What Kind of Church is Sunshine Cathedral?

What Kind of Church is Sunshine Cathedral? (by Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins)

Sunshine Cathedral’s theology can be boiled down to “God is the power and presence of love, and that presence is omnipresent, everywhere, fully present.”

 

Every single message you hear at Sunshine Cathedral will feature that simple but powerful and life-changing idea: God is omnipresent Love.

 

Just as our worship is a blend of many ideas, experiences, and traditions, so also is our theology the product of blending. We are historically affiliated with Metropolitan Community Churches, a movement started by a gay, defrocked Pentecostal minister (Troy Perry) with a primary outreach to LGBTQ+ people and an enthusiastic affirmation of LGBTQ+ people as children of God designed to be exactly who they are.

 

We are also affiliated with the International Council of Community Churches, the Divine Science Federation, and the International New Thought Alliance. For decades, we have embraced the principles of Progressive Christianity, the principles of New Thought, and the openness of spiritual humanism. 

 

Progressive Christianity simply says questions are more important than the answers we come up with, that everyone is loved by God, that other religions also have wisdom and holiness, that science is important and not at odds with spirituality, and that scripture can be understood in a variety of ways and the best ways are those that promote justice, tolerance, goodwill, and peace.

 

New Thought began as an American healing movement in the 19th century. Their guiding

principles were the omnipresence and goodness of God, the power of thoughts, feelings, and

attitudes to help shape our experiences in life, and the use of affirmations and visualization to make prayer more effective.

 

Finally, spiritual humanism is also part of the air we breathe at Sunshine Cathedral. Spiritual humanism affirms the innate goodness and the potential of human-beings, allows for spiritual community, spiritual experiences, and a variety of opinions about the existence and nature of divinity.

 

Examples of spiritual humanists (who might have also been Christian or Jewish or Muslim, etc.) include Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Roman philosopher Marcus Aurelius, or the founder of Reconstructionist Judaism Mordecai Kaplan. 

 

Spiritual humanists, while not being limited by dogma or creeds, value the individual spiritual experience and the insights that come from it and also value evidence-based science.

 

Sunshine Cathedral is a diverse, joyful, and non-dogmatic community of spiritual seekers where questions are sacred and absolutes are few. What we will declare without waiver or apology is: You are God’s miracle and not God’s mistake.

SunshineCathedral.org

Black Panther: A Truly GREAT Film (and here's why)

Of course I LOVED Black Panther. 
We got to see the glory of what could be without the evils of colonialism. 
We got to see the struggle with understanding the difference between serving and saving a nation. 
We got to see the struggle with the tempations of isolationism (and the possible dangers of openness, but still, we are left with the supremacy of bridges over barriers). 
We got to see the mixture of tradition and inovation. 
We got to see the complicated dance of fighting oppression without emulating the oppressor. 
We got to see the difficulties of being a good leader while also being a good person, a person whose values inspires the leadership rather than being sacrificed in the name of leadership. 
And we got to see the pain caused by even well intentioned dishonesty. 

A high regard for science and technology was featured. 
An almost all Black cast, no white savior (though the importance of being an ally was featured), the beauty of shamanic religion, and super bad-assed women warriors were all part of the mix. 

The governing council was gender balanced and age diverse. 
And, the message that war should always be a last resort was unambiguous. 

We also saw the danger of having an unprepared, illegitimate ruler fueled by hate and anger assume power. 

To Queer eyes, there was even a moment for LGBTQ people...a child was left behind/sacrificed to protect a lie (how many children have been abused, rejected, psychologically tormented to protect the lie that heteronormativity is sacred and anything else is damnable?)..the pain that caused impacted him and others for years thereafter. 

The film was beautiful and sophisticated and the social, philosophical, theological, psychological, and political messages artistically communicated could fuel a graduate level academic project (and probably will). All of that with breath taking vistas and thrilling action (and a sweet love story). And miraculously, with all of that going on, it wasn't scattered; it wasn't too much. It remained coherent, focused. The film was entertaining and empowering at the same time. By almost every measure, it is a truly great film.

