Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie

A Lover’s Quarrel With Portland

A Lover's Quarrel With Portland: Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie from The Rev. Chuck Currie on Vimeo.

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Oregon Interfaith Leaders Express Concern Over Franklin Graham Decision America Tour #DecisionAmerica #Portland

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Franklin Graham is speaking in the Portland-area on Sunday night as part of his “Decision America Tour,” and that has many interfaith leaders in Oregon concerned. Over the years, Graham has called Islam “a very wicked and evil religion,” praised the oppressive anti-LGBT policies of Vladimir Putin, and tied himself firmly to Donald Trump. 

Graham’s “Decision America Tour,” according to Graham himself, is meant to engage evangelical Christian churches and voters in the conservative political movement. Graham told pastors in California during the first leg of the tour that they should preach about their preference for political candidates.

“Diverse faith leaders in Oregon have been meeting this summer to discuss Graham’s visit and the impact it might have,” said Rev. Dr. Chuck Currie, university chaplain, and director of the Center for Peace and Spirituality at Pacific University.  “No one in Oregon needs a sermon from Franklin Graham about faith. Rev. Graham talks about America as red and blue. We want to build up the Beloved Community for all.”

“Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon believes in the value of love and the inherent dignity of every human being. As people of faith, we are called to love justice and to stand with the most vulnerable in our society, as we seek to build bridges of understanding where there is division,” Jan Elfers, executive director of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon (EMO). EMO is statewide association of Christian, ecumenical & interfaith partners working together to improve the lives of Oregonians. “We are committed to transcending the political divides that prevent us from working together to address suffering and brokenness. EMO extends a welcome to Franklin Graham in the hope that his mission will also transcend the political divisions of our day to bring healing to a hurting world.”  

Graham was invited to meet with interfaith leaders while in Oregon. The invitation was not accepted.   

“We clergy of Portland, Oregon understand the motivation for Franklin Graham’s visit to our area, for we also have a message we are driven to convey in the name of G*d. We hope that Pastor Graham’s visit will be in the spirit of his father’s work: radical love toward all G*d’s creation. Anything less might be misunderstood as supporting social intolerance, an evil which we feel that certainly, a Christian like Pastor Graham would never seek to do,” remarked Rabbi Ariel Stone, convener of Portland Interfaith Clergy Resistance: Bearing Moral Witness In Times of Turmoil.

The Rev. Cecil Charles Prescod, minister of faith formation at Ainsworth United Church of Christ, said he had hoped to meet with Graham: “to share the interfaith cooperation in witness and work for justice and wholeness in Oregon. In our state people of faith join with people of good will to pray and work for a nation where we welcome our refugee and immigrant sisters and brothers into our communities; work to restore our creation; and advocate with our houseless neighbors, the unemployed, communities of color, LGBT communities for economic and social justice. We pray that Rev. Graham will join us in striving for the beloved community."

“Do The Nations Belong To Caesar or God?” - A Podcast Sermon Based Mark 12:13-17

A real treat for me this month was preaching on Sunday at Ainsworth United Church of Christ, my home congregation here in Portland.  A four-way covenantal agreement between myself, the church, the Central Pacific Conference of the United Church of Christ and Pacific University allows my work at the university to be possible.  

"Ainsworth is a multi-cultural, multi-racial, open & affirming, Just Peace and accessible church. We celebrate that God is still speaking in our world today and that God’s extravagant welcome and love is for everyone. We hope that your journey of faith will lead you to us and that you experience God’s love through us."  Those words have meaning.

It seemed appropriate the Sunday following the 4th of July - on a blistering hot Sunday - to consider the role of church and state. Conservative voices often say it is the role of the church to address social ills but churches like Ainsworth UCC, that help address the AIDS crisis, cannot do it alone.  What does Jesus teach us?

Mark 12:13-17 was our focus text for the service.  You can download a podcast of the sermon here:

“Do The Nations Belong To Caesar or God?”

(some browsers - like Firefox or Google Chrome - will allow you to simply click on the link and listen...otherwise click with the RIGHT mouse button on the hyperlink and choose “Save Target As” and save to your desktop or other folder – once downloaded click on the file to listen). 

Clergy Letter to Senator Ron Wyden On Iran

April 9, 2015

The Honorable Senator Ron Wyden
Sent via email

Dear Senator Wyden:

We are writing to both congratulate you on being named the winner of the 2015 Vollum Ecumenical Humanitarian Award from Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon (EMO) and to personally take this opportunity to urge you to oppose S.615, the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015.

Both of us have been deeply honored in the past to have our ministries recognized by EMO. Rev. Lore was given the 2013 Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon Award for Justice and Rev. Currie was given the 2003 Vollum Ecumenical Humanitarian Award. We agree you are deeply deserving of your award for opposing torture and standing up for human rights.

As for Iran, we strongly agree with J Street, which has stated:

“With the critical details of a comprehensive agreement yet to be worked out, it is more important than ever that Congress not take actions that will undermine America's negotiators at the table. There must also be no question that, if a final agreement ultimately cannot be reached, the United States is not to blame. We therefore continue to oppose new sanctions legislation currently before the Senate, and remain committed to working with Senators and Members of Congress toward legislation that provides for robust and responsible Congressional oversight of Iranian compliance with any agreement reached.

The diplomatic path being pursued by the United States and its international partners remains better than all the other alternative approaches to dealing with Iran. Military action would delay but not completely destroy the Iranian program, while dragging the United States and Israel into a costly and bloody war.”

S.615 would undermine President Obama’s diplomacy. We have already seen U.S. Senator Tom Cotton publically argue for a bombing campaign against Iran, despite wisdom from current and former military advisors to both political parties who state such action would fail and provoke a larger conflict.

The National Council of Churches “has long advocated for engagement with the Iranian Government, especially with regard to the nuclear question, as engagement is the best means to achieve lasting peace and reconciliation.” We concur. 

How members of the Senate vote on this issue may determine whether or not we go to war with Iran – a war that is avoidable if diplomacy is given every chance, as the president has asked. 

As clergy in Oregon deeply committed to peace, we urge you to publically oppose S.615 in the strongest possible terms.

Sincerely,

Rev. Kate Lore
Minister for Social Justice
First Unitarian Church, Portland

Rev. Chuck Currie
Director, Center for Peace and Spirituality
University Chaplain
Pacific University | Oregon

Statement on Gretchen Kafoury

Statement on Gretchen Kafoury

Portland has lost an iconic leader with the passing of Gretchen Kafoury. Without her leadership our community would be less rich. She gifted us by lending her voice to causes as diverse as ending homelessness, reducing gun violence, and promoting equality for all – including women and the LGBT community. It was my honor to serve as her representative to the Multnomah County Community Action Commission when she served on the Portland City Council. Gretchen mentored a generation of young Oregonians that will carry on her legacy by continuing the fight for the causes she held most dear.

Rev. Chuck Currie, director of the Center for Peace and Spirituality and university chaplain at Pacific University

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

I Called A State Representative A Bigot. It Wasn't Right.

This week a state representative sent me a couple of Tweets regarding the controversy surrounding Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber that seemed disingenuous.  These tweets echoed my own calls for prayers (though the representative felt the need to call on the governor to accept Jesus as his personal savior...I know nothing about the governor's faith nor is it my business...nor is it the business of one public official to tell another how to worship).  

I finally responded to these tweets by telling the representative that he was a bigot and a bigger embarrassment to Oregon than the governor.  Why?  There is a long record of this representative, a Tea Party leader and radio talk show host, of making bigoted statements against African-Americans, gays and lesbians, people of faith who disagree with his own very conservative evangelical faith, and even all Portlanders (as if all people in Portland live and believe the same).

Still, it was wrong of me to respond in the way I did and I apologized this morning.  My apology wasn't based on the feedback from this representative's fan base - which came quickly on Twitter:

I heard that @RevChuckCurrie is douchebag. Anyone know the clown?

— Josh Shoob (@ShoobJosh) February 13, 2015

and on Facebook where the representative sought to stoke the fire:

Mike Broberg Well he is from the same church as "the reverend" Jeremiah Wright so it's not all that surprising that he feels that way...a little surprised he was dumb enough to put it on twitter. Btw who are you a big got for wanting governor Coruptionhaber to get right with Jesus

Like · Reply · 3 · 14 hrs · Edited

 

Karen Darnell United Church of Christ. The man is a communist to the core. 

No, these comments and more didn't force me to apologize.

 

Oregon faces a crisis right now - one caused by the actions of our governor.  I've asked the governor, as many have now, to resign after first believing it would be better for the stability of Oregon if he stayed in office.

I agree based on the news that @GovKitz attempted to destroy emails that he must resign from office at this time. #orpol

— Rev. Chuck Currie (@RevChuckCurrie) February 13, 2015

I've also been encouraging the people of Oregon this week to pray for the bi-partisan leadership of this state.  Whatever happens in the next hours or days the state’s bi-partisan political leadership could best serve the public by working in a spirit of cooperation with an eye to reconciliation and reform of any broken institutions. These are difficult days for Oregon. We can lessen the hurt by offering compassion as Oregon moves forward.

Regardless of whether or not this elected official is a bigot it was wrong in the context of this moment to make the claim.  I inflamed tensions instead of lowering them. That was a failure on my part.  We need to be careful with our words so that Oregon can find healing after too long a winter.

What Oregonians need now is to look to the future:

Oregon can be thankful @OregonSoS Kate Brown is ready to take over governor's office. Let's hold her in prayer. #orpol #KitzControversy

— Rev. Chuck Currie (@RevChuckCurrie) February 13, 2015

My new op-ed: Will Police Unions Battle Houses of Worship Or Seek Reconciliation?

My new op-ed: Will Police Unions Battle Houses of Worship Or Seek Reconciliation? http://t.co/iW4pjCcYlc #BlackLivesMatter #NYPD

— Rev. Chuck Currie (@RevChuckCurrie) January 4, 2015

Response To PBA president's Daryl Turner Statement

The president of the Portland Police Association, the police union, has released a statement arguing that those protesting for reforms of unjust systems of policing and criminal justice are to blame for the tragic killing of two NYPD officers.

As I said over the weekend, the murders of those two public servants were an attack on all Americans. PBA president Daryl Turner's rhetoric is reckless.

The PBA has been a long-time opponent of reform. The union has protected officers who have dishonored the Portland Police Bureau. There are too many examples of the PBA putting the union before the city of Portland and the civil rights of our citizens.

Officer Turner is free to express his opinions as a union representative. But we need leaders in Portland right now who respect civil rights, respect the citizens of this city, and are willing to begin the hard work of starting a process to bring reconciliation between police and the citizens they are sworn to protect.

I think all Portlanders recognize the sacrifice made by the Portland Police and we honor that. At the same time, we should not be disrespected as a city by the PBA president who is willing to tear Portland further apart when we need to be brought together to fix serious issues that impede justice in Portland.

