On Pride Sunday,  Bishop Marc Handley Andrus of the Episcopal Diocese of California joined Lutheran Bishop Mark Holmerud in celebrating the eucharist in the assembly area before today's San Francisco Pride parade (top left). Deacon Vicki Gray read the gospel (Top right) and Oasis Board Members Judy Lebens and Justin Cannon receive communion at the Pride Mass (Bottom left).  The Oasis contingents then marched down Market Street. Here's the full report on our San Francisco Pride participation.

Join fellow Episcopalians in making a meaningful difference
in the lives of people struggling with HIV and AIDS

For 22 years, AIDS Walk San Francisco has evoked a powerful outpouring of public support. This year, on July 19^th in Golden Gate Park, please join your fellow Episcopalians in making a meaningful difference in the lives of people struggling with HIV and AIDS. This is my tenth year participating in AIDS Walk San Francisco and I know many around the Diocese have been involved for longer.  This year is also General Convention so many will be away.  Don’t let the absence of some be an excuse for a small turnout from the Episcopal Church!

We need YOU to join Team #8125 Episcopal Churches of the Bay Area for this year's AIDS Walk San Francisco!  Online registration is available at the AIDS Walk website:  www.aidswalk.net   Click to AIDS Walk San Francisco and go to "REGISTER ONLINE".  Remember to indicate that you are on Team #8125 Episcopal Churches of the Bay Area.  You can download your sponsor form to print out immediately and receive your Walker Kit from the AIDS Walk office.  Encourage your family members and friends to register online to walk with our team- the more the better!  Any team that registers 25 or more walkers by Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at noon qualifies for a team Meeting Station at AIDS Walk San Francisco.

TransEpiscopal at General Convention

Left: The Rev. Cameron Partridge, a leader of TransEpiscopal, presiding at Baptism.

By Vicki Gray

 "If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die?”

William Shakespeare,“The Merchant of Venice”

For the first time, transgender Episcopalians will have a visible, vocal presence at the Church's General Convention.  Eight members of TransEpiscopal, a nationwide organization of transgender Episcopalians, will attend the General Convention in Anaheim July 8-17.  We will be working with Integrity at its booth; speaking the afternoon of Friday, July 10 at the "Speaker's Corner;" supporting four transgender-related resolutions; and generally getting to know delegates and others in attendance.  We hope to see many of you there.

 WHO WE ARE

We are a group of transgender Episcopalians and our significant others, families, friends and allies dedicated to enriching our spiritual lives and to making the Episcopal Church a welcoming and empowering place that all of us truly can call our spiritual home. We represent the often forgotten “T” in the LGBT – that broad spectrum of gender variance which cross-cuts sexual orientation and includes tomboys, crossdressers, transsexuals and those called to live their lives androgynously. We are not, by reason of being transgendered, sick, sinful . . . or dangerous.

We are, however, very much endangered and are killed – one a month – by those who hate.We are, many of us, accomplished in a variety of fields – physicians, politicians, professors,   poets and priests. We are active in our church as vestry members, musicians, convention delegates, deacons, priests and faithful parishioners in countless pews.  Above all, we are all God’s children, made in the image of our Creator, imbued with the Holy Spirit, breathed into every human, and seeking to walk in the footsteps of our brother Jesus.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God! See the Full TransEpiscopal at General Convention as well as Keeping the "T" in "LGBT". TO LEARN MORE, PLEASE VISIT TransEpsicopal @  http://blog.transepiscopal.com/ 

DignityUSA Convention 2009 Set for San Francisco July 2-5, 2009

We are invited to join in “Together We Will Reach the Promised Land: Celebrating 40 Years of DignityUSA,” in San Francisco July 2-5, 2009 for the 19th DignityUSA biennial convention. 

On the occasion of DignityUSA’s 40th anniversary, we encourage you to come early and celebrate LGBT pride and freedom during San Francisco’s amazing Pride Weekend (June 27-28), or stay after the convention to enjoy the many attractions the Bay Area offers. 

The Convention will be held at the beautiful Parc 55 Hotel, located in the heart of downtown San Francisco near the Powell Muni/BART Station on Market Street, convenient to all forms of public transportation.  T More here.

Ban on LGBT Bishops, LGBT Marriage Rite Loom High
As Church Gears Up For National Convention in July

Our goal for this summer's national convention of the Episcopal Church is nothing less than The Full Inclusion of All the Baptized in All the Sacraments.

Our Hopes For Anaheim:

1. To move beyond Resolution B033. Adopted in haste and under external pressure in 2006, this ill-considered resolution has been used to bar qualified LGBT persons from consideration in elections to the episcopacy. 
    
2. To move toward adopting rites to affirm and bless all relationships of mutuality and fidelity between two people who love each other. Since 2003, some bishops have been allowing parishes to bless LGBT couples as a matter of pastoral practice. Various 2009 General Convention resolutions ask for changes ranging from inclusion of such rites in the Book of Occasional Services through rewriting of the marriage service in the Book of Common Prayer.

Read more about the upcoming General Convention during the first two seeks of July, 2009 in Anaheim, CA.
 

What happened at Lambeth last summer?

If you want to know what happened in Canterbury during the Lambeth Conference, you can:

• Check out our Lambeth photo page;

• Read Oasis President Tom Jackson's Lambeth Report, his Lambeth Pilgrim Blog and his Lambeth Reports on EpsicoPod - you can also download Tom's report as a PDF file;

• Check out the Witness @ Lambeth site. Launched by Oasis California, the Witness @ Lambeth brought LGBT Anglicans from across America and around the world to blog and witnesses there. 

• See more Lambeth News Reports here.

The Bishop's London March sought
justice for the poor -
but not LGBT people.
 

Bishop Marc and fellow bishops join in escorting Bishop Gene Robinson to the Changing Attunes/Integrity Eucharist.

Presiding Bishop Kathryn Jeffords Shori
and Oasis President Tom Jackson
at Lambeth.

The Oasis Witnesses @ Lambeth
came from across America and
around the world.

OASIS CALIFORNIA

The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of California

Mailing Address: Oasis California, Post Office Box 7802, Menlo Park, CA, 94026-7802

Copyright © 1999-2009 Oasis California All rights reserved.
Revised: 07/02/09