Charter Blog

I suppose you could call this my "charter blog." Beginning today the sometimes world of Rev. Tim or Pastor Tim of Memphis, Tennessee will be in script for the eyes of the world to read. Most of the time in my 47 years of incarnation, and the only incarnation I recognize at this point, I have kept my thoughts to my own mind, musical lyrics and spirited extemporaneous preaching. Sure, I can admit to telepathic communication with the Divine in waves of mindfulness while driving down the road in a quiet car. But, like so much of this twenty-first century communication revolution the blog has been flirting with me to visit and offer my tangible thought in regular verbosity. So, this is a first for me. Even though I know I am among the millions who throw their words into the cosmos for all to see, like other bloggers, it feels good to let it all out.

As I write this charter blog, I have to say some things about Joy Booker who was a charter member of the church I have served for nearly 14 years. Holy Trinity Community Church, now a United Church of Christ was chartered in 1990. Among the thirteen who gathered that first Sunday in a storefront, was a tall, striking, thin, gender bending woman known by close associates as JB. At her funeral this past weekend, which was held in our beautiful sanctuary, she was labeled the "godfather of the gays." Joy was raised in the Roman Catholic Church and was well educated in Catholic schools. For her to attend Holy Trinity UCC was not only an obligation but was the fulfillment of a dream for her. Every Sunday that she could attend, and that was 85% of the services in a year, JB would come dressed in fanciful men's suits and an occasional fedora. She would approach the communion rail and kneel with tremendous dignity and would never partake of the host until after she had said "amen". While Joy fought a hard battle with Sickle Cell Anemia which exhausted her and caused her to drag a tank of oxygen along behind her, she never became disillusioned. She waged war on racism, sexism, and heterosexism with gentle finesse and iron-like conviction. She served throughout the same-gender loving community with consistency and intellect.

Her funeral or "celebration of life," as we termed it, was was with over flowing attendance allowing standing room only. Her mother, Toya Booker, insisted that we have the service in "Joy's church" and that we hide nothing about her life. So often I am called to officiate at funerals where the family has secrets about their departed sons's HIV status or their mother's sexuality. Life-long partners are left in the back pew crying silently and family members are suspended in fear of the "great revelation" of the departed. I walk out of those funeral homes wishing that I knew nothing about the situation, while I too, am suspended in the great deception. Pastorally, silent acknowledgements are made while all of us enter the mutually delusional closet of social decorum.

In JB's case, the celebration of her life was a very rare glimpse of everybody being "for real" and authentic in a way we can only hope for once in a single life-time. The largely African-American, Christian, and same gender loving people were together, gathered in a service of worship where the truth of life was spoken. We giggled knowingly at Joy's penchant for beautiful women. We were touched by her raspy voice calling us to get "outside of ourselves." And we respected her because she was true to her word and we could always count on her to be there. For a moment, I swore the veil between the realm of heaven and earth had disappeared. The crown of life we witnessed in JB, was an integrated life where indeed the inward and spiritual grace of her life was revealed outwardly and tangibly as a sign of a life fully lived. Joy Booker, "godfather to the gays," may be the last of the original 13 charter members of Holy Trinity Community Church. Holy Trinity is built on the lives of such genuine saints and hundreds have passed through those church doors. As the statuesque, proud and beautiful all female pall bearers carried JB's casket in and out of the church, I knew that the new creation that we read about in Christian scriptures was indeed at hand.