Rev. Chuck Currie

Statement on Possible Oregon Ebola Case

News that there is a person possibly with Ebola undergoing treatment in Oregon should not be reason for panic or great concern. Using best public health practices, the Obama Administration and Center for Disease Control and prevention has put into place policies to protect the health of Americans. No one is at risk of Ebola unless you come into contact with body fluids of an infection person. We are all at greater risk of the flu (get a flu shot). Oregonians should offer compassion to the person now under care, we should offer our thoughts and prayers, and we should do the same for those providing treatment. Health care workers deserve every ounce of respect. During this last week of the election campaign it would be a tragic mistake for any politician to use this issue as an attempt to divide Oregonians. Our attention should be focused most on efforts to stop Ebola in Africa where there has been untold human suffering. Faith leaders have been in direct contact with federal officials as this international crisis has unfolded. Fear should not define our reaction.

- Rev. Chuck Currie

Remarks at The Oregon League Of Minority Voters Dinner

Remarks delivered by Rev. Chuck Currie at the Oregon League of Minority Voters dinner on October 30, 2014.

It is with great appreciation that I join with you all this evening.

We are, as you all know, near to an election. There is always cause to celebrate the democratic process. We live in a nation where the people decide on those who will occupy elective office.

For all the gifts of our democracy, however, we are a nation not fully free. A broken system allowed the loser of the popular vote to take the presidency in 2001. Our political system has never fully recovered.

Since then we have given corporations the rights of people and taken away from certain people the right to freely vote. We are not fully free.

The United States keeps company with nations like Russia in incarcerating large numbers of our fellow citizens, and in America those jailings are disproportionally based on skin color and not on crime.

We are not fully free in Missouri or New York or California or Oregon when unarmed African-Americans are killed by uniformed police officers and we know the process of investigation will be neither fair nor balanced.

We are a little less free in Portland, Oregon this month after the Portland City Council decided to fight a judge’s oversight of reforms of the Portland Police Bureau that have been mandated by the federal government which would make us a little more free.

Ours is a disconnected reality. We live in an age where an African-American can be elected president of the United States. We live in an age where a Latino can serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. We live in an age where a lesbian woman can serve as the Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives. All of these people serve based on the content of their character.

These victories are a reality because of the work undertaken by many of you in this room here today.

But we are less free when our people are hungry. We are less free when our children are homeless. How can we make the claim that we are the “greatest nation on Earth" when 20,000 or more students will experience homelessness just in Oregon this year? Neither political party pays enough attention to poverty and economic inequity but the harshest judgment must rest with those who have fought investments in jobs, expansion in health care…and with those who have simply turned a blind eye to the people Jesus called the least of these.

The crisis of Ferguson is not an isolated incident but indicative of larger social ills that infect the whole body of our nation.

Only when we recognize the common humanity that we all share will we all be free. We cannot treat one another as if we can do without the other. We are too interconnected.

In his letter 1 Corinthians, Paul wrote about the church being the body of Christ. These are the words his used, as translated by Eugene Peterson:

For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, “Get lost; I don’t need you”? Or, Head telling Foot, “You’re fired; your job has been phased out”? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the “lower” the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?

This is a good message for us as the election nears. We are not fully free because we do not treat the “other” as necessary, as integral, when there is no one, not a soul, that can be left behind. If we do not love neighbor as ourselves, we have no hope.

So I leave you with this prayer, one based on a prayer organically penned by Phillips Brooks, that we often share in the United Church of Christ:

Jesus said, "You ought always to pray and not to faint." Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger women and men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers, but for power equal to your tasks. Then, the doing of your work will be no miracle - YOU will be the miracle, and every day you will wonder at yourself and the richness of life that has come to you by the grace of God. Amen.

Rev. Chuck Currie with OLMV director Promise King and members of the Muslim Educational Trust

The Good News Club In Portland Is Bad News

Parents across Portland are expressing concern regarding the arrival of “The Good News Club” – a fundamentalist Christian organization that works to recruit young children in city parks and public schools. The Constitution may afford this group the right to operate outside of regular school hours but parents have every right to be wary. The message being spread by ‘The Good News Club” is a far right understanding of the Christian faith outside the mainstream of even many traditional conservative evangelical churches. Faith as understood by their organizers is fear based and centered on sin. Children as young as five are told they are doomed to a life of eternal hell without accepting the theology of “The Good News Club.” They present this as a universal understanding of the Christian faith but that is not the case. Most Christians would reject this type of thinking and tactics out of hand. As a seminary educated clergy member in the United Church of Christ, I see the tactics used by “The Good News Club” as a form of coercion similar to a cult. Parents who send their children to clubs that operate on fear should be prepared to see their children suffer from mental health issues. God affirmed the goodness of Creation. Yes, sin is an important concept that Christians wrestle with. What we don’t do is wield fear of sin as a weapon to convert children who do not have the cognitive abilities to determine on their own what is right and wrong. Responsibile churches teach children about God's love, the need for all of us to be good community members, and the responibility we have to respect everyone regardless of their religion. Before the Portland Public Schools allow “The Good News Club” to use school facilities or to promote their activities on campus it would seem appropriate to allow mental health professionals to further investigate the activities of this group. Learn more at Protect Portland Children.

Statement On Portland Police Captain Mark Kruger

July 16, 2014

This is what the city of Portland has come to: an attempt to erase Mark Kruger's Nazi past from history. Capt. Kruger must see this as a victory. But his worship of SS troops might be erased from a city file as part of some bizarre move after he harassed a female colleague - another incident he has not been held fully accountable for - but Portlanders will remember this police officer who dressed as a Nazi and built a shrine in honor of Hitler's most fearsome troops. We won't forget. And our trust of the Portland Police Bureau and the Portland City Council will be further diminished because of this day. The U.S. Department of Justice investigation of the Portland Police, which found a pattern of civil rights abuses by Portland officers, didn't go far enough. There is a cancer in our bureau and no effective civilian control of this entity whose employees can get away with literally anything.

- Rev. Chuck Currie

My Last Day

Sunday will be my last day as the minister of Sunnyside Church and University Park Church. It has been an honor to serve these two Reconciling Congregations in the United Methodist Church as part of a covenantal relationship with the United Church of Christ.

Please join us Sunday at University Park (9:30am worship with early 8:30am coffee reception) and Sunnyside Church (11am worship with reception to follow). All are weclome!  

Two years has not been enough time but they have been filled. I’ve been blessed to work with parishioners at both congregations that take the social Gospel teachings of Jesus seriously.

In that spirit, we have reached out to support those experiencing homelessness, joined anti-hunger efforts such as Bread for the World, raised funds for relief agencies like Church World Service, and worked for the equality of all God’s children.

We’ve expanded ministries through the use of social media – reaching people that never would have heard a progressive Christian message. Pastoral care has been provided. We’ve mourned the loss of some beloved members of our churches and watched children be born and grow.

Like many older congregations, we have been blessed with older buildings that can be both a community asset and a drain. Sometimes it has been difficult to focus on mission instead of building needs.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley kicks off Oregon's marriage equality campaign at Sunnyside Church

My ministry began with a lot of “issues” on the plates of both churches. We’ve thoughtfully and prayerfully worked through many of those issues only to uncover new ones. Faith is a journey, of course, and not a fixed destination. Still, working with new clergy - The Rev. Christopher Gudger-Raines at Sunnyside Church and The Rev. Julia Nielsen at University Park Church – answers to those new questions will help determine the future of both churches.

Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek visits University Park Church on MLK Sunday

As for me, I’m off to Pacific University. There I will serve as the Director of the Center for Peace and Spirituality and University Chaplain. Pacific is historically related to the United Church of Christ. The community is religiously pluralistic – with many diverse faith traditions represented among the students, staff and faculty (and I respect that many at Pacific don't have a faith tradition but share a commitment to civic engagement) – and I look forward to both teaching and learning at one of the Northwest’s most important centers of higher learning.

During the summer, before assumng my duties at Pacific, I'll have time for vacation and to work on the last leg of my Doctor of Ministry degree at Chicago Theological Seminary.  The summer will be busy.  Pacific has kindly allowed me to open my office before the fall starts so that I have a place to work on my D.Min. 

Members of Our Occupy The Bible Class

The people of University Park and Sunnyside will always remain in my prayers.  I invite your prayers as my new ministry begins.  

Rev. Chuck Currie

P.S. Visit Facebook to check out photos from the last two years but click on these photos for a sampling. 

Coming Out As A Person Of Faith

Portland Pride Parade

Christmas Eve in Portland

Sunnyside Church - University Park Church BBQ

Portland should put brakes on Transportation Use Fee / Tax

Don't put the Portland street fee burden on the poor, warns @RevChuckCurrie. Public hearing at 2 pm. http://t.co/yx8EykPVgs

— Aaron Mesh (@AaronMesh) May 29, 2014

Statement Of Thanksgiving For Portland Schools

As a parent of two children in the Portland Public Schools and a minister in this great and good city, I want to congratulate the Portland Association of Teachers and the PPS Board and Superintendent for coming to a contract resolution that avoids a strike. Faith leaders issued a statement this weekend calling on the parties to work for the common good of our children, and backing the teacher’s justifiable principles for a fair and just contract. I encourage the people of Portland to pray for our teachers, administrators and school children as we all seek reconciliation moving forward. We are deeply blessed to have so many in Portland committed to our public schools.

- Rev. Chuck Currie

Open Letter From Portland Religious Leaders Concerning The Possibility Of A Portland Teacher Strike

Updated with additional clergy endorsers 2/16/14 | 6:43am

February 15, 2014

Open Letter From Portland Religious Leaders Concerning The Possibility Of A Portland Teacher Strike

Dear Portlanders: 

We stand in support of the Portland Association of Teachers (PAT) which has voted to strike after on-going negotiations with the Portland Public Schools (PPS) have failed to achieve a fair and balanced contract that both lowers class sizes and lifts up underpaid professional teachers.

In 2003, the National Council of Churches reaffirmed their historic commitment to public education by calling on “communities of faith to bring their resources, public concern, and moral authority to support not only the public schools, but also the teachers, the administrators, and, most particularly, the children in those schools.”

Our hope is that the Portland School District and the Portland Association of Teachers are able to come to an agreement before the strike begins as scheduled for Thursday, February 20th.  We call on all sides to work together for a resolution that promotes the common good of our city.  This can best be achieved by lowering class sizes during a time the PPS maintains a budget surplus.

During this difficult time we urge all sides to conduct their private and public actions with civility so that the goal of reconciliation is made easier once this process comes to a conclusion.  It is our belief that those involved on both sides care deeply about public education and children.

We affirm the words delivered by The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who said in 1964: “The richest nation on Earth has never allocated enough resources to build sufficient schools, to compensate adequately its teachers, and to surround them with the prestige our work justifies. We squander funds on highways, on the frenetic pursuit of recreation, on the overabundance of overkill armament, but we pauperize education.”  Our failure to deliver quality education is a problem that is local, state and national in scope.

