tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52557019975102845242024-02-18T21:28:45.707-08:00The Three-Legged StoolA place for Episcopalians and their friends to exchange ideas, share opinions, and discuss events that affect the Episcopal Church. Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, you are welcome here. Whether you are passing through, or this is the beginning of a longer on-line relationship, welcome.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger746125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-59784593766870337792011-07-29T11:56:00.000-07:002011-07-29T12:55:01.292-07:00Requiescat in Pace, Göran<div style="text-align: center;">Fr. Göran Koch-Swahne (1954-2011)</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="" id="result_box" lang="sv"><span class="hps">I dina händer</span><span class="">, o</span> <span class="hps">barmhärtige</span> <span class="hps">Frälsare</span><span class="">, vi berömmer</span> <span class="hps">din tjänare</span> <span class="hps">Göran.</span> <span class="hps">Erkänn</span><span class="">,</span> <span class="hps">bönfaller</span> <span class="hps">vi ödmjukt</span> <span class="hps">dig,</span> <span class="hps">ett får</span> <span class="hps">av din egen</span> <span class="hps">vik</span><span class="">,</span> <span class="hps">ett lamm</span> <span class="hps">av din egen</span> <span class="hps">flock</span><span class="">,</span> <span class="hps">en</span> <span class="hps">syndare</span> <span class="hps">av dina egna</span> <span class="hps">försonande</span><span class="">.</span> <span class="hps">Emot honom</span> <span class="hps">i armarna på</span> <span class="hps">din nåd</span><span class="">,</span> <span class="hps">i den</span> <span class="hps">välsignade</span> <span class="hps">resten av</span> <span class="hps">evig</span> <span class="hps">fred, och</span> <span class="hps">i det</span> <span class="hps">härliga</span> <span class="hps">sällskap med</span> <span class="hps">de heliga i</span> <span class="hps">ljuset.</span> <span class="hps">Amen.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="" id="result_box" lang="sv"><span class="hps">Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Göran. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.</span><br />
</span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;">Eternal Rest Grant Unto Him O Lord,</div><div style="text-align: center;">And Light Perpetual Shine Upon Him.<br />
<br />
<span class="" id="result_box" lang="sv"><span class="hps">Evig vila</span> <span class="hps">låta honom</span> <span class="hps">o Herre,</span><br />
<span class="hps">Och ljus</span> <span class="hps">Perpetual</span> <span class="hps">lysa för honom.</span></span> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
For his long time friends who may not know, Goran was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive and fast moving form of prostate cancer. It spread to his bones. He was placed in Hospice care on 26 June.</div><div style="text-align: center;"></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-44954611607729526702011-07-25T08:35:00.001-07:002011-07-25T08:35:24.217-07:00An anniversary for Terry Martin<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">On this day in 1991 Terry Martin was ordained to the priesthood. Congratulations, Fr. Martin!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-44878649922431539882011-06-28T14:20:00.000-07:002011-06-28T14:20:44.933-07:00News of our brother Göran.<div style="text-align: justify;">Our very beloved brother, Gören, has been on hospice for a week. He has an aggressive form of prostate cancer. According to his niece, the does not have a lot of time before he joins the Communion of Saints. Please keep him in your prayers as he graduates from mortality. And remember his blood family and his adopted family one of whom I am privileged to be.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Growing up in the shadow of a Swedish Lutheran Church, I learned <i>Children of the Heavenly Father</i> at a very young age. It was always sung in times of distress and for funerals. The last verse of the English translation says:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">Neither life nor death shall ever</div><div style="text-align: center;">From the Lord, His children sever.</div><div style="text-align: center;">His the loving purpose solely,</div><div style="text-align: center;">To preserve them, pure and holy.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-26890116325640658302011-02-28T08:04:00.000-08:002011-02-28T22:39:42.808-08:00Bishop Shimpfky at rest<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:DoNotOptimizeForBrowser/> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--> <m:smallfrac m:val="off"> <m:dispdef> <m:lmargin m:val="0"> <m:rmargin m:val="0"> <m:defjc m:val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent m:val="1440"> <m:intlim m:val="subSup"> <m:narylim m:val="undOvr"> </m:narylim></m:intlim> </m:wrapindent><!--[endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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</style> <![endif]--><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">It is with great sadness that I report the death of the Rt. Rev'd Richard L. Shimpfky, D.D.. Bishop Shimpfky graduated from this life into that life of perfect freedom at 6 a.m. today, 28 February 2011. </span></m:defjc></m:rmargin></m:lmargin></m:dispdef></m:smallfrac><br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">I no words to express my sorrow. </span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><blockquote>But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. <span class="verse-num" id="v52004014-1"></span>For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. <span class="verse-num" id="v52004015-1"></span>For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord,<span class="footnote"> </span> that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. <span class="verse-num" id="v52004016-1"> </span>For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. <span class="verse-num" id="v52004017-1"> </span>Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. <span class="verse-num" id="v52004018-1"></span>Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4.13-18</blockquote><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Requiescat in Pace.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;">Et lux perpetuia eis, Domine.</span></div><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;"><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;"> </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-6641360208175404542011-02-26T06:47:00.000-08:002011-02-26T06:47:34.910-08:00For Armstrong, crime does payFormer priest, Donald Armstrong, who defrauded his Colorado parish of more than two-hundred-thousand dollars and led the same parish out of The Episcopal Church has been sentenced in the case. For Armstrong, crime paid to the une of a little over $300,000.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Armstrong has been ordered to repay $99,000 of the $$392000+ and placed on four year's probation. Armstrong has, as of yet, not acknowledged any misconduct in the matter.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">As readers will recall, Armstrong used church funds to pay for the education of his children and other personal expenses. Trust funds were raided for his personal profit.</div><br />
Read it all <a href="http://www.gazette.com/articles/rev-113541-donald-sentenced.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">For additional background, see <a href="http://frjakestopstheworld.blogspot.com/2010/09/don-armstrong-makes-deal.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://frjakestopstheworld.blogspot.com/2007/08/summary-judgment-of-donald-armstrong.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-2100526515832966082011-02-16T08:23:00.000-08:002011-02-16T08:23:19.692-08:00More depressing news for the Calvinist arm of the AC<div style="text-align: justify;">This interesting bit of news made me laugh aloud. Some days, God sends just enough "tickle factor" to make getting out of a sick bed worth while.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><blockquote>The following Primates were elected as members of the Primates' Standing Committee at the recent Primates' Meeting in Dublin, Ireland and have agreed to serve: <br />
Africa<br />
Archbishop Daniel Deng Bul Yak (Sudan) - alternate Archbishop Bernard Ntahoturi (Burundi)<br />
<br />
Central, North, South Americas and the Caribbean<br />
<b>Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori (The Episcopal Church)</b><br />
<b> </b>- alternate Archbishop John Holder (West Indies)<br />
<br />
Europe<br />
Bishop David Chillingworth (Scotland)<br />
- alternate Archbishop Alan Harper (Ireland)<br />
<br />
Middle East and West Asia<br />
Bishop Samuel Azariah (Pakistan)<br />
- alternate Bishop Paul Sarker (Bangladesh)<br />
<br />
South East Asia and Oceania<br />
Archbishop Paul Kwong (Hong Kong)<br />
- alternate Archbishop Winston Halapua (Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia)<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Each Primate serves for a period of three years, and thereafter until the next Primates’ Meeting. Also membership ceases when a member ceases to be a Primate.</div></blockquote>What great news for our Presiding Bishop!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-44837375811294053542011-02-13T10:07:00.000-08:002011-02-13T10:20:14.662-08:00Poor Rowan, what will he do?<div style="text-align: justify;">Things just keep getting worse for the right wingers in the Angican Communion and its chief fence sitter, The Most Rev'd and Right Honourable Rowan Williams.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Parliament is going to allow same-gender marriages to take place in the church, and male couples will refer to the other partner as "husband" and lesbian couples will refer to their partner as "wife."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>In a major concession to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg's Lib Dems, the Government will announce that for the first time, such ceremonies will be allowed to have a religious element, including hymns and Bible readings. They could be carried out by priests or other religious officials.</blockquote><div style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">The Archbishop of York has stated the is all for equal rights as long as someone else's rights don't offend him.<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>'I, who believes in a liberal democracy, and actually wants equality with everybody, cannot say 'the Quakers should not do it' nor do I want somebody to tell me 'but the church of England must do it, but the Roman Catholic church must do it' because actually that's not what equality is about. You mustn't have rights that trump other rights.</blockquote></div><div style="background-color: transparent; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">Isn't that sporting of him. And poor Rowan. Well, when one refuses to have a position on any matter, the ground is always quaking.<br />
