have a newborn. We take birth for granted sometimes, but it really is a miracle and a sign of grace. Don Williams' song comes to mind. "Miracle"

I got to be in the room until close to the time for the birth. Until Allyson got her pain medication she was maoning pretty good when the contractions came. A reminder to me of how much is asked of the mother at the time of birth - t say nothing of all that goes with carrying a baby for nine months. It is humbling to be near her at such a time. We were one day past the original due date, and Allyson was induced. When th eactual birth came she had a relatively quick and easy time of it. She only had to push a few times, and when she called me to tell me Hannah wsa her she sounded great.

My main hope around any birth is that mother and child are well. I read an article just this week about how many women die in childbirth every day world wide, and it is an amazing number. Both of our girls did fine.

We think Hannah is pretty darn cute! The word "beautiful" was used a number of times. Naomi got to see her, but we have more to see about how that adjustment will go. Julie and I got to keep her and the dogs at our house last night, and will do so again tonight.

A great day for us. We thank God for this gift.

Jimmy

Pride, take 2

My apologies for the cryptic, nonsensical post of a couple of days ago. Just as I got started my computor died. And then yesterday I was busy with my second granddaughter being born. Hannah will be discussed in the next post, but she is well and beautiful. At any rate, I wanted to say a word about Pride and our church.

Atlanta has one of the largest gay Pride events in the country. Befoer I came to Saint Mark I knew about Pride activities, but I had never been a part of one. The currrent chapter at Saint MArk was begun at a Pride parade in the early 1990's. The route for the parade goes right in front of Saint Mark. Some laypeople back then had been to a workshop reminding church leaders of the necessity of reaching out to their neighborhood. Many gays and lesbians had moved in to the mid-town area at that time, and so the church made a conscious decision to reach out in an open and affirming way to this community. When the parade came by Saint Mark there were some older ladies passing out cups of water to the marchers - it's hot in Atlanta in late June - and a sign over the doors saying everyone is welcome at saint Mark. The resulting influx of persons and the revitalization of the church was dubbed by one prominent Saint Marker as "the miracle on Peachtree Street".

Saint Mark is about more than its ministry to and with the GLBT community, but that is certainly one central element of our witness as a congrgaton. And the Pride weekend is one of the major times in our common life. We start off our activities with what we call a Diversity Diiner/Worship on the Thursday night. It is often very powerful. This year Beth Stroud spoke. Beth was a United Methodist pastor in Pennsylvania until she went public about her committed relationship with another woman. The resulting church trial ended with her losing her credentials as a pastor in the UMC. She spoke eloquently to us about being called by God and about the risks that come with that call. At this service we also gave out our annual Diversity Award. It goes each year to someone in Saint Mark or in the larger community who has made a substantial contribution to diversity. This year it went to Mike Beechum for his work in supporting Chris Kids and Chris Rainbow House. A very moving moment.

Along with several other churches we always have a booth in Piedmont Park ovr the weekend. And we are a presence in the parade. Some of our folks worked very hard on a great flaot - we won second place - and we had a number of walkers with the float. Saint Mark always gets a good many cheers as the parade unfolds because many people know of our welcoming nature. It is powerful to hear. More churches are involved now - the Episcopal churches in the region were especially well represented - but we were among the first. We had lively worship services that morning as well. One especially moving moment to me was singing the last verse of "In Unity We Lift Our Song." The tune is that of "A Mighty Fortress", powerful in itself, and the organ was on fire, the choir was singing beautifully as only the Saint Mark choir can, the sopranos had this glorious descant, and our people were singing their hearts out. the words?

For God our way, our bread, our rest, of all these gifts the Giver.
Our strength, our guide, our nurturing breast whose hand will yet deliver.
Who keeps us till the day when night shall pass away,
when hate and fear are gone and all our work is done, and we shall live forever.

I wish I could have bottled the moment.

There are elements of Pride that some of us here would like to see changed. But the overall event is critical to our people. We work hard to approach it from a specifically Christian perspective, and this year we had a good weekend.

Jimmy

Conference

Last week we held our Annual Conference in Athens, Georgia. For those who don't know, the United Methodist Churchis divided into geographic areas known as conferences. They are one f the key units in our organization. Each year (the "annual" part) delegates from the churches in the conference gather for several days to worship, to do the business of the Conference, and to tend to other matters relating to our life and work. Our conference covers roughly the northern half of Georgia, hence the name, North Georgia.