If the PPS forces the PAT to move forward with the planned strike by not agreeing to the justifiable requests put forward by the teachers, we call on communities of faith to open their doors, if possible, to take in children who might not otherwise have a safe place to go once the strike begins.

Finally, while we come from different faith traditions, we concur with the sentiment expressed by the NCC when they said: “…public schools are the primary route for most children—especially the children of poverty—into full participation in our economic, political, and community life. As a consequence, all of us, Christians and non-Christians alike, have a moral responsibility to support, strengthen and reform the public schools. They have been and continue to be both an avenue of opportunity and a major cohesive force in our society—a society becoming daily more diverse racially, culturally, and religiously.”

We offer our prayers for all those working toward a just solution to this crisis that averts a strike.  Please call 503-208-6521 with any questions. Titles and organizational affiliations are listed here for identification purposes only.

 

Sincerely, 

 

Rev. Chuck Currie

Minister

Sunnyside Church and University Park Church

Portland

 

Rabbi Joseph Wolf

Havurah Shalom

Portland

 

Rev. Kate Lore

Minister of Social Justice

First Unitarian Church

Portland

 

Rev. Lynne Smouse Lopez

Pastor

Ainsworth United Church of Christ

Portland

 

Rev. W. J. Mark Knutson

Senior Pastor

Augustana Lutheran Church

Portland

 

Rev. Jennifer Garrison Brownell

Pastor

Hillsdale Community Church – UCC

Portland

 

Rev. Dr. Barbara J. Campbell

Pastor

St. Mark Presbyterian Church

Portland

 

Rev. Tara Wilkins

Minister

Bridgeport United Church of Christ

Portland

 

Rabbi Debra Kolodny

P'nai Or of Portland

 

Rev. Cecil Charles Prescod, OCC

Minister of Faith Formation and Youth Ministries

Ainsworth United Church of Christ

Portland

 

Rev. Sara Rosenau

Assistant Minister

First Congregational United Church of Christ

Portland

 

Rabbi Daniel Isaak

Congregation Neveh Shalom

Portland

 

Rev. David C. Dornack

Pastor

Rose City Park Presbyterian Church

Portland

 

Sister Mary Kay Lampert

Retired Teacher

Sisters of the Holy Names

Portland

 

Rev. Don Frueh

Pastor

Parkrose Community United Church of Christ

Portland

 

Rev. Dr. Patricia Ross

Pastor Emerita 

First Congregational United Church of Christ

Portland

 

John T. Schwiebert

United Methodist Minister, Retired

18th Ave Peace House

Portland

 

Rev. Eugene Ross

United Church of Christ Minister, Retired

Portland

 

Rev. David Zaworski

Waverly Heights UCC

Portland

 

Rev. James Simmons

 

Pastor

 

Rose City Park United Methodist Church

 

Portland

A Letter Of Support For The Portland Association Of Teachers

Church Stops GOP Gun Raffle "Honoring" King, Lincoln

Earlier this week, news broke that the Multnomah County GOP would hold a gun raffle in honor of President Lincoln and The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As I wrote in The Huffington Post, with this a truly dishonorable act the GOP aligned themselves with voices of hatred and racism, and against all that Lincoln and King stood for. I am glad to report that Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral has cancelled the event.

When I learned the event would be held at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral my assumption was that the leadership there new nothing about the event or the controversy. Churches often rent out space to community organizations. Sometimes those organizations do not fully disclose their intentions. So I reached out and asked that the cathedral consider cancelling the event and that by doing so they could send a powerful message that the planned raffle was inappropriate and immoral. My understanding is many others reached out to the Cathedral’s leadership.

The Greek Orthodox Church, like the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church, is part of the National Council of Churches. Together we have worked to curb gun violence in our nation. Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral is an important community leader in Portland. We can all be thankful they see the world with deep moral clarity.

- Rev. Chuck Currie

The Oregonian: Portland church says it will no longer allow Republican fundraising dinner tied to gun raffle

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Duck Dynasty Crew Invited To Church

We'd like to invite the cast of Duck Dynasty to Christmas Eve In Portland 2013. Dress however you like. Sunnyside Church and University Park Church welcome all, in the tradition of Jesus. Christmas is the perfect time for us all to reflect on our prejudices and fears and walk in the light of God. Our two congregations believe strongly that gays and lesbians are part of God's very good creation. Spend time in worship with us, with all our ways of being different, and perhaps together we might find that we are all one in Christ Jesus. Our faith, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, should draw us together. No one should be using the name of the Prince of Peace to intentionally tear us apart. - Rev. Chuck Currie, Minister, Sunnyside Church and University Park Church

Christmas Eve in Portland 2013

This Christmas Eve in Portland join the people of Sunnyside Church and University Park Church for a special joint 7 pm candlelight service in Sunnyside Church’s historic Southeast Portland sanctuary located at 3520 SE Yamhill Street. The public is welcome at this family friendly service (children are encouraged to stay during the service but nursery care will be available).

Visit the Facebook page for Christmas Eve in Portland (and invite your family and friends!)

Sunnyside Church and University Park Church are progressive and Reconciling Congregations in the United Methodist Church. Preaching Christmas Eve will be The Rev. Chuck Currie, a minister in the United Church of Christ, who serves as the minister of both congregations in an ecumenical partnership.

University Park Church, located at 4775 N. Lombard, worships Sunday morning at 9:30 am. The congregation is known as a place of radical hospitality and has been a beacon of justice for the LGBTQ community.

Sunnyside Church, where worship is held each Sunday at 11 am, is the home of the Common Cup Family Shelter, and has long been involved in the fight to end homelessness. The congregation also hosts a community meal program, a middle school program called the YMCA's The Roost, and Camp Fire summer programs

“My contention has been and still is that even in the midst of war, deep global poverty and environmental chaos caused by humanity, the message of the Prince of Peace is as relevant today as it was over 2,000 years ago,” writes Rev. Currie. “What happened on the day Jesus was born? God broke through into the world again -- but this time not with the force of the Big Bang or some other cosmic event -- no, this time it was with something even more powerful: the miracle of the birth of a child filled with promise and hope. Both that miracle and the message that this child preached as an adult, born first homeless and poor, is what Christmas is about.”

Rev. Chuck Currie to Lead Center for Peace & Spirituality

The Rev. Chuck Currie will join Pacific University in Fall 2014 as director of the Center for Peace & Spirituality and university chaplain.

Full story.

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Coming Out As A Person Of Faith

The people of Sunnyside Church and University Park Church invite you to a special reception and exhibit viewing on Monday, October 14th at 7pm at Sunnyside Church (3520 SE Yamhill) in support of marriage equality.

View this event on Facebook (please share on your timeline, invite your Facebook friends and those you think might be interested in attending…all are welcome).

Coming Out as a Person of Faith is a multi-media project revealing the experiences, stories, and perspectives of clergy, parents of gay and lesbians, and LBGT couples of faith who support the freedom to marry. The intention is to share with Oregonians how persons from a wide spectrum of Jewish and Christian faith traditions support the freedom to marry and how their faith informs their support of this issue.

Through film, audio, photographs and writing, the exhibit shows how people from a variety of Jewish and Christian traditions are on a journey of understanding, reconciling what they had been taught about gay and trans people with what they have seen to be true about their friends, family, peers and loved ones.

Clergy and people of faith from various Jewish and Christian faith traditions will discuss what they were taught growing up, how they reconciled their beliefs, how they came out—in some cases as a gay or trans person, and in other cases as a faith ally—and how their core religious beliefs inform their support of the freedom to marry.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Statement on Homeless Campers at Portland City Hall

Statement on Homeless Campers at Portland City Hall
by Rev. Chuck Currie

July 22, 2013

The homeless campers around Portland City Hall are a minor symptom of a larger problem: our inability to address the crisis of affordable housing plus the growing problems of poverty, unemployment, mental illness, addiction, and the needs of returning veterans and homeless students. The Portland-area needs a permanent source of funding to create affordable housing, either a housing levy or some other funding source, and after that we need a permanent source of funding to beef up the safety net that year after year faces cuts that create a climate of crisis in our social service delivery system. Mayor Hales and the Portland City Council are to be applauded for not cutting safety net programs during a difficult budget year but that isn’t enough. Arresting people and creating new ordinances to criminalize homelessness are short sighted and tired solutions that may answer sometimes valid concerns of downtown and inner-city neighbors who don’t like the crisis of homelessness on their front door or in their back yard but it does nothing to solve the problem and will only continue a pattern of moving people from one neighborhood to another. I would urge Mayor Charlie Hales to bring representatives of the Metro region jurisdictions together with the faith and business communities to consider bolder and more far reaching solutions that create real and lasting change. The moral obligation of any city is to end homelessness, not just manage it. 

Rev. Chuck Currie, Minister, Sunnyside Church and University Park Church, Portland, Ore.

100 Years Of Ministry At Parkrose Community @UnitedChurch Of Christ

Portland's Parkrose Community United Church of Christ celebrated 100 years of ministry yesterday. I was sorry to miss the celebration service for this faithful, progressive Christian community that I had the honor of serving for three years but I did send the following message to be shared during the worship service: 

"Back in 2006 – when I first arrived for what was originally planned as a short stint as your interim minister – the future of Parkrose Community United Church of Christ was uncertain. The people of this church, not unlike the brave crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, wouldn’t accept defeat, however. Instead you made difficult and bold decisions that have brought you into a new home, in partnership with another congregation, and in ministry with our city’s homeless community. Building up the Kingdom of God became more important to you than maintaining just one building. You answered God’s call to be open and affirming to all. For some of you, this work will be your legacy. And because of that this church will remain foundational for youth in this community for years to come. As a former pastor of Parkrose Community United Church of Christ, I continue to hold you in prayer (and to miss you) as I watch from a distance as this special community of faith continues to grow and respond to the still speaking God."

It would not surprise me if one day Parkrose Community United Church of Christ celebrated two hundred years of faithful ministry. The church is filled with wonderful lay leaders and the gifts of ministry brought forward by The Rev. Don Frueh.  

There Are No Strangers In God's House: A Homily On Matthew 25: 31-46

This morning the people of University Park Church and Sunnyside Church had a special joint worship service before members and friends took part in the Portland Pride Parade.

You can watch the video of my sermon homily on Matthew 25:31-46 here.  The text is below the fold.

There Are No Strangers In God's House: A Homily on Matthew 25:31-46 by Rev. Chuck Currie from The Rev. Chuck Currie on Vimeo.

A Year Of Partnership And Mission

It has been nearly a year since my appointment to serve Sunnyside Church and University Park Church was made.  This week I updated the congregations on our progress.  You can support the work of progressive Christianity in Portland with a gift to support our ministries.