<br />
Read more <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1356490/Gay-lesbian-couples-right-marry-church.html#ixzz1DrdIdpaP" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
</div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-70182083523813273242011-02-03T10:00:00.000-08:002011-02-03T10:00:35.303-08:00Duncan loses, again.The Commonwealth Court of appeals affirmed the lower court ruling awarding diocesan property to the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh.<br />
<br />
For more, visit the <a href="http://www.episcopalpgh.org/appeals-court-upholds-diocese-in-assets-case-02-2011/" target="_blank">diocesean website</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-2326669223489968902011-02-02T15:39:00.000-08:002011-02-02T15:39:39.058-08:00Prayers requested for Bishop Richard ShimpfkyTTLS bids your prayers for our brother, the Rt. Rev'd Richard Shimpfky, past bishop of the Diocese of El Camino Real, who is seriously ill and transitioning into Eternal Life.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>He is under hospice care ailing with pneumonia, ulcerative colitis and blood clots in the lung and elsewhere. He's looking to the end and wanted me to pray with him for a "Holy Death"</blockquote></div>I am greatly saddened by this news. Bishop Shimpfky was a truly holy bishop and a great Shepherd for our troubled diocese. And, it is an honour to have him as a friend.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-77083657620752851082011-01-21T17:16:00.000-08:002011-01-21T17:21:38.295-08:00Iker 0 : TEC 10<div style="text-align: justify;">In a decision that I must admit surprises me, we learned this afternoon that former bishop Jack L. Iker has been dealt a hefty slap in the face by the legal system in a summary judgment. </div><br />
Episcopal Cafe reports that:<br />
<br />
<blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">On Friday, January 21, 2011, the Hon. John P. Chupp of the 141st District Court, Tarrant County, Texas, granted the Local Episcopal Parties’ and The Episcopal Church’s Motions for Summary Judgments. He denied the Southern Cone parties Motion for a Partial Summary Judgment </div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">The Court orders provide in part that the defendants, including Bishop Jack L. Iker, “surrender all Diocesan property, as well as control of the Diocesan Corporation, to the Diocesan plaintiffs and to provide an accounting of all Diocesan assets within 60 days of this order.”</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Additionally, “the Court hereby orders the Defendants not to hold themselves out as leaders of the Diocese.</div></blockquote><br />
A PDF of the order is <a href="http://episcopaldiocesefortworth.org/holystewardshipfiles/misc%20pdfs/20110121164121363-1.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-88548050780258191142011-01-07T11:40:00.000-08:002011-01-07T22:43:01.088-08:00News from Turo<div style="text-align: justify;">The Washington Post reports that The Rev'd Marshall Brown, who was instrumental in leading fourteen Virginia parishes into schism, has been relieved of his duties in Fairfax.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>A longtime priest at one of the country's largest and most prominent conservative Anglican churches has been fired for repeatedly using a church computer to surf for pornography, an official at the Fairfax City church said.</blockquote></div>Read about it <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Cb%3Ehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/07/AR2011010703063.html?referrer=emailarticle" target="_blank">here</a> and then say a prayer for Mr. Brown.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/news_reports/longtime_truro_cleric_fired.html" target="_blank">Episcopal Cafe</a> has more on the development.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-59933707820654260042010-12-20T18:02:00.000-08:002010-12-20T18:02:49.439-08:00The Christmas Message from The Primate of TEC<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgikB7nsIsRICEQcNuyLfaLaJeIvIBg7WsAKCsrcRvxYLSvk60dSMhmdB_rpVkADfmAI7q6kjutbA_Ewu1bBGB1YJu0eibnbXIAMUMn6tKluEGaiu8xrvAo54Xejq-mM9qkhyauPAmN3XA/s1600/schori-cover-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><i>The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light - Isaiah 9:2 </i><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">That's how the first lesson of Christmas Eve opens. It's familiar and comforting, as the familiar words go on to say that light has shined on those who live in deep darkness, that God has brought joy to people living under oppression, for a child has been borne to us. The name of that child is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace -- and God is bringing an endless peace through an heir to the throne of David (vv 3, 4, 6, 7).</div><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgikB7nsIsRICEQcNuyLfaLaJeIvIBg7WsAKCsrcRvxYLSvk60dSMhmdB_rpVkADfmAI7q6kjutbA_Ewu1bBGB1YJu0eibnbXIAMUMn6tKluEGaiu8xrvAo54Xejq-mM9qkhyauPAmN3XA/s1600/schori-cover-1.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgikB7nsIsRICEQcNuyLfaLaJeIvIBg7WsAKCsrcRvxYLSvk60dSMhmdB_rpVkADfmAI7q6kjutbA_Ewu1bBGB1YJu0eibnbXIAMUMn6tKluEGaiu8xrvAo54Xejq-mM9qkhyauPAmN3XA/s200/schori-cover-1.jpg" width="155" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Most Rev'd Katharine Jefferts Shori</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">This year we're going to hear a bit we haven't heard in Episcopal churches before, in that missing verse 5. It's pretty shocking but it helps explain why the hunger for light is so intense, and the joy so great when it comes: "For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire." The coming of this prince of peace will mean the end of all signs of war and violence. An occupied people will finally live in peace, without anxiety about who or what will confront them the next time they go out their front doors.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">People in many parts of this world still live with the echo of tramping boots and the memory of bloody clothing. Many Episcopalians are living with that anxiety right now, particularly in Haiti and Sudan. Americans know it through the ongoing anxiety after September 11 and in the wounded soldiers returning to their families and communities, grievously changed by their experience of war. Remember the terror of war when you hear those words about light on Christmas Eve. Remember the hunger for peace and light when you hear the shocking promise that a poor child born in a stable will ead us all into a world without war. Remember the power of light when you go out into the darkness after hearing those words -- and pray that you and those around you may become instruments of peace.</div><br />
<i>Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace among those whom he favors! - Luke 2:14</i><br />
<br />
- The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts SchoriUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-68231862165713706582010-11-24T08:47:00.000-08:002010-11-24T08:47:16.905-08:00What General Synod really said<div style="text-align: justify;">Anglican cyber-land has been ablaze this morning with the news that the General Synod of the Church of England, the Mother Church, has<a href="http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/004749.html" target="_blank"> "voted to approve the covenant."</a> It was stated that the vote was by a large majority in favour. Well, that's hogwash as they say in the Southern United States.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Rowan changed his opening address to bully the first form school children that he thinks they are, into a vote of confidence for his reign as the worst archbishop of Canterbury in the history of the world. Being obedient, the naughty first formers gave him what he told them to give him. But, just barely. The vote was a "simple majority" not an overwhelming majority.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">The delegates to General Synod knew that the vote would postpone any action on the dreadful document forced on the sane Anglicans by the insane and power greedy primates who want to be queens. General Synod send the whole covenant idea to the dioceses where it will be "discussed in a gentlemanly fashion" in the deaneries, which is, in my opinion, where it should be discussed. This will allow the sane voices to be heard.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Life or death of the Covenant in England is in the hands of the local Anglicans who are, thankfully, more sane than most of the bishops and primates in the Church of England.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Recognizing this, the Deatheaters issued a <a href="http://www.gafcon.org/news/oxford_statement_from_the_gafcon_fca_primates_council/" target="_blank">statement</a> which says, in effect, "we aren't interested in anything the rest of you do because we aren't playing cricket with you. We have our own court now, and we have our own balls, wickets, and bats, and more important, we have our own umpires. So sod off, the lot of you." The name of deposed, former bishop Bob Duncan on the document as one of their leaders proves that they are not Anglican nor wish to be Anglican.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">What this statement did is not what it intended to do. I think it will be used against the covenant in the deaneries of the Church of England. Sane Anglicans can say, "It's impossible to be cricket with these people. We have given them just about everything they demanded and they still won't play a gentlemanly game."</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">But what can one expect from a bunch of lying malcontents bent on world domination and a theocracy where people are murdered for disagreeing with them or their Neanderthal moral code.</div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">One thing is certain: The Anglican Communion is dead as of today. It's been gasping for breath ever since Rowan allowed the stormtroopers free reign. Requescat in Pace, Communio Anglicana. we can only put our hand into the hand of God and go forth into the unknown. </div><br />
