Rant & St. Mark's Episcopal Church Presents Brian Williams at Adult Forum

Brian Williams, LCSW, marriage and family counselor spoke at St. Mark's adult forum on Holy Matrimony.  Brian talked about the role of God in the marriage relationship, power struggles  and conflict resolution.

It was a good talk except that it was presented in a typically safe  manner.  Inviting a gay Christian to discuss gay, long term relationships would offend those who disapprove.  It's kind of a sensitive issue in The Episcopal Church due to all of the conflict. Maybe one day St. Mark's will become a truly inclusive church which will be able to include gay relationships in the same discussion as Holy Matrimony discussions.

A couple of years ago a St. Mark's member told me that he disapproved of Integrity and thinks that it should be shut down "because everybody should be mixed together and share together."

That's easy for him to say when gay people are invited to participate in the community functions but only heterosexuals experiences such as the Holy Matrimony forum are a part of the discussion.  

The 20+ year relationship that Larry and I have is too controversial to rate equal status as heterosexual relationships in church discussions. The church member who made the statement about Integrity is wrong. It's a heterosexual who is in the majority and therefore in more of a position of power telling the minorities, those with the least power in this patriarchal society of ours telling me to stay in my place.  Praise the Lord for Integrity! 

When I spoke with Bishop Robinson a couple of weeks ago he thinks that this will change sooner than later. I read on a blog (can't remember which one) that The Episcopal Church is going through a "coming out" process, not unlike that of gay people when they decide to come out to family, friends or co-workers.  The ups and downs and positive and negative reactions creates anger, fear, etc.

I praise God for Integrity as it provides a place to share on equal levels of gay and straights and share the values of the relationships of both.  Actually, that's the beauty of the Palm Beach chapter of Integrity. It's about 50/50 straight/gay.  However, although the gay folks come from various Episcopal churches in Palm Beach county, only 2% of Integrity of the Palm Beaches are straight people. The other 98% are St. Andrew's members.

It was great having Brian Williams speak at St. Mark's and I hope he comes back soon.

Congratulations to Rev. Jeannie Martz

St. Mark's Episcopal's former priest-in-charge, Rev. Jeannie Martz is moving to California. She will be the rector at Trinity Episcopal Church in Orange, CA in the diocese of Los Angeles.

Here is a picture of me and Pastor Martz at her farewell party a few months ago.

Best wishes to pastor Martz on her new ministerial journey. http://www.trinityorange.org/ http://www.stmarkspbg.org/

Summer Breakfast at St. Mark's Episcopal

       

Pictures from St. Mark's Summer Sunday Breakfast

Keith, Jill, Jennifer and Rita

St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Palm Beach Gardens welcomes Rev. Spencer Potter

On Sunday, July 15th,

St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Palm Beach Gardens, FL welcomed Rev. Spencer Potter as our new associate rector. 

WELCOME FATHER POTTER AND WIFE, ERIN!

A Franciscan Prayer

Bishop Suffragan (ret) John Said

Gordon and Bishop Said

Bishop Said confirmed me at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 10 years ago. He's been really great coming to the aid of our congregation in the last month of being without a rector for 3 years. He kept office hours at the church, lead an Adult Forum, provided pastoral needs, preached and was just wonderful. I've always liked Bishop Said. I consider the picture above taken two weeks ago, my 10 year anniversary of my confirmation.

Last Sunday, he closed the service with a beautiful prayer which I wanted to share with my readers:

May God bless you with discomfort ... at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger ... at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears ... to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough Holy foolishness ... to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done! Amen!

American Boychoir Presents Concert at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Palm Beach Gardens, FL

February 3rd, 2007 St. Mark's Episcopal Church was blessed with a concert by the American Boyschoir. It was a wonderful concert with a diverse repertoire. It was a world class performance under the fantastic direction of Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, Music Director. The reception afterward gave concert goers an opportunity to meet some of the choir members and the choir staff. A good evening was had by all.

