Children of a Patient God

piano tuningI am writing this as I sit at the back of the sanctuary at Imani, working and waiting as our piano is being tuned. The piano was a gift from one of our members. It belonged to her mother, who has passed away. Our church member wanted us to have it.

It is an old spinet piano, and the tuner said it obviously had not been tuned in a long time. Because of that, and because of the piano’s age, he said he could not bring it all the way to the standard goal of “A440” in one tuning. If he attempted that, he was sure that many of the piano’s strings would break. He said he’d have to bring it closer to that standard this time; and with each successive tuning, he’d be able to bring it progressively closer until it was there.

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Celebrating Same-Gender Love, Partnership, and Marriage

celebrating same-gender marriageI’ve spent a lot of time, in the last week, thinking about intimate covenant relationships. That is because BJ and I attended a couples’ retreat, sponsored by the Infinity Diamond Club, from Wednesday through Sunday of last week. It was an awesome experience!

There were several workshops and discussions, facilitated by some wonderfully inspiring presenters. Folks who read this blog may recognize some of their names: Rev. Dr. Yvette Flunder and her spouse, Shirley Miller; Bishop Tonyia Rawls and her spouse, Gwen Rawls; Angie Harvey; and Joi Rhone.

The retreat reminded me of the importance of affirming and supportive community for all covenant relationships and/or marriages; but I am speaking particularly about those of LGBT Christian couples. Affirming and supportive community can be hard to come by, for many of us. They say you can’t miss what you never had, but I believe you can. You just might not realize that your experience is what it is because of what is missing from it.

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