Dear Members and Friends of Sunnyside Church and University Park Church,

We’re just a month shy of the one-year anniversary of the appointment that brought a United Church of Christ minister to serve Sunnyside Church and University Park Church, two Reconciling Congregations in the United Methodist Church.

Members of Sunnyside Church, University Park Church & Ainsworth Church read #OccupyTheBible.

At the Annual Conference of the Oregon-Idaho Conference of the United Methodist Church – held this June in Boise – our two congregations will be presented for a special award for the ways we have lived out this new partnership.

Together we’ve held joint services for Christmas Eve, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Ash Wednesday, and Easter. These services have drawn together far more people into our churches than either church could have ever done alone. Media attention has followed. At the same time, along with the people of Ainsworth United Church of Christ, we’ve held successful and well-attended adult education programs this past fall and spring using the books Remedial Christianity and #OccupyTheBible. We’ve used social media this past year aggressively to get out our message. We'll worship together again soon at University Park Church on June 16th at 9:30am, and then those who are able and interested will gather downtown with the Community of Welcoming Congregations to march in the annual Pride Parade. There will be no service that morning at Sunnyside. More information will follow.  

Now we are launching a new “partnership planning process” to more intentionally discover ways our two congregations can be in mission together for the benefit of the community as we preach a progressive Christian message of hope. We're also kicking off a Thursday morning Bible study for all interested members and friends for the summer months. 

During this past year we’ve also gathered for special social occasions – a summer BBQ and Christmas drop-in – not to mention potlucks at both churches. Pastoral care has been offered. Memorials have been held. We’ve had a baptism and welcomed new members at Sunnyside. University Park Church has done food drives for those suffering hunger and Sunnyside Church has teamed up with Bread for the World to ask Congress and the President to do more to fight hunger.

Members of both congregations became active this year in the effort to reduce gun violence and to promote marriage equality. 

In the midst of all this, we’ve wrestled with a challenge about how best to assist people experiencing homelessness around University Park Church (and fought off fines imposed by the city for allowing people to sleep on our campus). At Sunnyside Church, we dealt with staffing and building issues. The leadership of the congregation made the difficult decision not to renew to building user agreement for the Sunnyside Swap Shop, a much loved program, and the future of The Roost, the after-school program housed at Sunnyside, is in question after Camp Fire decided they could no longer be the sponsor (they’ll still be operating the hugely successful summer program at Sunnyside). All of this impacts us in many ways, including financially. We still have a lot of work to do. 

This note just touches on the many ways our two congregations have been in partnership and mission. As we prepare to move into a second year of ministry together there will be hard choices to confront about what it means to be church in our time. Hard doesn’t need to equate with bad, however. We need to be thinking in terms of what legacy we what these two churches to leave – what legacy we want to leave – for the next generation…and about resurrection, about how we bring new life to our work of proclaiming the Gospel. 

Sunnyside Church and University Park Church are blessed with tremendous lay leaders who care deeply for the church and for the common good of our community. Few churches are as fortunate. All of you are in my prayers. I invite your prayers as well as we move into a second year of ministry together.

Your pastor,

Rev. Chuck Currie 

 

University Park Church worships each Sunday at 9:30 am and Sunnyside Church worships at 11am.  All are welcome.

Dear Portlanders: A Lover's Quarrel With Our City

Dear Portlanders, 

There’s no question about it:  I love Portland.  It’s been true since moving here as a boy.  My life, in fact, has been dedicated to making our community a better place.  Portland’s rejection this week of fluoridation is far from cause for divorce but it does feed into the lover’s quarrel that is part of my relationship with this special place.

The fact is that fluoridation would have helped protect kids by increasing dental health.  The Clean Water Campaign, fueled by Tea Party money and some odd doctors (like the one who asserts HIV doesn’t cause AIDS), scared the city into believing that fluoride causes cancer and was bad for the environment.  In my 26 years of advocacy and ministry in Portland, I’ve rarely – if ever – seen a campaign distort and lie as often.

In the wake of Portland’s lopsided decision to reject fluoride people across the country are asking if we reject science in the City of Roses – or more plainly: is Portland just anti-science?

The fear based campaign waged by Clean Water Portland was upsetting enough but the often heard statement by those who identify as progressives that putting fluoride in the water violated their personal choice to take fluoride was perhaps more upsetting.  Portland has never been about “me!” but about “us!”  Not so this week.  The common good lost out to a growing libertarianism that in this case put the needs of children last when they should have gone first.  That children should come first is a beadrock principle of my faith.  

Still, this is hardly the first time I’ve been disappointed in the city I love.  We don’t do enough to fight poverty – and North Portland and East Portland are too often ignored, like these parts of our city just don’t count.  Inequity flourishes here and if you are a person of color your chances to succeed diminish greatly.  We launch plans to end homelessness every few years only to watch homelessness grow. 

We say “Keep Portland Weird” because this is a unique community that has produced a special culture a little bit different than much of America and we can laugh at ourselves when watching Portlandia because there are times we’re absurd in funny, yet harmless, ways. 

But at the pot-fueled Clean Water Portland victory party, where reporters say the air was thick with marijuana from smoking activists protesting adding fluoride to the water supply because fluoride was harmful (the irony is worth noting), the city crossed a line from absurd to sad.

Say what you will about Clean Water Portland: Them folks got some pungent medical herb. #fluoride

— Aaron Mesh (@AaronMesh) May 22, 2013

In the end, we still have a dental crisis.  Portland children will still suffer.  Nothing changed this week – our dental crisis didn’t get worse but it could have gotten better but fears and lies and, yes, personal self-interest won over the common good. 

Still, Portland is better than this.  When confronted with difficult questions over taxes, schools, health care, LGBTQ equality and the environment we normally make the moral choice, even if it costs us more in taxes and upsets family, friends and neighbors.  We normally put the common good first when given the opportunity. 

I don’t fault the 60% of Portlanders who voted against fluoride.  Most people don’t pay close attention to these elections and if I heard the city wanted to add chemicals to the water that caused cancer the natural reaction, it seems, would be to vote no.  Those behind Clean Water Portland, however, - the activists and their financial supporterss, including the Tea Party and their allies – knew better and did great damage to Portland by waging a divisive campaign that hurt Portland’s children.  Don’t be surprised to see this coalition reform to try and to reshape Portland in their conservative / libertarian image that is fueled by a distrust for government, other institutions (including institutions of higher learning) and, of course, science. 

That coalition in no ways represents 60% of Portland.  One lost election doesn’t mean progressive Portland is lost.  What it does show is that our work to improve Portland just got more difficult.  Outside Tea Party groups are willing to foot the bill to take on what our city has generally held most dear. 

Fluoride supporters were wrong not to engage the public in an open and transparent process from the start on this issue, instead of trying to move this through the Portland City Council quickly (a move I endorsed).  The backlash is similar to when the Multnomah County passed an ordinance to allow gay marriage without a public process (a move I also endorsed), only to see voters outlaw gay marriage statewide in response.  Government works best when it is transparent.  We ought to learn this lesson.  Back room politics don’t work in Portland. 

Progressives also need to find a way to fight lies in ways that don’t just win campaigns but also strengthen the community.  As a minister, you might think this would be a skill I would have.  But plenty of times I reacted to the lies told in this campaign with more anger than light and that is just as damaging.  Lies shouldn’t be tolerated.  They should be called out.  But we can all find better ways to engage in the public square. 

For me, I love this city too much to give up on it.  I want my kids and the children in my churches to have access to the best public schools and to public health programs that help them thrive.  After all these years, after all these battles, my deep belief is that 90%+ of Portlanders want the same even if we cannot always agree on the ways to get there.  Good people can come to different conclusions on difficult issues.  Until Portland becomes the city it ought to be, I’ll continue my lover’s quarrel and will happily work with people of integrity – people who value truth – even when they disagree with my views.  After all, I’ve been proven wrong before and changed my views when confronted with good arguments based on reason and fact.  Democracy works that way when it is truthful and fair. 

Your neighbor,

Rev. Chuck Currie            

Support Measure 26-151 - Fluoridation - For Common Good

Portland has rarely witnessed a campaign as needlessly divisive as the fight over Measure 26-151, the effort to fluoridate the city’s water supply for the common good. I strongly support this effort and as ballots are out, and as many remain undecided, I want to take this one last chance to explain why.

Portland faces a dental health crisis that impacts our city’s children – and disproportionally impacts communities of color. Just compare Portland – which doesn’t fluoridate the water – and Seattle – which does. In the Portland Metro area, 21% of children suffer from untreated dental decay – a 40% increase over the Seattle area. The CDC calls fluoridation one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century. 

Opponents have questioned whether or not we really face a dental crisis. Some have suggested children can access free dental care at school or community clinics. The reality is quite different. Such care is scare and hard to access. In the social service agencies and churches that I’ve worked in for the past 26 years, I’ve seen plenty of people suffer from lack of adequate dental care. Fluoride won’t solve every problem – we do need a comprehensive solution to all our health care needs – but fluoridation will make a profound difference that is affordable now. 

We also hear a lot about how fluoride is a chemical – a risk we just cannot afford – but fluoride is not, as one person wrote me, a by-product of nuclear waste. We already put chemicals in our water to destroy harmful bacteria. This is no different. Opponents have told me that fluoride will cause neurological damage, kill cats and dogs, and destroy plants. But every other American city that fluoridates is still standing. One of the primary financial backers of the anti-fluoride campaign is a doctor who has said HIV does not cause AIDS and tells parents not to vaccinate their children. Every major medical and dental group in the United States and Oregon has endorsed fluoridation because they know it is safe and beneficial. 

Another funder of the anti-fluoride campaign is an out-of-state Tea Party group. The Tea Party believes strongly in personal choice (except regarding women's health care). We ought to be most concerned with the common good. That should be true on everything from gun control to fluoride. When you make a choice that leaves children in jeopardy what kind of choice is that? What are we saying to our city’s kids?

Portlanders should trust the medical community – along with equity groups – that have advanced fluoridation as a common sense public health measure that will help children and the elderly. Or we can give into fear. I think the world of Portland. We are a good and decent people, and good people can come to different conclusions on difficult issues.

So I hope you vote YES on 26-151, but however you vote I hope you consider the facts and don’t give into the fear, false science and push polls out there.

Rev. Chuck Currie

Portland Faith Leaders Stand Up For 26-151 #YesFluoride

Portland faith leaders are standing up for 26-151 and Healthy Kids Healthy Portland because "one of our core principles is that the blessings of our community should be felt by all, not just a few." Fluoridation of our water will help our kids and entire city. The numbers have gotten slightly better but we still face a true crisis. Read the arguments in support of 26-151 at

http://web.multco.us/sites/default/files/elections/documents/multco_vp_26-151_for_2013-05.pdf.