Counterlight has a post that very much agrees with me. You'll find it <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%3Cb%3Ehttp://revjph.blogspot.com/2010/11/english-synod-votes-for-rule-by.html" target="_blank">here</a>. The Lead's commentary is <a href="http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/anglican_covenant/general_synod_continues_to_deb.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>UPDATE</b>: Brother Tobias has a good commentary <a 11="" 2010="" gs-1-gs-0.html="" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5255701997510284524" http:="" jintoku.blogspot.com="" target="_blank">here</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-90569215837590722312010-11-11T03:00:00.000-08:002010-11-11T03:00:01.027-08:00Remembrance Day<div style="text-align: justify;">The eleventh hour of the eleventh month of the eleventh day. Where ever you are at 11 a.m., please take two minutes to remember the sacrifice that ended the First World War and all the military who have died in times of war.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-26148276841654425542010-11-08T04:00:00.000-08:002010-11-08T11:11:14.802-08:00Chauvinistic bishops to flee contaminated sect<div style="text-align: justify;">According to reports, five Church of England bishops will make their submission to Rome to avoid contaminating themselves by being in a church that recognizes the existence of women in the ordained ministry. </div><blockquote>The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales said Bishop of Ebbsfleet Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Richborough Keith Newton, Bishop of Fulham John Broadhurst and retired bishops Edwin Barnes and David Silk have decided "to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church.</blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">This is, of course, utter nonsense and it's all about misogyny. The Apostle Paul plainly taught the church that there is no distinction between males and females in God's eyes. Therefore, the distinction is purely an Old Testament patrimonial relic of a bygone millennium and the vestiges of dying old white men.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-79020549050147199902010-11-01T02:00:00.000-07:002010-11-01T02:00:11.317-07:00All Saints' Day and the Electrician<div style="text-align: justify;">All Saints' Day<br />
BCP Service II<br />
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<a href="http://www.io.com/~kellywp/YearABC/HolyDays/SaintsII.html" target="_blank">The Lectionary</a><br />
<br />
Homiliy:<br />
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I could talk about a lot of people today - very holy women and men who did great things. But today I want to talk about a holy electrician who taught me about the Communion of Saints.<br />
<br />
A year ago, my cousin <a href="http://threelegedstool.blogspot.com/2009/03/requiescat-bernard-elliott.html" target="_blank">Bernie</a> died. Well, actually, Bernie wasn't my cousin; his wife is my cousin. But in our family, after an arbitrary number of years, the "by marriage" label dissolves and the person magically becomes blood family. So much so that the family tends to side with the "by marriage" partner in disagreements. It's funny how some families function, you know?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As we approached All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, I thought of Bernie a lot. He certainly qualifies for sainthood: He put up with my cousin for more than 50 years; he was an absolutely stellar parent to three children living in mental darkness as our former Book of Common Prayer used to phrase it; he was an ardent supporter of our parish for 68 years' he was honest and upright at all times. But all of that isn't why I've been thinking of him so much.<br />
<br />
I've been thinking of Bernie because of the experience of the <a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/viaticum" target="_bl;ank">Viaticuum</a>.<br />
<br />
Our former rector was asked to come when Bernie's wife, and sister thought "it" was getting close. He is having some problems with his memory but he managed to do a proper liturgy for Bernie. But, at the time of Holy Communion he added something. (You need to know that Father is of African ancestry and there is more than just a little Baptist in him.) Before he placed the Body of Christ on Bernie's tongue and spoke the works we all know, he added, with a voice and 'authority' I had not heard him use before: <br />
<blockquote>Bernie, my brother, the next time <b><i>we all do this with you</i></b> we're goin' to be doin' it in heaven with Jesus.</blockquote>It wasn't a comment, it was a<i> fait accompli.</i> That is the moment I a actually realized Bernie really <b><i>was </i></b>going to die. But it was also the moment I fully <i>understood</i> what the Communion of Saints really is: mystic, sweet<b><i> </i></b>fellowship and connection with those whose rest is won.<br />
<br />
I stayed with his wife and his sister for several more hours and then I went home. I somehow new Bernie didn't want me there when the chariot came.<br />
<br />
But before I left, I had the opportunity to thank Bernie for being such a good husband to Zela and a a good father to his children. And, for loving me when I was pretty unlovable. And I told him I was glad he was my cousin and my brother in the Lord. </div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">What I should have thanked him for was teaching me what "The Communion of Saints" means. </div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">As we approach All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, I sing, <i>"I Sing a Song of the Saints of God..."</i> but I add one wee bit, "and one was an electrician named Bernie who taught me more in his death than he did by his 'good life long'."</div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">O blest communion, fellowship divine!</div><div style="text-align: center;">We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;</div><div style="text-align: center;">All are one in Thee, for all are Thine.</div><div style="text-align: center;">Alleluia, Alleluia!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-16843121051939739632010-10-31T03:00:00.000-07:002010-10-31T03:00:09.882-07:00Pentecost XXIII<b>The Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost</b><br />
Proper 26<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.io.com/~kellywp/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CProp26_RCL.html" target="_blank">The Lectionary</a><br />
<br />
Homily:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">Hookworm. Largely eradicated in the U.S. for nearly a century, these tiny parasites are one of the leading causes of maternal and child mortality in the tropics and subtropics. Debilitating the immune system, they are a known cause of anemia, and hookworm infections can make the body more susceptible to malaria and HIV.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But in 2004, David Pritchard, a British immunologist, applied a bandage to his arm covered in hookworm larva, intentionally infecting himself. This wasn’t an act of self-destruction but was the beginning of years of study into the possible benefits of the tiny parasites.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The hookworm, like all of our earthly co-habitants, evolved alongside us, and in this case, within us, in an intricate balance. As it turns out, hookworms, in small amounts, can work to keep our sometimes overactive immune system in check. A small hookworm infection can serve to prevent certain allergic reactions in humans, to reduce asthma, and eradicate hay fever. Allergies, in their modern ubiquitous array of manifestations, may be, in part, a result of our attempt to sanitize our world and rid ourselves of this and other tiny parasites.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In our culture, we are obsessed with sanitation and control. For many of us, our vision of the reign of God, whether we call it that or not, is one of simplification, where there exist no unknowns, where the world is a mechanical, predictable, responsive, finite network, and where justice is a system of equal give and take.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The signs of this vision are all around us, as are the signs of its destructiveness. In our attempt to groom God’s creation into a controlled environment, we’ve cleared millions of acres of forestland, prairie, and meadows for single cash crops. We’ve dramatically reduced the biodiversity of our most populated areas in order to make them safe for a handful of domesticated species. We’ve developed simplistic systems of labor, talent, and currency equivalences. We’ve envisioned a world as white as individually plastic-wrapped disposable cutlery; the whiteness of a single-use fork to accompany our individually packaged organic spinach salad.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But today’s readings remind us that the world is a complex, messy place. Consider the reading from Isaiah. The Jewish people of the prophet’s time had a vision similar to ours: a world where simple exchanges could right the spiritual disorder, where quick cures would undo long-term spiritual decline and disease. Their hands were bloodied with their burnt offerings, their schedules were filled with church-stuff without really engaging the broken world surrounding them. But the justice of God asks more: “Cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">One would think that these commands would be clear enough. Stop doing bad; do good. But God, speaking through Isaiah, admits to the fallacy of any system of symbols, even language. Isaiah, interpreting God’s revelation, speaks the beautiful line: “Come now, let us argue it out.” Or in other translations “Sit down. Let us reason together.” In an invitation, God, through Isaiah, admits to humankind that even God’s commandments, when written in human language, are insufficient to know and envision the reign of God.