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- Announcement
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- Ongoing Activities
Fridays, 8 PM, Gay Men�s Support Group (GMSG)
Please call or text Fr. Richard at 0920-9034909.
By Appointment:
Weddings, Funerals, Masses, Blessings, Counseling, Speaking Engagements
Please get in touch with Fr. Richard at 0920-9034909 to set an appointment.
Links:
Association for Contemporary Catholic Life (ACCL)
Catholic Diocese of One Spirit (CDOS)
The Lesbian and Gay Legislative Advocacy Network (LAGABLAB)
A non-profit, non-partisan, and SEC-registered network of different lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activist groups and individuals in the Philippines.
Ang Ladlad
The National Organization of Filipino Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders (LGBT).
The International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA)
ILGA World Conference was held in Manila November 11-18, 2003.
The 2006 World Conference took place in Geneva in April.
Click Here to View Photos of OSAe in the 2003 ILGA World Conference
(You don't need a Yahoo! ID to view them)
Welcome "Mabuhay!"
Welcome to the Order of St. Aelred. We are indeed a unique Order in many ways. We want to introduce ourselves to you in the following pages and welcome you to know the spirit of St. Aelred.
The Order of St. Aelred (OSAe), St. Aelred Friendship Society (SAeF), the Center for the Study of Spirituality and Sexuality (CSSS), St. Aelred Seminary (SAS), the Gay Men�s Support Groups (GMSG), and the Ministry of Holy Unions (MHU) for Committed Couples provide a wide variety of services and resources to the local communities in the Philippines and in a very real sense to kindred spirits around the world through the pages of this website.
The focus of the Order of St. Aelred and the St. Aelred Friendship Society is clear. In times like these, we have to focus on religious reality and social responsibility.
In these times in the world we are confronted with a homophobic Roman Catholic pope, and at the same time we are comforted by a courageous parliament in Catholic Spain who made that country become the third of four countries which have opened up "marriage" equally to heterosexual and homosexual people.
The Order of St. Aelred must sound the clarion call loud and clear for the reality of God's unprejudiced and unhomophobic love for all people -- in the face of the false picture of God (white haired old judgmental hateful man in the sky) which have misled God's beloved people for centuries.
We must unswervingly focus on the unlimited embrace of God's love expressed by Jesus, "Come to me all of you who carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." This loving embrace of God was emphasized in the wonderful theology of St. John, who had the privilege of lying with his head on the heart of Jesus and was called the "beloved disciple," the one whom Jesus loved. With this first-hand experience, John's description of God is simple and clear, "God is love, and those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them." To this love, LGBT people are called.
St. Aelred Friendship Society, through its advocacy of friendship, must hold fast to the special responsibility of advocacy of both religious and human rights for all LGBT people.
In his message during the 15th annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Mass at St. Aelred's monastery on June 26, 2005, Father Richard, our abbot, praised 15 individuals and organizations who are contributing to building a better world for LGBT people in the Philippines:
"Little did I dream that within 15 years 15 organizations and several networks of organizations would be actively promoting human rights for LGBT people in the Philippines.
"Why do we have all these organizations and networks now? Why do we have the 15th annual Queer Pride Mass? I cannot speak for the other organizations and networks, but I would like to think there is at least one common cause -- to build a better world for LGBT people.
"Here, and from here, we do our little bit to promote sex-positive theology, combating wherever and whenever we can sex-negative theology. That's our unique overall contribution."
That's what we stand for. This is our focus -- the eligibility of Gay and Lesbian people for the always-present Friendship of God -- the absolute right of LGBT people for human rights.
From this follows works of religious and spiritual growth and movement toward the beautification and benefit of our too-long misled people.
Each of the services will be explained. Some are religious in nature, some are more educational, and others have approaches which are primarily psychological and social or social justice. All have a primary outreach to LGBT people who are often marginalized in society, especially in regards to the truth of God�s love for them.
As a worldwide Friendship Society
The Order of St. Aelred is a member group of the world-wide St. Aelred Friendship Society (SAeF) and SAeF Friends Yahoo group.
The main objective of SAeF is friendship. It has no membership fees, no dues, no religious vows, no required meetings or activities. It�s all about friendship with hundreds of SAeF Friends in many countries, although the majority are in the Philippines. [to find out more about this, please click here]
As a religious Order
The Order itself is a religious society, which for the most part functions as a "Third Order" in which the members live in their own homes, have their love relationships, hold their own jobs and careers, and participate in the community life and formation of the Order as it is possible in their real world.
Locally and around the globe the members are dispersed but unified in the spirituality and mission of the Order. Aelredian and Johannine in its vision of love and friendship, the Order responds to its unique calling to live and teach the Law of Love and Friendship throughout every environment it touches. Our patron, St. Aelred of Rievaulx, took his inspiration for his writings on friendship from the writings of St. John on God�s love and friendship.
Members of the Order are guided by the Rule of the Order and united in their experience of the vows of the Order as we interpret them. They are Charity, Obedience, and Fidelity. The vows are briefly explained in the Rule of the Order. These vows are non-traditional, and our interpretation of the concept of religious vows is enhanced by the published theology of Fr. Diarmuid O�Murchu, MSC.
