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4 from previous page We know that orphans don’t thrive if they are put in institutions that only care for their physical needs. Children need to be held and hugged and talked to. Adults need human interaction just as much – we all eventually begin to shrivel in enforced solitude. Gospel work is about restoring relationships, with God and neighbor. It’s about cleaning us up for polite and wholesome society, and welcoming us back to the banquet table. Most of the pain and dysfunction in human lives, whether it’s poverty, violence, war, arrogance, or oppression, arises from the boundaries we draw between “our” kind of people, the clean ones, and those outside the wall, whom we often define as dirty or less than human. We are pretty good at dressing up those divisions with fancy language, saying that this person is a criminal or an enemy, or that one isn’t “nice,” or that group over there will corrupt my children. In spite of all that division, God keeps looking for ways to break down the walls. Who are the lepers around the edges of your community? People who’ve got HIV? Muslims? People from the lowlands? Tourists? Soldiers? What does it take to pronounce them clean and fit for relationship? Jesus gives us example after example of breaking down those walls. He eats with all sorts of officially unclean people, he talks to women, he touches dirty people, he meets with his enemies, and he invites everybody to the banquet. The people Jesus gathers as disciples are mostly unclean or dubiously righteous: Mary Magdalene, who has been healed from “demons,” fishermen, a tax collector, at least one revolutionary zealot, and plenty of other folk who know what it is to live on the margins. He is particularly attractive to people on the outs – that’s who all those crowds of people following him were – the landless and unemployed, the sick and the poor, and even some of the officially clean people who didn’t feel so clean. Those marginal people are often the source of societal cleansing, even when they are feared because of their difference. Look at the slave girl in Naaman’s story, who steps across a border in order to break down a wall. She is a slave because her master’s soldiers captured her. But she offers to help him through one of her home-town prophets. There’s quite a lot of risky boundary-crossing going on here! The outsider is an essential part of our own cleansing, for we cannot be The Philippine EPISCOPALIAN Presiding Bishop Schori (with shades) and Rev Peter Ng (shaking hands) are welcomed by Bishop Brent Alawas and Bishop Joel Pachao (right). wholly restored to right relationship without him or her. What we see as unclean God has already pronounced good at creation. That one on the outside is God’s beloved daughter or son. Who are we to cry, “unclean, unclean!” The divisions between clean and unclean, inside and outside, friend and stranger, are maintained not only by those who draw the boundaries, but by those who accept those boundaries as normal. Sometimes we participate in our own exclusion by accepting somebody else’s definition of us as “unclean.” That has something to do with the requirement that the leper go and show himself to the priest. He needs somebody else to validate his cleansing. We need others to remind us of our belovedness – we cannot be whole and healed and holy all alone. It takes a community. Even God is a community. A t creation, God pronounces all of it “good.” Humanity is blessed and called “very good.” The great creation stories of Genesis insist that human beings are made for relationship, that it is not good for human beings to be alone. We are created for partnership with other human beings and with God, to tend the garden, break down the dividing walls, and bring the unclean inside the community. Who is being left outside? Who needs to hear, “I do choose – be made clean”? We can say those words and be the ones who restore others to community. All of us at one time or another need to hear those words and experience that restoration ourselves. Will you go and do likewise? [Homily delivered at the St Jude’s Episcopal Church in Bangao, Buguias, Benguet, PHILIPPINES during the Presiding Bishop’s visit on February 12, 2012.]
NBW AT THE MISSION CENTER Cathedral Heights, Quezon City. The culminating celebration of the National Bible Week (NBW) was observed at the National Cathedral of St. Mary and St John on January 28, 2012. This first observance in the Mission Center started with a marathon public reading of the Bible, iProclaim, held at the front courtyard of the National Cathedral which started at 8:00 AM and ended at 6:00 PM. Books of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation were assigned to different representations from institutions and church organizations from the mission center. The first National Bible Quiz sponsored by the National Evangelism and Christian Education program followed after the public Bible reading. Contestants from three dioceses namely, Northern Philippines, Northern Luzon, and Central Philippines representing the Episcopal Church Women, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, the SKEP (youth), and Sunday School participated in the said activity. The activity was much appreciated based on the feedbacks of the community and participants. The National Evangelism coordinator and the Diocesan counterparts have laid down plans for next year as early a first quarter of this year in order to improve next year’s observance. The theme of this year’s NBW celebration is Pagpapahayag ng Salita ng Diyos Tungo sa Pagbabago (Proclaiming God’s Word Towards National Transformation) and is based on Jonah 3:1- 10 and Matthew 5:13-16. The National Bible Week celebration is spearheaded by the Philippine Bible Society. The national celebration is contained in the Presidential Proclamation numbers 2242, 44 and 1067./dbt NewsUpdates NATIONAL BIBLE WEEK PHOTOS “May they be One” from top to bottom: • Prime Bishop Malecdan opens the NBW culminating activities • BSA member practices his part • Sunday School girl reading • ECW participates • National Bible Quiz The Philippine EPISCOPALIAN 5
Page 1 and 2: Episcopalian “Why seek ye the liv
Page 3: “Will you go and do likewise?”
Page 7 and 8: from previous page The words Jesus
Page 9 and 10: 18 Graduates from Saint Andrew’s
Page 11 and 12: DIOCESE OF SANTIAGO “Keep on the
Page 13 and 14: from page 11 (Misio Dei). For the A
Page 15 and 16: from previous page Naimbag a Damag
Page 17 and 18: from page 10 Paul, faith is meaning
Page 19 and 20: DIOCESE OF SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES “
Page 21 and 22: THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION Archbishop o
Page 23 and 24: OPINION/REFLECTIONS Thirty two year
Page 25 and 26: from previous page domains of the i
Page 27 and 28: EDNCP from page 14 completing requi

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