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">God calls us into conversation, even argument, over what it is to follow God’s will, to resist, to listen, to adapt, to contest, to move forward in relationship with God. God speaks to the continuing revelation of God’s will in the world, a revelation dependent on relationship, on placed-ness, on the past and the present realities of human life from which we speak, and read, and act. It is in this “arguing out” of justice that God offers us the possibility of redemption, of the cleansing that makes us “like snow.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the whiteness of snow can be a slippery slope into the vision of a dry-erase world, where the past is forgotten in an attempt to not be bound to it. Who has not heard or sang of the cleansing power of the blood of the lamb? We are to be washed as white as snow by the blood of the lamb, by claiming him as our personal Lord and Savior. Sometimes we imagine that Jesus is the ultimate re-start button, that to find and be found by Jesus is to forget the past and simply live by love into the future. But that is not the Jesus we encounter in today’s gospel reading.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">There’s a fun children’s song to tell the story:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">He climbed up in a sycamore tree, for the Lord he wanted to see. </div><div style="text-align: justify;">And as the Savior passed that way, He looked up in the tree, </div><div style="text-align: justify;">And he said, “Zacchaeus, you come down; </div><div style="text-align: justify;">“For I'm going to your house today, for I'm going to your house today.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the story is not quite so simple. Zaccheus is a tax-collector and a rich man. His money had been made through the extortion of the people by the ruling empire, and by his own wickedness, as he tells it, in “defrauding” others. Having welcomed Jesus into his house, having come into personal relationship with him, having not only seen Jesus, but having been seen by and recognized by Jesus, he was transformed. As a result, Zacchaeus took it upon himself to make restitution for his past.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is not a case of “Go and sin no more.” Zaccheus had to confront those he has wronged, paying them back four times what he has wrongfully taken. The restitution, the resurrection, is in the confrontation with God that results in a confrontation with ourselves, our pasts, and our world. The “arguing out” of God’s justice is a complex invitation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Cease to do evil.” What is the evil we turn from?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Learn to do good.” Who will teach us the good?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Seek justice.” How will we know justice when we find it?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Rescue the oppressed.” Who, indeed, are the oppressed and how are we called to rescue them?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Come now, let us argue it out.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As a faith community, we have often found it sufficient to say we are “open and affirming” or tolerant or inclusive. We have hung banners and said, “All are welcome.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But have we truly wrestled with the reality of the experience of people who are oppressed? What might it look like to pay back fourfold what we have wrongfully taken in terms of dignity, social place, relationship, and of life? Not just to this community at this time in this place, but to all those we have wronged and continue to wrong? What might this type of justice look like? We must “argue it out,” with God, with each other, and ultimately with God present in those we have wronged.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The question is not whether we should stop trying to eradicate hookworm or move forward into more inclusive communities. The issue at hand is confronting the reality that we are not operating in the artificial whiteness of a lab, or in the mansions of an imagined hereafter. The vision that we share with the ancient Hebrews, that vision of a sanitized and simple world that can become a productive, predictable, controllable machine operating within the confines of human logic, will always be a violent and destructive dream. At the end of the day, we will always be called from real lives with real relationships to make real sacrifices for the sake of real justice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The crumbs will always fall to the linen, the wine will always drip from the chalice, and, by grace, the body will always be broken open and shared. Come, let us argue it out.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><i>-- Jason Sierra is a member of the Office for Young Adult and Campus Ministries at the Episcopal Church Center. He resides in Seattle, Washington, and holds a BA in American Studies from Stanford University.</i></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-16207378579377859552010-10-24T03:00:00.000-07:002010-10-24T03:00:00.965-07:00Pentecost XXIIThe Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost<br />
Proper 25 RCL<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.io.com/~kellywp/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CProp25_RCL.html" target="_blank">The Lectionary</a><br />
<br />
Homily:<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px;">In the early years of our country, one Southern family stood out in offering leadership to a fledgling nation. Most renowned among the first families of Virginia, the Lees were wealthy, capable, intelligent, and dedicated patriots.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Using the legend of this family and what some consider a bit of overexposure, lyricist Sherman Edwards crafted a clever song for his Broadway musical “1776.” In a classic scene, John Adams asks fellow Continental Congress member Richard Henry Lee to help the cause for independence. He challenges the Virginia representative to get his colony’s House of Burgesses to pass a resolution calling for independence from England. In the course of their conversation, Adams prays, “God help us.”</div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Lee replies confidently, “He will John. He will.” Then, as if to prove his statement, Lee launches into a delightful song that includes this wonderful stanza:</div><blockquote style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">They say that God in heaven is everybody's God,</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I'll admit that God in heaven is everybody's God,</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But I tell you, John, with pride, God leans,</div><div style="text-align: justify;">A little on the side of the Lees, the Lees of old Virginia!</div></blockquote><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">This humorous song rings true because it is so natural to think that since we are faithful, we must be special, and that God must be on our side. It’s a good example of what Jesus was getting at when he told the parable in today’s gospel reading.</div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">The Pharisee in today’s parable was basically a good guy – a member of what might be considered one of the first families of the faith. But like Lee in the play, he lost sight of his place in God’s world. He knew that thanking God was a good way to pray, but he allowed his prayer to degenerate into prideful boasting.</div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">And he forgot about the need for repentance. As a human being, he had a dark side, but he tried to hide it. He made the mistake of choosing to look on his good side. He attempted to boost himself by comparing his good qualities with what he perceived as the negative attributes of others. He set himself up as the judge of his behavior over against the actions of others.</div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">We can imagine the details of his thought process, because we are tempted to engage in the same delusion:</div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I may have told a white lie, but I thank God I don’t cheat on my income tax.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I may be a thief, but I thank God I’m not a murderer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I may have turned aside when the poor family asked me for help, but I thank God I’m not responsible for the starvation in Africa.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I may hold back on my pledge, but I thank God I’m not one of those reprobates who never gives.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I may not get to church as often as I might, but I thank God I belong to a church.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I may not study the Bible as much as I should, but I thank God I’m not an atheist.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><br />
