planning ahead, sexy church edition (voting input welcome)
Early this week, a friend of mine mentioned that she was "annoyed that I'm going to have to miss the sexuality conversation at The Crossing this week, because of my class." I was all *perks up,* but then I looked it up and it's Thursday evening and I already have CAUMC young adult small group discussion commitment on Thursdays. However, I was reading the description [from the calendar] ("Using a format that includes panel discussions and small groups, we'll create space for stories, questions and an honest exploration of how we integrate the gift of our sexuality with the gift of our faith.") and was SO TEMPTED.
I was already planning to skip CAUMC the last week of this month, 'cause another friend recently started going to Arlington Street Church and was telling me about their Sacred Eros (Sexuality and Spirituality) group the fourth Thursday of every month (he went to their January one and they talked about BDSM).
I did decide to go to The Crossing this Thursday, and I still owe a writeup of that. Apparently it was the second in a series of 3 (the last one being two weeks from now -- so conflicting with this month's Arlington Street one).
Chatting before the Crossing event, Alicia mentioned that she goes to 11:30 Sunday morning service at Reunion Christian Church (Back Bay Hilton) and they're doing a sermon series (for the month of February, I believe) called "Bringing Sexy Back" "Beloved." Apparently they did a sermon series last year called "Designer Sex" :) I'm already sort of committed this coming Sunday (see below), but I think I will check it out the following Sunday.
***
Sunday, October 26, I visited Somerville Community Baptist Church, and chatted with their young adult minister (just hired in June) over Coffee Hour. He emailed me that night saying it was nice to talk to me and yadda yadda. I didn't email him back until the following Sunday (November 3), but when I did I talked about various things, including bridging the liberal-conservative divide especially within the church (something he and I had talked about over Coffee Hour). He never emailed me back. I emailed a brief followup on Epiphany (January 6), to which he also didn't respond.
Monday morning, after having walked by the church and seeing their sign for the coming Sunday, when he would be preaching, I emailed him (replying to my last email to him, but changing the Subject line):Subject: "Church & Chocolate Chip Cookies," huh
Is that a sermon title or a description of plans for this coming Sunday morning? Either way, I'm intrigued. :)
-Elizabeth
He didn't email me back, and I figured I'd show up on Sunday (I was intrigued by what I figured was a sermon title) and chat with him over Coffee Hour and be like, "Yeah, I was intrigued by the sign out front, I emailed you about it but you never got back to me so I came to check it out, speaking of emails you didn't respond to..." Then Wednesday night I got an email:Hey Elizabeth,
That is my sermon title, and it has to do with the body of Christ and different roles people play. You should come check it out!
-Ross
Ugh. Way to respond to the top email without acknowledging the preceding ones. I am also less excited about the sermon now, 'cause I feel I do not particularly need more sermons on how we all play different roles but all make up the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12). [Sermons on how we are all beloved children of God and I should be more gracious and loving? Yeah, those I could still use the reminder.] I think I'm still gonna go -- largely so I can grab him over Coffee Hour and be like, "So, let's get coffee sometime and talk about dialogue" (though it occurs to me to be concerned that he'll be particularly sought after by parishioners, having given the sermon).
At Rest and Bread during Announcements, Laura Ruth said that this Sunday Molly would be preaching on "Wholeness" and she would be at West Medford UCC talking about being queer and Christian (they're going through the process to become officially Open and Affirming). Part of me wants to go to the West Medford one, but do I really need to hear a(nother) sermon about being queer and Christian?
Then I got Molly's email to the listserv. Excerpt:I will preach on the habits of love, on sustaining monogamy--and monotheism-- over the long haul. Our God did call Herself a jealous God, wooing Moses on the mountaintop. If you want to read the love letter ahead of time, it's Exodus 34:1-9.
So now where do I go this Sunday?
***
When we were talking Wednesday night, Jeff mentioned a talk at BU next Wednesday at 6pm (which means I wouldn't really get dinner, plus I would miss Rest and Bread), which I feel like I should go to -- though I've been unimpressed by talks recently, so part of me just wants a good book recommendation.Cameron Partridge lecture on Gender Issues in the Early Church
Cameron Partridge from St. Luke's & St. Margaret's church in Allston will be coming to BU on February 18th to speak about gender issues in the early church. This lecture is open to any one and it will be from 6-8pm in CAS 313 (735 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston -- BU Central stop on the Green B Line).
These days in the U.S., it's hard not to be aware of tensions in the
churches-- and in the public sphere in general-- about sexuality. Even the
recent inauguration of President Obama manifested ongoing conflict on this
topic. But what tends to be underrepresented in these conversations is a) how
our current sexuality debates connect with, and emerge out of our ongoing
conversations about gender, and b) how our understandings of the concepts that
frame these debates-- e.g. "gender" & "sexuality"-- have
not only changed in recent decades, but also have been changing for centuries.
Cameron will open his talk with some brief vignettes from relatively recent
history, both from the history of women's, and lgbt people's ordination
in the Episcopal Church. Then he will lead us in a discussion of an early
(third century C.E.) Christian narrative called the "Passion of Saints
Perpetua and Felicitas," in which the familiar theme of early Christian
martyrdom plays out through the medium of gender transformation-- a theme much more
common in early Christian thought than contemporary debate might lead one to
believe. All along the way, the question undergirding our conversation will be
how and why gender and sexuality have become such important frames for
negotiating the border territories of the church and the world, and how our
future conversations might take into account the complexities of gender and
sexuality, both in historical texts and in our own lives.
