MORGAN'S MOMENT...
I woke up wondering where I was…
       listening for sounds in silence
       to give me clues.
My own home and bed
       were 2000 miles away
       from this point in Mexico.
What could I hear in this place
       that separates it from noises
       entering my silence at home?
Birds of many colors singing
        wind stirred palm fronds…
        surf against the shore.
Lilting chatter of the fishermen
        happy morning Spanish
        flip-flopping along the walkway.
A dog barking its greeting
        as cooks and workers
        arrive from their little town.
The click click of cart wheels
        as ladies come down the walk
        to collect our towels.
Sounds of the morning
        summon me from my bed
        fully reminding of where I am.
— Art Morgan 

BOOK CORNER
If you enjoy getting history in novel-like form, try “Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea” by Gary Kindner. It’s a reconstructed adventure story of the sinking of a gold-laden ship, the greatest maritime tragedy in American history. Kindner uses direct quotations from many sources to recreate the last hours of the ship in a hurricane. Then he leads us through the modern search for the wreckage with all its treasure 130 years later. The loss, the search and the recovery are both exciting and informative. Two heroes in the story are Captain Herndon who went down with his ship, and Tommy Thompson who led the search for it 130 years later. It’s not religious per se, but speaks volumes about the human spirit.
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LAST MOMENT OF THE SEASON
THURSDAY MAY 19
POTLUCK
GATHER AT 6  Eat at 6:30
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MOMENT MINISTRIES
May 9, 2005
home address:  25921 SW Airport Ave.
Corvallis, OR 97333   541-753-3942
email at a-morgan@peak.org

A VIEW FROM SOUTH OF THE BORDER
We were first encouraged to visit this place almost 10 years ago by Ken and Marilyn Salter. They promised long walks on sandy beaches with intermittent opportunities for plunging into the balmy waters of the Sea of Cortez. We were to expect sunshine, siestas, time for reading, writing, napping and thinking. On years when we came before Easter I would work on my Easter services. I always come away with something.
By now we know a number of the Mexican residents and have seen some of the children growing up. Palm trees have grown from seedlings to sun shade. It’s become a familiar place.

There’s a cross on some rocks down on the beach, just in front of the hotel. Many of the people here are very devout Catholics. There are little shrines all along the road. This place hosts an annual gathering of Catholic padres who erected that cross. It was decorated with flowers on Cinco de Mayo.
I suspect that they do not care too much about which Cardinal was elected Pope. They probably don’t know or care too much about whether he is “modern” or “traditional.”
As we walk and talk Ken and I wonder how it is possible that the church could create history and doctrine and theological thought centuries ago, then freeze it as sacred dogma, allowing no room for evolution of thought and faith. What if the medical advances of the 20th century were declared heretical because truth had already been decided?
This is more than a Catholic issue. Citizens of both church and state should be wary of those who suppress freedom to gain information, develop new ideas, and express them openly.

MY STEINBECK FIX
Every year we go to Mexico I take my now worn copy of John Steinbeck’s “The Log from the Sea of Cortez.” He cruised right off the shore where we stay at just about the same time of the year 65 years ago. Watching the sun rise over the Sea of Cortez I noted one quotation underlined from one of my past readings:
“It is a strange thing that most of the feeling we call religious, most of the mystical outcrying that is one of the most prized and used and desired reactions of our species, is really the understanding that man is related to the whole thing, related inextricably to all reality, known and unknown.” (217)

 
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CARDINAL JOE AND ARCHBISHOP RAY
 

      I spent a night in Seattle, at the home of Loren and June Arnett. Loren was then the Executive Director of the Washington Association of Churches. As I remember it, Loren invited me to a breakfast of  Bishops of the various denominations. We guessed that I was probably at least a Bishop in the Moment Ministries hierarchy, so I could attend.
      I believe we met at a Lutheran Church that morning. Loren fulfilled the servant role of setting up the breakfast since he was no doubt the instigator of this fellowship. I didn’t know what to expect, but as these people began to arrive it was obvious that they were pretty ordinary people. No red hats or flowing robes or anything like that. They called each other by first names. You had to know them to know which denomination or branch of the religious tree they were from.
      I’m not great at names, and didn’t know any of the people personally except for Bob Brock, who was the “bishop” of my denomination (although his title was “Regional Minister.”) One fellow extended his hand, “Hi, I’m Ray.” I said, “Hi, I’m Art.”
      As we were heading wherever we went after the breakfast, Loren told me who some of the people were. Ray was actually Archbishop Ray Hunthausen, the spiritual leader of Western Washington’s Catholics. He was sometimes controversial, said Loren. “A really neat guy.”
      Later, as I read news of various clergy activities in Washington, I noticed that my friend Ray was often right in the midst of them. In fact, he was so much in the midst of them that then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (who recently changed his name to Pope Benedict XVI) came down on Ray for associating with the “wrong” people and holding some “wrong ideas.”
      According to a report from 1985, then-Cardinal Joe
“disciplined Hunthausen for a variety of doctrinal and pastoral concerns, including the archdiocese’s ministries to gays and lesbians, such as hosting of weekly services at St. Joseph’s for Dignity Seattle, the state chapter of a national organization of gay Catholics.”
      You probably didn’t think Archbishops did anything except say Mass and go around visiting parishes. But Ray was active enough that he got the attention of Rome.
“In one of the Vatican’s most widely publicized reports, Ratzinger warned him against politicizing the issue of women in the church, the use of married ex-priests, marrying divorced people and giving them communion rights, giving communion in ecumenical settings, and granting general absolution of sins to large groups.” (Quotes from Associated Press in the Corvallis Gazette-Times, 4/9/05)
      In fact, for a period of time, Archbishop Ray was relieved of some of his authority in the church. Another bishop was sent to keep him straight. There was such an uproar from American bishops, priests, nuns and other Catholics, that he got his authority back.
      Then, as today, there are a lot of people who praise the heavy hand that exercises authority. The Church has its rules and practices. The whole Catholic system is built on people promising to live by rules centuries old, and to obey doctrines and dogmas over 1500 years old.
      What happens, though, when someone like Jesus appears and doesn’t bow down to the Temple system? What happens when he strays from strict rules to associate with the wrong people? The cardinals of his time rebuked him for his association with tax-collectors and prostitutes and wine-drinkers and sinners. How could he dare heal and forgive and disobey centuries old Sabbath laws?
      The more I think of it, the more I ask how a Christian of any sort, archbishop or not, could walk on the other side of the people my friend Ray reached out to. Jesus seemed to think that compassion trumped doctrine any day.
      I guess you could say that you can’t run a world-wide church with loose cannons like Hunthausen. But what’s the point of having a church if you don’t care about those for whom Jesus cared?
      There are those who side with Ratzinger and like to hold the line. And there are those who side with Hunthausen who would have favored a more broadminded pope. Fundamentalists, Mormons and others whose beliefs are rooted in traditions from other times favor Joe’s position more than Ray’s.
      I’ve known some priests fairly well. I know what they think and believe and practice, although their public front is quite traditional. The ones I happen to know are more like Ray than like Joe.
      If Loren ever has a chance to arrange a meeting that includes both Ray and Joe, I’d love to be invited. I’d love to see Pope Benedict say to Archbishop Ray, “Hi, I’m Joe.”
                                — Art Morgan, May 2005