Saw Tea at Five in NYC

Monday, Nov. 28 -
Tea at Five...a staged reading at Lucille Lortel theatre on Christopher St.
LL is a great small theatre...about 200 seats on the floor and another 20 or so in the balcony.
The stage is about as deep as ours at Sunshine Cathedral, and about half the width.
Of course, Charles Busch was fabulous.

You know he has a theatre degree from Northwestern...he really is a good playwright and actor. But of course Tea at Five wasn't written by him...it was originally done on Broadway with kate Mulgrew.

Charles looked like KH (he's known for the best wigs in the world) and he had her mannerisms and voice down...he's made a career of imitating the screen legends of the days of yore, or their screen personas anyway (though usually as composite characters of his own creation). he is such a good female impersonator that it's never a distraction that he is actually male (in fact, he so believes that he is an actress/diva on the stage, that the audience soon believes it too).
It was a one night only production/benefit for an LBGT shelter in NYC.

I've seen CB's play "Tales of the Allergist's Wife" on Broadway, Psycho Beach Party (regional theatre/Dallas), and the film versions of PBP and Die Mommy Die (with Charles in them), and the documentary film about him, "The Lady in Question." I also saw his film, "A Very Serious Person."
In January I got to see him in his play, "The Divine Sister" at the SoHo Playhouse. And now this staged reading of "Tea of Five."

A few years ago he played Auntie Mame (in the play, "Auntie Mame" in a summer stock production in Maine), but sadly, I missed it :-(

I'm a huge Charles Busch fan, and last night's performance did NOT disappoint. AND, PS, I was front row center. thank you very much.

We Need Another Buffy

"Do---do you think I chose to be like this? Do you have any idea how lonely it is, how dangerous? I would love to be upstairs watching TV or gossiping about boys or... God, even studying! But I have to save the world. Again." - Buffy (The Vampire Slayer)

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" was one of the smartest television series ever in the history of the world. Action. Pop culture. Occult thrills. Philosophy. Wit. Humor. It was complex and thoughtful and I watched it with religious devotion.

I would like to think that I loved Buffy because I'm smart, witty, and I possess that rare combination of depth and whimsy. I might have liked it because there is something erotic about vampirism. Maybe the youthful cast made me feel younger. But I suspect it was the character of Buffy herself that appealed to me the most.

Buffy was special. She was born different than other people, but she didn't discover who she really was and what it meant until she was in her late teens. She came to realize that her difference was powerful and the world was actually better because she embraced her truth. Her unique gifts were needed in the world and her courage in accepting her role in life improved the lives of others. And yet, some were afraid of her difference. Others hated her for her difference. She often felt the need to "hide" her gifts from those who might not understand. And, because she was different, she often felt lonely, misunderstood, and unappreciated.

Buffy was a queer character. She was not only odd by society's standards but her love interests were sometimes "forbidden" and her friends were also "queer." She fell in love with a vampire and had an affair with another. Her friends were a "watcher" (a sort of wizard/scholar), a couple of lesbian witches, a werewolf, and a non-corporeal energy field who was given human form and became her mystically adopted sister.

For all her differences and oddities, Buffy was strong, noble, courageous, smart and funny. She was an embodiment of what a gift being queer really is. She didn't choose what she was, but she embraced it and lived it with integrity, and the world was better off as a result. Every queer identified person could see their lives reflected in Buffy's, and the life they saw was one of power, dignity, and accomplishment. We need another Buffy. Or maybe we need to remember that Buffy was simply reminding us of our own truth.

The Number 23

Saw The Number 23 tonight. Wow. Without scary puppets, zombies, ghosts, chainsaws, airborn viruses, demon possession, or other standard gimmicks, this film qualifies as a genuine thriller and the real terrifying twist is the mostly plausible ending. Jim Carrey proves that he is capable as a dramatic actor and The Number 23 demonstrates that a slightly mystical, moderately paced whodunnit psychodrama can captivate audiences and stimulate the imagination. 23 shows the power of the human mind and how, like all great forces, that power can thrill, heal, and terrify. Definitely a Must See.