Fluoride Is A Public Health, Equity Issue

As a minister and father of eight year old twin daughters, health and dental care is a top concern.  Making sure that low-income children have every advantage should be a top priority of our city and right now that just isn't the case.  Portland, one of only two major cities in the nation without fluoride in the water, is a community where "21% of children suffer from untreated dental decay – that’s forty percent more than fluoridated Seattle Metro."  We can change all that by voting yes on 26-151 this May.  

The CDC calls fluoridation one of the top public health achievements of the last century, and for Portland this is an issue of equity - which is why not only the medical community backs fluoridation but so does the Coalition of Communities of Color. 

I've heard the arguments against fluoridation:  It's a conspiracy backed by big money, it will kill dogs and plants, fluoride is bad for kids, kids can get free dental care instead at public health centers and schools, etc.  You listen to these arguments and cannot help be reminded of those who deny the science that clearly shows a link between human activity and climate change.  The organizers of the campaign to stop fluoride are denying the reality of the scientific consensus that exists on this issue - that fluoride is safe - and arguing that their personal right not to use fluoride trumps the needs of children in our community suffering from a public health crisis.  And where is this free, universal dental care I keep hearing about?  

Good people can come to different conclusions on difficult issues but Portland has been ill served by the official campaign against fluoride which has used outright lies and fear to fuel their campaign.  

The Kingdom Resurrected

This morning the people of Sunnyside Church and University Park Church celebrated Easter in Portland together in Sunnyside's historic sanctuary.  It was a beatiful morning with wonderful music performed by members of both congregations and much lay member participation.  Below is the text of my sermon.

The Kingdom Ressurrected

We come to this place this morning – gathered as two church communities, as family and friends – to celebrate the Resurrection.  Even in times when humanity has walked away from God the reality is that God has never abandoned God’s creation, with which at the beginning God declared to be “well-pleased.” The moment of the Resurrection of Jesus stands in history as the most profound example of God saying to the powers and the principalities of the day that not even death can silence God’s call for us to be a people of reconciliation, compassion and mercy.

Even today we experience the Risen Jesus in worship, in prayer, and sometimes even in personal moments of revelation. Jesus is still calling to us, like he did to those frightened first disciples, to spread the good news that the Kingdom of God is already here and that hope born out of our experiences with God demands that we seek a create a world where justice, kindness and humbleness overcomes evil and turns the darkness around us into the brightness of noon.

This is a time of rebirth and redemption. 

Theologians and lay people debate to this day whether or not Jesus was physically raised or whether the disciples (and later Paul) interacted with the spirit of Christ. Like Marcus Borg and others, I think that debate asks the wrong questions. It doesn’t matter. What matters is in ways that may very well surpass human understanding Jesus revealed himself after the cross with the ones he taught and loved, and that his spirit still moves many today in wondrous ways.

Walter Wink once wrote: 

Killing Jesus was like trying to destroy a dandelion seed-head by blowing on it. It was like shattering a sun into a million fragments of light.

It is the power of that light that calls us today to be a Resurrection people, a people who in community and enveloped in the spirit of love reach out to build up the Kingdom of God so that all people might have new life. 

Let’s remember that Jesus came to shake up the world. The Gospel of Luke chronicles the beginning of his ministry:

16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

Jesus was a teacher, the Son of God sent to help bring the world back into right relationship with our Creator. He wanted us to learn from him, to follow him, to see the world in new ways. But why did his death have to be part of the lesson? One possible answer comes from Barbara Brown Taylor, the Episcopal priest, scholar and author. She writes in this excerpt from her book Home By Another Way:

Jesus probably died right side up, since all four gospel writers agree that there was a sign above his head. That being the case, he probably died of suffocation, as his arms gave out and his lungs collapsed under the weight of his sinking body. Blood loss is another possibility. Heartbreak is a third. Whatever finally killed him, it came as a friend and not as an enemy. Death is not painful. It is the dying the hurts.

Another thing that was finished was the project he had begun, way back when he first saw what kind of explosion it would take to break through the rock around the human heart. Teaching would not do it. Neither would prayer nor the laying on of hands. If he was going to get through, he had to use something stronger than all of those, and he had to stake his own life on its success. Otherwise why should anyone believe him?

That project that Jesus came to start was the building up of the Kingdom of God, what The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would call the Beloved Community.  Taylor continues:

Self-annihilating love was the dynamite he chose. “No one has greater love than this,” he said on the last night of his life, “to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Having explained it to his friends, he then left the room to go do it. Less than twenty-four hours later it was over.

Jesus did not go to the cross as part of some vengeful God’s need for a sacrifice. He went to the cross because the Roman authorities saw the Kingdom of God as a threat to the Empire of Rome. Crucifixion was a crime reserved for enemies of the state.  Jesus went knowing what his fate would be but believing there are ideas and principles worth dying for.

We read in Matthew 22:36-40 as Jesus is asked by a Roman sympathizer:

36‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ 37He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 38This is the greatest and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

Jesus kept company with women, with lepers, with the poor, with tax collectors and with children, and said to them that the Kingdom belonged not to the rich and the powerful but to the lowly and the outcasts. His way threatened to turn the Empire upside down and the religious authorities who conspired with Rome to keep their positions and their comforts were quick to try and hand Jesus over to the cross. This is where, tragically, the myth built up that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus. But all religions, including our own Christian faith, have had leaders who have abandoned God for the favor of emperors. In reality, we need to remember that not only was Jesus was Jewish but that so were his supporters.

The Greatest Commandment challenges us still - and the reality of the Resurrection, in whatever way we might understand it, forces us to wrestle with the idea that there are no real endings…even in life (Jesus did not die when he died, and neither do we).  But there are many possibilities for new beginnings.

What we need is a Resurrection attitude in which we can envision the world in the new ways that Jesus envisioned when he proclaimed the Kingdom.  And we need to be willing, as Jesus was, to carry our crosses in the pursuit of this better life.  Eternal life may great us when we die but Jesus taught that the Kingdom was in the here and now and that it was an ideal worth dying for. 

As a people of the Resurrection, we need to work toward new life that protects our environment that we have been given stewardship over so that God’s children in generations to come inherit the sustainable earth we have been gifted. 

As a people of the Resurrection, we need to work towards an end to gun violence – and violence of every kind – and follow instead the path of Jesus, who practiced non-violence.  This work of ending violence must extend from our neighborhoods to every corner of the earth.

As a people of the Resurrection, we need to be concerned, like Jesus was, with children and the elderly, with those living in poverty, and all those on the margins.  This calls us to join the struggle for equality for all people in ways both big and large, to be concerned about freedom for people everywhere, to be concerned about education for boys and girls, to demand safe streets to walk on along, and for paths that people can walk that lead from hopelessness to hope. 

Some will say that such hope for the world is too idealistic or the work to hard.  But I have experienced the Resurrection.  I know there is hope where darkness exists because I have experienced the Risen Christ in my heart, through our Scriptures, and in moments of worship such as this.

And I’ve seen moments of Resurrection in our world.  It happened when Nelson Mandela walked out of prison to become a president.  It happened when people – just like us – tore down the Berlin Wall as the armies of the world’s superpowers stood down.  Those were moments of Resurrection, life pulled back from death, and in each of those moments – just like each time a volunteer feeds a hungry child – the Kingdom is born anew and the life of Jesus reaffirmed. 

No, Jesus did not die on the cross.  His life endures.  We are the inheritors of his mission.  Let us proclaim today: 

18‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon us, because (God) has anointed (us) to bring good news to the poor. (God) has sent (us) to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ 

Amen.

Easter In Portland 2013

The people of Sunnyside Church and University Park Church invite you to “Easter In Portland” – a special joint worship service of the two congregations, which will be held in Sunnyside Church’s historic Portland sanctuary (3520 SE Yamhill Street) on Sunday, March 31st at 10:30am. An Easter Egg Hunt for children will precede the service at 10am. All are welcome. 

Sunnyside Church and University Park Church are progressive and Reconciling Congregations in the United Methodist Church. Preaching that morning will be The Rev. Chuck Currie, a minister in the United Church of Christ, who serves as the minister of both congregations in an ecumenical partnership. Rev. Currie is a contributor to The Huffington Post whose ministry has focused on opportunity and hope for those living in poverty, and for the civil rights of all. 

University Park Church, located at 4775 N. Lombard, worships Sunday morning at 9:30 am. The congregation is known as a place of radical hospitality and has been a beacon of justice for the LGBTQ community.

Sunnyside Church, where worship is held each Sunday at 11 am (except Easter – when the service will begin at 10:30am ) is the home of the Common Cup Family Shelter, and has long been involved in the fight to end homelessness. The congregation also hosts a community meal program, an affordable day care program, a neighborhood “swap shop,” and Camp Fire programs.

People Of Faith #DemandAVote For Gun Violence Prevention #NowIsTheTime

Yesterday supporters of President Obama's gun violence prevention measures - including people of faith - rallied across America to demand that Congress vote on the proposals.  I spoke at the Portland press event. Over 70% of NRA members support President Obama's call for universal background checks.  This isn't a fight between the White House and gun owners but a fight between Americans and a radicalized NRA leadership that has lost touch with their membership. A few of those out-of-the mainstream voices tried to shout down speakers yesterday - one of them yelling a racial slur - but the vast majority of Americans reject such views and believe that in a democracy it isn't the loudest voice but the strongest ideal that should win the day. 

Statment in Support Of Universial Background Checks Delivered

by Rev. Chuck Currie at Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Feb 22, 2013

Last month I joined President Obama and Vice-President Biden at the National Prayer Service in Washington, DC as part of the Inaugural celebration. There we prayed for an end to violence in America. Certain issues sometimes divide people of faith but there is strong agreement from the National Council of Churches, representing Protestant and Orthodox Christians, and the U.S. Conference of Roman Catholic Bishops - along with the larger interfaith community – that we must support common sense proposals to reduce gun violence in America. Our schools, houses of worship and movie theaters are places we should expect to be safe. In these places we worship, we learn and we are entertained. But in recent years all these places -- along with shopping malls and restaurants and public parks -- have in moments of terror become killing fields as people with often great mental instability who have access to weapons meant for battlefields open fire on innocent crowds causing mass deaths. President Obama has proposed several important measures, including universal background checks for those purchasing guns, which would make America safer. People of faith support efforts to reduce gun violence. NRA members, many of who are people of faith, support universal background checks. I call on all members of Oregon’s Congressional delegation – both Democrats and Republicans – to put the common good of our nation and the safety of our children before the out-of the-mainstream demands of a radicalized NRA leadership that is out-of-touch with their membership.

(Download PDF of statement)

Organizing For Action call on Congress to support plan to close background check loopholes. twitter.com/MikeTurnerKXL/…

— Mike Turner (@MikeTurnerKXL) February 22, 2013

Praying For Change With The Portland Police

My latest on Blue Oregon:

The shooting of a patient at Portland Adventist Hospital by members of the Portland Police Bureau, a shooting that cost the patient his life, deserves a careful review. Portland police may have been 100% justified in their actions but Portlanders have every reason to be suspicious of a bureau in constant chaos.

