Pick the movement. Any movement. It starts with an idea. It identifies the injustice and just chips away at the mammoth institution that refuses to acknowledge anything is wrong. It may take decades, generations, centuries. The idea cannot be killed, and likely in the end, in some far off time, the change is made and civilization has become just a bit more enlightened. It the meantime, there are the unsinkable forces called hope and determination.Who cant admire the moxie of the eight Catholic women ordained July 31 in Pittsburgh as priests and four who became deacons? Total apostasy declares the church and its far-flung forces of the status quo. Like early suffragettes fighting for the women vote or the first women to take a boss to task for sexual harassment or females who demanded parity in salaries with men, these are women who are sacrificing themselves to move the discussion along.

In the beginning, like this, it is all messy, but so was the Boston Tea Party, or Martin Luther nailing the 95 thesis of grievances on the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany, to spark the Reformation. So were the 1960s civil rights protests by blacks against sheriffs dogs and fire hoses in the South. So were the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village and beyond in 1969 that were catalyst for the homosexual rights movement. Or the early demonstrations in the 1960s to end the war in Vietnam. They started with the idea and courage and a confidence that right was on their side.

Perhaps, none of us alive today will see the day that the Roman Catholic Church allows women priests or even married male priests. But many feel confident there will be that someday, if the church itself survives. Theres no stopping ideas for change that contain universal truths.

So word has it that three of the new priests, Kathy Sullivan Vandenberg of Milwaukee, Wis., Eileen McCafferty DiFranco of Philadelphia and Bridget Mary Meehan of Arlington, Va., are getting letters from their bishops that, by their own actions, they have excommunicated themselves. Theres talk that the Roman Catholics among the 350 guests attending the ordination on a riverboat on the Monongahela River are subject to excommunication. Never mind that 64 percent of polled American Catholics like the idea of female priests. But, we know, the church is not a democracy and Catholics leaders are not swayed by polls.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, it was the fourth group of women worldwide since 2002 who have brazenly pulled this off. Like the regular male ceremony, the women candidates, wearing white robes, prostrated themselves on the floor in humility. These mavericks claim that Canon 1024, which declares only men can receive the sacrament of ordination, is unjust and cannot be accepted. Since we do not accept the law, it has no bearing on us, read a statement released Tuesday by the organization Roman Catholic Womenpriests (www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org) We are not bound by it, and we cannot be punished by it. We have not excommunicated ourselves, said Aisha Taylor, the groups executive director.

Defenders of the policy say if you are a true Catholic, you must accept the laws and canons. If you were a law-abiding black citizen in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955, you sat in the back of the bus.

Despite church leaders who hold to the notion that only men can be priests because Jesus Christ was surrounded by a cadre of 12 male apostles, reformers in the church point to evidence that women held leadership roles in the beginning centuries. “Women were definitely leaders in the early church and so that’s what we’re asking to go back to, the early leaders of women in the church and leading to ordination,” Taylor said. History and tradition only go so far, then common sense should kick in. Women have too much to offer to be shut out of clergy leadership in the Catholic, Southern Baptist, Mormon, Lutheran Church Missiouri Synod, Islamic or other patriarchal religions.

Independent Catholics, of course, have had women priests and bishops for years. They are doing their work with no evidence that, lacking certain anatomy, they fail their duties. To the contrary. While Catholic optimists like everyone to believe that the “vocations crisis” will be solved and droves of single males will fill the seminaries and then fill the priestless parishes, its not happening. A quarter of all priests are 75 or older, and seminarians ordinations can’t keep up with priests dying.

In the highest roles, from journalism to Congress to Corporate America to the military to many religious faiths, women have infused professions and institutions with immeasurable skills, energy and strength. The Roman Catholic Church may be the last to recognize what it has been missing.