<div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">These examples may be a little over the top, but Jesus was using the self-aggrandizing statements by the Pharisee in comparison with the prayer by the truly faithful man who asked simply, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”</div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Jesus makes it clear that it is dangerous to compare our relative goodness, whether real or imagined, with that of others. This is because such moral manipulation drives a wedge between us and God. It is especially tragic in its use of religion as a divisive element between us and our brothers and sisters. Such action works against us all by inevitably separating rather than unifying the human family.</div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Sometimes we can get into trouble even if we use the standard of today’s gospel, “God be merciful to me, a sinner,” as a way to compare ourselves to others. For example, Rabbi Joshua Davidson tells a wonderful old story from the Jewish faith that illustrates the danger:</div><blockquote style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">A rabbi decides to model repentance for his congregation. Humbly he beseeches the Almighty for forgiveness, and he beats his breast proclaiming, “Before You, God, I am nothing. I am nothing.” <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"> </span></div></blockquote><blockquote style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">The cantor sees him and joins in: “I am nothing. I am nothing,” she cries. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"> </span></div></blockquote><blockquote style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">The temple president, sensing that he too must get in on the act, now comes up. “I am nothing. I am nothing,” he sobs. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"> </span></div></blockquote><blockquote style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">In the silence that follows, the rabbi turns to the cantor and whispers, “Look who thinks he’s nothing.”</div></blockquote><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">In truth, our measure is not one of comparison with others but rather against the values of the gospel, against the Ten Commandments, against the summary of the Law. How well do we compare with these standards? In doing so, we can stand to our full height, whatever it may be.</div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">But then we take the test of the truest measure. How high do we stand when comparing ourselves against the final, and only, model of our faith – Jesus himself? The ultimate comparison can only be between ourselves and God’s perfect desires for us. Of course, such a test leads us to only one conclusion. We fail, and can only offer the tax collector’s prayer: “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”</div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Only in this way can we move forward in the right kind of humility, asking for forgiveness after darkness invades us, the darkness that we have given into through our sin. Such repentance can renew us as we listen to Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. We will become humbled, cut down to size, and this will lead us to the exhalation that comes from a life in Christ.</div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; text-align: justify;">Standing in the knowledge of our need for God’s forgiveness and love, we can become not only the prayerful people Jesus calls us to be, but we can also act in the faith that despite our sin, God will empower us as children. We can pray, finally, “Lord use us sinners to do your work. Use us as instruments of your peace and grace and love and active concern for your children, our brothers and sisters in Christ.”</div><div style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px;"></div><div style="clear: left; font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div align="center" style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px;"><br />
</div><div class="authorInfo" style="color: #818181; font-family: verdana; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 10px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">-- The Rev. Ken Kesselus, author of "John E. Hines: Granite on Fire" (Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, 1995), is retired from full-time, active ministry and lives with his wife, Toni, in his native home, Bastrop, Texas.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-64520426552074855872010-10-20T04:17:00.000-07:002010-10-20T07:33:49.499-07:00San Joaquin back in court<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"></span><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">From the Fresno Bee:</span></div><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;">Who is the legitimate bishop in the San Joaquin Diocese, and who owns the diocese's property, including its headquarters in Fresno and parishes from Stockton to Bakersfield?</span><div id="story_text_top" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Those questions are at the heart of the next round in the legal battle between local Episcopalians and Anglicans. The two groups face off today in the 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno. The justices will hear oral arguments in the lawsuit, filed by Bishop Jerry Lamb against Bishop John-David Schofield. </span></div><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"> After an overwhelming vote of its clergy and lay representatives in December 2007, Schofield led the diocese away from the national Episcopal Church and to the temporary oversight of an Anglican archbishop in South America. The Episcopal Church responded by deposing Schofield and installing Lamb as its diocesan bishop.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Schofield and the departing parishes hold a conservative theology that opposes the Episcopal Church's increasingly liberal stance on biblical issues, including the 2003 ordination of a gay bishop and whether Jesus is the only way to salvation [and the biblical second class status of women].</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">[Many in] The worldwide Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is a part, largely supports the conservative view; Archbishop Rowan Williams, who is the nominal head of the Anglican Communion with headquarters in England, earlier this year banned Episcopal representatives from casting votes on global committees. Schism may result, and the San Joaquin Diocese is a mirror of that larger split.</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Written arguments in the local case were filed months ago. "We have a seasoned panel of justices. They'll give us a full and fair hearing," said Rusty VanRozeboom, attorney for Schofield. </span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Michael Glass, attorney for Lamb, issued a statement Monday refusing comment until after the justices release their ruling, which is expected in about a month. Lamb, who also refused comment, said the diocese "may" have a brief statement after today's oral arguments, depending on the way the hearing goes.</span></div></blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">It will be interesting to hear what VanRozeboom has to say about those "seasoned panel of justices" when they rule against Schofield.<b> </b></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><span style="font-size: small;">Schofield's attorneys will argue that a lower court's ruling naming Lamb as the true Bishop of San Joaquin and owner of all of the diocesan property was in error.<b> </b></span><span style="font-size: small;"> Yet, remember, sisters and brothers, the schismatic sect keep saying they don't care about property. Their actions certainly prove them to be liars.</span><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">When the justices will issue a ruling, probably in about a month the case will go back to the Superior Court, where it eventually will be heard by a jury.<b> </b></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b></b>The schismatic sect has a plan and part of that plan is to bankrupt The Episcopal Church though legal fees. The schismatics are funded by a group of extremely wealthy men who are part of a move to return the United States to Old Testament Law as the legal means by which the US is governed. If the schismatics lose, they will try to get their case all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States.<b> </b></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-6988232576102503212010-10-18T18:47:00.001-07:002010-10-18T18:55:37.837-07:00Crystal cathedral in bankruptcy<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Ever since Robert Schuller (Jr) was forced out of the family business by his brothers in law, the so-called Crystal Cathedral has been in a downward spiral. Too many members and supporters saw the ouster as not a Christian Act. well, the chickens have come home to roost for Schuller Sr and his daughter who was appointed by her husband and brothers in law to be the pastor.</div></span><br />
<div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The "ministry" filed for bankruptcy Monday in Southern California after struggling to emerge from debt that exceeds $43 million.</div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">In addition to a $36 million mortgage, the Orange County-based church owes $7.5 million to several hundred vendors for services ranging from advertising to the use of live animals in Easter and Christmas services.</div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The church had been negotiating a repayment plan with vendors, but several filed lawsuits seeking quicker payment, which prompted a coalition formed by creditors to fall apart.</div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">"Tough times never last, every storm comes to an end. Right now, people need to hear that message more than ever," Sheila Schuller Coleman (daughter), the Cathedral's senior pastor and daughter of the founder, told reporters outside the worship hall decked with a soaring glass spire.</div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">"Everybody is hurting today. We are no exception," she said.</div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The church, founded in the mid-1950s by the Rev. Robert H. Schuller Sr., has already ordered major layoffs, cut the number of stations airing the "Hour of Power" and sold property to stay afloat.</div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">In addition, the 10,000-member church canceled this year's "Glory of Easter" pageant, which attracts thousands of visitors and is a regional holiday staple.</div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The church was founded at a drive-in theater and attracted congregants with its sermons on the power of positive thinking. Its worship hall opened in 1970.</div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">The "Hour of Power" telecast, filmed in the cathedral's main sanctuary, at one point attracted 1.3 million viewers in 156 countries.