For better or worse, I've finally decided to get into the blogging fad. And of course, what else to blog about but religion? Most people who know me know that religion is quite important to me.

I am a new member of the Episcopal Church in the USA. My newly-adopted church is in the process of self-destructing over, gasp!, the GAY ISSUE! This one will surely be worthy of a two-part episode on Desperate Housewives. All right, I'm exaggerating. Indeed, the issue of human sexuality is contentious, but hopefully cooler heads will realize that Christians acting in good faith have come to differing views on the issue of homosexuality. It certainly is not my hope that the Episcopal Church and/or the Anglican Communion will self-destruct. After all, I just got confirmed!

Acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) people in church, and allowing them to have marriages/commitment ceremonies recognized by religious ritual, is one important issue for me. Issues of colonialism in religion are another. In general, I wish to stretch myself and my fellow Christians to a broader view of our religion. I am a Christian universalist, meaning that I do not believe my religion is the only way to attain salvation, however defined. I am also a feminist, meaning that I believe in valuing the experiences of women; in the field of religion, I strongly support having women as priests and bishops, and I value feminine imagery of the divine, because it stretches all of us to a broader understanding. I am also a liberation theologian, meaning that I believe that God acts through and on behalf of the oppressed, that God strongly opposes injustice, and that God calls us to do likewise.

For a first post, my first image will be Joan of Arc:



For some reason, J of A has always been a favorite of mine, even while I was still a very Evangelical Methodist (and Evangelicals don't typically do saints). Her wikipedia page is quite informative: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc She was born January 6, 1412. Large parts of France were under English occupation. At age twelve, she experienced her first vision. Sts Michael, Catherine and Margaret exhorted her to drive out the English, and bring the Dauphin to Reims for his coronation. She was at first rebuffed. However, she correctly predicted that the French army had suffered a defeat at the Battle of the Herrings, outside of Rouvray, which was north of Orleans.

And so, by this time, the French were desperate. Desperate enough that they could accept the word of an illiterate peasant teenage girl that she had been chosen by God to lead their army to victory. However, arriving at the siege of Orleans, she disregarded the veteran commanders' often cautious decisions, and rode out to the front of each skirmish with her banner in hand. She pursued vigorous frontal assaults against several wooden siege fortifications. The English abandoned their wooden fortifications, and retreated to les Tourelles, the stone fortress that controlled the bridge. This, too, she assaulted frontally and won. Some historians conclude that she was mainly a standard-bearer whose primary effect was to boost troops' morale; others believe she was in fact a skilled tactician and strategist. Either way, it is agreed that her brief career was very successful.

She convinced the French to march on Reims, and they got there with minimal losses. King Charles VII was crowned there. She next wanted to march on Paris, but the royal court pursued a peace treaty with the Duke of Burgundy, which he broke to reinforce Paris. After the failed attack on Paris, Joan was captured in a minor skirmish, was given to the English, and was put before a kangaroo court. The court could find no evidence against her, but tried her anyway, and tried to trap her like the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus. Asked if she knew if she was in God's grace, she replied, "If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me." The Church taught that no one could be certain of being in God's grace; had she answered yes she would be guilty of heresy, and had she answered no she would have condemned herself anyway.

In any case, as with all kangaroo courts, they found her guilty of heresy. They had to alter many of the trial records against her, and they had to refuse her appeals to the Pope, but they sentenced her to be burned at the stake. On May 30, 1431, she was executed. The English burned her body twice to reduce it to ashes, and cast it into the Seine to prevent anyone from taking relics. The executioner later stated that he "greatly feared to be damned for he had burned a holy woman." An English soldier is said to have given her a makeshift cross before her execution, which she holds in the icon.

The artist who did the icon is Robert Lentz, a Fransciscan monk who is trained in Byzantine iconography and who does a lot of modern icons. His icons are available at www.trinitystores.com.