Praying for Change With The Portland Police

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday Celebration

The people of University Park Church and Sunnyside Church invite you to celebrate The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday on January 20th at University Park United Methodist Church (worship begins at 9:30 am). Our special guest that morning will be new Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek. A reception in Speaker Kotek’s honor will be held following the service where she will make brief remarks about her agenda in the Legislature and will answer questions.

View this event on Facebook.

Sunnyside Church and University Park Church are progressive and Reconciling Congregations in the United Methodist Church. Preaching that morning will be The Rev. Chuck Currie, a minister in the United Church of Christ, who serves as the minister of both congregations in an ecumenical partnership. Rev. Currie is a contributor to The Huffington Post whose ministry has focused on opportunity and hope for those living in poverty, and for the civil rights of all. 

University Park Church, located at 4775 N. Lombard, worships Sunday morning at 9:30 am. The congregation is known as a place of radical hospitality and has been a beacon of justice for the LGBTQ community.

Sunnyside Church, where worship is held each Sunday at 11 am (3520 SE Yamhill Street), is the home of the Common Cup Family Shelter, and has long been involved in the fight to end homelessness. The congregation also hosts a community meal program, a neighborhood “swap shop,” and Camp Fire programs.

The regular worship service at Sunnyside Church will not be held on January 20th so that members can worship at University Park Church. 

Speaker Kotek “will be the first openly lesbian lawmaker to lead a state legislative chamber in the U.S.,” notes The Huffington Post. “We consider this a great victory for the civil rights of all Oregonians,” says Rev. Currie. “As we celebrate the work of Dr. King and reflect on his unfinished agenda for equality of all, regardless of race or creed, along with his work to fight poverty and end war, it is right and proper to honor Speaker Kotek’s accomplishment.”

Rev. Currie is scheduled to deliver the invocation at Speaker Kotek’s swearing-in ceremony at the Oregon State Capitol on Monday, January 14th. University Park Church is located is Speaker Kotek’s N. Portland district. “All of us, regardless of party or politics, can join in giving thanks that the walls of discrimination continue to tumble down even as we recognize work remains before us,” Rev. Currie said. “In a sign of the times, our members are most proud that the Speaker comes from N. Portland before anything else. That is the way it should be. Speaker Kotek is being judged by the content of her character.”

Looking Back On Christmas

This Sunday - Epiphany Sunday - marks the end of the Christmas season.  At University Park Church and Sunnyside Church we've been blessed the last two Sundays to have wonderful guest preachers fill-in while I've been on vacation.  The Rev. Eugene Ross, former conference minister for the Central Pacific Conference of the United Church of Christ, preached December 30th.  "Christmas - For Children?" is the topic of The Rev. Dr. Patrica Ross' sermon set for this morning at both churches.  Dr. Ross is Pastor Emerita of First Congregational United Church of Christ of Portland.  Both University Park Church and Sunnyside Church are Reconciling Congregations in the United Methodist Church with an ecumenical spirit.

I return to work tomorrow.

Our joint University Park Church - Sunnyside Church "Christmas Eve In Portland" service was a wonderful evening that filled Sunnyside's historic sanctuary.  It was a special joy to see so many young people and families respond to a progressive Christian message.    

You can see photos photos from our "Christmas Eve in Portland" service here:

My homily from the service is also available:

Join us each Sunday for worship: 9:30 AM At University Park Church (4775 N. Lombard) & 11AM At Sunnyside Church (3520 SE Yamhill).

O’ Come, O’ Come, Emmanuel: Work to End Gun Violence With Impatience

This morning my sermon - delivered at both University Park Church and Sunnyside Church - reflected on the violent events this week in Oregon and Connecticut. You can download a podcast of the sermon here:  

O’ Come, O’ Come, Emmanuel: Work to End Gun Violence With Impatience

(some browsers - like Firefox or Google Chrome - will allow you to simply click on the link and listen...otherwise click with the RIGHT mouse button on the hyperlink and choose “Save Target As” and save to your desktop or other folder – once downloaded click on the file to listen).

Now On ITunes

You can now subscribe to my podcasts on ITunes by clicking here. 

Note: In the prepared notes for this sermon, as in the audio, I talked about the 911 call made by a student at Virginia Tech after the shootings there in 2007 but in the delivery of the sermon I inadvertently said you could listen to the call when I actually meant you could read the transcript from The Washington Post's account.  I wanted to clarify this. 

The text of the sermon as prepared for delivery is below:

Prayers For Clackamas Shooting #Clackamashooting

As the minister of Portland’s Sunnyside and University Park Churches, I urge the people of Oregon to pray this afternoon for all those involved in the shooting which took place earlier today at Clackamas Town Center. We mourn the dead, pray for healing for those injured, and lift up the service and sacrifice of the first responders.

This is a holy time. Millions across the globe are celebrating Hanukkah and Advent. We remember that we are called to be compassionate people who respond to those in need.

It is not too early to ask why a gunman – possibly with an assault rifle - was able to commit this terrible crime. Once again, I join the National Council of Churches and other people of faith in calling on our leaders in Washington, D.C. and locally to do more to reduce gun violence. Lord, have mercy.

-Rev. Chuck Currie, Minister, Sunnyside Church and University Park Church

Update: December 12, 2012

We continue to hold the victims and first responders of the Clackamas Town Center shooting in our prayers this morning. There is now confirmation that the shooter used an AR-15 assault rifle, one of the same weapons used in the Colorado mass shooting this past summer, which had previously been outlawed by the Assault Weapons Ban, which was allowed to expire under President Bush. I continue to join with the National Council of Churches and other people of faith in calling for the Assault Weapons Ban to be re-instated and for other sensible gun control measures to be put in place. Our malls, schools, churches and playgrounds should be safe and free from violence. You don't need an AR-15 for duck hunting in Oregon. During this season of Advent, I hope all Oregonians continue to pray for those involved in this horror and I call on people of faith to reach out to the president and Congress to demand action.

#clackamasshooting Sheriff Craig Roberts says shooter was Jacob T. Roberts, 22, fired a stolen AR-15 rifle 'We do not understand the motive.

— Maxine Bernstein (@maxoregonian) December 12, 2012

God, Guns And The Church - The Darkest Valley from The Rev. Chuck Currie on Vimeo.

"The Rev. Chuck Currie Fund"

Every once and awhile folks from outside my churches ask how they can support progressive Christianity. We've set up The Rev. Chuck Currie Fund just for that purpose. Donations will be split 50/50 between my two congregations - Sunnyside Church and University Park Church, two progressive Christian churches working to build up the Beloved Community. Donate online today. Your donations will allow us to expand our ministries and support my work with other Christian leaders across the country to promote a Social Gospel for the 21st Century. We worship each Sunday at 9:30 am at University Park Church and at 11am at Sunnyside Church. All are welcome. We'll be hosting Christmas Eve in Portland - a joint service with both congregations - in Sunnyside Church's historic Sanctuary at 6:30pm on December 24th and hope you can join us if you live in the Portland-Metro area.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Thy Kingdom Come

Thy Kingdom Come, a sermon delievered by The Rev. Chuck Currie at Sunnyside Church and University Park Church in Portland, Oregon on November 25, 2012.

John 18:33-37

Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?" Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here." Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."

Before we rush into Advent and Christmas we give pause this Sunday – Christ the King Sunday – to reflect again on who Jesus was and what his life meant to the world.

In our on-going Sunday night adult education group we’ve come to know that the Book of John was written nearly two hundred years after the death of Jesus and far from recording historical accounts of his life it reflects theological understandings of his ministry and existence.

Sadly, as the latest of the Gospels, it also reflects the reality that by this point in history the early Christian community is becoming separate from the Jewish community that Jesus was apart of.  With this separation comes persecution of early Christians and the narratives of Jesus death change in ways that blame the Jews more directly as a people for the death of Jesus, when the Romans where truly responsible.

Knowing all this we can sit back from our vantage point and see how it was that Pilate must have been confused about Jesus.

This lowly son of a carpenter was actually wildly popular with the Jewish people and word had reached Pilate that some referred to Jesus as King.

King?  No, must have thought Pilate, not this man in rags who travels from town to town preaching about love and acceptance, whose message of radical hospitality upset the old guard of the established religious order who had come to serve as collaborators with Pilate and his Roman occupiers.  Jesus welcomed foreigners and unclean people; he kept company with women and tax collectors.  This was no king.  Kings are like Pilate and Caesar, clothed in the best fabrics and men to be feared because of their authority and ability to exercise that authority with the armies at their sides.  Jesus preached non-violence.  How could this Jewish peasant be a king?

When Jesus preached about the Kingdom of God his words were a direct challenge to Roman authority.  The Roman Empire was based on the accumulation of wealth and power to serve the needs and interests of the emperor.  A peace of sorts was maintained throughout the empire – it was said a citizen of the empire could walk from one end to the other without fear of be accosted – but it was a peace maintained by fear.  Those on the margins that demanded more for their communities – more food, more freedom to worship, more freedom to practice their own culture – were brutally suppressed.  Jesus reached back to the words of the Hebrew Prophets and reminded the Jewish people that such a world was not what God had intended.  No, God wanted a world where everyone shared in the bounty provided, and where the least of these in society came first.  In the Kingdom of God, Pilate – who wielded his authority for the benefit of the empire and not the common good – had no place.

The church too quickly forgot the lessons of Jesus.  When Constantine converted and declared that Christianity would be the state religion of the Roman Empire the Christian faith became perverted.  At that moment, the church became an agent of the state and church officials collaborators once again.  The movement that Jesus envisioned was nearly extinguished.

But the embers of the fire continued to burn in the hearts of some.  Some men and women who heard the story of Jesus and who were fortunate enough to read his message for themselves kept alive the idea of the Kingdom of God in the midst of the Roman Empire, and the empires that followed.  Over the centuries Christians have, following in the footsteps of Jesus, worked to heal the sick and to care for the poor.  Some Christians have become great voices for freedom of oppressed peoples.  Others have lead or taken part in non-violent revolutions for social change.

We spend too much time in the Christian church debating what happens to us after we die and not enough time talking about how to improve the world we live in.  Jesus was never obsessed with death and salvation the way he was obsessed with building up the Kingdom in the here and now.

Here’s a question to consider:  Do we want to build up our membership?  If the answer is yes, the question becomes why and how.  Numbers for the sake of numbers does nothing to advance the goal of building up the Kingdom.  Larger numbers might create a better sense of community or create a social club but that cannot be out goal.  We need to aim for something larger.  We need to be evangelists for the Kingdom and work to increase our membership by drawing in people who recognize that we actually stand for something.

We pride ourselves on being places where all points of view are accepted.  But I also agree with Martin Luther King, Jr. who once preached at Riverside Church that: “…I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal.”