</div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">According to reports, the Crystal Cathedral's Sunday services and weekly-telecast "Hour of Power" will continue while in bankruptcy.</div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Other megachurches have also suffered from the downturn and reduced charitable giving.</div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">Crystal Cathedral saw revenue drop roughly 30 percent in 2009 and simply couldn't slash expenses quickly enough to avoid accruing the debt, said Jim Penner executive producer of the "Hour of Power."</div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Vendors owed money by the church formed a committee in April and agreed to a moratorium to negotiate a repayment plan with the Crystal Cathedral. But after several filed lawsuits and obtained writs of attachment to try to collect their cash, it was difficult to keep the group together, Penner said.</div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Now, the church is avoiding credit entirely and spends only the roughly $2 million it receives each month in donations and revenue, Penner said. The church still hopes to pay all of the vendors back in full, he said.</div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 1em; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">I bet Schuller Sr's "Be Happy Attitudes" are drooping today. I'm feeling some schadenfreude right now. Sorry about that. I go to confession this week.</div><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-15874748022113378812010-10-17T03:00:00.000-07:002010-10-17T03:00:00.174-07:00Pentecost XX!<b>The Twenty-First Sunday after Pentecost</b><br />
Proper 24 Year C<br />
<br />
<b><a cprop24_rcl.html"target="_blank" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5255701997510284524" http:="" pentecost="" www.io.com="" yearc_rcl="" ~kellywp="">The Lectionary</a></b><br />
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<b>Homily:</b><br />
Psalm 119 calls for the kind of continued learning Paul commends in his letter to Timothy. As a subject of our recitation and meditation, it offers an entrance into a life of continued, endless prayer. So Jesus tells a story to underscore our need to pray always and not lose heart. It is what Paul elsewhere commends: "pray without ceasing."<br />
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</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And note the forceful summary by Jesus: for those chosen ones who pray day and night, justice shall come and come quickly.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Are we even aware of this linkage? That our prayers are to be linked to justice?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Don't we often tend to be rather selfish in our prayers? We would always like immediate results – but would like those results to be centered on what we want rather than what we need. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And what Jesus says we need is to pray always and not to lose heart.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">There is no better place to begin to pray always than with Psalm 119. One hundred and seventy-six verses reminding us to have Torah, God's law, in our minds all day long. The word "Torah" or one of its synonyms appears in almost every one of the 176 verses: Torah, law decrees, precepts, statutes, commandments, ordinances.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">A rabbi was once asked, "What does a rabbi do?" He replied, "A rabbi is to lead God's people to study Torah so that one day everyone will know Torah. On that day when everyone knows Torah, everyone will be a rabbi so that there will no longer be any need for rabbis."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is the dream of God as revealed to the prophet Jeremiah, "I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts." God wants us to become experts in loving the law and living the law.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">We in the church tend to suffer grave misunderstandings about this word law. These misunderstandings come from misreading of Paul, compounded by particular Christian theologians throughout the ages. The word "law" sounds static with the sole purpose of convicting us of sin and misdoings.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Whereas a regular reading of all 176 verses of Psalm 119 would reveal a much richer range of meaning. The "law" is a treasure, a gift, really, that makes one wise and happy. The psalm is written in the first-person narrative voice, making the words of the psalm personal, words that belong to us, words that are given by God to be ours. Torah is not a static set of rules, but a map that provides a personal way of life, a guiding force, a pathway from which it is all too easy to stray but is sweeter than all alternative paths available.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">At its core, Psalm 119 as a source of our daily prayer and meditation directs us to endlessly reflect on the Decalogue – the fancy theological name for the Ten Commandments. The first "table" or "tablet" of the Ten Commandments focuses on our love of God; the second "table" or "tablet" focuses on our love of neighbor. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Jesus spent much of his time discussing the law, Torah, with any and all persons he could. Jesus demonstrates that continual focus, discussion, and meditation on God's law is what leads one in the way of life that is really life, and offers justice for all people. Torah, as understood at the time of Jesus, was a continual unfolding of God's will, new each day, new in each age. Torah, or law, was not confining, but empowering, and necessary to being God's people in the world.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And meditating on the law day and night, as Jesus lives and instructs us to do ourselves, reminds us of our God-given responsibilities to love and care for our neighbors, especially those in greatest need.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It turns out God does have a plan to care for those in greatest need: we are that plan.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">How wonderful it would be if all of us, every day, would read all of Psalm 119. How might the world be different if our love of God's law was something we treasured in our hearts all day long? For Jesus this is faith: Torah in action every day.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #818181; font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The Rev. Kirk Alan Kubicek is rector of St. Peter's Church in Ellicott City, MD, a parish in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. </span></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-49839187358946104072010-10-13T03:00:00.000-07:002010-10-16T10:27:33.564-07:00Blessed Samuel Schereschewsky<div style="text-align: justify;"><i>“How shall I repay the Lord for all the good things he has done for me?” - Psalm 116.12</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some homilies practically write themselves. Others are like are like having a baby. The idea is rather appealing, but in the end, the baby arrives only after pain, screaming and vows of “never again.” This is one of those homilies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The epistle is filled with doom and gloom and in the gospel Jesus reminds his followers that he had suffer in order to bring the Kingdom. It is only after knowing the story of the Rt. Rev’d Samuel Schereschewsky, that one sees the logic in the lectionary.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Samuel was born in Lithuania, orphaned at a very young age, raised as an orthodox Jew, and headed for rabbinical fame. Everyone said so. In rabbinical school he was given a copy of the New Testament in Hebrew, and, as he read it, he became convinced that Jesus was the promised messiah.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 1854, he immigrated to the United States to lead a synagogue. However, he made contact with a group of Jewish believers in Christ. That was the end of Samuel. Everyone said so. But it wasn’t – it was merely the first step to a remarkable service for God in Asia. He was baptized in 1855 in the Baptist Church and he enrolled in Western Theological Seminary (Presbyterian). Two years later he transferred to General Theological Seminary (Episcopal). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">While still in seminary he was appointed a missionary to China so he was ordained to the deaconate while he was still a seminarian. During the voyage to China, he taught himself Cantonese – an extremely difficult language for Westerners to learn. He was priested on 28 October 1860 and began his life’s work.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As a man to whom learning languages came almost effortlessly, he quickly learned the local Shanghai dialect and translated the Book of the Psalms from the original Hebrew. When that translation was completed, he translated the Book of Common Prayer into the Mandarin dialect. In 1877 he was elected Bishop of Shanghai, founded St John's University, and began a translation of the Bible into the Wenli dialect.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tragically, he was diagnosed with the early onset of Parkinson's disease. He lived with the disease for twenty-nine years, the last twenty of which he was almost completely paralyzed. That was the end of Samuel. Everyone said so. But, in spite of almost unimaginable suffering, Bishop Schereschewsky had a work to finish for God – completing his translation of the bible. He typed the final 2000 pages with the one finger that he could still move. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But, he continually assured all those around him of the goodness of God in that God left him able to move that one finger – he saw it as a gift. Like the solitary man with Leprosy in the gospel last Sunday, Samuel was thankful. He was thankful the Parkinson’s disease. You know, I will never be a saint!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the epistle today we read, “While we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh.” That’s a nice, tidy statement containing heavy theology. But the question is, “what does it mean and how do we do it.