I have been part of small churches and large churches. Give me the whopper church any day. Intimacy and small community only go so far. Ill take the bigger, wider experience that comes with more people, more resources, more critical mass to programs, more to like, more to criticize.The Arizona Southern Baptist Convention, with its offices in Scottsdale, produces an excellent bimonthly magazine, Portraits, and the current issue is devoted to a look at small congregations — The Small Church in a Big World. Steve Bass, the conventions executive director, observes that Arizona is full of churches with 50 to 100 folks attending each Sunday and it likely means tiny staffs. The pastor you see at the bookstore … he is the pastor, preacher, music leader, Sunday school director, janitor, bulletin maker … that man does it all. Yet Bass reminds Southern Baptists that the small churches should never be forgotten because they have a mighty influence.

Bass insists the small church knows its neighborhood and connects with its members in a very personal way. He cites the couple getting married is likely to be someone folks actually know, unlike marriages often in mega-churches. It also knows enough about the nonmember to have the funeral in its building, because even though the deceased didnt go to church, he knew the preacher, Bass said.

Throughout Portraits writers underscore what small churches can do to make a big difference. If your church is a smaller membership church, use your size to your advantage in fostering relationships and building a sense of family. Help newcomers quickly feel that they belong. One article shows how small congregations can team with others to have enough children for a meaningful and exciting vacation Bible school.

In Benson, Skyline Baptist Church had dwindled to 15 people, with mostly older people attending. But three pastors came together to put their hearts into reviving it. New construction helped revitalize their spirits. They were intentional at reaching out to young families and children and now membership has doubled. Pastor Mark Hill said their efforts have focused on people and not programs. The church is committed to helping families with their finances, education, child-rearing, communication and spiritual growth.

It said the church in Benson has no pretenses, just real people seeking Gods purpose. Things arent measured by the tally on membership rolls or structured plans, but on doing as Jesus would do — reaching out to hurting people and accepting them as they are.

Another writer offers, Realize that even if your church is the only one in town, people may not beat a path to your doorstep. Make it a priority to meet the people in your community and look for creative ways to share God love. Portraits editor Elizabeth Young offered data from a 2005 statistical study of Southern Baptist churches. The median number for total membership was 119 in Arizona SBC churches and 213 nationally. The median number for actual Sunday morning attendance is 67 in Arizona and 75 nationally. Sunday school enrollment totals are 73 and 84 respectively, but actual attendance in classes showed a median of 42 in the state and 51 across U.S. churches.

Young notes that 47.5 percent of Southern Baptists churches nationwide have a total membership of less than 200, and more than a quarter have fewer than 100. In this day when there is a tendency to supersize everything and think that bigger is always better, its easy to lose perspective, Young says. Appropriately for the July-August issue, Portraits carries a “Brother Blooper” cartoon showing a pastor in his pulpit bellowing, Let us not longer consider ourselves a small church, rather that we are a numerically challenged congregation.

But what denomination doesnt envy a 16.5 million American faith with 42,775 congregations?

I am the first to admit I dont have the ethos of a Catholic. I surely lack a real understanding of the inherent identity Catholics have in their faith. And I realize — and appreciate — that the brand of Christianity I embrace gives me the flexibility and freedom to switch camps at any time, though I have no intention to do so. I sometimes wonder what is it that keeps Catholics Catholic. I do know it is like being part of a family, such that leaving is not even a word in their vocabulary.And there are ample, ample, ample statements by Catholics as to why they feel privileged to be anchored in the faith with apostolic succession to Christ, and they take pride that the Roman Catholic Church doesnt make change easily. Teaching the catechism inculcates that into the fiber of their being.

For all who have followed the saga of the Rev. John Cunningham and the two-year nightmare of “The Wedding in Gilbert, there emerges a classic study of a priest who fought the good fight and has come out of it whole. The losers have to be the people in a parish like St. Mary Magdalene in Gilbert, which no longer has him as its founding priest, offering homilies steeped in intellect and insight. For years, he was the Tribunes regular “Clergy Corner” contributor from the Catholic faith. There was depth, candor, courage and refreshing boldness to his writings.