Steve's Retirement Party at Yardhouse Restaurant, Downtown at the Gardens

The tall guy in the red is Keith. Keith is one of those friend's a person can count on to be there. Last February, on my diagnosis day, Keith drove down from Port St. Lucie to be at the doctor's office for support and to translate the medical lingo to Larry afterward. In front of Keith is Gerri D.,The man of honor, Steve, and yours truly. Barbara is wearing the green sweater. The trio is Steve, Gerri D. and Rayanne. Rayanne is the wife of my co-worker PA Frank who couldn't come as he was on call at the hospital . Rayanne is a social worker at the VA. In fact we used to work together but she moved out of the trailer and into the building when she and Frank got married. They are great friends and truly funny.

Although happy that Steve retired, I've been lost. When you eat lunch with somebody everyday for for 12 years and then IM on the computer when you get home from work. Steve's a great supporter of my anti-war and political activism and is also involved in activism. Steve was our union representative on the hospital safety committee and made administration accountable for safety of our patients and staff. In our current government's administration, little value is placed on life which is considered disposable and as more and more employees were injured due to unsafe conditions, Steve worked hard to hold to get them to see employees as individuals not as a calculated risk factors figured by actuarial standards or some other round about way of providing a safe workplace. Steve and me also worked on the Kerry campaign together. Steve had the distinction of having Mark Foley as a congressman. Every time Mark Foley would support some crazy Bush policy designed to hurt the middle class or poor, Steve would send him an e-mail. Foley finally quit responding. We never had a proper farewell party for Steve. He was honored at our mental health holiday party which wasn't a proper farewell for somebody who has worked for so many years as a great social worker. So last night, his closest friends from work went to the Yard House Restaurant at Downtown at the Gardens and gave Steve a proper retirement party.

Farewell to Rev. Jeannie Part II Come to the Islands, Mon Part IV

Here are some more pictures from the great party. West Palm Beach TV News Anchor and St. Mark's member, John Favole and lovely wife Shannon, wife both dressed in white below seemed to be having a great time talking with Steve Whitney, our organist, and Maryly in the pretty blue dress. I love Maryle. I owe a debt of gratitude to her. It was Maryle, a retired scientist and President of Polk County Community College who found me better medical care. Maryle referred me to my neurologist, Dr. Brodie and away from Dr. Grumpy (TIC)! The Duke and Duchess with daughter Jennifer and hubby Ian are below as well as a great picture of Deacon Bob and friend, Keith Duke getting more food and immediately below the steel drummer.

Farewell to Rev. Jeannie Part II Come to the Islands, Mon Part III

The party included a magician/comedian, a steel drummer, parrots, cockatoos, torches, just about everything needed for an Island party.

Farewell to Rev. Jeannie Part II Come to the Islands, Mon

Rev. Martz's farewell continued on Sunday evening with her farewell party. It was only fitting that Rev. Jeannie, being an accomplished diver I tried to get the best pictures of the cake I could. One of our church member's,, Harry (pictured in the black flowered tropical shirt) is an architect. He baked the cake. Please note that every single shell and scallop on the cake and on the table around the cake are real cake not plastic decoration. Harry painstakingly used a variety of colors to make each shell look authentic. These are just a few of the many pictures I took.

Saying Goodbye to Pastor Jeannie Part I

21 of January, 2007 was Pastor Jeannie Martz's last Sunday at St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Palm Beach Gardens, FL. I took my camera to church, but had a lot of difficulty taking pictures because my hand wasn't very steady and they were looking pretty blurred through the view finder. Rev. Jeannie's last words in her sermon were "a time to reap, a time to sow and a time to go," at which point I was trying to get the pictures through a sea of tears. Immediately when Jeannie said those words the congregation lept to their feet and applauded. Their wasn't a dry eye in the church.

It was also a time of healing, of coming together and having to accept the fact that it's been 3 years since we've had a full time Rector. Jannie had been Associate Rector at St. Mark's for 13 years. And the rules of TEC say that the Associate cannot become full time Rector in the same church as Associate. It was a hard pill to swallow for many of us. Father Cook comes to us from Minnesota in mid-February and we look forward to his arrival and wish Rev. Jeannie the best.

Later in the day, we had Rev. Jeannie's farewell party, "Come to the Islands, Mon" was the theme of the party. It was the best party in the 10 years I've been a member of St. Mark's. Rev. Jeannie left with some wonderful gifts including our cash gift of $13, 500. Yeah you get the point. We love her and everybody wanted to contribute something.