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">During my long illness, I have repeatedly reflected upon the baptismal office in the Book of Common Prayer. I’ve discovered that everything we need is found there. It is a road map for us with the path clearly marked.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">One small part of that office dovetails with the life of Bishop Schereschewsky and with us. “Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?” That’s what Paul means.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But that doesn’t mean wearing Jesus on our sleeves. Paul doesn’t mean ending every sentence with “praise the Lord” or quoting scripture in every conversation. Those things actually turn people “off” Christianity. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What Paul and the Prayer Book mean is that we must live our lives in such a manner that people will notice something different about us. They will see God.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">St. Francis of Assisi allegedly put it this way, “Preach the gospel at all times – use words if absolutely necessary.” He was correct: If we need to use words, our lives are not reflecting God’s love to the world. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those who met Blessed Samuel Schereschewsky stated it was evident that God was working though him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But, “They lived not only in ages past…” We at St. James’ knew a woman who was also the embodiment of Paul’s charge. Her name was Jane Yeats. Like Blessed Samuel Schereschewsky, when one was in Jane’s presence, there was no doubt that she was abiding in Him for one could feel the love of God emanating from her.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Can people say that about us?</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-69198033258396688682010-10-03T02:00:00.000-07:002010-10-03T02:00:00.471-07:00Pentecost XIXThe Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost<br />
Proper 22<br />
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<a href="http://www.io.com/~kellywp/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CProp22_RCL.html" target="_blank"><i><b>The Lectionary</b></i></a><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><i><b>Collect of the Day</b></i>: Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.</div><br />
Homily:<br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">Even listening attentively to Paul’s second letter to Timothy, we are probably not going to want to go the distance with Paul when he invites Timothy to “join with me in suffering for the gospel ... relying on the power of God.” </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">It’s really easy to hear “Join with me in suffering” and then just zone out. “Suffering” is an unappealing sound bite, even for those of us who listen without Bible Attention Deficit Disorder. We do not want to suffer any more than we already do; indeed, have we not come to church precisely because we need to get away from suffering, or at least hand it over to Jesus, who can do something about it?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Perhaps this is why we do not ordinarily find the Book of Lamentations in Hebrew scripture very useful, either in church or at home. The book is a series of five lengthy poems of inexpressible sadness, raw pain, and deep sorrow. The poets put into words our ancestors’ experience of living through enormous public and personal suffering as their home city of Jerusalem was destroyed in 587 B.C. For our ancestors, that city was the focus of dreams and hopes, the sign of God’s presence, the promise of God’s fidelity to them; its hills, its Temple, its walls and gates all spoke to travelers and residents alike of what they treasured. And now the place was gone, and they wept. They wept for being invaded, for their national identity and security damaged; they wept for abandonment by their kings; they wept for old ones killed and unburied; they wept for children dead in the streets. They wept for all the questions shouted, sighed, and whispered to God that the heavens did not answer. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">We can, each of us, relate to that; but we would much rather not.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet it is there, in the five long poems of lament, there for us in the Bible, the living word of God. And the lamentations are there because the loss, the weeping, the suffering, and the pain goes on. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">As it says in the opening verses of Lamentations: </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <blockquote>“How lonely sits the city that was once so full of people!<br />
How like a widow she has become<br />
she weeps bitterly in the night,<br />
her cheeks wet with tears<br />
and she has no one to comfort her.”</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ancient poet imagined the city as a lonely, abused woman, grieving. At best, we apply the scenes of Lamentations to Good Friday, Jesus on the Cross. We transpose the lament from Hebrew scriptures to the women who stayed with Jesus to the end, and grieved at the foot of the cross as they watched their friend and Lord dying. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">But when Paul invited Timothy – and by extension, us – to join him “in suffering for the gospel,” Paul was not asking Timothy or us to be observers. Paul knows what we also know: that Jesus repeatedly told his followers to take up their cross and follow him, not to sit somewhere watching his cross and weeping for him. For the sake of the gospel, for witness to the good news, we have somehow to engage the suffering, enter the lament. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <blockquote>“Join me in suffering for the gospel ... relying upon the power of God.”</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Like our ancestors who watched their beloved Jerusalem invaded, ravaged, desecrated, and devastated, we have been watching so much of our world and our planet suffer before our eyes. The power of God seems a bit ambiguous and even flimsy when we see the arctic ice mass retreating or that in Africa there is almost no snow left atop Kilimanjaro. The landscapes and languages of all our cities have been invaded by “others.” Un-finish-able wars are being waged with new weapons and even newer peacekeeping goals, yet men and women still suffer and die for a cause, a name, or a flag. These are losses as surely as Babylon invading Jerusalem was a loss, and pogroms and holocausts are loss. Yet the suffering has brought forth into the public arena not the poetic cadences of lamentation, but uncharted depths of anxiety and resentment, rage and fear. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <blockquote>“Join me in suffering for the gospel ... relying upon the power of God.” </blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We are the ones who share bread and wine at a common table of thanks-giving. We are the ones covenanted to honor God in worship, study and prayer. We are the ones who promise to repent of indifference, brutality and greed, and return to the God of engagement, compassion, and generosity. We hold in our hearts and in our minds’ eyes the raw and bleak edges of violence, and at the same time the glorious vision of God at work in the world about us. Where certain talk shows, tabloids, tweets, and blogs daily degrade the realities of poverty, injustice, and oppression by manipulating the media bites, we are the ones who notice and resist such manipulations. We resist because we are called to live, notice, pray, act, and share in a context where, in Christ, our lives are made one with those who suffer such realities and the consequences of such manipulation. In our time and place, this is what it means to be the ones called to “rely upon the power of God.” </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The poets of Lamentations look fearlessly at the consequences of the loss of Jerusalem. They speak terrible things, such as “The Lord has broken my teeth on gravel and ground me into the dust. My life was bereft of peace, and I forgot what happiness was.” The voice of lamentation is fierce and strong – and it is followed almost in the same breath by “But this do I call to mind, and therefore have hope: the kindness of the Lord has not ended, his mercy is not spent.” </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is only by remembering the acts of God in the past and by engaging the living word of God in the present that we can also engage wholeheartedly in both fierce lamentation and in boundless hope. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br />
</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div class="authorInfo" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>-- The Rev. Angela V. Askew lives in Brooklyn, New York.</i></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-23642774156073510462010-09-29T02:00:00.000-07:002010-09-29T02:00:07.704-07:00MichaelmasThe Feast of St. Michael and All Angels<br />
Michalmas<br />
<br />
<i><b><a href="http://www.io.com/%7Ekellywp/YearABC/HolyDays/Michael.html%22target=_blank">The Lectionary</a></b><a href="http://www.io.com/%7Ekellywp/YearABC/HolyDays/Michael.html%22target=_blank"></a></i><br />
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<i><b>Collect of the Day</b></i>: Everlasting God, you have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals: Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may help and defend us here on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.<br />
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<i><b>Homily:</b></i><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">We've got angels. Boy, do we. There are angels of the month, birthstone angels, dashboard charms that say, "Never drive faster than your guardian angel can fly." Bumper stickers that proclaim, "Angels on board." There are gardening angels, Mother's Day angels, Hallmark angels holding everything from Thanksgiving turkeys to St. Patrick's Day shamrocks.<br />
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Fat blonde babies with wings cavort on every possible item. Chubby cherubs, swathed in Victorian chintz drapery, halos charmingly askew, look more like spun-sugar dumplings than anything that would cry, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty!" Greeting cards, wallpaper, candy bars, movies like "Angels in America"— feathered wings joined with human fallibilities are just everywhere these days!<br />