Now that he and Bishop Thomas Olmsted have reached a settlement over the wedding faux pas, where he formally admitted to allowing an Anglican priest to participate in the Eucharist during the ceremony in 2004, Cunningham is reinstated as a priest, although some privileges are being restored in phases. He was permitted to take early retirement and has enrolled in a doctoral program at Arizona State University where he has been teaching religious studies courses. Throughout the controversy, his attorney brother Jim Cunningham and sister Maggie Cunningham-Hyland have actively pressed the media and others in defending their brothers integrity, devotion to the faith and more than 30 years of abiding work for the Catholic church.

On Friday, Cunningham-Hyland sent us a compelling review of her brothers life story to set the record straight and explain how he had gone through a full process to redeem himself, including a retreat, a letter of apology and accepting restrictions. She called her brother the quintessential intellectual. His students love him and his brilliance in speaking/teaching the Gospel or a class on world religion, she said. … When he speaks, he challenges you to listen. Your are not only educated but stimulated to higher thought. Yet, he is gentle, soft-spoken and unassuming. His sister tells how he was the sixth child of a 40-year-old Irish immigrant mother and was destined, from the beginning, to serve God.

John always did play priest, she said. His father built him a small church in the back yard where he said Mass, on Sunday afternoons using Necco candy as a host and wearing vestments that his sister Maggie made for him. His eagerness for the priesthood led him to be ordained at the rare age of 25 in this diocese in 1974, and he rapidly showed his stuff in the series of parishes he served in. He was quickly the diocesan vocations director. From his carpentry work in rebuilding Blessed Sacrament Church in Tolleson to learning to speak and write Spanish with the help of his secretary to using a five-month sabbatical studying psychology at the Jungian Institute in Zurich, Switzerland, Cunningham seemed poised to do even more to develop his skills and thus benefit his service to the Diocese of Phoenix.

So it was that he was tapped to shepherd two new parishes, St. Bridgets in Mesa (1985) and St. Mary Magdalene in Gilbert (2002). The church campuses, his sister stressed, were carefully planned with striking architecture, religious art, an abundance of trees and an ambience to stir the soul. He work at St. Mary Magdalene was abruptly ended and included some accusations about misappropriation of funds, but the county attorneys found no evidence to support it, instead finding that he donated his own resources to expedite the project and that funds could be accounted for. Those accusations especially left a bitter pill. As did his having to remove his name, as other priests were ordered, from the Phoenix Declaration that called on society and faith communities to treat homosexuals with the fullness of people. Obedience being the watchword.

Once the bishops reinstated Cunningham on June 20, he traveled to his familys Irish stomping grounds and conducted his first Mass in two years. John was born to do exactly what he always did — function as a Catholic priest, his sister told me in an e-mail. He was very happy and successful in this role. This is a happy ending. John has been restored to his true calling. He will be allowed to say Mass for other pastors, but no weddings or funerals — except for family — for the first year.

On the cover of an album of Cunninghams keepsakes of his 1974 ordination at Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral are the words of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. They include these: I am the first to seek, to sympathize … the first to open myself out and sacrifice myself — to become more widely human — more nobly of the earth than any of the worlds servants. Gladly, out of the turmoil, the Rev. John Cunningham, covered with scars rises to be true to his glorious quest. More widely human. What more can anyone ask?

A Mesa church has a clever idea: Flicks for Chicks on the Sixth. Women from Desert Heritage Church will gather the first Saturday of each month (more or less the sixth day) to see a new film release that most men would only attend kicking and screaming.Coming to terms with the fact that a certain portion of films on Valley screens cannot excite their males, the women intend to suck it up and go see the features with other women who can appreciate that genre of films. This Saturday the women are headed to a theater to see RV. It is a comedy starring Robin Williams who leads a dysfunctional family that abandons Hawaii vacation plans to drive a rented RV to the Colorado Rockies where they must deal with a crazy enclave of eccentric campers. (Yes, I got that description from the paper. The film doesnt appeal to this male, either).

Organizer Sue Keen said her new group was formed after the men of the church started their own group, The Apostles, with serious intentions of studying scripture. But Keen said the women needed their own bonding group and have formed the Flicks for Chicks organization. There are no dues, no attendance requirements and all females over age 16 are welcome to join the trek to the movies, she said.. The movie will be announced in church on the Sunday before each outing, Keen explaiend in the Heritage Herald, the month newsletter of the church, 1020 N. Horne, Mesa, which is related to the United Church of Christ. Anyone needing a ride can call Keen at (480) 570-1071. How about the all go in an RV?

