Gentrification, Social Justice and Incarnational Ministry

My fiancé and I have been a little bit stressed out lately.

It's not just the wedding planning, which for the most part we have found enjoyable. It's not just that we have a lot of things to juggle on top of that, like a part time job and a growing ministry.

It's not just any one of those things. No, our single, most stressful thing at this moment is dealing with gentrification, especially as we are starting to look for a place to live together.

The Bay Area is ground zero for the issue of gentrification. Housing costs are rising to ridiculous heights, with San Francisco being the most outrageous. It is not unusual for a 2 bedroom apartment in the used-to-be-latino neighborhood of The Mission to go for $4,500 a month.

We now live and do ministry in East Oakland among the immigrant population. Our neighborhood has been a somewhat affordable place to live. I started to see signs of gentrification in this neighborhood three years ago. At that moment, I thought, it would take a lot to gentrify this place. Now I realize I was mistaken.

Rent prices are going crazy high here. A 2 bedroom apartment used to cost around $1,000 3 years ago. Today, the two most recent ones we saw were $1,700 and $2,000. This is way out of our budget as missionaries.

I was supposed to move out of my place in August. In order to do that, I'd need to find an affordable place in East Oakland in one week.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Incarnational Ministry
My fiancé and I belong to InnerCHANGE, a missionary order among the poor. We adhere to a philosophy of ministry called incarnational ministry, which pretty much means we live among the community we serve.

This sounds like a romantic ideal of ministry, but in practice, it is anything but romantic.

Incarnational ministry means that you are limiting your options of where to live. Friends and family often ask me "why don't you look in this area? Rent is cheaper and more available there". My explanation that, I choose to live here because of ministry, doesn't really seem to clarify matters.

It also means that it limits the lifestyle that you can have. In InnerCHANGE, we take a commitment of simplicity, where our incomes are comparable to those of our neighbors.

All of this can take a lot of sacrifice, but it is a great way to do ministry. With Incarnational ministry, our lives become ministry.

Incarnational ministry also help us to share in the sufferings and disadvantages that people on the margins suffer. I no longer have the luxury of seeing the injustices done to them from a distance. Their injustices often become our injustices. Their pain often becomes our pain.

Gentrification is no longer an abstract idea of injustice. It is no longer something we can relate to and be angry intellectually, from the safe distances of ideas and imagination.

Gentrification is now our issue. We are feeling the invisible and yet tangible forces that are trying to push us out. We now know what it feels like to be wanted away, to be asked indirectly and yet deliberately to leave and make space for someone with more resources.

We feel angry.

Gentrification is now personal, and the next time you see me in a rally, a city council meeting, or a vigil in East Oakland, you'll know that I'm fighting not just for the needs of the poor, but also for my own needs.

May you join me in this struggle.

The Episcopal Church Welcomes...Me? 4 Questions to Episcopal/Anglicans Before I Convert!

Update: Thanks to all of those who offered me answers to these questions! As I wrote on this post, I have decided to stay in the Roman Catholic Church. Thank you for all your help in my discernment.

As part of my discernment process of whether to join the Anglican communion or not, I have done extensive research over its many issues, and more specifically, into the perceived issues of the Episcopal Church.

Some of the research has been encouraging, and some of it, to be honest, deeply troubling.

For this reason, I'd like to ask these 4 questions to people who belong to the Episcopal Church, or to members of ACNA, or any other Anglican body. I apologize in advance if any of these questions sound offensive. I'm just reacting to the wildly contradicting and varied opinions I hear about the Episcopal church, and it is difficult at this time to separate fact from fiction.

The 4 questions are...

1) Would I be mocked, dissuaded, or discouraged if I hold to my creedal orthodoxy?
I affirm the Nicene Creed. I believe that there is one Triune God, that Jesus died for my sins, that his death has atoning power, that He really rose bodily from the dead, and that He really will return again.

Would I be welcomed and encouraged in my beliefs? Would I find myself at home with these beliefs in the Episcopal church, or will my faith be mocked as fundamentalist and not in with the times?