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>But then there's this:</span></div><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Rank on rank the host of heaven spreads its vanguard on the way<br />
As the Lord of light descending from the realms of endless day<br />
Comes, the pow'rs of hell to vanquish<br />
As the darkness clears away.</i></span></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">Set them side by side, the post-modern depiction of angels as a pleasant remnant of myth, made in our image, bent to our will, filling desire for spirituality and a crass marketing niche all at once —and then the Scriptural image of the vanguard of the army of heaven, the praises of God in their throats and a two-edged sword in their hands, a choir in battle formation, with captains and princes, standards and banners arrayed around the throne of the Lord of Light.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">>Singers with shields, messengers, bringers of the divine Word, some appointed to ceaseless praise, some appointed to help us on earth: these are the angels of the Lord.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The cosmology of the ancient world is not ours—or so we think. We no longer see angels behind every physical force of nature, every unexplained scientific phenomenon. Except for the Left Behind crowd and the devotees of Frank Peretti and those who tend to see the world in terms of Star Wars, anyway—most Christians, and certainly most Lutherans, don't describe our reality with reference to a cosmic battleground between the evenly-matched forces of good and evil. We already know what battle standard the Host of heaven carries, what device is blazoned on every shield and breastplate, in what sign they conquer.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">>Whether our modern sensibilities accept it or not, the holy angels are not incidental to, or independent from, the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ. In the might of the Messiah and under the banner of the cross, the host of heaven continues to do God's will and bring his Word despite the death throes of the dragon. The war is over, Satan is finished. Cast down. But still he fights on, mortally wounded, utterly defeated. His time is short.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And that's where we live. In the now and the not yet. Satan defeated but not yet destroyed. In the time where Paul can claim that our struggle is not against blood and flesh but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Where the reality is that Satan accuses our brothers—and us—day and night, and assails the church of Christ at every opportunity. We can smell the dragon's scaly stink in our denominations and parishes, in our seminaries and colleges—and in the kitchens of our parsonages. The devil dogs us through the holy work God has set our hands to, sin deadens our testimony and witness, unbelief is rampant, apostasy common.</div><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Though with a scornful wonder / the world sees her oppressed;<br />
By schisms rent asunder / by heresies distressed,<br />
Yet saints their watch are keeping / Their cry goes up, "How long?"<br />
And soon the night of weeping / Shall be the morn of song. </i></span></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;">How long, O Lord? How long will our cry mingle with that of the saints and angels? Many of you come here year after year, wounded and angry and sick in body and spirit, dried up like a potsherd, shrunken like a leather flask hung in the smoke, weary of putting your hand to the plowshare, desperate to look back. Some of you are tired of taking up the cross, sick to death of the command to <i>follow</i>, exhausted by always being last with no glimmer of first in sight, suspicious that "servant of all" entails a lot more dying than you first thought. Other of you come to weep over the Church and our Lutheran communions, and to rejoice for a brief time with brothers and sisters with whom you do not have to measure your words so carefully. For all of you there is this word: in the middle of the scornful wonder of the world and the laments of saints and angels joined with our night of weeping, a single loud voice sounds forth. Michael, the great prince, whose name is all we need to know: <b><i>Who Is Like God</i></b>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Who is like God? Not you. Not me. Not even the Holy Angels, whose archangel names have the murmur of distant, ceaseless prayer: <i>God is my strength. God is my healer. Who is like God? </i>It is the Lamb alone who conquers, gives strength, brings healing. Sustains the weary with a word. Jesus only.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus who died, yes, who was raised who is at the right hand of God who intercedes for us. He did not count equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself and was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Christ Jesus did not cling to life even in the face of death, giving his back to those who struck him, his cheeks to those who pulled out the beard, and his life as the high priestly sacrifice for sin. Your names are found written in his blood in the book of life</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And that is your starting point. Your only foundation. That you have been bought with a price, redeemed from hell, and the one who has begun a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is God's vineyard to tend, God's responsibility. Any authority you have been given, just like that of the angels, is only given by the Lord God. Any triumph over the power of the enemy is through the blood of the Lamb alone.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">You are promised that nothing will hurt you. This could also be translated "in nothing will he hurt you." Clearly, you and I can be wounded, downtrodden, despairing. Clearly we bear in our own bodies the effects of sin. Our whole ministry is marked by dying and failing. But God through the cross has defeated the eternal power of the unholy trinity: sin, death and the power of the devil. God continues to guard and protect you, not through the sentimentalized and demythologized angelic spirits, reduced to inane caregivers cast in ceramic—but through the muscular and vivifying power of the cross—the incongruity of life come from death, the slain Lamb victorious, God's power given form in the heavenly host of angels. He shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. All <i>his</i> ways. He forgives all your sins and heals all your infirmities, and causes you to stand, upheld by his righteous, omnipotent hand.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">With such strength, even though you are weak, with the knowledge that your angels are always before the face of the Father in heaven, and are given to you for help on earth, you go out of here and back to the tasks at hand, back to the feeding of the flock entrusted to you, back to the struggle against the short-timer Satan, secure, if not settled, in the trust that Jesus is Lord.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And at the last, one more angel there will be for you. Not with sword or shield or choir book—but with the simple white robe of resurrection and the trumpet and the archangel's voice that will call you out of sleep in the dust of the earth for God to redeem your life from the grave, crowning you with mercy and lovingkindness and making you to shine like the brightness of the stars forever. And then, what was proclaimed from the beginning will be at last completely fulfilled: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah." And then, we will sing. What else is there left for us but singing? </div><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Weeping, be gone, sorrow be silent,<br />
Death put asunder and Easter is bright.<br />
Cherubim sing, "O grave, be open!"<br />
Clothe us in wonder, adorn us in light.<br />
Jesus is risen and we shall arise, give God the glory! Alleluia!</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>City of God, Easter forever<br />
Golden Jerusalem, Jesus the Lamb.<br />
River of Life, saints and archangels<br />
Sing with creation to God the I AM.<br />
Jesus is risen and we shall arise, give God the glory! Alleluia!</i></span></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5255701997510284524.post-75253511045866623042010-09-28T02:19:00.000-07:002010-09-28T09:21:19.250-07:00Virginia Supreme Court refuses to hear ACNA case<div style="font-family: inherit;">This one slipped by me, folks.</div><div style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</div><div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">On 24 September, the <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1285690163_12" style="border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer;">Supreme Court of Virginia</span> declined a request by the CANA congregations to reargue the decision of June 10, 2010. The Court's original, unanimous ruling in favor of the Diocese stands, and the case will return to the <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1285690163_13" style="border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer;">Fairfax Circuit Court</span>.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The Diocese is gratified by the Supreme Court's decision," said Henry D.W. Burt, secretary of the Diocese. "This is another positive step on the path toward preserving Episcopal property for future generations. We are ready to return to the <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1285690163_14">Circuit Court</span> and hope that today's announcement brings us one step closer to concluding this litigation and bringing our faithful <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1285690163_15">Episcopalians</span> back to their church homes."</span></blockquote>The Diocese will post scheduling information on the upcoming Fairfax Circuit Court case online at <a href="http://www.thediocese.net/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1285690163_16">www.thediocese.net</span></a> as soon as it is made available. </div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0