Next door in the newsletter is a longer write-up about The Apostles. They will meeting at 8 a.m. Saturday (Aug. 5) in Heritage Hall where Mark and Ken will be whipping flapjacks and bacon for a lot of you.

John, the Apostle, aka, John Gaines, moderator for the church, writes that women attended the mens second gathering, which was at his houses. There was a potluck meal, good fellowship and a thought-provoking movie about making a difference in the lives of those around us. To the men, Gaines suggests, Id encourage the Apostles, sorry ladies, to each set aside time to give this some serious thought before we meet again so we can explore ways to turn our thoughts into actions. He asked that they get organized in a way that it doesnt become The John and Paul Show, referring to him and the churchs pastor Paul Whitlock. And you ask where are Ringo and George, Gaines quipped, a reference to the Beatles. Maybe sort of seeking words of wisdom and let there be an answer, let it be, let it be.

As with the Knights of the Round Table, there is no head of the table, Gaines writes, nudging other men to get involved and help take the initiative. Our guidance comes from a higher power. God is still speaking. The question is …. are you listening? he exhorted.

Meanwhile the ladies will be sticking to the lighter stuff down at the Harkins theater — suffering once a month in chick-flick heaven.

If you dont stand for something, youll fall for anything goes the old parenting advice. Some people dont want to squander opportunities in their limited and finite lives in getting their message(s) across and show what they stand for, such as their uncompromised religious faithBumper stickers, personalized license places, yard signs, car plate holders, T-shirts, caps, tattoos and rubber wrist bands are some of the ways we get our messages out to strangers. Whether it is part of our agenda or just a neat idea, the statements we put out there compete furiously with the overload of information the average eyes scan. With the Internet, many have made it their choice to include automatic tags, with their names, at the end of their e-mails. Sometimes, its simply a favorite or famous maxim. Often it is a crisp comment of hope. This week, I got this tag on an e-mail: If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you’re reading this in English, thank a veteran. A lot is packed into that statement. It really had nothing to do with the rest of the message.

Sometimes its a biblical verse or simply a scriptural reference like John 3:16. But doing that has been ruled verboten in the public workplace in Ohio. Employees at the Ohio Department of Taxation have been informed that if they are attaching religious postscripts or other messages at the end of their work e-mails, they are to stop it.

The internal audit administrator, William Cort, told workers that they could be disciplined if they continue to put Bible verses or any other sayings at the end of e-mails. One worker, for example, had put: Deuteronomy 30: 15-19 Choose Life. That is to stop. So it one that said, May God continue to bless you and keep you from all hurt, harm and danger. This, I ask in Jesus name. Amen. Someone else ended an e-mail with “May the Sweet Holy Spirit Lead and Guide you all day long!

Cort has apparently received about a half-dozen complaints about those kinds of messages and finds they dont belong there while conducting public business. There is a continuing trend to voice personal views as part of a salutation immediately before or after the senders name, he informed his employees. A business environment is not the place for proverbs, personal advice or religious references. He further has put a stop to the forwarding of the common mass e-mails that have a moral message, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer reported. One is “The Woman,” which is called a feel-good slideshow in which God and an angel discuss God’s creation of a human who is perfect in all ways except that she forgets what she is worth.”

So whats wrong with all this personalizing e-mails? Besides that it uses public business as a vehicle to convey a personal message or even proselytize, it has a way of indirectly endorsing privately held beliefs, positions that may offend or just distract from the business at hand. And where would it end? While a New Testament verse might seem benign and inspiring, what happens if an employee who is agnostic chose a nihilistic statement, like a Friedrich Nietzsches statement, The world itself is a filthy monster or his famous remark, God is dead. Or what if the person includes a web site link to ones church or a side business or a time-share deal?

