Raising an Ebenezer at the church of her

In Forum Letter’s December issue, we included Pr. Marshall Hahn’s report on a pair of Episcopal clergy in Pennsylvania who achieved notoriety when it became known they were also priests of the ancient pagan religion of Druidry (“Christians 2—Druids 0”). Of course, as Mom used to say, when you point a finger at someone else, three are pointing back to you. Fittingly, we recently came upon the website of an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) congregation. Frankly, it makes Druidry look rather traditional.

The congregation is Ebenezer Lutheran Church in San Francisco, a fine old historic place, the “mother church” of the Augustana Synod on the Pacific coast. Like many urban congregations, Ebenezer has seen better days. Baptized membership is reported in the low 60s, down from over 600 twenty years ago, making it the smallest ELCA congregation in the City by the Bay, with the exception of a predominantly Hispanic group in the Mission District. But, as their web page proudly states, “a new form of church is happening at Ebenezer,” and it gives a whole new meaning to the concept of “mother church.” Under the leadership of Pr. Stacy Boorn, it centers around “a lively, engaging, thoroughly inclusive and feminist service of worship.” This group is “a diverse community” (well, as diverse as an average attendance of 30 can be) “standing firmly within the Christian tradition in order to reconstruct the divine by reclaiming her feminine persona in thealogy [sic], liturgy, church structure, art, language, practices, leadership, and acts of justice.”

Even though the feminist stuff gets the lead on the web page, a closer reading suggests that the “feminist liturgy” is only offered on the first Sunday of the month. Of course “all other worship events are inclusive, diverse, and dynamic” — not that we had any doubts about that. And just in case you were wondering, the congregation is “Reconciling in Christ” with links to Lutherans Concerned, the Lutheran gay lobbying outfit.

What, you ask, might it mean for a congregation to “stand firmly within the Christian tradition”?

One answer comes into view when you read about the brand new worship event beginning this month, the Goddess Rosary prayer service. Each Wednesday evening the sanctuary will be open for prayer and meditation. Not only will there be “candles to light and bells to ring,” but they will make available Goddess Rosary Beads and booklets with Christian Goddess prayers. Each quarter hour there will be a “community spoken Goddess Rosary.” It goes in part like this:

Hail Goddess full of grace. Blessed are you and blessed are all the fruits of your womb. For you are the MOTHER of us all. Hear us now and in all our needs. Blessed be!

Now we have never been especially attracted to the Rosary, not even to the various attempts to make it ecumenically acceptable to Protestants. But then we don’t have any congenital apprehension about it, either. If rosary beads help one pray, then we’re for it — with one caveat, of course, which is that prayers advertised as being “within the Christian tradition” ought to be somewhere in the neighborhood of the actual tradition being claimed.

But that does not seem to be the thrust of Ebenezer’s “new form of church.” Here God is the Eternal Feminine, the Divine Mother, ready to cater to our every whim. Here’s a lovely prayer by Miriam Therese Winter: “Our Mother who is within us, we celebrate your many names. Your wisdom come, your will be done unfolding from the depths within us . . .” Well, you get the idea. (Miriam Therese Winter, by the way, is the ex-nun feminist spiritual advisor who convinced Hillary Clinton to role-play Eleanor Roosevelt while she was First Lady. It was a stress reliever from Whitewater, Monicagate, her husband’s impeachment trial, and all that.)

“Within us,” of course, is exactly the root of the problem with all of this. We human beings want a deity whose will unfolds from within ourselves. Makes it easier to follow that way, huh? Safely encapsulated within our own identity, this deity is very accommodating, affirming everything we think we are. We want a deity who is like us, a reflection of us. We don’t want Incarnation so much as our own divinization, on our own terms. We want a divine being with “many names.” We’ll pick the one that works best for us. We don’t want the stodgy old God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That God is, like, you know, way, way retro. Especially, we suppose, in California.

And so let’s find a different god, or goddess, or godthing. The web site contains a poem that seems to speak to that desire. Mother God begins “God to me / Is my dark-haired mother, / Stroking my forehead / As she lullabies me to sleep.” A colleague remarked after reading it, “This is great news! I can generally get anything I want from my mom!”

There is a highly precise and technicaltheological term for this human view of God. Theword is “idolatry.” But in the ELCA, as in most American churches these days, we are not prepared to use it. Nor do we use “heresy,” because nobody believes in heresy anymore, and “flakiness” is regarded as impolite. So we prefer to speak about “contextualization” and “niches” and “theological exploration” and “spiritual journey,” and the like. Well, as God once said through the psalmist with surprised incredulity, “You thought that I was one just like yourself!” (Psalm 50:21).

For further information, and directions to Ebenezer, we urge you to visit their website, the aptly named . When you do visit, remember, a sense of humor is crucial. We recommend keeping in mind another psalm: “He who sits in the heavens laughs.” (Psalm 2:4)

I must confess, there was a brief point in my adult life, when I was completely let down by mainstream religion, and began to seek something else. I believed in God, that Jesus was the Son of God, but I felt there had to be something more.

I began with the book of Genesis, and when I came across the part where God determines man should be created, he says, Genesis 1, v26 (Living Bible),Then God said,"Let us make a man - someone like ourselves, to be the master of all life upon the earth and in the skies and in the seas."

The 'US' and 'OURSELVES' part threw me for a loop, and I KNEW there was more! As a back sliding Baptist at the time, I could not see God was speaking of the God Head - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I am sure some will argue about this interpretation today, but this is where my walk began...

I started to study, and realized Wicca centers totally around peace. They believe in a higher power, the goddess and the god, but do not believe in satan. Studies took me to a place where a Catholic had reasoned that Wicca was correct because the goddess was Mary, and She was to be prayed to. This person had taken her basic faith (as the mentioned Lutheran's have) and changed it to suite her needs.

At this point in my life, I thank God I lived long enough to come back to my original beliefs, clinging only to God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and allowing the TRUTH of the scripture to stand on its own.

This 'Ebenezer' church has truly lost it's way, and I pray they find their way back, before it is too late.

Thank you for sharing this article, as I believe this will be a good foundation for great discussion.

P.S. I once visited a site on a regular basis, and one day posted a message about nutrition - as that is a passion I have. The replies became ugly, as they took my original message of eating well and educating yourself on man-made drugs which cause side effects - twisting it to a point of my 'bashing lesbians (a reference to an episode of E.R.)', and directing people not to elect Chemo treatments for cancer!

Remember the game we played as children - gather in a circle, begin with one sentence, and see what you end up with when it reaches the last person? This is what my original post became. The words and meanings were lost to THEIR agenda.

To the point that another member told me she was 'offended' by my proclamation of Christ. I replied to her,stating I will never hide from my beliefs or apologize for being a Christian.I will stand on the TRUTH of Jesus until I draw my last breath. She signed her 'blaze' 'Blessed Be', which is a CLEAR sign of the Wiccan belief. Consequently, that was my LAST post at that particular board, and I will not go back.

Love in Christ, Stand Firmly in His Word, Kimberly
OH...And I have always wondered - what are they blessing?

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