2)Would I be welcomed with my Marian devotion and  my devotion to the saints?
If I am not  part of an Anglo-Catholic congregation, would I still be welcomed at the table?

3) Would I find a community that is committed to following Christ in a multi-religious society, instead of being encouraged to follow Christ with a multi-religious spirituality?
I am looking for a Christ-centric church. I heard stories of clergy in the Episcopal church reading from other religious texts and performing religious practices of other religions. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it does seem a step too close to religious relativism.

Is this a normal occurrence? Can I expect to find a Christ-centric congregation or would I be discouraged in my single minded pursuit of Christ with ad-hominems like close-mindedness?

4) Finally, would I be welcomed if I consider social justice important but not the end point of Christian discipleship?
Is it OK if I believe that social justice is an important aspect of Christian discipleship, but not the most important aspect of it?


Again, I Apologize if these Questions Sound Offensive!
These questions are not intended to disrespect people's belief, or to make assumptions on the Episcopal church. If anything, it is to clarify what could become assumptions. These are questions that are being raised in my mind from the research I made on the the Episcopal church.

I'm simply  giving people who are in the Episcopal church an opportunity to clarify these issues.

Also, if you think that my beliefs and values expressed above are not a good fit with the Episcopal church, then please tell me so! This would help me greatly in my discernment process as I find a place to be and grow in Christ!

Thank you in advance!

Why I Still Pray to Mary (and Other Saints)

It is no secret for readers of this blog that I am currently going through a painful and disconcerting discernment process of whether to stay with the Roman Catholic Church or join the Anglican Church.

This does not mean, however, that I don't have any spiritual practices that are considered "Catholic". Quite the opposite: I still find a lot of nourishment from many Catholic practices, from Eucharistic Benediction to prayers to the Saints.

Why Pray to the Virgin Mary When You Can Go Straight To Jesus?

I get asked this question a lot from my protestant brothers and sisters. At face value, this question makes a lot of sense. Why bother to go through an indirect route when you can have direct access to the Master?

This question, however, ignores the fact that prayer is also a communal practice, not just an individual practice between you and God.

The same question can be asked to the protestant who asks his or her friends to pray for a specially difficult or troubling circumstance. We see this practice as something natural. Indeed, many of us encourage this practice.

Individual prayer is powerful, but there is something amazingly powerful when a community gathers around and are united in prayer.

Our faith is not born and nourished in a bubble but it was taught to us in community. This community has a direct and spiritual connection to that great cloud of witnesses that goes back to the Apostles.

I just happen to believe that Mary and all the Saints are active members of my community, and that they are participants of the new life in Christ, since God is a God of the living and not of the dead.

When I pray to Mary, or to any saint for that matter, I am declaring that I'm also part of this greater community whose faith I inherited, and in doing so, I am asking them for prayers on my behalf.

I Also Pray to Mary When I Need Counsel & Comfort

Don't get me wrong, I also pray to Jesus and receive from Him counsel and comfort.

There are moments, however, when I pray to God and I feel dry. There are moments where I feel God is distant in my prayers. There are moments when prayer is not passionate and pious, but dry and monotonous.

We all have experienced this desert. We all have gone through this dark night of the soul.

I recently went through a brief period of dryness in my prayer life with God. I prayed and felt no connection. At some point I felt helpless and alone. I even felt like God was rejecting me.

At one point I got the sense that I should pray to Mary, asking for her counsel and comfort.

I did, and I felt this powerful and moving connection with her. I told her all my struggles. I told her to please pray for me. Immediately, this sense of darkness left me. I felt comforted by her. I felt the assurances of her prayers.

I understand this might be scandalizing to some of you, but I see it no different than going to a close friend during troubling and dry periods of faith, and receiving counsel and comfort from them.

I Encourage you to Try It!

I am not asking you to worship Mary or the Saints, but just ask for their intercessions! This is an ancient practice that can be traced back to the Early Church Fathers, and it is one that nourished me and even gotten me through some dry periods in my spirituality.

Holy Mother of God, pray for us, now and at the hour of our death! Amen.