Its a raging debate. How can politics be kept out of the church or temple when, in fact, scriptures and the most iconic people in them taught believers to transform their world and change others? The “right” answer is to change mens hearts so people in power will lead righteously. But others insist people of faith must work to gain control of institutions committing evil and wrong.Trying to keep religion out of politics gets terribly messy once one side” has already violated the rule. Whether religion got politicized or politics was overcome by sectarian influences, it is plain that America and the world are engaged in deadly moral and culture wars. For two decades, since President Jimmy Carter openly shared his Baptist faith in the public square and the Moral Majority became a political force, an alarm has been raised about the consequences of faith aggressively pervading politics.

New York Times writer Laurie Goodstein, on Sunday, brought this keenly home in article Disowning Conservative Politics; Evangelical Pastor Rattle Flock. It seems the Rev. Gregory Boyd in the northeast Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb of Maplewood, Minn., has had it with church members trying to use him and their megachurch to advance political agendas. Boyd was persistently asked to give his blessing to their requests. During services, he was asked to announce the rally against gay marriage. He was requested to introduce a politician from his pulpit. Members requested his OK to put a table up to promote anti-abortion activities. Others wanted Woodland Hills Church to distribute voters guides that all but endorsed Republican candidates. Then, with the war in Iraq, some wanted the church to hang a U.S. flag in the sanctuary.

Boyd denied all those requests. Then in 2004 as the general election was approaching, he delivered six sermons on the theme The Cross and the Sword, saying the church must stay clear of politics, give up moralizing on sexual issues, stop claiming the United States as a Christian nation and stop glorifying the American military, Goodstein reported . Boyd told his flock that when the church wins the culture wars, it inevitably loses. When it conquers the world, it becomes the world. When you put your trust in the sword, you lose the cross.

What Boyd said conjures the message in recent years of Jim Wallis, the evangelical Christian observer who wrote Gods Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesnt Get It. Wallis has sought to rally people of faith to step into the gap and serve those in need regardless of politics. Wallis, founder of Call to Renewal, has said, I believe in the separation of church and state, absolutely. But I don’t believe in the separation of public life from our values, our basic values, and for many of us, our religious values. One of them for me is this deep concern about overcoming poverty. That is a religious value for me, not just a political one.

Boyds statements offended some, and they bolted the church. The pastor spoke out against the hypocrisy and pettiness of Christians who focus on sexual issues like homosexuality, abortion or Janet Jacksons breast-revealing performance at the Super Bowl halftime show, Goodstein wrote. He said Christians, these days, were constantly outraged about sex and perceived violations of their rights to display their faith in public. In the end, Boyd said it was a defining moment for his church.

Woodland Hills, founded in 1992, had reached 5,000 members but by the time the dust settled, Goodstein wrote, the church had lost about 1,000 members, some walking out on sermons. For example, the churchs Sunday school lost 20 strong volunteers. The family pastor, Mary Van Sickle, related, They said, Youre not doing what the church is supposed to be doing, which is supporting the Republican way. Yet others said they found Boyds message liberating and something that needed to be said.

Yet, with the exodus of mostly white, middle-class suburbanites, more area residents, including blacks, Hispanics and Hmong immigrants from Laos, became member. Boyd held a forum to hear people out, and many of the questions showed the congregation still didnt get his message that the church cannot be a political mouthpiece. Among the questions: Isnt abortion an evil that Christians should prevent? Are you saying Christians should not join the military? Didnt the church play enormously positive role in the civil rights movement? To that Boyd said that the church does not necessarily own a better perspective on issues than society in general. Moreover, all good, decent people want good and order and justice. Just dont slap the label Christian on it. That would beg a theocracy, and we know the abuses that follow from that.

Politics and patriotism become idols, he said, noting how one megachurch had a Fourth of July service featuring a chorus singing God Bless America and a grand video production showing fighter jets flying above a hills of crosses in silhouette. Its a huge mistake, he said, for people to think of America and Christian faith as indivisible. I am sorry to tell you that America is not the light of the world and the hope of the world. The light of the world and the hope of the world is Jesus Christ.

Boyd is a bold preacher and his words are timely and provocative as the mid-term elections near and the stakes seem so high.