Most of all, the Order of St. Aelred promotes living a life of continuing, ongoing spiritual formation, living out our commitment to sacramental spirituality as Christians, deepening our friendship with God, with one another and those whom God sends to us.
In this we are guided by the Vision and Mission of the Order.
The Vision of the Order of St. Aelred
The Order has a vision of a just and peaceful society where friendships abide and spirituality and sexuality merge on the path to friendship with God and one another while living our God-given humanity in wholistic well-being and fulfillment.
Commentary on Our Vision
A just and peaceful society for us is one where gays and lesbians and all LGBT people live side by side with equality in a society free of homophobia, rejection, and prejudice.
LGBT people have been marginalized and led to believe that God rejects them. This vision sees them coming into the full realization of God's unbounded, unconditional love, and enjoyment of God's all-embracing friendship. It beholds a family of friends satisfying their yearning for God's friendship in wholesome, supportive, fulfilling friendship with one another.
We see a community and a society basking in the light of God's gift of friendship with God and at the same time living our God-given sexuality in the context of the meaning and purpose of our life. In this vision we do not see ourselves and society as spiritual one minute and sexual the next. We see the unification of spirit and flesh, as we see God becoming human in Jesus.
In our vision we see ourselves living in the joy of knowing we are embraced by God in friendship while we live in human, incarnational, friendship with our brothers and sisters.
We see ourselves as fully human, as Jesus was fully human, rounding out our life with intellectual, physical, spiritual, and emotional pursuits which bring well-being and fulfillment.
The Mission of the Order of St. Aelred
Our mission is to pray, study, and work to promote a just and peaceful society, to live and teach the integration of spirituality and sexuality, to be fully human, enjoying life-enriching friendships, while bringing ourselves into friendship with God and bringing others into friendship with us and with God.
Commentary on Our Mission
Our mission, then, is to prepare ourselves to be the best persons we can be within the purview of our Vision and to bring others to enjoy the fruits of our mission.
In order to be best prepared for this Mission, we devote ourselves to prayer, study and action focused on carrying out the Mission to live in accordance with our Vision.
We realize we live in a secular world and make our living in a secular society. Therefore we do not try to escape this real world, but, rather, to unify the secular with the sacred, the flesh with the spirit, the human with the divine in such a way that we live in this world according to God's plan, not as bodiless angels, but as fully human children of God, made in God's image, yes, and in the image fully exemplified in Jesus, the God who became one of us.
The world is God's world. The sacred and the secular cannot be separated. That is the heresy called dualism which says the body is bad and the soul is good. Our mission is to live and teach the value of all creation, find our meaning and purpose in life here and now.
Nothing is more central to our mission than living in life-enriching friendships, in the community together, and in society where we exercise our liminal mission of bringing wounded LGBT people to know and experience the liberation brought about by sex-positive theology. Our mission is not only to educate people about the glorious freedom of the children of God in sex-positive theology, but to heal their wounds in the bonds of true friendship.
General characteristics of the Order
One, holy, catholic and apostolic
The OSAe is an ecumenical Order within the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church of Jesus Christ. Thus it is neither "Roman" Catholic nor "Protestant," but essentially ecumenical in its outlook and practice.
Sacramental
Our spirituality is nourished by the sacraments and enlivened by the liturgy.
Friendship
Our fervent desire is to live in friendship with God and one another while we sincerely invite others into this life-giving friendship. With St. Aelred we say, "If God is Love, as St. John teaches, then God is also friendship." Therefore if we live in Friendship, we live in God and God lives in us.
Inclusive
We are inclusive in belief and practice. We promote the equality of women and men in all of life, including the ministry, priesthood, and leadership of the Order.
Anti-discrimination
We abhor discrimination and openly embrace in our membership and ministry women and men of all races, cultures, sexual orientations, and ethnic backgrounds.
Mission-oriented
This, then, involves, our full participation in our mission of reaching out to people with every spiritual, physical, and emotional need, finding motivation in the all-embracing ministry of Jesus recorded in the gospels. For us, this includes concern for those touched by AIDS, poverty, social inferiorization, and sexual discrimination.
True Morality
We do not describe ourselves as conservative or liberal, but we progressively promote peace and justice and true morality. We believe in a sex-positive theology and abhor sex-negative theology. We do not believe the Bible condemns same-sex love, but, at the same time, we condemn abuse, harm, or force in the name of sexual freedom.
Catholic and orthodox in theology
Members of OSAe (the religious order) accept the general catholic and orthodox theological position adopted by the members of the Order. Non members participate in the social and psychological services of the Order without religious requirements. Participants in the various support groups (such as GMSG, Wholistic Health Support Groups, Couples Support Groups) and couples preparing for Holy Union do not have to meet a religious test. Holy Union couples, however, are instructed on the Order�s approach to True Friendship in the relationship.
Becoming a member of the Order of St. Aelred
The first step in becoming a member of the Order of St. Aelred is to be a SAeF Friend. [to find out more about this, please click here]
If after prayer a SAeF friend decides to become a member of the Order of St. Aelred, they are invited to communicate with the Abbot concerning membership in the Order.