There are lots of reports from agencies and ministries in the Conference. Some are more well done than others, but some are truly inspiring. We have a session where retiring clergy have a few minutes to say goodbye, and that is generally a moving time for me. it was so this year.Our new Associate Pastor, Mandy Flemming, was commissioned at teh Ordination service, and our choir and brass were part of the music on Tuesday night, so those were special times. One thing always enjoyable for me is th echance to see and visit with ministerial riends that I don't get to see too often during the year. I also got to have lunch ione day with one of my former Glisson camp staff, and had supper with my son, Josh, on Wed. night. God times.

Politics are very much a part o fthe life of the church, especially this year as we were electing delegates to our national conferences to be held next year. I was heavily involved in a group of moderate/progressive clergy who were working to have a group of diverse, moderate candidates elected. To the surprise of some on the more conservative side we did very well in the elections. It was a vry tiring process for me, but I feel very good about the outcome. And I think there may even be a groundwork for some dialogue across theological lines - a dialogue that has not always been possible.

One of the very enjoyable parts of Conference this year were daily videos, of close to Daily Show quality, that poked fun at the ways of Conference. They were hilarious and much appreciated by all of the delegates. The team that put them together is very talented - and pretty brave to boot. At least twice the Bishop was the focus of their good-natured fun.

I serve as one of the Associate Secretaries of the Conference, which means I get to take minutes of some of the business sessions and outlines of the worship services. It is an interesting vantage point from which to observe the goings on on the sessions.

Much time and energy went into th eelection process, and I was as tired as I have ever been when th eweekwas over. But all in all, a good Conference. I did reflect as I left on what was not done nor addressed while we were in Athens. There are so many issues facing the world right now, and we did very little to wrestle with what the gospel calls us to do when facing these issues. We also didn't do much to take a hard look at why we are so often ineffective in our ministry, especially with young people. Maybe next time.

Jimmy

Justice and Mercy

I know a man who once said, the problem with making a rule is that somebody will try to enforce it. That quote comes to mind ass I hear stories about Genarlow Wilson, the young black man given 10 years to serve in jail for having consensual oral sex with a girl two years younger than himself. The law under which he was convicted has been recognized as wrong and changed by the legislature. But efforts to get him freed have so far been fought by Attorney General Thurbert Baker on the basis that the law must be upheld.

It is right and necessary that most laws be strictly enforced. Many is the day when I wish our traffic laws were more fully enforced - though even there exceptions sometimes have to be made. When my granddaughter is about to be born in a few days it is quite possible that she and her husband will break a few laws in getting to the hospital. We simply can't function very well if laws are violated all of the time.

Still, sometimes common sense and mercy have to come into play, and I believe that is the situation with Genarlow Wilson. How anyone could think of a ten year jail sentence for what he did is beyond me, regardless of how you view the ethics of the situation. It's just crazy. And the idea that you now have to keep him in jail because th e law demands it is more than I can understand. You are talking about doing damage to a young man's life just to maintain the integrity of a law that has been overturned because it had no integrity to begin with. I don't get it.

The young man has served more time already than his actions justify. let him out. To keep him in jail is a travesty.

Jimmy

Maine

Back again. I'm going to try one more time to see if I can keep up with this in a timely manner. If yes, so much the better. If no, I'll leave blogging to the pros!

Julie and I got back Tuesday night from a trip to Maine. We were there to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. Hard to believe that it's been that long, but it has been a good run. We had never been to Maine and decided that it would be fun to visit for our celebration. We spent most of our time in Camden, Maine, a town that is post-card pretty. Beautiful harbor; nice old homes; small but active downtown. Just a great place. We had a nice bed and breakfast to stay in. Our trip was deliberately low-key, but here are a couple of impressions.

- Maine and the parts of Massachusetts and New Hampshire we went through to get there are gorgeous. We had a rental care we pcked up in Boston, and we meandered up the coast following US 1 most of the way. So many pretty places. Nice country side; regular spectacular views of the ocean/coast; and charming small towns. I was struck by how clean the towns were. Very little litter. Just a lovely part of our country.

- Their blueberries are smaller than ours are, and boy are they tasty! Julie and I made a determined effort to find the best blueberry pie in that part of Maine. Several strong contenders.

- People in this part of the world actually obey posted speed limits. I am so used to everyone flying around in Atlanta that it took me a while to realize that that's not done in Maine. At least it's not done when you're off of the interstates. They move about like down here. But on the surface streets folks drive more calmly. Not a bad practice.

- There are friendly, helpful folks all over. We had very gracious hosts at the B&B, and friendly wait persons in restaurants and shops. Had an interesting conversation with a waitress in Kennebunkport and learned that the lobdtermen are having a very rough time and that Mr. Bush has lost much of his support in that area. This is the same restaurant that found Julie's lost cell-phone and kept it for her untill we could come back through.

- I am married to a very special lady.

More later,

Jimmy