Picture taken by Rev. Scott Gunn of Inclusive Church
Nigerian gay rights activist Davis Mac-Iyalla will be in the Chicago area, and as he is a practicing Anglican, he’ll be meeting with Bishop William Persell and appearing at several events held at Episcopal churches. He’ll also be interviewed on WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio. The picture shows Mr Mac-Iyalla when he was an observer at the Anglican Communion Primates’ Meeting in Tanzania. Picture taken by Rev. Scott Gunn of Inclusive Church Here is his schedule while in the area:
June 1 – Chicago: GLN and other media interviews, 6pm June 2 – Media interviews; dinner with Bob Schwartz & Friends June 3 – June 4 – Luncheon, 8th Day Center for Justice, 205 W. Monroe, 12:30pm Interview: Chicago Public Radio, 848 E. Grand Ave, Navy Pier, 2pm All Saints, Chicago, hymns & panel with Seminary Dean Ruth Myers, 7:30pm June 5 – Trinity Church, Highland Park, IL, 7:30pm June 6 – +William Persell, Diocesan House, 65 E. Huron St., 2:15pm Chicago Coalition of Welcoming Churches, Barry Memorial UMC, 7pm June 7 – June 8 – GLBT Community Forum, St. Peter’s, Chicago, 7pm
From The Daily Office
UPDATE: The Chicago Tribune had a prominent article a few days ago.
Many conservative Anglicans would agree with Nigerian lay minister Davis Mac-Iyalla that the summer of 2003 — when the Episcopal Church approved the first openly gay bishop — left a gaping hole and wrenching pain in their hearts. But not for the same reasons.
For Mac-Iyalla, that summer was when the Anglican Church of Nigeria, in which he was born, baptized and became faithful turned its back on him because he is gay.“God created me a gay man and put me in the womb of my mother. I was born into the church, baptized and sang in the choir,” Mac-Iyalla told parishioners Sunday at Trinity Episcopal Church in Highland Park. “Now, the church rises against me when I speak who I am. The church is supposed to be a house of joy, a house of peace. It has become a place of fire.”
Via Episcope
I hope you had the chance to watch Bill Moyers Journal last night, whether or not you got word Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katherine was going to be on. (Yankee Episcopalians use that term “presiding bishop” to further differentiate from England’s “archbishop.” Presidents mean things are supposed to be more democratic, doncha know.) The interview was quite long (20 minutes) and the setup for it seemed to indicate Jefferts Schori had just testified before Congress about global warming or was about to. She was a marine biologist before becoming a priest. At any rate for that reason or some other, she didn’t seem entirely comfortable before the cameras. Of course too the issues discussed were among the most difficult for a representative of any religion to field: the ongoing challenge of science, the history of women in spirituality, same sex involvement, and the possible breakdown of inclusive unity within a church. Her answers, however, were absolutely amazing and true inspiration, whatever your spiritual path I think. It’s all at Bill Moyers’ site, with a profile of Katherine, a history of Episcopalian response to Anglican dogma on sexuality, and links to the transcript and video~~~
BILL MOYERS: What can you and Peter Akinola, the Archbishop of Nigeria, your counterpart, what can you all collaborate on?
BISHOP KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI: I think with the help of our colleagues, we can collaborate on more than either of us might expect. He has said quite clearly that he doesn’t want the help of the Episcopal Church in any kind of mission work in Nigeria, which is incredibly sad. It also removes us from being able to learn about his context– to learn about Christian evangelism in a– in a culture where Islam is so present and vocal. It- prevents both of us from being converted by the conversation.
BILL MOYERS: Do you see any hope of that changing?
BISHOP KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI: God has a way of keeping us at things like this. Even when some of us would find it more comfortable to depart.
BILL MOYERS: What is God asking you to do?
BISHOP KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI: I think God is asking us to build a society where people can live together in peace with a sense of justice. Where people can develop their gifts to the fullest, where people can, in some sense, recover their presence in the garden.
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06082007/profile3.html
Meanwhile, Davis Mac-Iyalla continues his tour of the United States. This past week he’s been in Chicago, and the Tribune gave him a writeup Monday. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/west/chi-episcojun04,1,373878.story?coll=chi-newslocalwest-hed
Mostly however this doesn’t seem to be the stuff for media attention, and so it’s necessary to turn to the blogs or other sites for how things are going. Josh Thomas continues to write for his Daily Office, even though he’s guiding Davis around at the same time. Here’s an update from Tuesday that even includes a photo from our meeting with Davis in Athens. That’s our priest, Bill Carroll, in the maroon T-shirt. “The goofy fellow in the middle is Josh Thomas of dailyoffice.org.” http://dailyoffice.org/supportdavismaciyalla.html
Next week Davis heads for New Jersey where the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church will be holding 4 days of meetings to consider the relationship with the Anglican Communion. http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_86613_ENG_HTM.htm “He will be an invited guest of the Council’s National Concerns Committee.” http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81803_86312_ENG_HTM.htm The full schedule of Davis’ tour is a pdf here http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/DavisI.pdf
Wow! Thank you for the great comment, and the inspiration for the next post. I really appreciate it. Someone from our parish who is in the discernment process was going to try to attend one of Davis’ appearances, and I haven’t heard back whether he made it or not.
I had known about PB Katharine’s appearance on Bill Moyers and her testimony before Congress but thanks for the pointer.