I have always felt called to belong to a church community, and to support it with my financial resources, imagination and time. Perhaps this comes from growing up in the same town that both my parents were born in, and that both sets of grandparents were born in, and in the church my Mother's parents founded and built with others in 1927. Their names, along with those of others, were on the mortgage, which fortunately the congregation faithfully paid off through the Great Depression and World War II.

It is a good thing that the House of Bishops affirmed in their final statement from their just-concluded meeting in New Orleans their "commitment to establish and protect the civil rights of gay and lesbian persons, and to name and oppose at every turn any action or policy that does violence to them,encourages violence toward them, or violates their dignity as children of God."  And who can argue with their strong affirmation, saying: "We proclaim the Gospel that in Christ all God's children, including gay and lesbian persons, are full and equal participants in the life of Christ's Church."

But, then, the asterisks....*Some restrictions may apply. 

We do not know her name or what motivated her to do what she did. We only know that she was a sinner, and though the gospel does not go so far as to identify her sin, we can guess as to what that means. But the fact that we don't know her name is no matter. What matters is that on that day, she taught through her actions a valuable lesson about the Kingdom of God.

John reaches out to us with his account of Jesus' prayer at his final supper with his disciples, often called the high priestly prayer. The words give us insight in to not only who we are, but why we are. "The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

Who are we? Jesus tells us - we are one. This is a refrain that we hear repeatedly, not only throughout the Bible, but in the texts of every major religion.