There are too many great moral issues being debated in our community today – in our state and the world – that require the attention of the church.  These issues – whether it be the coming debate over marriage equality or more life threatening issues concerning global climate change – that demand that we not be silent but take stands, not just as individuals but as a church community.

What would Pilate think of us?  This is a serious question.  If we dropped Sunnyside Church and University Park Church through a time warp and into Pilate’s time would we been seen as a community that was at all threatening?  Or could we easily be ignored?  Are we speaking out as a church on the important issues of our time as churches or are we sitting in silence – perhaps acting as individuals, perhaps hoping someone else will do the work we are all called to do?

Jesus knew who he was.  He didn’t need a title or throne or crown to tell him that he was God’s son called to proclaim the Kingdom.  We need to struggle a bit with who we are, I think.  It’s time.

We need to be marching alongside workers at Wal-Mart calling for livable wages.

We need to be demanding of our President and our Congress a carbon tax and other measures to dramatically shift the way we all live to save God’s creation.

We need to be demanding of our local community permanent funding sources to create affordable housing and standing with those facing foreclosure.

And Sunnyside Church and University Park Church should be the first churches to Oregon to publically endorse a ballot measure calling for marriage equality in 2014.

If we do these things and more, we can stop being the church of Constantine and start being the movement of Jesus.  We’ll be controversial.  New people will come to worship with us and others will mock us.  But at least we will know who we are and can say that we are faithfully responding to the teachings of Jesus in our time and place.

Amen.  

Join us for Christmas Eve in Portland.

Christmas Eve In Portland 2012

This Christmas Eve in Portland join the people of Sunnyside Church and University Park Church for a special joint 6:30 pm candlelight service in Sunnyside Church’s historic Southeast Portland sanctuary located at 3520 SE Yamhill Street. The public is welcome at this family friendly service (children are encouraged to stay during the service but nursery care will be available).

View Christmas Eve in Portland On Facebook. 

Sunnyside Church and University Park Church are progressive and Reconciling Congregations in the United Methodist Church. Preaching Christmas Eve will be The Rev. Chuck Currie, a minister in the United Church of Christ, who serves as the minister of both congregations in an ecumenical partnership. Rev. Currie is a contributor to The Huffington Post whose ministry has focused on opportunity and hope for those living in poverty, and for the civil rights of all. 

University Park Church, located at 4775 N. Lombard, worships Sunday morning at 9:30 am. The congregation is known as a place of radical hospitality and has been a beacon of justice for the LGBTQ community.

Sunnyside Church, where worship is held each Sunday at 11 am, is the home of the Common Cup Family Shelter, and has long been involved in the fight to end homelessness. The congregation also hosts a community meal program, a neighborhood “swap shop,” and Camp Fire programs. 

“My contention has been and still is that even in the midst of war, deep global poverty and environmental chaos caused by humanity, the message of the Prince of Peace is as relevant today as it was over 2,000 years ago,” writes Rev. Currie. “What happened on the day Jesus was born? God broke through into the world again -- but this time not with the force of the Big Bang or some other cosmic event -- no, this time it was with something even more powerful: the miracle of the birth of a child filled with promise and hope. Both that miracle and the message that this child preached as an adult, born first homeless and poor, is what Christmas is about.”

Save KPOJ

Talk radio around the nation long been the domain of strident conservative voices.  Many of those voices have used racism, homophobia and overt sexism to draw in listeners.  In Portland, KPOJ has been the alternative.  KPOJ has been opinionated and passionate but in ways meant to draw our community together instead of tearing it apart -particularly with their local talent, people like Carl Wolfson and Thom Hartmann.  I've enjoyed many times over the years being a guest on the station to talk about religion and public issues (as recently as Election Day).  KPOJ is one of the only stations willing to air religious viewpoints that are moderate or progressive. What you get on the other stations is the Religious Right 24/7. Portlanders responded by listening and making the station profitable.  All that changed right after Barack Obama was re-elected.  The station, owned by Clear Channel, changed formats.  Gone was progressive talk and there was FOX Sports (in a city that already has two other radio stations devoted full time to sports).  Now Portlanders are crying foul and I'm one of them.  Visit savekpoj.com and tell Clear Channel that you want progressive talk back on the air.  A great community like the City of Roses deserves a great radio station like KPOJ.

Portlanders United

Dear Editor:

I will offer prayers for Mayor-elect Charlie Hales, Commissioner-elect Steve Novick and newly re-elected Commissioner Amanda Fritz at my churches this Sunday.

Our prayers will also be extended for all in Portland -- particularly those who have engaged in the democratic process this year. Such work makes our community stronger. I look forward to working with the new City Council on issues such as growing poverty and crucial community needs in both North and east Portland. This is a time for all Portlanders to come together for the common good.

I know from Hales' previous public service that he will make Portland proud.

REV. CHUCK CURRIE 

Northeast Portland

Published in The Oregonian on 11/10/12

Why I'm Voting For Measure 26-144

Public education has long been a concern of the faith community - including the National Council of Churches, and both the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church (the two denominations I serve).  If passed, Measure 26-144 will improve safety and accessibility across Portland and upgrade middle school science class rooms. The measure has my full support.

The National Council of Churches stated in a Pastoral Letter on education in 2010 that:

As we strive to move our imperfect world closer to the realm of God, we recognize that we are all responsible for making sure that public schools, as primary civic institutions, embody our love for one another. We are called to create institutions that serve families and children with hospitality. We are called to work as citizens for the resources that will support a climate of trust and community within each public school.

Right now too many of our schools are in disrepair.  My daughters attend a public school built nearly 100 years ago that - like many neighborhood schools - is in need of seismic upgrades.

Measure 26-144 moves us closer to being a community that shows true hospitality for our children and provides new opportunities for learning that will make our entire community stronger.

I feel so strongly about this issue that just today I made a donation to the campaign to help pay for a get-out-the-vote effort in the final days of this fall campaign.  You can donate here to show your support. 

Help Homeless Families In Portland / Multnomah County

The Common Cup Shelter at Sunnyside Church, one of my two congregations, operates from November 1st to March 31st each year, serving homeless families for periods up to 30 days. The Shelter relies on volunteers and donations for all of its needs. Contact Laurie Abeling  (503-807-9466) or visit http://www.commoncupshelter.org/ for more information. 

You can support the Shelter in a variety of ways:

• Donations of money for supplies for the part time volunteer coordinator.
• In-kind donations: twin sheets, pillowcases, towels, toiletries, cleaning supplies, laundry soap and other needs.
• Volunteer shelter hosts – sleep at the shelter once a month. Training provided.
• Keep Common Cup Shelter, and the families it serves, in your prayers.

Volunteer Training – Second Sunday of each month, October through March, 4:00 p.m. at Sunnyside Centenary UMC or by arrangement. The next volunteer training session is Sunday, October 14th!

Portland Police Reform Effort Already Off Track

The U.S. Department of Justice recently found that the Portland Police Bureau has engaged in a pattern of abuse that has denied people their basic civil rights and resulted in the deaths of several Portlanders, mostly those suffering from mental illness.  Willamette Week notes this morning that the DOJ has not called for an independent monitor to oversee reforms in Portland but instead will “create a body to ensure increased community oversight of reforms.”  That's an effort doomed to failure.

Local communities always oppose advances in civil rights when pressed.  That's the sad reality of our history.  We would never have had civil rights in our nation without the intervention of federal authorities and monitors.  Mayor Sam Adams and Portland Police Chief Mike Reese have already said they don't agree with the DOJ's findings.  So what is there to reform?  And how will this body make head-way if Portland authorities are busy protecting turf instead of protecting rights?

Most disappointing in the article today in Willamette Week were the comments by the two candidates hoping to replace Sam Adams as mayor in January when his scandal plagued term ends.  Both said they oppose independent oversight.  So does the police union, naturally.  This is all a recipe for more failure, more inaction, and more deaths of innocent Portlanders.

Statement On DOJ Investigation Of Portland Police

We have learned this morning that the U.S. Department of Justice has found that the Portland Police have engaged in a pattern of force that has violated the civil rights of Portlanders and resulted in the deaths of too many of our fellow citizens. I have not yet read the full report but applaud the DOJ for their work. As one of the clergy who called for this investigation and who took part in the memorial service for James Chasse, I continue to be outraged at the crisis in management that has developed in the Portland Police during the last several years. It will take a new mayor and new leadership at the Police Bureau to regain the full trust and faith Portlanders should have in their police. I am deeply appreciative of the many members of the Portland Police who have come forward to report violations and to work with integrity with the DOJ during this period. I'll look forward to reading the full report and hearing of the DOJ's recommendations to make Portland a safer community for all. - Rev. Chuck Currie


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Will You Marry Me? A Sermon on John 2:1-11, 15: 9-17 | Marriage Equality and the Bible

Read Will You Marry Me? Marriage Equality and the Bible on The Huffington Post

Summer is wedding season and while I'm not overwhelmed with wedding requests I've had a few and there is one that I'm really looking forward to in September. Weddings are, of course, special events. At their best, weddings bring not just two people together but families and even communities in a union bonded together in love. There is a simple joy in all that - even if the reality is that marriage itself is complex and sometimes difficult, just ask anyone who has been married longer than an hour. As we reflect on our reading from Scripture this morning, I want to discuss marriage a bit with you as we understand it in Christian terms, what marriage means as a legal institution, and to share with you some decisions that I have made about my role as a minister as it relates to marriage that have been helped along by my doctoral studies on this issue.

Let me begin by noting the reality that within the United States it is illegal for a minister or any other officiant to marry a gay or lesbian couple, much as it was illegal a generation ago to marry interracial couples. Oregonians voted to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman in 2004 - it is part of our state Constitution - thus banning marriage equality. This state Constitutional amendment plus the federal Defense of Marriage Act will both have to be overturned for gays and lesbians to receive true marriage equality. Federal law does not recognize gay marriages that are legal in states such as New York.

As a minister, I am asked to be an agent of the state when it comes to marriage. One way for a marriage to become legal is for an ordained minister to sign a marriage certificate. The United Church of Christ and the Episcopal Church USA are the only two mainline Christian denominations to support marriage equality, and that allow their clergy to perform such ceremonies. However, my religious freedom to provide pastoral care to gay and lesbian couples is curtailed by the government which says that I cannot legally marry same-gender couples - thus denying these parishioners the same care I can provide to straight couples. It does not seem the proper function of the government to tell me as a minister whom I can and cannot provide pastoral care to. That should be a decision of the church. The United Methodist Church, of course, forbids not just gay marriages but commitment ceremonies that the General Assembly of the church has deemed incompatible with Christianity. I look forward with great anticipation to the day this deeply flawed policy of this faithful denomination is overturned.

