[Magdalen] Small prayer requested

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

Don't let them get you rattled; don't let them get you angry or defensive.

If Christ's at the center of whatever you are about, you should be fine.

Of course, it's unfortunate that some folks are determined to find their
own reality these days, and don't want to be confused by the facts.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Tue, Feb 7, 2017 at 10:32 PM, Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Tomorrow morning I've been asked to meet with the Senior Warden and one or
> two parishioners of the church where another priest are doing long-term
> supply--we're alternating months.
> It seems that a couple of parishioners didn't like my last two sermons on
> the last two Sundays in January. One woman, on her way out the door on one
> Sunday, said the pulpit wasn't the place to express my political views. I
> replied that I hadn't, but she disagreed. Then a man came out and berated
> me for not speaking up for the unborn! I had no idea where that came from.
> OTOH, several people thanked me for the sermon, and one woman came into
> the office to tell me she really appreciated it.
> So there were mixed opinions, which was not a bad thing, IMO. (Of course,
> my favorite response is for someone to say, "You really gave me something
> to think about.")
> I'm always careful not to talk politics, or parties, nor to tell people
> how they should think or vote. But I believe it is part of our call as
> Christians to speak out when we see injustice or bullying, or blatant
> discrimination, etc. regardless of its source. That was the essence of both
> sermons--one the weekend of the inauguration and the Women's Marches (
> which I never mentioned--and one the weekend of the travel ban.
> I've been preaching for 27 years--with lots of emphasis on social justice
> and always connecting to the lectionary readings--and this is the first
> time I've been called into a meeting because of a sermon. So I guess I
> should be grateful for that! I did get a death threat once because of my
> involvement in racial reconciliation in the community, but that came from
> outside the congregation, and I didn't really take it very seriously.
> The thing is, even though I supply at this church a lot and was with them
> for five months about 11 years ago when they were between rectors, I am
> still just a supply priest with no standing. I told the Senior Warden when
> he called me on Monday that if people were unhappy with my preaching, they
> certainly didn't have to have me back. He got flustered and said he
> certainly didn't want it to come to that. I said I knew that--I just wanted
> to remind him that they did have that option. I'm not actually there this
> month--I go back in March.
>
> Much more detail than I meant to give, but I guess I'm trying to lay
> everything out in preparation for tomorrow. I plan to begin the meeting
> with prayer and then ask what they were upset about and what they mean by
> "political."  At some point I will acknowledge whatever they've told me,
> and then I'll say I have a dilemma, because I've also gotten just the
> opposite feedback. So Which do I listen to? My task is to preach the Gospel
> in whatever way I'm being called to do it, knowing that some will probably
> respond positively and some negatively, and the majority will not share
> their opinion at all.
>
>