I was already planning to skip CAUMC the last week of this month, 'cause another friend recently started going to Arlington Street Church and was telling me about their Sacred Eros (Sexuality and Spirituality) group the fourth Thursday of every month (he went to their January one and they talked about BDSM).
I did decide to go to The Crossing this Thursday, and I still owe a writeup of that. Apparently it was the second in a series of 3 (the last one being two weeks from now -- so conflicting with this month's Arlington Street one).
Chatting before the Crossing event, Alicia mentioned that she goes to 11:30 Sunday morning service at Reunion Christian Church (Back Bay Hilton) and they're doing a sermon series (for the month of February, I believe) called "Bringing Sexy Back" "Beloved." Apparently they did a sermon series last year called "Designer Sex" :) I'm already sort of committed this coming Sunday (see below), but I think I will check it out the following Sunday.
***
Sunday, October 26, I visited Somerville Community Baptist Church, and chatted with their young adult minister (just hired in June) over Coffee Hour. He emailed me that night saying it was nice to talk to me and yadda yadda. I didn't email him back until the following Sunday (November 3), but when I did I talked about various things, including bridging the liberal-conservative divide especially within the church (something he and I had talked about over Coffee Hour). He never emailed me back. I emailed a brief followup on Epiphany (January 6), to which he also didn't respond.
Monday morning, after having walked by the church and seeing their sign for the coming Sunday, when he would be preaching, I emailed him (replying to my last email to him, but changing the Subject line):Subject: "Church & Chocolate Chip Cookies," huh
Is that a sermon title or a description of plans for this coming Sunday morning? Either way, I'm intrigued. :)
-Elizabeth
He didn't email me back, and I figured I'd show up on Sunday (I was intrigued by what I figured was a sermon title) and chat with him over Coffee Hour and be like, "Yeah, I was intrigued by the sign out front, I emailed you about it but you never got back to me so I came to check it out, speaking of emails you didn't respond to..." Then Wednesday night I got an email:Hey Elizabeth,
That is my sermon title, and it has to do with the body of Christ and different roles people play. You should come check it out!
-Ross
Ugh. Way to respond to the top email without acknowledging the preceding ones. I am also less excited about the sermon now, 'cause I feel I do not particularly need more sermons on how we all play different roles but all make up the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12). [Sermons on how we are all beloved children of God and I should be more gracious and loving? Yeah, those I could still use the reminder.] I think I'm still gonna go -- largely so I can grab him over Coffee Hour and be like, "So, let's get coffee sometime and talk about dialogue" (though it occurs to me to be concerned that he'll be particularly sought after by parishioners, having given the sermon).
At Rest and Bread during Announcements, Laura Ruth said that this Sunday Molly would be preaching on "Wholeness" and she would be at West Medford UCC talking about being queer and Christian (they're going through the process to become officially Open and Affirming). Part of me wants to go to the West Medford one, but do I really need to hear a(nother) sermon about being queer and Christian?
Then I got Molly's email to the listserv. Excerpt:I will preach on the habits of love, on sustaining monogamy--and monotheism-- over the long haul. Our God did call Herself a jealous God, wooing Moses on the mountaintop. If you want to read the love letter ahead of time, it's Exodus 34:1-9.
So now where do I go this Sunday?
***
When we were talking Wednesday night, Jeff mentioned a talk at BU next Wednesday at 6pm (which means I wouldn't really get dinner, plus I would miss Rest and Bread), which I feel like I should go to -- though I've been unimpressed by talks recently, so part of me just wants a good book recommendation.Cameron Partridge lecture on Gender Issues in the Early Church
Cameron Partridge from St. Luke's & St. Margaret's church in Allston will be coming to BU on February 18th to speak about gender issues in the early church. This lecture is open to any one and it will be from 6-8pm in CAS 313 (735 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston -- BU Central stop on the Green B Line).
These days in the U.S., it's hard not to be aware of tensions in the
churches-- and in the public sphere in general-- about sexuality. Even the
recent inauguration of President Obama manifested ongoing conflict on this
topic. But what tends to be underrepresented in these conversations is a) how
our current sexuality debates connect with, and emerge out of our ongoing
conversations about gender, and b) how our understandings of the concepts that
frame these debates-- e.g. "gender" & "sexuality"-- have
not only changed in recent decades, but also have been changing for centuries.
Cameron will open his talk with some brief vignettes from relatively recent
history, both from the history of women's, and lgbt people's ordination
in the Episcopal Church. Then he will lead us in a discussion of an early
(third century C.E.) Christian narrative called the "Passion of Saints
Perpetua and Felicitas," in which the familiar theme of early Christian
martyrdom plays out through the medium of gender transformation-- a theme much more
common in early Christian thought than contemporary debate might lead one to
believe. All along the way, the question undergirding our conversation will be
how and why gender and sexuality have become such important frames for
negotiating the border territories of the church and the world, and how our
future conversations might take into account the complexities of gender and
sexuality, both in historical texts and in our own lives.