The United Church of Christ has developed an inclusive wedding liturgy, in which we pray for couples being married that:

...we come together in the presence of God to witness the marriage of the couple, to surround them with our prayers, and to share in their joy. The scriptures teach us that the bond and covenant of marriage is a gift of God, a holy mystery in which two become one flesh, an image of the union of Christ and the church. As the couple give themselves to each other, we remember that at Cana in Galilee our Savior Jesus Christ made the wedding feast a sign of God's reign of love. (So we pray that we) enter into (the wedding) celebration confident that through the Holy Spirit, Christ is present with us... We pray that (the) couple may fulfill God's purpose for the whole of their lives.

It is this idea of covenant that is so central, so important to marriage and there is no Biblical reason the marriage covenant should not be available to gay or lesbian couples.

Last fall, as I was taking a course in Biblical theology at Chicago Theological Seminary for my doctoral degree program, I wrote a piece for The Huffington Post about Chick-fil-A and their opposition to marriage equality. I note this mostly to brag that I wrote about this issue nearly a year before most anyone else was talking about it. ☺

I said then and I'll say now that I love Chick-fil-A. Their plain old chicken sandwich and a sweet tea can send me to heaven. I've always known they were owned by a Christian family and, frankly, I like that they close on Sundays. I'm old enough to remember when more stores did (of course, that often was enforced by law) and I think a (voluntary) day off from shopping and commercialism isn't a bad thing. But I was sad to hear then that the company had donated food to an anti-gay marriage group. Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy said the contribution was made because the company believes in a "Biblical definition of marriage." Mr. Cathy has since become even more vocal in his opposition to marriage equality.

What I suggested in my piece in The Huffington Post was that Mr. Cathy ought to read Unprotected Texts: The Bible's Surprising Contradictions About Sex and Desire, a book from Boston University's Jennifer Wright Knust. This American Baptist pastor and scholar notes that: "When it comes to marriage, biblical laws are almost entirely contradictory." In short, the one "Biblical definition of marriage" that Chick-fil-A wants to promote doesn't exist.

I'm guessing Mr. Cathy never took my advice.

As I've preached, how we read the Bible matters. It is not to be taken literally. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, argued that Christian faith required one to bring Scripture, reason, experience and tradition to the table when trying to discern the will of God. Chick-fil-A is offering fast-food theology to a world that needs more than a bumper sticker understanding of the divine.

In a post for The Washington Post's "On Faith" blog, Knust wrote:

If we do take the time to read the Bible, we are likely to discover that the biblical writers do not agree with us, whatever version of sexual morality we are seeking to promote. Written more than 2,000 years ago at a significant historical and cultural distance, the Bible gathers together a diverse collection of ancient books, edited over time, not a coherent, divinely inspired set of instructions that can easily be applied. Tracing even a few, limited topics from one biblical book to another can make the point: If one book forbids marriage between foreigners and Israelites, the next depicts such marriages as a source of blessing, not only to Israel but to all of humankind. If one insists that women are saved by childbearing, the next recommends that women avoid childbearing altogether in order to devote themselves more fully to God. If one suggests that sex with a relative, the wife of another man, or with a male lover will certainly lead to the nation's downfall, the next depicts heroic kings engaging in precisely these forms of sex. And these are just a few examples.

Knust offers the same argument in her book. Knust writes: "The Bible is complicated enough, ancient enough, and flexible enough to support an almost endless set of interpretive agendas."

That may be true, in part. Taken as a whole, the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament offer (for me) a vision of covenant. My sense is that covenant includes within our relationships between one another and with God that we should - in Paul's words - be subject to one another out of love. That doesn't mean we have an anything goes faith without rules or boundaries. In fact, the opposite is true. You cannot, for example, abandon your family and remain in covenant with God or your relatives. Justice and compassion are central to Christianity. Yet, not all teachings from scripture should be practiced today (if they were, we'd still own slaves, as sanctioned in some parts of the Bible).

We must use an interpretative process to discern God's will for us - and do not think for a moment this isn't just what the different authors of the Bible did during the many centuries it was transformed from oral tradition to the written word. Using Wesley's criteria for discernment, it is important that we open ourselves to the power of the Holy Spirit - God's own breathe - to help guide us and for us to undertake this enterprise with humility.

A generation ago, as I have mentioned, interracial marriage was outlawed. This was justified by the use of Scripture. Genesis 28:1 reads: "Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, and charged him, 'You shall not marry one of the Canaanite women." In the past, this piece of Scripture was interpreted by some Christians to mean that Hebrews and Canaanites were of different races and therefore no races should inter-marry.

We may think this silly today but when Barack Obama was born his father - a black man - and his mother - a white woman - were barred from being legally married in many states and the justification was often Biblical. We have discerned over time, led by the power of the Holy Spirit, to understand not only our own error in interpretation but also the reality that some of what is written in Scripture has no moral authority over us today. Or should I quote from 1 Tim 2:11-12? "Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent."

You see, I'm willing to make the faith claim right here and now that God has no problems with interracial marriages, wants women to speak boldly with the voice of Sophia (the embodiment of God's wisdom), and that those who use Scripture to justify discrimination against gays and lesbians are making the same mistake in interpretation that we have made as a people over and over again.

So will I marry gay and lesbian couples?

Right now I'm a United Church of Christ minister serving two Reconciling Congregations in the United Methodist Church. The United Church of Christ affirms marriage equality. The United Methodist Church says homosexuality is incompatible with Christianity. And both Sunnyside Church and University Park Church have pledged to welcome all, and are faithfully engaging the larger United Methodist Church to change the rules and truly become a church with open hearts and open doors and open minds.

So yes, I will marry any gay and lesbian couple that I believe is ready to make that commitment, using the same criteria to make that call that I would for any heterosexual couple. To respect the rules of the United Methodist Church, I will conduct those services at Ainsworth United Church of Christ, my home congregation.

Is there a risk is making this announcement?

I remember the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. who told his church:

No member of Ebenezer Baptist Church called me to the ministry. You called me to Ebenezer, and you may turn me out of here, but you can't turn me out of the ministry, because I got my guidelines and my anointment from God Almighty. And anything I want to say, I'm going to say it from this pulpit. It may hurt somebody, I don't know about that; somebody may not agree with it. But when God speaks, who can but prophesy? The word of God is upon me like fire shut up in my bones, and when God's word gets upon me, I've got to say it, I've got to tell it all over everywhere. And God has called me to deliver those that are in captivity.

So if you're gay or you're lesbian or bi-sexual or transgendered or questioning, I want to make it clear today: I am your pastor too. I am your pastor if you're straight, if you're a Democrat or a Republican, if you're black, white, Latino. And no rulebook or law will prevent me from providing you with the pastoral care I am called to provide.

What I will no longer do after September is sign wedding licenses. Until the day comes when marriage equality is the law of the land I will no longer act as an agent of the state in an institution that is discriminatory. In this, I join a small but growing number of clergy. I will offer you the religious rites of the church but will invite you to have your marriage license signed by a judge or other official of the state.

When the General Synod of the United Church of Christ endorsed marriage equality in 2005, they noted:

The message of the Gospel is the lens through which the whole of scripture is to be interpreted. Love and compassion, justice and peace are at the very core of the life and ministry of Jesus. It is a message that always bends toward inclusion. The biblical story recounts the ways in which inclusion and welcome to God's community is ever expanding - from the story of Abraham and Sarah, to the inclusive ministry of Jesus, to the baptism of Cornelius, to the missionary journeys of Paul throughout the Greco- Roman world. The liberating work of the Spirit as witnessed in the activities of Jesus' ministry has been to address the situations and structures of exclusion, injustice and oppression that diminish God's people and keep them from realizing the full gift of human personhood in the context of human communion.

I find truth in this statement and have love for the United Methodist Church, United Church of Christ and the church universal - not as institutions, but as part of the body of Christ. We are all one in Christ. It is in that spirit of love, that I come forth today to share with you God's call to us to love all people in ways that honor and continue the ministry of Jesus. It is a ministry, as we heard this morning in our text from John, that is joyful and where the Disciples - and by extension us - are commanded once again simply to love as Jesus has loved us - without condition or judgment, and centered on God's desire for us to be free from oppression or captivity, in covenant with one another and with God. Amen.

Will You Marry Me? A Sermon on John 2:1-11, 15:9-17 | Marriage Equality and the Bible from The Rev. Chuck Currie on Vimeo.

Providence Health Decision Assault On Women, Low-Income Portlanders

The decision by Providence Health to stop distributing a guide on low-income health care services jointly published by Street Roots and the Multnomah County Department of Health because the 104-page guide lists Planned Parenthood as one of the services available is deeply disappointing and should cause public agencies to review any contracts with Providence Health and for Oregonians to consider whether or not they want to continue supporting Providence with contributions - or even to seek medical care at Providence facilities.

Providence Health's decision to deny much needed health care information about available resources to vulnerable populations in our community, along with health care workers, does nothing to advance the common good.  Providence Health is operated by the the Sisters of Providence, a Roman Catholic organization, and I certainly respect their opposition to abortion services which is deeply rooted in their faith and is not political.  But Providence Health's decision to stop distributing this guide, which includes information on family planning, will only increase unwanted pregnancies and thus increase the number of abortions.  It will hurt many others who are seeking emergency shelter, housing, alcohol and drug treatment and mental health treatment.

The radicalization of the Roman Catholic Church's position on this issue, along with the lines they have crossed over it into the partisan political arena at the national level, is deeply concerning.  If they are unable to provide medical care to Multnomah County residents in a way that is respectful of the church's values and the medical needs of women and low-income residents there are other hospitals than can.  It is time to review the place of Providence Health in the Portland community. 

It is worth noting that many in the faith community support letting women make their own health care decisions.  The United Church of Christ and the the United Methodist Church are among many Christian denominations, along with interfaith communities, that make up the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.     

Portland's Fluoridation plan - one voice in favor!

As the Portland City Council debates whether or not to put floride in our city's water, I've written a personal letter in support of the plan.  Portland remains one of the few cities not to include fluoride in the water and thus our children suffer with some of the hightest rates of tooth decay in the nation.

Dear Commissioner Leonard and members of the Portland City Council:

 I want to express my personal support for the proposed fluoridation plan.  As a minister and father of eight year old twin daughters, health and dental care is a top concern.  Making sure that low-income children have every advantage should be a top priority of our city and right now that just isn't the case.  As you know, we have terrible rates of dental problems that result in ER visits and long-term issues for children.  We see these problems at rates other cities don't. Fluoridation is a simple step that will help fix a big problem.

On my Facebook page, some people have raised questions about how people who might have medical issues with fluoride - such as allergies or thyroid problems that are impacted apparently by fluoride - might be impacted.  I know that the fluoride levels will be at the HHS recommended levels but I would ask that you address these other issues in your discussions so that people feel Portland's plan is safe moving forward.

Again, thank you for your leadership on this issue.  Commissioner Leonard deserves special thanks.  Fluoridation will be an important part of his legacy and the result will be lower rates of dental problems for Portland's children.  That's a legacy to be proud of.

Best wishes,

Rev. Chuck Currie